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164 the students, so I pass on to a fuller treatment of the sacerdotal ministry, in which I was now thoroughly immersed.

In a monastic house, even in England, there are always more priests than in a secular presbytery; more, indeed, than are necessary for the administration of the parish which is committed to their care. Many of these priests, however, are travelling missionaries whose work lies almost entirely outside their convent. It is customary in Catholic churches to hold a mission, or series of services somewhat akin to the revival services of the Methodists, every few years; it consists principally of a course of the most violent and imaginative sermons on hell, heaven, eternity, &c., and really has the effect of converting numbers to a sense of their religious duties. Although Cardinal Manning, who, in writing and in action, shows a studied disregard of the monastic orders, endeavoured to form a band of secular or non-monastic missionaries, it is usually conceded that the desired effect can only be satisfactorily attained by monks. Hence every order has a number of religious specially trained for that purpose, of whom two or three are found in every monastery.

Their life differs entirely from that of the ordinary monk; even when they are at home they are exempt from community services, from which the constitutions release them for three days after returning from and three days before starting for a mission. They