from running here and there into strange paths.

The Bride must be changed and transformed into the Spouse, Who hiding Himself within her, lives under her form (as if He were still living in the world under a common exterior), and so wills to fill her with His own temper of mind and feelings. She must, as in the outward elements of the most Holy Sacrament (which serve as the robe and vestment to enfold JESUS CHRIST), bear within her the majesty of her Spouse. And as JESUS is the Fulness of Wisdom, He keeps the mind and the whole interior life of the Christian in modesty and reverence before GOD, working in the depths of the soul that peace and repose, without which it would every moment be molested by its own activity, or restlessness of mind, and by the continual agitation of outward life. All this is nothing less than the life in JESUS, the direct result of interior union, and of holy recollectedness.

Recollectedness in JESUS CHRIST is the secret of happiness, because it is the secret

of union and of love. It is the breathing of JESUS into us, and the way in which we draw our very breath in Him; it is a continual, soft, peaceful, life-giving breathing in Him. The heart of the good Curé d'Ars melted within him the moment that he touched upon this subject, which is at the same time so divine and so practical. "O beautiful life!" he cried one day; "beautiful union of the

soul with her LORD! In it consists the whole happiness of man upon earth. Eternity will not be long enough to understand this happiness. The interior life is, as it were, the bath which the soul plunges itself. were, overwhelmed in love.

of love, in

It is, as it GOD holds

the whole inner man, as a mother holds the head of her child in her hands to cover it with kisses and caresses.

I often

think," he says, "of the joy of the Apostles, when they saw our LORD again. The separation had been so sad! Our LORD loved them so much! He was so good with them! We may imagine that He embraced them when He said, ‘Peace

He still

be unto you.' It is thus that He embraces our soul when we pray. says to us, Peace be unto you.'

"Peace of heart, inward joy, the holy love of GOD, intimate union with JESUS! What can there be more excellent than this inestimable feast prepared for our soul by the bounty of the LORD, of which the angels are happy to be the ministers; GOD Himself is our guest; JESUS, in His Humility, makes Himself therein to be our milk and honey."

O LORD JESUS, our most holy Redeemer, full of sweetest love, make us to understand more and more, and above all to practise very faithfully, holy recollectedness! Reign, rest, dwell in us, detaching us from earth, making us to despise all that passes away; draw us after Thee, that all the powers of our soul may unceasingly aspire after the vision of eternal peace. May our conversation ever be in Heaven with Thee!

TWENTIETH THURSDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

CXLV. On our transformation in Holy Com

munion.

PHIL. iii. 20.-" Our conversation is in Heaven." THE sacramental Presence of JESUS ceases, after Communion, with the dissolution of the sacred species. But JESUS, the heavenly King, Who is in the Sacrament entirely for us, Who becomes Eucharistic, only to be our Bread of Life, Who, in Himself, is quite independent of the species, and of the Sacrament, JESUS dwells in us according to His most distinct promisc-- He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me, and I in Him." He dwells in us in order that He may transform us into Himself.

In the supernatural, as in the natural order of things, we must not confound life with nourishment. Nourishment is a thing that passes away. The bread which we eat, at first external to our bodies, soon becomes transformed into the very substance of our bodies. In this mysterious work of union and assimilation, the bread

itself really disappears, but all that it contains of substance has passed into the living substance of our flesh, bringing into it a fresh supply of life and strength. It is the same in Communion. JESUS, the heavenly Bread, the Life-giving Bread, is only external to us by the Sacramental species. When we have communicated, the Sacramental form of JESUS soon disappears. JESUS ceases to be present by an outward and external Presence; but He dwells in us, and we dwell in Him, after

manner altogether heavenly and yet most real and this is what is called the Spiritual Presence of JESUS in the faithful. It lasts so long by faith and in the union of of the HOLY SPIRIT as we dwell in CHRIST.

There is, nevertheless, this essential difference between the transformation of corporal, and the transformation of spiritual nourishment; in the first, it is the bread which is transformed into us, whilst, in the second, it is we who have the happiness of being transformed into JESUS, so far at least as our capacities and our weakness permit.