A Modern Messenger of Purity

THESE talks art being, published because so many insisted that they would be benefited spiritually by possessing them. The sermons are here presented as they were delivered, no attempt being made to remould them according to the canons of written rhetoric. If these sermons have merit, it is not the merit of originality but rather of arrangement, for many passages have been borrowed, incorporated as I found them in my notes taken over a period of several years. I myself am ignorant of the authorship of many passages except where the author is indicated by footnotes in the text. By this note I attempt partial acknowledgment to the unknown authors. Just as these sermons were first delivered under the patronage of St. Therese, so. In their printed form, may St. Therese deign to supplement their weakness with her power. The Little Flower has been declared to be God's messenger to the twentieth century, and it has been asserted that her message is the message of purity. This beautiful girl, the charm of whose life has won all hearts in every nation, is the embodiment of all that is 'pure and modest. She is a shining example in our day of the beauty of holy purity. No one requires to be told that nowadays every possible influence is being exerted to destroy the purity of our young people. The stage, the press, the movies, the novel, are all delivering messages which contradict flatly everything that the Church teaches concerning the sex instinct. Moreover, we know that an alarmingly large and ever increasing number of our Catholic young men and women succumb to these influences annually. The question for parents and for priests is what to do about it. Certainly, silence in this matter is criminal. The subject is dealt with exhaustively in Catholic retreats, but how few have an opportunity of making retreats. 'Ibis Novena, therefore, will take on itself the nature of a Retreat and I shall treat this subject as it would be treated in a Retreat. In fact, for nine successive days all of the sermons will deal with the holy virtue of purity, to ttach which the Little Flower was exalted by God in this our own day