ed of their goods through
injustice or accident; they lose their relations through death, their
friends through treachery or forgetfulness, their reputation and honor
from slander, a serious illness deprives them of health, their happiness
is destroyed by hardness and temptations.... Ah! no doubt, they will have
these trials, no doubt they must shed bitter tears, but still GOD'S peace
will remain to them, the peace that passeth all understanding; they will
realize GOD has ordered it, guided it with His Hand Divine, and they will
be able to exclaim with joy, "Thou art left to us, and Thou art
all-sufficient!"

* * * * *

ACTS OF THE INTERIOR LIFE

1. _See God_, that is to say, be always realizing His Presence, feeling
Him near, as the friend from Whom we would never be separated, in work, in
prayer, in recreation, in repose. GOD is not importunate, He never
wearies, He is so gracious and merciful, His Hand directs everything, and
He will not "suffer us to be tempted above that we are able."

2. _Listen to God_: be attentive to His counsels, His warnings; we hear
His Voice in those Gospel words that recur to our minds, in the good
thoughts that suddenly dawn on us, the devout words that meet us in some
book, on a sheet of paper, or falling from the lips of a preacher, a
friend, or even a stranger.

3. _Speak to God_: hold converse with Him, more with the heart than the
lips, in the early morning's meditation, ejaculatory prayer, vocal prayer,
and above all in Holy Communion.

4. _Love God_: be devoted to Him, and Him alone; have no affection apart
from Him; restrain the love that would estrange us from Him; _lend_
ourselves to all, out of love to Him, but _give_ ourselves to Him alone.

5. _Think of God_: reject whatever excludes the thought of Him. Of course,
we must fulfil our daily duties, accomplishing them with all the
perfection of which we are capable; but they must be done as beneath the
Eye of GOD, with the thought that GOD has commanded them, and that to do
them carefully is pleasing in His sight.

* * * * *

MEANS BY WHICH TO ATTAIN THE INTERIOR LIFE

1. _Great tenderness of Conscience_, secured by constant, regular, and
earnest confession to GOD, a hatred of all sin, imperfection, infidelity,
by calmly but resolutely fleeing every occasion of it.

2. _Great purity of heart_, by detachment from all earthly things,--wealth,
luxuries, fame