Studying the Lives of the Saints will help us imitate their virtues. Some may ask, why study the lives of the Martyrs? Their lives are extraordinary in that they suffered the cruelest of torments for the love of Jesus Christ, which we will not be called upon to suffer. There are many reasons to study the lives of the Saints. Saint Alphonsus tells us: "It maybe useful here to remark, with St. Augustine, that it is not the torture, but the cause, which makes the martyr. Whence St. Thomas teaches that martyrdom is to suffer death in the exercise of an act of virtue. From which we may infer, that not only he who by the hands of the executioner lays down his life for the faith, but whoever dies to comply with the divine will, and to please God, is a martyr, since in sacrificing himself to the divine love he performs and act of the most exalted virtue. We all have to pay the great debt of nature; let us therefore endeavor, in holy prayer, to obtain resignation to the divine will-to receive death and every tribulation in conformity with the dispensations of His Providence. As often as we shall perform this act of resignation with sufficient fervor, we may hope to be made partakers of the merits of the martyrs. St. Mary Magdalene, in reciting the doxology, always bowed her head in the same spirit she would have done in receiving the stroke of the executioner." And there is a further reason to study the lives of the Martyrs. Martyrdom is not something that is offered to the mediocre, but to the fervent Christian. Some martyrs lived a century of holiness prior to consummating their martyrdom. Martyrdom is a straight ticket to heaven, but it is a ticket that is often earned by a pious life. True there are those very few, who convert and then are immediately martyred. But many more lived a fervent Christian life, which was crowned with the grace of martyrdom. Althoguh we may not give our lives in the manner they did at the end, we can give our lives in the manner they gave their lives before called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

This work begins with a Sketch of the life of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri. This work contains On Divine and the Means of Acquiring It On Conformity to the Will of God The Practice of Meditation A Short Treatise on the Necessity, Efficacy and Conditions of Prayer Method of Conversing Continually and Familiarly With God Consolation and Encouragement for a Soul in Spiritual Desolation Meditations for a Private Retreat of Eight Days Compendium of Rules for a Christian Life Short Practice of Perfection Selected from the Doctrines of St. Teresa (of Avila)

THIS book, which was published in 1759, is one of the most important works of Saint Alphonsus. He himself explains what it has cost him, and the value that he sets upon it. In his preface to the" Preparation for Death," he speaks thus: "This book, though small, has cost me a great deal of labor. I regard it as of extreme utility to all sorts of persons; and I unhesitatingly assert that among all spiritual treatises, there is none, and there can be none, more necessary than that which treats on prayer as a means of obtaining eternal salvation." Saint Alphonsus gives the plan of his work: "In order, then, to attach ourselves to this great means of salvation, we must first of all consider how necessary it is to us, and how powerful it is to obtain for us all the graces that we can desire from God, if we know how to ask for them as we ought. Hence, in the first part, we will speak first of the necessity and power of prayer; and next, of the conditions necessary to make it efficacious with God. Then, in the second part, we will show that the grace of prayer is given to all; and there we will treat of the manner in which grace ordinarily operates." Saint Alphonsus begins: "ONE of the errors of Pelagian ism was the assertion that prayer is not necessary for salvation. Pelagius, the impious author of that heresy, said that man will only be damned for neglecting to know the truths necessary to be learned. How astonishing St. Augustine said: "Pelagius discussed everything except how to pray," though, as the saint held and taught, prayer is the only means of acquiring the science of the saints; according to the text of St. James: 'If any man want wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth abundantly, and upbraideth not.' The Scriptures are clear enough in pointing out how necessary it is to pray, if we would be saved." Further on we read: "We will, as we promised, demonstrate that the grace of prayer is given to all men. But this doctrine does not please Jansenius; he goes so far as to call it an hallucination: "It is an hallucination to think that the grace of prayer is always present to a man." According to his system, he considers that without the delectation relatively victorious we cannot pray; but this delight is not granted to all men, therefore (he adds) all men have not sufficient grace and power to fulfil the commandments; for many are without even the remote grace to enable them to pray as they ought, or indeed to pray at all. "Since, therefore," he continues, "most men either do not ask for grace to enable them to fulfil the law, or do not ask for it as is necessary; and since God does not give all men the grace either to pray fervently, or even to pray at all, it is most evident that many of the faithful are without that sufficient grace, and, consequently, without that perpetual power of fulfilling the one precept (of the moment) which some theologians proclaim," Before, then, we prove our own position, we must confute his pernicious system, from which all his errors are derived; and we must show that not we, Imt that he is laboring under an hallucination."

The first section is on the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The next section is on visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This includes an instruction on Spiritual Communion. There are eight meditations for the Feast and Octave of Corpus Christi. This is followed by a Novena to the Sacred Heart. Over 200 pages are devoted to meditations on charity, commenting on Saint Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 13: Charity is... This is followed by ten meditations on Charity. This work closes with a pious exercise to obtain the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost. Saint Alphonsus writes on Spiritual Communion: As in all the following visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament a spiritual Communion is recommended, it will be well to explain what it is, and the great advantages which result from its practice. A spiritual Communion, according to St. Thomas, consists in an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament, and in lovingly embracing Him as if we had actually received Him. How pleasing these spiritual Communions are to God, and the many graces which He bestows through their means, was manifested by our Lord Himself to Sister Paula Maresca, the foundress of the convent of St. Catharine of Sienna in Naples, when (as it is related in her life) He showed her two precious vessels, the one of gold, the other of silver. He then told her that in the gold vessel was preserved her sacramental Commuinions, and in the silver one her spiritual Communions. He also told Blessed Jane of the Cross that each time that she communicated spiritually she received a grace of the same kind as the one that she received when she really communicated. Above all, it will suffice for us to know that the holy Council of Trent greatly praises spiritual Communions, and encourages the faithful to practice them. Hence all devout souls are accustomed often to practice this holy exercise of spiritual Communion. Blessed Agatha of the Cross did so two hundred times a day. And Father Peter Faber, the first companion of St. Ignatius, used to say that it was of the highest utility to make spiritual Communions, in order to receive the sacramental Communion well. All those who desire to advance in the love of Jesus Christ are exhorted to make a spiritual Communion at least once in every visit that they pay to the Most Blessed Sacrament, and at every Mass that they that they hear; and it would even be better on these occasions to repeat the Communions three times, that is to say, at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. This devotion is far more profitable than some suppose, and at the same time nothing can be easier to practice. The above-named Blessed Jane of the Cross used to say, that a spiritual Communion can be made without any one remaking it, without being fasting, without the permission of our director, and that we can make it at any time we please: an act of love does all.

Although one might think that this book is only for nuns and sisters, that is women religious, but it is not. Many lay people find much useful advice in this holy work. It should be noted that this is only the first sixteen chapters of the work. In the Preface we read: "For, as St. Denis the Areogapite says, 'Divine love consists in the affections of the heart more than in the knowledge of the understanding.' In human sciences, knowledge excites love; but in the science of the saints, love produces knowledge. He that loves God most knows Him best. Besides, it is not lofty and fruitless conceptions, but works, that unite the soul to God, and make it rich in merits before the Lord." Saint Alphonsus says: "The principal means of acquiring an ardent love of Christ are mental prayer, Communion, mortification, retirement. Although each of these means is fully discussed in another part of this work, still a brief notice of them in this place will not be irrelevant. "The first means to love Jesus Christ is mental prayer. Mental prayer is that blessed furnace in which the soul is inflamed with divine love. 'And', says holy David, 'in my meditation a fire shall flame out. In temptations against purity, the immediate invocation of the divine aid is absolutely necessary. The Venerable Sister Cecilia Gastelli used to say, that without prayer, chastity cannot be preserved. 'As I knew', says Solomon, 'that I otherwise could not be continent, except God gave it, I went to the Lord and besought Him with my whole heart.'" And let us consider that living in the world requires continence and restraint, "The second means is the holy Communion. This, says St. Bonaventure, is the cellar of wine into which the King of heaven brings his spouses" to set in order charity" in their hearts, teaching them to love God above all things, and their neighbors as themselves. "The third means is mortification. As the lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the lily blooms among the thorns, so virginity is preserved only in the midst of mortification. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that" chastity flourishes only among thorns." ..." "The fourth means is retirement. 'Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle dove's.' The spouse in the canticle is compared to the turtle, because the turtle avoids the company of other birds, and delights in solitude. ..." Saint Alphonsus relates the following story: "St. Francis of Assisi once said to his companion, that he was going out to preach. After walking through the town, with his eyes fixed on the ground, he returned to the convent. His companion asked him when he would preach the sermon. We have, replied the saint, by the modesty of our looks, given an excellent instruction to all who saw us." Do our lives preach a sermon or do they scandalize people and lead them into sin? This is why we need to study pious books, so that our life is a living sermon. This is true Catholic Action

Saint Alphonsus tells us a good story: "If a traveller, on his journey to his own country; were to stop and spend his all in building a palace in a land through which he ought only to pass, and neglect to provide a dwelling for himself in that country in which her was to reside his whole life, he would be thought mad. And must not the Christian be deemed mad who think only of gratifying himself in this world, through which, he has only to pass during a few days, and heeds not the danger of being miserable in the next, where he must live forever, as long as God shall be God?" This holy saint tells us: "An act of contrition and of love makes us friends of God." He then warns: "St. Teresa said that all sins had their origin in a want of faith." Let us consider this well and then heed his advice: "Therefore, in order to overcome our passions and temptations, we ought constantly to revivie our faith by saying: I believe the life everlasting. I believe that after this life, which will soon be ended, there is an eternal life, either full of joys, or full of pains, which will befall me, accotding to my merits or demerits." Let us consider these six rules to become a saint and we are all called to become saints: "If, then, we truly desire to become saints, let us resolve: "1. To avoid every venial sin, however slight. 2." To detach ourselves from every earthly desire. "3. Let us not cease OUI- accustomed. exercises of prayer and mortification, however great may be the weariness and dryness we feel in them. "4. Let us meditate daily on the Passion of Jesus Christ, which inflames with divine love every heart that meditates upon it. "5. Let us resign ourselves in peace to the will of God in all things that trouble us, as Father Balthazar Alvarez said, "He that in troubles resigns himself to the divine will, runs to God as swift as by a post." "6. Let us continually beg of God the gift of his holy love."

"Two things," say Cicero, "make us know a lover-that he does good to his beloved, and that he suffers torment for him; and this last is the greatest sign of true love." God has indeed already shown His love to men by many benefits bestowed upon him; but His love would not have been satisfied by only doing good to man, as says St. Peter Chrysologus, if He had not found the means to prove to him how much He loved him by also suffering and dying for him, as He did by taking upon Him human flesh. Saint Alphonsus says also of Jesus: "That is the hour of the lvoer, in which he suffers for the object beloved: because suffering for the beloved is the most fit way of discovering the lvoe of the lover, and of captivating to ourself the love of the beloved." We are beloved by God and He showed this through His holy Passion Further on we read: "St. Denis, the Areogapite, says that love always tends toward union with the object beloved. And because food becomes one thing with him who eats it, therefore our Lord would reduce Himself to food, in order that, receiving Him in Holy Communion, we might become of one substance with Him." This work contains meditations on the Passion for each day of the week and for the last fifteen days of Lent. Much time is devoted to a consideration of the various events of the Passion and drawing wonderful resolutions from them. Saint Alphonsus quotes Saint Thomas Aquinas as says: "Devotion consists in being read to accomplish in ourselves whatever God demands of us." And we also read: "Yes, Lord, all grown-up persons who are saved must either be martyrs in blood or martyrs in patience, in conquering the assaults of hell and the inordinate desires of the flesh. Bodily pleasures send enumerable souls to hell, and, therefore, we must resolve with courage to despise them. Let us be assured that either the soul must tread the body under foot, or the body the soul." Saint Alphonsus quotes Saint Teresa as saying: "He who drags the cross along with ill-will feels its weight, however small it is; but he who willingly embraces it, however great it is, does not feel it."

Saint Benedict called the Divine Office, the Work of God. And yet for many it is a dry work, the mere recitation of prayers, when it should lead us to sublime union with Almighty God. ST. ALPHONSUS was seventy-eight years old when in 1774 he published his TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMS AND CANTICLES OF THE DIVINE OFFICE. This difficult work, composed at so advanced an age, amidst sufferings almost continual, and numerous occupations, excited at Naples the admiration of learned men. According to Canon Massa, professor of theology and ecclesiastical examiner, the author in his work explains so skilfully the sense and the obscure passages of the psalms, that without taking anything from the purity of the inspired word he aids both the heart and the mind of those that read it. The Holy See has frequently praised and recommended all the works of St. Alphonsus; but the decree of March 23, 1871, which conferred on St. Alphonsus the title of Doctor of the Church, makes special mention of this work, speaking of it as one of his most useful and salutary works. The decree says: "He St. Alphonsus] has made clear dark passages of the Holy Scriptures, both in his ascetic writings, which are freighted with a celestial odor, and in a most salutary commentary, in which, for the nourishment of piety and the instruction of the soul, he has given expositions of the Psalms, as well as of the Canticles, for the benefit especially of those obliged to its recitation." Our holy author wished above all to give, not an explanation, but, as the title expresses it, a translation of the psalms, so that even those that do not understand Latin may avail themselves of it; and he thus proceeds in his work: He takes each verse of the psalms separately, and gives of it a more or less extended paraphrase, which is accompanied or interspersed by diverse explanations. We have judged it proper, and even necessary, to modify this method in the present volume namely, we have given in parallel columns the Latin text and the English translation. Below the psalms we have placed the explanations that are given by the holy author, and at the bottom of the page foot-notes are here and there added whenever they were found to be necessary. It must be remarked that all the foot-notes have been added by the French translator, the Rev. Father Dujardin, C.SS.R., upon whose work the present translation is based. By the kind permission of the Rev. T. Livius, C.SS.R., we have freely used his translation in the preparation of this volume.

This work comes in three parts. The first part is devoted to the prayers of the Mass. At the end of this section is a striking miracle of the Holy Eucharist. The second part is devoted to the ceremonies of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, according to the Tridentine Rite. This is very useful for any priest who wishes to devoutly celebrate the Mass. This even includes instructions for when a priest should put his spectacles (glasses) on to read from the Missal and when to remove them. The last section contains prayers of preparation for Mass and in thanksgiving after Mass. In the preface we read: "These different writings give evidence of the zeal that animated our venerated author in regard to the divine Sacrifice on our altars. From his childhood he was admired for the tender devotion with which he attended Mass, received Communion, or spent his time in adoring the messed Sacrament. This virtue only grew and became more perfect as he advanced in age. Even in the midst of the world, notwithstanding the occupations and the cares of the profession which he at first embraced, he went every day to visit his dear Lord exposed in one of the churches of Naples, and there on his knees and immovable, he spent long hours before the altar, contemplating the object of his affection with so humble and so recollected an attitude, that he appeared to be out of himself; all persons that saw him were profoundly edified. Such piety was to receive its reward; for thus we read in his writings: .. I feel myself bound, at least out of gratitude to my Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, to declare that by means of this devotion of visiting the Most Blessed Sacrament, which I practised, though with so much tepidity and in so imperfect a manner, I abandoned the world, in which, unfortunately. I lived until six. and-twenty years of age."" Saint Alphonsus makes an interesting prophesy: "And this offering which our Lord then made of himself did not limit itself to that moment, but it only then began; it always has continued since, and it will continue forever. It is true it will cease on earth at the time of Antichrist: the Sacrifice of the Mass is to be suspended for twelve hundred and ninety days; that is, for three years six months and a half, according to the prophecy of Daniel: And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days.' Yet the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ will never cease, since the Son of God will always continue to offer himself to his Father by an eternal sacrifice, for he himself is the priest and the victim, but ao eternal victim and an eternal priest, not according to the order of Aaron."

St. Alphonsus writes: "a single bad book will be sufficient to cause the destruction of a monastery." Pope Pius XII wrote in 1947 at the beatification of Blessed Maria Goretti: "There rises to Our lips the cry of the Saviour: 'Woe to the world because of scandals ' (Matthew 18:7). Woe to those who consciously and deliberately spread corruption-in novels, newspapers, magazines, theaters, films, in a world of immodesty " We at St. Pius X Press are calling for a crusade of good books. We want to restore 1,000 old Catholic books to the market. We ask for your assistance and prayers. This book is a photographic reprint of the original. The original has been inspected and some imperfections may remain. At Saint Pius X Press our goal is to remain faithful to the original in both photographic reproductions and in textual reproductions that are reprinted. Photographic reproductions are given a page by page inspection, whereas textual reproductions are proofread to correct any errors in reproduction.