This is the sixth in a series of previously unpublished reflections from the 1854 spiritual notebook of Paulist Founder, Servant of God Father Isaac T. Hecker. The reflection series is being made public in conjunction with Father Hecker’s cause for canonization. Following the reflection is a response from Father Paul Robichaud, CSP, Paulist historian and postulator for the Cause for Canonization of Father Hecker.

Heroic Virtue

“Christian virtue in order to be heroic, must have this effect: that he who possesses it works with ease, readiness and delight, above the ordinary measure for a supernatural end.” 

– Pope Benedict XIV.

A saint is all through and all over heroic. The saint leaves nothing unconquered except the unconquerable God; and in a manner conquers God by his obedience. The saint alone is truly free, his actions are eternal and his life universal. My God, a saint! Who but God knows what is sanctity? A saint, my God, is like You Yourself, as far as it is possible for You to take human form. A saint is an “alter-Christus,” another Christ.

There is no exercise of heroic virtue without the appearance of insurmountable obstacles. The heroism of suffering surpasses all other forms of heroism; and this is the heroism that Jesus Christ demands of every one of His disciples … Christ said, “If anyone would be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me.” A Christian is one who suffers; suffers because of his vocation. The saint lives for eternity in time, for the spirit in flesh; therefore he must suffer. 

Those with courage, aspiration, heroism can be satisfied to the full here. For within yourself is the only true battleground; conquer there and you are a greater conqueror than an Alexander or a Napoleon. For vanity conquered one and ambition conquered the other. But in vanquishing yourself, you vanquish the conquerors of Alexander and Napoleon.

A Response from Paul Robichaud CSP:

Prospero Lambertini who is better known as Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) was a canon lawyer who during his pontificate revised the process for making saints. His definition of heroic virtue, which Father Hecker cites, is the rule the Vatican has applied to define the holiness of saints. In modern translation we would say that heroic virtue leads a saint to act promptly, happily and without difficulty even in the face of insurmountable odds. This is evident in the life of Father Hecker. Believing that God was at work in his life, he surrendered to God’s will; what he called Divine Providence. In the face of incredible odds, Hecker founded and guided the Paulists as well as enthusiastically preached the Catholic faith at a time of great anti-Catholicism in American culture. He lived a life of radical hope.

In this reflection today Father Hecker reminds us that discipleship involves suffering. To live eternity in time, to live for the spiritual in the world of the flesh is to suffer. For most of us who will never be canonized as saints, the way we live heroically for Christ is through our suffering. Hecker spent the last years of his life with what we believe was a form of leukemia that drained his energy. A man of great vision, he imagined projects that he did not have the strength to enact. Yet despite this struggle with physical illness, he managed to write articles and a final book; address the bishops at the Third Council of Baltimore; and inspire his own community to evangelize America. No matter how insurmountable the odds he encountered, Father Hecker promptly and happily looked at the future with hope.

About Father Isaac Hecker’s 1854 Spiritual Notebook:

Servant of God, Father Isaac Hecker wrote these spiritual notes as a young Redemptorist priest about 1854 and they have never been published. Hecker was 34 years old at the time, and had been ordained a priest for five years. He loved his work as a Catholic evangelist. The Redemptorist mission band had expanded out of the New York state area to the south and west, and the band’s national reputation grew. Hecker had begun to focus his attention on Protestants who came out to hear them. To this purpose Hecker began to write in 1854 his invitation to Protestant America to consider the Catholic Church, “Questions of the Soul” which would make him a national figure in the American church. 

Hecker collected and organized these notes that include writings and stories from St. Alphonsus Liguori, the Jesuit spiritual writer Louis Lallemant and his disciple Jean Surin, the German mystic John Tauler, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Jane de Chantal among others. These notes were a resource for retreat work and spiritual direction and show Hecker’s growing proficiency in traditional Catholic spirituality some ten years after his conversion to the Catholic faith. They are composed of short thematic reflections. 

Publishing and disseminating the writing of Servant of God Isaac Hecker is the work of the Office for Hecker’s Cause.