Note 1018 — Chapter II · THE TREATMENT OF PENITENTS IN DIFFERENT EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES (continued 2)

Prax. Conf. nn. 122, 127, 219. Contemplatio in ceteris hominibus quæritur per consilium, in sacerdotibus vero exigitur per præceptum. Rup. Tuit. Lib. II. in Lev. cp. 40. St. Gregory trembles for those bishops who admit to the service of the sanctuary men who have neither reverence nor love for prayer. St. Bernard admonishes Pope Eugenius to impose hands upon those only who have taste and zeal for meditation. St. Charles Borromeo objects to ordaining any priest without being certain that he possesses the science of meditation.... And everything that has been written upon this subject since the days of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis of Sales, and Olier, may be summed up as follows: “If one becomes a priest only by ordination, one becomes a good priest only by meditation.” Compare Chaignon, Meditations, Introduction, p. x ff.