The School of Love & Other Essays, April 16

THE SINNER'S GRIEF

[continued from yesterday]

...One day there comes a change and with a soul like this the method of the change is almost invariably the same. Hitherto it has had no other comrades and companions than the Angels of Light; no others will it consent to know.

But one day a new Angel of Light appears upon the way. It may be an Angel from without, in the shape of an external fascination for something apparently good; it may be from within, in the desire to do some good thing, to follow some particular inclina­tion of its own, a conversion of a soul, a special good work, anything which will make it turn aside from the track along which it is drawn.

At first all seemingly goes well. There is fruit to show for one's labour, a soul is drawn towards God by one's attention; and one tells oneself that it is good to sacrifice one's own perfection just a little that another may be profited the more.

So this is the next step; one stoops to the soul that is down, one lowers one's own standard a trifle, one gives to the creature one is saving not only its proper due, not only that which, as a creature oneself, one can lawfully bestow upon another, but also a little more, that which belongs irrevocably to one's own best and truest and most loyal Friend....

[continued tomorrow]
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From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918