The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others | Page 8

by a painful crucifixion of the natural man, both
soul and body, carried to a far more than ordinary perfection, that the
soul is introduced into this miraculous condition. Imprisoned in her
fleshly tabernacle, which, though regenerated, is through sin foul,
earthly, and blinding as ever, the mind can only be admitted to share in
the communion which Jesus Christ unceasingly held with His Father
and with the world invisible, by attaining some portion of that
self-mastery which Adam lost by his fall. The physical nature must be
subdued by the vigorous repetition of those many painful processes by
which the animal portion of our being is rendered the slave of the
spiritual, and the will and the affections are rent away from all creatures,
to be fixed on God alone. Fasting and abstinence are the first elements
in this ascetic course. The natural taste is neglected, thwarted, and
tormented, till, wearied of soliciting its own gratification, it ceases to
interfere with the independent action of the soul. The appetite is further
denied its wonted satisfaction as to quantity of food. By fasts gradually
increasing in severity, new modes of physical existence are introduced;
that which was originally an impossibility becomes a second law of
nature; and the emaciated frame, forgetting its former lusts, obeys
almost spontaneously the dictates of the victorious spirit within. The
hours of sleep are curtailed under judicious control, until that
mysterious sentence which compels us to pass a third of our existence
in unconscious helplessness is in part repealed. The soul, habituated to
incessant and self-collected action, wakes and lives, while ordinary
Christians slumber, and as it were are dead. The infliction of other
severe bodily pains co-operates in the purifying process, and enables
the mind to disregard the dictates of nature to an extent which to many
Catholics seems almost incredible, and to the unbeliever an utter
impossibility. Physical life is supported under conditions which would
crush a constitution not supported by the miraculous aid of almighty
power; and feeble men and women accomplish works of charity and

heroic self-sacrifice from which the most robust and energetic of the
human race, in their highest state of natural perfection, would shrink
back in dismay as hopeless impossibilities. The senses are literally
tyrannised over, scorned, derided, insultingly trampled on. The sight,
the smell, the hearing, the touch, and the taste, are taught to exercise
themselves upon objects revolting to their original inclinations. They
learn to minister to the will without displaying one rebellious symptom.
Matter yields to spirit; the soul is the master of the body; while the
perceptions of the intelligence attain an exquisite sensibility, and the
mind is gifted with faculties absolutely new, the flesh submits, almost
insensible to its condition of servitude, and scarcely murmurs at the
daily death it is compelled to endure.
The process is the same in all that regards the affections and passions of
the mind itself. The heart is denied every thing that it desires, which is
not God. However innocent, however praiseworthy, may be the
indulgence in certain feelings, and the gratification of certain pursuits
in ordinary Christians, in the case of these favoured souls nature is
crushed in all her parts. Her faculties remain, but they are directed to
spiritual things alone. Possessions of all kinds, lands, houses, books,
pictures, gardens, husband, wife, children, friends, --all share the same
tremendous sentence. God establishes Himself in the soul, not only
supreme, but as the only inhabitant. Whatsoever remains to be done in
this world is done as a duty, often as a most obnoxious duty. Love for
the souls that Christ has redeemed is the only human feeling that is left
unsubjugated; and wheresoever the emotions of natural affection and
friendship mingle with this Christian love, they are watched, and
restrained with unsparing severity, that the heart may come at last to
love nothing, except in Christ Himself.
All this, indeed, repeatedly takes place in the case of persons in whom
the purely miraculous life of the Christian Saint is never even
commenced. It is that which all monks and nuns are bound to struggle
for, according to the different rules to which they have respectively
received their vocation. And, by the mercy of God, this perfect
detachment from earth, and this marvellous crucifixion of the flesh, is
accomplished in many a devout religious, to whom the extraordinary
gifts of the Holy Ghost are as unknown as His extraordinary graces are
familiar. Still, in those exceptional instances where miraculous powers

of any species are bestowed, this bitter death, this personal renewal (as
far as man can renew it) of the agonies of Calvary, is ordinarily the
necessary preparation for admission to the revelations of the Divine
glory, and to the other mysteries of the miraculous life.
The physical nature,