Reflections Useful for Bishops That They May Govern Well Their Churches

Prologue 6 Chapter I. The Principal Cares of a Bishop 8 1. The Seminary. 9 2. Candidates for Ordination. 13 3. Priests. 22 4. Parish Priests. 25 5. Vicars and Servants. 29 6. Convents of Nuns. 31 Chapter II. The Most Efficacious Means that the Bishops Should Employ to Direct their Flocks 36 1. Prayer. 37 2. Good Example. 38 3. Residence. 40 4. Visitations. 41 5. Missions. 48 6. The Synod. 52 7. Counsel. 53 8. Audiences. 55 9. Correction. 56 Conclusion 61 FATHER TANNOIA (Book II. ch. xxvi.) and Cardinal Villecourt (1. vi. ch. 3) inform us that these REFLECTIONS are among the first writings of St. Alphonsus. He published them in 1745, and sent them to all the Italian bishops, who expressed to him their heartfelt thanks. Mgr. Salerno, Bishop of Molfetta, wrote to him as follows: "I have read your REFLECTIONS USEFUL FOR BISHOPS, and I am much edified. I see that it is great zeal, aided by much wisdom and profound science, which has led you to write this little treatise. Your Reverence has rendered a great service to the Episcopate, but with such kindness on your part a feeling of compassion can hardly be suppressed, since your experience has made you see that practice is much more difficult than theory, especially in these unhappy times." The holy author having afterwards himself been made a bishop, knew how to join practice to theory, with zeal and admirable success, under the weight of his advanced age and his grave infirmities, and in the midst of multiplied difficulties.