Meditation for January 27, My Classification

There are four kinds of religious souls:
the perfect
the irregular
the tepid
those who strive for perfection without ever attaining it.

In which category am I?

The best authors say that there are four types of religious souls in every house--of even the most holy Institutes. The authors differ only in this: some, like Alvarez de Paz, affirm that the num­ber of lukewarm and irregular religious is considerable; others, less severe, believe them rather limited in number. Father Louis Lal­lemant, for example, remarks: "In an order in which regular ob­servance is flourishing, the majority of the community are among those who strive for perfection; the rest includes some perfect, a few tepid souls and a very few bad religious."

Do I belong to the worthless? No, I hope not. And if unfor­tunately that should be the case, I must change my life at once.

Am I one of the perfect, one of those so firmly rooted in love that God may ask anything?

No doubt, I belong to the good but weak souls who strive after perfection with intervals of generosity and cowardice.

And yet who knows? What if God wanted to make me a soul perfect in perfection? Where would I be if I had always corre­sponded, if I had always kept in step with God?

Humbly but generously I will conform myself to God's plan for my perfection.
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)