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 Acknowledgements
There’s nobody on the planet that has helped me more in making
this book happen than my wife Jamie Rabot. Not only by being her
kind and supportive self but also by teaching me how the mind
works and by designing all the illustrations. Thank you for
everything.

LA, who drew all the illustrations, I’m so happy having your work
here. I believe it will truly change the experience of reading this
book for which I’m ever grateful.

Nick Wignall, thank you for teaching me how perfectly the

expression set it and forget it applies to sleep and giving me a name
for this book. I hope it will not dissuade you from writing another
one with me one day.

Michael Schwartz and Martin Reed, thank you for all your insights
and support. Every path is easier when you know you’re not alone.

Last but certainly not least, a huge thank you to anyone from the
YouTube community that has ever left a comment or sent me an
email. I have learned more from you than from any other source and
I know you have so much more to teach me.
 Instructions
Hi there!

I’m super excited that you’ve decided to use Set it & Forget it to get
past your insomnia and to a place of amazing sleep!

Speaking of your destination, here’s something that will help you get
there.

Remember it’s not a race. Getting to the last page in 6 hours does
not mean you’ll start sleeping fantastic. Understanding every chapter
on the other hand will! And that may take some time.

Set away a minute after each chapter to think about what you just
read. Does it make sense? Do you have any reservations? Are you
ready to move forward?

Your goal after completing part one, Set it, is to understand what
insomnia is and why you’ve had trouble sleeping.

When you reach part two, Forget it, your goal becomes to start
shifting attention away from sleep. Slow down on the reading. Do
more of things you enjoy and perhaps have postponed until you’re
sleeping better.

If you come across anything you're not sure makes sense, read the
chapter one more time. Use my YouTube channel/Podcast The Sleep
Coach School to your advantage. All the material in this book is
explained and contextualized in hundreds of hours of free content.
This includes me using Set it & Forget it when answering questions
or talking with people who've had trouble sleeping just like you.
If you're still not sure, please leave a comment on the YouTube
channel or head to www.thesleepcoachschool.com and use the form
for questions to be answered in Open class. These are videos where
myself or other coaches answer questions in live episodes.

With that said, we are ready to move ahead and start learning.
Before we do, I want to thank you for giving me this chance to help
you sleep better.

Sincerely,

Daniel
If you've had trouble sleeping for a few weeks or months, you may
feel that this chapter doesn’t apply to you. And that’s right. It was
indeed written to make sure someone with long time sleep issues is
ready for change. This said, you can still learn something very
important so do stick around!

If you on the other hand have struggled for years or even decades,
then it is very important that you ask yourself how you feel about
getting better.

Yes that's right. It is important that you ask yourself how you feel
about getting better.

The obvious reason you may be surprised to read these lines is -

who wouldn't want to sleep better?

Here's the thing - having insomnia for years does things to you that
you may not be consciously aware of.

Firstly, the process of trying to figure out why you're not sleeping
and trying to find things that could make you sleep year after year
can affect your identity. You may start thinking of yourself as an
insomniac. You may feel that having trouble sleeping is part of who
you are.

This can lead to a place where thinking of yourself as someone who

sleeps well seems foreign. It's hard to change your identity.

Secondly, all the time and effort spent on sleep can feel like an
investment. Was all the pondering, all the experimenting and all the
preoccupation really for nothing?

It can be difficult to accept that all the things you did to sleep better
was no investment, but actually a big part of the problem.
Thirdly, having insomnia can let you off the hook. It is something to
point to as the reason for why you are not doing things you've
meant or wanted to do. It can be comforting to have something to
blame for your shortcomings.

Finally, being the person that sleeps very little may give you
attention as well as empathy which are both nice to get from friends
and family.

Now take a look within. Ask yourself if you're holding on to insomnia

for any reason. When you do, one of two things happen:

Either you find that the answer is no. And that’s great! Nothing is
standing in the way of you getting better sleep.

Or you find that you do take comfort in having insomnia at some

level. It has served a purpose for you. And that's good too.

Because if you've identified a holdout, a recess in the brain that in

fact is not ready to leave insomnia behind, well then you have
something to work on.

It may not seem like much, but understanding that you may not
have been ready in the past is the key to becoming fully committed
to sleeping well now.

And when you are fully committed to a method that combines

education and habit change - you will leave insomnia behind forever!
Do you remember a time when sleep was not a struggle? If you do
then let that work in your favor. However you slept and felt back
then is your reference point. That’s the place you will get back to
when you no longer worry about sleep.

If you can’t remember a time when you didn’t struggle to sleep, well
then you don’t have a reference point. Rather, you will learn as you
move forward what sleeping well means to you.

Whether you have a reference point or not, knowing how most

people sleep is important. Because from what you hear, you may
think everyone but yourself is getting 8 hours of solid sleep every
night. And feeling that you’re way off an unattainable mark will not
help you sleep any better. Well guess what, people sleep very
differently from what we are told is ideal.

If you were to ask a bunch of people how much they sleep, they
would say about 7 hours. Studies show that when healthy adults
with no sleep problems are asked, their belief is that they get 7
hours of sleep.

In reality, most people don't have a clue.

Either they simply guess that they sleep about 7 hours because it
sounds about right or they’ll assume that they sleep 7 hours because
they go to bed at 11 pm and get up at 6 am. When you objectively
examine these same people, a different story emerges. Using
electroencephalography (EEG) or actigraphy (think Fitbit) you find
that their average sleep is actually a bit above 6 hours. Objectively
measured, most adults sleep between 5.5 and 7 hours.

In other words, people with no trouble sleeping overestimate how

much they sleep by about 1 hour. When we look at quality instead of
quantity, things are very similar. Those without sleep problems
believe they don’t wake up during the night or only wake up a few
times. In fact, when you study someone in the sleep lab, seeing a
couple of awakenings every hour is the norm.

Again, most don’t have a clue this is going on. They wake up
multiple times but fall back asleep quickly and don’t remember all
the times they were awake during the night.

The problem here becomes that people paint a picture of how they
sleep that isn’t real. And this picture can make you feel as if you’re
just hopelessly displaced from “normal”. You’re not.

In this problem however, you can already start seeing the solution.
Those people who sleep so great don’t actually sleep so great. They
paint a picture that isn’t true, but they have no clue about that.
Because they aren’t paying any attention. And that’s where you’re
heading as well.
Few things have been so mystified as sleep and insomnia. It is easy
to get the impression that thousands of factors, many of which you
can modify, control how well you sleep. The noise level, exposure to
light, how much you ate, what time you ate, how much protein there
was, what you did the hour before bedtime etc etc.

And this - the belief that multiple factors play an important role
when it comes to your sleep, creates a ton of anxiety for no good
reason.

If you're not sleeping well, then there must be one of a myriad of

things that you're not getting right. You just have to figure out which
one it is and tweak it. Alas, you tweaked the wrong thing and slept
no better. Or you think you did but you aren’t really sure. And now
not knowing what you did to sleep better is making you more
anxious. And lose more sleep.

Here's the thing - sleep is not complicated.

In fact sleep is super simple. There are only two factors that
determine how well you sleep, the gas and the brake. Let's start
exploring this model by talking about appetite which just like sleep is
a very simple system.

Ask yourself what you need to do to become hungry. Think about it

for a second. What potion or ritual do you use to make yourself eat?

That’s right. You become hungry even if you don’t do anything in

particular.

Now even though you don’t have to do anything to become hungry,

that doesn’t mean there is no underlying biological process that is
making you want to eat. In fact one thing and one thing only can
produce hunger - and that’s fasting.
Not eating is the only thing that makes you want to eat. And the
longer you go without food, the stronger that urge becomes and the
more you’ll eventually end up eating.

This said, hunger is not the only thing that determines how much
you eat.

Imagine that you’re really hungry, you feel you could eat anything
put in front of you. But guess what, the only thing available is aged
blue cheese which you can’t stand. One whiff and just like that your
appetite has evaporated.

And here you have it, the gas and brake model applied to eating.
Your gas pedal is hunger and your brake pedal is negative emotion.
The longer you go without eating the more gas you have in the
system. The more negative emotion you have, related or unrelated
to any particular food item, the more that brake pedal is pushed
down.

This is exactly how sleep works as well. The one thing that can
produce sleepiness, and sleep, is staying awake. However, even if
you have a solid sleep drive, if you’ve been awake for a long period
of time and feel sleepy, that sleepiness can disappear if you’re
anxious, worried or preoccupied.

Sleepiness, or sleep drive, is the gas in the sleep system. The longer
you’ve been awake the stronger your sleep drive is and the more
your body wants to sleep.

Hyperarousal (any type of heightened alertness such as stress,

anxiety or excitement) is the brake in the sleep system.

That’s it. This is how simple sleep is. Gas and Brake.

Take a minute to digest this and think about how all the things
you’ve done to produce sleep has affected your sleep system. Have
they increased your sleep drive, or have they increased your
hyperarousal. Have you been hitting the gas pedal, brake pedal or
both?

Once you’re done reflecting, take a look at these four scenarios.

Knowing that we have a gas pedal and brake pedal there are four
combinations of gas and brake that will play out as follows when you
go to bed:

No gas (not sleepy) and No brake (feeling relaxed) - In this

scenario you will not sleep because your sleep drive is not
strong enough. However, this will not be a problem as you’re
relaxed. Think of this as resting peacefully.
No gas and Brake - In this scenario you definitely won't sleep at
all. You don't have a sleep drive and you’re hyperaroused. This
is going to bed when you’re wide awake and anxious.
Gas and Brake - This is a very common scenario. You are sleepy,
but you are also hyperaroused. The hyperarousal is blocking you
from sleeping.
Gas and No brake - This is where you want to be. You have a
strong sleep drive and nothing that keeps it from sending you
off to dreamland!

Having understood the above, knowing that there is no mystery and

that in fact only two things determine how well you sleep, you have
a great starting point to begin the work of setting it!
In the previous chapter we saw how the two things that determine
how well we sleep are sleep drive (the gas) and hyperarousal (the
brake). In this chapter, we will look at how to exploit this insight to
sleep better. If you’re not following, go back to the previous chapter
and review. If something is still not clear, please send me a text or
email!

A real practical way of using the gas and brake model is to explain
what drives your insomnia. Because if you have trouble sleeping you
either have a gas problem, a brake problem, or a combination of
both. Let's take a look at which you have and what to do.

If you are not worried or preoccupied at all but find yourself

spending a lot of time in bed not sleeping, you have a gas problem.
You’re in luck because it is pretty easy to get past!

Having a gas problem means that you're simply not sleepy enough
when you go to bed or wake up from sleep. A common reason this
happens is when someone decides to go to bed earlier to get more
sleep. Your bedtime may have been 11 pm but you hear that you
should get 8 hours of sleep and now go to bed 9 pm instead. You
still end up falling asleep at around 11 pm but you’re now spending
2 hours in bed without sleeping.

The solution to a gas problem is either to go to bed later or rise

earlier. And just like that, a gas problem is fixed.

If you’re not spending too much time in bed or sleeping during the
day but rather, you are worried about your sleep, then you have a
brake problem.

Brake problems require more work to get around but this is very
doable. In fact pretty much everything you learn in this book will
help with brake problems, the key being to shifting attention.

Here’s the tricky part, deciding to take your foot off the brake
pushes it down. Because anything you do with the intent of
becoming less hyperaroused makes you more hyperaroused. In
other words, anything you do to make yourself more calm makes
you less calm.

Imagine that you’ve been anxious and decide to meditate to feel less
anxious. Your intent is to become more calm. To see how well this is
working your brain will monitor your anxiety levels closely. If you’re
not feeling more calm after 30 minutes, you’ll continue for another
30. As you’re meditating you’ll wonder how much more meditation
you’ll have to do for it to start working. Your unwillingness to be
anxious and the actions you take to become less anxious makes you
more anxious.

The trick is to do something that channels your attention in a

different direction. This could be anything that you do for fun and
enjoyment.

If you like reading, that's great. If you prefer a Netflix show, perfect.
Anything that you can do for pure pleasure is going to get the brake
issue out of the way. This said, it will take time and you will learn
much more as you keep reading this book that will get your foot
away from the brake pedal.

Finally, if you are worried about sleep, if you catch sleep when you
can, if you spend more than 6-7 hours in bed, you have both gas
and brake problems. You’re not sleepy enough when you go to bed
and you’re also hyperaroused. This is by far the most common.
Almost everyone with trouble sleeping have a combination of gas
and brake issues. And as you may guess from this, the solution lies
in addressing both.

You need to both spend less time in bed AND shift attention away
from sleep. You need to Set it & Forget it. And a great part to
continue setting it is understanding why you have insomnia.
One of the most important steps towards sleeping well is
understanding how you ended up in a place of little sleep and lots of
worries. Nothing explains this better than the 3 P model. Although
the name may not spark a ton of curiosity, there is reason to be
excited. Because once you understand how you got to where you
are today, getting back to sleeping well is so much easier.

A quick note before we start - the more you can find things in this
model that fit you the better. The belief that one's insomnia is
unique and special is very common but not helpful. It leads to
searching for a unique and special cure that doesn't exist. Finding
things that fit on the other hand, starting to think of your insomnia
as ordinary and typical, will lead you to a place of believing that you
like countless others will sleep better when you Set it & Forget it.
This said, let’s start working!

1- Predisposition

Our first P is predisposing traits. Some of us are at baseline more

likely to have trouble sleeping at some point in our lives. As we go
through the four most common predisposing traits, ask yourself how
these fit you.

● Having a type A personality, being a high achiever or perfectionist

● Having a tendency to worry

● Being an overthinker

● Being health conscious

If you have one or several of these traits, that’s good! This means
there’s no mystery in terms of where your insomnia comes from.
Also, you’re the type of person who will do very well with the Set it
& Forget it approach. Something else that is important to know is
that there are millions of people who have all or many of these traits
and sleep fantastic. It’s helpful to know why you have trouble
sleeping, and just as helpful to know that nothing is standing in your
way of sleeping well.

So what do these traits have in common and why do they

predispose you to having trouble sleeping?

The answer is attention.

You have the ability to focus your attention on a task, a thought or a

concern and keep it there. Remember, that’s an important ability! If
you’ve done well in school and at work, you have your ability to
focus to thank for your achievements. When it comes to sleep
however, this otherwise amazing ability can work against you.
Because attention is oxygen to insomnia, something it cannot
survive without.

Here’s the thing though, you can use your traits to work in your
favor. If you’re a high achiever, trying to achieve anything that is
unrelated to sleep will help you tremendously. If you tend to obsess,
obsess over anything but sleep and you’ll sleep better.

If you don’t have any of these four traits, then you’re also in a great
spot! You’re not as predisposed to giving something sustained
attention and that will serve you well.

2- Precipitating

Our second P is a precipitating event. It is a trigger that caused that

initial bout of sleeplessness. You may immediately identify your
precipitating event whether it was having a child, moving, going into
menopause, a health scare or anything else. This trigger can be any
event of increased stress or excitement that throws off your sleep.

It could also be that you don’t find a specific precipitating event.

Your trouble sleeping may have started more gradually over time.
Both having a clear precipitating event and not are common.

The thing that is most important to know is - not sleeping well after
a stressful event is completely normal.

Imagine our ancestors living in bands of hunter-gatherers. If wolves

were heard nearby, well then it would be very helpful to have less
and more superficial sleep. When the wolves turned out to be a
friendly tribe, then a return to good sleep would follow.

Or, to use another example, imagine that your friend just lost her job
and went on to sleep great. That just doesn’t sound right. We are
supposed to sleep less in times of stress. Disrupted sleep is a
completely normal and expected reaction.

It is the third P that is the problem, and the solution.

3- Perpetuating

So far, we have seen that being predisposed towards insomnia in

itself is not a problem and that having disrupted sleep because of
stress is expected. So far, everything is "normal". What happens next
is what starts the process of developing ongoing insomnia from an
episode of disturbed sleep - it is all about the reaction.

When you go through a stretch of nights with little sleep and start
thinking of this as a problem, a spark is ignited.

The amygdala, the part of your brain that is to keep you out of
harm's way, is now identifying lack of sleep as a threat, and starts
treating sleeplessness the same way it does a charging bear. It tries
to figure out what the threat is all about, it finds ways to try to fight
it or escape it.

You may start by going to bed at the same time every night. Nope
nothing changed. You then start keeping the bedroom dark. You’re
still not sleeping well. Something must be really wrong! You start
wearing a sleep mask and playing soothing sounds at night, but
nothing works.

As more and more things fail to make you sleep more, you feel that
you must have a particularly severe case of insomnia which doesn’t
help you sleep any better. But what really is happening is the
following:

Your amygdala is making you do things to eliminate the threat of

sleeplessness. What it doesn’t understand is that loss of sleep is not
a bear, it’s a perceived threat, none of all the things you’re doing can
produce sleep and it will appear as if nothing can fend off the threat.
This kicks your amygdala into higher and higher gear. The higher the
gear the more worried you become. The more worried the more
things you try. The more you try the less you sleep. You get the
point.

The process of trying to escape a perceived threat is what produces

the illusion of a threat.

The behavior of problem solving is the problem.

Here's the good news - the insomnia cycle is completely reversible.

The entire process can be put in rewind and you can get back to a
place of good sleep. It may not be easy, but it is very doable. As you
can tell from the 3 P model, the key to sleeping well is to give
insomnia less attention and do less to produce sleep.

Understanding sleep efforts will take you a big step in that direction.
Here's something you're probably very familiar with that you didn't
know had a name, a sleep effort. This is anything you do with the
intent of producing more sleep. It's a very important concept to
understand if you have trouble sleeping and look to change that.

Firstly, a bit of sleep physiology review. The only thing that can
produce sleep is our sleep drive. Our bodies need for sleep. Our gas
pedal. And the only thing that can create sleep drive is wakefulness.
In a yin-yang type of way, the one thing that can produce sleep is
wakefulness and the one thing that can produce wakefulness is
sleep.

Here’s the reason we are reviewing this again - knowing that only
the act of staying awake can make you sleep, it's not hard to
see that trying anything else is a recipe for trouble .

As a matter of fact, trying to change anything that is impossible to

change is guaranteed to lead down a path of confusion and
frustration. Try changing the weather or someone’s opinion and
you’ll see.

The problem is, you didn’t know until now that nothing but
wakefulness can produce sleep, so you’ve tried a bunch of things.

Chances are that you've tried to produce sleep more than once and
using more than one approach. You may have tried to use a
supplement like melatonin or valerian root. You may have tried to
keep the room dark and cool. You may have tried to read a boring
book. These are all examples of sleep efforts.

Here's the thing, not only do sleep efforts not produce sleep, they
produce insomnia. Either by taking you down the path of confusion,
the path of frustration or both.

Let’s say you tried valerian root and it "didn't work". Well then you
feel worse, you probably have a severe case of insomnia. You’re
more worried and preoccupied, and you sleep less.

Let's say you tried valerian root and you slept better. It seems like it
"worked" and you believe it produced sleep. Well now you’re even
worse off because your sleep confidence has started eroding. You
have started believing that there is something inherently wrong with
you and you need an outside source for sleep production. Your sleep
has become vulnerable. Because when valerian root "stops working",
you look for another outside sleep source in a never ending cycle of
sleep efforts and eroding sleep confidence.

So what should you be doing?

If you aren't doing anything to produce sleep - well then that's

fantastic and highly unusual, kudos to you! And just like the best
way to stop smoking is to never start, you can simply avoid trying to
produce sleep by external means.

If you after reading this realize that you have a lot of sleep efforts
going on, the best thing to do is not necessarily stop them
immediately, but start the process of questioning if they’ve helped
you or not. Have they led you to build strong sleep confidence and
consistently have good sleep or have they made you doubt your own
ability to sleep? Was there a time when you took valerian root
extract and you didn't sleep? Was there a time when you had a late
coffee and slept well?

Have your sleep efforts helped you or hurt you?

As opposed to many other journeys in life, when it comes to
sleeping well, the destination is very important. You want to reach a
place of peaceful sleep and leave the path to that place in the past.
To do that, you have to have a goal that gives you direction rather
than one that confuses your compass.

When you have trouble sleeping, one thing that appears very clear is
that you're not getting enough sleep. Consequently, getting a certain
amount of sleep can seem like a reasonable target. This could be 7
hours or 8 hours. Or it could be "the more the better".

In reality, this is the type of goal that leads you down a rabbit goal.
And this is why:

An objective and measurable goal makes you become objective and

measure your progress. To see how close you are to your goal of 7
hours you will check what time you went to bed and what time you
got up. You will ask yourself how much you've slept or use a tracker
to find this necessary information.

Here's the thing - starting to pay a lot of attention to your sleep is

why you have insomnia, and now your goal is making you pay even
more attention to your sleep.

And there's more.

As sleep can only be produced with wakefulness, all the things you
do to get closer to your goal makes no difference. The amount you
sleep doesn't budge no matter what you do. As your goal was to
change your amount of sleep, you feel things are hopeless and
frustrating. Feelings that don’t help you at all.

You want to go in the complete opposite direction, you want a goal

that is subjective and unmeasurable. Like feeling amazing. Or not
worrying about sleep.
With a subjective and unmeasurable goal, you peel away attention
from sleep. You start taking focus from the night to the day. You
stop worrying about how many minutes it took you to fall asleep or
what exact time you were up at night. On the contrary you note that
you're feeling pretty good during the day and that you're stressing
less about sleep.

You have a goal that serves you well.

If you ask a bunch of insomnia therapists or coaches what the single
most important thing to do is when having trouble sleeping, you're
likely to get the same answer from most - spend less time in bed.

This may seem counter intuitive, you need more sleep, not less. And
most people with insomnia try to compensate for little sleep over
night by going to bed earlier and/or catching sleep when they can.
As you may have experienced however, this doesn’t get you to a
place of great sleep. Even if you do sleep an extra hour in the
morning or in the afternoon, you haven’t taken a step towards
sleeping well forever.

The opposite strategy on the other hand, spending less time in bed,
will take you a big step towards fantastic sleep. And here’s why:

1- Build a strong sleep drive

Remember the gas pedal? Remember how wakefulness is the only

thing that can produce sleep? Well then you know that a strong
sleep drive is important. By spending less time in bed, and more
time in active wakefulness, that sleep drive grows stronger and helps
you fall asleep, stay asleep and get better quality sleep.

2- Use reverse psychology

Insomnia comes from fear of losing sleep. The more you try to avoid
sleeplessness, the more you train your brain that not sleeping is
harmful and the stronger your fear of losing sleep becomes. In other
words, wanting to sleep, pleading for sleep and trying to sleep are
the reasons you’re not sleeping.

Spending less time in bed is a super important psychological step

away from trying to sleep.

When you spend less time in bed, you educate your brain that losing
sleep is not a real threat. You teach it that it doesn’t have to be
afraid. You show it that it doesn’t have to try so hard to make you
sleep. And the less you try, the more you get.

3- Start believing

Typically, in the first 1-2 weeks of using a sleep window (if it takes
longer for you, please know that’s not unusual, you’ll get there!)
there is a moment when something unexpected happens. A positive
surprise. You fell asleep easier than you thought you would. You fell
back asleep pretty fast that time. You didn’t wake up at 3 am like
you always do.

This may not initially seem like a big deal. But when it happens
again, you realize that the strategy is working. This is the magical
moment when you start believing that you CAN sleep, that there’s
nothing wrong with you and that you’re on the right track.

Now that you know why you should spend less time in bed, the
question becomes, how do you set a good sleep window?

Here’s the thing, how much time you decide to spend in bed is much
less important than that you don’t question your decision and keep
moving forward. For most people, spending about 7 hours in bed
works great.

Also super important is that you have a consistent rise time. More on
why later.

For now, do this - ask yourself when a convenient time to get out of
bed that you could stick to would be. Let’s say that it's 6 am and
that you’ve decided to spend 6.5 hours in bed. Well then you go 6.5
hours backwards from 6 am and you have your sleep window: 11:30
pm to 6 am. And here are your three goals:

Stay up until about 11:30 pm or later, even if you feel sleepy.

Get up around 6 am.
Don’t sleep during the day.

Let’s add a fourth one for good measure, if you’re not sleepy at
11:30 pm, then it’s not time to go to bed. Which begs the question,
what should you do if you’re not sleepy when your sleep window
begins? Or in general for that matter, what type of bedtime routine
should you have?

Well look at that, that happens to be exactly what we will talk about
in our next chapter. Prepare for a surprise!
You’ve probably heard that if you have trouble sleeping, it's
important to create a good bedtime routine. You’ve been told to
come up with a sequence of things to do before you go to bed that
will maximize your chances of sleep. The problem here is that
whomever came up with this idea put the cart before the horse. A
relaxing bedtime routine is a consequence of sleeping well and not
the other way around!

If you sleep well, then whatever you do before going to bed

becomes a cue for sleep. If you’re not sleeping well then whatever
you do before going to bed becomes a cue for sleeplessness.

If you’re excited about visiting your in law’s then packing for that trip
makes you feel happy. If you’re dreading it, then the very same
action of putting clothes in a bag makes you feel anxious. Your
problem has nothing to do with how or what you’re packing. If you
know that, you can work on what really matters - your thoughts
around the visit. When you’ve changed those and feel neutral or
even positive about the trip, whatever you do in preparation will
become a neutral or positive cue.

So doesn’t it matter at all what you do before going to bed?

But yes it does matter! Because you can do a whole bunch of things
that will make you sleep little. In fact you even know what these
things are called…

...yes that’s right. Sleep efforts!

Anything you do before going to bed with the intent of making

yourself sleep more, whether it is meditating, taking a hot bath or
avoiding screens will produce trouble sleeping.

So what should you do?

The answer is simple - it is of extreme importance that you do
something you enjoy!

Have you been looking forward to the next episode of a Hulu show,
watch that! Do you have a favorite podcast, tune in! Do you enjoy
drawing? Perfect!

When you sleep well, anything you do before going to bed will
become a cue for sleep and you’ll have that relaxing bedtime routine
people are talking about.

Looking forward to the hour before bed is an important step in this

direction. Spending hours in a sensory deprivation chamber is not a
sweet reward after a long day. Binging on that show you’re just
dying to catch the next episode of, now that’s a different story!

Wait a minute... won’t doing something fun wake me up and make

me lose more sleep?

If that thought popped up in your head, then you have indeed

identified a problem, and a big one too - your fear of losing sleep.

Every single person who has trouble sleeping is afraid of losing

sleep. If they didn’t they wouldn’t have insomnia. Please know that
every word in this book, including those about watching Hulu instead
of avoiding screens, is here to help you teach your brain that it has
nothing to fear. When you have no fear, you will sleep fantastic. This
is inevitable and this is where you’re going.

And remember, every time you do something at bedtime for the

purpose of pleasure and not to avoid losing sleep, you are giving
your brain a lesson in fearlessness.
One of the most common questions someone with insomnia has is
what to do when waking up at night. Or when going to bed and not
falling asleep in a long time. You probably have this question too.

If you think about it, this is mostly (not always, noted!) a

camouflaged way of asking how one can get back to sleep. Or even
more bluntly put - what can I do to make myself fall asleep again?
And at this point, you already know what trying to make yourself
sleep is called and what happens when you do that.

Right again! It’s a sleep effort and it produces sleeplessness.

Knowing this you already know the first of 5 key insights:

1. You can’t force it

Hearing that you can’t make yourself sleep may sound discouraging,
unless you think of it as the complete opposite. Knowledge is power.
You’ve just been empowered.

Knowing that you can accept things you can’t change keeps you
from falling into the rabbit hole of fighting reality. When you fight
reality you lose. But only 100% of the time.

Also, keep in mind that acceptance is very different from resignation.

Resigning means giving up, surrendering. Accepting means simply
acknowledging reality. It is 76 degrees outside. My effective tax rate
is 37%. It’s not time to sleep right now.

When you accept that you’re not ready for sleep, you can explore
other options.

2. Resist the urge

When you wake up in the middle of the night, or you’ve been awake
for what feels like an eternity after going to bed, you are going to
want to know what time it is.

Or rather, your amygdala, your brain’s safety system does. It wants

to assess the damage so far and continue keeping a monitoring eye
on the threat of losing more sleep.

Now ask yourself this question, how many times have you woken up
as if you slept a long time, feeling wide awake, checked the time and
felt a wave of relief. It’s 2:37 am, fantastic! How many times have
you gone on to feel so reassured and relaxed knowing that you’ve
slept 1 hour and 37 minutes that you promptly fell back asleep.

Probably never. Or very rarely.

Knowing the time feels important. This is because your amygdala

perceives sleeplessness as a threat that needs to be monitored. But
it isn’t.

In fact it is important that you don’t know what time it is. This is
another opportunity to teach your brain that it has nothing to be
afraid of.

Resist the urge to check the time.

3. Take a mental journey

When you wake up or haven’t fallen asleep in a long time (without

knowing how many minutes, resist the urge!), think of something
pleasant. If you feel comfortable in your warm bed and thinking of
something pleasant comes easy to you - stay there and enjoy!
You're likely to fall back asleep soon.

If you on the other hand find it difficult to think of something

pleasant, if your thoughts revert back to your sleep, if you start
getting frustrated then you need to shift focus. You can stay in bed
as long as something like reading a book, listening to a podcast or
watching TV grabs your attention.

Screens have no impact on insomnia, they’re not a problem in

themselves. However, it can be difficult to use a screen without
getting to know the time.

If staying in bed and doing something enjoyable doesn’t shift your

attention, if you continue feeling frustrated, then leave the bed and
do something you like doing elsewhere.

4. You can’t trick yourself

You may wonder why there’s so much emphasis here on doing

something that you enjoy when you’re not sleeping. Or at least
something neutral like doing the dishes or some other chore that
needs to get done.

Here’s the thing - if you decide to pick up a really boring book or

watch a show you’ve seen 200 times then what are you actually
doing?

Yup, you got it. You’re trying to make yourself sleep.

5. Have a playbook

Have you seen a football coach in action? Then you’ve seen

someone who doesn’t spend time deliberating what to do next. They
already know. Because they have a playbook.

Having a playbook neutralizes a big sleep killer, wondering what to

do if you wake up at night.

Be prepared. Know what show to watch or what book to read or

whatever it is you want to do. And know this:

When you do all of the above and get to a point where you no
longer fear having and early morning awakening, when you
genuinely look forward to spending some time reading in that cozy
corner you’ve prepared - you start sleeping all night long.
If there’s one thing you most definitely have come across as you’ve
had trouble sleeping, it is sleep hygiene. This term describes a
laundry list of do's and don'ts that supposedly will help you sleep
better.

Here are some common ones:

-Go to bed and get out of bed the same time every day

-Avoid screens and light an hour before you go to bed

-Avoid caffeine close to bedtime

-Make sure your bedroom is cool, 67-68 degrees for optimal sleep

-Keep the noise level low

-Avoid heavy/rich/spicy food close to bedtime

For some reason these recommendations have become an obligatory

part of every article, story or blog post on sleep. This is odd because
we’ve known for decades that sleep hygiene doesn’t work.

Even worse - it creates a huge amount of sleep anxiety because of

the implication that sleep is controllable and complicated!

There are only two things that determine how well we sleep…

...that’s right, the gas and the brake!

The reason it is so important for you to know that sleep is simple,

super simple, is that complexity and ambiguity creates anxiety.

A long list of do’s and don'ts makes you believe that you have to get
all of these things right, you have to check all the boxes, in order to
sleep better. When you go on to have a sleepless night you feel you
must be doing something wrong. You tweak and tinker and chase
your tail in an endless cycle of self-experimentation and self-
monitoring.

It’s time to forget all about sleep hygiene, dial down the sleep
anxiety and start catching some of those refreshing Zzzs!

Wait a minute…

...does what I eat and how active I am during the day and all those
other things have absolutely no impact on my sleep?

Not entirely the case, but they’re not the problem. It’s your thinking
that they are the problem that is the problem.

Confused? Hold tight, clarity is coming your way!

Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
us. The doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in God is wonderful, but it
is not a strange doctrine. It is a truth full of light and consolation.
It is a revelation of Him, who is all in all, that draws us, if I may
say so, nearer to Him.

Starting with this view of Him, enlightened with this truth, all that
He has done for us in the world of nature and of grace, becomes
clear, plain, reasonable, and consequent. All the other mysterious
truths of Christianity, as I have said before, suppose the truth of
this, and, indeed, would be unmeaning without it. The
consideration of one or two of these will confirm the view I have
taken of it.

Look at creation. This is fully as incomprehensible to our minds as

the mystery of the Trinity itself. But without a revelation of the
Trinity, it would be more difficult of belief, further away from our
grasp, baffling more utterly all our attempts to form a reasonable
conception of it. What is it? It is that God, who is all that is or can
be, yet can create and has created something which is not God. It
looks like a contradiction. Those who have rejected the Trinity and
yet believe in God so regard it, and are led to imagine that the
created universe and all that is in it and of it is Divine.

We read that, when God created man, He said, "Let us make man
to our image and likeness." [Footnote 40]

[Footnote 40: Genesis i. 26]

The creature is, then, an image of the Creator. Creation is not God,
but is an image of God; that is, the being and life of creatures,
analogous to the being and life of God, is not of themselves, but is
a reflected image of God, which we may compare to the reflected
image of ourselves in a mirror. The image we behold is not our own
being, but an imperfect likeness of it. So the creation which God
beholds imaged in His own Divine mind is not His own Divine
being, but an imperfect likeness of it. And now it is not the image
of an abstract being—of an ideal being—but of a living being. The
living God is the Trinity, as I have shown. The mystery of creation
is illuminated by this truth, as you will see.

We say in the Creed, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator
of heaven and earth." He is the Personal Cause, the Progenitor of
all creation. Yet we also say, with St. John: "The Word was God. All
things were made by Him: and without Him was nothing made that
was made." [Footnote 41] And with holy Job: "The Spirit of the
Lord made me, and the breath of the Almighty gave me life."
[Footnote 42] And again, with the Psalmist: "Thou shalt send forth
Thy Spirit, and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew the
face of the earth." [Footnote 43]

[Footnote 41: St. John i. 1-3.]

[Footnote 42: Job xxxiii. 4.]

[Footnote 43: Ps. ciii. 30.]

[USCCB: Ps. civ. 30.]

We speak of creation, then, either as of the Father, of the Son, or

of the Holy Ghost, because it is of the Trinity—one act of the
Godhead. But we attribute creation properly to the Father, because
He is the Infinite Personal Cause. We attribute it to the Son,
because He is the Infinite Personal Life. "In him was the life," says
St. John, in the next sentence after that in which he says all things
were created by the Word, "and," he adds, "the life was the light of
men." So chant we in the Credo: Lumen de lumine—Light of
light. It is the first word spoken by God at the creation—"Fiat lux!"
Admirable conception! Light is, as it were, the Creator of the image
reflected in a mirror, and the Divine Word is the light—the Creator
of the creature who is the image and likeness of God. St. Paul calls
our Lord, who is Man united to the Word, "the image of the
invisible God, the first-born of every creature. In Him were all
things created in heaven, and on earth, visible, and invisible,
whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all
things were created by Him and in Him: and He is before all, and
by Him all things consist." [Footnote 44] Because our Lord was the
Word of God, the same thing is declared of Him, as the Eternal
Wisdom, by the inspired prophet: "I came out of the mouth of the
Most High, the first-born before all creatures." [Footnote 45] The
creative act is, then, an image of the Son of God being divinely
begotten by the Father; and creation in existence is an image of
Him who truly said, "I am the Life."

[Footnote 44: Coloss. i. 15-17.]

[Footnote 45: Ecclus. xxiv. 5.]

[USCCB: Sirach xxiv. 3.]

We attribute the creation to the Holy Ghost when we say in the

Creed, "And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-giver."

Recall what I said about the Holy Ghost, that He is God living,
enjoying His Divine life. Creation is the image of God living, and
hence of the Holy Ghost. When man was created, the Sacred
Record says, "God breathed the breath [or spirit] of life into his
face, and man became a living soul." With man, everything lives
and enjoys its being with an enjoyment which is a reflection of the
supreme living beatitude in God. Thus exclaims the writer of the
Book of Wisdom: "The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole
earth: and that, which containeth all things, hath knowledge of the
voice." [Footnote 46]

[Footnote 46: Wisdom i. 7.]

It is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, the Lord and Life-giver, who,
as holy Job declares, "hath adorned the heavens" with their radiant
beauty, who hath filled the whole earth, and vivified it, so that it is
not a dead but a living image of the Eternal, Omnipotent, Living
God. Did I not say well, my brethren, that the mystery of the Holy
Trinity is an illumination of the mystery of creation?

Look, again, at the Mystery of the Incarnation, in which are

included the other Mysteries of the Regeneration and Redemption
of man. We can not understand its manner. We cannot see how it
is, any more than we can understand how the Son is begotten of
the Father, or how the Holy Ghost proceeds from them both. But
the Trinity illuminates that also, and enlightens us to see and
believe it, now that it is revealed to us. Like Creation, it is an act of
the Trinity, because it is God uniting His Divine Person of the Son to
humanity, His created image. This is why our Lord, as Man as well
as God, calls Himself the Son of God. This is why the Apostle calls
us, who are His brethren in the flesh, sons of God. It is the act of
God as the Father. "God so loved the world, as to give his only-
begotten Son." [Footnote 47] It is an act of God as the Son. In His
last discourse, Jesus says to His disciples: "I came forth from the
Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and
go to the Father." [Footnote 48] It is an act of the Holy Ghost. As
we say in the Creed, and as the Scripture testifies, "He was
conceived by the Holy Ghost."

[Footnote 47: S. John iii. 16.]

[Footnote 48: Ibid. xvi. 23.]

[USCCB: John xvi. 28.]

The mystery of the Trinity thus enables us to recognize the Divinity

of the Person of Jesus Christ, as also the sublime character and
object of His Incarnation. It reveals to us the true destiny of man,
and shows us how the very reason of creation is in God Himself,
and is to find its end, its accomplishment and fruition in God. For,
as you see, the Incarnation was an act, of which the Person of God
Himself was the object. It was God communicating His Divine Life
to the creature, and thus all creatures, through Jesus, who is the
First-Born of them all, are to find their destiny, the end of their
creation, in eternal union with the Divine Life. "I am the Life," said
our Lord, and "because I live, you shall live." [Footnote 49] He and
the Father are one. But, O wonderful revelation! "In that day you
shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you."
[Footnote 50]

[Footnote 49: St. John xiv. 6 and 19.]

[Footnote 50: Ibid. 20.]

"God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world," says St.
John, "that we may live by Him." [Footnote 51] "Ye are the temples
of the living God," [Footnote 52] exclaims St. Paul. "We are made
partakers of the Divine nature," [Footnote 53] says St. Peter. And
St. Paul again designates us, first, as the "partakers of Christ,"
[Footnote 54] and next as the "partakers of the Holy Ghost."
[Footnote 55]

[Footnote 51: Ep. St. John iv. 9.]

[Footnote 52: 2 Cor. vi. 16.]

[Footnote 53: 2 Ep. St. Peter i. 4.]

[Footnote 54: Heb. iii. 14.]

[Footnote 55: Heb. vi. 4.]

Once more, our Lord bids us fear not the apparent annihilation of
death. "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in Me,
though he be dead, shall live. And every one that liveth, and
believeth in Me, shall not die for ever." [Footnote 56]

[Footnote 56: St. John xi., 25, 26.]

How clear, how consistent is every word! As we contemplate the

truth of the Incarnation in the light of the revealed Trinity, our faith
must grow stronger, and the hopes and aspirations of our hearts be
confirmed, and our love wax the deeper; for this brighter view of
God must draw us nearer to Him by sight and by love. We, too,
burn to answer our Lord as did Martha, when He asked her if she
believed His words: "Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art Christ
the Son of the Living God, who art come into this world." [Footnote
57]

[Footnote 57: St. John xi. 27.]

We set out, my dear brethren, to look at the reasons which

Christian philosophy is able to show us of the reasonableness of the
mysterious doctrine, of which we make acts of profession oftener,
perhaps, than of any other, for we do it every time we make the
sign of the Cross; and in honor of which we are to-day keeping
solemn festival. We have been talking and thinking like philosophers
on this deep mystery, and to us might be very properly addressed
that pertinent remark of Thomas à Kempis: "What doth it avail thee
to discourse profoundly of the Trinity, if thou be wanting in humility,
and, consequently, displeasing to the Trinity? If thou didst know the
whole Bible by heart, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what
would it all profit thee, without the love of God and His grace?"
[Footnote 58]

[Footnote 58: Imit. Christi, book i. ch. I.]

Truly, a question of no little import to us all. Today the Church

brings us, as it were, face to face with the awful Majesty of the
Ever-Blessed Trinity, the Living God. It is a fearful thought to be in
that Presence, for it must compel us to ask ourselves—Are we
indeed the image and likeness of the Living God? And not only
that, but are we, as we should be, living images of Him? Are our
souls living in His Divine grace, or are they standing before Him to-
day dead in sin? To be wise in the knowledge of the Blessed Trinity
is well, but to love Him is better. To be ignorant of the Blessed
Trinity is a misfortune; but to sin against Him in whom we live, and
move, and have our being is a crime against the Life of God.
Wonder not that to lose God is to lose eternal life, and fall into hell,
the eternal death. To sin is, in the language of St. Paul, to "trample
under foot the Son of God, and offer an affront to the Spirit of
Grace." [Footnote 59] Filled with horror at the thought of this crime
against the Holy Trinity, he exclaims: "It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the Living God." [Footnote 60]

[Footnote 59: Heb. x. 29.]

[Footnote 60: Heb. x. 31.]

Therefore, brethren, let us adore with profound humility the Ever-

Blessed Trinity, full of gratitude that He has vouchsafed this
revelation of His mysterious Being to us, and thus enlightened our
minds that we may know Him, and love Him, and serve Him better.
But let us so live, as children of the Heavenly Father, as brethren of
Jesus Christ our Lord, and as sanctified temples of the Holy Ghost,
that, when the veil of this life be rent in twain, and we shall stand
face to face in eternity before the glorious majesty of God, and in
presence of the glittering hosts of angels who surround His throne,
we may be able to present the record of a life which has truly been
an image and likeness of the Life of the Living God—the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost; to whom be glory now and for ever
throughout eternal ages. Amen.
 Sermon X
The Real Presence.
(For The Feast Of Corpus Christi.)
St. Matt. i. 23.

"They shall call His name Emmanuel,

which, being interpreted, is God with us."

We conclude the seasons of Easter and Pentecost with the Feast of

the Blessed Trinity, following in thought our ascended Jesus up to
the right hand of His eternal Father. From Christmas to Ascension
we commemorate the mission (as it is called) of the Second Person
of the Trinity: how the Father sent the Son to become Incarnate, to
accomplish our redemption, and found the Church. At Pentecost we
celebrate the mission of the Third Person: how the Father and the
Son together sent the Holy Ghost, to become incorporate in the
Church, and abide with and in it through all time. Then, on Trinity
Sunday, the Church, in her turn, bids us remember that, although
the Son and the Holy Ghost were sent down to earth, yet they
never left heaven; where they had dwelt from eternity, and will
dwell to eternity, consubstantial and coequal with the Father.

But the Church is the kingdom of the Incarnation; and the

Incarnation is God made visible. Therefore, as a true spouse, living
only for her Beloved, she does not leave us contemplating the
invisible God, but quickly sets before us the Incarnation again—the
end of her yearly song no less than its beginning. For the feast of
Corpus Christi is to Christmas as the end to the beginning of a
chain of mysteries which centre in the Incarnation. It is, indeed, a
sort of second Christmas—the sacramental life of our Lord bearing
striking resemblance to His helpless infancy. Again, lest we should
forget that our ascended Lord left behind Him the very body He
carried into heaven, the Church does not let us stand gazing up
after Him with the group on Olivet, but invites us to turn and
rejoice with her in the mystery of His perpetual presence here
below—a presence not the less real because supersensible, nor the
less consoling because veiled.

I shall speak, then, of the Blessed Sacrament, first, as a reality;

and, secondly, as a consolation.

First, as a reality. You are aware, my dear brethren, that no article

of our faith excites so much the wonder of those who are not
Catholics as the doctrine of the Real Presence. They are forced to
acknowledge, too, that we actually do believe in it, and take it as a
matter of course. Their wonderment is natural enough: for they
judge of it only by the senses; and certainly we cannot conceive of
any mode in which it would have more apparent unreality. If,
however, they believe that the Christ who was born in a stable,
lived in obscurity for thirty years, was rejected by the Jews as "the
carpenter's son," and, at last, died a felon's death, was God, they
must allow that the Godhead in Him had very much apparent
unreality, and that its surprising concealment can only be accounted
for by design. Again, if they are familiar with the Bible, they know
that in several passages a certain adorable secrecy and shyness are
ascribed to God as characteristic of Him. As, for instance, in the
Psalms we are told that He "makes darkness His hiding-place."
[Footnote 61] In Job it is asked, "Peradventure thou wilt
comprehend the steps of God, and find out the Almighty perfectly?
He is higher than heaven, and what wilt thou do? He is deeper
than hell, and how wilt thou know?" [Footnote 62] while Isaias
breaks out with the exclamation: "Truly Thou art a hidden God,
Thou God of Israel, the Saviour!" [Footnote 63]

[Footnote 61: Ps. xvii. 12.]

[USCCB: Ps. xviii. 12.]

[Footnote 62: Job xi. 7.]

 [Footnote 63: Is. xlv. 15.]

As far, then, as the hiddenness of the Real Presence goes, it ought

rather to commend our doctrine than otherwise, and create a
presumption in its favor.

But the radical difficulty with the stranger to the truth lies in his not
understanding the Incarnation and its object. It is nothing to him, I
may say. He professes belief in it, indeed, but has utterly "lost its
meaning" (as dear Father Faber says). Let him once begin to realize
the Incarnation, and he will find he is taking the road to Rome: he
will find that there is such a thing as a visible Church, and such a
person as the Mother of God. To the Catholic, on the contrary, the
Incarnation is everything. It is the fount of the whole system to
which he glories in adhering. The Church exists for nothing else.
The world exists for nothing else. The world for the Church, the
Church for Christ, and Christ for God.

Now, the object of the Incarnation was briefly this: The

establishment of a visible kingdom, in which the Creator should
receive an adequate worship from the creature, and the creature
be raised to the highest possible union with the Creator. We say,
then, that the Church is this visible kingdom—to wit, an organic
body, of which we are made members by Baptism (an outward and
visible rite); and that the twofold end of worship and union is
accomplished by the perpetual presence of the Incarnation here on
earth, as at once a sacrifice and a sacrament. A sacrifice in which
the creature offers to God a divine victim—the only adequate
worship He can receive, God being offered to God—and in a
created nature. A sacrament, in which the assumed humanity in
Christ, hypostatically united with the divinity, is made to blend with
our humanity in a union so close as to render us, in turn,
"partakers of the divine nature." [Footnote 64] Moreover, we say
that the form of food, in which our Lord chose to impart to us His
deified and deifying humanity, was (so to speak) the most natural
form He could have chosen: since food becomes one substance
with its recipient—the difference between ordinary food and this
divine food being that the latter, instead of being changed into us,
transforms us into itself.

[Footnote 64: 2 St. Peter i. 4.]

Therefore, to us, who, by the grace of faith, understand the

Incarnation and its object, the doctrine of the Real Presence is
simply the supplement to the doctrine of the Incarnation. The one
is the consequence of the other. We behold in the Church, with the
Blessed Sacrament on her altars, the mystical Mary with the Divine
Babe on her lap: and when we kneel to her, that she may give Him
to us, or bless us with Him, we have no more feeling of unreality
than the Shepherds and the Magi had in the cave at Bethlehem.

The feast of Corpus Christi, then, my brethren, is one of a blessed

reality: a reality which ought to make us thank God every day of
our lives that we are Catholics. For can anything be more dismal,
more barren, more pointless, than a Christianity in which the
Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin have no place?

But, secondly, it is a feast of peculiar consolation. It is this which

most endears the Blessed Sacrament to us. For as long as we are
in exile from our true fatherland—the "patria" of the O Salutaris—
we shall always be wanting consolation, and prize it as a foretaste
of our rest. This consolation, then, this foretaste, is abundantly
vouchsafed to us in the Blessed Sacrament. And, first, as regards
our Lord Himself. It is impossible to love Him without sorrowing for
all He once suffered; without grieving at the thought of the world's
sins, and our own share of them, which drenched His soul with
anguish, and steeped His heart in woe. And what pains us most is
the melancholy fact that His love was thrown away on the majority
of mankind, and is so at this hour. It is, therefore, indeed a
consolation that now He dwells on earth without the condition of
suffering—impassible for evermore; that, at last, He "comes unto
His own, and His own do receive Him"; that He is enthroned King
of His elect in the kingdom He so dearly purchased; that He can
now take unmixed "delight" in "being with the children of men";
that if His Sacramental Presence is still to the heretic "a stumbling-
block," and to the sceptic "foolishness," yet to millions upon
millions, who believe and love, it is "the power of God and the
wisdom of God"; and, further, that whatever degeneracy may come
upon Christ's kingdom, however widely the "love of many may wax
cold," yet, even in the worst times, "those whom the Father hath
given Him" will unfailingly confess Him their "Emmanuel."

Again, the Blessed Sacrament is full of consolation as regards

ourselves. In the first place, because it is our Emmanuel—God
tabernacled with men; and because the veiled Presence here is an
earnest of the unveiled hereafter. Also, because it is an abiding
"propitiation for our sins," and the perpetual oblation of infinite
merit to obtain us all good things. Again, it is the food in the
strength of which we travel, like Elias, through the wilderness of
this world "unto the mount of God": [Footnote 65] the medicine of
our spiritual diseases, the balm of our sorrows, and, sweetest
thought of all, perhaps, our viaticum in death.

[Footnote 65: 3 Kings xix. 8.]

[USCCB: 1 Kings xix. 8.]

If God could thus address His people of old, how much more
meaning have His words for us: "Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee, I have called thee by thy name: thou art mine. When thou
shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers
shall not cover thee; … for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of
Israel, thy Saviour." [Footnote 66]

[Footnote 66: Is. xliii. 1-3]

But especially ought we to take comfort in the Blessed Sacrament

in times of trial for the Church, such as that which is on us now.
You remember how the ship of Peter was tossed one day on the
lake of Galilee, and the disciples got terrified and awoke their
Master, who was asleep on a pillow. [Footnote 67]

[Footnote 67: St. Mark iv. 36-38.]

And He rebuked them for their want of faith; because, let wind and
sea rage as they might, could that vessel have perished with the
Lord of the elements on board, though He was "asleep on a
pillow"? Now, that ship is a striking figure of the Church, with the
Blessed Sacrament reposing on her altars. She has ridden out many
a heavy gale as yet, and no matter how many more are in store for
her, weather them she must while she carries the Almighty Saviour.
Instead of losing heart, then, our aspiration should be that of the
sacred poet:

"Amid the howling wintry sea,

We are in port if we have Thee."

And even if there should come a time, as many think, when "the
daily sacrifice shall be taken away," when it shall be death to say
Mass or to hear it, and the Church has to "fly into the wilderness"—
if the final persecution thus exceed even those of the Cæsars, yet
Mass will be said and Communion will be given; and still, at the
words of the priest, "even as the lightning cometh out of the east,
and shineth unto the west, so will be the coming of the Son of
Man" to His altar; and still, "wheresoever the Body shall be, there
will the eagles be gathered together." [Footnote 68]

[Footnote 68: St. Matt. xxiv. 27, 28.]

In conclusion, my dear brethren, let me remind you how apt we

are—we who are so favored with the faith—to neglect the Blessed
Sacrament, to be irreverent in its presence, to show it ingratitude
by receiving it too seldom, and to betray our forgetfulness of its
presence by never coming to visit it. I would dwell a little on this
last point. When we meet with misfortune or trouble of any kind,
we often brood over it at home, and get impatient and fretful, and
make mischief in consequence to others as well as to ourselves,
instead of coming to tell the Sacred Heart all about it, and draw on
an ever-ready help. So, again, we are constantly complaining how
cold the world is, what a want there is of sympathy, how selfish
and thankless people are. And what are we but cold and
unsympathizing, selfish and thankless, toward our best Friend? He
is here "love's prisoner"—our prisoner; and how few of us take any
notice of Him as such! Were an earthly dear one in prison for our
sake, we should move heaven and earth to get to him. But here is
the Lover of all lovers, the infinite beauty, accessible all day long,
and how many come to visit Him of those who are not reasonably
prevented? I wonder that more of us are not haunted by those
words, "I was in prison, and ye visited Me not." [Footnote 69]

[Footnote 69: St. Matt. xxv. 43.]

Let us endeavor, then, my brethren, to realize more the treasure

we possess in our Emmanuel, our Gesù Sacramentato
(Sacramented Jesus), our Dios Sagramentado (Sacramented
God), as the happy Italian and Spanish languages can word it. If
we could only accustom ourselves to think a little more of the
Blessed Sacrament, it would soon have a perceptible influence on
our lives, on our domestic relations, on our intercourse with society,
on our dealings with the world of business. And this influence
would be anything but oppressive, as some of you may think. It
would exercise a wholesome restraint, indeed, for which we should
often be deeply thankful afterwards, but would give us a true
cheerfulness and an abiding sense of calm. Oh! that all our words
and actions might harmonize in one ceaseless chorus of praise—

"Blessed and praised every moment

Be the most holy and most divine Sacrament!"
 Sermon XI.
St. Paul, The Divine Orator.
(For The Patronal Festival.)
2 Cor. xii. 9.

"Gladly, therefore,
will I glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may dwell in me."

The Church and the world are agreed in the estimate formed of St.
Paul as a preacher. By a common judgment, the name of this great
apostle has been inscribed at the head of the illustrious list of
teachers of doctrine. His renown increases as time goes on, and in
our own day his personal character, life, and writings have been
made the subject of an extraordinary amount of discussion, and
have elicited newer and higher eulogiums.

There is this difference, however, in the judgments formed by the

Church and the world of the prince of Christian preachers. The
world's panegyric is illogical, being made in direct contradiction to
its principles and the lessons which it has ever inculcated as
necessary to an orator's success. The Church alone, by the aid of
the supernatural principles of faith, is able to explain the true secret
of the wonderful power he wielded in life, and the miraculous
influence of his words upon the nations of the earth during the
many centuries which have elapsed since he ceased to speak face
to face with men.

What, indeed, are these words of his, "I will glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may dwell in me," but foolishness to
human wisdom, or, at best, an enigma without solution! But it is
precisely these infirmities of which he boasts that gave him the
power he possessed, and laid the foundation of all his glory. "When
I am weak," he says again, "then am I powerful." Nonsense to
human reason, but divine wisdom to faith.

If, therefore, I would praise St. Paul, as is befitting on this day, I

must praise hid infirmities—weaknesses which the world calls
misfortunes, and deficiencies upon which none but saints ever rest
their hopes of success.

To judge after the manner of man, we would ordinarily expect to

find in one who is an orator of great power certain personal
qualifications which, in the very nature of things, would serve to
impress and win his audience. We would seek for great polish in
the style, and consummate art in the preparation and delivery of
his discourses. For one who aims at swaying not only a chance
multitude who, for the moment, comes within the sound of his
voice, but at conquering their souls, and winning them to the point
of making most heroic sacrifices; who not only preaches to his
hearers, but commands them with the air of one having authority,
we would look for the favorable, popular verdict shown in honors
and dignities showered upon him, in credit and influence, and his
having reached that summit where men vie with one another in
giving him place, and when even his enemies fear to gainsay or
persecute him.

Such, indeed, are the orators whom the world crowns with its
laurels. But in all these St. Paul was lacking; and yet, by the world's
own confession, he has surpassed them all. To meditate upon this
mystery of Divine Providence, which makes use of the weak things
of this world to confound the strong, and the foolish to confound
the wise, cannot fail to enlighten and edify us.

We who, like the world in general, have known the great Apostle
chiefly from the sublime picture which his unparalleled success
presents, have doubtless imagined him to be a person of tall and
majestic stature, of pleasing address and magisterial deportment;
being, as we say, a man of fine presence, whose appearance was
alone sufficient to bring forth plaudits from his auditory, and
enforce at once a respectful and submissive hearing. Such are,
indeed, the ideal portraits of him with which we please ourselves,
and such have the masters in art represented him. But from various
allusions he makes in his writings to himself, it is certain that he
was frail in body, of a diffident and submissive bearing, and
altogether wanting in that air of decision and self-assertion which
naturally overawes the multitude.

When he, with his companion apostle, St. Barnabas, healed the
cripple at Lystra, the people imagined them to be gods; but in
calling St. Barnabas, rather than St. Paul, Jupiter, it is evident that
other apostle far surpassed St. Paul in the dignity and majesty of
his person. He can write boldly, he says, but "in presence is lowly";
[Footnote 70] and, again, he affirms the truth of what people said
of him, that "his bodily presence is weak, and his speech
contemptible;" and the frequent contrasts he draws between his
personal infirmities and his spiritual power and graces, leave the
fact beyond doubt that he was by no means a man of dignified
aspect or commanding mien.

[Footnote 70: 2 Cor. x. 1]

We might be tempted to think he would feel this infirmity most

keenly as a serious drawback to his success as an orator, as we
ourselves would judge it to be. But no. He will rather glory in his
infirmities as the source of his power; and here at the outset we
get an insight into the whole spirit of this champion of the Gospel.
From the instant of his miraculous conversion, he appears to be
wholly absorbed in the contemplation of the sublime mystery of the
voluntary abasement of God in concealing the awful majesty and
splendor of his Divine Being in human nature, that what he, with
apostolic hardihood, calls the "foolishness of God" and the
"weakness of God," might subdue and atone for the sinful pride
and vainglory of men. He rejoices, therefore, that he has nothing in
himself which might cause the admiration of men and make void
the humility of Jesus and His cross—a thought which so fills his
soul that he says he knows nothing else besides. The less he has in
himself to glory in, the greater is his consciousness of the power of
the Gospel of the Crucified, which he only lives to preach. "Power is
made perfect in infirmity," was the revelation made to him when
caught up to the third heaven. "I will glory, therefore," he exclaims,
"in my infirmities." I am glad that I am weak in bodily presence
and contemptible in speech. Freed from this temptation of human
vanity, which in turn would divert the souls of my hearers from the
Gospel to the preacher of the Gospel, the power of Christ will dwell
more fully in me. "When I am weak, then am I powerful." When I,
Paul the Apostle, am nothing, then will the victory of grace be
complete in the souls who, through me, believe and are converted
—when I have nothing in me to please and attract the sight, men
will see only the Cross which I hold up to their gaze.

So fearful was he of attracting to himself any personal affection,

that he avoided baptizing his own converts and receiving them into
the church, lest they should say—I am of Paul, I belong to the
Church of St. Paul the Apostle, instead of acknowledging, as he
was always doing himself, "By the grace of God, I am what I am—a
Christian saved from hell by God's mercy."

Let us look now at his second and greater infirmity—his weakness

as an orator. He had a strange, difficult, shocking, and what he
terms a scandalous doctrine to preach—the redemption of the
world by a crucified God. Surely, this man, who is so lacking in the
external qualifications of an effective speaker, possesses at least the
magic power of sublime eloquence. He who has such a repulsive
truth to announce will seek the most polished phrases, and cover
up the hard things which he has to say by flowers of rhetoric, and,
with studied art in his tones of speech, will charm his unwilling
audience to receive and obey the austere lessons of the Gospel. By
no means. Such was his infirmity in this respect that his disciples
called his speech contemptible, and he acknowledged the truth of
their judgment, and reminds his beloved Corinthians that he was
"with them in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,"
adding, "My speech and preaching was not in the persuasive words
of human wisdom." [Footnote 71]

[Footnote 71: I Cor. ii. 4.]

Not only do we see in the discourses recorded of him the most

simple and unadorned phraseology, but even his writings, full as
they are of the most profound and heavenly doctrine, are the most
inartificial, disconnected, and poor in imagery that could well be
imagined. What a misfortune for an orator! cries the world. "What
a glory is mine infirmity!" responds the Apostle of that Gospel
which is wisdom hidden from the self-sufficient rich and the
insolent magnates of a depraved world, but a revelation of divine
truth to babes. And I, who praise St. Paul, will praise this infirmity
of his as well, knowing that he has not rested his power as an
apostle and his hopes of success upon it in vain.

If St. Paul be unable to use, or disdain in his preaching all

rhetorical flourish and tricks of oratory, if his language is almost
rude in its plainness and harsh from the total absence of brilliant
metaphor or well-rounded period, it is because he has nothing to
preach but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All those harmonious
cadences which flatter the ear, all that fanciful imagery in which the
orators of human doctrine and science deal so largely and are paid
with clapping of hands, are at best but showy tinsel, unworthy of
the Incarnate Wisdom, and a vain mockery of the lowly speech and
simple words of the Man of Sorrows. What we adore in our Lord's
person is His lowliness and humility, mingled with a certain divine
and grand simplicity of character. So are all His words, plain and
simple; spoken evidently without passionate gesture, and in no loud
or clamorous tone. Simple, because all that is divine is simple; all
else is human pride and sensuality. Such is what I may call the
divine instinct of the Church, the Body of Christ, who also disdains,
when she lifts her voice in prayer or praise, all the effeminate and
meretricious ornaments of harmony or melody, which are the
sources of attraction and admiration in worldly music, and adheres
to what is simple in its enunciation, grave in movement, and
moderate in tone, as one who reveals divine thoughts, and not the
dreamy, overwrought imaginations of impassioned genius, which
minister rather to the senses than to the soul.

Behold, therefore, the great Apostle, inspired by this simplicity of

Divine truth, going out upon his great mission to become the
preacher of that truth to the whole world, but so thoroughly
imbued with the spirit of the meek and humble-hearted Jesus that
he speaks in weakness, in much fear and trembling, yet with such
power that even Greece, that mother of philosophers and orators,
forgets the fervid eloquence of her Plato and Demosthenes to drink
in the divine lessons of the Gospel from the lips of this unskilled
orator; and Rome herself, the mistress of the world, at his word
overthrows her idols and consecrates her majestic temples of glory
to the worship of a Man crucified at Jerusalem. O glorious Apostle!
well mayest thou glory in that which before men is thy weakness!
Thine infirmity is thy power. Without human power, thou
abandonest thyself wholly to the divine power of Christ, and that—
that is more than enough power to conquer the world. That world
in its pride will criticise you, and ridicule your want of polish and
lack of rhetoric, and your trembling, hesitating gesture, but it will
believe in Jesus Christ and Him crucified whom you preach. Its
orators will not follow you as a model, but they themselves will
beat their breasts, and confess their sins, and do penance at your
bidding.

But, powerful as he is in the infirmity of his speech, to fully

convince the world of the truth of his awful and austere doctrine,
he has yet to measure his strength against a more obstinate and
unyielding enemy to the Gospel of the Cross. The mind of man
cannot long blind its sight to the illumination of the truth; but who
shall subdue and win the hardened heart? O wondrous science of
the saints! O divine enigma which no one shall understand who
does not write its solution in his own blood! "Regnavit a ligno
Deus!" "God hath reigned from the wood of the cross." Even God
cannot reign in the kingdom of the hearts of men until He is a
crucified man, whose streaming blood cries aloud and pleads, with
the irresistible torrent of the eloquence of suffering, to heaven. Yes;
to heaven must the voice of suffering preach; for Paul may plant,
and Apollos water, but God alone can give the increase. From God
alone can come the grace that achieves the consummation of the
triumph of the truth, and completes the labor of the Apostle. When
was Jesus Christ the Master of the world? Where was it that He
drew all things to Himself by the cords of Adam and the bands of
love? Was it when He went about doing good, working miracles,
preaching His divine doctrine? Ah no! It was when He was lifted up
the pleading Victim, whose blood and wounds spoke better things
than the blood of Abel, and whose requests could not be denied.
Well does the Church say, "Regnavit a ligno Deus!" And what
shall we expect, if even Jesus is only powerful from His cross, but
that His chosen vessel of election, who shall carry His Gospel to the
whole world, first shall say: "I judge myself to know nothing but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified"; and that afterwards his life should
prove the truth of his same infirmity in himself: "With Christ I am
nailed to the cross," [Footnote 72] "I die daily;" that he should be
stoned and scourged, and imprisoned and persecuted, and driven
from city to city, "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils from the Jews, in perils from the Gentiles, in
perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in
perils from false brethren, in labor and painfulness, in long
watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and
nakedness;" [Footnote 73] and, added to all these sufferings, those
interior trials and bitternesses of spirit with which God invariably
purifies the souls of His elect. He must preach in the stead of
Christ, and therefore he must suffer in His stead. Wherefore he
says: "I fill up in my own flesh those things that are wanting of the
sufferings of Christ." [Footnote 74]
 [Footnote 72: Gal. ii. 19.]

[Footnote 73: 2 Cor. xi. 26, 27.]

[Footnote 74: Col. i. 24.]

Nor are we surprised, if the world be, that he should please himself
in this life of constant suffering in what seems to be, as men judge,
failures and losses, and disheartening, conflicting obstacles to his
success. The world, to whom the cross of Christ is foolishness,
would demand for a preacher who could hope for a success equal
to St. Paul's, invariable good health, a well-nourished body, a mind
not overtaxed, popular applause, and a career of unvarying
triumph. But I, who would praise St. Paul, will praise him for his life
of suffering. When he is weak before men, then is he powerful with
God. God and the whole court of heaven is the audience of the
suffering man; and he who would sway the Divine Mercy must take
counsel from the Crucified Incarnate Wisdom, and find an advocate
in his own blood.

For thirty long years did this "Victim dear to heaven" suffer a daily
death, yet rejoicing always that he was counted worthy to suffer for
the name of the Lord Jesus; and as we follow him about from
country to country, and from city to city, we can number his
successes by the number of his adversities—adversities which had
no power to subdue his exalted soul, or shake for one instant the
constancy of his superhuman love for Christ and His cross. Hark to
that outburst of generous love from his undaunted heart—"Who,
then, shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or the
sword? I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord." [Footnote 75]
 [Footnote 75: Rom. viii. 35-39.]

Thirty years of restless labor and fatigues, and now this aged and
worn-out Apostle, to whom we would fain grant some days of
sweet repose for his declining years, must gird up his loins and
prepare to meet the crowning suffering of his life—a martyr's
death.

Rome, imperial Rome, palace of pride and sensuality, thou boastest

that thou art the mistress of the world; that thy name and power is
honored and feared by every nation, and none dare refuse thee
tribute! Proud throne of the world, tremble! for there is coming into
thy gates a conqueror who will humble thee in the dust, who will
take away all thine armor in which thou trustest, and compel thee
to pay tribute to him; and, through him, constrain thee to bring the
world under another Ruler, whose kingdom shall be without end,
and whose principality no man shall take away. Go, O captain of
many victories! Prospere procede, et regna. Rome will laugh at
thy apostolic folly, but thou shalt make her weep. Rome is the
world's citadel of error; thou shalt make her the ever-enduring and
infallible chair of truth. Rome will bring thee into her as a prisoner
in chains, but thou shalt prove her liberator.

Rome will put thee to death, but the voice of thy martyr's blood
shall cry to heaven and give her eternal life. Take glory to thyself, O
holy Paul! and rejoice and exult in thine infirmities, for now is the
hour when thy strength shall be divine!

Though dead, he yet speaketh. From his tomb St. Paul is still the
preacher of the truth to the whole world. Still he announces the
truth as it is in Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Still he confounds
the Gentile philosophies of every age, still draws with irresistible
eloquence the hearts of men to the sacrifices of an heroic love for
Christ. The text of St. Paul living and suffering was, "Jesus Christ
and Him crucified." He who to-day approaches the vast temple
beneath whose majestic dome repose the sacred ashes of the
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