Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/495

 least to  be  shut  up  in  a  prison  that  they  might  cease  to disturb  others.

It is  a  common  saying,  that  idleness  is  the  parent  of all  vices,  and  it  is  founded  on  the  oracle  of  the  Holy Ghost: Idleness  hath  taught  much  evil. St. Joseph Calasanctius  says:  "The  devil  goes  in  pursuit  of  idle  religious." And, according  to  St.  Bonaventure,  a  religious assiduously employed  is  molested  with  one  temptation, but an  idle  religious  shall  be  assailed  by  a  thousand. It is certain  that  to  a  nun  the  cell  is  a  great  help  to  practise recollection  with  God. But the  same  St.  Joseph Calasanctius said  that  a  religious  "  makes  a  bad  use  of her  cell  when  while  in  it  she  neither  speaks  with  God nor  labors  for  God." We cannot  be  always  at  prayer, and therefore  in  this  life  it  is  necessary  for  religious  to be  employed  in  manual  occupations. She hath  sought wool  and  flax,  and  hath  wrought  by  the  counsel  of  her  hands. Hence, St.  Jerome  prescribed  to  Demetriade  to  have wool always  in  her  hands. All holy  women,  particularly religious,  have  employed  themselves  in  manual work. St. Mary  Magdalene  de  Pazzi,  though  so  infirm and weak,  took  part  in  all  the  labors  of  the  monastery, as well  for  the  choir  nuns  as  for  the  lay-sisters. She worked now  in  the  kitchen,  and  again  in  the  refectory; at one  time  she  swept  the  convent,  at  another  she  carried water  from  the  well. She labored  so  hard  in  making bread,  that  she  distorted  one  of  the  bones  of  the hand. In a  word,  the  author  of  her  life  says  that  she performed more  work  than  four  lay-sisters  together.

And let  it  be  observed,  that  it  is  an  error  to  imagine that labor  is  injurious  to  bodily  health,  for  it  is  certain