Rule of Life for a Secular Priest

I.

Morning Exercises.

1. The First Acts on Rising.

IN the morning on rising the priest shall make acts of thanksgiving, of love, and of oblation of all that he is to do and to suffer during the day. He shall finish by a prayer to God and to the Blessed Virgin, in order to obtain the grace of not falling into sin.

These acts may be thus formulated: ¹

O my God! prostrate in Thy presence, I adore Thy infinite Majesty, and I submit myself entirely to Thee.

I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, and I love Thee with my whole heart.

I thank Thee for all Thy benefits, and especially for having preserved me during this night.

I offer Thee all my thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings of this day in union with those of Jesus and of Mary.

I intend to gain all the indulgences that I can gain, and to apply them to the souls in purgatory.

O my God! for the love of Jesus Christ, deliver me from every sin. O my Jesus! by Thy merits make me live united to Thee. Mary, my Mother, bless me, and protect me under thy mantle. My holy guardian angel, and all my holy patrons, intercede for me. Amen.

Here recite the “Hail Mary” three times in honor of the purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

2. Mental Prayer.

The priest shall begin the day by a half-hour’s meditation on the eternal truths, or on the Passion of Jesus Christ. Meditation on the Passion of our Lord is more especially suitable to a priest before celebrating Mass, since he is about to renew at the altar the memory of it by offering to God the same victim and the same sacrifice. During meditation, after having read the subject, he should endeavor to make acts of sorrow and of love, and frequently offer to God prayers in order to obtain perseverance in his grace and his divine love. Let him guard against abandoning meditation, however great the disgust and the pain he may experience during it; if he abandons the practice of meditation, he will be exposed to the greatest danger of losing God. Even when he is able to say only these words: O my God, help me! O my Jesus, mercy!—his meditation will be excellent, and will profit him much.

In order to be more recollected in meditation, let him shut himself up in some place where he may find himself alone with the crucifix. For this purpose he shall endeavor to have a separate room; and if he cannot have it, let him go to the church to make his meditation there rather than make it at home amid the noise made by persons who pass in and out, and who talk. ²

3. The Holy Mass.

After meditation, he shall recite the Little Hours as far as None; then he shall celebrate Mass. In order to say Mass with greater recollection, it would be expedient, if there be no obstacle, to say Mass before all other occupations of the day.

Besides the meditation one should not fail to make a short preparation for Mass by reanimating one’s faith in the great mystery that one is about to celebrate; one should make at least three acts: of love, of contrition, and of desire to be united to Jesus Christ.

After Mass one should not omit to make thanksgiving, of an hour or at least of half an hour, by applying one’s self during that time to the making of acts of love, of the offering of one’s self, and of petition. The time that follows Mass is a time for amassing treasures of grace. When one is in a state of interior dryness, not knowing what to do with one’s self, one may at least read out of some book pious affections to Jesus Christ.

4. Confessions and Study.

After having made his thanksgiving, ³ the priest shall go to the confessional if he is a confessor. It must here be observed that on days on which there is a great concourse of people, as on festivals, he may shorten his thanksgiving in order to hear confessions; but this only holds good for similar cases that are rare. Usually the confessor should not omit his thanksgiving after Mass in order that penitents may not be obliged to wait for him. However, when there come to confession men that are not accustomed to frequent the sacraments, it will be better if he hears them before Mass; because such persons have not the patience to wait; and if they do not confess on that day, God knows when they will confess.

As for the priest who is not a confessor, he shall retire in order to attend to his studies. He should occupy himself in the study of Moral Theology, so as to become capable of administering the sacrament of penance, in the composition of sermons, or in similar things that may serve for his own instruction or for the good of souls.

5. Remark in Regard to the Order of the Exercises.

It must here be observed that we do not ask that all the exercises of which this Rule speaks should be performed in the order in which they are here mentioned. Provided that they are performed in the course of the day, it is sufficient; it matters little whether one takes place before the other according to one’s convenience. Thus, for example, in winter, when the days are longer, one may, after meditation and the Office, study for an hour or two. For the rest, a priest that wishes to lead a life worthy of his state should fix the time and the hour of all his exercises so that everything may be done in a regular order. Let him not act as some who follow no order in all that they do. The life that is without a rule is an image of hell, which is described by Job: A land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth. ⁴

6. Dinner.

The hour of dinner having come, he shall eat moderately, as is becoming a priest: he should not imitate certain gluttonous priests who wish that the whole house should busy itself about preparing different kinds of food which they ordered in the morning, and when at dinner they do not find the food to be according to their taste, they grow angry, and excite a commotion among their servants and relatives. St. Philip Neri says: “He that seeks to gratify his palate will never become a saint.” And if the priest should be temperate in eating, he should be particularly so in the use of wine, the excess of which is most pernicious to virtue, especially to the virtue of chastity.

On Saturdays, let him endeavor, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, to keep at least the common fast, if he thinks that he cannot fast on bread and water; let him, however, be content on that day with one course. Moreover, on some other days of the week, as on Wednesday and Friday, as also in all the Novenas of our Lady, let him at least deprive himself of something at table.

II.

Exercises after Dinner.

1. Spiritual Reading.

After the needed rest, the priest shall recite Vespers and Compline, and shall afterwards make a half-hour’s spiritual reading. For the spiritual reading he may use the Knowledge and Love of Jesus Christ by Father St. Jure, or Christian Perfection by Father Rodriguez,—books that are filled with piety and unction. He may also read other works; ⁵ but let him, above all, read the lives of the saints, as the life of St. Philip Neri, of St. Francis Borgia, of St. Peter of Alcantara, and the like. In the books that treat of spirituality we see virtues in theory, while in the lives of the saints we see them in practice; and this will stimulate us more efficaciously to imitate the saints. St. Philip Neri never ceased to exhort his penitents to read the lives of the saints. How many saints, such as St. John Colombini, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Teresa, have been induced by the reading of such books to consecrate themselves entirely to God!

2. The Visit to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin.

After the spiritual reading he shall pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Many of the faithful are very exact in performing this exercise every day, and never omit doing so, no matter how they may be inconvenienced thereby; but it is rare, and even very rare, to find secular priests who do so. It must be confessed that Jesus Christ is unfortunate in his priests! All this comes from the little love that priests have for him. He that tenderly loves a friend, seeks to see him as often as he can, especially when his visits are most agreeable to this friend.

By this visit I do not mean only a few “Our Fathers” said in passing and with distraction before the altar. It consists in occupying one’s self during some time in making pious affections to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and in asking of him graces, especially the grace of final perseverance and of his holy love. Alas! who should entertain himself oftener and longer than a priest who every day makes Jesus come down from heaven to the earth, takes him in his hands, partakes of his adorable flesh, and moreover for his own benefit shuts him up in the tabernacle where he may find him present every time that he wishes?

After the visit to the Blessed Sacrament he should not omit to make, in the same church, his visit to the Mother of God, before some image that inspires him with the greatest devotion. ⁶

3. Recreation.

He may then recreate himself for some time by walking either in the country or on some solitary road, in company with a Father or some other spiritual person who speaks of God and not of the world. In the absence of such a person he should walk alone; for if he is accompanied by some secular he will soon lose all the recollection that he has found in his exercises of piety. If in his moments of leisure he visits the place where the moral conference is held, he will do better; he will find there recreation, and what will be profitable to him.

III.

Exercises of the Evening.

1. Before Supper.

Towards evening it is befitting that the priest should make another half-hour’s meditation; it will be better if he makes it when possible with all the persons of the house, reading the points of meditation himself, and finishing by reciting the Christian acts.

Then he should recite Matins and Lauds, and afterwards devote himself to another hour’s study.

Afterwards he shall recite five decades of the Rosary, also with the people of the house, taking care to announce the mysteries on which the meditation should be made; he shall finish by saying the Litany of the Blessed Virgin

2. Supper.

The Rosary shall be followed by supper. He should observe greater sobriety at supper than at dinner; for if in the evening one takes too much food, it will happen that in the morning, when so many important duties are to be fulfilled,—meditation, the saying of Mass, the hearing of confessions,—one will suffer not only in the stomach, but also in the head, so that everything will be done with distraction and tepidity, and the half of it will be lost.

3. The Last Acts before Going to Bed.

After supper the priest shall make the examination of conscience, to be followed by the act of contrition and by other pious acts; then after having recited, with the face on the floor, the “Hail Mary” three times, and after the usual practices in honor of the holy patrons, he should go to bed.

The following is the act that we may recite before going to bed: ⁷

O my God! I thank Thee for having preserved me this day, and I beseech Thee to vouchsafe to preserve me also this night, and to protect me from all evil. I take this repose in order to please Thee, and I intend each moment that I breathe to love and praise Thee, as is done by the saints and the elect in heaven.

Mary, my Mother, bless me, and protect me under thy mantle. My angel guardian, and all my holy Patrons, intercede for me.

IV.

Exercises that are not Performed Every Day.

1. Confession.

The priest should confess twice or at least once a week. He should not fail to have a particular Director, on whom it will be his duty to depend in all his spiritual exercises, and even in all the temporal affairs that may be of profit to his soul.

2. The Monthly Retreat.

Every month he shall make a day of retreat; on this day he should keep aloof from all temporal affairs, and even from spiritual occupations that regard his neighbor. Having retired to his own home or to some religious house, he shall occupy himself in silence only with himself, consecrating the whole day to prayer, to spiritual reading, to visiting the Blessed Sacrament, and to other similar exercises. Oh what strength does not the soul draw from these retreats, to be able to unite itself intimately with God, and to walk more fervently in the ways of the Lord on the following days! ⁸

3. Special Counsels.

In temptations, especially in those against purity, he shall renew the resolution to suffer rather a thousand deaths than to offend God; then he shall have recourse at once to Jesus and to Mary by invoking their holy names until the violence of the temptation has subsided.

He should be careful to dress modestly, always wearing long clothes, and never those that are of silk.

Let him keep from all banquets, the amusements of the world, the reunions with seculars, especially where there are women.

1. We have thought it useful to add here the formula which the saint gives elsewhere in several places.—ED.
2. To understand this passage and others of a like nature, we must know that many secular priests in Italy remained with their families, having no special employment; this was the case with St. Alphonsus himself at the beginning of his priestly life.—ED.
3. We may remark that nothing is said about breakfast, because in Italy, generally, no meal is taken as in the countries of the north, but dinner is taken earlier.—ED.
4. “Terram miseriæ et tenebrarum, ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat.”—Job, x. 22.
5. It may perhaps be needless to recall here to mind the ascetical works written by St. Alphonsus himself. Many well-instructed priests avow that they seek no other books of piety, because they find all that they desire in those of the holy bishop, who seems to have provided for all the wants of the soul.—ED.
6. We all know the Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin which are found in Volume VI. This precious little work is also published separately.—ED.
7. We add this simple formula as we have done above for the morning exercise.—ED.
8. There is no question here of the annual retreat.—ED.