the rule of life 74 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 been entrusted to them — the care, first of all, for attaining the salvation of their souls, and in the second place, for the honor and advantage of the Congregation. 8. The Superior [General] will assign to each house a promoter of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception31 assisting the souls of the faithful departed. Let the Confraternity be erected in your churches, if not already done, on the basis of the permission granted by Pope Innocent XI on March 20, 1681, and on the basis of the admission of this document on the part of the Ordinary. He to whom this duty, full of merit, shall be entrusted will in every way apply himself to this, so that he may bring forth 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. 31 See footnote 3 (p. 53).
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