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 a man. She was  greatly  afflicted  because,  when  raising her eyes  at  the  elevation  to  see  the  consecrated  host,  she once involuntarily  saw  the  countenance  of  the  priest, St. Aloysius never  looked  at  his  own  mother  in  the  face. It is  related  of  St.  Arsenius,  that  a  noble  lady  went  to visit  him  in  the  desert,  to  beg  of  him  to  recommend  her to God. When the  saint  perceived  that  his  visitor  was a woman,  he  turned  away  from  hen  She  then  said  to him:  "Arsenius,  since  you  will  neither  seen  or  hear  me, at  least  remember  me  in  your  prayers." "No," replied the saint,  "but I will  beg  of  God  to  make  me  forget you,  and  never  more  to  think  of  you."

From these  examples  may  be  seen  the  folly  and  temerity of  some  religious  who,  though  they  have  not  the sanctity of  a  St.  Clare,  still  gaze  around  from  the  terrace, in the  parlor,  and  in  the  church,  upon  every  object  that presents itself,  even  on  persons  of  a  different  sex. And notwithstanding their  unguarded  looks,  they  expect  to be  free  from  temptations  and  from  the  danger  of  sin. For having  once  looked  deliberately  at  a  woman  who was gathering  ears  of  corn,  the  Abbot  Pastor  was  tormented for  forty  years  by  temptations  against  chastity. St. Gregory states  that  the  temptation,  to  conquer which St.  Benedict  rolled  himself  in  thorns,  arose  from one incautious  glance  at  a  woman. St. Jerome,  though living in  a  cave  at  Bethlehem,  in  continual  prayer  and macerations of  the  flesh,  was  terribly  molested  by  the remembrance of  ladies  whom  he  had  long  before  seen  in Rome. Why should  not  similar  molestations  be  the  lot of the  religious  who  wilfully  and  without  reserve  fixes her eyes  on  persons  of  a  different  sex?

"It is  not,"  says  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  "the  seeing  of objects  so  much  as  the  fixing  of  our  eyes  upon  them  that proves  most  pernicious." "If," says  St.  Augustine,  "our eyes  should  by  chance  fall  upon  others,  let  us  take  care