our--inasmuch as he is the well-beloved
child of God, the member of Jesus Christ, and the sanctuary of the
Holy Ghost--is to love in a special manner our heavenly Father,
His only-begotten Son, together with the Holy Spirit. And because
it is scarcely possible for religious to behold their brethren in
this light without wishing them what the Most Holy Trinity so
lovingly desires to bestow on them, acts of fraternal charity
include--almost necessarily at least--implicit acts of faith and
hope; and the exercise of the noblest of the theological virtues
thus often becomes an exercise of the other two.

Thus it is that charity poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
uniting Christians among themselves and with the adorable Trinity
whose images they are, is the vivid and perfect imitation of the
love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son for the Father--a
substantial love which is no other than the Holy Ghost, and makes
us all one in God by grace, as the Father and Son are only one God
with the Holy Ghost by nature, according to the words of our Lord:
"That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee:
that they also may be one in Us."

Such is the chain that unites and binds us--a chain of gold a
thousand times stronger than those of flesh and blood, interest or
friendship, because these permit the defects of body and the vices
of the soul to be seen, whilst charity covers all, hides all, to
offer exclusively to admiration and love the work of the hands of
God, the price of the blood of Jesus Christ and the masterpiece of
the Holy Spirit.

III

SECOND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH

_We are members of the same religious family_

TO love our brethren as ourselves in relation to God, it suffices
without doubt to have with them the same faith, the same
Sacraments, the same head, the same life, the same immortal hopes,
etc. But, besides these, there exist other considerations which
lead friendship and fraternity to a higher degree among the
members of the same religious Order. All in the novitiate have
been cast in the same mould, or, rather, have imbibed the milk of
knowledge and piety from the breasts of the same mother. All
follow the same rules; all tend to the same end by the same means;
all from morning to night, and during their whole lives, perform
the same exercises, live under the same roof, work, sanctify
themselves, suffer and rejoice together. Like fellow-citizens,
they have the same interests