Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/73

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THE INSTRUMENTAL MEANS OF PERFECTION.
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the administration of any patrimony he may possess.

Thirdly is obedience to the Church, to his Bishop, to law, to discipline, to the living voice of authority, which may be as minute and far spreading as any can desire if they have the will to obey.

These three obligations are instrumental means of perfection. To them must be added:

Fourthly, the habit of prayer and meditation, which is the habit of contemplation.

Fifthly, the daily Mass, with its preparation and thanksgiving, and the manifold relations of the priest to the Blessed Sacrament, distributing the Bread of Life to his flock in benedictions, processions, expositions, and in personal visits to the presence of our Divine Lord.

Sixthly, in the confessional. The priest who is faithful and patient as a father, a physician, and a judge of souls, gains more in the living histories of sin and sorrow, contrition and conversion, sanctity and perfection in the confessional, than from all the books upon his shelves.

Seventhly, in the preaching of the Word of God, to which daily meditation and study of Holy Scripture are vitally necessary. S. Augustine says "that a man will preach so much the more or so much