Author: Francis Cuthbert DoylePublisher:
ISBN: 9781330917046
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 592
Book Description
Excerpt from Principles of Religious Life The chief object for which this work has been written is to furnish those who wish to lead a solidly devout life in the Ecclesiastical, in the Religious, or in the Secular State, with a manual or text-book containing, in as compendious a form as possible, the 'principles' upon which such a life must be built. The sources whence materials for an undertaking of this kind may be drawn are various and numerous; but out of the many at my disposal, two are especially deserving of mention, inasmuch as it has been by the doctrine which I have learnt from them, that I have been guided in much that has been treated of in this book. The first of these are the works of Cassian, to which, as a child of St. Benedict, I felt myself drawn as it were by instinct; for, it was from the world-famed 'Conferences' of this learned ascetic that our holy Father drew much of that spiritual lore which is so conspicuous in the various enactments of his Rule, and to the pages of which he refers his children, for those sublime lessons of spiritual wisdom, which will lead them to the topmost height of Christian perfection. Cassian's teaching, save upon the question of divine grace, is unexceptionally good. His deficiency upon this point may be satisfactorily accounted for, if we bear in mind that in his day various questions which arise out of this most intricate subject had not been thoroughly examined into and set at rest for ever by the infallible decision of the Church. The second is the 'Theologia Mystica' of Father Dominick Schram, O.S.B., in which that erudite Religious has bequeathed to us valuable treasures of Christian asceticism arranged with scientific accuracy, and stored away with scholastic neatness and precision. The plan of which I have made use for reducing to order the mass of material which presented itself to my hands, is a very simple one. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
