KNOWLEDGE of the theory and practice of the spiritual life is
essential to solid virtue. Without it the soul drifts on a sea of doubt
and uncertainty, and wastes time, grace, and opportunity of merit and
spiritual progress. With this knowledge an ordinary good will suffices
to appreciate how sweet is the Saviour's yoke and how light His burden.
Like the ladder which the patriarch Jacob saw reaching from earth to
heaven the service of God becomes attractive in proportion to our
knowledge and application of the teaching of holy faith.
A
favorable sign of Catholic life in our day is the desire for religious
information among our people. Not only are the clergy and the religious
alert and anxious to use every means to qualify for their labors and to
promote their spiritual welfare, but there is a growing class among the
laity that relishes the higher things. While " The Narrow Way " is
specially intended as a Manual of the Spiritual Life for the Laity, it
will equally serve as a handbook for postulants, novices, and
seminarians that will introduce them to the principles of the spiritual
life and enable them to appreciate and derive profit from larger works.
May Providence use this Manual to lead many souls on the way to intimate
union with a loving and merciful God.
Thomas. P. Brown, C.SS.R., Sup. Prov.
St. Louis, Mo.
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