such ones who have been instructed in the necessary doctrine and who have virtuous qualities, so that their preaching may bring salutary fruit to the listeners, enlightening by their teaching, stirring by their persuasion. Let them always attempt to speak those things which would bring forth more praise of God than [praise] of themselves; those things which would call forth in the people, with God’s help: edification, correction of behavior, love and fear of God, the exercise of virtue and good works, contempt for the world, and fervent desire for and striving after eternal happiness, just as in their own churches they will not preach without the mandate of the Superior, so in other churches, they will not preach without the blessing of the Ordinary.30 6. Let the professors perform the duty of teaching imposed on them (if at some time it is appropriate to institute them) for the glory of God, carefully and diligently and for the progress of the students. Let them use the textbooks of the most acknowledged authors, rather than fatigue themselves and their students with writing. Let them, however, not so immerse themselves, together with their students, in their subject matters that they forget prayer and mortification. 7. Novice Masters should be appointed who are exemplary, prudent, industrious, endowed with discernment of spirits. They should teach their novices all of the [spiritual] exercises perfectly. Likewise, they will occupy and exercise them in denial of themselves and of what belongs to them, in the following of Christ the Lord, in contempt for passing goods and the desire for the eternal, in patience, humility, modesty, silence, penitence, zeal for prayer, regular observance, and most of all, in the love of God. Novice Masters will always have before their eyes the care of those to be formed that has 30 In the 1687 edition of the Rule of Life, Fr. Stanislaus had more extensive instruction included in this paragraph concerning preaching the Word of God (see: Positio, p. 477, footnote “p” and p. 478, footnote “g”). Obviously, he was giving here the fruit of his own experience as a preacher. The Marians partially restored the missing text in their Statutes of 1778. The Rule of Life 297
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