Principles and Practices - July 16

A Fallen State

Man was not created to suffer; God placed him on earth to be happy, and he has pre­served such a sweet and ineffaceable memory of the happiness he enjoyed in Eden that to possess it again is the object and motive of all his actions, the involuntary tendency of his whole being, the ­incessant aspiration of his soul. Alas! all that he enjoys here below is but a faint image of his first happiness; he has but a fleeting experience of its ineffable sweetness.

-Book of the Professed.
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From Principles and Practices
Compiled by Rev. J. Hogan of The Catholic Missionary Society
Published by Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., Publishers To The Holy See
Nihil Obstat; Eduardus J. Mahoney, S.T.D. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur; Edm. Can. Surmont, Vicarius generalis.
First printed in 1930