Page 83 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

CHAPTER 12
HIS LETTERS

O
ne of the most remarkable features in Saint Gerard's life is
his intimate and continual association with various
communities of Religious Women. He reformed at least
three Convents by his unaided efforts, and the Acts of his
Canonization prove that he was unceasingly occupied with the
spiritual interests of Nuns. We find him keeping up the closest
relations both with whole communities and with individual sisters,
visiting them repeatedly, giving conferences at the grille, writing them
long letters — in a word, discharging all the functions of a Director
of souls, and, it may be added, of a Director who seemed to have
plenty of leisure at his command.
Now this is undoubtedly a very striking fact. That, ordinarily
speaking, it is not the vocation of a Lay-brother to undertake the
direction of consciences, whether of Nuns or Seculars, is obvious and
cannot be gainsaid. All that can be urged in explanation is that, in
Saint Gerard's case, his conduct was the result of an extraordinary
attraction of Divine grace, proved to be such by his humility and
obedience, and countersigned by the approbation both of Bishops,
who so warmly invited him to visit convents over which they
exercised jurisdiction, and of his own Superiors, who gave him the
necessary permission. Greater security no man can ever have on earth
than the security which comes from an interior call to some work of
zeal — the Voice of God within us — together with the sanction of
lawful authority — the Voice of God without us. He who possesses
the latter is saved from all possibility of delusion with regard to the

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