Chapter 5
Section 5 of Guide for Catholic Young Women, Especially for Those Who Earn Their Own Living, by Rev. George Duchamp. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapters 13-15. Chapter 13 of Night Prayers Now let us suppose the day has gone by, that you have done your work, that everything has
been put in order, and that you have some time to yourself. If the day has been spent in the way I have been endeavoring to point out, in remembering God and conversing with him from time to time amidst your work, I am sure there is a fire of love burning in your heart. You have been so busy that you could not let it blaze up. It's been smoldering like live coals covered up with ashes, but all ready to burst out into a bright and warm blaze. Now, then, is the good time to rake
off those ashes, to put on some fresh fuel and let the fire burn brightly. Yes, nothing interferes with the free attention of the soul to God. All the world is hushed, and the darkness of night only seems to make God nearer to us. We feel our own helplessness, what mere nothings we are, and God seems all and everything. We understand then more clearly how great, how wonderful, how wise and how good he is.
This is indeed a golden time to raise the soul to God. Brother Gerard, a lay brother of the congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, used to spend whole nights looking up at the stars so bright and wonderful, his heart perfectly filled with love and admiration for God, their creator. Of course you cannot do the like,
but the solemn silence of the night invites you to set apart some time, and a more considerable time than at any other part of the day to devote it to God and your soul. Then you can cast a look back on the day that has passed to see how you have spent it,
to see what has been wrong, that you may be sorry for it and sincerely resolve to amend it. Recall to mind what good you have done, that you may humbly thank God for it. And it is indeed a source of joy if we have done well,
though we must remember that all good comes from the Holy Ghost. and that without him we could not so much as think a good thought. This is a time, too, to thank God for all his mercies, and for all you have had to suffer, since that is a mercy if you did but know it,
to recommend yourself to his protection for the night, and to give yourself body and soul to him, to offer him your life and your death, at whatever time and in whatever manner may be most pleasing to him. Now there is one caution I must give you,
in order that all my advice about your night prayers may not turn out useless. It is a plain thing, but most important. You should have a regular hour for retiring and preparing yourself for your night's rest, and that hour ought not to be a late one. Late hours are the destruction of piety.
Fix your hour, and when it comes around, retire that you may commune with God. Do not run out visiting every evening. If you go out now and then to see your friends and acquaintances, be sure to finish your visit in good time and get home again at your regular hour for retiring.
In the same way, if visitors come to see you, do not let them stay too late. Remind them kindly that it is getting late and that you are obliged to retire. Bid them good night and let them go home
so that they may get to understand that it is no use to come see you at an unreasonable time. This is very important, for how can a poor girl talk and talk all the evening until a late hour, without every good impression being driven out of her soul. After such an
evening, when she kneels down to pray, she will find herself quite distracted. Not a good thought will be likely to come into her mind. All the affairs of Bridget and Mary, or John and William, or Mrs. This or Mrs. That, a heap of idle nonsensical thoughts will be chasing one another in her poor distracted head. It may be sinful temptations will get such a firm hold on her imagination that the devil will be sure to bring her into some sin, while much of that holy
peacefulness that reigned in her soul before is lost. Shun, then, late hours, shun idle gossiping, slanderous and sinful talk, and keep your soul in such a state that when the blessed hour arrives to pray, you may find yourself ready and in a fit mood to enjoy the conversation of God your Savior. Chapter 14 Objections Answered Oh, you say, it would be very well if we could spend our day in pious thoughts and prayer as you have laid it out for us,
but if you could only be obliged as we are to work in the kitchen or to take care of noisy children, you would soon see that it is much easier to give these directions than to carry them out. You would see that it is a hard thing to recollect oneself at all. I can well imagine a good-hearted, well-disposed girl, whose temper is lively and somewhat impatient, and who wants to do everything at once, saying something of this kind, at least in her mind.
Now I say to her, you are mistaken. Work, and hard work too, will not interfere with the daily life I have laid down for you. I do not mean to say that you can learn to follow it out perfectly all at once, so that nothing will be left to improve upon. Nothing is done just in that way.
It took you many years to grow to your full height. First you were a little baby and could not help yourself. Then you had to toddle about and to walk. Afterwards you were a little girl without much wit in your head. You could not work or maintain yourself, but you kept on growing little by little.
You kept on eating your food and growing, though nobody could see you grow. Until little by little you came to be what you are now, with the full use of body and mind. These holy practices of prayer will be imperfect, perhaps, in the beginning, but they will grow. You may not see how they grow from day to day, it is such a gradual thing, but after some time you can look back and see very plainly that you have made progress,
and that spiritual things have taken root in your soul, and the tree of your salvation is growing strong and healthy. Let me give you an example to show you that much work and hard work cannot prevent your raising your soul constantly to God. St. Catherine of Siena, when very young, just verging upon the age of womanhood, was very pious, prayed a great deal, and occupied her thoughts with God and heavenly things.
She had such a clear insight into the vanity of all earthly things that she determined to live only for Jesus Christ and never to marry. This did not please her mother and the rest of the family. Her eldest married sister had died suddenly, and they were anxious that Catherine should accept a very advantageous offer and so take her sister's place in the family.
But she would not listen to such a proposal, and to show how fixed her resolution was, she cut off her hair, which was very beautiful. The whole family felt highly displeased. They considered her much too pious.
They knew they could do nothing while she prayed so much, so what did they hit upon? they concluded to load her down with work. They sent away the servant and made her do all the work of the house. Another person was placed in her room so that she could never be alone at any time,
and they always contrived to send for her and break up her prayers when she was seen to commence them. Do you think they succeeded in cooling her love for God or lessening her prayer? Not at all. She went on quietly as before, did all her work, and prayed at the same time.
in that simple short way I have recommended, and made more progress in the love of God than ever before. She did not allow herself to be disturbed, for she built a little room for herself in her own heart, to which she retired very frequently,
and there she always found the Holy Ghost waiting for her and helping her to pray. They drove her out of her room, it is true, but they could not drive her out of her own heart, where God has his dwelling.
As the scripture says, The kingdom of God is within you. St. Luke 17, 21 And again, all the glory of the king's daughter is within. Psalm 44, 14
That is true. All the work in the world cannot hinder you from admiring, loving, and seeking God. It cannot hinder you from begging God for his grace and love. It cannot hinder you from being daughters of the heavenly king. If your beauty is within, in the soul,
if you make yourselves beautiful in his sight by keeping your hearts directed to him in the midst of your occupations, while you are ready to give more time and attention to prayer as soon as your leisure permits you to do so. Chapter 15. Advantage of Spending Sunday Well We have seen how to spend the day united to God by devout sighs and aspirations and holy prayers, amidst all the enjoyments of busy life.
Every week, by God's appointment, there comes around a day especially devoted to his service and the refreshment of our souls. The Sunday, when labor ceases, in great measure, to give place to devotion and innocent recreation. What a blessing this is from God! We may compare it to the oasis in the desert.
The weary traveler in eastern countries sometimes has to make his way through vast regions of barren, heated sand, with no springs of refreshing water, no trees to shade him from the sun, no cool breezes, often for many days, until he is ready to sink down from fatigue and exhaustion, his tongue parched with thirst, his blood on fire with the heat. In these regions, scattered here and there, are beautiful spots, where clear fresh water springs from the ground, where delightful
fruits, oranges, lemons, dates, grow in great abundance, and the air is cooled by the water springs. How these travelers long to find these spots. When the camels and other beasts of burden snuff the air from a distance, they forget their fatigue. They run with eagerness to quench their thirst at the cool fountains and to enjoy the fresh grass. Their owners, with no less delight, stop a day, or several of them, to recruit their strength and cheer up their spirits,
that they may be enabled to continue their way until they reach another of these refreshing places. So they hope, finally, to get through the wearisomeness of the whole journey and successfully gain all they had in view in setting out.
Our Sundays are to us such cool, delightful spots in the journey of life. The soul is weary of the dust and heat of the world. The soul is fatigued with having so many things to do and longs for an opportunity to rest in God,
to satisfy the thirst it has for God. It longs for the cool fountains and the refreshing waters. Where are they? In the house of God, in the very place where he dwells. There is the altar of God in the church, his house.
The burning lights are around it, flowers decorated, devout worshippers surrounded, and all invites the soul to pray. But what are all the lights and flowers compared to him who is present in their midst? The Lord of glory, the blessed Savior himself, is there.
He has come down on that altar to offer himself for us, to pray to his heavenly Father by his wounds and blood most effectually for us, and to remain in our midst to hear our prayers and talk with us face to face. Thus, the Sunday is the time, and the church is the place, for the soul's weekly rest. The good girl who longs for God's love will not pass it by.
God in his mercy has commanded that we should take advantage of it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, the church of which the Lord said, He that heareth you heareth me. St. Luke 10.16
Which is in Christ's place, now that Christ has ascended into heaven, has changed this time of rest from the seventh to the first day of the week, in honor of the Lord's rising from the dead on that day. The Sabbath of the Jews has given place to the Christian Sunday,
but the obligation of keeping one day in the week holy remains the same. We are bound, then, by the law of God to do so. But in what way are Christians required to keep the day holy, in order that they may not sin against this law? This question I will answer in the next chapter.
End of section 5 Read by Melhart
