Page:Twelve Years in a Monastery (1897).djvu/174

 tempted to neglect their own parish, which is, or should be, their principal care. The superior of the monastery is always rector or parish priest, and several of his inferiors act as curates; as a rule there is about one priest to every thousand people, less in older and larger parishes—at Glasgow we had six priests to attend to 16,000 people—and more in growing congregations. The work, however, is usually confined to the week end. On Saturday confessions are heard, for it is necessary to confess before approaching the sacrament, which is usually received on Sunday morning. On Sunday the priest has usually a long and very fatiguing day’s work; he must, as a rule, say two Masses, an early one for communicants and a late sung Mass at which also he preaches. On account of the obligation to remain fasting, so stern that not even a drop of water must pass his lips until the end of the last Mass, the work is very exacting, especially to a priest who is single-handed. The section of theology which treats of this peculiar fast is interesting; the careful calculation what fraction of a tea-spoonful of water, or what substances (whether flies, cork, glass, silk, cotton, &c.) break the fast, affords serious pre-occupation to the casuist. In the afternoon there are numerous minor ceremonies,