“I know a man who thinks he don’t know anything—who every day knows that he knows less; and who hopes to know nothing before he dies. O blessed emptiness which fills us with all! O happy poverty which possesses all! O beatified nothingness which can exclaim, Deus meus et omnia!"
It will have been seen by this time that Father Hecker’s first and fundamental rule of direction was to have as little of it as possible. His method started out with the purpose to do away with method at the earliest moment it could safely be done. To be Father Hecker’s penitent meant the privilege of sooner or later being nobody’s penitent but the Holy Ghost’s. The following rules of direction he printed in 1887:
“The work of the priesthood is to help to guide the Christian people, understanding that God is always guiding them interiorly.
“An innocent soul we must guide, fully understanding that God is dwelling within him; not as a substitute for God.
“A repentant sinner we must guide, understanding that we are but restoring him to God’s guidance.
“The best that we can do for any Christian is to quicken his sense of fidelity to God speaking to him in an enlightened conscience.
“Now, God’s guidance is of two kinds: one is that of His external providence in the circumstances of life; the other is interior, and is the direct action of the Holy Spirit on the human soul. There is great danger in separating these two.
“The key to many spiritual problems is found in this truth: The direct action of God upon the soul, which is interior, is in harmony with his external providence. Sanctity consists in making them identical as motives for every thought, word, and deed of our lives. The external and the internal (and the same must be said of the natural and supernatural) are one in God, and the consciousness of them both is to be made one divine whole in man. To do this requires an heroic life-sanctity.
“All the sacraments of the Church, her authority, prayer both mental and vocal, spiritual reading, exercises of mortification and of devotion, have for their end and purpose to lead the soul to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. St. Alphonsus says in his letters that the first director of the soul is the Holy Ghost Himself.
“It is never to be forgotten that one man can never be a guide to another except as leading him to his only Divine Guide.
“The guide of the soul is the Holy Spirit Himself, and the criterion or test of possessing that guide is the Divine authority of the Church.”
What follows was published by Father Hecker in The Catholic World in 1887. It throws new light on the questions we have been considering, abounding in practical rules of direction, and therefore, though somewhat long, we venture to close the chapter with it:
“’If any one shall say that without the previous inspiration of the Holy Spirit and His aid, a man can believe, hope, love, or repent as he should, so that the grace of justification may be conferred upon him, let him be anathema.’