Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/479

 Sister Mary  Villani  one  day  compelled  the  devil,  on  the part of  God,  to  tell  in  what  part  of  the  monastery  he gained  most. The tempter  answered:  I  gain  in  the choir, in  the  refectory,  and  in  the  dormitory:  in  these places I  partly  gain,  and  partly  lose. But in  the  parlor I gain  all,  for  the  whole  place  is  mine. Hence the  Venerable Sister  Philippa  Cerrina  had  reason  to  call  the parlor an  infected  place,  in  which  the  contagion  of  sin  is easily  caught. St. Bernardine  of  Sienna  relates  that  a religious  in  consequence  of  having  heard  in  the  parlor an improper  word  miserably  fell  into  a  grievous  sin. Truly happy  was  the  holy  virgin  St.  Fabronia,  who afterwards gave  her  life  for  the  faith  at  the  age  of nineteen;  she  would  never  allow  herself  to  be  seen  at the  grate  by  any  secular,  male  or  female. St. Teresa appeared after  death  to  one  of  her  spiritual  children,  and said to  her:  The  religious  that  wishes  to  be  a  great friend of  God  must  be  an  enemy  of  the  grate.

Would to  God  that  in  all  monasteries  there  were grates of  perforated  iron  such  as  we  find  in  some observant convents! A certain  author  relates  that  the Superior of  a  monastery  procured  a  narrow  grate;  but the devil,  through  rage,  first  bent  it,  and  afterwards sent it  rolling  through  the  house. The good  Superior placed it,  crooked  as  it  was,  in  the  parlor  to  give  the nuns to  understand  that  as  the  grate  was  hateful  to hell  so  it  was  pleasing  to  God. Oh! what an  awful account will  the  abbess  have  to  give  to  God  who  introduces open  grates,  or  who  neglects  to  make  the  companions attend. In one  of  her  letters  St.  Teresa  wrote this great  sentence:  "The  grates  when  shut  are  the gates  of  heaven;  and  when  open  they  are  the  gates  of danger"  (she  did  not  wish  to  say  hell). And she  added: " A  monastery  of  nuns  in  which  there  is  liberty  serves to  conduct  them  to  hell  rather  than  to  cure  their  weakness."