Christ, the Head of all the elect, is, for each one of them, the source of grace, the principle of peace. Outside this order there can only be trouble and insecurity for the soul. Those who want to do without God, those whom Scripture calls" the impious" cannot have peace: Non est pax impiis1. Doubtless, certain of their desires can be satisfied, fulfilled even. They can satisfy to a certain point their thirst for pleasures and honours. But, says St. Thomas 2, this is an apparent and false peace; the impious are ignorant of man's true good they put the contenting of their desires in apparent, relative, fugitive good; thus these souls who appear happy are never truly so; the heart remains empty even after having exhausted all the sources of joy that the creature can give, because our deepest desires exceed all sensible good. All we can do is in vain, our heart is created for God: this is one of the principles of order; our heart has a capacity for the infinite, and no creature can satisfy it perfectly. Except in God there is only ephemeral joy and illusive peace; the heart is agitated in vain in running after the creature. "Why," says St. Augustine, “do you persist in ever traversing painful and wearisome paths? Rest is not where you are seeking it... you pursue happiness in the sojourn of death; it is elsewhere. How shall a happy life be found where there is not even true life ? ' Non est requies ubi quaeritis eam... Beatam vitam quaeritis in regione mortis, non est illic. Quomodo enim beata vita, ubi nec vita? And the holy Doctor concludes : He Who is Life, our Life, has come down amongst us: Et descendit huc ipsa vita nostra 3. In Christ Jesus alone is to be found the principle of life, the source of peace. To enjoy true peace, we must then not only "seek God," but moreover we must seek Him in the way He wishes us to seek Him, that is to say in Christ. This is the fundamental order, established by God Himself, according to the good pleasure of His sovereign will: Ut notum faceret nobis sacramentum voluntatis suae, secundum beneplacitum ejus quod proposuit in eo... instaurare omnia in Christo 5. Outside this order fixed by Infinite Wisdom, we can find neither holiness, nor perfection; we can find neither peace nor joy.

II.

How are we to conform ourselves to this Divine order of things?

I. Isa. XLVIII, 22, LVII, 21. — 2. II-II, q. XXIX, a. 2, ad. 3.- 3. Confess. L. IV, c. 12. P. L. 32, col. 701. 4. Rule, ch. LVIII. 5. Eph. 1, 9-10.

First of all by an act of practical faith which surrenders our whole being to Christ that we may follow Him1. An act of faith in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, for we cannot give ourselves entirely to Him unless we have this deep conviction that He is the Son of God and that He is everything for us. We must have this absolute faith in the Almighty power of Jesus, in His sovereign bounty, in the infinite value of His merits, in the inexhaustible abundance of His riches. When the Father sent Him to us to be the ambassador of Divine peace, He told us nothing else than to hear this Son in Whom He has placed all His delight: Ipsum audite 2. It is on this condition that the Divine grace and friendship are restored to us. Our first attitude is therefore faith: "Yea, Heavenly Father, Jesus is Thy Well-beloved Son; this I believe, and I adore this Son. ". Then the Father regards us with the same look of love with which He regards His Son. Does not Our Lord Himself assure us of this? The Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God 3. And when He pleads for His disciples and for us, when upon the point of quitting earth He confides us to His Father's goodness, He brings forward no other reason for His request than the faith that His disciples have in His Divinity. Let us listen to Him in that ineffable discourse He has with His Father when about to reconcile the world with God by His sacrifice: Father keep them, save them, for they have truly known that I am Thy Son and that all I have comes from Thee: Pater, serva eos... cognoverunt quia omnia quae dedisti mihi, abs te sunt... cognoverunt vere quia a te exivi 4.

This act of faith marks the dawn of peace for us.

Is not this natural,since it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we enter into the Divine order of grace, the foundation of peace ? Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom also we have access through faith into this grace... and glory in the hope of this glory of the sons of God 5.

This faith ought to be practical; it ought to extend to all our being, and have for its object all that touches Christ. Souls are to be met with who truly wish to adore Christ, but they confine their submission to His Person alone, refusing to extend it to His Church. When these souls 1." Peace between man and God, is obedience well ordered in faith under the eternal law. St. Augustine. De civitate Dei, lib. XIX, c. 13. P. L. 41, col. 640. 2. Matth. xvII, 5.3. Joan. XVI, 27. — 4. Ibid. XVII, II, 7-8. 5. Rom. v, 1-2.

cannot lay claim to be in good faith, they cannot find peace: they are not according to the Divine order. We must then give ourselves entirely to Jesus Christ, surrender to Him our soul, our understanding, our will, our body: everything in us ought to be subject to Him; all that is withdrawn from the action of His Spirit is withdrawn from the Divine order. Outside the light of the Word, there is only darkness; outside the way which is Himself, we find only error; without His grace, there is only powerlessness. And indeed what peace can be given to us by darkness, error and powerlessness to go to God, the only true Good, the only true End of our life?

"

Let us then yield ourselves up to Our Lord by an act of living faith, of deep adoration, of perfect submission and entire abandonment. Let us ask Him to direct all our life, to be the object of all our aspirations, the principle of all our actions. He is "the Prince of Peace, "the pacific King" Rex pacificus: may He be really the King of our souls. We say to God every day: "Thy Kingdom come": Adveniat regnum tuum. What is this Kingdom of God which we desire? It is the Kingdom of Christ, for God has apointed Him King upon earth and in heaven": Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes hereditatem tuam1!

When we thus submit ourselves entirely to Christ Jesus, when we abandon ourselves to Him, when our soul only responds, like His own, with a perpetual Amen to all that He asks of us in the name of His Father; when, after His example, we abide in this attitude of adoration before all the manifestations of the Divine Will, in face of the least permissions of His Providence, then Christ Jesus establishes His peace in us: His peace, not that which the world promises, but the true peace which can only come from Himself: Pacem meam do vobis; non quomodo mundus dat, ego do vobis 2.

Indeed, such adoration produces in us the unity of all desires. The soul has but one thing in view: the establishing in her of Christ's Kingdom. Christ Jesus, in return, satisfies this desire with magnificent plenitude. The soul possesses the perfect contentment of her deepest tendencies because the satisfaction of her supernatural desires has been reduced to one; she is in the right order of things; she lives in peace.

Happy the soul who has thus understood the order established by the Father, that soul who seeks only to be 2. Joan. xiv, 27.

I. Ps. II, 8.

conformed by love to His admirable order, where all leads up to Christ Jesus: she tastes peace, a peace of which St. Paul says that it surpasses all understanding1 and de fies all expression. "It is impossible," says Blosius, " to explain the abundance of this peace in the soul altogether given to God and seeking Him alone 2.

III.

And this peace is a lasting peace. What indeed can trouble it? The devil? He is a powerful enemy, without doubt, who seeks to devour us; but if the dog, when he is chained up, barks, he can only bite those who go near to him: Latrare potest, mordere non potest, nisi volentem3. Christ has conquered him, we shall be conquerors in our turn, for Christ Jesus is more powerful than he. Moreover, does not God surround the soul with a special protection, if, seeking Him alone, it likewise puts all its confidence in Him? He commands His Angels to keep it in all its ways in order that it shall not stumble; He Himself keeps it" in the secret of His face 5. What enemy shall be able to trouble it? be able to come near it?

What terror shall

said our Lord to His disciples; and He repeats this to us: Fear not; you shall have tribulations in the world, but I abide with you. Have confidence, I have overcome the world" Confidite, ego vici mundum. If you remain faithful to Me, I will give you, with My grace, My own peace. My all-powerful grace shall indeed make you victorious over the solicitations of the world.

:

The world may offer us its pleasures, vent its sarcasms upon us; it no longer touches us; we have left all to follow Christ; our peace, founded upon the truth of Jesus, cannot be broken into by the world's weapons.

Shall our peace be destroyed by temptation? by contradictions? by sufferings? Again no. Doubtless, here below, peace is not always sensible; upon earth we are in a condition of trial and, most often, peace is won by conflict. Christ has not restored to us that original justice which established harmony in Adam's soul, but the soul that lays hold on God alone participates in the Divine stability; 1. Philip. iv, 7. 2. Canon vitae spiritualis, ch. xiv. Perfecta pax et quies animarum. 3. Appendix to the Sermons of St Augustine, xxxvII, 6. Ps. xc, II. 5. Ibid. xxx, 21. 6. Joan. xvi, 33.

temptations, sufferings, trials touch only the surface of our being; the depths where peace reigns are inaccessible to disturbance. The surface of the sea may be violently agitated by the waves during the tempest; the deep waters remain tranquil. We may be slighted, opposed, persecuted, be unjustly treated, our intentions and deeds may be misunderstood; temptation may shake us, suffering may come suddenly upon us; but there is an inner sanctuary which none can reach; here is the sojourn of our peace, because in this innermost secret of the soul dwell adoration, submission and abandonment to God. I love my God," said St. Augustine, "no one takes Him from me: no one takes from me what I ought to give Him, for that is enclosed within my heart... O inward riches which no one or anything can take away!"

At the centre of the soul that loves God there rises up the civitas pacis which no noise of earth can trouble, that no attack can surprise. We may truly say that nothing which is exterior, outside us, can, unless we so will, touch our inward peace: this essentially depends on only one thing, namely our attitude towards God. It is in Him that we must trust. “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear2?" If the wind of temptation and trial arises, I have only to take refuge with Him. Lord, save me, for without Thee, I perish. And our Lord, as formerly when in the ship tossed about by the waves, will Himself calm the tempest with a single gesture; and there will come "a great calm": Et facta est tranquillitas magna3.

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If we really seek God in everything, by following in the footsteps of Christ, Who is the sole way that leads to the Father; if we strive to be detached from all, that we may only desire the Master's good pleasure; if, when the Spirit of Jesus speaks to us, there is in us no inflexibility of soul, no resistance to His inspirations, but only docility and adoration, we may be assured that peace, deep and abundant, will reign in us; for, O Lord, "much peace have they that love Thy law ": Pax multa diligentibus legem tuam. Souls that do not wish to give all to Our Lord, and to bring all their desires to unity by this total donation, cannot taste this true peace. They are divided, tossed to and fro between themselves and God, between the satisfaction of their self-love and obedience; they are the prey of trouble and inquietude.

1. Enarr. in Psalm, LV, n. 19. P. L. 36, col. 659. 2. Ps. xxvi, I. Matth. vIII, 26. 4. Ps. CXVIII, 165.