phet Elias, and
he exhorts every one to meditate on her words, and keep her example
present to his mind. "How hard or insensible soever we are," says he,
"they will make a deep impression upon us, and we shall not be able to
refuse relief to the poor, when we have before our eyes the generous
charity of this widow. It is true, you will tell me, that if you meet
with a prophet in want, you could not refuse doing him all the good
offices in your power. But what ought you not to do for Jesus Christ,
who is the master of the prophets? He takes whatsoever you do to the
poor as done to himself." When we consider the zeal and joy with which
the saints sacrificed themselves for their neighbors, how must we blush
at, and condemn our insensibility at the spiritual and the corporal
calamities of others! The saints regarded affronts, labors, and pains,
as nothing for the service of others in Christ: we cannot bear the least
word or roughness of temper.

Footnotes:
1. A mitigation of this rule was approved by pope Clement IV. in 1267,
which allows them to use horses, and to buy fish, flesh, and all
other necessaries: on which mitigations see Historia prolixior
Priorum Grandimont, published by Martenne, Ampliff. Collectio, t. 6,
p. 138. This order is possessed of about two hundred and fifty
monasteries, divided into thirteen provinces, in France, Spain,
Italy, and Portugal. That formerly in England had forty-three
houses; that in Scotland nine, and that in Ireland fifty-two. The
general of the order is chosen by a general chapter, which is always
held at Cerfroid. Each house is governed by a superior who is called
minister. Those in the provinces of Champagne, Normandy, and Picardy
(which last includes Flanders) are perpetual but to Italy and Spain,
triennial. Their rule is that of the canons regular of St. Austin.
Their principal exercises are to sing the divine office at the
canonical hours, praising and glorifying the adorable Trinity, as
angel of the earth; and to gather and carry alms in Barbary for the
redemption of slaves, to which work one third of the revenues of
each house is applied. A reformation was made in this order in the
years 1573 and 1576, which, by degrees, has been introduced into the
greater part of the convents, and into that of Cerfroid itself.
These never eat meat except on Sundays, sing matins at midnight, and
wear no linen