Helps to a Spiritual Life

Fr. Joseph Schneider, a Jesuit, was asked to draw up the rules of two religious communities, and most of this book was written for them, so it reads like a rule. The first chapter gives twelve directions for the day, each with the word or two that says how it is kept: rise at a fixed hour, resolutely, promptly, devoutly; obey promptly, punctually; keep your voluntary devotions short and cheerful. Then comes the method of meditation according to St. Ignatius, step by step and then on one page, with three easier methods for anyone who cannot hold a subject in mind.

The particular examen has its own chapter, with the weekly chart whose lines grow shorter each day as the faults are meant to. The chapter on the confession of devotion, for people with only venial sins to tell, is as calm a treatment of scruples as you will find in a short book: confess the three or four faults that trouble you most and the rest in general, and after absolution do not go back over it. St. Francis de Sales is quoted throughout.

The translator, a Redemptorist, added chapters from St. Alphonsus on Holy Communion, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, purity of intention, and the Passion. At the back are fifteen marks of tepidity and 144 maxims (“He who performs more than he ought, performs less than he ought”). A month of daily practices follows, each day pairing one scene of the Passion with one small thing to do. The chapters on vows and superiors are for religious; a lay reader takes the method.