than home—if they do not, the parish priest will ask in vain for a second mission.
Another form of outside work which is less understood is the practice of giving ‘retreats’ to monasteries, nunneries, and other religious establishments. A retreat is a period of recollection in which the inmates of a convent suspend all study and secular occupation, and occupy themselves exclusively with religious exercises; it usually lasts from ten to fourteen days, and is an annual event. The day is spent in profound silence and meditation, but there are a number of common ceremonies, and two or three ‘meditations’—a kind of familiar sermon or causerie—are preached daily. The amiable and polished Jesuits are much in demand for retreats, especially by the equally amiable and polished congregations of teaching nuns, but our friars were entrusted with a large number every year amongst the less aristocratic congregations of nuns. A retreat, after a slight experience, is not at all a disagreeable task, and many even of our professors used to spend their vacation in preaching them. The usual method is to write out a set of meditations (the usual graphic descriptions of the ‘last day,’ heaven, hell, &c.), though cleverer men, like F. David, or men of sincere fervour like F. Bede, make no preparation. The same set of meditations is, of course, used in different places, and five or six sets suffice for a lifetime; for a priest is often invited several years in succession to the same convent, and
