_Regles pour le Choix d'un Etat de Vie, proposees a la Jeunesse
Chretienne._ Par Mgr. J. B. Malou, Eveque de Bruges. Bruxelles,
Goemaers, 1860 (iv.--249 pp.).
Although this book is not of recent publication, we feel it a kind of
duty to bring it under the notice of the clergy of this country. The
prelate who wrote it expressed to us his earnest desire that it might be
translated for the use of the Catholics of Ireland, for whom he ever
professed warm esteem and admiration. Indeed, we have very few books in
which the question of vocations to the ecclesiastical or religious life
is treated with such accuracy and solidity as in the Rules of Monsignor
Malou. On the other hand, vocations are, through the grace of God, so
abundant in Ireland, that there is hardly any priest, having care of
souls, who must not have felt, at times, the want of some help to enable
him to determine with confidence the state of life to which some
youthful member of his flock may have been called. Such a guide he may
find in the book under notice. Chapter i. treats of the nature of a
state of life, and limits the number of such states to four, viz., the
priesthood, the religious state, matrimony, and celibacy in the world.
The second chapter examines the nature of a vocation to a state of life,
and how far it imposes an obligation. Mgr. Malou thus defines a
vocation: "A disposition of Divine Providence, which prepares, invites,
and sometimes morally obliges, a Christian soul to embrace one state of
life in preference to another; which disposition is ordinarily
manifested in the qualities, the sentiments, and the position of the
person called". Chapter iii. shows the necessity of Christian
deliberation before making a choice of a state of life. Chapter iv.
deals with the conditions requisite for a good deliberation, paragraphs
being devoted respectively to interior conditions, to exterior
conditions, and to the method of proceeding in the deliberation. The
vocation to the ecclesiastical state is the subject of the fifth
chapter, in which is shown that this vocation comes from God in a
special manner, and that it is at once a great honour and a great
benefit. The signs of vocation are detailed in the seventh, and the
signs of non-vocation in the ninth chapters; in the tenth, the motives
and the duty of following this vocation. The religious state, its
origin, its end, its nature, and its properties; the different religious
orders to which a person may be called; the vocation to the religious
state; its principal signs; the deliberation required before adopting it
are the subjects of the next five chapters. The sixteenth and last
chapter discusses the question of vocation to the foreign missions,
considered with respect to its motives, the qualities it demands, and
the precautions which should be taken in carrying it into effect. This
is the substance of the entire treatise; and for accuracy of doctrine,
clearness of style, unction of Catholic spirit, it is worthy of its
important subject and of its author.