atified to see the
boy develop into an able, learned and holy religious. Peter's vocation
was occasioned by his fight, certainly an unpropitious beginning, but
he must have ever been grateful that, when he applied to Ignatius, he
was not turned away until he had become older and more sedate.

Parents or spiritual directors, who, under the pretext of trying a
vocation, put off for two or three years an aspirant who seems dowered
with all necessary qualities, can scarcely justify themselves in the
eyes of God, such a method being calculated to destroy, not prove, a
vocation. To detain for a few months, however, one who conceives a
sudden notion to enter religion, for the purpose of discovering
whether his intention is serious, and not merely a passing whim, is
only in accordance with the ordinary rules of prudence. In connection
with this point, the words of bluff and hearty St. Jerome, who never
seemed to grow old or lose the buoyancy of youth, are often quoted.
Giving advice to one whom he wished to quit the world, he wrote, "Wait
not even to untie the rope that holds your boat at anchor--cut it."
(M. P. L., t. 26, c. 549.) And Christ's reply to the young man, whom
He had invited to follow Him, and who asked leave to go first and bury
his father, was equally terse: "Let the dead bury their own dead."
(Luke ix: 60.)

In a booklet entitled "Questions on Vocations," published in 1913, by
a Priest of the Congregation of the Mission, the question is asked,
"Do not a larger percentage persevere when subjects enter the
religious state late in life?" And the answer is given: "No; the
records of five of the largest communities of Sisters in the United
States show that a much larger percentage of subjects persevere among
those who enter between the ages of sixteen and twenty, than among
those who enter when they are older. When persons are twenty years of
age, or older, their characters are more set; their minds are less
pliable; it is harder to unbend and remould them. The young are more
readily formed to religious discipline."

In concluding this chapter on the appropriate age for entrance into
religious life, it may be said that, after reaching the prescribed age
of fifteen, the sooner an otherwise properly qualified person enters
the nearer he seems to approach the ideals and traditionary practice
of the Church, and the better he will provide for his own spiritual
welfare.

[1] It would seem that for the space of two c