re important in his life than his business, and if need arise it
will be the business that is sacrificed to them and not they to the
business. Spirituality is much less a matter of time than of energy. A
wise director can guide a man to sanctity who will probably consecrate
his Sunday, and give the director one half hour on week days to
dispose of.

To lose Jesus does not require the commission of great sin, as we count
sin. The quite easiest way to lose Him is to forget Him and go about our
business as though He did not exist. That is a frequent happening. For
vast numbers Jesus does not exist except for an hour or so on Sunday.
They give Him the formal homage of attendance at church on Sunday
morning and then they go out and forget Him, not only for the rest of
the week but for the rest of the day. The religion which thus reduces
itself to a minimum of attendance at Mass on Sunday morning is surely
not a religion from which much can be expected in the way of spiritual
accomplishment. If it be true that there is a minimum of religious
requirement which will ensure that we "go to heaven," then that sort of
religion may be useful; but I do not know that anywhere such a minimum
_is_ required. The statement that I find is "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength." The outstanding characteristic of love
is surely not niggardliness, but passionate self-giving. All things are
forgiven, not to those who are careful to keep within the limits
required, but to those who "love much."

The study of many cases, the experience of over thirty years in the
confessional, convinces me that the chief cause of spiritual failure
among Christians is not the irresistible impact of temptation but the
lack of spiritual vision. The average man or woman is not consciously
going anywhere; but they are just keeping a rule which is the arbitrary
exactment of God. It might just as well be some other rule. That is, in
their minds, the practice of the spiritual life has no immediate ends;
it is not productive of spiritual expansion; it is not a ladder set up
on earth to reach heaven on which they are climbing ever nearer God, and
on the way are catching ever broader visions of spiritual reality as
they ascend. The knowledge and the love of God are to them phrases, not
practical goals, invitations to paths of spiritual adventure. Hence,
having no immediate ends to acco