SHOWING THE WAY
When young people read or hear of persons entering religious life,
they are apt to say, "Oh, it is easy for them, because they are holy;
but it is impossible for me who have so little virtue!" But, as a
matter of fact, these religious have the same passions and temptations
to overcome, the same flesh and blood, as ourselves, and it was only
by conquering themselves, and struggling with their lower
inclinations, that they obtained the victory.
A boy was standing one day at a country railway station in the United
States, when he met an older boy with whom he engaged in conversation.
His casual acquaintance confided to him that he was going off to
college to prepare for entrance into a certain religious Order; and he
urged the younger lad to accompany him for the same purpose. But the
latter replied, "Oh! they wouldn't have me, for I am poor, uneducated
and every way unfit." The other insisted, however, and finally
prevailed on him to board with him the incoming train. They repaired
to the superior of the religious Order, who received them kindly, and
sent them both to a boarding school. After a short time the senior
student was caught stealing, and dismissed from the college. His
whilom companion, however, persevered in his good design, achieved
honors in his studies, and finally becoming a religious and a priest,
he is today doing effective work in the vineyard of the Lord.
A story is told of a religious who gave a letter to a young man, in
which he recommended him as a suitable candidate for his Order,
bidding him present the letter to the superior, who lived at a
distance. The young man, desirous of joining the Order, started on his
journey with a companion named Mathias, who had no notion of becoming
a religious. On the way, the would-be religious changed his mind, and
abandoning his project, gave the letter to Mathias, who was ignorant
of its contents, requesting him to bring it to the superior. The
superior read the letter, and thinking the recommendation referred to
Mathias, said to him, "Very well, you may go to the novitiate, and put
on the habit." Mathias wondered, but obeyed, entered the novitiate,
and became a holy religious.
St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, and the foremost man of his age, was
so handsome and attractive in youth, that the evil-minded laid snares
against his chastity. To escape their wiles he determined to enter the
Cistercian monastery of Citeaux. His father and brothers endeavored to
dissuade him from his purpose, but instead, by his fervid
exhortations, he induced four of his brothers and others, to the
number of thirty, to enter with him. As the party was leaving home,
little Nivard, the sole remaining boy of the family, was at play with
some companions. Guido, the eldest of the brothers, embraced him and
said, "My dear Nivard, we are going, and this castle and lands will
all be yours." The child, "with wisdom beyond his years," the
chronicler tells us, "replied, 'what, are you taking heaven for
yourselves, and leaving earth to me? The division is not fair.'" And
from that day nothing could pacify the boy, until he was permitted to
join his brothers.
St. Alphonsus Liguori, who is said to have always preserved his
baptismal innocence, was so brilliant a student that at the age of
sixteen he had obtained two degrees in the University of Naples.
Entering on the practice of the law, he one day in a trial before the
court, by an oversight, misstated the evidence. His attention being
called to his error, he was so overwhelmed with shame and confusion at
his apparent lack of truthfulness, that on returning home he
exclaimed, "World, I know you now, Courts, you shall never see me
more." And for three days he refused food. He then determined to
become a priest, and in the ministry he attained great sanctity. He
founded the well-known Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,
commonly called the Redemptorists; and for his voluminous doctrinal
writings, Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the universal Church.
The story of the entrance of St. Stanislaus Kostka into religion reads
like a romance. His father, a Polish nobleman, had placed him and his
older brother, Paul, at the Jesuit College in Vienna. When Stanislaus
was fifteen years of age he applied for admission into the Jesuit
Order, but as he had not the consent of his father, the superior
feared to take him. An illness supervened, and the Blessed Virgin came
to cure him, and giving the child Jesus into his arms, said to him,
"You must end your days in the Society that bears my Son's name; you
must become a Jesuit."
Notwithstanding the vision, poor Stanislaus was again refused by the
Jesuit superior. Not knowing what other step to take, he thought that
by traveling four hundred miles to Augsburg, in Germany, the Jesuit
Provincial of that province, who at the time was Blessed Peter
Canisius, might receive him, for his jurisdiction seemed beyond the
influence of Senator Kostka. If again rejected in Augsburg, he was
determined to walk eight hundred miles farther to Rome, where he felt
sure of securing his heart's desire. Accordingly, one August morning
he rose early and telling his servant that he was going out, bade him
at the same time inform his brother Paul not to expect him for dinner.
With light and joyous heart he started on his journey, and at the
first opportunity exchanged his fine clothes for the disguise of a
pilgrim's staff and tunic.
When Paul awoke and learned that Stanislaus was gone for the day, he
was surprised, but attributed it to some new pious freak. But as the
day wore on, and the shades of evening gathered, with no tidings of
his brother, consternation seized Paul, for he realized that his
irascible and powerful father would hold him responsible for the
safety of the younger boy, whom he loved with a passionate and
unbounded affection. Accordingly servants were dispatched in every
direction to seek for the truant, but no tidings could be obtained.
The conclusion gradually forced itself upon all that Stanislaus had
fled, and Paul determined to pursue him and bring him back. For some
reason, suspicion was aroused that the runaway had taken the road to
Augsburg, and a carriage with two stout horses was ordered for early
dawn on the morrow.
Along the highway to Augsburg flew the equipage containing Paul and
three companions. Meanwhile, little Stanislaus was trudging bravely
along, putting all his confidence in God, when he suddenly heard the
rapid beat of horses' hoofs behind him. Suspecting what it meant, he
quickly entered a by-lane, and the occupants of the carriage rushed by
without seeing, or at least, recognizing, him in his disguise.
Stanislaus continued his pilgrimage in peace, begging his way, for he
had no money, and after two weeks, he saw, with inexpressible joy, the
roofs and spires of Augsburg gleaming in the setting sun. At last he
had reached the haven of rest, and with a bounding heart, the weary
boy knocked at the door of the Jesuit college. But alas, for all his
hopes! the provincial had gone to Dillingen. The Fathers urged him to
stay and rest with them until the provincial's return, but Stanislaus
would brook no delay. At once he wended his way toward Dillingen,
which he soon reached, and when he knelt at the feet of Blessed
Canisius, two saints were face to face. The superior pressed the boy
to his heart, and kept him in the college for a few weeks. But as both
the elder and younger saint thought Germany still too near the
influence of his father for safety, Stanislaus, in company with two
religious, set out on a further exhausting walk of eight hundred miles
to Rome, where he was received as a Jesuit novice by the General of
the Order, St. Francis Borgia.
The angelic boy had at last finished his long pilgrimages, he had
entered the earthly paradise for which he had yearned, and for which
he had forsaken home, rank and country. But the happiness of religion
he soon exchanged for the joys of heaven, for before completing his
eighteenth year, and while still a novice, he closed his eyes on this
world to open them in company with Mary and the angels on the Beatific
Vision.