d to be. Any piece of human mechanism will get out of order
if you will let it. That is precisely the reason for the insistence on
the ascetic principle--this tendency of life to get out of order; that
is the meaning of all that I have been saying, of the whole Catholic
insistence on discipline. Time can be controlled; and, notwithstanding
American experience, children can be controlled; and control means the
rescuing of the life from disorder and sin, and the lifting it to a
level of order and sanity and possible sanctity.

We cannot hope to meet successfully the common temptations of life
except we be prepared to meet them, except there be in our life an
element of foresight. An undisciplined and untried strength is an
unknown quantity. The man who expects to meet temptation when it occurs
without any preparation is in fact preparing for failure. I do not
believe that there is any other so great a source of spiritual weakness
and disaster as the going out to meet life without preceding discipline,
thus subjecting the powers of our nature to trials for which we have not
fitted them. Self-control, self-discipline, ascetic practice, are
indispensible to a successful Christian life.

O STAR of starres, with thy streames clear,
Star of the Sea, to shipman Light or Guide,
O lusty Living, most pleasant t'appear,
Whose brighte beames the cloudes may not hide:
O Way of Life to them that go or ride,
Haven from tempest, surest up t'arrive,
O me have mercy for thy Joyes five.

* * * * *

O goodly Gladded, when that Gabriel
With joy thee gret that may not be numb'red,
Or half the bliss who coulde write or tell,
When th' Holy Ghost to thee was obumbred,
Wherethrough the fiendes were utterly encombred?
O wemless Maid, embellished in his birth,
That man and angel thereof hadden mirth.

John Lydgate of Bury,
XV Cent.
From Chaucerian and Other
Poems, edited by W. W. Skeat,
1894.

PART TWO

CHAPTER XVII

HOLY WEEK II

And after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put
his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

S. Matt. XXVII, 31.

Forgive, O Lord, we beseech thee, the sins of thy people:
that we, who are not able to do anything of ourselves, that
can be pleasing to thee, may be assisted in the way of
salvation by the prayers of the M