Life and letters of Henry Van Rensselaer, priest of the Society of Jesus . s turn. I told one very apropos theother evening. We are all busy this month in preparing sermons, aseach one has to preach before the community at suppertime. As many of the novices seem to be trusting mainlyto books, I selected an instance in St. Vincent Ferrers was a great Dominican preacher and missionary, and avery holy man. One day he was told that a distinguishednobleman was coming to hear him preach. The saint usuallyrelied principally upon prayer for his sermons, but on thisoccasion, departing from his
Life and letters of Henry Van Rensselaer, priest of the Society of Jesus . s turn. I told one very apropos theother evening. We are all busy this month in preparing sermons, aseach one has to preach before the community at suppertime. As many of the novices seem to be trusting mainlyto books, I selected an instance in St. Vincent Ferrers was a great Dominican preacher and missionary, and avery holy man. One day he was told that a distinguishednobleman was coming to hear him preach. The saint usuallyrelied principally upon prayer for his sermons, but on thisoccasion, departing from his custom, he gave the time toextra study. The consequence was that he did not preachas well as usual, and the nobleman went home , he went another time unannounced and was de-lighted. This was told St. Vincent, who replied: Nowonder, for the first time he heard Vincent preach, but thistime it was Jesus Christ, Himself. It is a pretty anecdote,is it not? But I must stop. With best love for everybodyand most for yourself, Ever your devoted son, ELIZABETH RAY KINGMOTHER OF REV. HENRY VAN RENSSELAER THE JESUIT NOVICE. Manresa House, roehampton, August 17, 1879. My Dearest Mother : Many happy returns of your birthday; not such happi-ness as the world can give or appreciate, but true and solid,which can come from God alone, and which consists in grow-ing in the deeper knowledge of Our Lord and of the end forwhich we were created—to serve, praise and reverence people, when really brought face to face with thistruth, will deny it, but at the same time they do practicallydeny or at least ignore it. Look at their lives, how perfectlyaimless they seem, unless one can call that the aim of theirlife to which they devote most of their time, energy, atten-tion and money. And what a waste of time it will seem tothem when they are called upon to give an account of theirlives. Vanity of vanities, indeed! Yet, with the best of in-tentions, how hard it is for
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