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PRIZE ESSAY NUMBER. i i ~ JUSTE, 1904 IY6L, XIII. HO. i GETTYSBURG COLLEGE GETTYSBURG, PA. i w. V N. C. UARBKMENH, OCTTTOBUflS II n w i HELP THOSE WHO HELP US. The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume. Chartered igoz. Cottrell & Leonrard Albany, N. Y. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WWWWWWWWWWWW Makers of Caps, Gowns, Hoods AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A. B. BLACK, Gettysburg College Representative. Come and Have a Good Shave, E. A. Wright's or HAIR-CUT at Engraving House, Naffy B. SeftOll's 1108 Chestnut St. PHILADELPHIA We have our own photograph gallery for half-tone and photo engraving. Fashionable Engraving and Stationery. Leading house for College, School and Wedding Invitations, Dance Programs, Menus. Fine engraving of all kinds. Before ordering elsewhere com-pare samples and prices. New Tons:)rial Parlor's, 35 Baltimore St. BARKERS' SUPPLIES A SPECIALTY. Also, choice line of fine Cigars. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, *^ A, L, Menbeck, Agent, COLLEGE. IF YOU CALL ON C. A. Bloehef*, JemeleF, Centre Square, He can serve you in anything you may want in REPAIRING or JEWELRY. rffWHipwjPii^jj ifwPBjmHHMP! WE RECOMMEND THESE FIRMS. The Pleased Customer is not a stranger in our estab-lishment— he's right at home, you'll see him when you call. We have the materials to please fastidious men. J. D. LIPPY, lxle;reiaa-rit Tailor, 29 Chambersburg Street, GETTYSBURG, PA. CITY HOTEL, Main Street, - Gettysburg, Pa. Free 'Bus to and from all trains. Thirty seconds' walk from either depot. Dinner with drive over field with four or more, $1.35. Rates, $1.50 to $2.00 per Day. Livery connected. Rubber-tire buggies a specialty. John E. Hughes, Prop. T1PT0H M Now in 1 THE .PHOTOGRAPHER. new Studio 20 and 22 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, Pa. One of the finest modern lights in the country. C. E. Barbehenn THE EACLE HOTEL ZB-A-ISIBIEIK Corner Main and Washington Sts. 1905 SPECTRUM Now in Printer's hands. Order from M. M. METZGEE. BEILLHAKT & PARKEE Students' Supply Rooms! Everything You Want. Fine Stationery a Specialty. NO. 5 AND 7 EAST. i r PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. I WE HI A COMPLETE LI Of Novelties for the Spring Season, including Latest Suiting, Coating, Trousering and Vesting. Our Prices are Right. SPECIAL CARE TAKEN TO MAKE WORK STYLISH AND EXACTLY TO YOUR ORDER. tUill Ol. Seliman, T^, 7 Chambefsfaufg St., Gettysburg, Pa. R. A. WONDERS Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, etc. Scott's Corner, opp. Eagle Hotel GETTYSBURG, PA. Pool Parlors in Connection. D. J. Swartz Dealer in Country Produce Groceries Cigars and Tobacco GETTYSBURG. Established 1867 by Allen Walton. Allen K. Walton, Pres. and Treas. Robt. J. Walton, Superintendent. Hummelstown Browq Stone Company and Manufacturers of BUILDING STONE, SAWED FLAGGING, and TILE, WALTOMLLE DAUPHIN COUNTYj: PENNA. Contractors for all kinds of cut stone work. Telegraph and Express Address, BROVVNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station, on the P. & R. R. R. DO YOU NEED PNEY TO GO TO COLLEGE ? [FROM COPYRIGHTED STEREOGRAFH BY UNDERWOOD AND UNDERWOOD] Happy Land of t :e R* staff Sun where Song Unceasing Flows. Stereoscopes * and * Stereographs K\ can furnish it fo.' you during the Summer Vacation, Many New Subjects for this season: Russian-Japanese War, Panama Canal, Balti-more Fire, President Roosevelt, Gettysburg Battlefield: New Comic Series; Stereo-scopic Tours, accompanied by patent maps and interesting descriptive books- Write for particulars- Underwood & Underwood 3 AND 5 W. NINETEENTH ST., COR. FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK. REPRESENTED AT PENN'A COL. BY E- G- HESS- The CDcFGury. The Literary Journal of Gettyburg College. VOL. XIII. GETTYSBURG, PA., JUNE, 1904. No. 4 CONTENTS "DE SAPIENTIAE PROFESSORIBUS "—POEM, . . 128 ANDROMACHE ET DECIDIANA. RUSSIAN AGGRESSION—Pen and Sword Prize Essay, . 130 PAUL B. DUNBAR, '04. A MODERN FAUST, 136 "X. Y. Z.'' SOCIALISM ,137 JOSEPH E. ROWE, '04. THE SABBATH AS A CIVILIZER, 144 Miss HELEN WAGNER, '06. THE COURSE OF THE U. S. GOVERNMENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE PANAMA REVOLUTION, . 146 CHAS. W. HEATHCOTE, '05. A HUNTER OF MEN—POEM, 148 "BRIDGET." .'THE PATH OF DUTY IS THE WAY TO GLORY," . 151 POEM, 154 EDITORIALS 155 EXCHANGES, . 157 w 128 . THE MERCURY. «DE SAPIENTIAE PROFESSORIBUS." ANDROMACHE ET DECIDIANA. HOW dear to our hearts are those days when at college We studied and wept o'er the classics of yore; The Latin, the Greek, and the terrible German, And brain-splitting ''Math" which we used to deplore. To-night as we sit in the glow of our fire-side, And think of those days and the pleasures of old, Our hearts fain would turn to our former professors, Who gave to us learning, much better than gold. The fire burns low in its smouldering ashes, The faces appear that we once knew so well, Some pleasant and jovial, and others more solemn, But of each, in his turn, we will .now try to tell. Oh Muse ! pray be kind and remain standing by us, And give to us freely and with no restraint, That much sought for gift, the true power of description, So each one may know whom we're trying to paint. The first who appears in the fast dying embers, Is one who made culprits shake clear to their toes ; He'd rap on the desk with a frowning expression, And quell all confusion, just how, no one knows. His eyes were as blue as the azure of Heaven, His hair was inclined to a faint auburn shade, His stature was tall, and this mighty Apollo Was reverenced alike by each man and each maid. And now we behold one so tall and so handsome, Who led our young minds 'round the fair walls of Troy, Who oft would propound his fav'rite assertion That 'there should be guardians for maidens so coy.' And next to him standing, a man of small stature, Whom feline protectors all look on with dread; He bears in his right hand a tight-covered basket, Just lift up the cover ! Out pops a cat's head. Our dear 'Roman Senator' now looms before us, As tall as a dignified 'senex' of old. He too bears a basket, but it's full of good things, And as a 'rear guard' he has 'Waggles,' the bold. The next that appears to our far-seeing vision Is one who seemed stern tho' at heart he was ki-nd. His friends the}' were num'rous, his travels were many, But ever to "Dutchland" his heart was inclined. THE MERCURY. 129 Scarce had his form disappeared in the ashes, When two more professors came into our sight. A halo of gas, (H2S), was around them, Which ever had been their fond joy and delight. How often we shivered when into their class-room We went in dread fear that we might not come out. A "fiss" and a "bang" and a "crash" would oft greet us; And then the stern question, "What are you about?" And now comes a face that so quietly greets us, He led 'little boys' in the way they should go. He taught them politeness as well as sound doctrine, And stirred to high ideals instead of to low. And last but not least comes that jolly, good "Sap'ens" Who once taught us "Math" and a great deal beside, For he used to tell all the jokes of the season, And solved weighty problems discussed far and wide. The fire dies out and we sit there reflecting On those pleasant days and our teachers of old, And we would not sell our fond recollections For all the rich treasures the deep sea could hold. And so let us close while the dark shadows gather, Which hide from our vision each loved noble face. We hope they still walk through those fair halls of learning, And for many years yet each may keep his old place. 130 THE MERCURY. " RUSSIAN AGGRESSION." [Pen and Sword Prize Essay.] PAUL B. DUNBAR, '04. THE discussion of a subject of world-wide importance can-not fail to be influenced by preconceived prejudices. It seems to be natural for Americans as a whole to entertain strongly such a prejudice against Russia. This is probably the result of our instinctive sympathy for the weak in a contest with the strong. The attempt will be made in this paper, how-ever, to set forth as impartially as possible the facts of the Rus-sian Advance. Having studied these carefully, Russia's motives will be discussed, and finally the probable results of these ag-gressive movements will be briefly summed up. A glance at the map of Russia, her possessions and spheres of influence, shows over how vast a region the Empire of the North holds sway. From the Baltic on the west to the Sea of Okhotsk and the Behring Sea on the east, the Russian territory extends in an unbroken stretch—five thousand miles of steppes and mountains, rivers and inland seas, burning deserts and bar-ren tundras. On the broad plains of Siberia are sections of wonderful fertility practically undeveloped and in its mountain ranges are untouched stores of boundless mineral wealth. This entire region is subject to the most diverse climatic conditions, seasons of extreme cold alternating with intervals of almost tor-rid heat. Such is the Empire of the Czar, embracing more than one seventh of the land surface of the globe and support-ing a population of one hundred and thirty millions. Today we see the Great Bear reaching out ready to seize in his powerful clutch territory after territory. The stress of pres-ent events draws our attention especially to the Far East. There we see the Muscovite pressing relentlessly upon the territory of China, and now by the test of battle it must be decided whether Korea also shall be Russian. The Far East is not the only object of Russia's advance. Slowly, silently, by stealth of di-plomacy, plans are being laid, forces set to work to widen Asi-atic Russia to the southward. During the last forty years; THE MERCURY. 131 , •% . — Britain has watched with apprehension the southward advance of the Bear toward her Indian border. Never for an instant dare she relax her vigilance against the encroachment of the Czar. Russian advisers ever ready to advance the interests of their master hold the ears of many of the native border princes. But yesterday came rumors of Russian influence in Tibet, of a treaty of that country with Russia, and the presence of envoys in the Tibetan capital whose purpose is to forward Russian in-terests in opposition to those of England. Turkey and the Balkan States feel this powerful hand and Sweden and Norway look with alarm toward the borders of Finland. What is the history of the growth of this giant among nations ? Three hundred and twenty years ago Russia was a small and semi barbarous state whose advance posts were scarcely eight hundred miles east of St. Petersburg. In the closing years of the sixteenth century, however, there came to the throne a ruler distinguished for severity even in that stern age. Ivan the Ter-rible, by the very cruelty of his rule, inaugurated the eastward movement of that Slavic invasion which now after three cen-turies of alternate advance and retreat is now approaching so terrible a crisis. Rebellious subjects of the Czar fleeing from pursuing troops were forced to take refuge in the unknown, frigid wilderness to the eastward. As they retreated, they easily overcame the scattered nomads who inhabited these regions. Then by turning over the conquered territory to Russia, they obtained the pardon of the Czar Ivan. This was the first step —the entering wedge—in Russia's eastward advance. The tide thus setting toward the Pacific flowed on slowly but resist-lessly, unopposed by rival nations, for the region was to them unknown. A century passed and another mighty figure ascended the Russian throne. Under Peter the Great came further aggres-sive expansion. The northern ocean presented an insurmount-able barrier but in other directions the advance continued. Southward the Muscovite ruler forced his way and to the west-ward Sweden and Poland felt the force of Russian aggression. Thus year after year, under ruler after ruler, the slow policy of 132 THE MERCURY. expansion has gone on. Wherever opportunity offered the Great Bear forced his entering wedge. West and south felt the advance, but it was toward the east that he moved most steadily. As has been said, Russia aims to follow the line of least re-sistance. The vast plains of Siberia, frozen in winter, parched in summer, were a part of the world's surface uncoveted by the earth-hunger of Europe. So while other nations fought and wrangled over other portions of the globe, the Empire of the Czar silently absorbed this mighty region. Thus by slow movements or sudden leaps, by treachery or by diplomacy, by fair means^or foul, Russia at last reached the Pacific—the ocean outlet which she has always desired. Here was encountered an unsurmountable difficulty. Russia, having apparently overcome all obstacles in her march to the sea, was now met and held by the strength of perpetual winter. The ice bound harbors of northern Asia were valueless. Warmer waters must be reached and, having come thus far, Russia was not to be baffled. By a sudden, bold move the Amur was made the southern boundary. Then in i860, subtle diplomacy obtained from China the strip of coast upon which is built the port of Vladivostok. It is significant that the name of this city is the Russian phrase for " Control of the East." As a seaport Vladivostok is a vast improvement over Petropaulovsk, the first Russian port in Kamtchatka, but still there is not en-tire freedom from the disadvantages of winter. Russia still hungered for a warm-water port. The Trans-Siberian Railway was built—five thousand miles of single track reducing the in-terval of transit between Moscow and Vladivostok to only fif-teen days. Events now began to move rapidly in the Far E^ast. In 1894, the close of the Chino-Japanese war left Japan in possession of the valuable harbor of Port Arthur. On the plea that the possession of this port by Japan threatened the in-tegrity of China, Russia forced the retrocession of Port Arthur to its original owner. Two years later, a Russian squadron entered this harbor ostensibly to winter there. Ere many months the world was startled to learn that Russia had leased Port Arthur from China. The integrity of the latter country THE MERCURY. 133 seemed no longer a consideration. Immediately came military occupation of the city and the erection of tremendous defensive works. Russia had obtained her warm-water harbor; but was she satisfied ? Between Port Arthur and the Siberian frontier lies the rich Chinese province of Manchuria. In it have settled many native Russians. What could be more natural than that the Great Bear should covet this prize also to make his possessions com-plete? Asa preliminary step, a Chinese concession was ob-tained for shortening the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok by a line across Manchuria. Russia had at last obtained a foot-hold south of the Amur. The erection of branch lines to the borders of Korea and the very gates of Pe-kin was but a short stride. In every case the right of garri-soning the railroad was included in the concession. In 1900, came the Boxer Rebellion. Its close saw Manchuria held by an immense Russian army of occupation. In concert with the allies, Russia agreed to withdraw from Chinese territory, but months went by and the Manchurian'army lingered., The wily Muscovite concluded a treaty with China providing for the long-promised withdrawal, but it soon became evident that before this would be carried out new concessions were expected. The Russian representative in Pekin even went so far as to demand that all the Manchurian concessions be granted to Russians. This was but one of Russia's diplomatic attempts to gain a controlling voice in Chinese affairs. China, however, was al'ive to the true state of affairs and refused to commit herself to any further agreements. As a consequence, Russia is still in mili-tary possession of Manchuria. Nominally her troops were kept there solely in pursuance of the treaty-right of protecting her railroad interests. In reality, the whole line was turned into an armed camp by the establishment of forts garrisoned by all branches of the Russian army, and today Manchuria is practically a Russian province. • We now reach the final chapter in the history of Russian aggression—final because it brings us to the present time, cer-tainly not because it marks the end of the advance. With hr's 134 THE MERCURY. grip firmly fixed on Manchuria, the Bear now turned a longing eye to the little kingdom of Korea. The possession of this choice bit of the world was now his aim. Even before the Chino-Japanese war Russia was laying her subtle plans to this end. In 1893 or early in 1894, she made a generous present of rifles to the Korean army and even furnished a Russian drill-master to train Korea's seven thousand soldiers in European tactics. At the same time swarms of Russian agents entered the country. The fruit seemed almost ripe for plucking. But now an opponent faced Russia. Japan had long watched this onward march with jealous eye. In this move toward Korea she saw a positive menace to her existence. Nothing remained but to throw down the guage of battle and to begin the contest whose result is being awaited by the entire world. What are Russia's motives and what her ultimate policy ? Her statesmen would have us believe it is a simple one. Says M. Witte, the former chief of Russian finances and now presi-dent of the Committee ot Ministers : " History measures not by years, but by centuries ; and from this point of view, by the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway to Port Arthur and Dalny.a mighty work is completed, a historical problem is solved, and one of the last steps is taken in the advance of Russia to the Far East, in her effort to find an outlet to the open sea, to the ice-free shores of the Pacific ocean." This is indeed Russia's principal object, but its fulfillment means also the control of northern Asia. And since the de-velopment of her railroad policy has done so much already for the advance of Russian territory, there is no reason to believe that it will not be made the occasion of further advance. We have the word of M. Witte that Russia's object is to obtain a warm-water port. This is in the main a legitimate object and has been partly fulfilled by the acquirement of Port Arthur. But it must be remembered that Port Arthur is not wholly a Russian possession. It is, therefore, obvious that the Russian wishes will not be entirely satisfied until that port is Russian beyond a doubt. The same is equally true of the whole pro- THE MERCURV. 135 vince of Manchurfa. Then, too, it is more than probable that the desire is to reserve the acquired territory for Muscovite trade alone. It is true that Dalny is an open port, but Port Arthur is closed and foreign merchants find much difficulty in meeting Russian competition in Manchuria. As a recent writer puts it: The Russian motive may be viewed from two stand-points. Russia herself would have us believe that it is benevo-lent. She is building a railroad through unopened territory, erecting modern cities and valuable mills in the wilderness, and setting up an orderly government in the place of misrule. The outsider acknowledges all this, but what, lie a;ks, will Russia demand in return for these enormous expenditures? The an-swer is apparent. It has already been given. She has the right of protecting her interests and now demands a complete monopoly. Such are Russia's complex motives. What will the outcome be? If Russia be successful in the present contest, will her aggressive plans be concluded without opposition ? Will the world witness the spectacle of Korea and China absorbed or will the Powers step in to fix a limit to further expansion ? If they do so, will their strength be sufficient to restrain the Bear already flushed with victory ? If Russia be vanquished, will the settlement thus arrived at be permanent ? Will little Japan continue to be an efficient barrier, or will returning strength again put in motion the tide setting toward the Orient with overwhelming volume ? Will the gallant Island Kingdom perish or may it look for help to Europe and America? Time alone can bring an answer. Here prophecy has often failed and will fail again, for as has been well said: "Russia's state-craft is not of the months or of the years; it is of the ages. It is not of monarchs, but of a dynasty, and it is less the policy of the dynasty than it is the need of a people and of a land." 136 THE MERCURY. "A MODERN FAUST." (BEING A BIT OF TRUTH MASQUERADING AS NONSENSE.) ONCE upon a time—during the twentieth century—there lived a young man who had been but three years out of college. Having entered the greater University of the World, he had been hailed by his fellow Freshmen as a comrade, had been hazed by Sophomores, patronized by condescending Juniors, and deluged with advice by venerable Seniors, even as he had been in college. But he was a restless and adventure-some youth. The monotony of the office palled upon him, and, for relief, he experimented in Mysticism and Christian Science. One momentous evening he conceived the idea of putting his knowledge to the supreme test, by summoning be-fore him the Prince of Darkness. Thereupon he took down his LeConte and. his Mary Baker Eddy from the shelf and set to work. And in very truth, gentle reader, in less than half the run-ning of an hour glass, Mephistopheles himself stood before him. faultlessly attired in evening clothes—for the red cap and mantle had succumbed to the spirit of progress in Hades even as the simple sins of our forefathers have given place to the more delicately refined and ingenious vices of to-day. But in this one respect was the Devil unchanged. For no sooner had the usual conventionalities been exchanged than lie attempted to purchase the soul of the youth in the most approved man-ner. He showed him visions of fair women, even as he had shown them to the Faust of old. But the youth was unmoved; he smiled and shook his head, for he was a wise youth. And the Devil promised him great riches and power. But the youth, for he was wise, replied, "If these things were worth while, O Lucifer, I could attain at a lesser price, even hard work. It is not enough." T,hen did the Devil promise a most miraculous thing, "For," said he, "if thou wilt give thyself to me, Grover Cleveland and William J. Bryan shall make a truce and be as brothers. Shoulder to shoulder they will fight for thee and nominate thee for the Presidency on the Democratic THE MERCURY. I 37 ticket. Thou wilt be the most talked-of man in the Nation." But the youth, being wise, replied : "Am I not own cousin to the Proprietor of Pennsylvania, and is it not agreed that I shall be the next State Treasurer? And is not this better than to be President, much less a candidate for President mid on the Democratic ticket? Go to, it is not enough." Now the Devil was almost vanquished, but he was also wise and he thought deeply, and he said, "I can then offer thee nothing more than again to make thee a reckless, carefree Sophomore among thy former classmates. Think! Is it not enough?" And the youth meditated within himself; he knew there were no days like those days; he longed again to be carefree and thought-less, recognizing no higher authority than his own sweet will and the majority action of his class; his heart called out for those friends who, too, had dwelt in Arcady. And he replied, "It is enough." For he was a wise youth withal. MORAL—Eat, drink, and be merry, ye Seniors, for to-mor-row ye die. "X. Y. Z." • SOCIALISM. ( Written for the Pen and Sword Prize Essay Contest.) JOSEPH E. ROWE, '04. THE word socialism was first used in 1835 in connection with an organization founded by Robert Owen of Eng-land. This society was given the grandiloquent appellation of the Association of all Classes of all Nations, and its purpose was to secure "Social improvement and reconstruction." Since that time the word socialism has been applied rather incautiously, and,as a consequence, it is an exceedingly difficult word to define with precision. According to some writers there is a growing tendency to regard as socialistic any inter-ference with property undertaken on behalf of the poor, or any measure promoted by society to limit or modify the working of the economic principle of laissez-faire. Roscher defined socialism "as including those tendencies which demand a greater regard for the common-weal than consist with human 138 THE MERCURY. nature." John Raeof our day declares that it is common to describe as socialistic "any proposal that asks the State to do something lor the material well being of the working class, or any group of such proposals, or any theory that favors them." Janet defines it as "every doctrine which teaches that the State has a right to correct the inequality of wealth which ex-ists among men, and to legally establish the balance by taking from those who have too much in order to give to those who have not enough, and that in a permanent manner, and not in such and such a particular case—a famine, for instance, or a public calamity." But these definitions and all others describe only phases of the question. For instance, in order for any measure to be socialistic it need not proceed from the State; it may emanate from individuals just as well; in fact the earliest socialistic measures proceeded from individuals. There was socialism in colonial times when they had a common storehouse from which each one received his equal share of goods; the instituting of a wider system of public schools is a highly socialistic measure ; an equal distribution of profits between two partners, or among the many members of a company is also socialistic; and yet it is just as proper and usual to describe as socialistic the so-called "strikes," or the assassination of million-aires by dynamite. It is, therefore, evident that socialism em-braces a great deal; at the same time, we must remember that all these are only different phases of the same great question. All socialists are alike in attempting to secure a more equit-able distribution of wealth, or in endeavoring to equalize op-portunities for acquiring it; but the salient points upon which they differ are the ways and means of accomplishing their ends. Some maintain that the State, by managing industry and controlling land, could best promote the commonweal; others very emphatically declare that there should be no cen-tral government at all. The more radical of the first class try to get control of the government; those of the latter class en-deavor to destroy it. Unfortunately in the present age the most influential forrfl of socialism is of the most radical and revolutionary character— THE MERCURY. 139 that which desires no government at all. Alexandria II. of Russia and our late President McKinley fell victims to this outrageous doctrine. Nihilism and anarchism are its more specific names. Yet we cannot afford to consider as danger-ous all socialistic measures of today. Upon exactly this prob-lem a great amount of useless discussion has taken place. Politicians of late years have made very effective use of the ambiguity in the word socialism. Whenever an opponent could accuse a candidate for public office, of promoting socialistic measures, no matter how benevolent or beneficial they might have been to the people, the mention of that word together with the prevalent misconception of it in its better sense, was generally the most derogatory charge brought against him in the eyes of the ignorant working classes—the very persons whom worthy socialistic principles would benefit. Although every writer has made his own classification of so-cialists, they all directly or indirectly acknowledge the four following classes: (1) large-hearted and thoroughly benevo-lent men whose feelings have been touched by the unjust op-pression of laborers ; (2) those who are revolting against cruel oppression; (3) those who are discontented with their positions in life, principally because they fail to realize their limitations; (4) the lowest class whose adherents are characterized by a covetous, selfish, and utterly lawless spirit. The first of these classes consists principally of nothing more than ardent sympathizers with the socialistic movement in its better meaning. According to good authority more than a half million of such men are found in the United States. Many ministers of the gospel and other benevolent men as well as the members of philanthropic and humanitarian orgini-zations belong to this class. They sympathize deeply with the oppressed laborer and endeavor to alleviate his misery by every peaceable means. Others of this class" become so impressed with the necessity of social and industrial improvements that they have devoted their lives entirely to the cause. These are quite liable to be-come extremists, and notwithstanding the fact that their inten- 140 THE MERCURY. tions are of the most noble character, more harm than benefit results from their efforts, chiefly because the lower moral and mental capacities of those whom they influence are not vigor-ous enough to prevent the latter from becoming radical, desper-rate, and fanatical. Hall Cane has pictured such a man in his "Eternal City" in the person of Dr. Roselli or of David Rossi, especially in the latter; but the futility and evil consequences of their efforts are also portrayed in a striking manner. It is only natural that there should be such men especially in a Christian nation. When one considers the extremely low wages for which laborers had to work at certain periods of our history, the condition of some of their homes even in our day, the company store and the extortion ot overwork from them by overseers, it is not very strange that large hearted men should bestow their symapthy. No doubt, these conditions have been vastly exaggerated by some writers, but that they exist to a reasonable extent cannot be doubted. The oppressed or those who imagine themselves to be in such a condition, constitute the second class of socialists. Only men who work come properly under this divisicjp; those who become discontented and quit work will be considered later. Labor Unions consist almost entirely of such men; if they suspend labor, it is only temporarily, and is for the purpose of bringing about better conditions. Occasionally the labor union-ists content themselves by merely putting a stop to production, but more frequently, almost invariably, they manifest quite "an omnivorous spirit of destruction." The whole cause of the unreasonable demands made by Labor Unions seems to arise out of ignorance. They claim that the whole production of their labor belongs to them, on the ground that wealth belongs to those who make it. In a certain sense this is true, but not according to the interpreta-tion of it given by these laboring men. They understand it to mean that the entrepreneur, landlord and capitalist have no natural right to a portion of the wealth produced, forgetting that in the modern differentiated and specialized form of in-dustry these—especially, the entrepreneur and capitalist—are THE MERCURY. 141 absolutely indispensable. The socialistic idea of the State's ownership of land could probably do away with the landlord, but to attempt the abolition of entrepreneur and capitalist in our present industrial system is absurd. Another very prevalent kind of socialism arises out of the fact that a great many men, failing to realize their limitations, complain of the more advantageous opportunities of other in-dividuals. They claim that the world owes them a living, but as some one has said, "are too lazy to collect the debt." It is this sort of socialism which is the "besetting sin" of our age. Ambitious people now-a days are so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of "sticktoitiveness" that only a few failures leave them practically undaunted. Having been taught, as Dr. Furbae says, such precepts as "There is always room at the top," encouraged by such maxims as "Try, try again," and cautioned to aim high instead of directly at the mark, they continue to strive for positions to which it is impossible for them to attain and for which, if they did reach, they would find themselves wholly unfitted. Many a proud father and fond mother, either because they have wished to encourage a son, or because of the blindness of paternal love, are respon-sible for a young man's superabundance of self-esteem by their having told him that he is not like the average person, and then he goes forth into the world only to consider his efforts unsuccessful because he cannot do as much as some one else who probably has much greater talent. It is this tendency of the individual's failure to realize his true place in life and his proper relation to others that has produced in our age so many dissatisfied, petulant, and cynical socialists. The last and most dangerous sort of socialism is that which manifests itself in murder, vandalism, and other lawless practices. It is exactly synonymous with anarchism. The number of such persons in the United States is as astounding as the awful doctrines which they promulgate. Some years ago President Seelye of Amherst College, declared: "There are probably 100,000 men in the United States to-day whose animosity against all existing social institutions is hardly less than bound- 142 THE MERCURY. less.' In 1881 their press consisted of 19 journals with a cir-culation of about 80,000, and since that time their numbers and the powers of their press have vastly increased. The fol-lowing are statements from some of their papers. "Religion, authority, and state are all carved out of the same piece of wood—to the Devil with them all!" "Dynamite is the power which in our hands, shall make an end of tyranny." "War to the palace, peace to the cottage, death to luxurious idleness." "You might as well suppose the military orginizations of Eu-rope were for play and parade, as to suppose labor orginizations were for mere insurance and pacific helpfulness. They are organ-ized toprotect interests, for which, if the time comes, they would fight." This last, taken from a socialistic paper of Chicago, pro-bably shows, to a great extent, the true relation between Labor Unions and socialistic tendencies of the most awful character. Such socialists probably began their careers as oppressed working men, or as men who failed to realize their true posi-tions in life, and later under the influence of violent socialistic journals or the lectures of an Emma Golden, became fanatical. A great number of them are foreigners who, having become disgusted with the absolutism of Europe, have come to Amer-ica to carry out their nefarious designs. Several great movements of the past two centuries have conspired to inspire socialistic propensities in men. The foun-dation of the American Republic, with the annunciation of her principles—-such as, "all men are equal and possessed of cer-tain inalienable rights such as, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"—paved the way for ideas which, carried to extremes by the ignorant and mischievous, resulted in socialism. In the same way, the French Revolution radiated its evil influences; and the Proclamation of Emancipation by Abraham Lincoln had its baneful as well as its worthy effects. But more influential than any of these has been the greatly increased profits of the rich. How would a poor down-trodden laborer look upon the following statement which occurred in a paper of 1880 ? "The profits of the Wall Street Kings the past year were enormous. It is estimated that Vanderbilt made THE MERCURY. 143 $30,000,000; Jay Gould $15,000,000; Russel Sage $10,000,- 000; Sidney Dillon $10,000,000; and James R. Keene $8,- 000,000. Is it strange if the working man thinks he is not getting his due share of the wonderful increase of national wealth ?" How do men to-day regard a rise in the price of coal-oil and the next week read in all the papers that the larg-est stockholder of the Standard Oil Company has made a be-nevolent gift of several million dollars ? The assassination of rulers and millionaires, the wanton des-truction of property by strikers, and the inconvenience accru-ing from a stoppage of production are not the only bad results of socialism. It tends to ruin the Church as well as the State. Infidelity and skeptacism follow closely in its tracks. In a so-cialistic convention at Pittsburg not many years ago the follow-ing nefarious resolution was unanimously adopted: "The church finally seeks to make complete idiots of the mass, and to make them forego a paradise on earth by promising them a fictitious heaven." "Truth, a socialistic journal of San Fran-cisco says : "When the laboring men understand that the heaven they are promised is but a mirage, they will knock at the door of the wealthy robber, with a musket in hand, and de-mand their share of the goods of this life now ! " What could have a more disasterous effect upon discontented humanity than to read such doctrine ? The socialist of this order denies the existence of God on the ground that if there would be one, wealth, happiness and opportunities would be more equally shared ; they forget to see that the rich are as often unhappy as the poor, and that God sends "his rain upon the just and unjust." Although an attempt to solve a problem of such magnitude may appear absurb, there is, at least one, feasible solution— a more general acceptance and use of the principles ot Chris-tianity. "Socialism attempts to solve the problem of suffering without eliminating the factor of sin." That all suffering caused by our industrial system is the result of sin, either on the part of employer or emplyee, or of both, there can be no doubt. If the spirit of the Golden Rule were put into practice, it "would 144 THE MERCURY. dictate such arrangements between capitalist and laborer as will secure to the latter a fair return for his toil." As Dr. Fisher says, "It will check the accumulation of wealth in a few individ-uals. And the Christian spirit, as in ancient days, will inspire patience and contentment, and a better than earthly hope, in the minds of the class whose lot in life is hard." THE SABBATH AS A CIVILIZER. Miss HELEN WAGNER, '06. WHEN God said, " The seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy man servant—," He surely had more ends in view than the mere refreshing of man and His own glorification. Besides achieving these results the Sabbath has other far-reaching in-fluences. Chief among these influences we see its power as a civilizer, as an educator and a refiner. It has long been an ac-knowledged fact that Christianity pnd education go hand in hand. In the accomplishment of one we necessarily attain the other. The influence of the Sabbath is like the atmosphere—it sur-rounds every one it touches, whether with that one's approval or not. The most violent atheist would be no more likely to scorn the influence of the day set apart chiefly for the worship of the God he ignores than would our staid old deacons. It has been proven that no civilized country can exist without the aid of the soothing influence of the Sabbath on the passions ot men, in the observance of its laws. Because the influence of the Sabbath is so all-prevailing and must be felt everywhere, no man can or does escape it. Christians, of course, are those most directly affected by the Sabbath. They come into immediate contact with some of its most potent influences. A true Christian never misses the Sabbath—he spends . it in the worship of God and for rest as was commanded. And so he reaps not only the physical bene-fit but the intellectual as well. One of his chief duties and THE MERCURY. MS '* pleasures is a regular attendance upon divine worship. Thus while being spiritually fed and elevated he assimilates some of the best literature and art of the world as it radiates from the pulpit and the organ loft and the temple of God itself. But the people who do not come into direct contact with the Sabbath influence, feel it just as surely. They must breathe it with the very air. One cannot go anywhere on the Sabbath Day without being made very conscious that this day differs from all others. In the cities and towns the stillness imparted to the streets, noisy and hustling on other days, by the aspect of the closed stores and shops and the absence of the clattering dray and shouting venders, and the quietly passing inhabitants with their peaceful, serene countenances and their fresher, more artistic raiment, and the sweet music of the church bells—all have a subduing, refining influence on the sensibilities and pas-sions of men, not easily thrown off. And out in the open country away from church bells and changed surroundings one feels an unwonted peace and calm—one breathes with the very air which draws one a little nearer Mother Earth—and thus is made to appreciate her beauties and truth a little more fully. Besides these maternal, physical influences there is another, more subtle, ever advancing influence—the influence of man upon man. Usually the Christian does not need the Sabbath environment for purposes of self-education and refinement, but those with whom he associates or with whom his friends come in contact may and are more helped, as they imperceptibly absorb from him a finer sense of right and wrong and a better general knowledge, than they would be by any numbers of over-zealous instructors and noisy evangelists. I46 THE MERCURY. THE COURSE OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERN-MENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE PANAMA REVOLUTION. ( Written for the Pen and Sword Prise Essay Contest.) CHAS. "VV. HEATHCOTE, '05. PANAMA has an area of about 31,500 square miles and a population of almost 300,000. When Panama revolted a short time ago, it was not the first time she attempted to throw off the yoke of Columbia. In 1885 a similar revolution took place. Columbia promised various reforms which checked the revolution. However, Columbia failed to carry out these reforms. Columbia established a centralized form of govern-ment which caused Panama to lose the privilege of a state. For years the idea of building a canal across the isthmus has been in vogue. The French Company, which attempted it a few years ago, failed miserably. It remains for the United States to carry out the plan. The Panama and Nicaragua routes were suggested. The need of the canal is very evident. If the canal had been built when the Oregon made her long run around Cape Horn the United States government would have been saved much expense. Then, the American interests in Porto Rico, Cuba and the Pacific possessions strongly urge the construc-tion of this canal. For a time the Nicaragua route was favored. A bill was drawn up and unanimously ratified by both Houses of our Na-tional Legislature. The main idea of this bill was that when the canal was completed it was to remain neutral under the protection of the great European powers. However, delay over this part led the people to favor the Panama route. Fi-nally, upon the recommendation of the Walker Commission, the Panama route was chosen providing it could be bought from the old French Company for $40,000,000. However, to keep our word with Nicaragua, the Spooner compromise was passed which instructed the President to select the Panama route pro-viding the necessary arrangements could be made. If, not the Nicaragua route was to be chosen. About this time Columbia became very much interested in THE MERCURY. 147 the canal affairs. They gave the United States every assurance that a treaty favoring the Panama route would be ratified by their Senate. However, after much delay, it was unanimously rejected. Columbia was to receive $10,000,000 for certain con-cessions. Columbia thought the United States was an easy mark and refused to ratify the treaty unless $20,000,000 was given to them. In all these proceedings the Columbian politi-cians refused to consult the wishes of Panama. Panama knew the value of the canal. That the Columbian politicians were working for their own interests was very evident. Conse-quently Panama's hatred for Columbia grew more intense. When the revolution broke out the world was not surprised. The revolution was virtually bloodless. The republic was soon recognized by the United States, France, Germany, Russia and many other powers. In a short time a treaty was drawn up and signed. By this treaty the United States gained complete ownership of the canal and received much more territory than she would have received had Columbia-not acted in such an ugly manner. The course of the United States government has met with general approval by all well-thinking people. All the foreign powers sanctioned the action. Many people tried to condemn the course of the government because the warships were or-dered to prevent any of Columbia's troops being landed to bring Panama to time. How often in the South American rev-olutions the lives of our citizens and likewise their property have been endangered. Many times before this the United States marines and sailors were landed to protect the property of our citizens. American interests are better developed in Panama than in any other South American state. American capital runs the whole railroad system on the isthmus. What good is a government to its people if it fails to protect them ? Then again Panama had been recognized by the United States and for that reason alone her action was justifiable. Some people in criticizing the government forget the action of Presi-dent Polk in the way he started the Mexican War. His action cost the United States' thousands of lives and dollars in order to maintain the national honor. Today all people recognize 148 THE MERCURY. that the addition of Texas to United States territory is a blessing. The idea that the government's course is a stain up-on the history of our country is erroneous. The government has upheld our traditions by being the champion of the weak and helping young republics maintain their standing. "A HUNTER OF MEN." "BRIDGET." WITHIN the forest depths I wandered far, O'er the great battlefield, where bloody war Had made upon our land a loathsome sore, Healed now, but still retaining its deep scar. At last, upon a wooded hill was found, what I had sought, A monument, commemorating strife With victory and loss of life, The boon God-given, A monument for heroes, dearly bought, A witness unto Heaven. Upon a natural rock, like those which on the hillside lay, Was carved the figure of a man; Not as the Knights of old, with upright pose, And fearless eyes, he faced his foes, at bay, But crouched and hid him, midst the trunks of trees, And with a deadly purpose, did the hillside scan. 'Twas here I rested me, A dream I dreamed, Which, to my wand'ring fancy, even seemed A waking dream, a reverie. Within the homestead of an old Virginian farm, A mother sat one sunny summer morn, Holding, within the shelter of her arm, A little babe, her son, her own first born. Oh! what a wondrous grace was in those words,, "her own," What sword could pierce the soul of such a one ? A soul, so full of hopes, before unknown, The deed too cruel, to be planned or done. THE MERCURY. 149 A glorious future lay before her boy, All fashioned with her mother love and care, A future, full of happiness and joy, Devoid of sin, the bait of Death's dread snare. "Her own," but ever since the earth wastrod By her, above all women blest of God, In honor of her wondrous motherhood, The soul of womankind has felt the sword. He grew into a handsome, stalwart youth, Beloved by many, and disliked by few, Then came the blow; her soul was pierced in truth, And he went forth to die, as sons of all brave mothers do. To die, but could he kill his fellow-man? This was the question that had haunted him, Upon the day of march, and in the nightly din Of dreadful dreams, bloody with warfare's ban. A marksman of sure eye, and hand unfaltering, Far-famed was he, And many a woodland voice had cased to sing Through death, from him, its untaught melody. So, when night's dreams were changed to day's reality, Not placed in ranks that fought an open war was he, But called of men, a sharpshooter, lay low, Upon the hillside's brow, to slay the unwary foe. #**#*#***♦* The sun comes flickering through the whispering leaves, Casting their shadows on green moss and fern, A birdling, from a nest above, moves restlessly, and grieves, In dismal chirpings, for its mother's late return. The noonday calm is over hill and glen, Save for the distant sound of battle's roar, There, where a multitude of bravest men, Fight onward for their country's noble fame, for honor more. Then with a rustling sound, the calm is broken, The underbrush is parted by a man in blue, A moment's pause; no warning word is spoken, To tell him "Death is waiting now for you." And he, whom destiny ordained to give to Death her prey, One instant hesitated, in his covert lay Sickened by fear, of his dread deed alone, Then aiming fired and it was done. ISO THE MERCURY. Quickly his weapon casting on the ground, He bounded fearless, down the wooded slope, His boyish eyes, all bright with unshed tears, For in his soul remorse fought hard with hope. And Hope, how soon 'twas vanquished in the fray, A boy, scarce older than himself, his victim lay, Dying in agony upon the sod ; No word he spoke, but with great eyes of pain, Looked up into his face, who had his brother slain, And then, just as the birdling fell to earth, His spirit met his God. 'Twas then a red mist rose before his eyes, a mist of blood ; Concealing the poor body of the slain, from which the soul had fled, He climbed once more the hillside's weary road, Determined to repeat his deed of dread. At sunset, when the wounded mother-bird Returned, to find her nestlings gone, No sound, upon that dark hillside she heard, To tell her of the deeds that there were done. Yet, 'midst the underbrush, there silent lay What had been seven brave men, And he, who watched the little bird's dismay, Red-eyed and haggard, envied each of them. But God is good, his day of darkness o'er, A wandering bullet claimed him for its own, And his sad soul, its struggles knew no more, No more did yearn for murder to atone. As from my dream I woke, my heart was torn With pity, for the " Man of Sorrows " who, Upon another hill, in distant clime, Gave up his life " hunter" for such as you. " Oh, God Omnipotent! " aloud I cried, " For His dear sake forgive the crimes, Committed in the name of Liberty, and dyed With heroes' blood, the curse of warlike times." THE MERCURY. 151 "THE PATH OF DUTY IS THE WAY TO GLORY." NO one will deny me the fact that our present age with all its hurry and hustle, its energy and propelling-force, its competition and its competitors, is an age for the success of in-dividual purpose. Having granted this concession, it follows that individuals must exist with specific purposes, carrying out and fulfilling the obligations which are imposed on them. Be-lieving that no man has ever been created without a purpose, which results in a duty or obligation to his Creator, and when he fulfills this obligation or carries out this duty he has a for-tune worth more in realistic and spiritual value than all the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Vanderbilts or any other gods of gold that ever lived—believing this, I ask you to come with me to the rich meadow-lands of Connecticut, where on Oct. 5, 1703, a man was born who graduated from Yale University at the early age of 16 and set out into the world following the paths of duty and therein was his fortune, a legacy far richer than any earthly inheritance the world could have given him. It was during his boyhood days that a problem of extreme importance began to trouble him, and the solution of this was the determining of his course in after life. From that time he became a man that had an end in view, a something to say and he said it. A bold, fearless, ardent and consistent advocate of his belief; a man with a conscience so clear, so pure, and so unbiased that all the world loved him though he sought not for their favor; a man with iron-clad precepts, not for others, but for himself and he lived them; a man that has come down through two centuries, spotless, to live in the hearts of all man-kind, and who dares to say that his glory shall not live till the sun shall cease to rise and set and until time shall be no more ! This man of purpose or duty has been the father of a very illustrious progeny. Among his descendants more eminent men have been numbered than have been recorded of any other man in American history. They have been most promi-nent in the ministry, in education, in law and a number have sat on the bench. Let me mention some of them: Dr. Jo-nathan Edwards, Aaron Burr, Vice-President, Prof. Park, of Andover, President Woolsey and President Uwight, of Yale, 152 THE MERCURY. not forgetting the elder President Dwight. Three Presidents of Yale are his descendants. Could any man be more signally blessed or have a richer inheritance in the hearts of his child-ren ? He was also a born naturalist, and there is hardly any doubt that had he not become our greatest theologian he would have been our father of Natural Philosophy. As a boy he dis-covered facts which have been handed down to the naturalist of today as most valuable information. Who can set the limit for his discoveries had he devoted himself to this branch of science with his purpose and ambition ? Jonathan Edwards as a man, as a theological and philosophi-cal writer, as a naturalist and as the broadest and grandest man the American pulpit has ever produced, stands out in lines so bold, in verse so tender, and in character so spotless as to thrill with admiration and awe every American youth of today. Who would not love to be what he has been ? Who would not exchange all the wealth he possesses—I care not whether it be millions—for the place Jonathan Edwards holds in the hearts of the people and in the history of his country ? His life is a story that should make any young man enthusiastic and his success has been such as would turn the heads of thousands had it been theirs, but not his for he had a purpose, a convic-tion, a duty to the world and his fellow-man and until that should be accomplished his labor was with him incessantly. Truly he knew the paths of duty and just so surely his glory followed. In two centuries from today how many men's 'names of the present generation, lives and characters do you suppose will have been handed down to posterity ? Where are our Long-fellows, our Emersons, Whittiers, Bryants, Lincolns and Far-raguts of today ? Are we producing any such ? Indications from the past decade and more do not show them and it is believed that unless a change in the ambitions of the young of today is brought about, America will have none to record in her history. The lust for gold is the keynote to this dearth of noble manhood. Men are willing to sacrifice anything—prin-ciple, creed, honor, friends, self, anything—no matter what to obtain the riches of a Carnegie or Morgan. THE MERCURY. 153 Says B. O. Fowler, "if this, our republican form of govern-ment is to stand we must have men" and he means more men like Jonathan Edwards. The U. S. Senate has grown to be a rich man's club, the offices of the government are filled and controlled by political graft with men who are unable to cope with the issues demanded of them. Oh for a few fearless preachers of duty and loveliness, for a few men like Jonathan Edwards; men with purposes, men with a sense of duty and honor, men with the love of a superior being in their hearts ! Our nation must have these men and she is going to get them. Whether they come from Connecticut or from Florida, from California or from Pennsylvania it matters not; they must come. Would you have this, your free form of government turned into a monarchy? Indications point us to the fact that it is gradually being done and there is only one sure method of making the wrong right. This threatening evil can only be averted by finding men who are willing, if need be, to die for a correct principle. Nothing counts so much as principle and nothing tells in a man like purpose. If you would have a for-tune, have a principle, and if you would have the love and esteem of your fellow men live a principle. In all the history of the world there never was a grander period in which to live than the present. Never was there so much to do, so many chances, so bright an outlook, but it is only for the man with a sense of duty. The nation wants men, but she wants them stern, tender and fearless, full of duty and loneliness as was this missionary to the savages, this first of American naturalists, this explorer of philosophy and theology. If for no other vir-tue we should love and revere the memory of Jonathan Edwards today because of his devotion to stern duty and to no other cause can we attribute his success and glory. If asked to write his epitaph I would have inscribed on his monument the sub-stance of his acts done on earth : "The part of duty is the way to glory." "C. E. B. '05." 154 THE MERCURY. POEM. ( Written by a quondam High School pupil.) We come before you this evening, To tell of our High School days, And while our stories we relate, Don't criticize our ways. We started the fourth of September The ladder of knowledge to climb, While the months were rapidly passing, Marking the flight of time. While our work was thus progressing. The holidays drew near, And through all the glad and happy days Were pleasures, unbedimmed by tears. We studied hard to reach the goal, We scholars of Number Ten, And now to the fullest we realize " Laborum Dulce Lenimen." The friendships, sympathies and all That were our life in school, Are meshed with memories of the hall, Which was our working tool. 'Tis sad to part with friends so dear, With whom so long we've been. Try as we will, the briny tears Will come, and sight bedim. School life, so dear, is over now, On life's broad wave we speed, May God 'ere guide our journey through, And we His warnings heed. To one and all we bid farewell, As now are separated The many friends who proved us well, And joys anticipated. Farewell to many undone tasks, To victories not yet won ; May all unfinished work In heaven, if not on earth, be done. * f THE MERCURY Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter VOL. XIII GETTYSBURG, PA., JUNE, 1904 No. 4 Editor-in-ch ief C. EDWIN BUTTER, '05 Exchange Editor CHARI,ES GAUGER, '05 Business Manager A. L. DILLENBECK, '05 Asst. Business Managei E. G. HESS, '06 Associate Editors H. C. BRILLHART, '06 ALBERT BILLHEIMER, '06 H. BRUA CAMPBELL, '06 Advisory Board PROF. J. A. HIMES, LITT.D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M.D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D.D. Published each month, from October to June inclusive, by the joint literary societies of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, one dollar a year in advance; single copies 15 cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Busi-ness Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORIALS. LOYALTY TO Probably no force, power or influence among ALMA MATER, the graduates of a college is felt so much as Loyalty. We all believe that a college can be only what her Alumni wills her to be. If she is to spread her influence through-out many states; if she is to wax strong and command a place among the leading universities and colleges of the world; if she is to grow and prosper as she should, and as so many col-leges are doing, she must have your support, Alumni. Loyalty to Alma Mater must be your watch-word day and , night. Be eager, ready and enthusiastic at all times and you will be surprised beyond measure how much you can do for her. The very fact that you are a graduate is proof of your obligation and should be a sufficient incentive to rouse your earnest endeavors on her behalf. I56 THE MERCURY. Every college, no matter where or how situated, has its own reasons for producing loyal Alumni. It is, indeed, a sad day for the old mother when liar son turns his back on her, and it is a sorry day for Gettysburg when an Alumnus forgets her love and devotion. Perhaps a true indication of the success a man will make in the world is the spirit and vehemence with which he accomplishes his college work. If the undergraduate does his very best and is loyal to the core, the college cannot be without loyal Alumni. He who sings most lustily his Alma Mater'a songs, who has again and again made his throat raw with a "heike" for the orange and blue, who fervently loves every spot of this historic ground, he is the fellow who usually counts for something. Tis to the devotion and love and in-terest of such men that Gettysburg pays tribute. Loyalty to Alma Mater means the preaching of her charms to every boy who expects to go to college, and to many more who have never had a thought of a college course. Loyalty to Alma Mater means doing one's best and a keen and lively interest in all her affairs. Loyalty to Alma Mater means your unbounded support, Alumni, to your college publications. Gettysburg wants love and devotion and loyalty from every Alumnus. How much will you do for her in the next year ? Shall we, undergraduates, believe your efforts to be commen-surate with your love ? It is the only criterion we have with which to take your measure. Are you one of the many who are always so busy that when an appeal comes you must beg to be excused ? If you are made of such stuff, Gettysburg has no use for you, and the noise you will make in the world will never cause a disturbance. Our dear old college has many loyal alumni who have fought, bled and died in her interests, and to them, we, her sons, give all the honor and reverence for what she is today and for what she gives promise of in the not far distant future. Sooner or later in the life of many a young person the ques-tion comes, "To what college shall I go after I have prepared myself in the academy or high school?" It is thrusting itself upon a great many young people in this month of June, as the THE MERCURY 157 colleges and universities are sending out their scores and hun-dreds of graduates and the preparatory schools are finishing up the share of- the work that properly belongs to them. It is a serious question, one that will mean much in the life of the in-dividual, one that should not be decided without grave con-sideration. Shall he go to the college having the most successful ath-letic teams ? or to the one having the greatest reputation ? or to the one which makes the greatest promises ? These are some of the questions usually taken into consideration by pro-spective college students. But how many stop to ask them-selves and to consider the vastly more important question, "Which college lays the greatest emphasis upon the training of its students in the duties of good citizenship and the devel-opment of Christian character?" This, after all, is the important consideration. Not how great a reputation do the athletic teams have, not how much does it seem to promise, but how much importance does it attach to the development and training of that which really makes character ? H. C. B. -^> EXCHANGES. " Criticism is essential to good work. True criticism is both appreciative and corrective, but it is not so essential that a writer receive perfect criticism after all. Public judgment, fav-orable, adverse or perverse, is instructive and leads us to correct our errors, improve our style, sharpen our wits and pay more attention to the perfecting of our work, line by line. Have you a thought, the plot of a story, the idea of a poem ? Write it in your best and freshest moments and lay it by until the frost of cool evenings has chilled it, and it has become a thing apart from yourself. Then criticize it, remodel it, with your best impartial judgment. Never doubt that the English lan-guage has the right word ; and the right words rightly and ar-tistically constructed, make famous literature of the thought of men."—The Bowdoin Quill. I58 THE MERCURY. V The Otterbein Argus contains a rather interesting story en-titled " Character Painting." It pictures quite vividly the con-dition of many a poor child in the mining districts of our coun-try and portraying the effect produced by refinement and wealth upon so uncultured a mind as that of the heroine. While this story is good in the main, it is the only article of a literary nature in the journal. We cannot feel that such a meagre amount of literary matter does justice to a school which styles itself an university. The editorial pointing out why students should remain for commencement, whenever it is at all possible, is timely and well worth putting into practice. Commence-ment exercises are the crowning events of the year, and cer-tainly, whenever possible, the student should avail himself of this privilege to enjoy the happy closing of the school-year and also to bid farewell to the graduating class for whom it means so much. Remember that you yourself expect to be in a similar position some day, then perhaps you can better appreci-ate its significance. The best part of the World's Fair number of The Wabash is its "exchange pickings." The exchange editor is to be com-mended^ for his judgment and selection of clippings. We quote a few of them. " Are you Hungary ? Yes; Siam. Well, come along ; I'll Fiji." Again : " It is said some girls are pressed for time ;—others for the fun of it." " If college bred is a four-year loaf (The Smart Set says its so.) Oh tell me where the flour is found For us who need the dough !" —The Acorn. TEACHER—Johnny, repeat after me " Moses was an austere man and made atonement for the sins of his people." JOHNNY—" Moses was an oyster man and made ointment for the shins of his people." MM » "THE MERCURY. 159 "Usefulness is the rent we are asked .-to pay for room on earth. Some of us are heavily in debt." The May number of the Manitou Messenger \s a credit to the new staff. The oration "The Public Service of Church and School" is a well written and logical development of the power exerted upon the state by church and school. " Chaucer's Hu-mor" is a terse estimate of one side of his nature, as seen in "The Canterbury Tales." We are glad to welcome the Bucknell Mirror to its long va-cant place on our table. The only literary article, "The Col-umn to the Right of the Doorway," is an interesting and amusing reminiscence of a college prank fifty years ago. An increase in amount of literary matter would greatly improve the paper. The Buff and Blue contains a number of short articles. Among them "The Assassination," while an interesting recital of an imaginary college joke, it might be much improved by a smoother style, less abrupt and " choppy " sentences. The article on "Fiction" gives a brief history of its beginning, de-velopment, present use and abuse. " Ninety-Seven," an episode of an undergraduate who was determined to win his race in an indoor meet, is well written and worth reading. The Red and Blue is always among the best journals of fic-tion on our table. The June number is no exception. Roses bloom and roses fade, Flowers bloom and die. Life is made of sun and shade, ' Laughter and a sigh. Heigh-o ! sun and shade, Laughter and a sigh. Love is like the roses red, Fading in a day ; Soon 'tis dead, its sweetness fled On the wind away. Heigh-o ! soon 'tis dead— Pluck it while you may.— The Haverfordian. ■ The Susquelianna contains a well written article on Jonathan Swift, setting forth his true character. It calls attention to the fact that the vulgarities in his writings, on account of which he ■ i6o THE MERCURY. is not read, are no index to his real character. The spirit of the age demanded writings of such a nature, hence his contri-bution. "The Midnight of the Revolution" gives us a good resume of the condition of affairs in our own country during its struggle for birth. The writer has well digested the his-torical facts relating to this period and gives them to us in terse and unbiased form. In The Western Maryland College Monthly, "Old Man Knowl-ton's Greenbacks " is quite an interesting narrative of how an old miser was robbed of his greenbacks by rats. We think the story might have been told in a more interesting way. The break in the story, caused by shifting the scene to events in the court room, detracts from the narrative; while, on the other hand, were the style in which the story is begun continued, the produc-tion would be much better. The other articles are good. On the whole, the paper is worthy of commendation. The Pharetra contains a sort of parody on " The Raven " (under the title of " Easter Vacation "), which begins well, but soon loses rythm and at times whole lines are entirely devoid of any claim to poetry. However, considering the production as a whole and its probable intent, it is fairly good. SPRING TIME. The cro- cusses As the bull rushes O'er the grass-blades 'Neath the " bloomin' shades ' Of trees which are short For the cro-cusses frolicking sport. —Ex. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Weaver Organs Weaver Pianos Used by Gettysburg College Y. M. C. A. 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The articles that make up this issue cover a wide range of topics: the ecological impact of some productive practices, the constitution of the subjects of public policies by the policies themselves, the scope and limitations in the effectiveness of social participation according to the issues that motivate it, the levels in which it operates and the political system that frames it; the institutional organization of power and the negotiation and confrontation strategies to which the actors resort in certain contexts and moments.María Emilia Val's text on the process of restructuring Argentina's external debt in 2005 studies the sovereign debt negotiation strategy developed by the government of Néstor Kirchner, with an orientation that would continue until 2015, setting a novel precedent regarding the policy with which the states can promote debt restructuring processes in the current stage of financial globalization. It is particularly appropriate to return to that experience at a time when Argentina has been led to gigantic indebtedness for reckless and misguided government management - judging by the results, which are what counts in terms of political action - generating an economic, financial crisis. and social depth and dimensions unparalleled in the last seventy years. Val's article allows us to appreciate the subtlety of the Argentine strategy that, in a framework of explicit adversity with the creditor bloc, at the same time knew how to take advantage of internal or specific differences between different creditors, and between them and their political guarantors, to optimize the perspectives of success.One of the greatest liabilities of capitalism throughout its history is the environmental one. Two articles analyze two aspects of the issue. Soledad Nión Celio deals with the social construction of risk in the production of soybeans in Uruguay, based on the perception of different actors - an issue that fully touches Argentina. This item is taken as an example of the changes that agricultural production has experienced in recent decades. Martha Jhiannina Cárdenas Ruiz and María dos Dôres Saraiva de Loreto present the results of a qualitative study on informal mining in a region of Peru and its effects on the quality of life of the families involved in the activity.The text of Jimena Pesquero Bordón focuses on the role of the vice government in the politics of three Patagonian provinces in recent years. The work opens the way for the study of an issue that until now had been ignored by the "subnational" political analysis. The author emphasizes the strategic relevance that the figure of the Vice Governor usually plays in certain institutional situations and the counterpoint of political games that develop within the respective provinces around the Governor / Vice Governor relationship and the gravitation of that relationship in provincial policy and in its articulation with the federal political system. For its part, Catalina Luz Bressán's article is part of the contemporary theoretical reflection on the relationship between the scale of citizen participation and democracy. Criticisms of the effective modalities in which "transitions to democracy" developed in several countries of our region, in particular what these criticisms posed as a growing distance between formal political systems and the demands of broad sectors of citizenship, led to exalt the virtues of the local, the direct, possibly the immediate, to the detriment of representative democracy practices oriented in the best case towards issues and with approaches alien to the specific problems of citizens and to an effectively democratic participation, generating a vision of the local as an idealized area of participation and deepening of democracy. On the contrary, the author argues that democratic participation is not condemned to the limits of the small scale; maintains that democracy is strengthened the greater the scale of participation as it allows to achieve a citizen involvement of better quality and politicity. "Who nominates dominates" says the old apothegm; naming means identifying and also calling, questioning someone or something, constituting it as a subject or object. The state names through its policies and the tools it uses to achieve its objectives. María Florencia Marcos' article inquires about the production of rural development subjects based on the analysis of the Social Agricultural Program (PSA), a state policy that was developed in Argentina between 1993 and 2013.onstitutes the subject; more often the name, the word, does not change, but the identity mutation occurs as a result of substantive policies, particularly those aimed at empowering its recipients. This is the case of Conectar Igualdad, to which Victoria Matozo's article is dedicated. Conectar Igualdad was one of the best known and possibly successful programs designed and promoted by the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, later dismantled and concluded by the Cambiemos Alliance government. It was also a program surrounded by some controversies, referring to the role of ANSES in its implementation and financing, and how to classify the program within the rigidities of academic classifications: social policy? Educational policy? Technological democratization? - not to mention the deployment of denigrative adjectives and social prejudices that were directed against the program and its beneficiaries. Victoria Matozo's article gets into the discussion from a rights perspective, debating with some social questions, popularized by the media, about the recipients of the program and its scope in relation to the objectives of this policy. The massive student mobilizations that took place in Chile in the 1990s and in recent years highlighted, in the field of public education, the limitations of a firmly structured representative democratic system and the inevitability of the formulation of participation claims and greater democratization far beyond the local level. Braulio Carimán Linares focuses them using theoretical methodological approaches developed in the study of social movements and the analysis of public policies. The article also shows the challenges that student demands posed to successive Democratic Concertación government and the different responses with which they tried to agree with organizations, against the background of a power structure that, in the economic-financial field, maintained continuities with which he had supported the military regime that was installed in 1973. ; Los artículos que integran este número cubren un amplio arco de temas: el impacto ecológico de algunas prácticas productivas, la constitución de los sujetos de las políticas públicas por las propias políticas, los alcances y limitaciones en la eficacia de la participación social de acuerdo a los asuntos que la motivan, los niveles en los que se desenvuelve y el sistema político que la enmarca; la organización institucional del poder y las estrategias de negociación y confrontación a las que recurren los actores en determinados contextos y momentos. El texto de María Emilia Val sobre el proceso de reestructuración de la deuda externa argentina en 2005 estudia la estrategia de negociación de deuda soberana desarrollada por el gobierno de Néstor Kirchner, con una orientación que se continuaría hasta 2015 sentando un precedente novedoso respecto a la política con la que los estados pueden impulsar procesos de reestructuración de deuda en el actual estadio de la globalización financiera. Resulta particularmente oportuno regresar a esa experiencia en momentos en que Argentina ha sido conducida a un endeudamiento gigantesco por una gestión gubernamental imprudente y desacertada -a juzgar por los resultados, que son lo que cuenta en materia de acción política- generando una crisis económica, financiera y social de profundidad y dimensiones sin paralelo en los últimos setenta años. El artículo de Val permite apreciar la sutileza de la estrategia argentina que, en un marco de explícita adversariedad con el bloque acreedor, supo al mismo tiempo aprovechar diferencias internas o puntuales entre distintos acreedores, y entre estos y sus garantes políticos, para optimizar las perspectivas de éxito. Uno de los mayores pasivos del capitalismo a lo largo de su historia es el ambiental. Dos artículos analizan sendos aspectos de la cuestión. Soledad Nión Celio trata la construcción social del riesgo en la producción de soja en el Uruguay a partir de la percepción de diferentes actores -un asunto que toca de lleno a Argentina-. Este rubro es tomado como un ejemplo de los cambios que la producción agrícola ha experimentado en las últimas décadas. Martha Jhiannina Cárdenas Ruiz y María dos Dôres Saraiva de Loreto presentan los resultados de un estudio cualitativo sobre la minería informal en una región de Perú y sus efectos en la calidad de vida de las familias involucradas en la actividad. El texto de Jimena Pesquero Bordón enfoca el papel de la vicegobernatura en la política de tres provincias patagónicas en años recientes. El trabajo abre el camino para el estudio de un tema que hasta ahora había sido soslayado por el análisis político "subnacional". La autora destaca la relevancia estratégica que la figura del Vicegobernador suele desempeñar en determinadas coyunturas institucionales y el contrapunto de juegos políticos que se desenvuelven dentro de las respectivas provincias en torno a la relación Gobernador/Vicegobernador y a la gravitación de esa relación en la política provincial y en su articulación con el sistema político federal. Por su parte el artículo de Catalina Luz Bressán se inscribe en la reflexión teórica contemporánea sobre la relación entre escala de la participación ciudadana y democracia. Las críticas a las modalidades efectivas en que se desenvolvieron las "transiciones a la democracia" en varios países de nuestra región, en particular lo que esas críticas plantearon como un creciente distanciamiento entre los sistemas políticos formales y las demandas de sectores amplios de la ciudadanía, llevó a exaltar las virtudes de lo local, lo directo, eventualmente lo inmediato, en detrimento de las prácticas de la democracia representativa orientadas en el mejor caso hacia temas y con enfoques ajenos a las problemáticas concretas de los ciudadanos y a una participación efectivamente democrática, generando una visión de lo local como ámbito idealizado de participación y profundización de la democracia. Al contrario, la autora argumenta que la participación democrática no está condenada a los límites de la pequeña escala; sostiene que la democracia se fortalece cuanta mayor es la escala de participación en cuanto permite alcanzar un involucramiento ciudadano de mejor calidad y politicidad. "Quien nomina domina" reza el viejo apotegma; nombrar significa identificar y también llamar, interpelar a alguien o algo, constituirlo como sujeto u objeto. El estado nombra a través de sus políticas y de las herramientas de que se vale para alcanzar sus objeticos. El artículo de María Florencia Marcos indaga acerca de la producción de sujetos de desarrollo rural a partir del análisis del Programa Social Agropecuario (PSA), política estatal que se desarrolló en Argentina entre el 1993 y el 2013. El análisis del PSA explicita el modo en que el nombre constituye al sujeto; más a menudo el nombre, la palabra, no cambia, pero la mutación identitaria ocurre por efecto de políticas sustantivas, particularmente aquellas encaminadas al empoderamiento de sus destinatarios. Es el caso de Conectar Igualdad, a la que se dedica el artículo de Victoria Matozo. Conectar Igualdad fue uno de los programas más conocidos y posiblemente exitosos diseñados e impulsados por el gobierno de la presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, posteriormente desmantelado y concluido por el gobierno de la Alianza Cambiemos. Fue también un programa rodeado de algunas polémicas, referidas al papel de la ANSES en su implementación y financiamiento, y a cómo encasillar al programa dentro de las rigideces de las clasificaciones académicas: ¿política social? ¿política educativa? ¿democratización tecnológica? -para no mencionar el despliegue de adjetivaciones denigratorias y prejuicios sociales que se dirigieron contra el programa y sus beneficiarios-. El artículo de Victoria Matozo se mete en la discusión desde la perspectiva de derechos debatiendo con algunos cuestionamientos sociales, popularizados mediáticamente, sobre los destinatarios del programa y su alcance con relación a los objetivos de esta política. Las masivas movilizaciones estudiantiles que tuvieron lugar en Chile en la década de 1990 y en años recientes pusieron de relieve, en el terreno de la educación pública, las limitaciones de un sistema democrático representativo firmemente estructurado y la inevitabilidad de la formulación de reclamos de participación y mayor democratización mucho más allá del nivel local. Braulio Carimán Linares las enfoca recurriendo a abordajes teórico metodológicos desarrollados en el estudio de los movimientos sociales y el análisis de políticas públicas. El artículo permite ver asimismo los desafíos que las demandas estudiantiles plantearon a sucesivos gobierno de la Concertación Democrática y las diferentes respuestas con que estos intentaron acordar con las organizaciones, con el trasfondo de una estructura de poder que, en el terreno económico-financiero, mantenía continuidades con la que había servido de sustento al régimen militar que se instaló en 1973.

Human activities now represent the most important force shaping the degradation of ecosystems in all of the world´s major biomes (well established). Long-established drivers of land degradation continue to increase across much of the world, including agricultural activities {3.3.1, 3.3.2}, driven by increasing demands for food and bioenergy. More recent global change drivers, such as climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition, further exacerbate impacts {3.4}. We are now in a qualitatively different and novel world, compared to only a few decades ago, and the combination of drivers creates significant challenges to restore degraded land and mitigate further degradation (established but incomplete). Few, if any, areas of the world are now free of some form of human influence (well established) and some systems are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Changes in the extent and severity of both land degradation and restoration commonly result from multiple underlying social and economic factors – indirect drivers, many of which occur in places distant from where the impacts are felt (well established) {3.6.4}. Demand for food imports is increasing across much of the world. This high dependency on imported commodities means that a large share of the environmental impacts of consumption is felt in other parts of the world. The physical quantity of goods traded internationally only represents one third of the actual natural resources that were used to produce these traded goods. The sustainability of the commodity production systems that support global supply chains is thus substantially shaped by the sourcing and investment decisions of market actors who may have little direct connection to the production landscapes (established but incomplete). Moreover, the globalized nature of many commodity supply chains potentially elevates the relative importance of global-scale factors such as trade agreements, market prices and exchange rates, as well as distant linkages related to buyer and investment preferences, over national and regional governance arrangements and the agency of individual producers (inconclusive). Addressing this complexity to avoid and reverse land degradation therefore requires the building of effective multi-sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships that span national boundaries (established but incomplete) {3.6.6}. Economic growth and per capita consumption, more than poverty, is one of the biggest threats to sustainable land management globally (established but incomplete) {3.6.3, 3.6.4}. Extreme poverty, combined with resource scarcity, can contribute to land degradation and unsustainable levels of natural resource use, but is rarely the major underlying cause (well established). Many of the most marked changes in how land is used and managed come from individual and societal responses to economic opportunities, such as a shift in demand for a particular commodity or improved market access, moderated by institutional and political factors (established but incomplete). For example, clearance of native vegetation and land degradation across much of Latin America and Asia is linked to agricultural expansion and intensification at a commercial scale for export markets (well established). Reducing poverty, although a priority for sustainable development, is insufficient to mitigate land degradation if not accompanied by additional measures. Concurrently, rising per capita consumption levels can exacerbate degradation. Efforts to reverse degradation therefore require a combination of local and regional poverty-alleviation strategies, including the adoption of pro-poor food production systems, together with efforts to improve the enforcement of public regulations for sustainable land uses, and strengthening the accountability of global market actors in effectively supporting such strategies. The highly interconnected and globalized nature of indirect drivers of land degradation and restoration means that the outcome of any global, regional or local intervention can be highly unpredictable, yet contextual generalizations are possible (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.3, 3.6.3}. The ways in which land is used in one part of the world can be highly sensitive to sudden, unexpected changes in economic and institutional factors elsewhere (unresolved). For example, changes in currency exchange rates, and cascading effects on the profitability of a given commodity, can markedly accelerate or decelerate the clearance of native vegetation for agriculture within a single year {3.6.2.3}. The sudden imposition of trade restrictions (e.g., due to disease controls), can have a similarly marked impact. However, with an improved understanding of the interactive effects amongst different drivers, it is possible to make predictions that are valid under a certain range of conditions. For example, agricultural intensification and agroforestry practices can help reduce the pressure on remaining areas of native vegetation under certain conditions (such as inelastic demand for staple crops), but unless such measures are coupled with increased enforcement of land-use policies they can result in a rebound effect that increases pressure on natural resources (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation in any given place is rarely the consequence of a single anthropogenic driver, but is instead the result of a diverse and frequently mutually-reinforcing set of human activities and underlying drivers (well established) {3.4.5, 3.5, 3.6.2.1}. Typically, at least three types of indirect driver, such as economic, technological and institutional, underpin any direct driver of land degradation or restoration (established but incomplete). The complexity of drivers that commonly underpin land degradation highlights the fact that single factors, such as high rural population density, rarely provide an adequate underlying explanation on their own for observed impacts (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation is typically the result of multiple direct drivers, especially in instances of severe degradation (e.g., where land-use intensification drives increased species invasions and increases in fire frequency). This combination of drivers has resulted in large expanses of economically important grazing lands, including in North America, being transformed to fire-prone annual grass monocultures (well established) {3.3.7}. The multi-causality of land degradation requires commensurately holistic policy responses that operate across multiple scales and combine both regulatory and incentive based measures (established but incomplete). Rapid expansion and inappropriate management of agricultural lands (including both grazing lands and croplands), especially in dryland ecosystems, is the most extensive land degradation driver globally (well established) {3.3.1, 3.3.2}. The expansion of grazing lands has largely stagnated globally with evidence for an approximate 1% decline in grazing land area over the past decade. Grazing pressure has been stable or only moderately increasing across the major land areas globally, although there are regional exceptions such as Southern Asia. Over half of grazing lands occur in dryland environments that are highly susceptible to land degradation (established but incomplete) {3.3.1.3}. More recently intensification and increasing industrialization of livestock production systems, especially in developed countries, has resulted in an increasing reliance on mixed crop-livestock production systems and industrialized "landless" systems. As a result, 35% of global crop production is now allocated to livestock feed. Globally, fertilizer and pesticide use is expected to double by 2050 {3.3.2.2}. Marked drops in nitrogen-use efficiency (change in yield per unit of fertilizer input) in many parts of the world, particularly the Asia Pacific region, often accompanied by continued excessive fertilizer application, underscore the critical importance of sustainable agricultural practices, including conservation agricultural techniques, to maintain yield improvements (established but incomplete) {3.3.2.3}. Increases in consumption levels of many natural resources underpin increasing levels of degradation in many parts of the world (well established), with slow rates of adoption of sustainable production systems (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.2, 3.6.3.2, 3.6.4.2}. Projections to 2050 suggest that one billion ha of natural ecosystems could be converted to agriculture by that time. More than half of agricultural expansion in the last three decades has occurred in relatively intact tropical forests. Economic growth in the developing world is projected to double global consumption of forest and wood products by 2030, with demand likely to exceed production in many developing and emerging economies in Asia and Africa within the next decade. Traditional fuelwood and charcoal continue to represent a dominant share of total wood consumption in low income countries, up to 70%, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (well established). Under current projections efforts to intensify wood production in plantation forests, together with increases in fuel-use efficiency and electrification are only likely to partly offset the pressure on native forests (unresolved). Adoption of more sustainable production systems continues to be slow, as seen, for example, by a slowdown in the expansion of the area of certified forests. More than half of the terrestrial surface of the Earth has fire regimes outside the range of natural variability, with changes in fire frequency and intensity posing major challenges for land restoration (established but incomplete) {3.3.7}. The frequency of fires has increased in many areas – exacerbated by decreases in precipitation – including in many regions of humid and temperate forests that rarely experience large-scale fires naturally. Some changes in fire regimes, particularly in tropical forests, are sufficiently severe that recovery to pre-disturbance conditions may no longer be possible. Increases in international trade, intensification of land use and urbanization have meant that few areas of the planet are free of invasive species (established but incomplete) {3.3.8}. Nearly one fifth of the Earth´s surface is at high risk of plant and animal invasion, including many biodiversity hotspots. Climate change, including increased nitrogen deposition and changes in CO2, as well as increases in fire frequency with rising temperatures in many areas, are all likely to increase invasions {3.4}. Once established, the eradication of many invasive species is often very expensive, if not impossible, underscoring the need to develop proactive strategies to pre-empt invasions, including through inspections, research and education. Activities related to industrialization, infrastructure development, urbanization, and many extractive industries result in complete transformation of ecosystems, accompanied by near or complete loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function and the services those ecosystems provide (well established) {3.3.6}. Infrastructure, industrial development and urbanization activities, often replace natural ecosystems with impervious or contaminated surfaces such as asphalt, concrete and rooftops, leading to the one of the most severe forms of land degradation in the form of soil sealing. Built-up areas, which are dominated by sealed soils, currently occupy nearly 0.6% of the global land surface. If population densities in cities remain stable, the extent of built-up areas in developed countries is expected to increase by 30% and triple in developing countries between 2000 and 2050. Under more extreme scenarios of increasing population density and economic development, the extent of built-up areas globally may increase to over 2% of the global land area over this same time period. New urban design and green technologies that incorporate features that promote sustainability and delivery of ecosystem services can play an important role in restoring some of the ecosystem functions and services of built environments. The importance of climate change for land degradation is most prominent through its role in exacerbating the impacts of other human activities (established but incomplete) {3.4}. The exacerbating effect of climate change on the impact of degradation drivers, including land clearance and intensive farming techniques, can be felt both through chronic impacts and directional changes – like temperature changes, leading to shifts in species range sizes, as well as changes in average precipitation levels, atmospheric CO2 and nitrogen deposition – and acute impacts through extreme weather events of flooding, drought, and other natural disasters (well established). Heavy rainfall events and storms as well as heat waves and droughts are predicted to increase in frequency over several parts of the globe, with cascading effects on the frequency, intensity, extent and timing of other drivers such as fires, pest and pathogen outbreaks, species invasions, soil erosion and landslides (established but incomplete). The last decade has witnessed a rise in consumer-driven demand for sustainable land use and land management, as well as commitments to restore degraded land that is unprecedented in human history (well established) {3.6}. In the last decade hundreds of companies have made pledges to reduce their impacts on forests and on the rights of local communities, with many committing to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains entirely by 2020. In the same period, many governments and civil society groups have made ambitious commitments to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded land. New players, such as the finance sector, who until recently have been completely detached from the mainstream sustainability agenda are also starting to make explicit commitments to avoiding environmental harm. The overall impact of these voluntary measures remains to be assessed but they offer a vital window of opportunity for reversing degradation trends and placing economies on a more sustainable footing – especially as large areas of marginal agricultural become increasingly abandoned with ongoing development (unresolved).

Human activities now represent the most important force shaping the degradation of ecosystems in all of the world´s major biomes (well established). Long-established drivers of land degradation continue to increase across much of the world, including agricultural activities {3.3.1, 3.3.2}, driven by increasing demands for food and bioenergy. More recent global change drivers, such as climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition, further exacerbate impacts {3.4}. We are now in a qualitatively different and novel world, compared to only a few decades ago, and the combination of drivers creates significant challenges to restore degraded land and mitigate further degradation (established but incomplete). Few, if any, areas of the world are now free of some form of human influence (well established) and some systems are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Changes in the extent and severity of both land degradation and restoration commonly result from multiple underlying social and economic factors – indirect drivers, many of which occur in places distant from where the impacts are felt (well established) {3.6.4}. Demand for food imports is increasing across much of the world. This high dependency on imported commodities means that a large share of the environmental impacts of consumption is felt in other parts of the world. The physical quantity of goods traded internationally only represents one third of the actual natural resources that were used to produce these traded goods. The sustainability of the commodity production systems that support global supply chains is thus substantially shaped by the sourcing and investment decisions of market actors who may have little direct connection to the production landscapes (established but incomplete). Moreover, the globalized nature of many commodity supply chains potentially elevates the relative importance of global-scale factors such as trade agreements, market prices and exchange rates, as well as distant linkages related to buyer and investment preferences, over national and regional governance arrangements and the agency of individual producers (inconclusive). Addressing this complexity to avoid and reverse land degradation therefore requires the building of effective multi-sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships that span national boundaries (established but incomplete) {3.6.6}. Economic growth and per capita consumption, more than poverty, is one of the biggest threats to sustainable land management globally (established but incomplete) {3.6.3, 3.6.4}. Extreme poverty, combined with resource scarcity, can contribute to land degradation and unsustainable levels of natural resource use, but is rarely the major underlying cause (well established). Many of the most marked changes in how land is used and managed come from individual and societal responses to economic opportunities, such as a shift in demand for a particular commodity or improved market access, moderated by institutional and political factors (established but incomplete). For example, clearance of native vegetation and land degradation across much of Latin America and Asia is linked to agricultural expansion and intensification at a commercial scale for export markets (well established). Reducing poverty, although a priority for sustainable development, is insufficient to mitigate land degradation if not accompanied by additional measures. Concurrently, rising per capita consumption levels can exacerbate degradation. Efforts to reverse degradation therefore require a combination of local and regional poverty-alleviation strategies, including the adoption of pro-poor food production systems, together with efforts to improve the enforcement of public regulations for sustainable land uses, and strengthening the accountability of global market actors in effectively supporting such strategies. The highly interconnected and globalized nature of indirect drivers of land degradation and restoration means that the outcome of any global, regional or local intervention can be highly unpredictable, yet contextual generalizations are possible (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.3, 3.6.3}. The ways in which land is used in one part of the world can be highly sensitive to sudden, unexpected changes in economic and institutional factors elsewhere (unresolved). For example, changes in currency exchange rates, and cascading effects on the profitability of a given commodity, can markedly accelerate or decelerate the clearance of native vegetation for agriculture within a single year {3.6.2.3}. The sudden imposition of trade restrictions (e.g., due to disease controls), can have a similarly marked impact. However, with an improved understanding of the interactive effects amongst different drivers, it is possible to make predictions that are valid under a certain range of conditions. For example, agricultural intensification and agroforestry practices can help reduce the pressure on remaining areas of native vegetation under certain conditions (such as inelastic demand for staple crops), but unless such measures are coupled with increased enforcement of land-use policies they can result in a rebound effect that increases pressure on natural resources (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation in any given place is rarely the consequence of a single anthropogenic driver, but is instead the result of a diverse and frequently mutually-reinforcing set of human activities and underlying drivers (well established) {3.4.5, 3.5, 3.6.2.1}. Typically, at least three types of indirect driver, such as economic, technological and institutional, underpin any direct driver of land degradation or restoration (established but incomplete). The complexity of drivers that commonly underpin land degradation highlights the fact that single factors, such as high rural population density, rarely provide an adequate underlying explanation on their own for observed impacts (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation is typically the result of multiple direct drivers, especially in instances of severe degradation (e.g., where land-use intensification drives increased species invasions and increases in fire frequency). This combination of drivers has resulted in large expanses of economically important grazing lands, including in North America, being transformed to fire-prone annual grass monocultures (well established) {3.3.7}. The multi-causality of land degradation requires commensurately holistic policy responses that operate across multiple scales and combine both regulatory and incentive based measures (established but incomplete). Rapid expansion and inappropriate management of agricultural lands (including both grazing lands and croplands), especially in dryland ecosystems, is the most extensive land degradation driver globally (well established) {3.3.1, 3.3.2}. The expansion of grazing lands has largely stagnated globally with evidence for an approximate 1% decline in grazing land area over the past decade. Grazing pressure has been stable or only moderately increasing across the major land areas globally, although there are regional exceptions such as Southern Asia. Over half of grazing lands occur in dryland environments that are highly susceptible to land degradation (established but incomplete) {3.3.1.3}. More recently intensification and increasing industrialization of livestock production systems, especially in developed countries, has resulted in an increasing reliance on mixed crop-livestock production systems and industrialized "landless" systems. As a result, 35% of global crop production is now allocated to livestock feed. Globally, fertilizer and pesticide use is expected to double by 2050 {3.3.2.2}. Marked drops in nitrogen-use efficiency (change in yield per unit of fertilizer input) in many parts of the world, particularly the Asia Pacific region, often accompanied by continued excessive fertilizer application, underscore the critical importance of sustainable agricultural practices, including conservation agricultural techniques, to maintain yield improvements (established but incomplete) {3.3.2.3}. Increases in consumption levels of many natural resources underpin increasing levels of degradation in many parts of the world (well established), with slow rates of adoption of sustainable production systems (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.2, 3.6.3.2, 3.6.4.2}. Projections to 2050 suggest that one billion ha of natural ecosystems could be converted to agriculture by that time. More than half of agricultural expansion in the last three decades has occurred in relatively intact tropical forests. Economic growth in the developing world is projected to double global consumption of forest and wood products by 2030, with demand likely to exceed production in many developing and emerging economies in Asia and Africa within the next decade. Traditional fuelwood and charcoal continue to represent a dominant share of total wood consumption in low income countries, up to 70%, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (well established). Under current projections efforts to intensify wood production in plantation forests, together with increases in fuel-use efficiency and electrification are only likely to partly offset the pressure on native forests (unresolved). Adoption of more sustainable production systems continues to be slow, as seen, for example, by a slowdown in the expansion of the area of certified forests. More than half of the terrestrial surface of the Earth has fire regimes outside the range of natural variability, with changes in fire frequency and intensity posing major challenges for land restoration (established but incomplete) {3.3.7}. The frequency of fires has increased in many areas – exacerbated by decreases in precipitation – including in many regions of humid and temperate forests that rarely experience large-scale fires naturally. Some changes in fire regimes, particularly in tropical forests, are sufficiently severe that recovery to pre-disturbance conditions may no longer be possible. Increases in international trade, intensification of land use and urbanization have meant that few areas of the planet are free of invasive species (established but incomplete) {3.3.8}. Nearly one fifth of the Earth´s surface is at high risk of plant and animal invasion, including many biodiversity hotspots. Climate change, including increased nitrogen deposition and changes in CO2, as well as increases in fire frequency with rising temperatures in many areas, are all likely to increase invasions {3.4}. Once established, the eradication of many invasive species is often very expensive, if not impossible, underscoring the need to develop proactive strategies to pre-empt invasions, including through inspections, research and education. Activities related to industrialization, infrastructure development, urbanization, and many extractive industries result in complete transformation of ecosystems, accompanied by near or complete loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function and the services those ecosystems provide (well established) {3.3.6}. Infrastructure, industrial development and urbanization activities, often replace natural ecosystems with impervious or contaminated surfaces such as asphalt, concrete and rooftops, leading to the one of the most severe forms of land degradation in the form of soil sealing. Built-up areas, which are dominated by sealed soils, currently occupy nearly 0.6% of the global land surface. If population densities in cities remain stable, the extent of built-up areas in developed countries is expected to increase by 30% and triple in developing countries between 2000 and 2050. Under more extreme scenarios of increasing population density and economic development, the extent of built-up areas globally may increase to over 2% of the global land area over this same time period. New urban design and green technologies that incorporate features that promote sustainability and delivery of ecosystem services can play an important role in restoring some of the ecosystem functions and services of built environments. The importance of climate change for land degradation is most prominent through its role in exacerbating the impacts of other human activities (established but incomplete) {3.4}. The exacerbating effect of climate change on the impact of degradation drivers, including land clearance and intensive farming techniques, can be felt both through chronic impacts and directional changes – like temperature changes, leading to shifts in species range sizes, as well as changes in average precipitation levels, atmospheric CO2 and nitrogen deposition – and acute impacts through extreme weather events of flooding, drought, and other natural disasters (well established). Heavy rainfall events and storms as well as heat waves and droughts are predicted to increase in frequency over several parts of the globe, with cascading effects on the frequency, intensity, extent and timing of other drivers such as fires, pest and pathogen outbreaks, species invasions, soil erosion and landslides (established but incomplete). The last decade has witnessed a rise in consumer-driven demand for sustainable land use and land management, as well as commitments to restore degraded land that is unprecedented in human history (well established) {3.6}. In the last decade hundreds of companies have made pledges to reduce their impacts on forests and on the rights of local communities, with many committing to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains entirely by 2020. In the same period, many governments and civil society groups have made ambitious commitments to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded land. New players, such as the finance sector, who until recently have been completely detached from the mainstream sustainability agenda are also starting to make explicit commitments to avoiding environmental harm. The overall impact of these voluntary measures remains to be assessed but they offer a vital window of opportunity for reversing degradation trends and placing economies on a more sustainable footing – especially as large areas of marginal agricultural become increasingly abandoned with ongoing development (unresolved).

Issue 36.5 of the Review for Religious, 1977. ; REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS IS edaed by faculty members of St LOUIS University, the editor,al offices being located at 612 Humboldt Braiding, 539 North Grand Boule-vard; St. Louis, Missouri 63103. It is owned by the Missouri Province Educational Institute; St. Louis, Missouri. Published bimonthly and copyright © 1977 by REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. Composed, printed, and manufactured in U.S.A. Second class postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri. Single copies: $2.00. Subscription U.S.A. and Canada: $7.00 a year; $13.00 for two years; other countries, $8.00 a year, $15.00 for two years. Orders should indicate whether they are for new or renewal subscriptions and should be accompanied by check or money order payable to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS in U.S.A. currency only. Pay no money to persons claiming to represent REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. Change of address requests should include former address. Daniel F. X. Meenan, S.J. Robert Williams, S.J. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Jean Read Editor Associate Editor Questions and Answers Editor Assistant Editor September 1977 Volume 36 Number 5 Renewals, new subscriptions, and changes of address should be sent to REVIEW Fon REL1c~ous; P.O. Box 6070; Duluth, Minnesota 55802. Correspondence with the editor and the associate editor together with manuscripts andbooks for review should be sent to REVXEW YOn REL~CIOUS; 612 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boule-vard; St. Louis, Missouri 63103. Questions for answering should be sent to Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.; St. Joseph's College; City Avenue at 54th Street; Philadelphia, Pennsyl-vania 19131. The First Week of the Spiritual Exercises and the Conversion of Saint, Paul Carolyn Osiek, R.S.C.J. Sister Carolyn is on the faculty of Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, where she teaches New Testament. Most recently, she had been Research/Resource Associate in Women's Studies at H~rvard Divinity'School. Her address: Catholic Theological Union; 5401 S. Cornell; Chicago, IL 60615. The title ~ays in a general way the topic of this article. Actually, however, it is somewhat the other way around, for another way of expressing the topic would be: Paul's decisive "First Week" experience, or, the "First Week" in the life of Paul. The present investigation Will be an attempt to focus, examine, and understand the personal experience of Paul which parallels and reflects the process experienced and planned by Ignatius for his followers in what he later came to call the "First Week" of the Spiritual Exercises. There are some obvious limitations to such an undertaking. First, if as is generally accepted, Paul's initial conversion experience took place some-time between 33-36 A.D., and if what is preserved of his Philippian, Ga-latian, and Corinthian correspondence was written between the years 54 and 57 from Ephesus, there is a 20 year gap between the.experience and the description. 1 Second, Paul had no intention of writing an autobiography.' He alludes to his own spiritual experience only insofar as it helps him convey ~The chronology of the letters is disputed. Here I follow J. A. Fitzmyer, "A Life ~Jf Paul," Jerome Biblical Commenthry, ed. R. E. Brown. J. A. Fitzmyer. R. E. Murphy (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice Hall, 1968), pp. 218, 221. 657 6511 / Review for Religious, .Volume 36, 1.,977/~5 his point to others, usually in terms of the bankruptcy of the Mosaic laW vis-a-vis the grace of Christ--a religious situation far removedin actuality from the experience of most of us, whatever figurative applications can be made. Third, the one source in which Paul's spiritual conversion-is graph-ically and formally portrayed (in triplicate)--Acts 9:22 and 26~could be utilized in a consideration of New Testament theology of conversion, but in the light of modern scriptural source criticism cannot responsibly be used to shed light on Pauline spirituality or spiritual experience. Some of the elements picked up by Luke in.his triple narrative will be used as illustrative of the Pauline experience in the wider dimension of familiar religious symbols, but it must be kept in mind that for Paul they are secondary. This brings us to a statement of the broader scope of the present under-taking. The purpose of the investigation is not historical. If it were, it could well stop with the Pauline data. Rather, the full scope is an attempt to understand Paulis wounding and healing as exemplary of a common spir-itual journey through death to new life for a purpose. The expanded ar- .ticulation of that process is drawn from personal experience as retreatant and as a spiritual director. It might be well to begin by describing the structure of the "First Week' '~ process as it will be treated here. Basically it is a movemrrit of entering into death in Order to have life, of descending into the depths 0nly to find there new inspiration to arise, of going down with the old and familiar and coming up in newness, as the ancient ritual of baptism by immersion so clearly portrays. It is wodnding and healing, alienation and reconciliation as the person comes face to face first with human evil and then with divine good-ness. Precisely where these two currents cross is the point of greatest pain because the comparison becomes nearly unehdurable. But out of the con-flict engen.dered by that pain comes the energy to begin anew, and thus the paradoxical cycle of death and rebirth is once again lived out. Ignatius' term -confusion" is not a bad word to describe the growing sense that something is wrong, both in its literary meaning of "shame" and especially in its more common sense of "losing one's bea.rings." There are three stages that can occur as defenses are stripped away and the sense of confusion sharpens. Ignatius described these three stages one way in n. [63] of the Exercises: first, a deep knowledge of-pers~onalo sin and a feeling of abhorrence; second, an understanding of the "disorder of my actions" and a resulting feeling of horror; third, a. knowledge of the sinfulness of the world ~.and, again, a.sense of horror. Abhorrence and horror are strong enough terms, yet they imply a primacy of activity on the part of the retreatant though, it must be added, the grace to have such feelings is clearly seen as something to be asked of and freely bestowed by God. The terminology used by Ignatius here, at least as we can understand it four centuries later, does not adequatrly desc.ribe the passive nature of the First Week experience as it is sometimes encountered when, without active The Spiritual Exercises and the Conversion of Paul / 659 pursuit of desire for sorrow for sin, and so forth, rational defenses and affective supports ~reviously relied upon suddenly disappear. Disorienta-tion deepens as awareness of sin increases. The revelation of sinfulness progresses; as Ignatius.described it, in three stages. The first is that of felt guilt over specific acts for which the person is respohsible, guilt that has been accumulating perhaps over a long period of time, the full impact of which suddenly bursts forth with unexpectedly painful sharpness as the reti'eatant faces God and himself in solitude. Crnfusion is balanced only by the fi~m witness of the mercy and forbearance of God in allowing the person t~J come to this point. The second stage occurs if the layer of the conscious mind can be sufficiently peelea off to-reveal the underlying basic tendencies to evil for which a perso~n is only partly responsible at the conscious level. The feeling of confusion, pain,, a~nd alienation increases and a ne'w factor eri(ers in: helplessness-sthe inability to do what one Would want to do about vast areas of life. ,;The realization deepens that one is unable to Consciously regulate tendencies to grab for security, love, and control that diminish both victims and subject. The person is painfully aware of not being in control of his own motivation. At this point feelings of guilt mix with a newly discovered fear of one's own innate destructiveness. Mistrust of oneself can be countered by trust in the God who has kept him from becoming worse than he is. In the third stage the probe of the ~pirit goes deeper still until it reaches the 16vel at which personal responsibility is no longer at stake. It is .the experience of total powerlessn~ess, helplessness, total inability to act in any way.to save oneself. The forces of disintegration seem to be triumphing and God seems to have left the person totally to his own resources which have consequently cru'mbled. Here it is no longer a question of guilt and merc~,, but of the ability to live with fear and to cling to some memory of the love of God. The familiar theological maxim that God sustains all things in existence at every moment becomes a crushing reality, for the person is This "confusion." flowing from the sense of being judged by God, is not the result of a rational process: it is total loss of face before a situation which cannot be long endured with the usual supports of reason and prudence. We find ourselves con-fronted by ttie cross of Christ placed in the presence of unmeasuredness itself, that which is "madness to the world" (I Co 1:23).2 Z"La 'confusion.' fruit spirituel de cejugement divin, n'est pas le r~sultat d'une argumenta- 'tign logique: elle est perle totale de contenance, devant une situation qui pr~cis~ment ne peut ~tre plus Iongte.mps support~e avec !es ressources habituelles de la raison et de la pru-dence. ~Nous voici, devant la Croix du Christ. mis ,en presence de la d~mesure m~me, qm est 'folie l~our le monde" (I Cor 1:23) . La premiere semaine des Exercices." Christus, vol. 6. no. 21 (1959), pp. 22-39 (translation mine). 660 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 sure that nothing within himself is preserving his being, .and yet it seems to be God himself wh6 is crushing him. Ignatius understood [53] that only the total powerlessness of Christ on the cross as he is destroyed by force.s beyond human control can give any meaning to this experience, W. de Broucker describes this state of soul in a way that sums up the whole triple movement: It is precisely the attitude expressed by the dying Chris.t that marks the beginning of the movement upward: "Into your hands I commit my spirit." Surrender into the hands of God, the cessation of struggle against the force that seems to be annihilating the self, goes against the basic instinct of human nature. It is natural for us "to fight for life, to hang on tenuously to the familiar. If the shred of self that is left can be given up, a new self can be formed. With surrender comes trust that there is someone or something to surrender to, and that something other than total chaos can result. Once trust has been given, a dim hope can begin to arise, an assurance that dawn will~ome and that a reason for the suffering and death of the experience may be that something greater is coming to birth. With a new confidence given to the force that is at work within, further insight into one's personal responsibility may result. There may be deep-ened realization of how one's total helplessness before God, now a.~vivid reality, creates subconscious defenses in the form of root tendencies to turn away from God in order to avoid pain, conflict, or unwelcome truth. New awareness of personal orientation away from God then leads to a whole new outlook about personal sinfulness. The avoidance, neglect, anxiety, and self-seeking expressed in everyday~life as sin are seen with much more understanding and insight into one's personal motivation.s and weaknesses. At this point a healing of pain and guilt can take place and the mercy of God becomes an invading presence _bringing with it the experience of reconcil-iation leading to a deep sense of peace and eventually of joy. The new clarity of understanding leads inevitably, for the person who remains faithful in following the new way where God is'leading, to a trans-formation of attitude and behavior. This transformation is a psychiC and spiritual change that invades the whole person, btit rarely does it happen all at once. It involves the abandoning of certain accepted values and untried assumptions regarding personal autonomy, perception of truth, or need for affectivity. Realization of what God is asking in these areas and consequent surrender and acceptance of change usually happen gradually over a period of at least several months. What is happening simultaneously is the ac-quisition of a new set of personal values to replace the old ones, values usually founded on sharpened awareness of the fragility and weakness of the self and a deep sense of awe an~d gratitude at the ways that God's power is at work in weakness. Mary Esthei- Harding describes the psychological change that is taking place at this point: The Spiritual Exercises and the Conversion of Paul / 661 Whenever there is an upsurge of highly activated unadapted material into conscious-ness, the task of assimilation becomes urgent. This holds true whether the new material is valuable, creative stuff or merely alchaic phantasy that bespeaks more a morbid exuberance than a prolific creativity. The assimilation of the new material demands a fresh standpoint, which implies a recognition of the relativity of all former judgments. What was formerly considered unqualifiedly good must'now be judged in the light of,the new and enlarged understanding; the same must be done with that which has been considered bad? The whole experience might be summarized as an awareness of: the goodness of God gratitude sinful actions guilt. need for mercy, forgiveness sinful tendencies fear struggle need to experience love of God powerlessness surrender trust hope And a new awareness of: sinful tendencies new awareness of mercy love motivqtion for sinful power of God acts , need to change There follows a healing and reconciliation peace, joy and a gradual transformation of values, attitudeS, behavior As 'was stated at the beginning, the primary focus of this paper is the spiritual experience of Paul, aRd the previous discussion of the process is by ~ay of setting the stage. Patil's change Of heart is classically spoken of as a "conversion;" The limitation inherent in the use of this term is the restricted sense in which the word is most often used: change of faith or religion or, somewhat more broadly, emendation of a wayward moral life, while the root meaning of the word "conversion' ~ is really something closer to an "about face~'--a total turning of the person from one orientation to another. While Paul's "conversions" certainly did entail a change of reli-gious affiliation, though probably not a change of moral conduct, it must be Understood. primarily in the broadest sense of the term, as a complete overthrow and turn-about of personal values. Because of the ambiguities aPsychic Energy: Its Source and Its Transformation, 2nd ed. Bollingen Series X (Washington, D.C.: Pantheon, 1963), p. 285. 662 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 present.in the word "conversion," it might be preferable to ~pe~ak of the "transformhtion" of Paul in his encounter with the li~,ing Christ.4 Contrary to, what much p0pu,!ar arid undiscrimina.ting piety (and perhaps even the a~uthor of Acts)would,have us think, Paul's transformation did not happen.overnight or even in three days as a careless reading of Acts 9:18-30 might suggest. Paul himself speaks of three years (Ga 1:18).~tran~spiring before he began to preach Christ. There is no reason' to suppose that the process moved along with remarkable speed. We tend to clothe Paul's transformation~ixperien~e in'a thick ~overirig of the miraculous, leaning too heavily on the clear triple account of Acts and too lightly on Paul's own illusive comments. The flash of light, the heavenly voice of the reveals/r, Paul's being struck to the ground, and the mysterious three-day blindness are all stock elements of narrations of divine epiph-anies. For some, miraculous revelations are a stumblingblock and a source of conflict. But for most people today, they are something else: an invitation to disregard. And so what happens°is that someone like Paul, who leaps out at us so humanly in his own writings, becomes relegated to the dim past, to the gallery of "saints" who are not quite as human as the rest of us, to the realm of the "supernatural" dichotomized from that realm in which we ourselves live and struggle. The reason for all this is 'not surprising: we do not have to have the uncomfortable experience of seeingourselves reflected in such a "saint." The ways of God with humanity are as varied as are the persons who seek to know them, and yet there are qualities of our common humanity that remain very much the same. It is for this reason that an analysis'of the transformation process a~ given above, and an attempt to see that process as it happened in Paul are worthwhile. We may be able to see something of ourselves in him and so better understand the ways of God in us. It is a mistake to think of Paul as changing f.rom hardened persecutor to egthusiastic mystic, from~his, blind cruelty to a Christian sensitivity, as though: his transformation, were from sinner to saint. Paul was not a hard man; .he was a sincere and generous man. His pursuit of Christians sprang 4An important article or] the structure and Western interpretations o"f Paul's conversion ex-perience appeared long ~go and attracted considerable nOtice in Protestant Scholarly circles, coming as it did out of a Lutheran interpretation of~Paul; I refer to Krister Stendahl'.s "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West," Harvard Theglogical:Revi~ew 56:3 (July, 1963), pp. 199-215, an article well worth reading. In recent conversation betwe_en the author arid rfiyse!f there was agreement about Paul's "clear conscience" regarding his former way of life in Judaism (see ~specially pp. 200-201); however, I would not want to stress the idea of "introspection" as the search for personal sin, but would rather emphasize the seeking after awareness of God's action within the person. In contrast to Dean Stendahl's interpretation (pp. 204-205) I would distinguish two aspects of Paul's change of ways: first, a personal transformation, and second, the directing of that new energy toward evange Jzat~on of the Gentiles. The Spiritual Exercises and the Conversion of Paul / 663 not from cruelty but from enthusiasm in the service of God. He was the good and tlpright man whom the Lord loved, and because the Lord loved hii~ so much, he called him to give more. Paul says of himself (Ph 3:5-6) that his family and religious credentials were impeccable and that he had done far more than the minimum required to be a son of the Law. He was without fault in itg r~gard,'fully aware of its value as gift bestowed upon Is-rael as a proof bf God's love. Hi~ sincere thirst for justice miast have led him periodically into the self-scrutiny of the just which produces an awa(eness of personal failings anti sinful tendencies that only deepens devotion as it deepens-an ap~areciation of God's mercy. ,.Then something happened. Whether his encounter with the living Christ was as dramatic as Acts 9 portrays it is doubtful, for Paul nowhere alludes to~,,his experie]ace as containing elements of the sensational,but rather de-scribes it qui[e simply: "Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" (1 Co 9:1); "I did not receive [the gospel] from a human source nor was I.taught by any but a revelation from Jesus Christ" (Ga 1:12); "God who had set me aside from my mother's womb called me through his grace and revealed his son in me" (Ga 1:15; see Is 49:1; Jr 1:5). There is an undeniable sense of personal encounter and ,call, even for a specific mission, but ~very little impression of fanfare. He found himself at point zero, knocked off his horse more internally than externally, with no patterned defenses or conditioned responses to fall back on that had not been stripped away by a new presence that was relentlessly pursuing him. ,When the realization of whathad happened began to take hold of him, Paul knew he had been changed. Luke's image of blindness approximates in physical.terms what must have been his psychic,state for a period of time: confusion, loss, fear, inner chaos, spiritual paralysis, the terrifying~feeling that hig whole world was coming apart. As he began to surrender to the force that was invading him, he would have become aware that it was a new and unwelcome presence that of Jesus of Nazareth, suddenly: intruding upon his well-ordered world. This is in fact the heart of the experience of brokenness: that Christ manifests himself in a new and unexpected way, and before his demanding presence all pre-conceived structures of life must be put aside. '~ Onc~ he had accepted what was happening, he would have begun to see h~ms~lfin a new way, feeling within himself the slowi3i-dawning and terrible realization that he had misplaced his devotion and misdirected his zeal, the frustration of knowing for the first time that he had beeri turned in a di-rection which, in the light of a new awareness, he had to judge as the wrong way. New understanding Would .have brought about new se'lf-knowledge and a new capacity for radical honesty about the movements of his life, enveloped in deepened awe at the sustaining and patient love of God re-vealed in Christ who was now calling into question the whole meaning of his life. ,664 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 The realization that the love of God has been constant when our re-sponse has been anything but constant, that his forgiveness was extended even before we knew for what to ask it, can be a crushing blow from which the security of the ego never fully recovers. The wound inflicted on it is not cured, as if the tearing never happened; rather, it is healed, brought to new wholeness- not in spite of, but because of the rending. As is often the case, Paul's healing and reconciliation with God were not for his sake only., but that he might lead many others to the same point: "The love of Christ overwhelms us when we realize that one died for all., so that the living should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again., for everything is from God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Co 5:14-18). What is cautiously born then is a'self that must undertake the painful task of she~lding and leaving behind as so much debris much that the former self deemed of value, in order to make room for new value to come. In the case .of Paul the reversal which he had to endure to be faithful to newly-given grace was dramatic and loaded with not only personal but also social consequences: "But whatever was formerly gain to me, I have com~ to consider it loss because of Christ; mor.eover, I now consider everything loss because of the overwhelming knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have let go of eve~:ything and consider it rubbish in order to gain Christ and be counted with him" (Ph 3:7-9). For him it meant giving up a worldview, religious affiliation, a certainty of being right, a reputation, family and friends, the whole fabric of personal and social relationships that had formed the pattern of his life. Few are called to so drasti6.a change. Yet the most fundamental change must have been one with which many can resonate: the need to reconstruct from broken fragments.a new self, a much more fragile self, like an earthenware jar hollowed out at the center in which "the overflowing power comes from God and not from us" (2 Co 4:7). It is the need to understand and accept the voice of Christ addressed to the prostrate human spirit, "My grace is enough, for strength is brought to fullness in weakness," and to respond by saying, "Joyfully then I will openly share my weakness so that the power of Christ may be revealed through me" (2 Co 12:8-9). It might be argued that the above account of Paul's conversion .and transformation is a fanciful extrapolation based on insufficient data. Yet the essential human experience underlying it is so basic and .universal that no matter in how many myriad forms it is manifested, a true experience of transformation from one spiritual state to another (as opposed to a super-ficial "conversion" that is only temporary because self-induced) has certain fundamentally similar components. Certainly Paul's experience was a trans-formation of this kind. Though he leaves many things unsaid, the pain and fear, the bewildering search, and ultimately the ecstasy of discovering that it is precisely in crucifying weakness that the power of the risen Christ is manifested, come through in the few literary traces he has left. The Spir!tual Exercises and the Converison of Paul / 665 For Paul transformation meant a radical break with the past, with family, home, and faith. For most of us, the break is not so abrupt, and yet the need to abandon old habits of thinking and feeling to make room for new ones still only dimly perceived is a common element. Spiritual directors are plentiful these days, but guides and models in one's spiritual experience are not always easy to come by. An ability to find echoes of one's own life in the jolting experience of Paul may give encouragement and be a cause for that movement of hope in darkness which affirms with him that no matter how chaotic may be the experience of finding out what we really are, for the person who continues trying to hang on the way Christ has hung onto him neither height of blind pride nor depth of despair--both of which can co-exist in the same person--nor any creature of the imagination can ever wrench us away from the love of God that is expressed to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.5 ~See Ph 3:12; Rm 8:39. REPRINTS FROM THE REVIEW Profile of the Spirit: A Theology of Discernment of Spirits by J. R. Sheets, S.J. .50 Retirement or Vigil by B. Ashley, O.P. .30 The Confessions of Religious Wom~en by Sr. M. Denis, S~.O.S. 30 The Four Moments of Prayer by J. R. Sheets, S.J. .50 The Healing of Memories by F, Martin .35 The Nature and Value of a Directed Retreat by H. F. Smith, S.J . 35 The Teaching. Sister in the Church by E. Gambari, S.M.M. .30 The Theology., of the Eucharistic Presence by J. Galot, S.J. .30 The Vows and Christian Life by G. Greif, S.J. .30 New Reprints° Centering Prayer--Prayer o~ Quiei by M. B. Pi:nnington, O.C.S.O .50 Colloquy of God With a Soul That Truly Seeks Him .30 Prayer of Personal Reminiscence by D. J, Hassel, S.J. .60 Orders for the above should be sent to: Review for Religious 612 Humboldt Building 539 No. Grand Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63103' Please include remittance with all orders less than $5.00 A Theology of the Religious Life Local Church and Ladislaus Orsy, S.J. Father Orsy teaches Canon Law at the Catholic University of America. He resides at Carroll House; 1225 Otis St. N.E.; Washington, DC 20017. The text of this article is the keynote address given in New Orleahs at the annual convention of the National Conference of Vicars for Religious, on March 21, 1977. The notes were added later to try to dispel some ambiguities in the text and, elucidate further the author's mind. Saint Thomas Aquinas introduced one of his famous works with the Sen-tence: "A small error in the beginning leads to a great one in the end.''1 In the same spirit of wise caution we can say that the wrong question ~n thee beginning is likely to lead to the wrong answer at the end. Let us transform, therefore, the terse words of the title, "A :Theology of the Local ChUrch and Religious Life," into a question rightly construed, that can lead us securely in our inquiry toward the ans~ver~s that we do not know at the point of our departure. Indeed, the title breaks up quite naturally into three queries: 1. What is our understanding of the local church? (By under:standing we mean tides quaerens intellectum; faith seeking underst.and!ng. Here we mean the knowledge of the local church that is givew t.hroughfaith, and is deepened through our reflection on the data of faiths)z ° ~ ~ 2. What is our understanding of religious life? (Understanding means, here again, knowledge through faith and reflection.) , 3. What is, and what should be, the right relationship between the two? The questions spring quite natur~ally from the title. Yet, I am still not satisfied with them. They shouldbb focused with more care, sharpened with greater precision. Also, they should impose a limit on our rather broad topic, and thus make the discussion of it more manageable for our specific purpose. Let us try again to set the right questions. 666 A Theology of the Local Church and Religious Life / 667 1. What is our understanding of the fact, of the ~event, of a particular church ? There are two significant changes in this new formulation. We seek a better understanding of the fact or event of the church; that is, our'focus is not on an abstract concept, but on an actually existing community of Chris-tians who form a church, although not the:universal Church. Our focus is concrete and existential. Our understanding will develop more from .the observation of the living body than from the analysis of texts. Also, we substituted the term "particular" for "local." The reason for this isthat local church has a geographical connotation and tends to point to a parish or to a diocese, hardly to more than these. The term "particular" allows greater flexibility; it points toward the natural unity of a group of Christians inside the broad,universal community. Such unity may well emergedn a diocese, .but it may well go beyond it and extend as far as an ecclesiastical province, a region, or a country.~ It may even spread over several countries. To seek the understanding of a "particular" church, instead of a "local" church, frees us from narrow boundaries and will allow us to examine the issue in a broader context? But we must impose a restriction on ourselves. We do not intend to exhaust the mystery of a particular church by investigating all its dimen-sions. We want to understand its life in relationship to religious commu-nities. That is all; but, it is a lot. 2. What is our understanding of the fact and event of religious com-munities? Here, too, our focus is concrete. Our primary interest is not in the concept of religious life, but in the real life.of religious communities.4 With a well-defined limitation: we seek the understanding of the life and work of religious communities in their .relationship to a particular church in which they exist, and where they give themselves to the service of the universal church. 3. What is, or what should be, the relationship between the two, a particular church and religious commutiities, in it? We intend to reflect on the living relationship that exists, or should exist, in the b6dy of the church between two diverse members. We seek ihis understanding in view oflntelligent Christian action, with the intention of ¯ finding norms and guidelines for such action. Let us turn now to the first q,uestion. First Question: How Can We Come to,a'Better understanding of the Particular Church? All understanding begins with the perception of facts. For facts about the particular church we must turn to the awareness of Christians through-out- the centuries, from the beginning to our days. Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 Some historical pointers about the development of the particular church; or, how did the Christian community perceive the particular church throughout its history? In the early centuries, Christian communities developed maihly along the great commercial routes of the Roman Empire. Soon they structured themselves; the bishop presided over the congregation. The local com-munities were closely knit; those were the times when Christians knew each other by name. While they were aware of the universal dimension of their religion, they enjoyed a certain amount of local autonomy,. Yet, right from the beginning, there was a ,movement to bring the smaller communities around the bishop into a larger unity, either under the supervision of a traveling bishop, or under a metropolitan residing in a larger city, usually the capital of a province. Particular churches with their own language, liturgy, discipline and customs, developed, not so much in each~city, but in larger territories that represented a natural cultural unity, They developed different understandings of Christian faith; they created different practices. Of course, those differences did not go so far as to deny or contradict the unity necessary for universality, but they certainly went far enough to give a different character to each of those particular churches.'~ Such trends are clearly discernible well into the Middle Ages. Individual dioceses in most places were too small to give a specific ex-pression to their faith, to create their own discipline; culturally, they were ¯ ¯ absorbed into a larger unity, into the ecclesiastical province or the national church. Thus, the Irish church, from the beginning, wa.s quite different from the continental churches, yet there was not much difference from one diocese to another. The English church, too, had its own characteristics under the leadership of Canterbury. On the Continent, the legal customs of Germanic peoples gave a certain unity to many churches. In Spain, the Mozarabic rite developed and united many dioceses in worship. In France, churches around Lyons formed again a vital unity, distinguished by their liturgy. We could continue the enumeration of such developments, but for the purpose of this article, let us content ourselves with a general statement, that I believe is historically correct. If by particular church we mean a church that has its own specific charisms, its own mind and its own heart within the universal Church, then only a few dio.ceses were truly.particular churches,n Differences in theology, liturgy, and discipline could be found much more between ecclesiastical provinces, regions and territories of nations, than between dioceses. The source of such variety is much more in human culture than in the understanding of faith. With the waning of the Middle Ages, a change takes place. The power of the metropolitan see in the Western church is reduced to a minimu~m. Liturgical worship, preaching, and discipline become strongly unified in the whole Church, even to the point of exaggerated uniformity. The role. of A Theology of the Local Church and Religious Life / 6159 particular churches, be they dioceses, regions or provinces, is reduced to a minimum. Vatican Council II wanted to restore the dignity of the particular church and the bishops sti'essed its importance repeatedly,r ~'et the council was not in a position to do much reflection on the nature of the particular church, on what it has been throughout different periods of.history; it did not tell us how the term should be understood in the future. Indeed,°the developments after the council reflect some confusion, even some contradiction in these matters. In many theoretical writings and commentaries on the council, it is assumed that the particular church is the diocese. Its unity, its specific character, its distinctive vocation are em-phasized. Yet recent developments in liturgical and disciplinary legislation do not give,.much importance to individual dioceses; they give much more power to larger :tinits represented by national or regional episcopal con-ferences. While differentiation on the diocesan level is virtually impossible, ex-cept in insignificant and minor matters, privileges, exemptions, special permissions are easily granted to a larger unit such as a region or a nation. It is clear now that the term "particular church" can be used in two distinct ways. It may refer to an individual diocese, to one congregation around its bishop, or it may refer to a larger unit that comprises several dioceses and possesses a unity that springs from human factors such as culture, history, national inheritance, and so forth. Both uses are legitimate and important. But the meaning ought to be clarified in each case. Reflecting on the relationship of religious communities to the particular church, we cannot sweep away this problem of meaning, calling it purely semantic. The issue of relationship is alive on both levels and brings up different problems that we must face. There is the issue of the rela~tionship of.religious communities to a diocese. But there is also the issue of the relationship of religious com, munities to a larger unit, e.g., ~to the national church, that has its own particular characteristics. In the United States, both issues are alive. Theological reflections on the fact or event of the particular church, or, what is our understanding of a particular church? 1. Christian people throughout their historY were aware of belonging, as it were, to two communities: one, universal, the other, particular. The universal' community is world-wide; it springs from the action of the one Spirit of God, who was poured out on the face of the earth. The entrance into it is through one baptism that is the same everywhere. The particular community is the local one~ For some, the local church means the parish, for some others the diocese, for others again, it may well mean the church in a country. 2. The temptation always existed, and will probably never leave us, to Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 oppose the two to the point that one is considered important at the expense of the other. But any such consideration is wrong because it tears up the visible body .of Christ. When we speak of the universal Church and the particular ones we. do nothing less.and nothing more than to describe an existing differentiation in the social, body of Christ. His body is one, but it is composed of parts; the whole could not exist without the parts;-and the parts have no life .in themselves. Any separation means death for all; any destruction of natural harmony brings sickness to the whole organism. 3. Paradoxes can be helpful inour attempt to understand such complex differentiation. It can be :said that there is both autonomy and dependence in each member of the body. The particular church is autonomous and yet it depends on the universal Church. The universal (~hurch is itself the source of life for all other churches; yet its vitality comes entirely from the local churches. We may think of the autonomy of the heart in bur body. It will not ~ perform well unless all the other organs let it do what its spec!fic task is; any unwarranted intervention with. the heart,may bring subsequent disaster for the whole body. Yet the heart is totally dependent in its function on the whole body. The rhythm of its beat, the strength of its action, are carefully regulated by numerous other factors and agents present in the living body. If they,.cease . to function, no life-giving blood will flow into the heart. We may not be able to reach~a precise definition for the local church, but reflection through symbols and images can give us a great deal of, under-standing. 4. If we ask now what precisely the source.of differences is among the local churches, we find that it is mainly in the humanity of those Christians who form them, that is, not so much in any specific Christian belief, but in th~ human traditions; history and culture of those who believe. Thus, initially, the Jews and the Greeks and the Romans all received the good news equally, but they built up churches that were marked by their own culture, national customs and characteristics. Thus there were soon Jewish churches, Hellenistic Churches, and churches of the Romans, all part of the "same universal Church, yet all different. .Later, the inhabitants of Ireland, of England, of the Iberian peninsula built their churches on the universal elements of Christian faith, worship, " and discipline, and on the particular elements of tl~eir own inheritance. 5. The situation is not much different today. Here and there, an isolated di6cese may be found that has its own distinctive life as a diocese. The Christian community of a Pacific Island may well develop.distinctive traits that no other diocese in this world can possess. But such cases are rare today. More often there is a regional unity. The dioceses of Alaska form a natural unity that is quite different from their sister churches in the South. A Theology of the Local Church and Religious Life / 671 There" might also be a national unity. The dioceses of Japan are not mark-edly different from each other; the strong unity of the culture and traditions on the four islands is manifest in the particular church of Japan. Even a whole contir~ent can display a unity. How many times in recent years we have. heard the churches of South America speaking with voices that were strikingly similar to one another. There are foundations in South America for a specific particular unity that embraces the Christians of many dio-ceses, numerous provinces and several nations. 6. °Such re°flecti0ns and considerations do not leave us with a clear concept'and definition of what a particular church is; but they leave us with a good working understanding of the complex nature of our Church that is both universal and particular at the same time. Our undei-standing reflects the true state of things and.~e do not become captive of romantic ideas that are definitely present in the .post-conciliar writings. Father Karl Rahner himself stresses that there is church whenever the bishop celebrates the Eucharist, surrounded by his community. Such a ViSion certainly corre-sponds to our earliest traditions, but it is simply not realistic today. Few of the faithful ever partake in the Eucharist'celebrated by the bishop, and the size of the dioceses geographically or numerically makes any such cele- I~ration virtually iml56ssible. Our understanding it not in adopting clear theories. It is much more the perception of the changing, shifting realities of the Chi~rch. That is how it should be. The duty of Chri~tia.ns to uphold the particular church; or, how must we confess in word and deed our belief in the particular church? At this point, two facts stand out. One is that there is no Christian Church without particular churches, as~there is no human body withotit members. The other is that there is no Christian who does not belong, somehow, to a particular church, as there is no individual cell that does not belong,to a distinct organ in the human body. No one can; therefore, belong to the Christian Church without assuming the duty to uphold a particular church, although this duty may well be differentiated according to the condition of each one, as we shall see. There is no direct and immediate entry, into the universal Church, since it is the communio of local churches. Interestingly enough, not even the pope him-self, who traditionally has been called the "Bishop of Rome," or the "Uni-versal Bishop," belongs exclusively to the universal Church. He is not residing in a territory detached from all particular churches, as the Presi-dent of the United States resides in the District of Columbia, detached from any allegiance to any state. The pope is the Bishop of Rome and belongs to that particular, church, while he is also the head of the universal Church. The very structure of the (2hurch demandsthat there should be aduty on every single person to uphold his own local or particular church. The support to a,memb.er church must always be in harmony and good 679 / Review for Religious, Volume,36, 1977/5 balance with the belief and support given to the universal Church. There is no precise measure to determine how much a Christian should give tohis particular community and how much to the universal congregation of the Church. Such measure can only be determined by taking into account a call and a mandate: the vocation of an individual person or of a distinct com~ munity. Even in the case of the same person, of the same community, the contribution can be shifting and changing according to needs, and their existing capacity to give. Now we have come to the point where we can speak .more explicitly about the duty of religious communities to uphold the local, particular church. It is a duty from which there is no exception and no exemption. But the duty is not the same in every group. Religious ins'titutes that are exempt from the jurisdiction of the local or~linary and subject to the direct supervision of the Holy See, have a f9ndamental universality, a call and a mandate to go to local churches where the need is greater.8 They are freed from the power of the local,.bishop, not in order to be total free-lancers in the Church, but to be free to serve~ anywhere in any local church. Because of the universal call and mandate of such religious institutes, their world-wide organization, their capacity to move from one place to another should be respected. But once they are settled within the boundaries of the local church or in the territory of a particular church in the broader sense, they must blend into the local scene; they must even strike roots in the local soil in order to bring forth good fruit. They should not be a source of disruption, but a source of strength.9 Similar considerations apply to'various communities of pontifical right. As a rule their vision goes beyond the limits of a particular church, their aspirations often stretch far and wide. But they too, are at some place and have the duty to serve the people of God there. Then there are the institutes of diocesan right. They dedicate them-selves to the service of the universal Church through serving exclusively near a local church. They are not superior or inferior to the others; they simply have their own distinctive vocation and dedication. The duty to respect.and to serve a particular church SpringS not only from a law imposed by God through the structures of the Church, but also from the respect due to differences manifest in our human nature and in our historical traditions. The upholding of the local church originates in a deep belief in the Incarnation; in the blending of divine and h6man elements in the Christian community. The gift of God may be similar all around but it takes different shapes and forms in various ~places. Second Question: How Do We Perceive Existentially, Understand Rationally, and Be at Home Practically With Religious Communities? The question sounds broad but the focus of our inquiry is strictly cir-cumscribed again. We do not wish to reflect over all the aspects of the A Theology of the Local Church and Religious Life / 673 existence and life of religious communities. We want to know, to under-stand and help them in their relationship to the local and particular (hurch. This is the proper scope of our inquiry. A short survey of the development of religious communities in their rela-tionship to the local or particular church will be good grounding again for further reflection. Our survey will be limited to a few facts arising in the history of the Western Church. The birth and expansion of the monastic movement from the sixth into the ninth century can be described in a somewhat unusual way: the au-tonomous monasteries that sprang up first in Italy, and then on the con-tinent of Europe, also in the British Isles, had much of the characteristics of a local church. The monasteries were cities of God, distinguished from the cities of man. The brethren gathered around the Abbot to offer their praise and thanksgiving to God.~° In some places, the bishop exercised a certain amount of power over them. In other places, due oftrn to distance, the monks lived and died Within their own monastery, with no interference from any ecclesial au-thority. By the eighth century however, the weakness of being alorie and not being in communication with a broader ~egment of the Church became manifest. Signs of decline and decay were setting in. The eighth century that witnessed the movement of Cluny also saw an increasing awareness of the need forgreater unity am?ng religious com-munities. Monasteries of different places, provinces, regions and countries placed themselves under the power of the Abbot of Cluny. Such close unity clearly constituted a new relationship to both the particular and universal Church. In fact, without the help of the church of Rome, that is the pope, they could not have achieved what they did. With Cluny, an organizational breakthrough had been made. In the eleventh century, the movement of Citeaux brought about again a new type of union of monasteries built more on a bond of love than on any legal structure. In the thirteenth century, Francis and Dominic were certainly dedicated servants of local churches, but soon they moved beyond this: they em-o braced the whole of Christendom. They brought their own new approach toward serving both the local and the universal Church. They had a strongly developed sense of universality, without, however, turning their backs on local needs. ~ ~ The sixteer~th century is the time when new continents opened up. Discoverers and colonizers set out to conquer new lands. That is the time of the foundation of the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits seemingly had no allegiance to any local church. They were devoted to the pope. But further examination shows that while they set out on their apostolic journeys, often 1574 / Review for Religious, Volume 36~ 1977/5 sent by the pope himself, for the sake of the universal Church, once they arrived, they went to extraordinary lengths to build and to uphold local churches in India, in Japan, in South America. Paradoxically, they left thei,r native churches to become all to the natives in faraway places.~z The nineteenth and the twentieth centuries bring a new development. There are many apostolic foundaiions; some more for the sake of the universal Church, some definitely for the sake ofparticular churches. Both trends are represented: to serve the universal Church, and to work for the welfare of local churches. Here our historical survey ends and our reflections begin. The ecclesial Character of religious communities; or, hdw are they related to the Church? Our .aim here is to articulate with some clarity an understanding of the obvious fact of history that religious communities exist in the Church and they are in the service of our Christian people. 1. The birth, the development, the existence and the work of religious communities is nothing else than a particular manifestation of the life of the Church.~3 A religious com,rnunity, independently .from the ~:hurch, has no life. When a community prospers, it is growing in the life that was given to the Church. This statement should be stressed today ~ince some religious comn~unities have become soinvolved in reflecting on their own life that they hhve lost sight of the source of their life. They work within a- narrow horizon, and never find what they are seeking so anxiously. Also, once we understand the fact that there is no life in religious communities except what comes from the Church, it is easier to understand the history of those communities which once prospered spiritually but later grew old arid died. There is not necessarily any shame~in that. Human persons too. are born, develop, prosper, grow old and die. God may well call a community into existence to provide for the needs of the times; he may well call another one for new needs. We are not privy to his designs. We should give praise for the vocation we have and should not covet what we do not have. Those who are ~nxiously asking whether or not religious life will survive lock themselves in(o the limits of a wrong question. The right question is: is there an abundance of life in the Church? If so, that life. will manifest itself in new ways that we cannot foresee. There will be always foolish persons around, such as were Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, to surprise us, to shock us, and to entice us to follow them. If we put our hope. where it naturally belongs, that is, in the Church, our anxieties may well disappear.~4 ~ 2. A religious community may have many goals, all of them good and right. But there is a built-in purpose in .every community that seeks and obtains approval from the Church. They. publicly proclaim that the words of life are with the visible Church. They want to be publicly recognized by the Church, they want to have their way of life authenticated as good enough to follow Christ. A Theology of the Local Church and Religious Life / 675 The legal formalities of obtaining approval for a new religious com-munity have a deep theological significance. As often happens in the Church, the beauty is all within. A community asks for public incorporation into the strtictures of the Church. Such a quest is the fruit of an act of faith in the wisdom and the power of the Church. When such incorporation is granted, behind the test of the document there is a quiet recognition that the Church has seen grace operating in the community. It is an approval of the way of life of the group, of their service to thee community. The foundation. for the understanding of government and obedience in religious commu-nities is their ecclesial character. The Church gives them a public mandate. When they accept it, they obey the call to service.1'~ 3. Ye~, the mandate from the Church does not make all the ]zommunities the same. Each retains its own particular character and personality. Each is called to serve both the universal and local church in different ways. There are and there will be communities Who have their origin and the scope of their life within a local or particular church. There they were born, there they live, work and die. We all know such groups. Their gift is precious beyond telling.In Lesotho, who can serve the local church better than a congregation of native sisters? There are communities whose organization may spread throughout the ~niversal Church. Members are easily transferred from one place to an-other, according to need. Their vocation is to blend the universal mission with service in one place. The Franciscanor Dominican friars or the Jesuits would be typical examples of'suchcommunities. But let us recall that when a Eurbpean is sent to Japan, and takes up some apostolic work there, his mandate is to affirm and uphold through every available means the church of Japan. Missionary adaptation or "incuituration" is really an effort.to-ward building the local church. No matter how universal the vocation of a commu,nity is, eventually service must be given at a place that is the local or particular church. The duty of the Church to uphold religious communi.tiey; or, how can religious communities be "affirmed by the Church? The Church affirms a religious community through the act of public approval. But that is just the beginning. The initial act should be followed by unceasing help and encouragement to promote the integration of reli-gious into the life of the Church, both universal and particular. Respect for the ,way of life of each group should be the fundamental rule that governs the attitude of the Holy See or of the diocesan bishop. There is no single rule to say how this respect should go. , In the case of a contemplative monastery, respect may ~nean the ap-preciation of the prayers~offered by those monks and nuns, of the sacrifice of their lives. In the case of an apostolic community, the situation is dif-ferent; they are taking part in the practical work of evangelization. The 676 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 Church mandates them to preach, and to perform deeds of charity. They should be given an opportunity to share their experience with others. I.n the diocese, they should=be taken into the planning, even into the decision-making, process. Indeed, there is an ancient tradition to invite abbots of independent monasteries and, a newer practice, to invite superiors general of exempt religious, orders, to an ecumenical council. To have religious present at synods, held either on regional or diocesan levels, would be not only fair and just, bfit it would be according to our traditions, too. Such can be the affirmation of religious life in practice. At this point it is interesting to note that the development from synods to episcopal con-ferences is somewhat a departure from the old tradition of the Church. Surely, the episcopal body has a unique position in the universal Church, and the residential bishop is in charge of his diocese. But the bishop needs the religious to carry out well their own mandate received through their consecration. I~t is, necessary for them to be in steady contact with religious who carry so much of the burden of daily work in the Church and the churches. If reiigious share the pastoral work of the bishops, they should also have some part in planning and evaluating the same work.~ Third Question: What Is the Relationship Between the Particular Church and Rer, ligious Communities, and How Should This Relationship Develop? The relationship between a particular church and religious communities is a dynamic living relationship that must be created anew all the time. Legal norms cannot do more than give a framework that is always in, adequate .to generate life, but good enough to protect life that comes from deeper sources. Legal norms by their very nature are abstract, impersonal, and general. They are meant for typical cases irrespective of the persons inv61ved, and of their historical circumstances. But in real life there are only concrete situations and living persons and communities. The relationship depends on the personality of the bishop on the one side, of the religious community on the other side. They must work out their relationship concerning particular issues,lr Perhaps this.relationship is best described through analogies. The ob~,ious analogy of call and response can be used. The bishop calls on the religious community and asks for help to build the Church, to announce the good news, to do the good deeds of charity. When the re-ligious hear this call they must respond out of their own resources. The response of an enclosed community may well be in offering prayers for the needs of the diocese; the response of a group of Dominican friffrs may well be in preaching in' the diocese. The religious too, may call 'on the local church for help and encouragement; they may well need it. A Theology of the Local Church and Religious Life / 677 They may play another role in the diocese. They may call people to a better service of the Lord. They can act as the conscience of the com-munity. Their independence and freedom allows them to do so, provided they can do so without presumption.18 The analogy of the body can be recalled also. The religious community must find its own identity in the body of the church, before it can function properly. The community is a member of the local church, with its own structure and role. It would not be in the interest of the local church to weaken a member group. On the contrary, it must promote their welfare, It must respect theii- identity, must use them properly for the purpose they have been created.19 Such relationship cannot be regulated 'by the rules of justice only, Justice gives birth to rights that must be respected, and certainly should not be bypassed and neglected: Nonetheless, a living dynamic relationship cannot be created if both sides stand on their rights. Such an attitude would lead to a dead end where all the participants become captive to their own rigidity and: dedication to strict justice:2° ~ Good relationships between the local church and religious living and working in it must be created'continuously by both sides. There is no other way of creating it than by charity thiat means to give. Neither side should ask first what is due to them, but rather what is 'it that they can give to-the other. Only then will there be a new spirit that builds the church instead of destroying it; a new spirit that brings unity to the whole body instead 6f fraffmenting it. ~ Conclusion As we reach our conclusion we may well experience contradictory feelings. On the~one side, we experience frustration. After ali we did not succeed in finding precise rules and fixed principles tO determine ihe relationship of the local church and religious communities. We found only changing ,and shifting patterns and the need to create relationships where they do not exist according to our expectations. On the other side we experience contentrhent because we are guided by the Spirit of God and the intelligence of believers rakher than by rigid rules. After all, the Lord himself did not give many detailed instructions to his disciples. He gave them his Spirit to guide them in all. With the help of the Spirit they have built the Church. They were guided more by a person than by words. Our hope, too, is in a person, in the same Spirit of Christ. He is with us, in the local church and in the religious communities. Yet, our hope is also in the dedication and intelligence of Christian people on both sides, in the local church and in religious communities. They; together, can create their relationship anew. 678 / ReOiew for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 By dOing it, they will experiencethe joy of the Incarnation; they will share theagony of the Cross. Yet, throughout it all, they will 'be blessed and will know a contentment that is in a small way the anticipation of the gift of the Resurrection. Notes I. Parvus error in principio magnus est in fine in "De ente et essentia," begin~ning. ~ 2. Such understanding is the fruit of both contemplation and rational reflection. We must first accept the mystery through faith and then seek the understanding of it. 3. We do not intend to down-play the importance of a diocese. It is a natural unit in the church, ,sacramentally and organizationally. Nonethe-less, the life of a given diocese ordinarily does not differ significantly, if at all, from the life of neighb.oring dioceses. But, often enough,.a group of dioceses displays significant differences from the way another group .lives. The local churches of Holland form a unity that is quite distinct under many aspects from the d!oceses of Germany. Organizationally, the division of the universal Church into dioceses is of permanent importance; but, histori-cally, the larger units have played a more importapt role. The term "par, ticul,ar" is used in our text loosely; its meaning is to be determined from the context. At times, it refers to a diocese. More often it refers to a larger unit: to several dioceses grouped together, displaying a common understanding of the mysteries, using similar rites in worship, cooperating closely in apostolic work. 4. The theological principle cannot be stressed enough. We do not begin with a definition; we begin with the contemplation of an event in the history of the Church. We seek to reach some understanding through the con-templative perception of the mystery. Therefore, our vision will never be so complete as apparentlya definition is. Even if we are able to reach a good understanding, it remains incomplete and leaves plenty of possibility for further pr.ogress. 5. As succeeding generations of Christians may focus on different as'- pects of the same mystery, and give practical emphasis to their vision, in a similar way, churches existing in the same historical period may build up differing~understandings of the same mystery, and order their practices acc.ordingly, not in the sense of Contradicting each other, but rather, in the sense 6f completing each other's perception. The same mountain can be looked at. by explorers from the North, and by explorers from the South. Their differing vision of the same mountain is complementary, not contra-dictory. The contemplation of God's mighty deeds in our history, deeds that are certainly permanent, gives rise to perceptions and understandings, that are diStinct and complementary. We see the origin of particular churches in such different perceptions, followed by different practices. A Theology of the Local Church .and Religious Life / 679 6~ At any time of Christian history, a diocese can be called a particular church organizationally. There is one community, with a bishop presiding over it_But beyond any Organization, there is a sacramental unity in the diocese; if the universal Church is a sacrament, so is the diocese. "This Church of Christ is truly present in all legitimate local congregations of the faithful which, united with their pastors, are themselves called,churches in the New Testament" Lumen Gentium, 26. 7." Vatican Council II strongly upheld th6 dignity of, and the right of, the local church.' For instance: "That Church, Holy and Catholic, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, is made up of the faithful .who are organically united i6 the Holy Spirit through the same faith, the same sacraments, and the same government and who, combining into various groups held together by a hierarchy, form separate churches or rites. Between these, there flourishes such an admirable brotherhood that this variety within.the Church in no way harms her unity, but rather manifests it. For it is the mind of the Catholic Church that each individual church or rite retain its traditions whole aiad entire, while adjusting its way of life to the various needs of time and place" Orientalium ecclesiarum, 2. 8. A paradoxical statement; nonetheless it is true; Exempt religious orders mostly used their freedom from local episcopal jurisdiction-to go from,one place to another, either to help the churches most in need, or through missionary activity, to give birth to new churches. Sometimes the privilege of exemption helps specific activities in the service of the universal church, such as, to :sponsor an International School of Theology in Rome or elsewhere. 9.' The strength they give to the local church eventually rebounds to the strength of the whole. 10. To describe the monastic movement in terms o'ffuga mundi, that is flight from the world, only~ is to do injustice to history. Granted that to flee the world was an important motive for people who wanted to join the monastic community, still theii" main motive was to build the city ~of God among the cities of man.°The monastery was as self-contained as the Small cities built on the tops of the hills and mountains of Italy. Yet, there was a difference: praise and thanksgiving were offered, t9 God, day and night. The task of th'e earthly city wasopus hominum, the work of man; the task in the city of.God° was opus Dei, work thai belonged to God. Admittedly, the theme 'of "fleeing the world" is stressed in contemporary monastic lit-erature. But such writings must be contrast+d with documents, such as the Rule of St. Benedict, where the ongoin, g praise of God and his service takes the central place; also, with the fact that the monks did not hesitate to go out into the world "of barbarians in central and northern Europe to bring them the good news of Christ, and to teach them all that they found precious in human culture. A monastery could truly be called a,"local" or "partic-ular" church except, perhaps, for the fact that it was not presided over by 6~!0 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 a bishop. But the monks were dedicated to the service of the universal Church0probably more than they realized. Without understanding their universal orientation, we cannot understand the conversion of Europe. For a wisely controversial book on the rise and fall of religious com-munities, see Vie. et mort des ordres religieux by Raymond Hostie (Paris: Cesclee de Brouwer, 1972). For a classical exposition of the development of religious orders, see From Pachomius to Ignatius by David Knowles (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1966). 11. The Middle Ages, also, saw the foundation of religious orders that were principally devoted to the works of the universal Church. There were orders' to promote the Crusades, or to take part in them; to protect the possession of the Holy Land; to give themselves for the redeeming of the captives, and so forth. 12. Thi~ history ofthe Jesuits shows eloquently that the service of the universal Church can never be separated from the service of particular~ churches, and vice versa. They could not have been more dedicated to the universal Church. They accepted a mandate from the pope, and the pope only. Yet once they established themselves at a given place, they did everything to enter into the culture of the natives. They helped them, in every way that was compatible with Christian faith and the universality of the. Church, to build new churches with strong particular traditions. In China, they devised and fought for specific rites in the vernacular suitable for the Chinese culture and mentality. They attempted to do the .same in India. In South America, they sided with the natives against the con-quistadores, and gave life to local churches within the framework of the so-called "reductions," that is, autonomous Indian settlements leading a strong community life reminiscent, somewhat, of the early church of Je-rusalem. History shows that to serve the tiniversal Church redounds to the good of Particular churches. 13. We like to stress that the life of religious communities is nothing else than a particular manifestation of the life of the Church. There is no such thing as the Church on one side and religious communities on the other, eitherhelping each other inharmony, or being in open conflict. The member is not .separate from the body; all life of the member is the life of the body, Religious life cannot be conceived of as charismatic life independent and separate from the institutional life of the Church. Charisma and structures, although distinct, can no more be separated from each other in the Church than the flesh and blood of a human person can be separated from his bones: The skeleton, ugly and unfriendly as'it is, gives support and proportion to the beauty of the flesh that covers it. Charisma and institutions must work' together. ~ 14. There is no need that is as. great today as the need for purification of our faith in the Church, and the right understanding of what ,kind of A Theology of the Local Church and Religious Life / 681 community Jesus has founded. One conception should be discarded right from the start (in the terms of Karl Rahner, it could be called a "silent heresy"): the Church is a community of holy persons throughout. While it is true that there will always bepersons of extraordinary holiness raised by God among his people, there will always be many in the Church who are sinners, and glorify God by proclaiming his mercy. The Church is a human community, a community of sinners. Yet, because the Spirit of God is faithful to her, she will never lose or corrupt the word of God, provided the proclamation of the word takes place with ~'ull apostolic authority. Human limitations and fragility, however, will always be present and manifest in the Church till the end of time, be it in the hierarchy, be it in the people. To love the Church means to love the community as it is, and above all, to have the internal disposition to give what we can to this community. There is little love in those who continually expect to receive. There is love in those who know how to be compassionate. A religious community is one with the Church if the members are steadily asking themselves what they can give to her so that she can grow in goodness, into a greater likeness to Christ. For a more detailed explanation of these principles, see "How to Be One With the Church Today" in Blessed Are Those Who Have Questions, by Ladislas Orsy (Denville, N. J.: Dimension Books, 1976). Perhaps the best and most rewarding way of acquiring the right theo-logical understanding of the Church is to read and study its history. The real Church, suppprted by the Spirit, is there in its beauty and fragility. A merely conceptual and systematic approach may lead the unwary to a dream--beautiful and unreal. Once a person surrenders to,the dream, he will be frustrated by the harsh and true reality, that is, by the Church as it exists. 15. Indeed, the roots of a theology of obedience in religious life are there in the mandate that the community receives from the Church. There is a sacramental character to such a mandate, since the Church itself is a sacrament. (The seven signs are particular manifestations of the life of the Church.) Obedience to such a.great mandate should not be confused with ob~eying ordinary human rules and regulations that are part and parcel of the life of every community, religious or not. Through the v6w of Obedience, a person gives himself or herself explicitly, visibly, to the Church~ It is the sacrifice of legitimate freedom to accept a mission from the Church in which, behind human~structures, the Spirit of God lives. 16. There are few countries where the health and progress of the Church depend so much on education as in the United States. Much of this ~ork is sponsored, directed, or done by' religious men and women. Yet, when the most important policy-making body for the pastoral life of the Church meets, that is, when the episcopal conference deliberates, or de-cides, religious are absent and are given only a very limited opportunity to Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 contribute before, during, or after the meeting--a lack of balance, and the Church is poorer for it. °17. It is interesting to note that, with all the ingenuity of canon lawyers at .her disposal, the Church never succeeded in working out clear and entirely satisfactory norms to regulate the relationship between the local ordinary anti,religious communities of pontifical right, or those enjoying the privilege of exemption. Why? Because it is easy to state some theological principles such as: the bishop is the supervisor of~all apostolic works in the diocese; or, religious must be free to i'egulate their internal affairs, and to carry out their apostolate according to their constitutions. But, it is difficult t0 make detailed norms applicable everywhere. Nor will the new proposed legislation overcome this problem. If anything, history proves the insuf-ficiency of strict legal solutions. 18. A religious community of international dimensions can do much to bring a local church out of its own isolation, and to make it aware of the universal Church. The very presence of the members of~a community that works world-wide for the Church is a reminder ~to the faithful that they too belong to a community over which the sun never sets. 19. This implies respect for the particular charism of an institute. The local church should not try to use the religious for work contrary, or alien, to their own calling. 20. While it isright to work for justice, we should never lose sight of the ¯ fact that justice is the minimum of charity. Justice can proclaim what is due to each person and group and does establish a balance in the life of a human community. Yet the stability of an organization built on justice only remains precarious.To achieve contentment and happiness, it is necessary to ttave charity all around. By charity, we do not mean charitable handouts, but strong love that consists in giving, not only advice or things, but ourselves. A society in which each vindicates his or her own fights is built on a shaky foundation. A society in which each one is intent on giving what he has to others, is like a house built on a rock. This is obviously true of the Church, but it is equally applicable to any secular society. The great national'heroes of the past were those who were able to give to others, not counting much what they were giving. From what we just said, rio one should conclude that ttie cause of justice is not urgent, and that we should not work for it. Quite simply, as Christians, we must say that justice, in itself, i.s not_enough. The strength and perfection of love is a vital need for every human being and every"human society. The great idea of balance and welfare through the virtue of justice ought to be completedby the foolishness of love that God revealed through his Son. See the Conclusion in Morale Internationale, by Rene Coste (Paris: Desclee, 1964). For general orientation about the great problems of the world, and for spiritual recreation, all at once, see Return to the Center, by Bede Griffiths (Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1977). From the Center will those actions flow that bring love, peace, and justice to all men. Prayer: Adventure Into the Unknown Cecile Godreau, M.M. Sister Cecile worked for eighteen years in Bolivia where she was active in spiritual direciio~ for young religious. Presently she resides with the M.aryknoll Sisters; Maryknoll, NY 10545. Today there is a thrill at the very thought of the unkno~,n. Is there life on Mars, on Jupiter, or on the planets around other suns? If there is life, is it more advanced or more perfect than the life forms we know? What about our own planet? Are there life forms we have not yet explored? What about ¯ those areas on earth where men have never or rarely ventured?.What secrets do they hold? There was a time when the knowledge of the unknown would have inspired us to build protective areas, or at least, to introduce taboos for safety's,sake. Today we want, and are drawn to venture into, the heart Of the unknown. I would suggest to anyone with a bit of explorer's blood, and ~,h~ has a heart desirous of giving beyond what is often a dull, everyday existence (called life), to join me in a consideration of a great adventure. This ad-venture is so unique and so intensely personal that it is different for each -one. It is so thrilling that the one who goes on this journey will need an eternity to finish it to discoger its source. I mean prayer, God's version of p~ayer, called spiritual life by some, mysticism or i:ontemplation.by others. I call it adventure: God calls: maybe, he proffers a mind-blowing call, the kind of call that, as in the life of St. Paul, knocks us down when we are riding high. Maybe it is a call as quiet as an evening calm. Or, maybe it is a call after a powerful experience in a Common pCayer situation because of, or with, an unusually charismatic person's approach to our weak defenses. Again, maybe it is merely the movings quietly within that crumble all our preconceived plans and leave 683 684 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 us stunned by silence, or the slow and burning love that somehow separates us from our past. It is impossible to mention every situation, for from the time of this very conversion, it is different for each. God knows how best to invite us into the great adventure. Once we have been converted, we are left to find our way into God's country. Like the prophet Elijah, we realize that God is not in the con-version, not in the earthquake or thunder, but in the whispered breeze. Even trees, whose job it is to let us know when a breeze is near, are often u~nmoved by the gentleness of a tiny breeze. But we are made with hearts attunedif we will but go into our hearts to see and hear what is taking place therein. Some stop here. It is difficult to go within. Our culture has worshipped the extraverted, the active, the expressed word. Our people are expected to tell the world how they feel about everything. So it is almost impossible to have a silent center within us. We are not accustomed to going deep within where God is waiting for us. We are afraid to find out how it is to meet God in our'hearts. We are afraid to discover life within because someone may think we are not socially-minded. People may think we are not committed. "Alone in our hearts where God resides" has a scary sound to it, or, perhaps, even neurotic. What is God doing inside when we have been shouting to him from afar? Some break through and come to the God within. For them, He is Father, or Jesus, or maybe an inner awareness or "presence." Here we are bound to kneel in silence. Even our vocal prayer and meditations come to a halt. As the silence deepens, we wonder if it is right to be here. And we need help so often to just sit and enjoy what it is to be with God. Here we need often to be assured like children. We are moved to love so deeply, we may think we are a little "different." We search for others to understand. Often there are few around who dare to talk about this. We are alone and happy, deliriously in love, or quietly secure. Our God is like a mother nursing its child, a child being embraced by a loving mother, or held like an infant to a father's cheek. As we settle down like Peter to build tents for our experience, Jesus reminds us it is time to go back down to the bustle of the city. Our first reaction to move on is, "I thought this was it!" We balk at being born, and we refuse to leave this hallowed place. So God "puts out the lights" so to speak. Here many get discouraged. Yes, they lose heart. Why? Because all was so comfortable. Here people try to find other loves and ways. They are frightened because they think they have lost their faith. "Faith," of course, is the name mistakenly put on the experience of God within. Faith,-in fact, is the stepping out into the darkness that God directs us toward. We "explore" Faith by putting our hand into the hand of the resurrected Jesus to go out and discover what it is to be Jesus, Son of God. We are going to have to molt our skins of the intense joy and the security Prayer: Adventure Into the Unknown / 685 that we had, and we realize that we are vulnerable. To put our hand into the hand of Jesus is not a journey deeper within. It is a journey beyond our human limitations. Here Jesus who directs our adventure gives us self-knowledge. We might get discouraged and have the feeling of one who has climbed too far, too fast. We are aware of our smallness. Yet, Jesus who helps us on our journey is intent on leading u~ onward. When we reach the place he means us to explore, he does a very strange thing. He lets us see our world through his eyes. We might find ourselves somehow knowing what Jesus means in his gospel. Somehow, we tread through life as Jesus did. We, little by little, begin to know ~vhat it meant for Jesus to have been driven by the Spirit. Now we no longer seem drawn within. Our eyes are cast out onto our world! How terribly important each person we meet becomes! We are not sure we are loving others as our-selves, or as Jesus, because we are somehow filled with a compassion beyond our own. We are almost sure our small selves are being used by Jesus. Yet, all along the way, we are aware of the difference. Our real selves come to light. We find fewer and fewer excuses for ourselves, and we are driven deeper into our faith. For some this step is done very quietly, almost imperceptibly. Some cry, "I no longer know if it is me or Christ living in me," while others go deeper into faith, knowing only that they must go on seeking a water to quench the thirst of "Everyman." Here each one is given something of Jesus to use for Others. Little by little, the awareness of self is lost in the dream of bringing solace to others. 'Here we lose touch with our world because it claims to do what we, in fact, are made ~over~ tiy Jesus to really accomplish. We talk a different language, and our agony is this language. We no longer speak as men do who have tongues in cheek. Our new simplicity makes us a target for the clever and the powerful. Yet we seem to be drawn to quietly go on. our wills and intellects, no longer bound up in our feelings, are sharper. We are able to see our. way better than before, and our way takes us, like/Jesus, into the Father's will. We delight in our brothers, whether large, smzll, sinful or ~,irtuous. We ar~ at last able to see the God hidden in each. We know what it is to be Jesus. We begin to desire with all our strength to build a temple to our new-found religion. Jesus will be our Master, and we will do our worshipping strongly for a new world. We will be the Jesus of this world. It seems we have arrived, and yet--yet, God has just brought us to a new faith. It is as though all the experiences we have had were pu! in a vast sea, and we were set afloat in the tiny boat of our new faith. No longer do we feel the strength of God, nor see the glory of Jesus. We are asked to ride a stormy sea in a skiff. There is only one thing to do: trust. We are terrified by our nothingness, as we are compared, not with men, but with God. This death experience is the most terrible and the most beautiful experience of our lives~this realization of what we are without 686 ,/ Review for Religious, VOlume 36, 1977/5 him. The deep peace that has seen us through that dark and light of our lives is a must now, and we hope it is real in this stage of our adventure. Here, too, each person is different, and comes to this at different times. Once we have opted for death, we are given a faith that we never thought possible: No longer a faith held up by our deepest feelings, nor one seeing the progress of Jesus in our lives, but the faith that believes because one holds on to God beyond any reason. We go into the darkness to be pulled out now not trusting ourselves, our "faith," our ways, even our religiosity. We are pulled out swinging from a thread like a string puppet. We go from anger, to despair, to surrender. Surrender, which once sounded so terrifying, is the beginning of life. A dark faith is given us. No longer do we explain, or sing to it, orhold it as a precious keep-sake, for we realize.it is simply gift. We are now ready to walk back with a song to our native home. Nothing can really make us fear again. Our wordless love is for God, the Great Unknown. God, who lias been badlyexplained over and over by ourselves and others, takes us into himself. It is as though welook for our small boat, only to see it has disappeared. We are at the beginning of an intense desire. Longing and homesickness set in to show us how intense ourodesire is for God. Yet, he turns us back to live again among his people. He gives us each a seed to nurture, and when grown, to share the fruits with others. Some are so overwhelmed by this that they fall into silent prayer, agonized with the weight of their message. Others are filled with speech, a babbling speech, yet a speech that can be recognized as a song of God. One can open one's eyes and God has grown unlimited. We hasten to meet him, only to find that at this point, he spreads out in all directions. One is surrounded by God, silence, and it will take an eternity to begin to explore, to begin our adventure into this great unknown. How much we desire to begin to go towards our deepest love, and at least arrive at the first steps toward an eternity of ~urprises, peace, and our Source. We are willing to live a thousand years, if that be what he desires. We ~ealize that creation needs our new song which we, like God's trou-badours, will sing, with hearts somehow free and waiting, in this new-found peace, his last call. An Apostolic Spirituality for the Ministry of Social Justice Max Oliva, S.J. Father Oliva is the Director of Social Ministries for the California Province of the Society of Jesus. His special interests are the theology and spirituality of Social justice. He conducts workshops on these two themes as well as on. other aspects of social justice. He is also Associate Director of Field Education at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He ~resides at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; 1735 LeRoy Ave.; Berkeley, CA 94709. Introduction We hear a lot of discussion today about the need to promote justice in economic, social and political structures. It takes only a cursory reading of the Bishops' Synod Statement, "Justice°in the World," tofind the Church issuing this call: Listenihg to the cry of those who suffer violence and are oppressed by unjust systems and structures, and hearing the appeal of a world that by its perversity contradicts the plan of its Creator, we have shared our awareness of the Church's vocation to be present in the heart of the world by proclaiming the Good News to the poor; freedom to the oppressed, and joy to the afflicted) How does one pursue social justice in the light of one's faith? How do we in.corporate and integrate the important ingredients of our own need for personal contact with marginated and oppressed people and the ongoing process of conversion that each of us must undergO? Row do we bring about a balance between our faith and our practical efforts for changing structures? This article offers some reflections on an apostoli~ spirituality for changing social structures, a ministry which can be a part of anyone's life and ministerial vision. The thoughts expressed here are the result of the tSynod of Bishops, 1971, "Justice in the World," page 1. 687 61111 / Reviewfor Religious, Volume 36, 1,977/5 author's reflection on his own ministry, both in inner-city Black commu-nities and in efforts to change social structures,z What do we mean when we talk about changing social structures? The most obvious example of structural change that comes to mind is the effect that a state or federal law can have on a whole range of institutions and the people in them. Take, for example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which has had the effect of requiring businesses to hire minority and women workers, in responsible positions, or lose federal contracts or be taken to court in civil action suits. The ordinary citizen's role in promoting such a law might have been to draw attention to the injustices present before the law was passed by some kind of advocacy effort. Another example of structural change, again in the world of business: ~in the 1960's, many companies had as one of the standard questions on their applications forms, "Have you ever been arrested?" To the person ap-plying for work from an economically depressed area, this question was an automatic "No" to a possible job since many had been arrested. However, relatively few people had ever been convicted. Successful efforts were made to convince companies to change the word, "arrested," to, "con- .victed," thus opening the job market to a large segment of the community who had up to then been ex.cluded. Closer to home, changing structures m~ght involve affecting admission policies in a religious school so that more min.ority students might be able to attend, or, influencing a province so that an essential criteria for being a superior would be that she or he is strongly committed to justice. In both of these cases, an individual's action can have results that change the structures involved and thereby affect many people in the process. Basically, structures, systems and institutions of society are the frame-work in which human relationships--personal, political, economic, cultur-al~ take place. Social justice seeks to assess the worth of social structures and systems in view of how they impact the lives of people in them, or exclude people from them, and calls for personal responsibility for these structures. There are many ways to influence social structures, be it through actions to promote just state or national laws, be it efforts to affect international systems, or by way of altering a policy in one's own institution or com-munity. Whatever the means chosen, certain basic dispositions are neces-sary for such efforts to be realistic and, thus, effective. The first and pri-mary disposition is to be on the side of the economically po, or and politically powerless, as an advocate for their rights. In St. Matthew's gospel (15:29-31), we find Jesus sitting on a moun-tainside. There, "large crowds of people came to him bringing with them ~'i'he author is also indebted to Workshop participants who have given valuable feedback to the ideas expressed in this article. A Spirituality for the Ministry of Social Justice / 689 cripples, the deformed, the blind, the mute, and many others besides. They laid them at his feet and hecured them." What is particularly striking about this scene is not so much the cures, though, of course, these are marvelous signs of God's presence, but that Jesus actually, physically, touched these people: the crippled, the deformed, the blind, the mute--the marginated and outcasts of his time. Today, we, because we are Christians, are called to do the same, to touch the poor and oppressed of our day, those who are often different, from us by economic background, by color or culture, by education, perhaps by some kind of physical or mental handicap. To touch these, people means to have some ongoing personal contact with them, in order tolearn from them--their needs, their suffering, their aspirations, and their richness. To touch these people involves, paradoxically, a healing in ourselves, a deliverance from our prejudices, convictions, and attitudes, an escape from apathy, and an awareness that has deep within it a sense of urgency that justice be done. Such personal contact insures that our com-mitment be an "affair of the heart." Such contact is essential if our ministry of changing unjust .social structures is to be realistic, that is, meeting real needs. This ongoing personal interchange with oppressed people and an alert analysis of the structure we wish to change are basic dispositions for a ministry of changing social structures, be our work in schools, hospitals, a parish, retreat house, mass media, social ministry, or whatever,z Some Basic Principles The cycle of poverty is often described as consisting of: apathy--aliena; tion frustration--ignorance--hunger---despair. These words can also be used to describe our own state of mind and heart as we contemplate unjust arid dehumanizing structures. The problems seem so vast, the structures so complex, that we simply despair of moving at all to influence or try to change them. We need to begin our consideration of an apostolic spirituality for social justice ministry by taking a close look at some basic principles: 1. That each of us can be part of the change process for a more just world: by our choices, by our life-style, by our life-stance. No issue is so ambig-uous, no structure so complicated that we are unable to do something to influence it. ,~ 2. That other people--those we live with, those we work with, our stu- 3Personal contact with oppressed people, is also necessary for one-on-one kinds of service, such as spiritual direction, for the purpose of such ministry is to help the person clarify and deepen his relationship with God and challenge, when appropriate, the way the person lives out this faith in relation to the world. The director can be an excellent resource for helping the person being directed to see the intimate connection between faith and social justice and to discover ways she or he might effectively act to change unjust social structures. It is only by realizing this connection in his own life that the director will effectively communicate this message to the one being directed. 690 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 dents, parishioners, retreatants, fellow workers--can be reached and can change in their attitudes, in their values/in their standard and st.yle of life. Why? Because, like us, they are of good will. True, like us, they suffer from ignorance about those who are poor, are often insulated from those who are economically poor and politically powerless, and sometimes accept myths about the poor as truths. Still, they do not deliberately will the destruction and dehumanization of others any more than we do. They, too, seek hap-piness, peace and justice. And, like us, they sometimes get too caught up in self-interest or ignore the social dimensions of their actions. But if we can change, can become more socially conscious, more committed to justice, so can others. 3. That because of God's personal love for each of us, we are each im-portant in the process of building the kingdom of God, a kingdom initiated by Christ and commissioned to us, his followers, to carry on and build, a kingdom which fosters human dignity and equality, and which values hu-man-. development. , 4. That the Spirit is working in and through each of us even as we take small steps to change structures, and can work in ever new ways as we become more resolutely inserted into the world of the marginated and the oppressed. ~. 5. That other people---other religious women and men, diocesan priests, laypeople, Christians of.every denomination, and non-Christians too-are at work, acting for peace and justice, realigning their life styles, taking a critical stance toward the structures of society. This gives us hope. The Center of Our Commitment We are called to this ministry of changing unjust social structures by Jesus Christ, who works with us and whose Spirit is the source of our courage, wisdom, power and hope. God the Father is the center of our lives, the focal point of our identity: his personal love isthe basis of our worth.4 He is our Rock, our Foundation, our Beginning and our End. He is the One for whose sake ultimately we are engaged in the struggle for justice. ~ The more God is our center, the less chance do the idols that attract us and keep us from a commitment to justice hamper our ministry, idols such as popularity, "success," reputation, endless analysis, and the '.;good life." The more God is our center, the more effective will be our ministry of justice, for it will become ever more clearly his work. Because God is the center of our lives, we can develop the kind of apostolic qualities that are necessary for an effective ministry of justice. ~The author realizes that not all people relate to God, as Father,. as the center of their lives. This is the way the author relates to Gbd. To respect this difference, the word "Father" will only be used this once in the article. A SpiritutJlity for the Ministry of Social Justice Let us now consider some apostolic qualities that can help render our actions more fruitful. Apostolic Qualities for Our Ministry of Justice Because God is the center of our lives, we can be radically open: open to growth--intrapersonal, interpersonal and societal (our relationship to human.environments, structures, institutions and processes, especially of asocio-economic-polifico-cultural character). Open to new ~concepts and ideas, such as social sin and social grace, Liberation Theology and the use of Marxist tools of analysis for studying the structures in our socie[y. Open to face uncertainty and fear as we come into personal contact with the marginated and the oppressed people in our society and the environments in which they are forced to live. Open to face our own prejudice, racism and sexism as, they are manifested in attitude and language. Open to face our value addictions as they are reflected in our consumption patterns--the kinds of things we buy and.~why--and in our life style. Open to the pos-sibility of being misunderstood, even rejected, by those ~ith v~hom we speak about issues of justice, be they members of our family, our com-munity, or our constituents. Because God is the center of our lives, we can ~have a capacity for critical reflection such that no ideology, no system or way of life is "sa-cred" (or defines who we are). None can be free of scrutiny, challenge and, if needed, reform, be it: socialism, communism, capitalism, the American way of life and its values, the Church, our own community or the work of our apostolate, Because God is the center of our lives, we are not afraid to face the fact that we are converts to our ideas of justice and the actions we undertake for justice. Thus, we are capable of being ruthlessly honest with ourselves, neither becoming self-righteous nor bitter or cynical. Being honest in this way enables us to have what Thomas Cullinan calls "patient endurance,''~ a uniquely, Christian virtue, which is centered on Christian hope, without losing a sense of urgency that justice be done. Because God is the center of +ur lives, the focus in exercising our ministry of justice is not on "success" as we usually define it. Our success is in the doing or saying what we know we must say to be true to our convictions and the needs of oppressed people. Like the prophets, the doing or not of some word, some action, is not based on peoples' reac- 5Thomas Cullinan, O.S.B,, If the Eye Be Sound (England: St. Paul Publications, 1975), page 121, This is an excellent work of modern spirituality. In particular it uncovers the theological and spiritual foundations on which a socially committed Christianity must be built. Dom Tfiomas Cullihan, O.S.B., is a monk of the Ampleforth community, in England, and a member ¯ of the Commission for International Justice and Peace of England and Wales. Available: Catliolic Institute for International Relations; I Cambridge Terrace; London, NW I, England. 692 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 tions--be they affirmative or negative--not on how many people like us more or not, not on how many people ag~'ee with us more or not, but on being congruent with who we are before God, as we discern it in prayer and consultation. It is the virtue of integrity. Because God is the center of our lives, we can ~possess an habitual facility of discernment. In our ministry of social justice, there are two basic areas of input for our process of discernment. (1) The first element of our input is grasping the "signs of the times," that is, the cries of the poor and the oppressed of our world, their struggles,, their needs, their aspirations, their problems and the causes of these problems. Such knowledge and, more importantly, unders~tanding comes, as we said before, primarily by way'of some ongoing personal contact with economically poor people and those who are politically powerless and is supplemented by books and articles, films, workshops, or whatever means serves to increase our con-sciousness of the problems. Then each of us must lobk closely at her Or his talents, gifts, personality, ministerial strengths and weaknesses, and the kind of ministry she or he is involved in. In a spirit of prayer and with ~:onsultation, then, the discernment-reflection process gradually, organi-cally, and continually enables eiach of us to make action-choices for justice from where we are. For some, such action will involve integrating, social justice into classes taught or into the administration of a school or a hos-pital; for others, it will mean some kind bf political action or public protest. For some, it will mean homilies or retreat talks that show the intimate relationship between one's ~faith and a commitment to act for justice; for still others, it will involve direct service in an inner-city or rural, community or Third World country. Because God is the center of ou~ lives, we can ask him to fashion in us a heart for the oppressor as well as for the,oppressed. Injustice kills the perpetrator since exploitation, tyranny and oppression are sighs of death, spiritual death. We love the oppressor when we oppose with all our strength her or his spiritually suicidal behavior of oppression. With God's help we can enter every heart. For the po. or, we strive to win rights and the freedom to develop humanly; for the rich, we strive to win moral development. It is important to note, though, that the way in which one manifests one's concern for the oppressor will differ according to the kind of ministry one is involved in. The community organizer's way, for example, will be dif-ferent from the high school teacher's. Each develops a heart for the op-pressor in the context of her or his own situation. Because God is the center of our lives, we can have empathy with those who are economically and politically oppressed. Empathy is the'ability'to see life through the eyes of others. In our ministry of social justice it is seeing life through the eyes of the poor. It demands personal contact with people who are poor. It necessitates our taking a "learning stance" in the presence of oppressed people, listening to their needs, their suffering, being A Spirituality for the Ministry of Social Justice / 693 willing to be continu'ally educated by their life experiences and their contact with human misery. Empathy is the key to understanding and thus to be able to demythologize our views on why people 'are poor. Finally, empathy is the way to true solidarity and effective advocacy. Because God is the center of our lives, we can have a freedom from attachment---in the face of anything which is not in line with our primary goal: the will of God and the building of his kingdom, a kingdom which values and promotes human dignity, equality and development. Having our foundation in God allows us to be free from attachment to. any cause or issue, any insight or pre-conceived plan of action, any request, for action, or even our own fear of acting. It is the "single-heartedness" of the Be-atitudes. Finally, because God is the center of our lives, we can have a capacity for suffering--what Jos6 Magafia says in his book Ignatian Exercises: A Strategy for Liberation, "to rejoice in sufferings because they are the hallmark of every ,genuine liberating commitment.''6 Such a capacity en-ables us to make the fundamental Christian option of becoming advocates for the rights of oppressed people. It is also, obviously, intimately bound up with the preceding eight apostolic qualities and with the effort it takes to keep God as one's center. A capacity for suffering is essential for each person~s ongoing process of conversion, and we are all called to conversion: "It is too easy to throw back on others responsibility for injustices, if at,the same time one does not realize how each one shares in it personally, and how personal conversion is needed first.''r Just what is conversion ? One of the clearest descriptions the author has read is the following from Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J, Conversion is getting rid of something so that something else can take its place. It is getting rid of everything that prevents us from being filled with the Holy Spirit. Conversion, then, is a change; a change tfiat takes place deep inside us; a radical change. Let us make no mistake about it: there is nothing supdrficial about conver-sion. It is not, for'instance, deciding, after a somewhat more fervent retreat, to "give something to the poor," or to be a little more generous to one's "favorite charity." This is a praiseworthy thing in its way, but it is not conversion. Conversion is not a giving of something that we can well afford to lose. It goes much deeper than that. It is a putting away of something that we are: our old self, with its all-too-human, all-too-worldly prejudices, convictions, attitudes, values, ways of thinking and acting; habits which have become so much a part of us that it is agon.y even to think of parting with them, and yet which are precisely what prevent us from rightly interpreting the signs of the times, from seeing life steadily and seeing it whole.8 ~Jos6 Magafia, S.J., Ignatian Exercises: A Strategy for Liberation (New York: Exposition Press, Inc., 1974), page 117. rPope Paul VI, 1971, "A Call to Action," page 28. 8Pedro Arrupe, S.J., "Witnessing to Justice" (Vatican City: Pontifical Commission Justice and Peace, 1972), pages 25-26. 694 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 Our call to conversion as we pursue our ministry of social justice is not a one-time happening, it is an essential element of the Cross-Resurrection dynamic that permeates our lives as Christians. And conversion does in-volve suffering as well as joy. With God as:our center, we can have the courage to face our own need for conversion and the suffering that ac-companies it, Such suffering is redemptive. Conclusion We are,' each, called to a ministry of justice, but our ministry must take place in the rootedness of our faith lest we become simply good humanists or philanthropists. Our commitment must be founded in the love of God and the "Good News" of his Son. Although this may seem to be an evident" premise, it is easy to lose sight of once we become involved in actual work. We depend on one another for support, for.challenge and tolerance. And we are nourished in our commitment to act on behalf of social justice by our prayer and the Eucharist: in prayer, for it is here in the quiet moments that we can face the reality of just who our center is-~ourselves or God; in the Eucharist, because it strengthens us to face our timidity and fears, it calls us out of ourselves to be, like Jesus, persons for others. Now Available As A Reprint Prayer of Personal Reminiscence:' Sharing One's Memories with Christ by David J. Hassel, S.J. Price: $.60 per copy, plus postage. Address: Review for Religious 612' Humboldt Building 539 North Grand St. Louis, Missouri 63103 Taking the Long View Francis X. Hezel, S.J. Father Hezel is director of the Micronesian Seminar. based in Truk; Caroline Islands; Trust Territory, Pacific 96942 Not too long ago a gentleman visited these islands offering a new eight million dollar college as a gift to the Micronesian people from the U.S. Congress. His offer met with an enthusiastic response almost everywhere. At last Micronesia would soon have its own four-year college! Not a con-ventional college, but one that would be specially tailored for providing training in vocational skills or whatever else is judged to be educationally relevant. I was dismayed by the uncritical enthusiasm that greeted the visitor's offer, well-intentioned though it was. Don't people here know, I asked myself, that the new college will cost almost two million dollars a year to operate? A tidy sum, considering that the total amount of local revenues generated in the Trust Territory is only seven .million dollars at present. Isn't this gesture, I thought, a bit like making a gift to a poor friend of a good-sized German shepherd to guard his house, letting him know as you walk out the door that the animal eats five pounds of meat a day? tin any case, would a new four-year college of any kind help solve the burning question of how to promote economic development? Diplomas abound in the Trust Territory and marketable skills are on the increase. The real problem, of course, is jobs; and this won't be solved by adding another expensive education mill. As long as the goal is to develop Micronesia's resources and make the islands more productive, a new college with an increased capacity can only make a bad situation worse. If you want a person to spend his life in a fishing boat or on a farm, the worst thing you can do is plant him in a chair for another four years. He will very likely never get out of it afterwards. 696 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 Its the old story, I said to myself. Another."gift" from abroad; more hidden costs, social and economic; and the dependency rut gets deeper and deeper. How is it, I wondered,th~at this familiar story is repeated over and over again, even by individuals and groups that profess a commitment to self-reliance? Surely some of them must see the long-range effects of these projects. Consider the response to the Headstart and Old Age Programs, to use as examples two federal programs designed to benefit opposite ends of the population. No sooner was the Trust Territory made eligible for federal funds under these titles than every district opened an office, applied for government money, and began an earnest search for ways to spend it. The immediate benefits of the two federal programs were all too obvious: food for the young and the old, an income for those on the payroll, travel abroad for program directors and their understudies, and the promise of other good things to come. But how about the fact that the~palates of the young were being ha-bituated to breakfasts of tomato juice and doughtmts? What about the danger of families abdicating their strongly-felt traditional responsibility to provide for the elderly? Or the risk of weakening family and community ties, as still another responsibility of theirs is surrendered to a government agency? Then, of course, there is again the matter of furthering the eco-nomic dependence of Micronesia on a global superpower that has military interests to maintain. Somehow these last questions were overlooked in the rush to expand the district payroll and get money rolling in. A paycheck and cases of corned beef are just a bit more real than such intangibles as family bonds and ,psychological dependence. - Do I sound a trifle "anti-progress," or possibly even cynical?.Then let me make a public confession. Neither I nor the staff of the small private school of which I am director have altogether resisted the temptations of "easy money" from abroad. We are receiving federal funds from the six-million dollar Federal Feeding Program, as are virtually all public schools and a good many 'mission schools as well. To understand how an abomination of this sort ~might have happened, you would have tO put yourself in the shoes of a school administrator who is wondering how he will make it to the end of May. without going broke. Local support groups have not come through, the school accounts are just about exhausted, and bills continue to pile higher on his desk. Just then, in walks a federal program officer with a sheaf of papers in hand who proudly announces that he has funds to cover the entire cost of the school feeding program for the year. To the beleaguered school.administrator it is a heaven-sent answer to a pressing problem. Naturally he signs on the dotted line, heaves a sigh of relief, and then settles back to wait for the first check to come. ~ Taking the Long View / 697 That, however, is only the beginning.'A year later the school admin-istrator has to decide whether he shall continue to participate in the feeding program. He knows very :well that the 25 thousand dollars he receives will not raise the nutritional quality of the food one bit. Healthy food is some-thing that teenaged boarding students must have in ample quantity, no matter hbw financially hard-pressed the school may be. He knows that the Feeding Program of which his school is a beneficiary can only further re-inforce the "handout" mentality of a people long accustomed to looking to Washington to pay all their bills. He recalls with a shudder all that he has read and heard about the stifling welfarism of Indian reservations. But he calculates that an additional 25 thousand dollars a year would allow him to build a garage, a maintenance shop and new water tanks which he thinks that the school may need. And so, dismissing the uncomfortable concern he feels for remote consequences, he signs on the dotted line just as he did the year before. Like the others in the examples cited earlier, he has responded to the immediate need and left the future to take care of itself. Micronesia teems with persons like him (or should I say me?) whose decisions are based on answering today's needs at the expense of the future. Jobs, schools, roads and the like occupy our exclusive attention while the hidden costs of these "improvements" and the nature bfthe funds that finance them go uncalculated. This preocc~ipation with the sho~'t-term rewards might be called the national disease of Micronesia and it has infected every part of society. The employee who drinks up his paycheck, on Friday and Saturday to the sorrow of his family for the following two weeks shows acute symptoms of it. So does the fish dynamiter who pulls in his haul, rubs his belly, and leaves the shattered reef to repair itself---in twenty years time. Then there is the young college student who spends the two days before his semestral exams emptying Budweiser cans with his friends, and a week hence is looking for plane fare home from college. Is it simply an accident that a couple of years ago the theme song of the islands seemed to be "Help Me Make It Through the Night?" The people of an island press for Congress of Micronesia funds to erect a seawall, conscious only of the money that will make its way into their pockets, but unmindful of the damage to their sense of community that loss Of locally sponsored labor projects will inflict. Congressmen vote to ap-prove high-cost capital impr6vement projects to be funded by the U.S. knowing full well that the cost of maintaining these facilities will be a financial burden to Micronesia in later years. Top,level policy-makers cam-paign for higher wages for government employees, thereby undercutting any real hope of inducing young people to take up less lucrative but much-needed work in commercial agriculture and fishing. And ,everyone-- parents and educators alike---encourages the greatest possible number of 69~1 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 high school graduates to go off to college without the least idea of how they will occupy themselves when they return. Entrepreneurs with an eye for a fast dollar build supermarkets, bars aid moviehouses, thus helping to send the annual level of imports soaring still higher. Prominent businessmen who are. instrumental in bringing tele-vision into their islands make a killing on sales ofTV sets~ leaving the social consequences anti'the economic effects on families for others to handle. Political decisions, I fear, are made in much the same way. Nothing can convince me that the people of the Marianas, when they signed their Cove-nant with the U.S. two years ago, were as fond of the American Eagle as the dollar on which it 'appears. Yet money buys good things, as I have already ungrudgingly admitted. Whether, however, it will also purchase an enduring social bliss for the Northern Marianas remains to be seen. I have never heard or read a cogent explanation of what any of the separatist districts wants politically and I have despaired of ever doing so, although it is well-known what those districts expect by way of fiscal gains. I can only assume that they desire for themselves whatever their generous benefactors~ desire for them--whether these bene.factors be America, Japan, Nauru, or the Sheikdom of Aden. Surely it would be difficult to maintain that their decisions are. models of political far-sightedness, whatever else they may have to recommend them. But the rest of us are in no position smugly to point an accusing finger at those districts that have sought greener pastures---or, to be more exact, greener bankrolls--elsewhere. Which of the remaining' districts can hon-estly say 'tha~it would not have jumped at the chance to do likewise, had the opportunity been offered? We all seem to have fallen prey to this obsession with the immediate pay-off. It may be that this is an all too human weakness, but it is a frightening irony that our failings should be rationalizedqn the name of "progress" or "development." If development implies anything at all, it suggests a forward-looking approach---one that is as concerned with to-morrow and 20 years hence as with today. With the coming of foreign currency to these islands a century and a half ago, Micronesians were for the first time able to accumulate a surplus, to hoard, to save and invest. Money created the possibility of a "tomorrow" in these islands. By a strange irony, however, foreign money is now being used to freeze us securely into the present and to anaesthetize us against a concern for the future. Not that money, jobs, education, material improvements, and even federal programs are evil in themselves. The real problem is that these and other short-range benefits are so alluring that they overpower more distant considerations. And when they are offered to any of us gratis, their at-traction is practically irresistible. An announcment is made that some new federal program is offering funds to establish national parks, buy library books, or develop curricular materials for teaching the metric system. We Taking the Long View / 699 run to our desks' and concoct a proposal that will enable us to receive our share of the funds. Why not take advantage of a windfall while it lasts, we reason to ourselves. The trouble is that the objectives we set down for our programs can all too easily be inconsistent with or even run counter to broader develop-mental goals in ttie Trust Territory. There's certainly no harm in securing federal money to build a museum in which traditional artifacts will be displayed., or in providing emergency assistance for' rebuilding houses after a typhoon, or in putting up a new sports center at U.S. expense. But we must not be surprised if the cu-mulative effect oUall this on the community is to teach people that Santa Clauscomes to Micronesia every day of the year. Over many a desk in headquarters is posted the inspiring adage: "Give a person a fish and he has a meal today. Teach him how to fish and he has food for the rest of his life." It is very easy to understand how this lesson can be lost on our people today in the face of the mammoth give-away program that enervates our com-munities even 'as it showers on'them its material "blessings." Buyit~g canned federal programs is a lot like buying canned fish. It is inexpensive, convenient and satisfying---an eminently sensible thing to do. But there, are still those hidden costs to be reckoned, as we know only too well. Whether we weigh these costs in making any initial decision or not, they are bound to catch up with us in the end. Those of us who ~take a dim view of ~anned programs funded from abroad---and I include myself hereto so on the grounds that their long-term costs usually outweigh their immediate benefits. These "costs" can be conveniently grouped under three bro~d headings: social, economic and political, although some would want toadd "environmental" as a fourth heading. Let me now suggest a few examples of each. Regarding social costs we may say this. Programs that introduce into a community a substantial amount of money to build a road, erect a com-munity center or feed schoolchildren all too often bring about the pyscho-logical or social impoverishment of the community that they are intended to help. This happens when members of the community decide that it is more profitable for them to sit and wait for things to happen rather than initiate devi~lopment projects oftheir own. At this point, cooperative work by families on community projects sharply declines, and so does what we commonly call "community spirit." When most of its responsibilities are pre-empted by government agencies and alien institutions, the community simply loses confidence in its own effectiveness to achieve anything of real value. The same may be said of the family. As it relinquishes its respon-sibility for feeding toddlers, schoolchildren and the aged, the ties among its members will almost certainly weaken. The obvious question that must be asked of every development project, then, no matter what the source of funding, is whether its effects will be to increase or diminish the social fabric and sense of purpose of the community. 700 / Review for Religious, Volume 36, 1977/5 ¯ Micronesians commonly refer to their islands as "poor"--that is, as lacking adequate income to provide for themselves much of what they regard as desirable. For this reason, there is usually a mad rush to obtain whatever haaterial benefit~ the U.S. or any other country might offer by way of assistance. What is often overlooked, however,, is that certain gifts may make us poorer rather than richer. Expensive hospitals, water systems and airports are also expensive to rriaintain year by year--and the future budget of a "poor" group of islands is bound to be very limited. Moreover, some improvements can require an expanding network of expensive facilities and social services to support them (or clean up the social mess they have made). Take,the case of a costly new high school that is built of sufficient size, to allow all school-age youth in the area to enroll. Soon after the new school opens discipline problems multiply, since there are clearly a large number of misfits who have been accepted in the cam-paign to make secondary education universal. To keep the poorer students in school, a special program for potential dropouts is funded through a federal grant. A recreation center is built and new staff is hired to moderate the center's activities. Social therapists are trained---at additional expense-- and hired to counsel "hardcore" problem students. Mental health facilities and referral centers are established through still another program. In short, everything.possible is done, at prodigious expense, to keep in s~chool young people who never wanted to be there in the first place, As social services and physical facilities proliferate along with the pro-grams that support them, Micronesians are gradually led to believe that a society without expensive gadgetry and quackery is entirely impossible. To have a school without sliding classroom dividers or a hospital without sophisticated laboratory equipment becomes unthinkable. It is no wonder that Micronesians have come to believe that they can't live without an extravagant subsidy from abroad! Naturally this means that they will have no recourse but to continue living in the shadow of the American eagle--with all that this implies politically and militarily. Very few decisions today are simple decisions. Most have far-reaching implications on the future social, economic and political order in these islands. We know this only too well, of course, but all of us still must adjust to making decisions at times as if there were no tomorrow. Until all of us learn honestly and openly to weigh the long,term effects of our choices, not just count the immediate gains; we will be deluding ourselves

Issue 18.3 of the Review for Religious, 1959. ; Review for Religious MAY 15, 1959. Apostolic Indulgences of John .XXIII 129 Allocution to Contemplative Nuns 133 By Pius XII Current Spiritual Writing 143 By Thomas G. O'Callaghan, S.J. Practice of the Holy See 156 By Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Headdresses and Driving Sur~rey of .Roman Documents Views, News, Previews Questions and Answers Book Reviews and Notices 169 170 177 179 183 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 3 Volume 18 May 15, 1959 Number 3 OUR CONTRIBUTORS FRANK C. BRENNAN is stationed at St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN is professor oi: ascet-ical and mystical theology at Weston College, Weston 93, Massa-chusetts. JOSEPH F. GALLEN, the editor of our Question and An-swer Department, is professor of Canon Law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, May, 1959. Vol. 18, No. 3. Published bi-monthly by The Queen's Work, 3115 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis 18, Missouri. Edited by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ec-clesiastical approval. Second class mail privilege authorized .at St. Louis, Mis-souri. Copyright, 1959, by The Queen's Work. Subscription price in U. S. A. and Canada: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U. S. A. Editor: R. F. Smith, S.J. Associate Editors: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.J.; Henry Willmering, S.J. Assistant Editors: John E. necker, S.J.; Robert F. Weiss, S.J. Departmental Editors: Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.; Ehrl A. Weis, S.J. Please send all renewals, new subscriptions, and business correspondence to: Review for Religious, 3115 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis 18, Missouri. Please send all manuscripts and editorial correspondence to: Review for Religious, St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. Apostolic Indulgences ot: John XXIII [The original text of which the following pages are a translation appeared in /lcta /l/wstolicac Sedis, 51 (1959), 48-50. The enumeration in "the translation is taken from the original document.] APOSTOLIC INDULGENCES which the Supreme Pon-tiff John XXIII in an audience with the undersigned 'Cardinal Major Penitentiary on November 22, 1958, granted to the faithful who possess a pious or religious article blessed by the Pontiff or by a priest having the competent power and who fulfill certain prescribed conditions. The Indulgences i. Whoever is accustomed to recite at least once a week the Lord's chaplet [coronam Dominicam]; or one of the chaplets of the Blessed Virgin Mary; or a rosary or at least a third part of it; or the Little Office of the same Blessed Virgin Mary; or at least Vespers or a nocturn together with Lauds of the Office of the Dead; or the penitential or gr~ldual psalms; or is accustomed to perform at least once a week one of those works which are known as the !'works of mercy," for example, to help the poor, to visit the sick, to datechize the uninstructed, to pray for the living and the dead, and so forth; or to attend Mass; may, provided the conditions of sacramental confession, Holy Communion, and some prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff are observed, gain a plenary indulgence on ¯ the following days: the Nativity of our Lord, Epiphany, Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, the feast of the Sacred Heart, Christ the King; the Purification, Annunciation, Assumption, Nativity, Immaculate Conception, Maternity, and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the feast of her Queenship; the Nativity of St. John the Baptist; both feasts of St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Virgin Mother of God (March 19 and May 1); the feasts of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, 129 APOSTOLIC INDULGENCES Review for Religious Philip and James, Baitholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude, Matthias; and the feast of All Saints. If, however, a person does not make a sacramental con-fession and go to Holy Communion but nevertheless prays with a contrite heart for some time [aliquantisper] for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, he may gain on each of the above-mentioned days a partial indulgence of seven years. Moreover, whoever performs one of the aforementioned works of piety or charity may gain, each time he does so, a partial indulgence of three years. 2. Priests who, if they are not prevented.by a legitimate impediment, are accustomed to celebrate daily the holy sacrifice of the Mass may gain a plenary indulgence on the above rden-tioned feasts, provided they confess sacramentally and pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. Moreover, as often as they say Mass they may gain a partial indulgence of five years. 3. Whoever is bound to the recitation of the Divine Office may, when he fulfills this obligation, gain a plenary indulgence on the feast days mentioned above, provided the conditions of sacramental confession, of Holy Communion, and of prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father are fulfilled. Whoever does this at least with a~ contrite heart may gain each time a partial indulgence of five years. 4. Whoever recites at dawn, at noon, and at evening, or does so as soon as he can after thos~ times,the prayer which is popularly called the Angelus and during the Paschal Season the Regina Caeli; or whoever, being ignorant of these prayers, says the Hail Mary five times; likewise whoever around the first part of the night recites the psalm De Profundis, or, if he does not know this, says an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Eternal Rest Grant unto Them, .may gain a partial indulgence of five hundred days. 130 May, 1959 APOSTOLIC INDULGENCES 5. The same indulgence may be gained by one who on any Friday piously meditates for a time [aliquantult~m] on t~e passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ and devoutly recites three times the Our Father and the Hail Mary. 6. Whoever, after examining his conscience, sincerely de-testing his sins, and resolving to amend himself, will devoutly recite an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be to the Father in honor of the Most Blessed Trinity; or recites five times the Glory Be to the Father in memoryof the five wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, may gain an indulgence of three hundred days. 7. Whoever prays for those in their agony by reciting for them "at least once an Our Father and a Hail Mary may gain a partial indulgence of one hundred days. 8. Finally whoever in the moment of death will devoutly commend his soul to God and, after making a good confession and receiving Holy Communion, or at least being, contrite, will devoutly invoke, if possible with his lipg, otherwise at least in his heart, the most holy name of Jesus, and will patiently accept his death from the hand of the Lord as the wages for sin, may gain a plenary indulgence. Cautions 1. The only articles capable of receiving the blessing for gaining the apostolic indulgences are chaplets, rosaries, crosses, crucifixes, small religious statues, holy medals, provided they are not made of tin, lead, hollow glass, or other similar material which can be easily broken or destroyed. 2. Images of the saints must not represent any except those duly canonized or mentioned in approved martyrologies. 3. In order that a person may gain the apostolic in-dulgences, it is necessary that he carry on his person or decently keep in his home one of the articles blessed by the Sovereign Pontiff himself or by a priest who hasthe requisite faculty. 131 APOSTOLIC INDULGENCES 4. By the express declaration of His Holiness, this con-cession of apostolic indulgences in no way derogates from in-dulgences which may have been granted at other times by Supreme Pontiffs for the prayers, pious exercises, or works mentioned above. Given at Rome, in the palace of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, on November 22, 1958. L. oS. N. Card. Canali, Major Penitentiary I. Rossi, Secretary 132 Plus XIl's AIIocution to Clois!:ered Con!:emplat:ives Translal:ed by Frank C. Brennan, S.J. [The first and second parts of this allocution were published in the January and March issues of the REVIEW ~'Og gE~.ICIOIJS; this is the third and last part. The successive parts of the allocution were broadcast by Plus XII on July 19, July 26, and August 2, 1958. The offical text is to be found in Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS)', .50 (1958), 562-586. All divisions and subtitles in the translation are also found iv. tb.e official, text.~ PART III: LIVE THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE The Practice of the Contemplative Life in the Light of the Knowledge and Love of Contemplation WHILE TREATING the knowledge and love of the con-templative life in the first two parts of this allocution, We did not neglect, beloved daughters, to point out some practical applications of the principles which We were empha-sizing. In order to promote a fuller understanding of Our discourse, it is important to go beyond merely theoretic~il and abstract considerations and take account of the concrete effects which a more profound knowledge and a more ardent love of the contemplative life can have on its actual practice. Since We need not repeat in this third part wh.at We have already said, We will recall the necessity of translating into action ¯ what we know and love more deeply and then consider the actual practice of the contemplative life, with respect both to its essential element, which is contemplation itself, and to its sec-ondary elements, especially monastic work. As We pointed out in the first part of Our allocution, one's knowledge of the contemplative life is enriched and deepened by the daily fulfillment of its obligations. Love of the con-templative life neces,sarily engenders attitudes through which this love is expressed and without which it would be nothing but a delusion. In this constant interaction which normally conditions 133 P~us XII Review for Religious the regular progress of a religious life, the predominant element will a.lways be the interior life which gives to external actions all their meaning and value. It is from the heart of a man-that good or evil designs spring;' it .is his intention which explains his acts and gives them their moral significance. But this inten-tion alone will not suffice; it must be actualized: "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me,''2 says Jesus. And again: "You are my friends if you do the things I command you.''~ By contrast, whoever neglects to ful-fill the divine precepts finds himself excluded from the King-dom: "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father.''4 The Fulfillment of the Essential Duty of the Contemplative Life: Interior Contemplation These basic principles apply, also to the contemplative life. To desire the contemplative life, however ardently, is not enough; one must actually dedicate oneself to it and accept the sacrifices which it requires. For contemplation, understood as the union of the mind and heart with God, is the essential characteristic of the contemplative life. We established this in the first part of Our allocution where We cited the chief texts which prove it. Here We add two more, which We draw from" the instruction Inter caetera of March 25, 1956, ¯ and whic.h reiterate the preeminence of contemplatibn in your life. "Minor cloister does not admit of ~iny kind of ministry, but only such as is compatible with the contemplative life of the whole community and of each nun.''5 "Those ministries which are undertaken with discernment and moderation in accordance with the character and spirit of the order must tend to reinforce rather than disturb and prevent the life of 1Cf. Mk 7:21. 2 Jn 14:21. 3Jn 15:14. 4 Mt 7:21. 5AAS, 48 {1956), 520, n. 41a. 134 May, 1959 CLOISTERED CONTEMPLATIVES true' contemplation.''° "Such works are the teaching of Chris-tian doctrine, religious instruction, the education of young girls and of children, retreats and spiritual exercises for women, the preparation of candidates for First Communion, works of charity for the relief of the gick and the poor."''7 The con-templative life does not consist essentially in the external pro-fession of a religious discipline which is only the framework of contemplation. Religious discipline sustains, encourages, and preserves the contemplative life; but it does not actually con-stitute it. To repea~, therefore, what We have said already, We earnestly exhort you to give yourselves with all your hearts to contemplative prayer as to your essential duty for which you have renounced the world. This prindple has nothing directly to do with the fre-quency and duration of spiritual exercises. The intensity of an exercise is not necessarily measured by its length. While the ministries permitted to contemplative nuns may prevent them from devoting long hours each day to contemplative prayer, there still remains enough time to satisfy this essential obligation. The Fulfillment of Secondary Duties Which Perfect the Contemplative Life Along with "the essential and indispensable elements which constitute the first and principal end of the contempla-tive life of cloistered nuns," the apostolic constitution Sponsa Christi singles out others which ar~e not indispensable but which do perfect the contemplative life and are calculated to safeguard it. Among these are the cloister, exercises of piety, of prayer, and of mortification.8 The sixth and seventh articles of the same constitution deal with the nature and jurid-ical structure of cloistered con~ents, with their autonomy, and" with the possibility of their forming federations and confe~l-" °Ibid., n. 41b. Ibid., n. 41c. sCf. AAS, 43 (1951), 10. 135 PIus XII Review fo,r Rcligiows erations? On some of these points the Church lays dowri precise requi.rements which must be met;. on others, however, she merely expresses an invitation and a preference which should receive careful and respectful consideration. It is on!y right that convents and orders of cloistered nuns esteem, pro-tect, and remain faithful to the distinctive spirit of their order. It would be unjust not to take account of this. But they should defend it without narrow-mindedness or rigidity to say nothing of a certain obstinacy which opposes every legitimate development and resists every kind of adaptation even though the common good requires it. It can happen that a nun is asked to leave her convent and to establish herself elsewhere for some greater good or for a serious reason. It is true, of course, that no one can impose on a religious, against her will, any obligations which go beyond the provisions of her vows. But one might ask just to what degree stability really constitutes an essential right of cloistered nuns. The Holy See has the right to modify the constitutions ofan order together with their prescriptions concerning stability. But if these changes affect essential points of law, thenthe members are not bound, by virtue of their vows, to accept the new constitutions. They must be given the choice of leaving the order which undergoes modi-fications of this kind. At the same time a nun can freely renounce her own rights and consent to the request which, with the approval of the Holy See, is made of her.1° We recognize the gravity of such a step and what it might cost the individual religious, but We would exhort her to accept this sacrifice unless there are grave reasons for declining. Whenever there is question of the secondary elements which play only an auxiliary role in the religious life, convents and individual nuns should be ready to accept the interchange of ideas and the mutual collaboration which the Holy See Ibid., pp. 17-19. loCf. Sponsa Christi, a. 7, § 8, n. 3; AAS, 43 (1951), 19. 136 May, 1959 CLOISTERED CONTEMPLATIVES has proposed to them. In-particular, they should try to estab-lish respectful and open relations with the Sacred Congregation of Religious since the Congregation does not intend to ignore existing rights but rather wishes to take into account the desires of monasteries or orders of nuns. This collaboration is par-ticularly desirable whenever there is question of forming fed-erations of convents or orders, or even of fo'rming confed-erations of federations. The text of Sponsa Christi clearly states that there is no thought of doing violence to the just independence of par-ticular convents, but rather of protecting and insuring it. Strive, therefore, to cooperate with the competent ecclesiastical author-ity in order to further the adaptation and salutary evolution which the Church desires. One Element in Particular: Monastic Work We are deeply interested in the application of the norms concerning work, because this has a bearing not only on the welfare of every contemplative convent and order, but also on the welfare of the universal Church which, in many places, requires the cooperation of all its available forces. Having already discussed the necessity of work in general and its appropriateness for contemplative ordersW, e here concent.rate on the application of those provisionsset forth in the constitution Sponsa Christi. In the first part of that constitution, We said that ';We are moved, even forced, to apply these reasonable adjustments to the life of cloistered nuns because of reports We have received from all parts of the world informing us of the distress in which many nuns live. Indeed, there are convents which are close to starvation, misery, and destitution, while in others life is very difficult because of severe material privations. Still other convents, without being in desperate straits, find them-selves on the decline because they are isolated and separated from all the others. Furthermore, the laws of cloister are 137 P~os XII Review for Religious sometimes too rigid, thus giving rise to serious difflculties.''n The normal and most readily available remedy for these ills is some kind of'work on the part of the nuns themselves. For this reason We call on them to undertake such work 'and thus provide for themselves the necessities of life rather than have immediate recourse to the goodness and charity of others. This request is addressed also to those who are not actually destitute and are not for this reason forced to earn their daily bread by the work of their hands. They too might somehow earn enough to satisfy the law of Christian charity toward the poor. We further urge you to develop and perfect your manual abilities so as to be able to adapt yourselves to circumstances in accordance with article 8, paragraph 3, number 2 of the constitution Sponsa Christi.12 This same article summarizes the norms concerning work by stating at the outset that "monastic work, in which contemplative nuns should be engaged, ought to be, as far as possible, in accordance with the Rule, the con-stitutions, and the traditions of each order.''~3 Some consti-tutioris provide for determined .works which are generally of an apostolic nature. Others, on the contrary, make no provisions of this kind. The work "should be so organized that it will secure for the nuns a definite and suitable sustenance by adding to other sources of income.''14 Local ordinaries and superiors are bound to see to it "that such necessary, suitable, and re-munerative work is never lacking to the nuns.''~ Finally, the article emphasizes the duty which the nuns have in conscience not only to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, but also to perfect themselves each day, as circumstances demand, by different kinds of work.~6 Do not let Our call to labor go unheeded; but make use of all the means at your disposal and of every opportunity Ibid., pp. 10-11. Ibid., p. 19. Ibid., a. 8, § 1. Ibid., § 2. Ibld., § 3, n. 1. Ibid., § 3, n. 2. 138 May, 1959 CLOISTERED CONTEMPLATIVES you can contrive to earn something, if not to meet ygur owrt pressing needs, then at least in order to alleviate the misery of others. Note also that some serious occupation, .adapted to your strength, is an efficacious way of preserving one's mental balance or of regaining it if it has been disturbed. In this way you will avoid the damaging effects which complete seclu-sion and the relative monotony of daily life in the cloister can exercise on certain temperaments. Conclusion We close Our allocution, beloved daughters, by repeating that invitation to the apostolate which formed the conclusioh of~the constitutiori Sponsa Christi. It ~s an invitation based on the great commandment to love God and our neighbor as well .as on the will of the Church. Charity towards our neighbor in'cludes all human.beings,. all their needs, all their sufferings. It is most especially pr.e,. occupied with their eternal salvation. Nuns can exercise this~ apostolate ~,hich the Church entrusts to them in three wa, ys: by the example of Christian ,.perfection which silently ~raws the faithful to Christ, by public and private prayer, by. pe.n.- ances generously undertaken even beyond the prescriptic~ns of the rule at the behest of one's °wholehearted. love of ,the. Lord. In its dispositive part, the constitution Sponsao Christi tdois dtiinffgeuriesnhte fso drmiffse roefn tth kei cnodns toefm apploastitvoeli cli fweo. rSko mcoer rneuspnos~n dairneg committed by their constitutions to the exterior apostolate; they should continue in this apostolate. Others do engage or have engaged to 'some extent in '~ipostolic works even though their constitutions mention only tl'i~ contemplati~,e life. They should continue such work; or if they havd abandoni~d i~,' they should resume it in accordance with current needs. Still other contemplative nuns, in obedience to their rules and constitutions, live only the life of contemplation. They should adhere to it unless they are forced by necessity to perform 139 Plus XII Review for Religious some kind of exterior apostolate for a time. It is evident that these exclusively contemplative nuns participate in the apos-tolate of love through example, prayer, and penance. We would also like to direct your thoughts to that more sublime and more. universal apostolate of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, of which the Apostle of the Gentiles" and St. John's speak. The apostolate of the Church is based on .her world-wide mission to all men and to all nations in every age of the world--to Christians and pagans, to believers and unbelievers. This mission derives from the Father: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that those who believe in him may not perish but have life everlasting. For God did not send his Son into the world in order to judge. the world, but that the world might be saved through him.'9 This mission is confided to the Church by Christ: "As the Father has sent me, I also send you.''-~° "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.'"-" This mission is accomplished in the Holy Spirit: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witness for me . . . even to the very ends of th~ earth.''2"~ Hence this. mission of the" Church proceeds ultimately from the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No mission is more sublime, more sacred, or more universal either in its origin o~ in its object. What is the object of this mission if not to make known to all men t,he true God, one and indivisible in the Trinity of Persons, and God's plan of redemption implemented through ,7 2 Cor 11:2. lSJn 20:21-23; 21:16-17; Apoc 21. 19Jn 3:16-17. ' '.'0 Jn 20:21. ", Mt 28:18-20. '-''Act 1:8. 140 May, 1959 CLOISTERED CONTEMPLATIVES His Son and through the Church founded by Christ to per-petuate His work. The Church has received the complete deposit of faith, and of grace. She possesses all of revealed truth and all the means of salvation bequeathed to her by the Redeemer: baptism,~3 the Eucharist, the priesthood: "Do this in commemoration of me";~4 the conferring of the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands of the Apostles;"~3 the remis-sion of sins: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them";"6 and the government of the faithful by the power of jurisdiction which she exercises in the name of Christ and with the abiding assistance of the Holy Spirit.~v Here we have a brief description of the divine riches with which the Lord has endowed His Church to the end that she may fulfill her apostolic mission amidst all the uncer-tainties of this earthly life and march down through the ages without having the gales of hell prevail against her."~ Let the unconquerable force which animates this apos-tolate of the Church take hold of your minds and your hearts. It will fill you with peace and joy! "Take courage, I have overcome the world.'''-'° In mounting ever higher and closer ¯ to God, you widen your horizons and become that much more qualified to find the true way on this earth. Far from narrowly confining you within the walls of your convent, your uniorl with God expands your mind and heart to the very limits of the world making them coextensive with the world and with. Christ's redemptive work being carried on in the Church. Let this be your guide; let it sustain all your efforts and reward them with abundant fruit. We "beg our Lord graciously to favor you with His choicest gifts and to perfect the work which He has begun in you to 2aMt 28:19. "4Lk 22:19. 25Act 8:17. 2°Jn 20:23. 27Cf. Jn 21:16-17. 28Cf. Mt 16:18. 29Jn 16:33. 141 P~es XII His greater glory. As a pledge of these divine graces, We impart to you with all Our Heart Our paternal and apostolic benediction. 142 Current: Spiri!:ual Wri!:ing Thomas G. O'Callaghan, S.,J. Prayer ST. THOMAS says that in our acts of worship the exterior, bodily act is ordered to the interior act of the soul; for it is .this latter which is the more important (II-II, q. 84, a. 2). Thus, an exterior act of adoration, a bow or genuflec-tion~ is made for the sake of fostering interior adoration. Rev-erent exterior gestures of humility will usually help to arouse the heart to humble itself before God, to submit itself to Him. But it is also true, as the" Angelic Doctor teaches, that an exterior act of worship ought to proceed from the interior act. In this way exterior acts of adoration are normally the expres-sion of interior acts. Therefore, exterior acts of worship ought both to proceed from, and also to be ordered to, interior acts of worship. Understanding this relation of the exterior to the interior in the worship of God, it is interesting to read an article of l~tienne Robo on the use of the hands in prayer.~ Gestures with the hands can very easily express ideas or interior attitudes. To shake a fist at someone is to threaten violence; a traffic officer holds up his hand to stop traffic and then waves it on; a beggar holds out his hand as a request for alms. Thus, it would be quite normal to expect that in prayer our hands could and should express interior dispositions. In the days of the Old Testament to lift one's hands above the head, with eyes raised toward heaven, was a gesture of supplication. David asked the Lord to consider the lifting up of his hands as an evening sacrifice. During and even after the time of Christ this was still a typical gesture of prayer. "Pray with Your Hands," F~'ors/ti~, XXXIII, 14-18. 143 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious A modification of this .was to pray'with the arms extended in the form of a cross, a practice which Tertullian recom-mended, since it proclaimed the Passion of Christ. However, because such a practice was very tiring, an attenuated version of this was introduced. One sees in the catacombs paintings of the early Christians praying with their ai:ms "flexed to some slight extent and the hands, wide open, palms outward, are not raised above the shoulders. The shape of the cross is re-tained but on a less ample scale." This is very similar to the gesture of the priest at Mass when he is reading the Orations or the Canon. Our present custom of holding the hands palm to palm againsf one another seems to be of Germanic origin. When a vassal received a grant of land from his feudal lord, in order to express his fidelity and loyalty to his lord, he would kneel before him and place his joined hands between the hands of his lord. This custom, because it could represent so perfectly our dependence upon God, the Lord to whom we owe fidelity and service, was adopted by the Church as an attitude of prayer. All these gestures are external acts which are expressive of interior dispositions. But also, if we use them with rev-erence, they will, as St. Thomas taught, help to foster interior devotion and prayerfulness. In reading the letters of St. Paul, Father Lyonnet, S.J., remarks,'-' one is impressed with the frequent references which he makes to prayer. Very often Paul speaks about his own prayer, telling those to whom he writes that he has been thank-ing God for the graces which our Lord has granted them, or that he is begging God fo~ the graces which they need. At other times he is exhorting others to pray. It might also be noted that in most of these places where Paul is speaking about prayer, . the prayer has an apostolic quality to it; it is in ""Un aspect de la 'pri~re apostolique' d'apr~s saint Paul," Christus, V (1958), 222-29. 144 May, 1959 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING some way concerned with the promotion of the' Kingdom of God. When Paul speaks about prayer, especially the prayer of petition, he seems to suggest that prayer is a kind of strftggle, an engagement between the soul and God. It is not only that "night and day we pray;" but prayer is addressed to God "with. extreme insistence" (I Thess 3:10). He .asks the Romans "to strive together with me in your prayers to God" (Rom 15:30); and Epaphras, St. Paul wri~s, "does not cease striving" for the Colossians in his prayers (Col 4:12). Paul's way of speak-ing of prayer as a persistent struggle recalls our Lord's parable of the importunate friend whose prayer was heard because of his persistence (Lk 11:5-10). Both Christ and Paul make it clear that in prayer we should strive with persistence to be heard. Judging from their teaching, it seems that God wants to be pressed with requests, so that t.hrough our insistent prayer we may wrest from Him what we desire. Does that mean that by our insistent prayer we move God to do that which at first He did not want to do, as if we could exert an .influence on God Himself? Or might it mean that God is not a very loving Father, nor is He always disposed to give His children what will help them? By no means. Such a mentality would be based on a very false idea of divine transcendence and love. When Paul, following the teaching of Christ, emphasizes the notion of struggling, striving in prayer, what h~ is trying to do is to underline the necessity of prayer. But prayer is necessary, as St. Thomas teaches, not in regard to God, ds if He needed to be informed of our desires, or as if.prayer were necessary to dispose Him to grant us our requests. God always knows our desires and is always disposed to grant us His gifts. Prayer rather is necessary from our part; for it is, partially at least, through prayer that we become suitably disposed to receive His gifts. Prayer does not dispose God ~to give; it 145 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGI-IAN Review for Religious disposes~us to receive from Him the graces and blessings which He in/His fatherly love desires to give us. !wT~hish teaching of St. Thomas applies primarily to the prayer ich the Christian addresses to God for himself. But it may also be applied, Father Lyonnet believes, to the prayer which an apostle addresses to God for others, particularly those en-trusted to his care. God wishes to use us. as His apostles for the salvation and sanctification of others. He wants us to be His instruments in the work of redemption. Too often, how-ever, we are not fit instruments for God's salvific work. It is prayer--all prayer, no doubt, but especially prayer for others --which disposes us to .be suitable apostolic instruments, fit for promoting the Kingdom of Christ. Thus, without exercis-ing any influence on God, without intending to change the will of God, which could only be a will of love, prayer has the purpose of making the apostle a suitable instrumen~ of God, and allowing God to realize in and thro. ugh him His designs of love: Celibacy Sex is a fact of life which is here to stay; and it is very important that those who are preparing to live a life of celi-bacy, whether as priests or religious, should acquire sound attitudes toward it. Many excellent .suggestions for establishing these attitudes are given in a fine article by Father W. Bert-rams, S.J.a Although his remarks are directed primar.ily to seminarians--and it is mostly in reference to them that we will explain a few of his ideas here--most of the article is applicable to religious also. The priesthood demands a complete and undivided dedi-cation of on~eself to Christ and His Church. This is a very positive thing, and it is only this positive oblation of oneself which fully explains the obligation of celibacy. Because he 3 *'De efformando in clericis genuino fundamento cae[ibatus suscipiendi," Periodica, XLVII (1958), 3-28. 146 May, 1959 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING dedicates himself to Christ, the priest cannot give himself to another; he must live a celibate life. Something similar takes place in marriage. When a young man gets married, he dedi-cates himself to his wife--and she to him--and it is because of this positive dedication to her that he may not give himself to another. In this sense the positive dedication of oneself to Christ in the priesthood (or religious life) is sometimes called a spiritual marriage between Christ and the priest (or Christ and the religious). During the course of their studies, then, clerics should strive to acquire this positive attitude toward celibacy. Certainly it is far more beneficial and healthy than the merely negative attitude of "I must not sin against chastity." It is the positive aspect, the dedication of oneself to Christ, which should be dominant in the soul. Another point which Father Bertrams makes is that a person dedicated to the celibate life should have a healthy atti-tude, not a fearful and anxious one, toward his own body. One's body is a work of God; and thus reverence, not fear, is due it. Also, although one might possibly bemisled by an expression which is sometimes used, there is no such a thing as an "indecent part" ot: the body. Thus, it would not be honest and objective to consider one's body, or certain parts of it, almost exclusively as an occasion of sin. Such an atti-tude would make the general subject of sex an object of fear, and it would create many difficulties which a person with a healthy attitude toward his body would not experience. The sexual faculty is not evil in itself; it is good. Like any other natural faculty, however, it must be subordinated -to reason. Thus, control of this faculty is required. But the process of educating oneself to this control supposes that one first admit t.hat sex and sexual appetites do exist, and that they will at times manifest themselves. Some people are not always willing to admit this to themselves, or they keep wishing that it were not so. They must simply learn to accept the present 147 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religiou.~" divinely-established order of Providence, an order in which sex, according to the will of God, has its proper place. From the fact that sexual appetites do at times manifest themsel~es, and even strongly, it is clear that sexual tempta-tions "do exist. These appetites, therefore, [lave to be con-trolled; for if they are not, they lead to sin. In this sense sex can be dangerous. But to see the dangers of sex practically ev~erywhere is just not being objective. It is true that today there are .found in public life many sexual stimulants, and these can easily cause some indeliberate sexual thoughts and reactions. That is quite normal; in fact, for a person never to react to these stimulants would possibly be a "sign of some natural de-fect. But, for a well-balanced person, not every sexual reaction to these stimulants is really deserving of the name of tempta-tion; they are not real inducements to sin. Many are slight and pass quicklyl.and the best thing to do is to pay no attention to them. To consider these reactions as true, temptations, and to be continually trying to avoid them, would only make one overanxious and hypersensitive. This state of anxiety could easily turn these slight reactions into strong temptations. Another point in Father Bertrams's article touches on the question of the choice of a celibate life in preference to the married state. Since attraction for members of the other sex is natural and fairly strong and ordinarily leads to "marriage, the choice of a ceiibate life should be made only after mature deliberation. Seminarians should realize, in reflecting on this choice, that marriage is noi something good merely in the abstract. When they renounce marriage, they renounce some-thing which could be for them an excellent personal good, a source .of perfection, happiness, and salvation. But they are renouncing this sacramental state for the sake of a higher good, a more ~omplete dedication to Christ and a more perfect service of His Church. And even after they make that choice of a celibate life, they should not expect the natural and human tendency toward married and family life simply to disappear. 148 May, 1959 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING But for them personally the celibate life is still a greater good, and by cooperating with the graces of their state the other tendency can be controlled. These and many other of the observations .which Father Bertrams makes are very prudent and are well worth study and reflection. St. Th~r~se of Lisieux The recently published critical edition of the original autobiographical manuscripts of St. Th~r~se of Lisieux (cf. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 17 [1959], 145-47) has been the occasion of intensified interest in the spirituality of this beauti-ful Carmelite saint. The original text is being carefully studied, and also closely compared with the text which Mother Agnes edited--and in many ways rewrote~and which has been known in English as The Story of a Soul. One of the purposes of this study and comparison is to discover whether our present picture of Th~r~se's spiritual life should be modified in any significant way. An excellent article which considers this prob-lem has been written by Father Noel Dermot of the Holy Child, O.C.D.4 We would like to mention briefly just one or two of the points which he discusses. When Mother Agnes edited Th~r~se's manuscripts, she omitted a great number of passages. From a study of these passages it is evident that her intention was not to show Th~r~se" as being holier or better than she really was. The only pas-sage which could cause some doubt in this regard is the one in which St. Th~r~se speaks about her difficulty in saying the rosary. She admitted that saying the rosary took more out of her than a hair-shirt would. No matter how hard she tried, she could not meditate on the mysteries of the rosary. This caused her great distress. Since she did have a strong personal love for the Blessed Mother, she just could not understand 4"The Published Manuscripts and the 'Histoire d'une Ame,' " Ephemer-ides Carraeliticae, IX (1958), 3-31. 149 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review ]o~" Religious why saying prayers in Mary's honor should be difficult. Never-theless, it. was difficult and a real trial for her. This might be comforting to many of us; but we should not hastily assume, as Father Noel prudently notes, "that the Saint's distractions were on the same level as our own." Th~r~se could not fix her attention on the mysteries, "not because her mind is far from God, and full of worldly or selfish preoccupations, but rather because her mind is fixed ~on God in a simpler and higher way. It is in fact a matter in which the Saint suffered from the lack of sufficiently skilled direction, which would assure her that Our Lady is more hon-ored by a simple loving regard toward herself, or her Divine Son, than by the repetition of set prayers." Another point, which may be of interest .to mention here, is that one of the most striking characteristics of Th~r~se's manuscripts is the constant use of the name of Jesus. Father Noel .observes, in speaking of the editor's notes in the critical edition of the Autobiography, that "the citations under J/sus in the Table des citations occupy ten columns." 'This is an indication of the central and dominant place which Jesus held in the life of Th~r~se of the Infant Jesus. (She never refers to Jesus as Our Lord, and only once as Christ.) Her autobiography is the story of a great love, "the love of Jesus for Th~i~se and of Th~r~se for Jesus." Obedience The spiritual life is primarily and basically a relationship between persons. First, it is a personal relationship with the three Persons of the Trinity. The three key virtues of the spiritual life, the theological virtues'of faith, hope, and charity, are personal relationships with the Persons of God. One be-lieves God; one hopes in God; one loves God. There are also, as is obvious, our personal relationships with the Blessed Mother, the saints, the angels, and others. Personal contacts therefore are at the very heart of the spiritual life. 150 May, 1959 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING Yet there is a very real.danger for religious to become impersonal in their spiritual lives. They can easily fall into what might be called the trap of impersonalism. This is espe-cially true, as Father Ryan, O.P., points out, in regard to obedience.~ Religious are certainly desirous ot: being obedient, because the faithful observance of rules is a very important part of religious life. But there is a definite danger of making obedience something impersonal, as if it were nothing more than conformity with a set of rules and regulations. "Primarily it is not this. We do not obey," says Father Ryan, "an abstract code of laws, we obey people . " This personal aspect of obedience is certainly brought out in Sckipture. Our Lord obeyed His Father; He asked His followers to obey those who are their temporal lords. Children are told to obey their parents, servants their masters, and wives their husbands. Scripture makes it quite clear that obedi-ence is a personal relationship. Obedience is never mere conformity to law. It is a vir-tue which gov.erns the relationship between living persons, be-tween a subject and his superior. Since in the Christian dis-pensation the superior is a representative of Christ, possessing authority from Christ, obedience is basically a personal relation-ship with a living Christ. This is a point which often has to be stressed, because otherwise obedience can easily degenerate into legalism, into mere conformity with impersonal rules. When this occurs, the religious life loses much' of its meaning. It is failing to be what it should be, a person to person rela-tionship with the living Person of Christ. The Contemplative Life It was interesting to see in a recent issue of Jubilee that a group of Camaldolese hermits have started their order's first foundation in America.6 They have acquired an ideal location S"The Vows of Religion: II Religious Obedience," The Life o.~ the Spirit, XIII (1958), 242-49. °"The Camaldolese Come to America," Jubilee, December, 1958. 151 Review for Religious on California's Monterey peninsula, six hundred acres of peaceful and secluded property overlooking the Pacific. This will be only thdir second house outsi~le of Italy; the other is in Poland. The Congregation of Camaldolese Monk Hermits was founded by St. Romuald in the eleventh century. The prop-erty. on which he built his monastery was the .gift of Count Maldolo. Thus, the name Camaldolese originated by "shorten-ing the phrase ~.arnl~us MalJoH (the field of Maldolo). The Camaldolese are an independent branch of the Benedic-tine order. Their foundation adapted the Benedictine Rule so that it would include hermits, and-thus provide for the eremitical as well as the cenobitical life. "Although the recent trend within the Order has been to emphasize the cenobitical life, the foundation in America will be solely eremitical." Along with the new foundation of the Carthusians in Vermont and the extraordinary growth of Trappist vocations during the last fifteen years, the arrival of the Camaldolese is another indication of the growth of the contemplative life in America. The hermit's life is such a hidden one that it is rare that an individual hermit, at least in Western Christendom, becomes well known. Yet during the last fifty years there have been two hermits who have gained some fame. The better known of these two was Charles de Foucauld, the French ascetic who was murdered in the Hoggar desert more than forty years ago. The other, who died not quite three years ago, was an English convert, Monsignor John Hawes, better known as Fra Jerome, and perhaps still better known as The Hermit of Cat Island, since this is the title given to a recent biography of him. Those who will not have the opportunity of reading this book will find a brief but interesting account of his life in "A Hermit of the Twentieth Century," written by' Michael Hanbury, one of Hawes's friends.7 7"A Hermit.of the Twentieth Century," The Month, XX (1958), 295-301. 152 ¯ May, 1959 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING It was while working as an architect in London that John Hawes met a retired Anglican bishop, who persuaded him to take Anglican orders. A ~few years l.ater he went as a mission-ary to the Bahamas, where part of his missionary activity was the construction of several Anglican churches. But doubts about his faith were disturbing his life; and after three years he left for New York and soon was received into the Church by another recent convert, Father Paul Francis of Graymoor, the founder of the Society of the Atonement. The following year found Hawes studying for the priesthood at the Beda, Rome. After ordination Father Hawes went to Weit Australia, and there he labored diligently for twenty-four years in his "twin roles of missionary and busy architect." After these arduous years, and although already past sixty, .he asked his bishop if he might be allowed to try what he believed to be his het.mit's vocation. Permission was granted on ~he conditior~ that he write his memoirs. In the spring of 1940 Hawes returned to the Bahamas, to Cat Island. He built a tiny three-room hermitage, his cell six feet by four, and his kitchen even smaller, and began his hermit's life. Although his solitude was not extreme--for he was still called on at times for some missionary and even architectural work---often he saw no one for three or four days at a time. Thus he spent the last fifteen years of his life in prayer, fasting, and penance, sharing with, Christ the solitude and sorrows of Gethsemani. Sacred Scripture Are we biblical Arians or biblical Docetists? The ques-tion is an interesting one, and so is the answer given by.H.J. Richards in ','The Word of God Incarnate.''8 This article should be of special interest to priests or nuns who are teach-ing the Bible in high school or college. SScripture, X (1958), 44-48. 153 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review /or Religious In the early Church two heresies distorted the revealed truth about the Word Incarnate. At one extreme Arianism treated Christ '~as if he was exclusively human, with the divine about him no more than superimposed by a sort o~ adoption." At the other extreme was Docetism, which made Him almost exclusively divine, the human being mere appearance: Between these two extremes lies the truth: the Incarnate Word, one Person in two natures, one Completely human and the other completely divine. There has also been a similar double error about the Bible, that other "Word of God incarnate." The biblical Arian considers the Bible as "an exclusively human book which has beef~ subsequently approved of and adopted by God," while the biblical Docetist imagines it as "an exclusively divine work, with the various human authors acting merely as God's dictaphones." It is also between these two extremes that one finds the truth: the Bible is completely human and completely divine. Fifty years ago the danger was to .be a biblical Arian. Research and new discoveries in archeology, anthropology, geology, and so ~orth, were putting the Bible in the full light of its human context. This brought on the temptation to consider it as a purely human work. The Church condemned such a position, and insisted that the Bible was the word of God. But that teaching did not give us the right to lapse into a sort of biblical Docetism. We always need a scientific approach to the Bible, and this for the purpose of under-standing it properly. For "this book is so thoroughly human that from the first page to the last every possible human allowance has to be made if we are to understand it." , We must not forget that the Bible ;s not a single book, but a whole collection of them, and that the human authors who composed these books thought and wrote like men of their times, not like men of our day and civilization. Their. 154 May, 1959 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING approach to things was that of a Semite, not of a Westerner. Therefore, it is not strange that they expressed themselves in various "literary forms for which no equivalent exists in our own literature. Each of these must be recognized, for what it is, and judged according to the rules of that form. Otherwise we will only understand the meaning of the words, "not the meaning of' the man who wrote them." Thus, there is always a need of a scientific approach to the Bible which, although completely divine, is also human through and through. For unless we grasp the meaning of its human authors, we will never fully appreciate what it is :hat God is trying to say to us. 155 Pr c!:ice ot: !:he Holy See Joseph F. ~oallen, S.J. CANON 509, § 1, obliges all superiors to inform their sub-jects of all decrees of the Holy See concerning religious and to enforce such decrees. .The activity and mind and will of the Holy See are alsd revealed, and sometimes in a more practical manner, by approved constitutions and com-munications addressed to individual religious institutes. An article drawn from these sources was published in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS in 1953. This article is based on the same sources concerning lay institutes from January 1, 1954. The order of materi~il" followed in the article is the usual order of the chapters of constitutions of lay institutes. This is the second part of a series of three. 7. Religious profession. (a) Place of first temporary pro-fession. A congregation whose novitiate had been destroyed by fire received permission to hold the ceremonies of reception and profession in a public church. Canon 574, § 1 clearly commands for liceity that the first temporary profession should be made in a novitiate house. The code prescribes nothing about the place of the other temporary professions or of per-petual profession, but the place for these may be determined by the particular constitutions. Any institute whatever that wishes to hold the first temporary profession outside the no-vitiate house must secure a dispensation from the Holy See. Reasons such as the lack of a suitable place in the novitiate house, the difficulty or inconvenience to externs in reaching this house, the edification of the faithful, and the fostering of vocations justify the. petition of an indult to make the first professionelsewhere, for example, in a parish church.13 (b) Five years of temporary vows. A mother general requested ~°~ Larraona, Commentarium Pro Religiosis, 38-1957-218; REVIEW FOR RE-LIGIOUS; 12-1953-264. 156 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE permission to hold an extraordinary general chapter ~o discuss the extension of temporary profession from three to five years. The Sacred Congr.egation replied in 1957 as follows: "Since it is now the practice of this Sacred Congregation to require five years of temporary vows, we do not feel that it is neces-sary to convoke an extraordinary general chapter, to discuss the matter. It will be sufficient, if your council and ,yourself agree on the proposal, to make a formal petition to this Con-gregation to introduce the five-year period of temporary vows as an experiment until the next regular general chapter is held~ The general chapter should then discuss the matter and submit a petition for a change in your constitutions in this regard. This Sacred Congregation does not impose the change on those communities whose constitutions were approved before the present practice was introduced.'~'~ The sense of this reply seems to be that all congregations applying "for. pontifical ap-proval must demand five" years of temlSorary profession. The temporary vows may then be prolonged only f6r a year. The five years may be variously divided, for .example, five annual professions, three annual professions arid one of two years, or two annual professions and one of three ~,ear~s. ~ This new prac-tice of the Holy See is an added reason why the same extension should be studied by all institutes that'have only three years of temporary vows. The inauguration of juniorates and the consequent reduction of time of probation in the active life before perpetual profession had already led many institutes to study,._ and some to adopt, this extension.14 (c) Anticipated renewal of temporary vows. Canon. 5~7, § 1 perm!ts that a renewal be anticipated, but not by more than a month, (August 15, 1958 - July 15, 19'58). Constitutions recently approved are stating more frequently that an anticipated renewal expires only on the day on which a non-anticipated renewal would have expired. This matter was explained in the REVIEW FOR RE-LIGIOUS, 17-1958-60-6I. (d) Reception of profession. In~.lay Ibid., 12o1953-266-6~;" 15-1956-322.' 157 JOSEPH 1~. GALLEN Review for Religious institutes, the constant practice of the Holy See is ~that the vows are received by the superior general, or higher superior, and his or her delegates. More recent constitutions provide for the difficulty caused by the lack of an express delegation. For example, some state: "In default of an express delegation, the local superior is to be considered as delegated with the faculty of subdelegating." Those that have renewals of temporary vows frequently make the following provision: "Local superiors and their legitimate substitutes are delegated by the constitu-tions to receive the renewal of vows and with power also to subdelegate." It would have been better in the latter type of institute to have included also the first provision. The legiti-mate substitutes are the assistants or vicars of local superiors. The enti~e matter of reception was explained in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 8-1949:130-39; and the necessity of recep-tion in juridical renewals was emphasized in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 16-1957-113. (e) Resumption of solemn vows. The progressive resumption of solemn vows by monasteries of nuns continues. This matter was fully explained in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 16-1957-255-56. (f) Solemn vows in an institute of active purpose. One institute of women has been an order for centuries, that is, a religious institute in which at least some of the members should have taken solemn vows according to the particular laws of the institute. It has also been engaged in teaching outside its own monasteries. In other words, its work of teaching in no way differed from the manner in which this apostolate is exercised by congregations of sisters. This institute, while fully retaining the active end described above, was permitted to resume solemn vows by. a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, July 23, 1956. We therefore have a centralized order of nuns, whose works are exercised also outside their monastery, and who have a papal cloister similar to the papal cloister of men and not too distant from the common or episcopal cloister of congregations of sisters. Papal cloister is consequently now to be divided into 158 May, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE major, minor, ahd the special cloister proper to this institute of women and to a very few similar institutes of women.1~ All making their noviceship at the time ot~ the decree and all admitted thereafter are to make solemn profession. Simple temporary vows are made first~ for a period ot~ five years, which are followed by a profession of simple perpetual vows. After about ten years of simple vows and ordinarily at the end of the third probation, the religious is admitted to solemn prot~ession: This order is obliged to the daily choral recitation of at least part of the Divine Office, but the obliga/- tion is only that ot~ the constitutions. The religious recite the whole Office daily with these exceptions: they recite only one nocturn ot~ Matins and only one of the Little Hours ot~ Terce, Sext, and None. It is recommended that at least Vespers be sung .on Sundays and feast days. Religious who are students may be dispensed entirely from the office (c. 589, § 2). The nuns are permitted to go out for a special purpose, that is, the apostolate, preparation for. or supplementing of preparation for the apostolate, for purposes related to aposto-lic works, health, the accomplishment of a civic or religious duty, the service of the order, and necessary collaboration with other religious institutes. They are t~orbidden to go out for any personal satisfaction or interest °not foreseen by the constitutions. "The following persons may enter the part the house reserved for the religious, in case of necessity, at the discretion of the sul3erior: maids, workmen, doctors, architects and others." "Priests may enter the enclosure to administer the sacraments to th~ sick, or to assist the dying, according to the prescriptions ot~ canon law." "Seculars may be shown over [the part ot~ the house reserved for the works-] when the local superior thinks fit, with a view to the admission of pupils. Besides, parents may be authorized to see their children in the infirmary. Under conditions decided upon by l~Guti~rrez, Commentarium Pro Religiosis, 35-1956-263; J. Fohl, L'Ann~e Canonique, 4-1956-183. o . 159 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious the local superior, former pupils~, may be admitted into this part of the house, as well as persons connected with any good works directed by .the community either in groups on fixed da.ys .or ~separately. The same rule applies to those who may be called UPOn to share the work of the house: priests, teachers, doctors, business advisers, domestic help, 'contractors, workmen and others." The parlors have no grille, and there is no turn. The excommunication of canon 2342 is restricted" to passive cloister, that is, entering the section reserved for the religiot~s, and is worded in the constitutions as follows: "Every person entering without permission into the part o~ the house reserved for the religious, and also the religious who [~ring them in or admit therri within the enclosure incur excommunication reserved [simply] to the Holy See." 8. Poverty. (a) Buildings and cells. Some recent con-stitutions contain the wise provision that the buildings and their furnishings are to be marked by religious poverty, simplicity, and dignity. Several congregations, with at least equal wisdom, enact that each sister is .to' have her own cell. Some enjoin this absolutely; others as far as ik' is possible. (b) Collections in schools. One congregation enacted the following prudent and necessary provision: "Requests for gifts either for the school or for the congregation made by the teachers to the pupils" must be infrequent and submitted be-foreharid to the superiors. The latter will be cautious" in grant-ing permissions." (c) Making a will in an order. In its reply to a quinquennial report, the Sacred Congregation instructed a superioress of a monastery of nuns that the novices, since they were destined for solemn profession, were not obliged to make a will. This is true. It is also true that they are not forbidden to make a will. In my own opinion, these novices are to be strongly urged to make a will if they actually own property and especially if the interval between the noviceship and solemn profession is very long.1° (d) Renunciation of 16 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 15-1956.159-60. 160 May, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE patrimony in a congregation. In permitting at least two re-ligious of congregations to renounce their property in favor of their institute, the Sacred Congregation added the conditions: "provided the rights .of no third party were involved and that all the property, would be returned to the religious in the event. of his or her departure from the institute." This whole matter was explained in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 12-1953-257-59. 9. Confession and Communion. (a) Frequency of con-fession. In the past, the constitutions of lay institutes almost u.niversally directly commanded the religious to go to confession at least once a week. Later many constitutions were phrased in the wording of.canon 595, § 1, 3°: "Superiors shall take care that all the religious approach the sacrament of penance at least once a week." Constitutions are now appearing with the following Wording: "The religious "will usually go to confession at least once a week."° Frequency of confession was-explained in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 16-1957-116-17. (b) Occa-sional confessor. Recent constitutions frequently add to the canon on this confessor the prescription that all are obliged to observe religio~us discipline ifi the use of their right. T/~is is evident in itself~ and was contained in a reply of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, December 1, 1921.17 '(c) Supple-mentary confessors and opportunity of confession before Mass. In its. reply to one quinquennial report, the Sacred Congrega-tion made the very interesting and practical comment: "The superioresses shall carefully see to it, even consulting the re-spective local ordinaries on these points, that the sisters do not .lack supplementary confessors nor the opportunity of confession before Mass." This entire matter was expl.ained in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 9-1950-140-52. The Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments reiter~ited in 1938 that it "is especially im-portant, that they ~-the faitht~ul who live in communities] should hav~ the opportunity to make a confession also shortly before the time ot~ Communion.''is Even though this was emphasized Bouscaren, Canon Law Digest, I, 296-97. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 9-1950-146-49. 161 JOSEPH F. GADLEN Review for Religious in 1938, the ready opportunity of such a daily confession for lay religious is still most rare. (d) Interference in internal government. Some recent constitutions add the following sentence to the canon that forbids the ordinary or extraordinary confessor to interfere in internal government: "Therefore, the sisters shall treat with the confessors only matters that concern their own soul." This principle admits exceptions, for example, a councilor may licitly ask a priest in confession what is the more expedient, the more practical policy to follow in ~ matter of government. The pertinent canon was explained in the REVIEW FOR RI~LIGIOUS, 17-1958-255-5& (e) Frequency of Communion. Constitutions approved by the Holy See from about 1939 until recent years uniformly coiatained an article of the following type: "Superiors shall plainly tell their subjects that they are gratified at their frequent reception of Holy Com-munion, but that they see nothing to reprehend in those who do not receive so frequently, since this can be (or is) a sign of a tender and delicate conscience." This article, was taken from the Reserved Instruction on Daily Communion and Pre-cautions to be taken against Abuses, section, c, a).19 Some recent constitutions have the. same or a similar article; others have nothing on this point; some say that Communion need not or is not to be received according to rank; and perhaps the best expression is the following: "Superiors shall carefully eliminate anything that might interfere with the liberty of the individual religious to receive or abstain from Holy Com-munion." The elimination of precedence in receiving Com-munion is something with which I can agree, but I most seriously doubt the efficacy that is often attributed to it.2° One may also legitimately inquire what efficacy this elimination has when the religious continue to sit in the cha~pel according to rank. The great practical and effective means in this matter is the opportunity of confession before daily Mass. 19 Bouscaren, 05. cir., II, 213. ~0 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 9-1950-149; 15-1956-25. 162 May, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE 10. Religious exercises. (a) Mass. The feast of the canonized founder or foundress of a religious institute, even if the institute is not obliged to the Divine Office and does not have a proper calendar, is celebrated in the institute as a double of the first class, One monastery of Poor Clare Colettine nuns received an indult from the Sacred Congregation of Rites permitting the celebration of the feast of St. Collette as a double of the first class. A congregation of sisters Secured an ~ipdult to celebrate the feast of its patron under the same rite. T~is congregation was also permitted to celebrate several other Ma,sses, for example, ~hat of Mother of Mercy, on May 12. Thins, is from the Masses for Certain Places, and is given in the Miss~al for the Saturday before the fourth Sunday of July. One co~ngregation of St. Joseph was permitted to celebrate a votive ~,ass of St. Joseph in the principal oratory of the' mother house on\the first Wednesday of every month, provided some pious exercise was held in honor of St. Joseph. The following days were excluded: a double of the first or second class; a privileged feria!, octave, or vigil; Lent; and a feast of St. Joseph. One institute prepared and received permission to celebrate a private votive Mass of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Divine Teacher. The introduction to "the Mass states that Christ is teacher of mankind by a threefold title: 1° because by His doctrine He has introduced us into the most profound secrets of the Divinity and has revealed its most intimate mysteries; 2° by His example He has traced the path we must follow to God; 3° and by His grace He has made possible the practice of what He preached. (b) Office. A few congregations have substituted the Short Breviary in English for the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a lesser number have changed to English in the recitation of the latter. The change to the Short Breviary merits general study.~1 It is more in conformity with the liturgy and possesses the highly desirable advantage of being in English. (c) Particular examen at noon and the general examen in the 51 A Shor~ Breviary, edited by William G. Heidt, O.S.B., The Liturgical Press, St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minn. 163 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious evening. This old aversion of mine continues to appear in constitutions. As we have said before: "This has always seemed to me to be a strange practice. There is no doubt that the general examen may, be separated from the particular and that the general may be confined to the evening, although the preferable practice for religious is to make both together. The strangeness is found in making the particular only at noon. Is it the intention to strive for the conquest of a particular defect or the acquisition of a particular virtue for only half the day? If not, isn't it rather unnatural to examine oneself on this matter from noon to noon?''~-* 11. Cloister. (a) Papal cloister and extern sisters. It was made clear in the second general congress on the states of perfection that the Holy See favors a greater integration of the extern sisters in the life of the monastery and particularly by a greater facility for them to enter the cloister. A summary of the indults granted to several monasteries of the United States in this respect was published in the REYIEW FOR 16-1957-48. Two other monasteries obtained indults of greater moment. These permit the extern sisters to live within the papal enclosure and to perform the religious exercises and other duties of "common'life with the nuns. I do not know the reasons that were given in either of these petitions. (b) Entering and going out from papal enclosure. One nun was granted an indult to leave her monastery for three years to be mistress of novices in another monastery of the same order. A renewal of such an indult may be requested on its expiration, as was done in a similar case for a nun to continue as superioress of another monastery. One monastery Obtained an indult that permits the superioress to leave the enclosure for inspection of the quarters of the extern si~ters. A sister who was writirig a doctoral dissertation on medieval architecture was permitted to visit, all the monasteries of one order in a particular country, provided she had in each case the permission of the 22 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 13-1954-131. 164 May, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE superioress of the monastery and of the ~ocal ordinary. (c) Locked doors. One monastery of nuns received an indult to leave the dormitory doors within the monastery unlocked during the night to permit the nuns to go to the choir for nocturnal adoration and also to comply with the regulations of the Fire Prevention Bureau. The locked dormitory doors must have been the result of the particuhr law of this order. I was happy to see that a fire prevention bureau had finally made its influence felt in this matter. We have had several disastrous and fatal fires in the United States within the past few years. It would be well to reflect that very many of our ecclesiastical and religious buildings are old and that many of them can be accurately termed fire-traps. The death of a religious woman because of a locked door would be a harrowing accident; it also would not look v~ell in the newspapers nor in the public reports of an investigation. I wish to emphasize here what has been previously said in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS: "The National Fire Association states that its standards '. are widely used by law enforcing authorities in addition to their general use .as guides to fire safety.' In its pamphlet, Building ¯ Exits Code, this association states: 'All doors used in connection with exits shall be so arranged as to be always readily opened . from the side from which egress is made. Locks, if provided, shall not require a key to operate from the inside. Latches or other releasing devices to open doors shall be of simple types, the method of operation of which is obvious even in darkness.' This standard is not specifically applied to such residences as convents or religious houses in general,, but it is extended to very similar residences, e. g., apartment houses, which are defined as '. residence buildings providing sleep-ing accommodations for 20 or more persons, such as conven-tional apartments, tenement houses, lodging houses, dormitories, multi-family houses, etc.'''23 (d) Parlors. In reply to two quinquennial reports, the Sacred Congregation stated: "In all 231bid., 15-1956-284-85; 16-1957-52-53. 165 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review fo~" Religious houses the parlors should be so arranged that what takes place in them may be seen from outside." Although this is not expressly commanded by any law of the Church, the pertinent question of the quinquennial report presupposes that the parlors of all religious houses are of this nature. (e) Chaplain's quarters. The quinquennial" report inquires and the constitu-tions of religious women very frequently prescribe that, 'ithe quarters reserved for chaplains, confessors, and preachers are to have a separate entrance and no internal communication with the sections occupied by the religious women." Those apt to reside in such houses are the chaplains and priests who are professors in a college conducted by religious women. It would often be high!y inconvenient and costly to erect a separate entrance for the chaplain or to exclude any internal communica-tion with the sections occupied by the religious women. Con-stitutions are sometimes worded: "If the chaplain lives in the house of the sisters, his apartments as far as possible shall have a separate entrance and shall have no communication with the part of the house occupied by the sisters." (f) Absence. A sister was given permission by the Holy See to reside outside all houses of her institute for a year to prepare a doctoral dissertation. Canon 606, ~ 2 gives superiors the faculty of per-mitting such an absence for longer than six months for the purpose of study or work within the scope of the institute. This study includes private study, for example, in a library or archives. (g) Greater precaution in some countries. The follow-ing article in one set of constitutions is a good illustration of the greater precautions that must be observed in some countries. "Because of native customs~ the mentality of the . . . and his usual interpretation of the association of men and women, it is of suprem~ importance that sisters shall not go into the house of a priest, nor be in any place whatever with a priest or brother or any man, unless in the company of others. "If necessity requires private conversation with the above mentioned, it shall be held in a room open to all." 166 May, 1959 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE 12. Correspondence. Exempt correspondence with the local ordinary. On November 27, 1947, the Code Commission replied that ."exempt religious, in the cases in which they are subject to the ordinary, can, according to canon 611, freely send to the said ordinary and receive from him letters subject to no inspection.''24 It was deduced from this reply that non-exempt religious have this same right only in matters in which they are subject to the local ordinary,s5 Therefore, several con-stitutions of lay institutes recently approved by the Holy See no longer state, "to the local ordinary to whom they are subject," but, "to the local ordinary' in matters in which they are subject to him." 13. Works of the institute. (a) Formation. In replyii~g to a quinquennial report, the Sacred Congregation stated: "The mother general shall labor strenuously for the best possible formation of the novices and postulants, since this is the prin-cipal source of the increase of the congregation." Would that this had been said to all and that the proper education and continued spiritual formation of the junior .professed had been included! A few congregations of sisters have introduced a period of preparation, usually of a month, before perpetual profession,s° A gratifying number now prescribe the juniorate in their constitutions,s7 An even greater number ake imposing the renovation or spiritual renewal. It is usually stated to be of about six weeks' duration and to be made about the tenth year after first pr0fession.28 (b) Works. A comment made to one mother general in answer to her quinquennial report was: "The superior general should be reminded of theobserva-tion made by this Sacred Congregation in response to her previous report, namely, that the sisters should not be burdened with too much work, perhaps to the detriment of their spiritual Bouscaren, 01~. cir., III, 253. Guti6rrez, Commentarium Pro Religiosis, 27-1948-160-61. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 12-1953-267. sT Ibid., 12-1953-266-67; 14-1955-297-98; 15-1956-317-18. Ibid., 12-1953-267; 15-1956-318. 167 JOSEPH F. GALLEN welfare. Because of this danger, the superiors should take care that the spiritual exercises, when omitted, are made up." Would again that this observation had been addressed to all. mothers general! One set of constitutions recently approved by the Holy See contains the wise provision: "Our sisters are forbidden to take charge of sacristies except ~he sacristy con-nected with the community chapel." This prohibition could well have been extended to several other similar types of work. A few congregations are insisting in their constitutions on the necessity of a suitable library in each house. Higher superiors should inspect the libraries or advert to the absence of them,, in their canonical visitation and should insist on a proper annual outlay for books.~' The following articles of recently approved constitutions are worthy of study by all: "The sisters have the duty to serve all; but the superior shall be vigilant that they do not give their services to the wealthy, when the poor are in need of them, unless higher motives dictate otherwise." "Sisters shall be very careful to do and say nothing that might be construed as disparagement of native customs and manners. Nor shall they try to impose on native people ou~ customs, except such as make for better moral and health conditions." (The rest of this article will appear in the J.uly issue.) ~9 Ibid., 12-1953-26; 269. 168 bleaddresses and Driving [The number of sisters .who drive cars has been steadily increasing in recent years nor is the increase likely to cease. If they drive, they should, as was noted in REVIEW FOg RELIClOUS, 16 (1957), 113, have unrestricted lateral vision, something that is impossible with the headdresses of many institutes of women. It is good, therefore, to see that the Sacred Congregation of Re-ligious has taken cognizance of this need in the following letter.] SACRA CONGREGAZIONE DEI RELIGIOSI Prot. N. 85607~8 O1615 December 17, 1958 Dear Reverend Mother, This Sacred Congregation of Religious would be grateful to you if you would communicate the following to all the members of your Conference of Major Superiors of Women's Institutes in the United States, and to all non-members as well, if this is possible. It is the mind of this Sacred Congregation that the headdresses of those Sisters, who are allowed by their Superiors to drive cars, should be modified, while they are driving, in such a way as to insure unimpeded vision. Though this may involve a temporary departure from the prescriptions of the Constitutions, such a departure is justifiable, especially in view of the danger involved in drivihg without as clear vision as. possible on all sides. Asking God to bless you and the Conference, I remain dear Reverend Mother, Faithfully yours in Christ, (Signed) Valerio Card. Valeri Prefect Reverend Mother M. Maurice Tobin, R.S.M. President, National Executive Committei~ Conference of Major Superiors of Women's Institutes, U.S.A. Bradley Boulevard and Kentsdale Drive Bethesda 14, Maryland, U.S.A. 169 Survey ot: Roman Documents R. F. Smith, S.J. THE DOCUMENTS which appearedin Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS) during December, 1958, and January, 1959, will be surveyed in the following pages. All page references to AAS throughout the article will be accompanied by the year of publica-tion of AAS. Activities of Pope John XXIII On November 12, 1958 (AAS, 1958, p. 922), John XXIII issued a motu probrio in which he bestowed special privileges on the clerical conclavists who were present when he was elected Pope; besides giving them a privilege with regard to benefices they may acquire in the future, he also extended to them the privilege of using a portable altar for a reasonable cause and in accordance with the norms of canon 822,. § 3. To the tttotu l~rolSrio is attached a list of the conclavists benefitting by these privileges (AAS, 1958, pp. 923-25). On November 23, 1958, the Pontiff took official possession of his cathedral church, the Lateran Basilica; a detailed account of the ceremony is given in AAS, 1958, pp. 909-21. During the Mass which was celebrated on the occasion the Holy Father delivered a homily (AAS, 1958, pp. 913-21) in which he recalled the history of the ceremony and then considered the ceremony's significance as symbolized by the two objects resting on the altar: the book (the Missal) and the chalice. The book, he told his listeners, calls to mind the fact that all priests must share in the.pastoral mission of the Church to teach sacred doctrine, and to make it penetrate into the souls and the lives of the faithful. The chalice, he continued, is a sign of the Mass and the Eucharist, wherein is found the living substance of the Christian religion: God-with-us. He added that it is from the mountain of the altar that Christians must judge all earthly things; and it is there too that the graves~t problems of the human community should find the principles of an adequate solu-tion. 170 ROMAN DOCUMENTS During the month of December the Vicar of Christ held three consistories, the first of which was a secret one convened on the morning of December 15, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 981-87). At this consistory the Pontiff delivered an allocution (AAS, 1958, pp. 981-89) to the assembled cardinals, telling them of the joy aroused in him by the number of messages sent to him on the occasion of his election and coronation. But with this joy, he said, there coexisted in his heart a great sorrow at the thought of the condition of the faithful in China. Their status, he added, grows steadily worse each day; and he begged the Chinese Catholics to keep in their hearts the strengthening words of Christ: "The servant is not greater than his master; if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you" tJn 15:20). The Holy Father then nominated and created twenty-three new cardinals; afterwards he appointed Cardinal Masella as Camerlengo of the Church; and then (AAS, 1958, pp. 989-94) announced the appointments of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops made since the last consistory of cardinals. The co~nsistory closed (AAS, 1958, p. 994) with postulations of the pal.lium. In a public consistory held December 18, 1958 (AAS, 1958, p. 995), the Holy Father bestowed the red hat on the new cardinals; on the same day (AAS, 1958, pp. 996-97) he also presided at an-other secret consistory in which he announced the most recent appointments of archbishops and bishops" and assigned Churches to the new cardinals; the consistory closed with additional postulations of the pallium. The Christmas M~sage of 1958 On December 23, 1958 (AAS, 1959, pp. 5-12), John XXIII broadcast to the world his first Christmas message. The Pontiff begar~ his speech by expressing his profound gratitude for the respect and reverence which had been given him since his election and coronation, commenting especially on the enthusiasm of the citizens of Rome and remarking with satisfaction that the crowds who have thronged to see him included a large number of young persons who thus have shown themselves quick to honor ani4 defend their Christian heritage. These manifestations of respect, he continued, are due in large part to Pius XII who for almost twenty years dispensed the luminous treasures of his wisdom and his zeal for the flock of Christ. This work of Puis XII, he said, is manifested in his .Christmas messages; 171 R. F. SMITH for he transformed, the traditional Christmas message of the Pope from a simple expression of seasonal greetings to a timely discourse on the needs of mankind. The nineteen Christmas messages Plus XII delivered, he went on to say, can be summed up as a constant exhortation to unity and peace. The only condition, John .XXIII added, needed by man to achieve these two blessings is good will; and it is lack of this good will that constitutes the most terrible problem of human history and of human lives. For at its very beginnings human history is m~rked by an episode of blood: a brother killed by a brother; the law of love imprinted by the Creator in the hearts ot~ man was thus violated by bad will which thereupon led man downward on the path of injusiice and disorder. Unity was shattered and the intervention of the Son of God was necessary to reestablish the sacred relationships of the human family. .Since this restoration of unity and peace must always go on, Christ established a Church whose worldwide unity should lead to a recon-ciliation between the various races and nations and to a resolution to form a society.marked by the laws of justice and of fraternity. The theme of unity recalled, to the Pontiff's mind the need to work for the return to the Cl~urch of those separated brethren who also bear the name of Christian. Like the Popes ot: modern times from Leo XIII to Pius XII, John XXIII announced his avowed purpose to pursue humbly but fervently the task to which the words of Christ impel him: "Them also I must bring . . . and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (Jn 10:16). It is impossible, the Pope went on, not to think at this time of those parts of the world which have become atheistic and materialistic and in which there exists as a result a slavery of the individual and the masses together with a slavery of both thought and action. The Bible tells us of a tower of Babel attempted in the beginnings of human history; as it ended in confusion, so too the new tower of Babel will end in the same way; meanwhile, however, it remains for many a great illusion, and only a strong apostolate of truth and Christian brotherhood can arrest the grave dangers that threaten from this source. In conclusion His Holiness pointed out that the time of Christ-mas is a time for good works and for an intense charity; it is in fact the exercise of such deeds that give substance to the civilization that bears the name of Christ. Christmas, then, he ended, should mark the maximum of our help towards the needy of every kind. 172 May, 1959 ROMAN DOCUMENTS Allocutions of pope John XXIII On November 15, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 997-1006), John XXIII delivered analloci~tion to the third annual meeting of the Episcopal Council of Latin America, beginning his speech by stressing the importance of Latin America in the Church. One hundred million Catholics, almost one-third of the Catholic world, are to be found there; hence it is most important that the.faith be kept growing in the countries of that region. "The responsibility for ths growth, he added, lies on the bishops of the area~. Urging the bishops to look into the future, His Holiness suggested to them that their long-term 13rogram should have as its goal an organic reenforcement of ~he basic structures of ecclesiastical life in their regions; this program, he added, will entail an intensive study of the vocation problem of Latin America. While looking to the future., the Vicar of Christ continued, they should not neglect to meet the present spiritual necessities of their dioceses; hence they must study how to best us~ the activities of priests and religious who are presently available. The Pontiff urged them to explore the possibilities of radio for teaching catechism to the faithful who are removed from a parish center and .suggested a program of mission-giving in localities where parish organization is insufficient~ Finally he urged them to secure aid for their needs iCrom religious orders and congregations and from those parts oi: the Catholic world where the clergy is more numerous. On November 21, 1958 (AAS, 1958~ pp. 1019-22), John XXIII sent a radio message to the people of Venice on the occasion of the regional feast of our Lady, Health of the Sick, urging the members of his former diocese to practice a devotion to our Lady that would lead to the development of their spiritual lives. On November 27, 1958 (AAS, pp. 1006-10), the Pope delivered an allocution at the Lateran for the opening of the academic year. He told his audience that the principal program in ecclesiastical universities is" the study of that divine science which the Bible contains and resumes. This study, he added, includes the deduction of practical directives for the apostolate. He further remarked that the accord between en-ergetic pastoral activity and the constant cultivation of good studies is one of the purest consolations of the priestly life, concluding his remarks by exhorting his listeners to a frequent reading of the fathers and doctors of the Church. 173 R, f. SMITH Review for Religious On November 29, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 1010-12), the Vicar of Christ delivered an allocution to Cardinal Wyszynski and the Polish Catholics living in Rome, warning themnot to be misled by fallacious and materialistic theories of life nor to be seduced by movements which call themselves Catholic, but in reality are far from being such. On Nov, ember 30, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 1012-17), His Holiness celebrated Mass for the students of the. College of the Propaganda of the Faith, afterwards delivering an allocution in which he listed the principal qualities that a priest must have. The first of these is purity, for it is this that constitutes the glory of the Catholic priesthood; any weakness in this matter, or compromise, is always deception. "A life of purity," he remarked "is always poetry and freshness; always joy and enthusiasm; always a captivating winner of souls." Priests, he continued, must also possess meekness and humility; for these sum up the teaching of Christ, and success is given only to the humble of heart. Finally a priest must possess the knowledge which is necessary for the spread and defense of truth and must have within him the spirit of sacrifice and of the cross. On December 1, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 1017-19), John XXIII gave an allocution to the Shah of Iran and his entourage, expressing his interest in Iran and noting with satisfaction the cordial relations that exist between the Catholics of Iran and their government. Allocutions of Pope Pius XII AAS for the two-month period being surveyed included the text of four allocutions of the late Pius XII. The first of these was given on September 21, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 943-47), to the Twelfth International Congress of Philosophy: He pointed out to his listeners that the thinkers of the Middle Ages came to realize that it was through the sup.ernatural truth of ~he Christian faith that the human mind becomes fully aware of its own autonomy, of the absolute certitude of its first principles, and of the funda-mental liberty of its decisions and its acts. More than this, revelation shows the inquiring mind the concrete reality of its actual destiny and its call to a participation in the life of the triune God. Lament-ing the fact that the religious crisis of the Renaissance led thinkers first to replace the living God with an abstract Deity demonstrated by reason but a stranger to His own work and then to an ignorance 174 May, 1959 ROMAN DOCUMENTS of Him or even to opposition to Him as to a harmful myth, the late Pope recalled to his audience the words of St. Augustine: "If God is wisdom, then the true philosopher is he who loves God." On September 23, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 947-52), Plus XII gave an allocution to sixty rectors of major seminaries in Latin America, telling them that the vocation problem of Latin America would be solved only if present-day seminarians were trained to be perfect apostles, actual personifications of the gift of oneself for the love of God and of souls, and men of prayer and sacrifice. He also noted that while priests of today must be deeply concerned with modern social probleins, this social preoccupation must not lead them to abandon the priestly work of teaching, of hearing confessions, "and of conducting divine worship; the priest must always remain a priest. Finally Plus XII urged his listeners to inculcate into their seminarians a filial obedience to their legitimate authorities. Citing St. Thomas, he pointed out that obedience is more praiseworthy than the other moral virtues, adding that obedi-ence is necessary in the Church as never before, since in the face of the Church's difficulties, the greatest unity is needed. On the Saturday before his death, October 4, 1958 (AAS, 1958, pp. 952-61), Plus XII spoke to the tenth national Italian Congress of Plastic Surgery. Christianity, the Pontiff pointed out, has never condemned as illicit the esteem and ordinary care 'hi~ physical beauty. Nevertheless, Christianity has never regarded this beauty as the supreme human value, for it is neither a spiritual value nor an essential one. Since physical beadty is a good and a gift of God, it should be appreciated and cared for; but it does not impose an obligation to use extraordinary means to preserve it. Suppose, the late Pontiff continued, that a person desires to undergo plastic surgery meri~ly from the wish to have a more beautiful face; in itself this desire is neither good nor bad, but-takes its moral cast from the circumstances that surround such a desire and its execution. Thus it would be illicit to undergo such an operation to increase one's power of seduction or to disguise oneself in order to escape justice; on the other hand there are motives that legitimize such surgery or even make it advisable. Such, for example, would be the desire to remove deformities or imperfections which provoke psychic difficulties or prevent the development of one's public or professiorlal activity. 175 R. F. SMITH Review for Religiol~s In the concluding section of his allocution, Pius XII took up some psychological considerations, noting that some grave psychic difficulties can be occasioned by the knowledge of physical defects. These difficulties, he remarked, may develop into profound anomalies of character and may lead even to crime and suicide. In such cases, he told the surgeons, to assist by means of plastic surgery is an act of the charity of Christ. AAS, 1958, pp. 961o71, gives the text of an allocution which Plus XII had planned to give on October 19, 1958, to the students of the seminary of Apulia. Priestly formation, wrote the Pontiff, must be founded on a profound conviction of the sublime dignity of the priesthood. Granted this conviction, the seminary must strive to form the seminarian to regard himself as one who will be a depository of divine power and as one whose life will not be his own but Christ's. The seminarian must be trained to a priestly vision of the world in which human beings are seen as tabernacles --actual or potential--of the indwelling God. Though as a priest he will live in the world, he will not be its prisoner, being satisfied with the honor of being a cooperator with God. In order to make himself a fit instrument for the hands of Christ, the seminarian will seek to make himself the perfect man of God. Hence he will cultivate his intellect, grow in the natural virtues without which he is liable to repel people, and above all he will build up a supernatural sanctity which is the primary factor in making a priest an instrument of Christ. At this point in the text Plus XII stressed the necessity of knowledge, especially of theology, for the efficacy of the apostolate; the Caiholic faithful, he declared, desire priests who are not only saintly, but also learned. Study then should be the seminarian's and the priest's ascesis. Finally the seminarian should train himself (o perseverance. The progress of the years with its multiplication of fatigue and .difficulties, its diminution of physical and psychical powers may cause in a priest the obscuring of his ideals. Moreover, the feverish rhythm of modern living and the disorientation so widespread among men will concur to create within the priest internal crises. The seminarian then must foresee all these diffi-culties and begin now to arm himself against them. Miscellaneous Matters By a decree dated May 29, 1958 (AAS, 1959, pp. 42-44), the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved the introduction of the cause 176 May, 1959 VIEWS, NEWS, PREVIEWS of the Servant of God. Pauline von Mallinckrodt (1817-1881), foundress of the Sisters of Christian Charity. On October 8, 1958 {AAS, 1958, p. 973), the Sacred Penit~_ntiary answered a question submitted to it by stating that the faithful may gain indulgences attached to the rosary even when the leader of the rosary is present only by means of radio; however, such in-dulgences can not be gained if the prayers transmitted by the radio are not actually being recited by a person, but are only repro-ductions by records, tapes, or some similar means. On November 22, 1958 (AAS, 1959, pp. 48-50), the Penitentiary published the list of apostolic indulgences; and on December 12, 1958 {AAS, 1959, p. 50), it noted that Pope .John XXIII had granted an indulgence of three hundred days whenever the faithful say with contrite heart the aspiration: "O Jesus, king of love, I trust in your merciful goodness"; moreover, under the usual conditions, they can gain a plenary indulgence provided they have said the aspiration daily for a month. Two matters of precedence were settled by decrees of the Sacred Ceremonial Congregation. On April 19, 1958 (AAS, 1959, pp. 45-4-6), the Congregation assigned the place of the Commissary of the Holy Office at Papal functions; and on May 15, 1958 (AAS, 1959, pp. 46-47}, it assigned the place of the Prefect of the Palatine 'Guard in the Pontifical courtroom. Views, News, Previews THE INSTITUTE FOR RELIGIOUS at College Misericordia, Dallas, Pennsylvania, (a three-year summer course of twelve days in canon law and ascetical theology for Sisters) will be held this year August 20-31. This is the third year in the triennial course. The course in canon law is given by the Reverend Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., that in ascetical theology by the Reverend Thomas E. Clarke, S.J., both of Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. The registration is restricted to higher superiors, their councilors, general and provincial officials, mistresses of novices, and those in similar positions. Applications are to be addressed to the Reverend Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. The Servant of God Pauline von Mallinckrodt, who figures in one of the documents considered in this issue's "Survey of Roman 177 VIEWS, NEWS, PREVIEWS Review for Religious Documents," was born at Minden, Westphalia, in Germany on June 3, 1817. She was the oldest of four children born to a marriage in which the husband was Protestant and the wife Catholic. After her mother's death, Pauline took charge of the household, interesting herself also in work for the poor and showing a special interest in thc care of blind children. After her father's death these interests absorbed more of her time and energy; out of this work grew the decision to found a new religious institute for women. The institute was founded in 1849; it was based on the Augustinian rule and was called the Sisters of Christian Charity. The new institute grew rapidly throughout Germany and emphasized the education of the young. With the coming of the Kulturh~tn/~[ Pauline, as guperior general, began sending her religious to the New World; in 1873 the first house of the institute was opened in the United States; and in 1874 in Chile. In 1877 Mother Pauline was forced by political conditions in Germany to remove her generalate to Belgium. She visited her foundations in the United States twice; before her death on April 30, 1881, she was able to see the beginning of the restoration of the work of her sisters in Germany. A life of the Servant of God has been written by Katherine Burton under the title, Whom Love Impels (New York: Kenedy, 1952). The annual Mariology Program at The Catholic University of America will be offered for the third time in the 1959 summer session. Registration dates are June 24-27; class dates are June 29-August 7. Courses are open to undergraduate as well as graduate students, and carry credit towards degrees in the field of religious education. A certificate is awarded to those who complete a full two-summer program in Marian theology. The courses are under the direction of the Reverend Eamon R. Carroll, O. Carm. Courses scheduled for 1959 are General Mariology (2 credits) and Mary in Scripture and in Tradition (2 credits). A folder with fuller in-formation is available from the Registrar, The Catholic University of America, Washington 17, D. C. \ The Lord's chaplet, which is mentioned in Pope John XXIII's grant of apostolic indulgences, is said to have been begun by a Cam£1dolese monk, Blessed Michael Pini. The chaplet consists of thirty-three small beads and five large ones attached to a small cross or medal. Recital of the chaplet consists in saying thirty-three 178 May, 1959 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Our Fathers in honor of the traditional thirty-three years of Christ's life on earth, adding five Hail Marys in honor of His five wounds, and ending with the recital of the Creed in honor of the Apostles. Pope Leo X was the first to grant indugences for the saying of the chaplet, and later Pontiffs followed his example by renewing and increasing the indulgences for this work of piety. During the week of June 8, St. Louis University will offer an Institute in Liturgical and School Music and an Institute in Pastoral Psychiatry, the latter for priests and qualified religious brothers only. From July 27 to August 28, the Department of Education, in cooperation with Mexico City College, will offer a Workshop in Human Relations and Group Guidance. Courses of special interest to religious during the regular six-week session from June !6 to July 24 arc: Sacramental Life; Sacred Scripture; Selected Topics in Moral Theology; Faith and Redemption; God, Creator, and His Supernatural Providence; Current Liturgical Trends and Their Prob-able Goals. For information and applications, contact the Office of Admissions, Saint Louis University, 221 North Grand Boulevard, Saint Louis 3, Missouri. Housing for religious can be arranged by writing to the Reverend Charles L. Sanderson, S.J., Dean of Men, Chouteau House, 3673 West Pine Boulevard, St. Louis 8, Missouri. REVIEW FOR. RELIGIOUS has been asked to inform its readers that instruments of penance may be secured from Monast~re du Carmel, 104 rue de Namur, Louvain, Belgium. Further information on the subject can be had. by contacting the above address. i ues ions and Answers [The following answers are given by Father Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., professor of canon law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland.] --17- What is meant by the statement that religious profession remits the temporal punishment due to sin? 1. Plenary indulgence. There are two reasons for asserting that a plenary indulgence is attached to any juridical religious profession whatsoever. (a) Since any novice who makes profession in danger of death has been granted a plenary indulgence, the same concession "extends, 179 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religion,s and even afortiori, to any juridical religious profession whatsoever. {Pejska, Ius Religiosorum, 110; Cervia. De Professione Religiosa, 143) (b) On May 23, 1606, Paul V granted a plenary indulgence to any novice who was repentant, had gone to confession, received Holy Communion, and had made religious profession after the completion of the canonical year of probation. At the time of this concession, there was only one religious profession; and that was solemfi. We may therefore argue that the indulgence was granted because of the religious profession as such, since there was only one, and consequently that it now applies to any juridical religious profession whatsoever. (Cervia, op. ~'it., 143-44; Schaefer, De Re-llgiosis, n. 959 and note 816; Regatillo, Institutiones Iuris Canonici, I, n. 714, 6°. Wernz-Vidal, Ius Canonicum, III, De Religiosis, 320 and note 156, hold this doctrine only for solemn profession. Raus, Institutiones Canonicae, 311, and Coronata, Institutiones Iuris Ca-nonici, I, 752, hold the same doctrine at least for solemn profession.) The remission of the temporal punishment under both of the preceding titles is by way of an indulgence, that is, the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins wh.gse guilt has already been forgiven, and granted by competent ecclesiastical authority from the treasury of the Church, that is, the infinite satisfaction of Christ and that of the Blessed Virgin and the saints (c. 911). The source of an indulgence therefore is this concession by competent authority from the treasury of the Church, not the value, dignity, nor excellence of the indulgenced act considered only in itself. 2. From the intrinsic perfection of religious profession. Fathers of the Church speak of religious profession as a second baptism. This is interpreted to mean that a remission of all the temporal punish-ment due to sin is effected by a profession made in the state of grace. Some theologians attribute this effect to divine generosity, that is, God remits all punishment of anyone who gives himself completely to God. The more common opinion is that the effect has its source in the intrinsic perfection of religious profession and especially in the charity that is so conspicuous in this profession. The purpose of the three essential vows of religion is perfect charity, that is, the affective abandonment of all created love for the perfect love of God. This effect, therefore, is not infallibly attached to religious profession, since it depends on the subjective perfection of the act of profession. The entire temporal punish- 180 May, 1959 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ment is remitted only when the act of profession constitutes a condign satisfaction, by means of an act of perfect charity, for all the punishment due to the sins of the one making profession. All temporal punishment is not remitted when the debt of such punish-ment is great and the act of profession is only of a low degree of charity. (Pruemmer, Ius Regularium Speciale, q. 65; Piatus Montensis, Praelectiones Juris Regularis, I, 164-65; Cotel-Jombart- Bouscaren, Principles of the Religious Life, 69) The effect is founded either on the fact that one gives himself completely to God or especially in the act of perfect charity that is distinctive of religious profession. Neither of these fact~ is proper to solemn or perpetual profession. Any juridic.al religious pro-fession is, in its object and purpose, a profession of complete Christian perfection and of perfect love of God. The only pc~ssible defect in a temporary profession, is the limitation of time; but this is offset by the intention of the one making profession, who intends to renew his vows unless an obstacle intervenes in the future 488, 1°). Furthermore, an institute that has only temporary vows is no less a religious institute and no less a state of complete Christian perfection than a congregation of simple perpetual vows or an order (c. 488, 1°). Therefore, this effect also is true of any juridical religious profession whatsoever. (Cervia, 0p. cir., 143-44; Cotel-Jombart-Bouscaren,. ibid.; Raus, ibid., Schaefer, ibid.: Fanfani, Catechismo sullo Stato Religioso, n. 248. Coronata, ibid., holds this doctrine at least for solemn profession; and Vermeersch- Creusen, Epitome Iuris Canonici, I, n. 735, hold the same doctrine for perpetual profession, whether solemn or simple.) 3. Public or private devotional renewal of vows. (a) The religious of any order or congregation who .privately renew their religious vows with at least a contrite heart, after celebrating Mass or receiving Holy Communion, may gain an indulgence of three years (Raccolta, n. 756). The indulgence extends also to a public devotional renewal, provided it is made after the celebration of Mass or the reception of Holy Communion. (b) The intrinsic effect described in number 2 above only probably applies to a devotional renewal of vows. The affirmative arguments are that a renewal is subjectively a new gift of oneself to God (and God especially regards the intention) and that a renewal is often made with greater love of God. There is consequently no obstacle to the merit and complete satisfaction of a renewal. Others reply that one cannot give again what he has 181 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religio~ts already given so irrevocably and that the possible greater subjective value is a mere concomitant rather than anything intrinsic to a renewal. Authors conclude this part of the question by quoting the opinion of Passerini, that is, a renewal is undeniably of great dignity, merit, and satisfactory value; that it is known to God alone how much of the temporal punishment is remitted by this act; and that such remission is proportionate to the individual debt of punishment and the individual fervor of the satisfaction of the renovation. (Piatus Montensis, 0/~. ~:it., 165-66; Pruemmer, 0p. cir., 72; Cotel-Jombart- Bouscaren, op. cir. 70, note 1) 18 Our congregation makes great sacrifices and manifests an equal trust in divine providence by bearing the expenses of our education and attendance at conventions, work shops, orientation and refresher " courses, and so forth. A primary purpose of such courses is to stimulate our interest in new books, new periodicals, new idea~, new techniques, and so forth. When announcements of such things are sent to our houses, most superiors drop them in the waste basket. The same thing is done to questionnaires sent to our houses, and religious are often accused of being uncooperative in filling out rea-sonable questionnaires. Most of our superiors distrust a, new idea either in the spiritual or religious life or in work. Publications con-taining such ideas are often withheld from us,. and this is true also of those that have. passed ecclesiastical censorship. Are we so poorly formed spiritually, so badly educated, so immature that we cannot distinguish a sound idea from one that is fallacious? Experience has proved to me that the complaints in such ques-tions are not always without foundation, nor are they confined to one institute. It is clear that such announcements should be made readily accessible to the religious who are apt to be and should be interested in the matter, for-example, a publisher's mailed an-nouncement of a book often long precedes any news of the book in catalogues or periodicals. It is equally evident that religio~us should cooperate in filling out reasonable questionnai.res and similar requests for information. The distrust of new ideas is a disease as old as it is distressing. Obscurantism, the opposition to the intro-duction of new and enlightened ideas and methods, should have no part in a faith that is secured by infir~ite knowledge and veracity. As we have stated before, the easiest way to make religious childish is to train and treat them as children. This is not the doctrine of 182 May, 1959 BOOK REVIEWS the Church. Pope Pius XII stated: "For this reason, those in charge of seminaries, . . . as the students under them grow older, should gradually ease up strict surveillance and restrictions of every kind, to the end that these young men may learn to govern themselves and realize that they are responsible for their own conduct. Besides, in certain things superiors should "not only allow their students some legitimate freedom but should also train them to think for themselves, so that they may the more easily ~ssimilate those truths which have to do either with doctrine or practice. Nor should the direc-tors be afraid to have their students abreast of current events. Even more, besides acquainting them with news from which' they may be enabled to form a mature judgment on events, they should encourage discussions on questions of this kind, in order to train the minds of the young seminarians to form well balanced judg-ments on events and doctrines." {Apostolic Exhortation, Menti nostrae, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 42-1950-686) Why are there several articles on the sacristan and the porter in the constitutions of lay institutes? The Normae of 1901 prescribed that there were to be two distinct chapters on these duties (n. 317); and even in recent years the Sacred Congregation of Religious has at times, but not always, inserted articles on these two duties when they were not included in the text proposed to the Sacred Congregation. Both duties have some importance, but it is difficult to see why they are included in the constitutions. These are supposed to contain only the more fundamental and important norms of the institute. The difficulty is intensified when the constitutions, as is occasionally true, include articles also on the cook, refectorian, wardrobe keeper, and store-keeper. A section of the custom book can be devoted to rules on the minor duties. It would be more in conformity with the nature, dignity, and importance of the constitutions to confine the rules for all such duties to the custom book. Book Reviews [Material for this department should be sent to Book Review Editor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana.] JOY OUT OF' SORROW. By Motker Marie des Douleurs. Translated by Barry Ulanov and Frank Tauritz. Westminster: Newman Press, 1958. Pp. xvii, 169. Paper $1.50. 188 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious If God can draw straight with crooked lines, it is also true that He can put great sanctity in souls enclosed by the crooked bodies of the sick and crippled. Joy Out of Sorrow (the title itself suggests a paradox) is an attempt to bring the sick and suffering closer to the Divine Physican that He may cure them. "It is sad to notice how often sick people, all people who are suffering in any way, retreat from the work~, refusing to accept their suffering." Thus wrote a woman in France in early 1930. Sickness and infirmities, she thought, should not be hurdles in the race for spiritual perfection, but definite helps to be used along the way. These cardinal points were to form the basis for her Congregation of Jesus Crucified, approved by the Cardinal- Archbishop of Paris in 1931. These same principles led to the up-building of this spiritual edifice to such an extent that in 1950 it was made a pontifical institute. This is a truly unique religious group, for each member is sick or handi-capped in some way. This book, Joy O~t of Sorrow, is a series of confer-ences given to the members of her order by Mother Marie des Douleurs, the foundress and prioress-general. The sixty-four talks are divided under the five headings of Daily Rofitine, Developing Personality, Ourselves and Others, Our Interior Life, and the Liturgical Year. The reader will be impressed by the personal, conversational style, the familiarity with the writings of the masters of the spiritual life, the example~ from the Gospels, and the ~minently practical (or should the word be spiritual?) sense. In line with the practical approach, the subjects of these conferences refer to the particular trials of the sick: the doctor's visits, fear, boredom, selfishness, courage, joy in the midst of trials, and topics relating to the liturgical year. These conferences are short, yet long enough to provide the spiritual medicine needed by those whom sickness has claimed as its victims. The Library of Congress classifies the subject matter of the book as affliction. It would be more correct to say that the only real affliction mentioned in this book is the failure to bring true joy out of sorrow by re-fusing to accept the cross of suffering. No infirmary of religious will want to be without this book.--LEE J. BENNISH, S.J. BENEDICTINISM THROUGH CHANGING CENTURIES. By Stephanus Hilpisch, O.S.B. Translated by Leonard J. Doyle. Collegeville: Liturg-ical Press, 1958. Pp. 172. $3.00. A HISTORY OF BENEDICTINE NUNS. By Stephanus Hilpisch, O.S.B. Translated by Sister M. Joanne Muggli, O.S.Bo Edited by Leonard J. Doyle. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1958. Pp. 122. $3.00. THE HOLY RULE: NOTES ON ST. BENEDICT'S LEGISLATION FOR MONKS. By Hubert Van Zeiler. O.S.B. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1958. Pp. xii, 476. $7.50. Thr~e books on Benedictinism, two from Collegeville and one from New York, two on the history and one on the rule, have appeared recently. The one from New York, on the rule, is from the energetic pen of Dom Hubert; and the other two from Stephanus Hilpisch's second- and third-volume contributions to the German collection Benediktinisches Geistesleben. Just 184 May, 1959 BOOK REVIEWS a cursory glance at Benedictinism through Changing Centuries would lead one to suspect German scholarship had been at work, for 156 pages of text are followed by a small-print index running to nearly fourteen pages with about 1200 subject headings alone. How to squeeze 1200 subjects, many of them several times, into 156 pages without making the book suffer from the same kind of disunity most dictionaries show was indeed the author's problem most of the way through the work. This is a handbook, really, of Benedictine spirit and historical development from tiny begin-nings through the rise of prince abbeys down to modern foundations. It covers just about every point and gives even small foundations due though brief mention. The pity of it is that large ones get little more. Absolving thh famous monastery of Bec's history in a line or two is little short of a scandalous slight. Nor has the author added color or a third dimension in spite of the fact that for the materials of his history he has had the incredible riches of the history of the Benedictines to draw upon. Jejune is the adjective one must finally settle on to describe the work. However, the book is a reference manual which belongs on the library shelves of those orders and congregations who derive from the great Father of Western Monasticism. It has a useful fold-out chart and map showing lines of modern American Benedictine development, some tables, and even a tworpage treatment of Anglican Benedictines, who, after initial and de-pleting losses to Rome, again seem to be making progress in giving their foundations a firmer, if heterodox, stability. One who read~ the book will have a clearer idea of not only the scope of St. Benedict's original contribu-tion, and of his namesake's (Benedict of Aniane), but also of the sturdy value of that contribution as it has proved itself over and over again down the centuries. The list given in the book of current Benedictine periodicals is an indication that the contribution continues to be made. The jacket flap of a History of Benedictine Nuns informs us that "although various individual Benedictine congregations and houses have been fortunate to have their history written, the Benedictine Order of nuns and sisters as a whole has never been so honored." Rather than begin in medias res, the book starts with a twelve-page history of pre-Benedictine forms of Church-approved states of virginity for women. Once in its own proper matter, it too has its problem of avoiding the "dictionary effecl?'; but its complete index at the end will make it a valuable reference work, as will its extensive tables, charts, maps, and bibliography, which last is more extensive than the one in the first volume' of Father Hilpisch reviewed here. One who has delved a little into the history of medieval convents and nunneries will not be surprised at what he reads here, but he will probably find additional facts about the development and details of the life of these nuns and sisters to help him fill out the general picture. Among the more curious items are some relating to the powers, ordinary and extraordinary, of the abbesses. Among these latter, for instance, was the privilege of the Abbess of the Prince Abbey of St. George in Prague. She, along with the Archbishop of Prague, had the right to crown the queen. Other interest- I85 ]~OOK REVIEWS Review for Religious ing items pertain to offices performed by some of the sisters which would be ~of interest to their present-day counterparts. Often enough the music directress had to compose as well as teach. The sister infirmarian also played an important role: she not only took care of 'the sick, but was physician and pharmacist in the convent and in this latter capacity drew her materials from the convent's own herb garden, where the elements of her potions and poultices could be grown. She also seemingly had to be hostess to each of the sisters three or four times a year as they came in turn to the infirmary for their periodic bloodolettings. We come finally to deal with a book about the basisof all this history, the rule of St. Benedict. Dom Hubert Van Zeller's The Holy Rule is an informed study and commentary on that rule, so complete that he will even tell one what sarabaites and gyrovagues are. The study is informal, too, because it avoids much critical apparatus. One sometimes has the feeling here that Dom Hubert has edited lectures originally intended for novices or junior religious. Whatever its origin, the commentary is conservative, solid, and filled with much common sense. Those who hear it or read it will gain in the knowledge and appreciation of one of the most significant documents in the history of mankind as well as understand the views of Dora Hubert, highly qualified indeed to have them, about the nature of the monastic vocation. Perhaps even th~se who do not read or hear this book will have much of its matter relayed to them by retreatmasters who will be drawing on its copious wisdom for decades to come, and perhaps even longer. Whether all will find this particular expression of Dora Hubert's views as stimulating as he could have made it is an interesting question. It is not clear, for instance, that some of the illustrations from the ancient desert fathers (of the type familiar to Rodriguez readers) really advance the thought or prove to be valuable illustrations, though they may be entertaining. Granted there is an attractive quaintness to such narratives, along with a highly exaggerated moral, is it not possible that a long succes-sion of such stories will so color the mind of the sheltered religious reader that he may adopt an unreal, romantic attitude towards what he comes actually to consider his quaint vocation? Such an attitude disarms him in case there should develop in him a genuine crisis, or even a struggle to save his vocation. The fight is real, but his weapons--prin-ciples he has learned from such quaint narratives and which have never been effectively divorced from the fairy-tale atmosphere--his weapons, be it repeated, are toys. The foregoing criticism should not be construed as indicative of small worth in Dora Van Zeller's book. This is a valuable commentary and most religious libraries will want to have a copy on the shelves, since in the general mass of matter every religious will find many points to help him. Some significant items in the mind of one reader were the following: the Holy Rule is explicit on the point that obedience is the way a religious fights for the King (p. 3); "St. Benedict would have us live creative lives,, not merely ordered lives" (p. 5); "the grace of state is like any other grace; it guides and strengthens, but does not compel or ~uarantee 186 May, 1959 BOOK REVlEWS (except in the case of the Papal prerogative) supernatural intervention" (p. 43). What Dom Van Zeller says in favor of bodily mortification (p. 60), silence (p. 90), poverty (p. 2331, and care of the dying (p. 247) is remarkably pointed and helpful. So also what he says about singularity in the religious life: "The monk who wants the reputation for sanctity presumes to something he has no right to claim. He is identifying the name with the state, he is leaving out the factor of grace".(p. 318). His comments on these things show spiritual .insight and depth; and we are fortunate to have him share his light with us, just as he was fortunate to have the great St. Benedict share his light with him in the Holy Rule. --EARL A. WzlS, S.J. A STRAN(~ER AT YOUR DOOR. By John J. PoweIl, S.J. Milwaukee: Bruce, 1958. Pp. 120. $2.50. For the reader who is convinced that there neither is nor can be anything new in the field of apologetics, Father Powell's poetical prose will demand a change of opinion. The matter of apologetics, it is true, is the same; this book treats the traditional topics: Christ's claims upon us, the reason for them, His influence on our lives, His right to influence our lives. But gone are the technical language of theology and the bare bones of the textbook. In their place the modern reader meets examples taken from the year 1959, language that he hears on the street corner, an impact that is directed to him, individually, today. Our mind, ever seeking the rational basis for its belief, here finds that basis put forth in the idiom of today. The housewife at her cleaning, the diplomat at his desk, the soldier in Korea, the most popula.r girl on the campus--all these will find that this book is written for them in a l~nguage that they under-stand.~ Christ, of course, is the stranger at the door. He stands there--who knows how long?--until we recognize Him; then He asks us one question: "Who do you say that I am?" That timeless question comes echoing through the centuries into the life of every individual; his answer to it determines his peace of mind and eternal salvation. The question can be ignored or buried beneath worldly pleasures and desires, but some time or other it must be answered and the answer is of paramount, yes, eternal importance. Father Powell's meditati~;e and reflective presentation of the basis for Christ's claims on our allegiance will help the Catholic to reaffirm and strengthen his faith. It will also give him many a new insight. This is a book for the prospective convert also, for the sincere inquirer who wants to know just who this

Aspectos relevantes de la historia económica regional del Eje Cafetero, tales como la fundación de Manizales ocurrida en el marco de la Colonización antioqueña; los impactos de los ferrocarriles cafeteros; la irrigación de los beneficios del café a las zonas rurales, y los impactos de la revolución verde en la ecorregión cafetera, como telón de fondo para enunciar las problemáticas socioambientales de la ciudad y la región

Issue 47.3 of the Review for Religious, May/June 1988. ; REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS (ISSN 0034-639X), published every two months, is edited in collaboration with the faculty members of the Department of Theological Studies of St. Louis University. The edito-rial offices are located at Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO. 63108-3393. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS iS owned by the Missouri Province Educational Institute of the Society of Jesus, St. Louis, MO. ©1988 by REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. Single copies $3.00. Subscriptions: U.S.A. $12.00 a year; $22.00 for two years. Other countries: for surface mail, add $5.00 per year; for airmail, add $20.00 per year. For subscription orders or change of address, write: REVtEW FOR RELIGIOUS; P.O. BOX 6070; Duluth, MN 55806. Philip C. Fischer, S.J. Dolores Greeley, R.S.M. Iris Ann Ledden, S.S.N.D. Richard A. Hill, S.J. Jean Read M. Anne Maskey, O.S.F. Acting Editor Associate Editor Review Editor Contributing Editor Assistant Editors May/June 1988 Volume 47 Number 3 Manuscripts, books for review and correspondence with the editor should be sent to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO 63108-3393. Correspondence about the department "Canonical Counsel" should be addressed to Rich-ard A. Hill, S.J.; J.S.T.B.; 1735 LeRoy Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709. Back issues and reprints should be ordered from REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO 63108-3393. "Out of print" issues and articles not published as reprints are available from University Microfilms International; 300 N. Zeeb Rd.; Ann Arbor, MI 48106. A major portion of each issue is also available on cassette recordings as a service for the visually impaired. Write to the Xavier Society for the Blind; 154 East 23rd Street; New York, NY 10010. Effective, Nondefensive Communication Between Clergy and Religious Women Robert J. Wicks, Psy.D. This article is adapted from an invited address presented at the 1986 Annual Vicars for Religious Eastern Regional Conference on November 7, 1986, at the St. Raphaela Retreat House, Haverford, Pennsylvania. Dr. Wicks, author of Availability. the Problem and the Gift, is Professor of Pastoral Counseling and Director of Program Development in the Loyola College Pastoral Counseling Department; 7135 Minstrel Way, Suite 101; Columbia, Maryland 21045. Good communication cannot solve every problem; to think so is naive. However, good communication can set the stage for metanoia (conver-sion). Therefore, in light of this all must be done to take advantage of the opportunity it offers-~even though, as one might expect, the cost of this conversion (in terms of openness, patience, and persistent assertive-ness) may be quite substantial. Considering this cost, from a psychological point of view there must be a real effort taken to remove all of the unnecessary interpersonal stress involved through the employment of good communication techniques; whereas, from a spiritual vantage point we must see the goal of effec-tive communication and relationship formation between male and female leaders of the Church as a positive challenge which inspires further steps toward openness rather than one that is threatening and discouraging, caus-ing avoidable anxiety. The movement toward Christian intimacy and interdependence must then be based on a hope that is very much tied to our faith; for with a strong faith--even when we are in the midst of an interaction that seems 321 399 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 to be pulling us apart or are in an apparently complete impasse--we will never lose sight of the key biblical injunction "Be not afraid." In the simple words of Paul to the Philippians: In the name of the encouragement you owe me in Christ, in the name of solace that love can give, of fellowship in spirit, compassion and pity, I beg you: make my joy complete by your unanimity, possessing the one love, united in spirit and ideals. Never act out of rivalry or conceit; rather, let all parties think humbly of others as superior to themselves, each of you looking to others' interests rather than his [her] own (Ph 2:1- 4). His call must be one that all men and women in Christ must heed. And clergy and religious women (the term "religious women" is used instead of "women religious" because it is more inclusive) need to lead the way in continuing to model this struggle for partnership in ministry. One of the realities that I believe many of us do not realize about com-munication between clergy and religious women in this age of occasional ministerial conflict between women and men is that communication is better now between these two groups than ever before in the modern Church. In the past the dissemination of information may have been easier and the discussions more comfortable, but if we are to look at commu-nication as a two-way communication where self-disclosure and the un-covering of agendas are involved, communication between clergy and re-ligious women is, in a real sense, a recent post-Vatican II phenomenon. Prior to this, in many instances because of structures and roles, the in-formation flowed primarily in one direction; this was not only unfair to all concerned but it also held back the Christian community because com-munication is a mainstay of interpersonal vitality. With these points as a backdrop then, we must enter into the topic of effective, nondefensive communication between clergy and religious women with a sense of reality and a deep attitude of hope. If we want, psychology can provide practical information to help, but we must also recognize that this is a spiritual movement; tht~s, in this light we have a responsibility to guide it but an equal mandate not to try to control it. To do so would only prove both frustrating and disastrous. In an effort to place sound psychology at the service of this move-ment, three questions will be addressed: I. How do people respond to communication?This question is im-portant because we often have the assumption that communication is nor- Effective, Nondefensive Communication / 323 mally received with welcome arms and are surprised when this does not happen. II. Who is receiving the message? This question is helpful to address because of the dramatic way a message can be affected, accepted, or re-jected when there is little reflection on whom we are addressing in terms of a number of variables. III. How is effective communication an element in an overall trans-formation of one's attitude and response to God? Good communication is only important if it serves to build up the Kingdom--the Kingdom within ourselves and the Kingdom among ourselves, that "Sacred Space" within which we make the spiritual journey. I. What Are Some of the Ways People May Respond to Communica-tion? Communication can be greeted in a number of ways including: with suspicion or paranoia, with unrealistic expectations, or with hope and chal-lenge. Understanding a bit about each of these types of responses is help-ful when preparing for or involved in communicating with others. Suspicion or Paranoia: Alan Paton once said that some persons "fear social change more than they fear God." Communication often leads to change, and in the institutional Church there sometimes is a sense of suspicion or even paranoia about where the current movements will lead. Nowhere is this more evident than with respect to the move-ment toward full partnership on the part of women. Quite honestly, al-though the suspicion and paranoia are not warranted if we have real trust in the Lord and are healthy psychologically, there is still a reality aspect to the whole issue which is senseless to bury or deny. Communication, real communication--which has at its heart the burning desire for inclu-siveness- is a Trojan horse in the institutional Church today. Inside the horse is true Christian equality--something that will, as it develops and grows, bring with it confusion and concern, just as Christ did in his times to his religious structure. So, although we really must not turn back and hide ourselves behind former types of organizational breakdowns (to do so, I think, would be a futile and sinful exercise in misplaced nostalgia for past structures), th.e question we must not hide through Christian de-nial or behind "chronic niceness" is whether, in envisioning unity, we are also prepared to face many systemic questions which may shake us as a body to the core? Unrealistic Expectations: Among the unrealistic expectations of com-munications we sometime~ hold on to are that good communications will almost always produce comfortable agreement, or somehow if it is done 324 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 correctly will always be pleasant. Agreement does not occur all of the time; this is natural. However, some people erroneously believe that if there is not agreement, it means the communications involved are not good. This is false because there could be a meeting of the minds but the minds may not agree. This is an important point to realize in the Church today. The Church takes time to change; those who have had time to see the institutional manifestations of the Church around the world and have reviewed Church history know that the structures often take time to catch up to the reality of the movement of the Spirit in the People of God. So, while communications and respect between clergy and religious women must be at the top of our agenda, to expect that this will lead to immediate change of certain laws, traditions, and systems is to court unnecessary frustration. Another unrealistic expectation is to expect that if communications are good the results will be pleasant. This is obviously also not true. To see injustice-~either in our own behavior or others--is certainly not a joy. As a matter of fact, good communication may bring us closer-- truth has a special power to do this--but we may not feel it because the issues that divide us may become clearer and we may feel more alien-ated because we are starting to honestly confront them. Using the terminology of Merton, in communications our "true selves" may well see each other and be attracted but at the same time our "false selves" will probably turn and run for their lives! For in-stance, let us take the case of a clergyman who is a firstborn male with an eastern European background. For him to have to face as a result of communication the possibility that he has been acculturated to see him-self as the "worthy one," someone to be waited on hand-and-foot, and that he must somehow in the Spirit of the servant Jesus move away from this learned style is not going to be easy. Likewise, for a religious woman to own the fact that she has been displacing some anger she rightly feels about injustice in the Church onto a particular priest who has not shown any evidence of sexism but has happened to be nearby when she was feeling her justified frustration is also not pleasant. Hope and Challenge: However, thankfully, communication can also be greeted in a positive way. It can be greeted with a sense of hope and challenge; and that is the attitude we must all seek to "put on" as we would seek to put on Christ. Yet this positive Christlike attitude does not deny that communication takes effort, is easily affected, and often gets distorted because of past experiences. Effective, Nondefensive Communication / 325 Gestures never substitute for actions; this all of us probably would admit to knowing. Yet one of the burdens of the human condition is that we often make a gesture when we think we are taking an action. This is especially so in communication. Real communication requires that agen-das be cleared. We must risk speaking our minds and our hearts, but often we shy away from this because we can lose face, uncover unpleas-ant anxieties, or lose our position in the relationship (even though this position is a matter of self-protection rather than of Christian friendship). The "bottom line" then is that, even with a sense of hope and challenge, good communication takes real effort. II. Who Is Receiving the Message? Age, socio-economic background, race/ethnic origin, intelligence, and any number of other determinants will affect how our message is re-ceived. This is especially important in terms of personality and sociali-zation as a result of gender. With respect to personality and communication, given the focus of this paper, the specific factors which we will treat here are domination and avoidance. Domination: Some people have a great fear of being dominated or influenced while others are themselves dominators. In both cases, the per-son will receive communications in line with these personality determi-nants. Sometimes very bad past ministerial experiences will cause this kind of issue to be at the forefront. An example of this is the person in ministry who has been--in the name of "Christian service"--pulled into doing all kinds of work and has filled all kinds of inappropriate roles. He or she may then respond to communication in what I call a "pseudojustice" mode. Trying to communicate with such persons about involvement can be like pulling teeth because of their fear that their own space will be intruded upon as it has been in the past. With them you may feel exasperated and feel like yelling: "I'm not trying to control you. All I'm trying to do is to find out how you would like to serve as part of the team." The hidden agenda such people have and their past feeling of being dominated and forced into too many unwanted, possi-bly unsuitable roles need to surface and be dealt with so communication and involvement can proceed. On the other hand, for persons receiving the message who are them-selves dominators, the problem will be somewhat different. In this case they show constant concern that if they agree or open up they might lose necessary control of the situation. In communicating with them, the situ-ation is also frustrating because if you are not careful you may begin to 326/Review for Religious, May-June 1988 feel that you are in fact gUilty of trying to wrestle control or get away with something. To such persons, nevertheless, you must express the idea clearly and question their hesitation so that they can get in touch with the domination problem they are experiencing. (Th.e more uncon-scious the problem is, howex;er, the more defensive the person will be because of a lack of awareness about it and a resistance to looking at it on his or her part.) Avoidance: Avoidance of involvement with another person may be due to a number of reasons. When we are speaking about communica-tions between clergy and religious women, though, one of the primary concerns could be the fear of heterosexual intimacy. As we learn from the psychological literature (for example, Daniel Levinson: The Seasons of a Man's Life), this may especially be a problem with males because of a confusion between genital relationships and nongenital heterosexual relationships. In Levinson's words: A man may have a wide social network in which he has amicable, "friendly" relationships with many men and perhaps a few women. In general, however, most men do not have an intimate male friend of the kind that they recall fondly from boyhood or y.outh. Many men have had casual dating relationships with women, and perhaps a few complex love-sex relationships, but most men have not had an intimate nonsexual friendship with a woman. We need to understand why friendship is so rare, and what consequences this deprivation has for adult life (p. 335). For the religious woman, the case may be a failure to have had enough heterosexual opportunities herself to feel at ease in the situation; another reason could be a negative history early in life or in ministry (for example, steps at healthy intimacy either rebuffed or responded to in a genital way thus producing confusion, anger, or possibly unwarranted guilt). Now that we have looked at the above two elements in understand-ing whom we are communicating with--since the "who" very much de-termines how a message will be received, let us briefly look at the dif-ferences communication takes on from the socialization a person receives because of gender. Gender, along with the socialization and human development that oc-cur in line with it, is a very crucial variable in how someone receives communication. Carol Gilligan (In A Different Voice: Visions in Matur-ity, Harvard University Press, 1982), Robert Kegan (The Evolving Self, Harvard University Press, 1982), and Jean Miller (Toward a New Psy-chology of Women, Beacon, 1976) b.ave shown that recent studies on Effective, Nondefensive Communication women's psychological development characterize them as more open to, and interested in, affiliation than men. However, of more import is that these findings, rather than being evidence of regressive dependence, are reflective of a high level of development that should be integrated with (male-oriented) differentiation at each level of maturity. Joann Wolski Conn, in her work Women's Spirituality (Paulist, 1986), points to this: ¯ . . o.ne should notice the similarities between the Christian goal of un-ion with God demonstrated by loving care for all persons, and the ideal of human maturity promoted in essays by Miller, Gilligan, and Kegan. Gilligan rejects autonomy as the only appropriate goal for human ma-turity in moral decisions and presents instead a goal which equally val-ues relationships . [Kegan] explicitly intends to present a model which listens as carefully to women's experience as it does to men's. As a result, his model demonstrates how the qualities which have come to characterize men and women stereotypically--autonomy and relation-ship-- are the focus of life span tasks at every stage of everyone's de-velopment . Miller explains that autonomy as the goal of maturity is a carry-over from men's experience and implies that one should be able to give up affiliations in order to become separate and self-directed. Women seek more than autonomy as was defined for men; in-deed, they seek a fuller ability to encompass relationships simultane-ously with the fullest development of themselves. Too often women are misinterpreted or penalized for affirming to men a basic truth: every-one's individual development proceeds through affiliation as well as dif-ferentiation. And this development involves conflict which is an inevi-table fact of life and is not necessarily harmful (60, 61). The above is particularly relevant for us here because it is the devel-opment of the female "gender" (as opposed to biological sex), with its emphasis on affiliation,versus the male "gender," which focuses on sepa-ration, that determines whether communication will be sought to build up the Kingdom via an emphasis on relationships or via an attempt to foster "God's will" by furthering a truth or cause at the possible ex-pense of excluding intimacy in the process. ¯ This is not said to disparage men. Jesus in his communication mod-eled both the male and the female gender (that is, he stood for the truth but saw charity and relationship as the greatest law). On the other hand, in an effort to attain equality, it is equally possible for some women to mistake "machismo" for the masculine gender and seek aggressive power in their communication rather than an assertive appropriate de-fense of the truth that will in turn bring us together as brothers and sis- ~i98 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 ters. Consequently, gender is an important issue when reflecting on the person with whom we are trying to communicate. III. Effective Communications as an Element of Overall Transforma-tion Changes in one's attitude and approach to life are areas in which thera-pists have had a long-standing interest. Because of this they are aware of the resistance to change that people have-~even when there is an ex-pressed conscious desire to progress. One way of dealing with such re-sistance, bad habits, or unwanted yet seemingly ingrained negative pat-terns is to address one or all of the following: behavior, cognition, af-fect, and imagery. (I am indebted in this section to my colleague Rich-ard Parsons for his model for therapeutic intervention based on the first three of the factors just listed.) This information is important with respect to what we have already discussed because unless communication is seen as an element of one's overall need to be transformed in approaching God, it will not be suffi-ciently integrated into one's life to have significant impact on one's daily outlook. For instance, when a depressed person comes in for treatment, the problem during the course of therapy can be dealt with in each of the ar-eas listed above; the following is a sample: Behavior: The person is helped to develop a strategy to get out of bed and move about since activity and depression do not coexist well to-gether. Cognition: The person is assisted in recognizing negative thinking, seeing the link between it and depression, and learning how to correct for this thinking as a way of dealing ultimately with a negative belief sys-tem. Affect (emotions): The person is encouraged to express negative emo-tion (anger) so it is not directed against the self in a destructive fashion. Imagery: The person is given exercises in positive imagery as a means of correcting the inordinate negative images that the person fre-quently has and erroneously believes. In this way, the person is able to enter upon a process of self-reeducation, in terms of which, rather than behaving, perceiving, feel-ing, and imaging negatively, he or she realistically and positively takes greater and greater hold. In our openness to grace (using the above model including behav-ior, cognition, affect, and imagery), similar moves must be taken with respect to.ensuring the presence and growth of effective, nondefensive Effective, Nondefensive Communication communication between clergy and religious women. As a way of en-suring this, in each of the four categories, a series of sample questions is offered. They are not so much a comprehensive list as a way of ap-proaching what we have covered in this paper on a broader scale. How they are addressed initially and every day will help determine how the clergy and religious women feel about and act upon their stated desire to open up clear lines of communication between them--regarding, that is, what they do, perceive, affectively experience, and envision. Since emotions are hard to impact directly (except with drug therapy or via ex-ercises in catharsis--that is, ventilating emotions when relating an event to a friend so that the emotions do not come out in an inordinate way in an encounter with someone else), the three we will focus on in terms of a listing of reflective questions are: behavior, cognition, and imagery. (Naturally, there will be some overlap between categories.) Behavior: 1. When someone treats me with disrespect/anger, do I inquire about it or do I withdraw and absorb the negativity or retaliate against the per-son? (Am I able to say: "You seem angry. Is it me that you are angry with or someone/thing else?") 2. Do I time sensitive interactions correctly, or do I bring up things at a time when the person will feel on the spot, rushed, or unable to re-spond? (The "attack-in-the-open" or "hit-on-the-run" techniques.) 3. Do I let other people's behavior (defensive, angry, rigid.) de-termine (excuse) a like negative response on my part? 4. When I have a confrontation, do I employ empathy and respect? 5. Do I group people (sexes, roles . . .) together, or do I take the trouble to appreciate each person individually? 6. Do I treat my partner in ministry like a child or parent or assume one of these roles myself in communication? 7. Do I demand that people agree or have a constantly pleasant de-meanor as a price of interacting with me? 8. When I communicate, am I trying to be myself, or am I trying to project an image so as to keep people controlled, at a distance, or in awe of me? 9. Do I hide behind the rules--be they correct or not--as a way of ending a conversation or cutting off a person's desire to brainstorm or be an adult with me? 10. Do I give in--in the name of "charity"--because I want to be liked? 330 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 11. Am I difficult to deal with and .overly exacting about a job de-scription- not merely to ensure justice is done, but as displaced revenge for past injustices, hurts, or inordinate demands? In other words, am I willing to be assertive enough to set limits for people when I am being asked to do things I should not do, and, on the other hand, am I gener-ous enough to go the extra mile when it is called for rather than hide be-hind a "union-type" contract which may destroy ministerial morale? (This question is material for an article in itself, given the undeclared psy-chological war that is often taking place between some manipulative, con-trolling, dominant ministers in the Church and the obsessive-compulsive persons who report to them.) 12. Do I use emotional words or parental actions (pedantic tones, sar-o casm . . .) as a way of controlling or attacking other persons? 13. Do I use indirect or passive aggressive/dependent behavior as a way of getting back at someone because I cannot or will not face my own anxiety about being directly assertive? 14. Do I catch myself when I am not taking someone seriously or am making a premature judgment about him or her? 15. Do I tie people up in specifics, rules, or implications rather than allowing them to share their hopes, ideals, and visions with me? 16. Do I look for defensiveness in the other person as a help to moni-tor how I am presenting my view? (Am I using evaluative rather than de-scriptive language, which then sets the other person up to respond nega-tively?) 17. Am I being specific and recent, rather than vague, general, or historical? That is, am I dragging in what I perceive to be the person's whole negative history with me? 18. Am I falling into the trap of employing a communication de-stroyer such as: ordering, directing, commanding, warning, admonish-ing, threatening, exhorting, moralizing, preaching, lecturing, giving so-lutions, .judging, criticizing, blaming, flattering, name-calling, shaming, withdrawing, humoring, or diverting? i9. Am I acting the way I am because of the person's "church cre-dentials" or because of who they are as persons . . . my brothers and sisters in Christ? 20. Am I giving other persons enough distance, or am I moving ahead in the communication and relationship because of my own needs, my own sense of where relationships should be after a given period of time? Effective, Nondefensive Communication 21. Am I able to not "take the whole stage" or "hide behind the curtain" but instead find an appropriate verbal place in the communica-tion? 22. Am I self-disclosing enough without inappropriately or too rap-idly overwhelming the other person with my personal life? 23. Do I use anger, pouting, tears, tantrums, or seduction to get my way? 24. Do I look for the other person's point in communication so it re-ally can become a two-way process of exchanging information? 25. Am I looking for those signs in myself which would help me see when in my interactions and thoughts I may be setting myself up for un-necessary failure? (Do I expect that the reality of the diocese or present partner in ministry will meet my ideals and, when it does not, see it as a total failure?) Cognition: I. Do I try to be as clear as possible in the way I express myself--in other words, do I try to look at all my motivations and agendas? 2. Do I catch myself when I feel either angry, anxious, or guilty so I can try to understand the source of it rather than merely blaming my-self or someone else? 3. Am I sensitive to the times I personalize things? For instance, do I quickly take the blame for some external negative event that I was not primarily responsible for and as a result feel unnecessarily angry/guilty? 4. Do I hold on to the biblical quotation "Be not afraid" at a real belief/trust level to the extent that I can move forward in communica-tion even during those times when I feel pain, rejection, threat, or panic? 5. In my communication of the expectations I have of people, am I presenting them in a way which puts them on the spot, or do I really try to call them to be all they can be without embarrassing them because they are where they are? 6. Do I predict failure or put the other person down in my mind even before the communication has had time to develop? 7. Do I pick up my feelings of annoyance or frustration and catch the underlying thought which is causing it and thus avoid lessening my motivation to continue the communication and work through the prob-lem? 8. Do I fearlessly try to separate my motivations and agendas so I can see what mature/immature elements are involved in my thinking when I prepare for an important discussion, confrontation, or meeting? 332 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 9. When I am at an intimate level with a person, am I checking all the thoughts going through my mind---even the negative or unrealistic ones--as a way of picking up my unfulfilled preconscious desires or needs so they do not interfere with the communication or lead me to act out some immature behavior that would be detrimental to the relation-ship? I0. Am I thinking that, if this person does not like me, it means am not likable in general? Or do I believe that when I am on a ministry team everyone must get along equally well? 1 i. Do I see disagreement as tantamount to disloyalty or start to be-lieve such an attitude if I am given that message by the person with whom I am communicating? 12. Am I willing and able to recall past supportive adult situations I have had with other partners in ministry so I do not generalize when I have a bad experience in the present? Imagery: 1. Am I imaging myself as an assertive sister/brother of Christ, or do I perceive a non-Christlike negative image of myself? 2. Am I truly imaging the opposite sex as being in the image of God? (Am I able to image her/him as being my superior even if I am now her/ his superior in the apostolate?) 3. Do I image myself as loved so I can behave as a healthy person rather than a "good/nice" person who retreats, placates, etc., because of a desperate need for acceptance? 4. Do I try to cut through all of the past culturally determined im-ages I have had of the Lord in order to reenvision the masculinity (as op-posed to the "machismo," power, superiority . . .) of Christ, and am I also able to see Jesus as mother? Or, do I really believe this area is silly and avoid it? 5. Do I take the "Abba" image of God as my guide and meditate on it as an assertive yet tender role model? Or do I still have a "superego-oriented," patriarchal image of God? These are just some of the questions that must be faced with respect to behavior, cognition, and imagery if communication is to change and become effective, if our attitude is to be truly transformed. Epilogue Abraham Heschel once said: [A person's] plight is not due to the fear of nonbeing, to the fear of death, but to the fear of living . The fear of living arises most corn- Effective, Nondefensive Communication monly out of the experiences of failure or insult, or having gone astray or having been rebuffed. It is rooted in the encounter with other human beings, in not knowing how to be with other beings, in the inability or refusal to communicate, but above all in the failure to live in complete involvement with what transcends bur living. I think that, in discussing effective, nondefensive communication be-tween clergy and religious women and in looking at our behavior, cog-nition, and imagery, we are being asked whether we will fear living or whether we will live in complete involvement. We are being asked whether we will follow "Holy Mother the institutional Church" in such a strict way that we are not open to "Holy Mother our God" to the ex-tent that we allow her to carry us where she will. The questions being asked here, then, are not easy ones. Neither are the answers so immediate and accessible. Psychology can help, and we should employ it wherever we can. But, in the last analysis, it is prayer and spirituality that will turn the tide. James Fenhagen said at one point in his book Invitation to Holiness (Harper & Row, 1985, p. 57): "People live cautiously because they pray cautiously." I think this is so, and I think St. Peter felt it when he was confronted at Rome's gate after being asked the question: "Quo vadis?" Accordingly, I wonder, in this whole issue of communications and rela-tionships between clergy and religious women (as might also possibly be the case with respect to the modern movement toward a lay-centered Church), whether it would be too dramatic for us to see that the whole Church is at the gate being questioned again by the Lord as to our cour-age, fortitude, and faith? I wonder. I wonder. Leading People into Prayer Paul Wachdorf Father Wachdorf, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, is an associate dean of for-mation and a spiritual director at Mundelein Seminary. His address is: University of Saint Mary of the Lake; Mundelein, Illinois 60060. For the past six years I have served as a spiritual director for the theologi-ans at Mundelein Seminary, the graduate school of theology of the Arch-diocese of Chicago. An increasing number of our incoming students have never been in a seminary. Frequently their knowledge of the history and teachings of the Church and of the various prayer traditions of the Church is at a very basic level. Some come with no prayer life at all. For others, their experience of prayer is limited to saying prayers, occasionally read-ing from the Bible, or talking to God. One of the challenges I have faced as a director in working with these students is to lead them into a deeper experience of prayer. Out of my experience of the last six years, I would like to share some of the insights and practical wisdom that I have found helpful in work-ing with these students. Although I have worked primarily with semi-nary students, I believe that what I have to say can be helpful to anyone working with beginners in prayer: spiritual directors, RCIA facilitators, pastoral-care ministers, homilists, prayer-group leaders, and many oth-ers. It is very important to be aware of the special issues and concerns that beginners in prayer face as they seek to come before God. The Foundational Conviction The most important insight that I have come to is this: God leads peo-ple into prayer. Through God's own invitations, people come to prayer in their own good time and way. As a director I can invite people to a life of prayer. I can walk with them in their attempts to pray. I can help 334 Leading People into Prayer / 335 to facilitate their movement into prayer. But I cannot make them pray, and I cannot control the movement or the experience of God in their prayer. As a director I have had to face my own impatience and desire to have someone become a person of prayer overnight. I have come to see that there are many starts and stops; but, over time, people are given the gift of prayer. Prayer cannot be forced. It is a conversion experience. When people come to experience firsthand the power of God at work in their lives and prayer, then prayer becomes something that they want to do and not something I expect them to do or something they are obli-gated to do by the Church. Until this happens for them, I try as much as possible to affirm their fledgling efforts to pray and to be understand-ing and accepting of them in their failures, their discouragement, and their resistances as they attempt to pray. Beginning by Doing When I meet.with prospective spiritual directees, I tell them that one expectation I have of them is that they commit themselves to developing a regular prayer life. Furthermore, within the context of spiritual direc-tion, I want them to talk about what happens to them when they do pray. I also tell them that I am not going to dictate to them how, when, or how often they should pray, nor am I going to scold them in their failures or difficulties with prayer. I am not indifferent about their prayer life. Within the framework of God's gift and their freedom, I try to be an accountability factor. What is a value to me, I want to be a value for them. In addition, I tell them that their commitment to prayer insures that what we do within the con-text of spiritual direction becomes more than just guidance and counsel-ing. Some of those I direct have told me that my invitation to prayer has been an important stimulus in their attempts to develop their own prayer life. In Solidarity and With Support At Mundelein Seminary, the full-time members of the formation team commit themselves to an hour of personal prayer every morning in our house chapel. We invite the students to join us in our time of prayer, and many of them do. In this hour of quiet time with God, there is a soli-darity that develops among us. Many of our students have said that this daily commitment of the formation team to prayer has been an impor-tant witness and invitation to them in their own prayer life. 33t5 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 Related to this, on occasion I have invited a student I am directing to join me for this time of quiet prayer. We have used a common prayer form or passage from Scripture as the basis of our prayer. Afterwards we spent some time talking about what we experienced in our prayer. Within the context of direction, I try to share on a limited basis, and when-ever I feel it is appropriate, some of the content of my own prayer life and what happens to me when I pray. These two things have helped some of my beginners in prayer to come to an experiential insight into what can happen when they open themselves up to God in prayer and to understand what prayer in gen-eral and what specific prayer forms can be like for them. The Spiritual Dialogue About Prayer When I first meet with new spiritual directees, I ask them to spend some time telling me their life history. Among other things, I ask them to tell me about their prayer life and their experiences and images of God. In particular, I ask them if they have ever had what they consider to be a religious experience or a powerful experience of God at work in their lives. What I have found is not only that many of those I direct have had such experiences but also that these experiences have played an impor-tant part in their own vocational discernment and their understanding of God. I have also found that people feel very shy or embarrassed about hav-ing had such an experience, have never told anyone about it before, and have a difficult time articulating just what the experience was like. As a director I find that it is very important for me to listen carefully to what they have to say, to reassure them that they are not weird or crazy, to invite them to explore further what they have experienced, and to give them permission to talk about such experiences as they might occur in the future. During the course of direction, I ask people to talk about their prayer life in terms of consistency, method, content, and inner feelings associ-ated with praying. Initially they find this difficult since they frequently lack the language to talk about what happens interiorly when they pray. Very often they have not developed the ability to sit quietly for any ex-tended period of time, to notice what they are feeling, and to distinguish the difference between distractions and movements of God. As we begin, I encourage people to talk about whatever they thought or felt or experienced in their prayer, whether they considered it to be significant or not. I find it important for me to move slowly and to be Leading People into Prayer patient with their attempts not only to pray but also to notice and talk about their experience of prayer. I also find that I need to be sensitive to their desire to please me, to do well in their prayer, or to have some-thing significant to say. I need to reassure them that whatever happens in their attempts to pray is fine with me and is pleasing to God. Related to these considerations is another question we examine early on: For whom is prayer intended? Is it primarily for my benefit, for what I get out of it? Or is it primarily for God? If prayer is just for my benefit and if nothing seems to be happening, I will feel it is a waste of time and will be tempted to give it up. On the other hand, if prayer is for God, it does not make any differ-ence if anything "productive" seems to be happening. Even if it feels like a waste of time to me, I am praying because I am giving my time to God in a way that says that my relationship with God is primary. The fact that I am consistently present to God in my prayer is initially far more important than what ! do or what happens when I pray. When peo-ple come to a different understanding of what prayer is and for whom it is intended, they relax and are more open as they approach prayer. Resistances, Difficulties, and Dryness Beginners in prayer are usually eager and enthusiastic as they begin to develop and deepen their prayer lives and to experiment with new prayer forms. They may experience in new and surprising ways the power of God at work in their prayer. As time passes, however, and they run into resistances, difficulties, and dryness in their prayer, they may become discouraged and disheart-ened with their prayer life. They may feel as if God has abandoned them. It is important to help them understand the dynamics of what is going on in their prayer. A list of some of the common difficulties that tend to make prayer difficult for beginners follows: a) Called to a Different Prayer Frequently the difficulties encountered by beginners in prayer are con-nected to being called by God to a different way of praying, to a deeper level of prayer. Although this is true for all pray-ers, it is especially true for beginners. My experience with beginners in prayer is that they soon discover that the ways of prayer taught them as children and carried with them into adolescence and young adulthood are no longer satisfying to them. It is important to let them explore their dissatisfactions and new yearn-ings and to help them see that perhaps God is calling them to a differ- Review for Religious, May-June 1988 ent, deeper way of praying. b) Wondering What to Do Exploring different ways of praying, however, often brings begin-ners to another difficulty: They do not know how to begin or what to do in their time of prayer. They are intimidated by silence and fear that noth-ing is going to happen or that they will be plagued by distractions. When they are unfocused as they come to prayer, when they have no sense of how to open themselves up to God so that God can enter into their lives, prayer will be extremely difficult for them. I find it is important to explore with beginners what prayer is, what attitudes to bring to prayer, how to interpret and deal with distractions, and what prayer techniques may suit them and open them up to God. If they know their Myers-Briggs type indicator, I offer to go over with them some of the research that has been done on prayer and tem-perament. One resource I would suggest is the book Prayer and Tem-perament by Chester Michael and Marie Norrisey (Charlottesville, Va. : The Open Door, 1984). The Myers-Briggs type indicator seems to be a limited but useful tool in helping people to understand how they ap-proach the world. This understanding can put them in touch with a fa-vored and a shadow side of prayer, an insight that can open them to a sense of God at work in their lives. c) Unworthiness Another difficulty beginners face is the feeling that they are not wor-thy to pray. More specifically, they feel unworthy to come before God, that they have nothing worthwhile to offer to God, and that .they are not worthy to receive anything from God in their time of prayer. These feel-ings are often connected with earlier lifestyles which now cause shame. Sometimes they are connected with images of God which portray God as a perfectionist or as a harsh, impersonal, unforgiving judge who pun-ishes wrongdoing. I find that it is important to let people freely explore their life histories, their images of God, and their own sense of unwor-thiness. d) Looking at All Facets of Life I encourage those I direct to get in touch with their feelings and to tell God in their prayer what they are feeling, thinking, and experienc-ing. This tends to bring into focus several related difficulties for begin-ners in prayer. Leading People into Prayer / 339 The first is their image of God as all-knowing. If God is all-knowing, why should they bother to express what God already knows? A second is that they are often not in touch with what they are feel-ing or with inner movements which might or might not be of God. They have never cultivated the reflective side of their lives. A third is that they are frequently suspicious of emotions, especially those they consider to be negative or sinful, such as anger, lust, or de-spair. They have a difficult time admitting to themselves that they have such emotions. And even when they do, how, for example, could they possibly express to God their angry feelings? Such feelings can be very threatening to them and can reinforce their sense of unworthiness before God. It is important to help beginners get in touch with their feelings and thoughts, to claim them in a non judgmental way, and to begin to express them to God in their prayer. As they do this, God is able to be with them as they are and as he wants to be with them. e) The Right Time and Place Difficulties in prayer can also be related to lifestyle and environment. A poor environment, such as the clutter of their rooms where there are many distractions, can make prayer difficult. I encourage beginners to explore various prayer environments to help them discover a place where they can be with God in peace. The time of day for prayer is important. "Morning" people or "night" people need to adjust prayer times according to their natural biological rhythms. I encourage people to find a time of day when they can give quality prayer time to God, a time of alertness and concentra-tion. The general rhythm of life affects prayer. A scattered life or a life out of balance will not help prayer. One needs a regular and rhythmic balance of work, play, and attending to relationships. I encourage peo-ple to examine their life patterns because a healthy life is related to healthy prayer. t') Consistent Commitment Inconsistency or not enough time given to prayer can make prayer difficult. The development of a healthy, loving, life-giving relationship between any two people requires that they spend sufficient, consistent, quality time together. Our relationship with God is no different. If God is to be present to us as God truly desires, we have to make time for this relationship to develop. It is important to explore with beginners the dis- ~140 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 cipline of consistent prayer. g) Wasting Time with God In the midst of the hectic pace of modern life, it is difficult to find time to pray. Often, for pragmatic, production-oriented Americans, prayer seems like a waste of time. People can always think of "better" ways to spend their time. The need that beginners have for productive prayer is one that needs to be carefully explored. I encourage them to see prayer as an opportunity to waste time gracefully with God. h) Dealing with Setbacks When people miss prayer for a day or two or three, they become dis-couraged. They may want to give up on prayer. My response is encour-agement. When they miss, they do not need to get upset or give up on prayer as a lost cause. I tell them to come back. Prayer is a decision that continually needs to be renewed. If they fall, they should simply get up and start over again. God, I believe, is not all that interested in how many times they have fallen. God is more interested in how many times they got back up and started over again. i) Desolation In his Rules for the Discernment of Spirits, Week I [322], St. Igna-tius suggests three important reasons why we suffer desolation or diffi-culty in prayer. David Fleming, S.J., in The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: A Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1978, pp. 210-211), "reads" the text of St. Ignatius as follows: I. It is our own fault because we have not lived our life of faith with any effort. We have become tepid and slothful and our very shallow-ness in the spiritual life has brought about the experience of desolation; 2. it is a trial period allowed by God. We find ourselves tested as to whether we love God or just love his gifts, whether we continue to fol-low his call in darkness and dryness as well as in light and consolation; 3. it is a time when God lets us experience our own poverty and need. We see more clearly that the free gift of consolation is not something we can control, buy, or make our own. These Ignatian guidelines are geared for beginning Christians. When explained properly, they can be helpful in giving beginning pray-ers some insight into what might be happening in their prayer. Leading People into Prayer / 341 Prayer in Direction I invite those I direct to take time, if they are comfortable in doing so, to join me in prayer at the beginning and/or at the end of our ses-sions together. My/our prayer might be spontaneous or more formal. As we begin, the prayer is a simple petition inviting God to be a part of our time together and asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As we end, the prayer might be a moment of thanksgiving or praise to God for the ways in which the Spirit works in our lives and in the process of spiri-tual direction. It is important not to force this. Beginners in prayer are not usually very comfortable praying out loud or spontaneously. At the same time, such prayer does sensitize beginning pray-ers to the importance of con-tinually inviting God to enter into their lives and of noticing and acknowl-edging the ways in which God can and does act in their lives. Conclusion My experience is that leading people to prayer is an art and not a sci-ence. There is no one textbook approach that works for everyone. Prayer is something very personal and unique. It is a special relationship that develops over time between God and the pray-er. People come to prayer in their own good time and way. As a spiritual director, I cannot make prayer happen; but I can help to facilitate this loving relationship. In work-ing with beginners in prayer, I do not apply the suggestions I have of-fered in this article in any structured or systematic way; but I have found that there are certain common themes and experiences that it is good for me as a spiritual director to be aware of as I seek to lead people under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit into a life of prayer. Marian Year: A Prolonged, Ardent Pentecost Gene Barrette, M.S. Father Barrette last wrote for us in the November/December 1987 issue. The pre-sent article has been adapted from a letter of his to the La Salette Missionaries, of whom he is the superior general. His address: Missionari di N. S. de la Salette; Pi-z, zza Madonna della Salette, 3; 00152 Roma, Italy. I'leturning to Rome from Argentina on June 6, 1987, after nearly twenty-four hours of travel, I was only hazily aware of the events of that day. I noticed some members of my community in front of the TV joining the Holy Father as he prayed the rosary at St. Mary Major's Basilica. A Veri-table prayer chain around the world was formed as simultaneous trans-mission linked groups of the faithful praying in some of the major Marian shrines on five continents. Later in the evening a group from the house went to the Pentecost vigil celebrated in St. Peter's Square, a ceremony full of splendor and evocative images of fire and flowers. These were festivities marking the pope's official opening of the second Marian Year in the history of the Church. This special year, which will close on the feast of the Assumption, 1988, was launched with media fanfare, receiv-ing extensive TV and newspaper coverage here in Rome for a couple of days. And yet, I must humbly admit, in my own jet-lagged heart I felt little excitement or response. In fact, when the Marian Year was first announced, a little demon voice in me had muttered: "What is this man doing? Here the world is facing enormous problems: war, possible nuclear annihilation, the col-lapse of social structures, massive oppression and injustices, and moral confusion; and what does he hold out to the world? A Marian Year!" My 342 Marian Year / 343 initial reaction was not only less than enthusiastic, it was even slightly embarrassed. How shallow that reaction was! For what has Pope John Paul done? I believe he has done something very prophetic, prophetic in the same sense that La Salette is so pro-phetic. At La Salette Mary described a world suffering from famine, dis-ease, and turmoil. And yet what did she propose as a solution? Prayer, attendance at Mass, fasting--in a word, conversion. She proposed solu-tions that in the eyes of the world certainly could only appear "foolish." And so too, perhaps in the eyes of the world or, even worse, in our own worldly eyes, the pope's proclamation of a Marian Year as an important way to prepare for the Third Millennium may seem foolish. But it is the kind of foolishness that in the eyes of God is, in fact, wisdom. In proclaiming a Marian Year, the pope is saying to all of us: "Be-hold your mother!" Yes, this is a year that can help us behold and relate to this maternal reality which is life-giving and life-nurturing; and the life that Mary gives and nurtures is precisely the Christ-life so desper-ately needed in the famine of our days. Yes, behold our mother; behold the woman who is our privileged doorway to Christ, Christ who in fact is the only true answer to the fragmentations, oppressions, and forces of nonlife and darkness threatening our today and shadowing our tomorrow. Any word or act that leads us to this heart of our reality is prophetic. Bringing Mary Out Of Eclipse It is no e×aggeration to say that Marian devotion suffered a diminu-tion during the past twenty-five years or so. Some blame the Vatican Council, others hold theologians at fault. And yet no council has ever spoken so beautifully of Mary as does Lumen Gentium, nos. 52-69. Promi-nent theologians such as Karl Rahner, Schillebeeckx, and even the non- Catholic Max Thurian have written exquisitely on Mary. Bishops' con-ferences have issued pastoral letters on Mary, such as the American bish-ops' beautiful letter Behold Your Mother. The eclipse came as an over-reaction to excesses that at times existed in some Marian devotions; the eclipse also came because our attention was focused on other essential aspects of our Christian, ecclesial life. But Mary is so integral a part of the fabric of our faith that she can-not remain in eclipse. In fact, in Argentina Cardinal Primatesta, in a con-ference to the members of the Council of the Congregation, went on at great length to emphasize that it is Marian devotion that has preserved the Christian faith of the Latin American people over the centuries. This great gift cannot remain in eclipse. :344/Review for Religious, May-June 1988 Through the Marian Year, Pope John Paul wants to put dramatically before our eyes and our hearts this life-giving reality that is Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church; your mother and mine. We are not dealing with pious images or metaphors nor with devotional projec-tions; we are dealing with a reality present to us. Do we recognize this presence? Is it vital for us? Permit me to use an analogy to help me get my point across. Walk outside and look up into the air. Do you hear music or voices and see images? Of course not. And yet that seemingly clear air is full of sounds and images. All you need is a radio or TV and click--you capture them. You hear the music and the voices, you see the pictures. All you need is the proper instrument, properly tuned and with a power source. It is the same thing with the presence of God, the Lord, the Spirit--and yes, of Mary. They are real presences. But unless we have our minds and hearts empowered by the Spirit, attuned in faith, then there is no way that we can be aware of these presences; no way that we can respond to them; no way that we can be touched and transformed by them. In a cer-tain sense the Marian Year is a "tuning time" for us; tuning in to the presence of Mary to her people. How sad it would be not to take advan-tage of this gift. This Spirit-inspired invitation of the Holy Father to give Mary her rightful place in our lives is not intended to lead us simply to a superfi-cial polishing-up of Marian devotion. It is actually a call to enter into the richness and the profound meaning of a Marian spirituality. As John Paul's recent encyclical Redemptoris Mater suggests, it is a question of seeing Mary not simply as part of our "doctrine of faith," but much more of Mary as part of our "life of faith." Mary is the prototype for our own stance before God and the world. Mary has led and continues to lead the way on our pilgrimage of faith. Recognizing that and actively drawing strength from that reality is one way of insuring that Mary will no longer live in a sort of eclipse. This is not the place for a treatise on the fundamentals of a Marian theology. I simply encourage you all to give Redemptoris Mater a prayer-ful, meditative reading. The encyclical, plus chapter VIII in Lumen Gen-tium, gives an excellent summary of Mariology. In these pages I simply want to point out some aspects of Mary that can touch our life of faith; points that may.be light and food for our own journey. Mary: Model for Our Pilgrimage of Faith A recurring phrase in the pope's encyclical is Mary's place in the "pilgrimage of faith" (6, 14, 25, and 26 especially). The whole image Marian Year / 345 of the pilgrimage of faith is a dynamic one capturing the movement, the evolution, the story of a people, of individuals. What is this "pilgrimage of faith" that the Church has lived out through space and time in her individual members? The pope says that its essential character is interior, a "question of a pilgrimage through faith, by the 'power of the Risen Lord,' a pilgrimage in the Holy Spirit" (RM 25). The essential element of this interior pilgrimage is the response that each person gives to the encounter with the Holy Spirit. The faith-response of yes-~offiat, a total "obedience of faith" to the Spirit invit-ing into God's plan-~creates a receptive space for the conception and birthing of Jesus. This pilgrimage of faith is of crucial importance not only because of what it accomplishes in the individual, but more because of what is accomplished through the individual: making Christ present in the world. And Mary, in a unique and special way, is present to and part of this ongoing pilgrimage. "Mary is present, as the one who is 'blessed be-cause she believed,' as the one who advanced on the pilgrimage of faith, sharing unlike any other creature in the mystery of Christ . Among all believers she is like a 'mirror' in which are reflected in the most pro-found and limpid way 'the mighty works of God' " (RM 25). Mary is the prototype and model for all faith-pilgrims. And what can we learn when we look at her response? We discover that "to believe means 'to abandon oneself' to the truth of the word of the living God ¯ . . accepting fully and with a ready heart everything that is decreed in the divine plan., a complete openness to the person of Christ, to his whole work, to his whole mission" (RM 14, 39). This total acceptance, this total giving oneself to God's plan, is evi-dent throughout Mary's life: in thefiat of the annunciation moment, in the journey to Bethlehem and the birth in such humble surroundings, in the flight to Egypt, in the "ponderings in her heart" during the early years, in the intercession at Cana, in the years of remaining in the back-ground during the preaching, teaching, and healing and on the fringe of the crowds adulating or condemning, at the foot of the cross, and then in the midst of the apostles for the empowering on Pentecost. Certainly it is not difficult to see in Mary the total gift of her person to serving the saving plan of the Father. Unique? Yes, Mary is. And yet we share in the same call, the same mission. As the American bishops stated in their pastoral letter: "Mary conceived in her heart with her whole being, before she conceived in her :346 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 womb. First came Mary's faith, then her motherhood. Faith is the key . All who truly follow Christ become 'mothers' of Christ, for by their faith they bring Him to birth" (Behold Your Mother, 71). This radical response of faith, as Cardinal Ratzinger effectively stated in a homily at St. Mary Major's on June 10, 1987, shows that Mary is "above all the sign of the fecundity of faith in history." The fecundity of faith is that it brought forth Life itself, which is Jesus. Je-sus is God's supreme entrance into history. It is in Jesus that God once and for all puts history on the road of salvation, of liberation, of com-pletion. Jesus is the ever present Life that transforms history. What bet-ter way, therefore, to move towards the third millennium than to look at Mary, the supreme example and model of the power of faith to bring Jesus into the world? The Marian Year is an invitation to do this. Mary: A Maternal Presence Mary is model for our pilgrimage of faith, but she is more. She is an accompanying maternal presence--guiding, interceding, helping with the sensitivity that only a mother can have. And that is also a reality-- she is truly a mother to each of as. Mary as mother of the human race, again, is not just poetry. It is clearly stated and established at the foot of the cross. "Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother." Mary as model is a great gift of the Father to us; but even more, Mary as mother is the great gift of the Father and the Son to us. Again, in the words of Pope John Paul, "Mary's motherhood which becomes man's inheritance is a gift; a gift which Christ himself makes personally to every individual . Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother" (RM 45). Mary is not "out there" somewhere; she is intimately linked with you and me, whether we pay attention to that link or not. This relationship is part of our reality. Turning and relating to Mary as our mother is not an appeal to senti-mentalism. Rather it is turning to a source of life. Again Cardinal Ratz-inger had a beautiful and suggestive image in his homily: "If the Church in its everyday life does not want to be reduced merely to an arid institu-tion or to an activism that burns itself out, it must look to Mary. Life can grow and develop only under the warmth of a maternal heart." It is there under the warmth of the mother's heart that life first begins and grows in the womb; and it is in the light and warmth of the love of a mother's heart that life continues to grow and be strengthened and made whole years and years after leaving the womb. This immense maternal Marian Year / 347 love Mary has for us has a transforming power. Why do we hesitate or simply neglect to reach out for and seize this maternal love? It may be just the thing that many of us and our people need to turn our lives around and become spaces open to the Spirit and be Christ-bearers. The picture of Mary as our mother certainly is central in Mary's ap-parition at La Salette. She began with the words "Come near, my chil-dren . . . I have great news to tell you." In these very opening words there is already great news: the news that we are her children, and there-fore she is our mother. While Cardinal of Cracow, the Holy Father gave a very insightful observation on the motherhood of Mary during a homily he preached on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the presence of the La Salette Missionaries in Poland. Speaking of Mary as mother of the hu-man family, mother of the Church, he said, "We know well that a mother who loves cries more than once . . . and if among the Church-approved private apparitions of Mary there was lacking this Mary in tears, our image of maternal love would somehow be incomplete. The mother who loves, sometimes weeps. Even more when a grave danger menaces her child . Her maternal tears are a special proof of love, necessary for humanity, necessary for our people today." How often do we ourselves draw near to those tears of love? How often do we lead our people to those tears of love? ¯ The tears that Mary's love produces are shed in response to our own pain, our own suffering, our own danger, our own brokenness, our own sinfulness. Towards the end of Redemptoris Mater (51-52), the Holy Fa-ther refers to the lines from one of the Marian hymns after compline: "Loving mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen, yet strive to rise again." He speaks of the great advances of recent times in human history. And yet, throughout the marvels of our journey in time and space with all the transformations we have witnessed, there remains a fundamental transformation, and that is the ongoing transformation from falling to rising, from death to life. As the Holy Father points out, "the Church sees Mary maternally present and sharing in the many complicated problems which today beset the lives of individuals, families, and nations, and she sees her helping the Christian people in the constant struggle between good and evil, to en-sure that it does not fall or, if it has fallen, that it rises again." This should resonate in each of us if we are sensitive to our own pil-grimage of faith with its rhythms of falling and rising, with its experi-ence of our fragilities and infidelities, with our failings and beginnings 341~/Review for Religious, May-June 1988 anew. Such is our experience as individuals; such is our experience as a community, as a congregation, as a Church, as God's people. Mary's appeal at La Salette certainly relates to our need for conver-sion. (Is the same thing perhaps happening today at Medjugorje?) Yet why do we shy away from this gift offered to us? Why are we so often indifferent, blas6 about these obvious signs of maternal love rushing to us, children in danger, children in pain, children needing help? Is it that we feel that we are big boys now, grown up, ~tnd therefore no longer need-ing this consolation, this warmth, this encouragement, this drying of our own tears, and this loving embrace that helps us believe in our own good-ness and the Spirit's action sending us onwards in new beginnings again and again? The Marian Year can be the privileged occasion for us to re-discover this great gift if we have been neglecting it, or to deepen our love for it if we have not forgotten it. Mary: Continued Presence in Mission to Us Mary, model for us on the pilgrimage of faith; Mary, continued pres-ence as mother. Let us now look at Mary and her own mission, which continues today. As Redemptoris Mater (21) reminds us, Mary's own sense of mis-sion began to be felt at Cana. There we see Mary's solicitude, her com-ing to people in the wide variety of their wants and needs. This solici-tude has certainly been manifested during this last century and a half in her apparitions, especially at La Salette, where her caring wrung tears from her heart. Mary's mission has a twofold movement. She comes to the aid of human needs, but this means that she brings those needs within the ra-dius of Christ's salvific power, as she shows at Cana. At La Salette this is seen in the image we have of the two children, representing our bro-kenness and neediness, being drawn into the radiance that streamed from the crucifix, the ultimate symbol of Christ's saving love. "Thus there is a mediation: Mary places herself between her son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs, and sufferings . Her mediation is in the nature of intercession: Mary intercedes for mankind" (RM 21), a truth echoing Mary's own words at La Salette, "How long a time have I suf-fered for you . " Lumen Gentium (62) described this same reality: "Taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving role, but by her manifold acts of intercession continues to win for us gifts of eternal sal-vation." This mediation, this mission, this divine pastoral, we might say, continues in the history of the Church and the world. Marian Year / 349 Karl Rahner describes Mary's life as "the archetypal apostolic event . What the apostolate is can be read from her and what she did; she is a productive pattern for the apostolate, not a mere ideal instance of its abstract essence" ("Mary and the Apostolate," Mission and Grace, vol. 1, p. 181). He then outlines some of the characteristics ob-servable in Mary's apostolate. They can serve for reflection on our own apostolate during this Marian Year. In the apostolate of Mary: a) There is a consciousness of its being a mission given from above. (How vivid is this conviction for our own life and ministry?) b) She shows a capacity to wait for the right moment, to know that the mission is to be fulfilled in God's time and manner. (Does not much of our own discouragement at times come from relying too exclusively on our own power, our own schedule, our own programs?) c) There is self-withdrawal behind the person she serves; most of her life is hidden, it is Christ who is brought to the fore. d) There is loyal perseverance. Mary did not merely say yes once, in one great moment. She sustained that yes patiently, silently, con-stantly in the serene assurance of the true believer, in the mature sim-plicity of real greatness, throughout a whole lifetime. (How strongly do we strive for this in our age of easily abandoned commitments? How con-scious are we of deepening this yes every day?) e) There is the cross, a heart stabbed through with the sword of suf-fering together with her Son; there is even the noncomprehension of the decrees of God and of the actions of the Lord himself whom she served. It is an apostolate of hope against hope, of faith before victory is won, of a venture whose reward is not paid in advance, of a loyalty that gives all. (To what extent can we find this spirit of sacrifice, of trust, during our darkest and driest moments in our own lives?) These are foundations for a ~olid Marian spirituality inserted into the very fabric of our apostolic call and going way beyond simple devotion. Yes, Mary is there for us as model for our apostolate. But even more, she is there as a source of the help that we need. Not help with this or that small favor, but help for our deepest need--help in being effective Christ-bearers. Mary's Magnificat Finally, Mary serves as a powerful example and model of the capac-ity to recognize what God has done and is doing in our lives. Her Mag-nificat is precisely this: Mary's personal experience of God's action in herself and in her people. This consciousness compels her to break out 350 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 into simple and wholly inspired praise, boldly proclaiming the undimmed truth about God, who "has done great things" in her as well as in the whole universe (RM 37). Mary was truly attuned to what God was accomplishing. Could we not write our own Magnificat---on a personal level and on a community level? I recall how touched I was in Angola upon hearing of a mission community having its yearly meeting with its satellite communities. The celebration began with the recounting of their history: how the commu-nity had started, the first ones involved, the failure of the first commu-nity, the second effort, the people involved, the priests who served them. And this was not simply read, but was corrected and added to by the mem-bers themselves. They were recounting the Lord's deeds, the great things he had done for them. And in this regular exercise they were keeping this reality vividly before them. What a beautiful way to attune one's heart and mind to the reality to which we can so often become blinded! The Magnificat is also used extensively as a solid Marian light which makes us vividly aware of God's love of preference for the poor, the hum-ble, and how this is intimately connected with the Christian meaning of freedom and liberation--of redemption. Here again Mary has her place. She can serve as an inspiration in this aspect of the Christian mission be-cause, as stated in the Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation published in 1986, "Mary is totally dependent upon God and completely directed towards him, and at the side of her Son she is the most perfect image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity and of the universe" (97). Mary helps us understand that the most radical source of true lib-eration of individuals and even structures is precisely this total surren-der or, as she reminds us at La Salette, this submission to God and his plan for us. Without a revolution of the heart, merely political and so-cial revolutions only lay the foundations for the.next revolution in an end-less chain of humanly oppressive and destructive revolts. Mary proclaims the great things that God does, but these are done for those "who fear him," those who not only are poor and lowly, but have surrendered to him. Mary calls, in a variety of ways, to this radical revolution, which is first and foremost conversion. There is much richness to. draw from here and in other truths about Mary, such as her role in the growing appreciation of the feminine as-pect of the divine presence and the Church. Mary truly offers a seem-ingly inexhaustible source of faith reflection. And again, the Marian Year is an invitation to do such reflection. Marian Year / 351 How Celebrate the Marian Year? Concretely, what are some of the things we can do to benefit from this year of grace? First of all, spend time with Mary. It is as plain and as simple as that. If we are not already doing so, we should make time for her in our day. Let us do like the apostle John and welcome Mary, take her into our own home. Let us bring her into everything that makes up our inner life; that is to say, let us take her into our human and Christian "I," as the pope beautifully expressed it (RM 45). This is the first step: profess our faith in Mary's great love and presence by simply spending time with her and opening our hearts, our lives, as wide as possible to her maternal love. Prayerfully read Redemptoris Mater and other texts on Mary. Again, do this to feed the heart more than the head. Avoid reading only the kinds of works that foster such a strong analytical, critical spirit that one ends up with slices and splices, theological abstractions about Mary, but not with a living presence. Read not to try to dispel the mystery that natu-rally accompanies any great truth of our faith, but read to encounter this mystery with ever greater love. Read and pray to move from professing to living a deep love for Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church. If some of us have left the rosary aside, let us explore ways to begin to re-discover its possibilities for reflection, for rhythmic, simple centering on Jesus and Mary. If you have a good imagination, use it. St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises does not neglect this tremendous power that we have. In re-cent. years we have easily dismissed using the imagination in prayer and meditation, often because of our climate of high intellectualization, often from a desire to quickly arrive at more advanced levels of prayer. My own suggestion is to try imaging as you spend time with Mary. The re-sults may surprise you. Visualize Mary with you in every situation of your life and of her life. Talk to her, let her talk to you. Let her hold what is still the child in you that may be trembling with fear, doubt, an-ger, confusion, fatigue. Hear her call you by name; hear her invite you to come near; hear her send you forth. Write your own Magnificat. Spend time tracing the great things God has done both in your own life and in the congregation. Recognize God's action in the flesh and blood of your own history: when and how he looked with favor on his lowly servant; when and how he smashed and scattered you in your pride, cast you down from any little thrones you had set up for yourself, or sent you away aware of how empty you re-ally were when you thought you were so rich; how and when he lifted 352 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 you up even as you experienced most forcefully your own lowliness. Put all that into concrete, vivid terms. And then give praise. Then write your own fiat. Look into the depths of your present and look out towards the possible future and with conviction spell out the fiat, the yes, even though you are not sure of the cost, the possible ex-iles, the shape or duration of the cross you may have to carry, to climb upon. "Yes--be it done to me according to your word." Yes, I let go of my plans, my conditions. I surrender, I submit. Fiat! Again, spell that out in the concrete terms of your own life. At the same time, offer a prayer to Mary asking for her assistance to live out thisfiat as fully and as deeply as possible. And let us not fail the people we serve. Invite them to Mary. Let us attract and lead them to what the pope calls the "specific geography of faith and Marian devotion., these special places of pilgrimage where the People of God seek to meet the Mother of God in order to find, within the radius of the maternal presence of her 'who believes,' a strengthening of their own faith" (RM 28). Our shrines, our programs of devotion, all these can be sources of grace through Mary for the con-tinuing pilgrimage of faith. Be creative in bringing Mary to people and people to Mary. I close with words from our Holy Father's prayer for the Marian Year: "Mary, you received Jesus with ready obedience and undivided heart. You allowed yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit's hidden and powerful action. Sustain us, O Virgin Mary, on our journey of faith." My own prayer for all of us echoes the pope's prayer at a Mass re-cently in Foggia: "May this Marian Year be for individual souls and for the entire community a prolonged, ardent Pentecost." Personal Responsibility in .Initial Formation Melannie Svoboda, S.N.D. Sister Melannie's most recent contribution to this journal is her "Quotations for Com-munity" in the January/February 1988 issue. She may be addressed at Notre Dame Educational Center; 13000 Auburn Road; Chardon, Ohio 44024. For most formation directors, one thing is clear: One of our main con-cerns in the initial formation process is to encourage personal responsi-bility in the persons we direct. What is less clear is the answers to these questions: What exactly is personal responsibility? Why is it so impor-tant in initial formation? How can we encourage it in our directees? What are some signs that a person is, indeed, growing in personal responsibil-ity? And what are some of the obstacles to our encouraging of personal responsibility? This article attempts to explore some answers to these questions. It is based on a series of discussions that our initial-formation team had this past year. I am indebted to our candidate director, Sister Annete Adams, and our director of temporary professed, Sister Mary Catherine Caine, for their valuable input on this topic. Although we were primarily inter-ested in personal responsibility in initial formation, much of what is said here can also apply to the ongoing formation process as well. What is personal responsibility? It is perhaps easier to describe personal responsibility than it is to define it. We saw personal responsibility as a person's ability to make good decisions and to accept the consequences of his or her decisions. Such decisions are made freely; they are not made out of fear or guilt or coercion. The decisions or choices are basically good; that is, they are 353 354 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 based on Gospel ~alues and they are motivated by love. They take into consideration factors other than the person's own feelings and prefer-ences. And, finally, the decisions are open to the Spirit and open to change as life presents the individual with more knowledge, more expe-riences, and more insights. Why is personal responsibility so important? There are a number of reasons why personal responsibility is so im-portant in initial formation. One reason concerns one of the goals of the initial-formation process: the making of a life commitment. Such a com-mitment is valid only if it is made freely, with adequate knowledge and understanding, and if it proceeds from love. In other words, the very mak-ing of valid vows presupposes personal responsibility. But personal responsibility extends beyond the making of a commit-ment; it is essential for the living of such a commitment in a healthy and happy way. Once a person "graduates" from the "schoo| of initial for-mation," he or she is expected to assume responsibility for his or her own growth and development. It is crucial, then, that formation direc-tors see and encourage personal responsibility throughout the initial-formation process. A third reason why personal responsibility is so vital concerns the nature of religious life today. The many changes in the structures of re-ligious life since Vatican II call for far more personal responsibility than in the past. Changes in our understanding of the vows and community also put far greater emphasis on an individual's ability to make good de-cisions and choices. How can we encourage personal responsibility? If personal responsibility is so important in initial formation, what are some of the ways we can encourage it in the persons we direct? One way we can encourage it is to talk about it. We do this not once and for all, but over and over again, in a variety of ways, from different per-spectives as the person grows and matures in the initial-formation proc-ess. We should talk about personal responsibility in both a general way and a specific way. In a general way we discuss with them the nature and importance of personal responsibility. In a specific way we talk with them one on one about how responsible they are. This means we have to ask some probing questions such as these: When and where are you praying? How do you see yourself carrying out your duties such as study, housework, your involvement in community? What are your responsi-bilities in your current ministry and how are you handling them? What Personal Responsibility in Formation / 355 personal decisions or choices have you made recently? Do you see these decisions or choices as good? Why or why not? How are you getting along with the people you live with and work with? Do they see you as a responsible person or not? A second way to encourage personal responsibility is to allow the per-son in formation the freedom to make choices--both good choices and not-so-good choices. This means that as directors we allow an individ-ual to make mistakes. It has been my experience as novice director that some of the worst choices my novices made were some of the most bene-ficial for their growth. Thirdly, we encourage personal responsibility by affirming a person when we see him or her assuming personal responsibility. We can also encourage it by allowing our directees to live with and work side by side with professed members of the community who have achieved a healthy level of personal responsibility. Nothing teaches better than example. What are some signs of personal responsibility in a person? What are some tangible signs that a person in formation is assuming personal responsibility? For brevity's sake, I will merely list some of those signs as we saw them: The person: --gives evidence of self-knowledge and self-esteem --is basically happy and at ease with life --is able to learn from experience --is able to do things he or she does not like to do --gives evidence of being essentially self-directed ~isplays a consistency between stated beliefs and choices --is able to draw from a variety of sources when making serious deci-sions --gives evidence that he or she has thought through and prayed over the more serious decisions he or she has to make --is open to suggestions and direction --is able to deal with irresponsibility in others; this means he or she can accept it when necessary, but also is able to confront it when this would be the more appropriate option --is consistent in behavior no matter who is or is not present --gives evidence of a healthy interdependence with others --assumes initiative ---can deal with boredom or routine 356 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 --- can handle both failure and success What are some obstacles to encouraging personal responsibility? As formation directors, what are some of the obstacles we face in trying to encourage persona.I responsibility in the persons we direct? I think the main obstacles come from three different sources: our directees, the wider community, and ourselves. Sometimes the persons we have in initial formation make it difficult for us to encourage personal responsibility. Some individuals come to religious life desiring to hand over all personal responsibility in the name of holiness. They come to us with a tell-me-what-to-do-and-I-will-do-it attitude. In sharp contrast, others enter religious life equating personal responsibility with let-me-do-whatever-I-want-to-do. Both types make it difficult for formation directors to encourage a healthy personal respon-sibility. Other times one of our obstacles may be members of the wider com-munity. Some professed members may possess an obsolete understand-ing of initial formation which says, "Tell the novice what to do. If she does it, fine. If she doesn't, tell her to leave." When a formation direc-tor, in the name of freedom, allows a person in formation to make a poor choice, other members might cry out: "You're letting her get away with murder!" At times like these, formation directors must be convinced that there is much more to formation than having a directee make what ap-pear to be "the right choices all the time." But the greatest obstacle to encouraging personal responsibility usu-ally lies within ourselves as formation directors. We can fall into two "camps" depending on our personalities. If I, as a director, am a per-son who likes to be in control, then I might want to control my directees too much. This means I might not allow them the real freedom to make their own decisions and thus to grow through them. Perhaps I might con-trol their choices through force or even charm. Perhaps, in the name of saving them the pain of a poor choice, I might tell them what to do. Or maybe I control their decisions for fear of what the next director or the wider community will think of me. On the other hand, if I am fearful of my authority as a formation di-rector, I might adopt a laissez-faire style of direction. This means I might let anything and everything go. I might not challenge the persons in for-mation. I may be afraid to question the choices I see them making. Be-cause most communities have so few in initial formation, I might be tempted to "keep" everyone no matter how much irresponsibility I see. Personal Responsibility in Formation / 357 In conclusion, then, we have seen that growth in personal responsi-bility is an integral part of the initial-formation process. But more than that, it is an intrinsic component of lifelong happiness. Someone has said, "There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are differ-ent from the things we do." Through the encouragement of personal re-sponsibility, formation directors can help individuals achieve greater har-mony between belief and behavior. Your World is Your World, mythirst. Love, will all these as beautiful earthly treasures as the one stillbemine? You give me orshall I each day? lose forever will I see thesmell the changing of burning leaves, of the sky., noreveragain will I watch see the trees the birds fly ofmy autumn days beyond my horizon., change their dress? will I feel wherewill the touch all these be, of warm water Love. ? as it caresses oh! surely, my flesh, I'll have or its cold them all coolness in having You! as it slakes Claire Mahaney, R.S.C.J. Valparaiso Community 140 Valparaiso Avenue Menlo Park, California 94025 Refounding Through Values Barbara D. Ledig Ms. Ledig is president of Omega Associates, Inc., in Santa Clara, California. With others from Omega, she has for almost ten years helped religious orders and congre-gations to adjust, with value-based systemic discernment, to the significant changes of the post-Vatican II world. This paper explains the theory and practice of Omega's methods, methods that will be used in the August 1988 workshop for religious lead-ership personnel to be held at Santa Clara University and sponsored by that university and by REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. She may be addressed at 410 Pinehurst Avenue; Los Gatos, CA 95030. What is happening in our institutions today? This question is being fre-quently asked by religious congregations, educational institutions, health-care facilities, and,~more recently, sectors of business and industry. It seems that the guidelines and structures that characterized these systems since their first formal beginnings have become increasingly unfocused. This is unsettling not only for those who administer and lead these institutions but for those affected by them. A major portion of society, therefore, is dealing with a shift that is little understood, a shift accom-panied by anxiety and indecision. Solutions that once worked have be-come obsolete and there are no models for new ones. Our religious institutions are experiencing this shift more profoundly than many others in that they have been around for a longer time. They are, therefore, further away from their beginnings, beginnings rooted an historical reality very different from the one in which we are currently living. Members of these institutions are finding that the ideas on which they were built and the type of management that enabled them to sur-vive and flourish are no longer working. The population of religious per-sonnel who drive these institutions is diminishing; as a result people who do not necessarily share the original values that gave birth to them are 358 Refounding Through Values / 359 the ones responsible for making decisions regarding the way they func-tion and how they will be carried into the future. An Historical Perspective The extreme change in the Western world resulting from the French and American Revolutions and the Industrial Revolution in England led to the birth of the great teaching and mission orders of the 1800s. These orders, especially those of women, generally came to operate on a basis of uniformity in dress, behavior, and prayer, with detailed rules and con-stitutions regulating daily life. It was through Vatican II in the 1960s that these issues were readdressed and the Church began to return to a more flexible, collegial orientation and urged religious congregations to re-study and return to their founding charism. Communal life in the convents, and seminaries, where often a hun-dred or more people shared living quarters, began to take the form of small communities for the purpose of increasing the quality of life through relationships in which personal growth could more readily be en-couraged and nurtured. The ultimate goal was increased unity in the Church for the purpose of common mission. The vision was a good one but did not anticipate sufficiently the wide range of skills needed to cope with a radically changed environment and more complex interpersonal relationships. The old hierarchical structures and lines of authority were removed or became unclear, and participative decision making was en-couraged. The effects of these changes increased dramatically over the years and are now being experienced in their extreme. The Dynamics of Transition The removal of clear lines of authority has created multiple handi-caps for those in leadership positions. When clear rules dictate what is right and wrong and when authority is vested in one person, as was the case before Vatican II, decisions can be made on objective criteria that are commonly understood and accepted. When these lines of authority become hazy, when the guidelines are unclear, decision making becomes a more complex issue. Personal and communal discernment, methods that have replaced the more authoritarian ones for decision making, re-spect the integrity of the individual on the one hand but require a more complex level of skills on the other. There has been a shift from a rigid structure to a more flexible one. During the last seven years our work with numerous national and inter-national congregations has, however, shown that this shift is incomplete. Most religious institutions are resting somewhere between a hierarchi- 360/Review for Religious, May-June 1988 cal, rule-oriented structure and a flexible, collegial one. The result is con-fusion, internal conflict, and tremendous stress on leadership. It is a time of difficult transition. Older sisters and priests who have given their lives to build these in-stitutions in order to provide relief to the suffering through their minis-tries feel unappreciated and confused about changing a way that was once so strongly validated. Younger sisters and priests are also experiencing confusion about the past as well as the uncertain futures into which their congregations are moving. The dynamics of such a transition are two-fold. There is a pull back to the old, secure model on the one hand and an equally strong pull to move quickly to a new model on the other. Mem-bers of a congregation caught in the first dynamic may become rigid, an-gry, and controlling while those in the second are prone to overly inde-pendent behaviors. In both cases there is a loss of meaning. These dy-namics are not necessarily related to the different age groups within the congregation but appear to be more dependent on the personalities of the individuals. Going back is not possible, nor desirable. What once worked was ap-propriate for the times. Society has changed, our institutions have changed, and people have changed. How do we bring clarity, unity, and efficiency into our institutions so that they can serve the function for which they were created and at the same time enable them to respect and dignify the growth and well-being of the individuals they serve? The hi-erarchical structures that once worked so well must change in form to meet the demands of this new age and become flexible structures that fa-cilitate caring for individual members and releasing the original energy of the charism of the congregation. The values that gave birth to the in-stitution must be renewed and preserved so they 'can flow through its mem-bers and be expressed in mission, but the way in which those values are expressed must change. The structures that have been removed must be replaced by value-oriented ones. In order to effect this change the insti-tution must first become clear about what values lie at the heart of its system. The core center of values, the faith center, must be identified and clarified. Once this is accomplished the clarified core values, imple-mented by historically congruent means, provide the new structures which enable appropriate adaptation to the future. The Nature of Values Values are not a new phenomenon in our society. Aristotle and Plato spoke of them in the light of ideals, or virtues. They were dealt with mainly in the abstract in terms of states of being to be strived for. Refounding Through Values / 36"1 St. Paul spoke of values in his letter to the Galatians: "Anyone can see the kind of behavior that belongs to the lower nature: fornication, im-purity, and indecency; idolatry and sorcery; quarrels, a contentious tem-per, envy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, party bouts, or-gies, and the like . But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control" (Ga 5:19-23 NEB). In this case values were seen as signs that differentiated behaviors guided by the Spirit from those that were not. In more recent history we have the value-clarification movement of the 1960s and in the 1980s the high point of value consciousness in busi-ness and industrial settings brought forth largely by such books as In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman, Theory Z: How Ameri-can Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge by Ouchi, and Corpo-rate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life by Deal and Ken-nedy. However, the reality is that it has been difficult to work with values because they tend to elude the possibility for practical application and measurement. The work of Omega Associates, Inc., of Santa Clara, Cali-fornia has been focused on value research for the past twenty years. Dur-ing this period of time we have worked on discovering ways to identify and measure values so that they can be used more creatively to enhance the quality of human life. The first step in this ongoing process was the identification of 125 value words in the written and spoken language. We found that these val-ues appear consistently throughout the life span of individuals and or-ganizations and appear to be stable and evident across all social strata, languages, and cultures. They constitute one segment of a values theory developed by Brian Hall, Benjamin Tonna, and more recently Barbara Ledig which is the basis for an understanding of how values on the indi-vidual and corporate level work. The values theory holds as a basic assumption that language influ-ences behavior, whether it is written language, spoken language, or the language of art and architecture. Some words and groups of words have a greater effect on behavior than others, and we call these words values. The value words we identified form the basis for computerized programs which analyze values in individuals, groups, institutions, and documents and serve as a framework through which we can look at all sections of a system through a common denominator. The basis of the framework is the 125 values. The principles which guide the understanding of how 362 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 the values work are found in the values theory. Values Theory and the Genesis Effect The basic concept underlying the values theory is taken from an an-cient idea that has only recently been confirmed by modern science. That is, each thought, feeling, and action is preceded by an internal image. That image is transformed into action through language, the language of values. Value words are conveyers of energy and form configurations that reflect the internal imaging process through human or organizational behavior. That is, they identify clusters of human experience and act as a bridge between the inner world of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and intuitions and the outer world of concrete reality. Values are understood in this context as behavioral priorities that an individual acts on. This proc-ess has been defined by Hall as the "genesis effect" in a book by the same name and is based on the biblical concept that it was through, the spoken word that God transformed an inner image of creation into real-ity. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said, "Let there be !ight," and there was light. God saw how good the light was . Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cat-tle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground." God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them (Gn 1:1-4, 26-27 NAB). Values and Their Patterns To identify and clarify our values is a step in the right direction, but what do we do with them after that? Our research has shown us that it is not so much values in themselves that are important, but the way in which they combine with other values in one's life and the priority these combinations take at a given time. We have long been aware of some of the value combinations and the way they can be grouped into clusters and patterns. However, a significant point was reached in our work just six years ago due to new advances in computer technology. Brian Hall and associates of Omega in cooperation with students in the Graduate Di-vision of Counseling Psychology and Education at Santa Clara Univer-sity in Santa Clara, California, discovered new ways to measure and ap-ply values and new ways to break them into patterns and clusters so that they could be compared and contrasted more extensively. This gave us Refounding Through Values more comprehensive information regarding their meaning in the life of persons and institutions. Since that time we have validated our meth-odologies and applied them extensively in religious, educational, and health-care systems involving several international cultures and over 6,000 individuals. The information we obtain from the identification and comparison of value priorities and clusters is used to do a value analysis for the pur-pose of understanding the qualitative nature of the values and their rela-tionship to the meaning system of the individual or the institution. Once this is clear, rigid rule-oriented structures can be replaced by new life-giving ones based on the energy and purpose inherent in the individual or system rather than on external, objective criteria that may be histori-cally biased. Value Pattern I: Phases and Stages In this value pattern we see the 125 values placed along a progres-sive developmental scale divided into phases and stages. The range of the phases is from I to IV with those most basic to human life and devel-opment falling into Phase I. These values progressively become more com-plex as the human being grows and develops, with Phase IV reflecting values of maximum complexity requiring high levels of intellectual, spiri-tual, and emotional development and an environment that supports their expression. This developmental scale does not assume a positive or negative value but rather places emphasis on the integration of the values in the life journey of the individual or the institution in terms of the skill de-velopment needed in order to live them out behaviorally. It is the com-bination of the values and how they fall against the backdrop of the four phases in relationship to one another that determines the quality of life expression. Each of the four phases is divided into two stages, an A stage and a B stage. Values in the A stages are personal values, and values in the B stages are those lived out primarily through institutional interaction. These institutions include the family, place of work, church or syna-gogue, government structures, and religious congregation. Because a per-son's value choices are always limited and influenced by the institutions in which he or she lives and works, the degree to which this interaction can be measured and understood influences the degree to which the per-son can have clarity about the environment's effect on the quality of his or her life. The end result is heightened insight and the ability to make more focused choices. Likewise, an institution can become aware of the 3611 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 impact it is having on its members. Value Pattern II: Act, Choice, and Vision The value combinations in their phases and stages can also be pat-terned according to the priority they take in one's life in terms of pre-sent choices, past development, and emerging futures. Choice values are those that are the present focus of one's life in terms of time and energy expenditure. These choices are not always made freely but are condi-tioned by one's life circumstances. For example, a person may value his or her family a great deal, but if a crisis in the work place occurs he or she may have to work twelve hours a day until the crisis is resolved. In this case, the value of family would of necessity become secondary in terms of the time and energy available to be dedicated to it. Act values are those values that are foundational to human life. They are the basic values which enable survival and security in the world. When these values are threatened by a change in one's environment, such as a move to a new culture or the loss of a job, priority energy must be diverted from the areas of choice in order to deal with the change. Vision values are those values which energize us and pull us toward hopeful futures. They motivate us in the present by giving meaning our day-to-day experience and enabling us to see beyond ourselves and our present reality. In an institution, Act values serve as the foundation in terms of poli-cies, procedures, benefits, and so on. The Choice values are those which guide day-to-day direction and define the management structure. Vision values provide the purpose of the institution and affect the way in which Choice values are operationalized. Value Pattern III: Cycles A third value pattern emerges when the combinations of values in their personal and institutional dimensions form cycles of development. There are seven such cycles, and each has its own unique worldview. Information around the values in each of these cycles helps in the inter-pretation of an individual's or group's leadership and management style, ethical orientation, faith stance, management of time, and behavior pat-terns under stress. Of particular significance to professional religious per-sonnel are the different ways in which the vows can be understood at each of these cycles. The first cycle is called the Primal Cycle. At this cycle the individ-ual experiences the world as a hostile and alien place in which primary needs are those centered on security and survival. He or she emphasizes Refounding Through Values / 365 material possession because it is through material structures that survival is made possible. This is primarily the world of young children or aged adults who must depend on others to care for them and provide them with basic security. However, through the life journey most people will ex-perience values in this cycle from time to time, for we never lose our need for safety and security. The ethical stance of this cycle is one of self-interest which insures survival. A leader who operates primarily out of Cycle I values will have an autocratic and authoritarian style with his or her subordinates for the purpose of maintaining total control. Delegation comes with difficulty because it is perceived as a diminishment of personal power. God is ex-perienced as a savior who heals one's pain but who is distant and imper-sonal. The task at this cycle is to learn the skills needed to survive in an alien environment and to develop a creative and positive imagination that will facilitate healthy movement into other cycles. The second cycle is the Familial Cycle. As the world becomes less alien and new skills are learned, there is an emphasis placed on values related to belonging to a family, a particular group, or a respected insti-tution. It is important to learn skills that enable one to be accepted by and to contribute to the group. The ethical stance at this cycle is based on fairness and mutual re-spect. Laws and rules are expected to be followed so as to maintain an ordered environment. A leader operating out of this cycle will tend to be benevolent to those who work for him or her but will expect them to obey the rules. The attitude is best described as maternal or paternal in that followers are cared for but are not given any authority. This becomes problematic when the follower wants more autonomy and responsibility. At this cycle God is experienced as a parental master and teacher, through one's parents and through the ministerial figures in the church or synagogue. The primary task at this cycle is to learn skills through formal edu-cation and to begin to understand the world more broadly. Sound relig-ious education in the Faith and in Scripture are important. The third cycle is called the Institutional Cycle. It is here that the world begins to be experienced as less alien than before, and increased emphasis is placed on education as a means to achievement and success. There is often tension between the time spent with one's family and the time spent doing things necessary to enable the family to survive. 366/Review for Religious, May-June 1988 Ethical choices are most likely to be based on what the law and re-spected institutions say is right. A leader operating with priority values in this cycle will have a bureaucratic style and will place high value on efficient and orderly management. Loyalty to the company will be ex-pected and rewarded and disloyalty considered a serious offense. The bu-reaucratic leader may delegate to others but only to those who are most skilled and who have proven their loyalty. God is experienced as master and teacher and is often represented through the ministers and priests of the church. The sacramental life and personal prayer are considered important, as are institutional religion and commitment to a local church or synagogue. The primary task at this cycle is to learn interpersonal and social skills and the skills of one's profession. It is also a time to begin under-standing the difference between one's own values and the values held by one's family. It is a time of preparation for conversion to special service related to God's call. The fourth cycle is the Intrapersonal Cycle. At this time the world begins to be experienced as less certain than before, and new questions arise regarding previously held beliefs and attitudes. A search for new personal meaning and values may be embarked upon and the teachings of formerly respected institutions looked upon more critically. Profes-sional successes may become less important as the individual strives to discover his or her unique skills and abilities. There is a pull between a strong need for independence and meeting the demands of the institu-tions of which one is a part. Issues around social justice may take on new interest and lead to increased involvement in political or social arenas. The ethical orientation at the Intrapersonal Cycle becomes confused as one pulls away from old ways of making decisions and strives to put into action values that are beginning to create a new, more individual-ized way of assessing reality. A leader with priority values at this cycle will struggle between meeting the needs of the institution and being sen-sitive to the more personal needs of his or her employees. It is a time of confusion and of search for the balance between these two, often op-posing, factors. Hence, it may also be a time of inaction because it is simply too difficult to make decisions. This is a transitional stage of lead-ership, sometimes referred to as laissez-faire, for things are very often left to happen as they will. It is critical for persons operating at this cy-cle to learn the skills that enable them to make decisive decisions which meet both institutional needs and the needs of the individuals in the in- Refounding Through Values stitution; otherwise there is the risk of returning to a more bureaucratic and controlling management or leadership style. God is now becoming internal and personal as a friend and lover in-stead of master and teacher. For many, this period is marked by conver-sion to a new commitment to the Faith. The development of skills in the imaginal area is needed in order to see the world more wholistically and creatively. Meditation and spiritual exercises as well as attention to one's physical health are important for growth into a world that is experienced as more complex. It is important to find a p~rticular life-sustaining value system that enables a new com-mitment to faith. The fifth cycle is the Communal/Collaborative Cycle. Individuals functioning at this cycle will experience the world as a place in which they feel they can participate by using their unique skills in a productive way, The search is now concentrated on discovering new ways to inte-grate individual abilities with the needs of society. Because of the high level of interaction at which the individual is now functioning, issues of time management become critical. Persons at this cycle begin to see the world more clearly, resulting, in an increased awareness of issues around justice and oppression. It becomes impera-tive that they have support structures such as a group of respected peers and trusted friends as well as people of the same professional status and ability with whom ideas and problems can be shared regularly. Ethical choices at this cycle are based on the personally meaningful set of values that have developed, and actions are guided by an inner con-science. Laws are respected but not considered infallible. A charismatic and democratic leadership style becomes possible, for the individual has a new sense of personal creative energy and a renewed vision of an in-stitution that can be efficient and can dignify its members as well. Be-cause leaders of this type are in high demand, issues of time manage-ment, stress, and personal health are more important than ever. God now is experienced as a personal friend and companion sharing in the new ex-pression of the gifts that are becoming a part of the individual's life ex-perience. The sixth cycle is the Mystical Cycle. When individuals are able to acquire the skills, maturity, life experience, and integrated personal de-velopment which characterize this cycle, they begin to experience the world as a revered gift they must be responsible for and with which they must creatively interact. 3611/Review for Religious, May-June 1988 Ethical choices are based on an awareness of the rights of all human beings. Activities include doing those things necessary to diminish in-justices in institutions and organizations. A leader operating with the val-ues and skills of this cycle is called a Servant leader. Servant leadership is characterized by interdependence, mutual responsibility, collegiality, and creativity. Group decision making becomes a natural process, and authority is always used corporately. God is now lover, friend, and Lord of creation. Persons at this cycle experience humanity in a new, more complete way through God's eyes. Intimacy with others is a condition for intimacy with the divine and re-quires radical commitment to service and the contemplative side of one-self. This means balancing the personal experience of intimacy with con-templative solitude and obligations to work and service. Those persons who are able to achieve this high level of functioning must learn new skills, the most critical being the skills that will help them to balance their involvement in the development of just and humane in-stitutions with ample time for solitude and intimacy. It is this balance that will enable them to maintain the level of emotional, physical, men-tal, and spiritual integration necessary for being a powerful and yet posi-tive influence in the world. The seventh and last cycle is the Prophetic Cycle. The world here is viewed as a mystery for which "we" must care. "We" is used in this case as Prophetic leadership primarily expressed at a global level. It requires the collaboration of all institutions concerned with human dig-nity and justice. It is also expressed through being a member of a sup-portive community of peers who appreciate a global level of involve-ment. Global involvement assumes equal attention to local levels. Ethical choices at this cycle lead to involvement in activities de-signed to improve the balance between the world of material goods and the needs of each human being. Prophetic leadership is characterized by interdependence at an interinstitutional and global level and is concerned with global ethical issues centered in ecology, human rights, and tech-nological advancement. God is now experienced as the Lord of creation calling all people to cooperate in establishing a more just and ecologically balanced order in the world. A critical skill component of this high level of development is an awareness of the field of consciousness of all of the preceding cycles and the ability to interact with persons at each level. Spiritually, there is a new appreciation of God's Lordship over the whole creation and a reali- Refounding Through Values / 369 zation that all people are being called to cooperate with God in estab-lishing a more just and ecologically balanced order in the world. Value patterns I, II, and III are based on the perspective of the Hall value theory that holds that life is developmental. In this case time is ex-perienced as linear, moving from the past into the future. This is a help-ful way to view the values in their connection to skills as skills are learned step by step in the developmental process. In reality, however, our past and future can only be experienced in the present. Past devel-opment affects the quality of our lives in the present as do our envisioned futures. This brings us to value pattern IV, which sees life as wholistic, with past, present, and future forming the present reality. Value Pattern IV: Goals and Means Values The fourth value pattern is the combinations of Goals, which are long-term values, with Means, or short-term values. A large part of the analysis of values is concerned with this interactive, or dialectical, rela-tionship between Goals and Means. The significance of these combina-tions can be realized when one looks at the difference in the quality of the behavioral expression of different combinations of Goals and Means values. For example, when the value of Worship, a Goal value, is ex-pressed through the Means value of Institution, the behavioral conse-quence would be personal worship through institutionalized expressions such as attending Eucharist or praying the Liturgy of the Hours. When the same Goal value of Worship is expressed through the Means value of Expressiveness/Flexibility, the result may be worship through faith sharing, dance, or creative liturgy. Two people sharing the same Goal value may be at odds about how this Goal value is expressed. Likewise, persons in religious congregations, united by the same goals, may be di-vided in their opinions about the way in which these goals should be ex-pressed. Frequently, institutions have Goal values that are in keeping with the original vision on which they were founded, but have outdated Means values for reaching those goals. Understanding the Value Patterns: The Discernment Process The methodology for working with value information must be con-sistent with the nature of the values themselves. For that reason, unlike most methodologies that were designed to give reports based on factual findings, the methodology for collecting value information and analyz-ing value patterns is based on a process of discernment, a reflective proc-ess that raises questions rather than gives answers. There are several steps in the discernment process. 370 / Review for Religious, May-June 1988 The first step is the collection of information. The information (I) must be high-quality information as well as statistical/financial informa-tion and (2) must be collected in a consistent manner. High-quality information is information that comes close to the pulse and heartbeat of all parts of the system. It is, in this case, value infor-mation. It is collected consistently by specialized instrumentation that uses an underlying algorithm based on the 125 values and the values the-ory. All of the information is processed by the use of the methodology of Convergence, Congruence, and Confirmation. ConVergence occurs when particular value patterns repeat themselves. The information is then checked for Congruency with what the person or persons in the institu-tion know to be true about themselves and for Confirmation in the lived reality. The Instrumentation is as follows. HT-Doc This abbreviation refers to the HalI-Tonna method of collecting in-formation from the formal documents of the institution. This may be the philosophy of the person or persons who founded the institution in which its purpose, mission, and charism are delineated as well as information contained in the rules, constitutions, or directives. By analyzing the val-ues in each paragraph of the documents, a values.profile can be obtained on the paragraphs, on each part, section, and chapter, and on the docu-ments as a whole. In addition, identified areas of interest throughout the documents--such as those dealing with leadership, charism, vows, and mission---can also be analyzed for their value content. These value pro-files are then reflected on and analyzed in terms of congruences and dis-crepancies and the significance they may have in light of internal con-sistency. The information derived from these profiles can be translated into practical applications. For example, by looking at the value patterns in the Act, Choice, and Vision areas, it is possible to see what the docu-ments are saying in terms of the Act area as related to policies and pro-cedures, the Choice area as related to management structures, and the Vision area as related to long-term goals. In a religious congregation the Vision values would define the expression of mission. The Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values The Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values is a 77-item forced-choice ques-tionnaire which raises questions relative to an individual's preferences and choices. The result of this questionnaire is a 15-to-25 page report which shows the individual's priority value choices on a developmental scale. A set of questions is raised for each cluster of value choices. The Refounding Through Values / 371 recipient of the report is then asked to respond to these questions by read-ing through them and identifying those that reflect issues of priority con-cern based on specified criteria. If desired, the Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values can be combined for specified groups of individuals in order to produce a composite profile. This is often helpful in looking at the com-bined values of a leadership team, local house, or general council for pur-poses of planning, education, or creating a corporate mission-and-philosophy statement within the boundaries of the value information ob-tained from the analysis of the documents. Another way to apply this in-formation is to look at the composite values of the entire institution and compare them with the envisioned values of the institution as expressed through its documents. The Hall-Ledig Interview Format (Interform) This is another method by which information can be collected on in-dividuals through a one-hour personal interview for the purpose of com-paring value information from the Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values with value information from the lived reality. Once the collection of information has been completed, the second step in the discernment process is reflecting on the information. The information which has been collected thr.ough one or more of the above instruments is then reflected on and analyzed. The value pat-terns which have emerged are compared with one another, convergences and discrepancies are noted, and discernment questions are raised from the composite information. It is, once again, through the process of Con-vergence, Congruence, and Confirmation that priority issues can be dis-cerned from the large amount of data collected. If more than one type of instrumentation has been used, the process repeats itself each time with questions being raised based on the internal relationship of the value clusters to one another, the relationship between different sets of value clusters, and the relationship between sets of value clusters gathered with each type of instrumentation. This brings us to the third step of the discernment process, which is acting on the information. The focal issues in the data that has been col-lected up to this point have now been identified. Each issue results in a series of discernment questions. As the questions are responded to, the plan for action begins to unfold based on the discrepancies in the infor-mation gathered with each type of instrumentation as well as discrepan-cies between the information from all of the instrumentation used. The information is then moved to action in the form of value-based policies, procedures and minimal-norm statements, leadership training, education 379/Review for Religious, May-June 1988 focus for initial and ongoing formation, and long-term strategic planning. Conclusions The Church today, like many of our institutions, is experiencing a significant crisis. On the positive side this can be seen as a call, a call to reevaluate the way in which it is moving into the future. History has introduced new concept

Issue 41.3 of the Review for Religious, May/June 1982. ; REVIEW FOR REI.IGIOUS (ISSN 0034-639X), published every two months, is edited in collaboration with the faculty members of the Department of Theological Studies of St. Louis University. The editorial offices are located at Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.: St. Louis, MO 63108. REVIEW FOR REI.IGIOUS is owned by the Missouri Province Educational Institute of the Society of Jesus, St. Louis, MO. © 1982 by REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. Composed, printed and manufactured in U.S.A. Second class postage paid at St. Louis, MO. Single copies: $2.50. Subscription U.S.A.: $9.00 a year; $17.00 ~'or two years. Other countries: $10.00 a year; $19.00 for two years. For subscription orders or change of address, write: REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; P.O. Box 6070; Duluth, MN 55806. Daniel F. X. Meenan, S.J. Dolores Greeley, R.S.M. Daniel T. Costello, S.J. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Jean Read Editor Associate Editor Book Editor Questions and Answers Editor Assistant Editor May/June, 1982 Volume 41 Number 3 Manuscripts, books for review and correspondence with the editor should be sent to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO 63108. Questions for answering should be sent to Joseph ~. Gallen, S.J.; Jesuit Community; St. Joseph's University; City Avenue at 54th St.; Philadelphia, PA 19131. Back issues and reprints should be ordered from RE~:IEW FOR RELIGIOUS; Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO 63108. "Out of print" issues and articles not published as reprints are available from University Microfilms International; 300 N. Zeeb Rd.; Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Laborem Exercens: Themes and Theses Robert F. Morneau Bishop Morneau has commented in this s~me format on two earlier encyclicals: Redemptor Hominis (March, 1980) and Dives in Misericordia (September, 1981). Together with his service as Auxiliary Bishop of Green Bay, Bishop Morneau also serves through the Ministry to Priests Program where he may be addressed: 1016 N. Broadway: De Pere, Wl 54115. Several years ago Studs Terkel published a series of masterfully conducted interviews under the title of Working. People from various fields of life reflected candidly on the meaning or lack of meaning that work had in their lives. What fascinates the reader is the blatant honesty of'those interviewed; they told it the way they experienced it. With deep feeling and perceptive observation, the work-ing people revealed the movement~ of their mind and heart. On September 14, 1981, Pope John Paul II shared his third encyclical letter, Laborem Exercens, with the world. This papal document focuses on the topic of work, that human activity at once so universally experienced and yet so frequently devoid of meaning. What Terkel did on the experiential level, the Holy Father does on the reflective level. We do not find personal interviews with the rank and file but, from a scriptural and faith point of view, a description of the theological underpinning of our obligation to work. Within this perspective he discusses many questions: the nature and meaning of work; the relationship of work to the person, family and society; how work is influenced by various ideologies; the duty and rights of the worker; a spirituality of work. Rather than delineate detailed and specific policies, the encyclical is concerned with articulating certain principles and guidelines to govern the formation of policy for specific situations. When these principles are adequately and properly applied, work helps to build up the world community and becomes a means of safeguarding the humanity of all. These reflections of the Holy Father are extremely relevant. In an age when technology can so easily control the course of history we must hear over and over 322/ Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 again the principle that people have primacy ox)er things. In a period of history that takes for granted exploitation and manipulation as acceptable life-styles, we must have confirmation that persons are ends and not means. In our rapidly moving century that gives low priority to quiet and reflective times, it is healthy to have our attention drawn to an awareness of the importance of rest within the spirituality of work. Written on the ninetieth anniversary of Leo XlIl's Rerum Novarum, this present encyclical continues to remind us of the importance of these social questions and the function that the Church plays in their solution in public life. Theme 1: The Meaning and Dignity of Work Thesis: Work is an active process by which creative and productive persons gain dominion over the earth and achieve fullness as human beings. Understood as a process whereby man and the human race subdue the earth, work corres-ponds to this basic biblical concept only when throughout the process man manifests himself and confirms himself as the one who "dominates" (6). Work is a good thing for man--a good thing for his humanity--because throughout work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes ~more a human being" (9). Man must work, both because th~ Creator has commanded it and because of his humanity. which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to. the country of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history (16). The farmer gazes out on newly acquired property and perceives the rocks, tree stumps and weeds; a year later that same farmer, after much labor, rejoices in an autumn harvest of grain. The artist sits before a small mound of clay: many hours later a finely crafted vessel receives the accolades of admiring friends. The steel worker feeds the furnace kno.wing that when the final product is completed, beams of steel will be available for buildings and bridges. The human person, taking the many resources of the world, fashions them into useful and beautiful objects in the meeting of human needs. This process, both creative and productive, brings order out of chaos. The newly won unity fills the human spirit with a sense of meaning, peace and joy. A radical call to all of us is the call to become human persons. Within that universal vocation work plays a necessary and significant part. Only when we thoughtfully expend the energy given to us do we develop our potential and actualize our gifts. Work and growth demand that we participate in this venture of becoming human. Gifts unemployed atrophy. Needs unmet cause suffering. Lack of human development means boredom and despair. Emerson knew the value of work and its effect on human growth: I hear, therefore, with joy whatever'is beginning to be said of dignity and necessity of labor to every citizen. There is virtue yet in the hoe and the spade; for learned as well as for the Laborem Exercens: Themes and Theses / 323 unlearned hands.* This labor must be balanced and rational, respecting individuals and allowing for personal fulfillment. History provides evidence that when certain forms of work do not have these qualities human beings are dehumanized and even destroyed. In his perceptive' and challenging philosophical treatise, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, the neo-Thomist Josef Pieper describes "workism" as an attitude and ideology that disregards the essential natureof work. Pieper's argument is that work is meaningful only when the human person's dignity is fully appreciated and when the activity of work is complemented by a certain receptivity towards life which is called contemplation. The present encyclical also protects this balance and perspective. Theme 2: The Subjective and Objective Dimensions of Work Thesis: The subjective dimension of work (the dignity of the human person)always has priority over the objective dimension (productivity). The very process of "subduing the earth," that is to say work. is marked in the course of history, and especially in recent centuries; by an immense development of technological means. This is an advantageous and positive phenomenon, on condition that the objective dimension of work does not gain the upper hand over the subjective dimension, depriving man of his dignity and inalienable rights or reducing them (10). ¯. man's dominion over the earth is achieved in and by means of work. There thus emerges the meaning of work in an objective sense, which finds expression in the various epochs of culture and civilization. Man dominates the earth by the very fact of domesticating animals, rearing them and obtaining from them food and clothing he needs, arid by the fact of being able to extract various natural resources from the earth and the seas (5). As a person, man is therefore the subject of work. As a person he works, he performs various actions belonging to the work process: independently of their objective content, these actions must all serve to realize his humanity, to fulfill the calling to be a person that ig'his by reason of his very humanity (6). Work always involves a person, a process and a product. The language of the encyclical refers to the person as the subject of Work (the subjective dimension) while the product is the object of work (the objective dimension). This distinction is important: a product does not have interiority, nor is it a center of thought and love. On the other hand, the human person is spiritual, immortal and called to fullness of life in God. The process of work can take such a direction so as to make a person play the role of a mere tool (cog in the machine). The focus is on productivity. Such a procedure, used in the work world dehumanizes the person and negates the Christian meaning of work. Unfortunately, hi~tory records too many years of such abuse. The Holy Father's analysis of work contains an implicit anthropology, one ~'The American Scholar," in The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. ed. Brooks Atkinson (New York: The Modern Library, 1940), p. 55. ~124 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 that has the highest regard for the fullness of human life. Every person has both an inner and outer agenda. Meister Eckhart describes it this way: There are people who squander the strength of their souls in the ouiward man. These are the people, all of whose desires and thoughts turn on transient goods, since they are unaware of the inner person. Sometimes a good man robs his outward person of all the soul's agents, in o'rder to dispatch them on some higher enterprise; so. conversely animal people rob the inner person of the soul's agents and assign them to the outward man. A man may be ever so active outwardly and still leave the inner man unmoved and passive.-~ Both the outer and inner dimensions of work need protection and a sensitive balance. Each has its own unique value. If they are not integrated, a person either "sells his soul to the company store" or falls into a type of narcissism which destroys communal responsibility. Persons have dignity which must not be denied; the work process must be respected as part of God's plan; human life is impossible without those products which meet essential needs. Proper priority and balance in reference to the subjective and objective dimen-sions of work are maintained when reverence is present amongpeople. Only when we stand in awe of every person, only when we hold sacred the gifts of air, water and land, only when we carefully consider the inner dynamism and value of the creative process will we truly appreciate work. Goethe reminds us: "The shudder of ,awe is humanity's highest faculty." This papal docume.nt contains that "shudder of awe.'" Whenever we encounter the handiwork of God, human or otherwise, we bow before the Creator's reflection. The person, the imago Dei, the creative pro-cess and end product of our work demand appropriate respect. Theme 3: The Value Scale of Work Thesis: Work involves three spheres of values: 1)a personal value bringing dignity to the individual; 2) a family value forming the foundation of communal life; and 3) a societal value enriching the common good. It (workJ is not only good in the sense that it is useful or something to enjoy; it is also good as being someth!ng worthy, that is to say, something that corresponds to man's dignity, that expresses this dignity and increases it. If one wishes to define more clearly the ethical meaning of work. it is this truth that one must particularly keep in mind Work constitutes a foundation for the formation of family life. which is a natural right and something that man is called to . In a way, work is a condition for making it possible to found a family, since the family requires the means of subsistence which man normally gains through work. Work and industriousness also influence the whole process of education in the family, for the very reason that everyone "becomes a human being" through, among other things, work. and becoming a human being is precisely the main purpose of the whole process of education (10). ¯. it (society) is also a great historical and social incarnation of the work of all generations. All of this brings it about that man combines his deepest human identity with membership of a nation, and intends his work also to increase the common good developed together with his '-Meister Eckhart, trans. Raymond B. Blakncy (Ne~' York: Harper Torchbooks). p. 87. Laborem Exercens: Themes and Theses compatriots, thus realizing that in this way work serves to add to the heritage of the whole human family, of all the people living in the world (10). The valuing process determines life. Values lead to an internal judgment which in turn dictates actions. The degree of worth we assign to individuals and things has far-reaching consequences. Within the complex va.luing system, work plays a major role since it touches personal lives, family life, and even national and international communities. The value assigned to work in these three areas will affect, for good or ill, the course of history. Family life remains a pivotal force in society, That life is threatened by an increasing number of divorces, the current mobility and the impact of the mass media. Unemployment is another threat which can lead to "social disaster" (18). Further, inadequate wages deprive the family of essential goods; lack of proper benefits increase anxiety; dissatisfaction with one's job has an impact on spouse and children. Work has a wider circle than just family life--it influences all of society. When people are given proper.job opportunities the common good is served and society is healthy. When work fosters a sense of cooperation among employees and employers, a new spirit of solidarity is felt in the wide? society. When work is done so that future generations will be served and helped by conserving our resources and protecting our, environment, society ,is being given responsible models. We have reached a point where this type of social consciousness can no longer remain merely a hope; if it does not become a fact, our society may well be doomed. Few people can grow interiorly without a sense of achievement. When work is done well, confidence and a sense of self-worth increase. Further, in fulfilling the commandment of God that we do work, we contribute to God's plan. The brick we add has eternal significance; no one else can do the work assigned to us. A prayer attributed to Cardinal Newman conveys the importance and the enigma of each person's work: ~ God has created me to do him some definite service: he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission--I may never know it in this life. but I shall be told it in the next. 1 am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it--if I do but keep his commandments. Therefore 1 will trust him. Whatever. wherever I am. I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve him: in perplexity, my perplexity may serve him: if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what he is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may hide my future from me--still he knows what he is about. Theme 4: Work and the Mystery of Creation Thesis: Work is inextricably bound up with the mystery of God's creative activity: each person shares in the wonder of creation through work. The knowledge that by means of work man shares in the work of creation constitutes the 326 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 most profound motive for undertaking it in various sectors 125). In every phase of the development of his work man comes up against the leading role of the gift made by '*nature." that is. in the final analysis, by the Creator. At the beginning of man's work is the mystery of creation. This affirmation, already indicated as my starling point, is the guiding thread of this document (12). The word of God's revelation is profoundly marked by the fundamen~'al truth that man, created in the image of God, shares by his work in the activity of the Creator and that, within the limits of his own human capabilities, man in a sense continues to develop that activity, and perfects it as he advances further and further in the discovery of the resources and values contained in the whole of creation (25). Two qualities identify our humanness: depende~nce and creativity. All is gift and we have an absolut~ dependence on our Creator. Humble acceptance of these faith facts sets us free. Through the creative process order is extracted from chaos, unity is chiseled out of diversity, beauty is captured in stone, word or canvass. As Ge,rald Vann remarks: The so-called industrial revolution ran its course: and ende.d by depriving the mass of men of a fundamental right, of that without which the personality is doomed to sterility and despair: the, creativity which is the counterpart of creatureliness.3 Within these two qualities of our humanness are the duty and right of work. Cooperation can be a most thrilling human experience. God longs for us to work with him in the fulfillment of the plan of salvation. Our very activity is an essential ingredient in the building of the earth and of the kingdom! The dignity of such a mission is immeasurabli~. Yet that is precisely what our scriptural and theological understanding of work indicates: the people of God continue to share in the work of creation.i The Vatican I1 document Gaudium et Spes drives home the reality that we are a Church in the modern world, an "in" that means involve-ment. Any mentality that either despises history or refuses to invest time and energy in improvement of the world goes contrary to the Scriptures and the teaching of the Church. Participation in the mystery of creation is threatened in our time. The buildup of armaments, sufficient now to many times over destroy our planet, leads many to an attitude of pessimism if not despair. Such a consciousness causes paralysis and the mission of work goes unaccomplished. The land is not tilled, book,,are not written, songs are not sung, families are not raised, conflicts are not resolved, resources are exploited. Why not? Annihilation is not only possible but likely! Suspicion is abroad: our times are less creative because of an annihilation attitude. Perhaps we can learn a lesson from Anne Frank. With bombs dropping near her hideout and with death a constant threat, she continued to study her history lesson. Life goes on! Christian faith calls us to our creative work regardless of the dark clouds that surround us. And, of course, one of the most urgent creative 3Gerald Vann, St. Thomas Aquinas (New York: Benziger Bros., 1947), p. 27. Laborem Exercens: Themes and Theses works is peace. Our work must bring about a world in which war becomes impossible. Theme 5: A Spirituality of Work Thesis." Work is a means by which persons grow in union with God and participate in the paschal m.vster.v. She (the Church) sees it as her particular duty to form a spirit.uality of work which will help all people to come closer, through work. to God. the Creator and Redeemer, to participate in his salvific plan for man and the world and to deepen their friendship with Christ in their lives by accepting, through faith, a living participation in his threefold mission as Priest. Prophet and King. as the Second Vatican Council so eloquently teaches (24). This Christian spirituality should be a heritage shared by all. Especially in the modern age. the spirituality of work should show the maturity called for by the tensions and restlessness of mind and heart (25). Since work in its subjective aspect is always a personal action, an actus personae, it follows that the whole person, body and spirit, participates in it, whether it is manual or intellectual work. It is also to the whole person that the word of the living God is directed, the evangelical message of salvation, in which we find many points which concern human work and which throw particular light on it. These points need to be properly assimilated: an inner effort on the part of the human spirit, guided by faith, hope and charity, is needed in order that through these points, the work of the individual human tSeing may be given the meaning which it has in the eyes of God and by means of which work enters into the salvation process on a par with the other ordinary yet particularly important components of its texture (24). The farmer brings the seeds of the field to Eucharist for a special blessing on rural life day, thereby exercising an act of faith in God as creator of the seed and provider for its growth. The newspaper editor cries out against the injustices toward the elderly, thereby fulfilling his prophetic role of denouncing all that infringes upon human dignity and freedom. The president of a country, through policies that properly distribute funds, insures that the poor and needy have their due. The people of God are scattered throughout every profession and work situation and it is precisely in that context that they exercise their spirituality. Union with God is achieved not only through liturgical worship and the celebra-tion of the sacrament. Holiness is gained as well by finding Christ in our brothers and sisters, in the working of the land, in the artistic and intellectual achievements. All of life, permeated by God's presence and love, becomes a grace opportunity and can further the process of salvation. A spirituality of work demands three things: vision, grace and commitment. An abiding vision of the divine presence is a gift of faith. Work is not restricted to the narrow sensate culture (limiting work to the confines of time/space) nor to a humanistic betterment of the world, important as that is. Rather, faith vision situates our work as an integral part of God's salvific will. Grace, the free gift of God's self-giving which transforms our minds and hearts, is the heartbeat of a spirituality for work. Empowered by the Spirit, our work has a certain quality and tonality that makes everything different. There is a freshness, newness and sense of possibility in what is done. Eventually the work will incarnate that grace as 321~ / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 another sign of God's favor. Further, commitment to the person of Christ by sharing in his life, death and resurrection undergirds all Christian spirituality. The paschal mystery draws us into the dying/rising process of Christian existence. Work constantly involves dying and rising; done in union wiih Christ it allows us to become the person God calls us to be. In Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis has one of the characters describe his experience, "I at last realized that eating was a spiritual function and that meat, bread and wine were the raw materials from which the mind is made.TM No longer is there a harsh dichotomy between the secular and the sacred, the flesh and the spirit, heaven and earth. A false dualism is rejected and the unity of existence maintained. Work and worship are not mutually exclusive; they are meant to complement and enrich one another. For some workers their highest moments of prayerful praise and thanksgiving are in the midst of their work experience. A mother caring for her child, the artist sharing the masterpiece, the nurse weeping with the terminally ill, the scientist discovering a new atomic particle, the scholar articulating an insight: nurturing, creating, caring, wondering, discovering, sharing --moments of work, grounded in sacrifice, discipline and great effort, and moments of grace. All of this contributes.to a spirituality of work because to live in God's presence with sensitivity, awareness and love is to live a spiritual life. Theme 6: Work and Questions of Justice Thesis: Work plays a significant function in the justice question: there can be no justice unless work~ is available to people in such a way that basic rights and duties are protected and promoted. In order to achieve social justice in the various parts of the world, in the various countries, and in the relationships betwyen them, there is need for ever new movements of solidarity of the workers and with the workers. This solidarity must be present whenever it is called for by the social degrading of the subject of work, by exploitation of the workers, and by the growing areas of poverty and hunger (8). It must be stressed that the constitutive element in this progress and also the most adequate way to verify it in a spirit of justice and peace, which the Church proclaims and for which she does not cease to pray to the Father of all individuals' and of all peoples, is the continual reappraisal of man's work, both in the aspect of its objective finality and in the aspect of the dignity of the subject of all work, that is to say, man. The progress in question must be made through man and for man and it must produce its fruit in man. A test of this progress will be the increasingly mature recognition of the purpose of wbrk and increasingly universal respect for the rights inherent in work in conformity with the dignity of man, the subject of work (18). While work, in all its ~any senses, is an obligation, that is to say a duty, it is also a source of rights on the part of the worker. These rights must be examined in the broad context of human rights as a whole, which are connatural with man, and many of which are proclaimed by various international organizations and increasingly guaranteed by the individual States for their citizens. Respect for this broad range of human rights constitutes the fundamental condition for peace in the modern world (16). 4Nikos Ka~,antzakis, Zorba the Greek (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952), p. 79. Laborem Exercens: Themes and Theses Whenever relationships are established, certain issues of justice automatically arise. By its very definition the work relationship between employer and employee presents a mutuality of duties and rights. The encyclical addresses itself primarily to threatened rights of the employee, giving little attention to the dutie.s of the employee toward the employer. Employees' rights are numerous: the right to a just wage, the right to social benefits that ensure life and health, the right to rest, the right to pension and insurance, the right to suitable working environments, the right to strike under certain circumstances, the right to form voluntary associa-tions, the right of the disabled to productive activity suited to them, the right to emigrate in search of work. The correlative list would include the duties that come to the employer or society because of these rights. This area of justice is specific and measurable; much honesty, dialogue and planning are necessary if the ideals is to be achieved. The linkage between justice and peace is dearly articulated: Commitment to justice must be closely linked with commitment to peace in the modern world (2). Respect for this broad range of human rights constitutes the fundamental condition for peace in the modern world (16). Whenever rights are denied or duties neglected,,a profound disturbance shakes the life of individuals and society at large. Theologically we call this sin, ethically we call it injustice, sociologically we call it alienation. Regardless of the language system, the experience and its consequences are clear: the order of God's plan is broken and until reconciliation comes about, until justice is done, the fragmenta-tion continues and peace is not found in the land. Mere absence of war or conflict is not peace; rather, it is an ontological state of being, experienced when relation-ships~ are properly ordered. If charity begins at home, all the more so justice. Thus the Church as an institution must constantly strive for justice and peace within her own immediate membership. The fact that the above rights reside in her own personnel imposes an obligation on the Church as employer. This "beginning at home" is significant since authenticity of teaching and preaching constantly seeks verification in prac-tice. When the Church both teaches justice and lives it, the world has a model which affirms that the realities of justice and peace are truly possible. Theme 7: Work and Various ideologies Thesis: Work demands a meaning and various interpretations are offered by Liberalism, Marxism and Christian theology. The Marxist program, based on the philosophy of Marx and Engels, sees in class struggle the only way to eliminate class injustices in society and to eliminate the classes themselves. Putting this program into practice presupposes the collectivization of the means of production so that, through the transfer of these means from private hands to the collectivity, human labor will be preserved from exploitation (11). This consistent image, in which the principle of the primacy of person over things is strictly preserved, was broken up in human thought, sometimes after a long period of incubation in practical living. The break occurred in such a way that labor was separated from capital and 33{~ Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 set m opposition to it, and capital was set in oppositioh to labor, as though they were two impersonal forces, two production factors juxtaposed in the same "economistic" perspective. This way of stating the issue contained a fundamental error, what we call the error of economism, that of considering human labor solely according to its economic purpose. This fundamental error of thought must be called an error Of materialism, in that economism directly or indirectly ~ncludes a conviction of the primary and superiority of the material, and directly or indirectly places the spiritual and the personal (man's activity, moral values and such matters) in a position of subordination to material reality (13). The only chance there seems to be for radically overcoming this error (primitive capitalism and liberalism) is through adequate changes both in theory and in practice, changes in line with the definite conviction of the primacy of the person over things, and of human labor over capital as a whole collection of means of production (13). Absolutizing is that radical instinct in thought and behavior that makes one idea or value the only idea or value. The label we attach to such a tendency is "isms": e.g., secularism holds that all reality is limited to this world--there is no transcendence; humanism measures all of life in the light of the human person-- God finds no home here; rationalism restricts valid knowledge to that gained by reason--faith vision is excluded; workism so prizes achievement and productivity that leisure (receptivity-contemplation) is meaningless if not downright evil. The encyclical deals with this proclivity to absolutize and firmly rejects certain specific "isms" that surround work. Anathema sit: Marxism that seeks a collectivism of means of production so as to infringe upon the right to private property; liberalism that fails to take into account the common good in its worship of primitive capitalism; economism that views human labor solely in terms of its economic purposes; materialism that subordinates the spiritual/personal aspects of life to material reality. Christian theology consistently seeks a balanced position that protects moral and personal and spiritual values. Thus private property is a basic' right, though the common good will severely limit this right or even exclude it under very restricted circumstances. Economic profit is necessary and justifiable but never at the expense of human dignity. Matter is part of God's creation but is subordinated to the value of the human person. The insights of Scripture and tradition are brought to bear upon the complex reality of the work world. Basic principles are articulated through careful theological reflection which provides a theory that will hopefully inform our action. The Church is not reluctant to speak out with a strong prophetic voice whenever there is encroachment upon the rights of people, be that encroachment by employer or employee. Jacob Bronowski states that "without astronomy it is really not possible to find your way over great distances, or even to have a theory about the shape of the earth and the land and sea oh it."~ Part of the Church's mission is to provide a theologicalastronomy by which the complex components of life can be assessed and prudently judged. The present papal document serves a timely purpose: it ~Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973), p. 190. Laborem Exercens: Themes and Theses articulates a theology and a spirituality from which to observe and practice the command of God that we work, thereby building up a more human community and furthering the growth of the kingdom. Such an astronomy is no luxury, it is an absolute necessity. Theme 8: Work and its Abuse Thesis: Work, which is meant to humanize and develop persons, can become destructive when means become ends. ¯. it {the anlinomy between labor and capital) originated in the whole of the economic and social practice of that time, the time of the birth and rapid development of industrialiTation, in which what was mainly seen was the possibility of vastly increasing material wealth, means while the end, that is to say, man, who should be served by the means, was ignored (13). The primary basis of the value of work is man himself, who is its subject. This leads imme-diately to a very important conclusion of an ethical nature: however true it may be that man is destined for work and called to it, in the first place work is "for man"and not man "for work" (6}. The very process of "subduing the earth." that is to say work. is marked in the course of history and especially in recent centuries, by an immense development of technological means. This is an advantageous and positive phenomenon, on condition that the objective dimension of work does not gain the upper hand over the subjective dimension, depriving man of his dignity and inalienable rights or reducing them (i0). A gospel question focuses our attention: is man made for the Sabbath or the Sabbath for man? Jesus had to deal with the means/end question and there is nothing unclear about his answer: the Sabbath is .made for man. Ambiguity characterizes some contemporary questions arising from the world of work: What is the relationship between technology and the human person? What status does the individual have in large multinational corporations? When transfers are made, what "considerations are given to the worker's family? If profits will be less but the work situation is more humanizing, what kinds of decisions are made? Is man made for work or work for man? Historically the document states that certain means have usurped the prerogatives of the end; technology (means) has become the master and the human person (end), the slave. At this juncture, justice and peace are no more. The whole order is overturned, human freedom is lost. Simone Weil, a strong prophetic voice for the ~,alue of work in the first half of this century, worked in factories so as to experientially learn the workers' situation. Her experience was not a happy one: workers were dehumanized because they were treated simply as cogs in a large, productive m~chine. Upon reading Homer's Iliad, she extracts a universal truth about evil that applies to our present discussion: Thus in this ancient and wonderful poem there already appeared the essential evil besetting humanity, the substitution of means for ends.6 ~The Simone Weil Reader. ed, George A. Panichas (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1977), p. 138. 3~12 / Review for Religious, Ma.v-June, 1982 What is so horrendous is that often this process of evil is unconscious and unin-tended. The means we use for produiztivity are happily introduced. Suddenly we wake up one morning and come to realize, that we are controlled by the very process we devised. The underlying question is one of freedom, a freedom that protects our humanity and a freedom to use tools of production wisely. Such a freedom comes only from hard-won knowledge: we cannot make prudent choices when ignorant of facts and circumstances. Education is of greatest importance here. All people involved in the working community must maintain a high level of attentiveness to attitudes, means of production, societal tendencies, subtle shifts in values. The means/end dilemma must not be blurred. Melville, in his classic Moby Dick, comments that "ignorance is the parent of fear."7 Societal fears often arise because we are ignorant of the proper relationship between means and end. With increased knowledge we are hopeful that fear will be dissipated and our freedom regained. Theme 9: Work and the Common Good Thesis: Work, through the use of natural and personal resources, is an essential force to achieve the common good. ¯. society--even when it has not yet taken on the mature form of a nation--is not only the great ~educator" of every man, even though an indirect one (because each individual absorbs within the family the contents and values that go to make up the culture of a given nation): it is also a great historical and social incarnation of the work of all generations. All of this brings it about that man combines his deepest human identity with membership of a nation, and intends his work also to increase the cor~mon good developed together with his compatriots, thus realizing that in this way work serves to add to the heritage of the whole human family, of all the people living in the world (16). Rational planning and the proper organization of human labor in keeping with individual societies and States should also facilitate the discovery of the right proportions between the different kinds of employment: work on the land. in industry, in the various services, white-collar work and scientific or artistic work, in accordance with the capacities of individuals: and for the common good of each society and of the whole of mankind (18). Here we must return once more to the first principle of the whole ethical and social order. namely, the principle of the common use of goods. In every system, regardless of the funda-mental relationships within it between capital and labor, wages, that is to say remuneration for work, are still a practical means whereby the vast majority of people have access to those goods which are intended for common use: both the good of nature and manufactured goods (19). In the document Gaudium et Spes, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council described the common good in these terms: Now. the common good embraces the sum of those conditions of social life by which individuals, families and groups can achieve their own fulfillment in a relatively thorough and ready way (74). 7Herman Melville, Moby Dick (New York: The Literary Guild of America, Inc., 1949), p. 17. Laborem Exercens: Themes and Theses / 333 Although somewhat nebulous in the abstract, the common good is extremely concrete and pragmatic in experience. Yet certain cultural attitudes towards pri-vate goods and vested self-interest make it difficult for the relationship between work and the common good to be properly understood. One such attitude regards comm~on good items (parks, public buildings, and so forth) as areas of exploita-tion, with no sense of personal responsibility for their upkeep or cleanliness. A mentality of privatized ownership threatens the realization of the common good. Through work 1 will take as much as 1 can without any thought of.making my contribution to the commonweal. Various writers8 are beginning to articulate a public theology and notions of a church which help to provide a vision for the protection of the common good through responsible work and concern. Several years ago there was a global experience that had the potentiality to develop social consciousness for the common good. For the first time in history, through the technology of cameras, we saw ourselves, the planet earth, from the moon. Hurling through space, like people on a small raft, brought us a realization that we are all in this together. The activity of one affects the activity of all. Responsible Work and sharing enriches the human family; failure to do so dimin-ishes and deprives people of quality life. Perhaps the moon photograph has been blurred already and the strong sense of interdependence to which we are called has been obscured by innate avariciousness. Is work done primarily for profit and personal gain? Have we forgotten the common good or disregarded it as some utopian dream? Two types of people have been known throughout history as truly human and noble: people of compassion and people of hospitality. The former have a heart that is moved deeply by the joys and sufferings of others. A'basic affinity with human experience resides deep within the being of compassionate people. Hospi-tality, that gracious welcoming of the stranger-into personal space and time, creates an environment in which the common good is realized. Regardless of.one's employment, the work~ of compassion and hospitality are universal vocations and only when they are exercised, thus producing the common good, do individual goods have any value whatever. The paradox of the gospel grain of wheat is lived again. Theme I0: Work and Communily Thesis: Work builds community by uniting people into a powerful solidarity. In fact. the family is simultaneously a community made possible by work and the first school of work, within the home, for every person (10). The call to solidarity and common action addressed to the worker--especially to those engaged in narrowly specialized, monotonous and depersonalized work in industrial plants, when the machine tends to dominate man--was important and eloquent from the point of sSee Martin E. Marty's The Public Church (New York: Crossroad, 1981)and Parker J. Palmer's The Company o.f Strangers (New York: Crossroad. 198 I). 334 / Review for Religious, Ma.v-June, 1982 view of social ethics. It was the reaction against the degradation of man as the subject of work, and against the unheard-of accompanying exploitation in the fields of wages, working condi-tions and social security for the worker. This reaction united the working world in a commu-nity marked by great solidarity (8). It is characteristic of work that it first and foremost unites people. In this consists its social power: the power to build a community. In the final analysis, both those who work and those who manage the means of production or who own them must in some way be united in this community 120). Communities are formed when there is a common sense of identity, when there is a commitment to a specific value system, when lives are shared by mutual experience. Many work situations have these three qualities. A good schobl faculty know who they are, are committed to truth and its various expressions, and share lives professionally and, to some degree, socially. A professional sports team working together for several years establishes a strong communal bond. Work has the potential to unite people and form community, i.e., a style of work that is balanced and. person centered. What is intriguing is that often the bond of com-munity happens without conscious planning; it is a side effect of deep c6operation. Human life is complex. Like a spider's web, there are many intersecting lines in our relationships and in our multiple communities, e.g., The community to which I belong is, of course, not a static one. Sometimes it is the commu-nity of my wife and myself and my family: at other times that of my relations, of my friends, of my work colleagues, of my city or nation or international grouping. My task in each different community varies according to the particular community I am being consciously part of at any time. In some communities, I am a key figure: in others, of lesser or minimal importance. But in all of them I have a function, a duty and a responsibility and I believe I will be judged on my performance of these at the end of my time. Often I do not know exactly what that function is--but I know that basically it is to be a harmonizing influence, a peacemaker, a go-between, a catalyst, a bringer-out of good qualities in others for the sake of a group.'~ This vision of community and work depicts the range of groupings in one's life and the specific functions that we are to play. The notion of facilitator may accurately describe "the work" (the process of life itself) that will build any community. We facilitate relationships by bringing love and concern which, in turn, bring about peace and oneness. The Gospel of John states that God is always working. Jesus presents himself as the waiter, serving at table those who come for life-giving food. The thrust behind this work is community, to build and complete the Fi~ther's kingdom. Thus the dignity of the vocation of work becomes clear: as co-worker with the Lord we participate in the process of reconciliation, bringing all creation back to the Father. Whatever our task in life, however sublime or humble, we lovingly accept the charge given us and contribute to the realization of the Father's plan. Adveniat regnum ! ~On the Run: Spirituality for the Seventies, ed. by Michael F. McCauley (Chicago: The Thomas More Association. 1974). p. 138. Reflections on Leadership in the Spirit of Jesus Cecilia Murphy, R.S.M. Sister Cecilia Murphy is the President of the Sisters of Mercy of Pittsburgh. In the issue of January, 1976, Sister shared her reflections on the chapter experience of her community. In the present article, a talk given at their congregational meeting of March, 1982, she reflects on her experience of leadership in her community. Sister Cecilia resides at 3333 Fifth AveA Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Living leadership in the spirit of Jesus is a challenge to every Christian. Each follower of Jesus is called to "come after Jesus" and to show others the way. Those called to leadership in a religious congregation of Mercy bear a special responsibil-ity in this matter. How can anyone fulfill this task? My reflections on this topic are a result of trying to "bone it'--trying to dig into the essential and offer some thoughts on what is necessary for leadership in Jesus' spirit. We know Jesus through faith--faith in God's word and sacraments; faith in our personal experiences of Jesus. We know from Scripture that Jesus poured himself out for our sakes and that he taught us how to live. The commitment of our lives and our personal prayer have helped us know experientially who Jesus is, how he loves, what he asks of us: Faith, then, is the first essential for leadership. Things are not always clear and efisy, and the felt presence of the Lord is a special and temporary gift. So, the leader needs to pray for a strong faith-life, to make acts of faith, and to live in faith, believing in God's love and fidelity. Sorting out and probing the purpose of life, religious life, and its values are essential to leaders. These exercises focus leaders on "the one thing necessary." They help to keep clear the purpose of religious community and enable leaders to be conscious of the motives, fears, and choices that are operative in life. Jesus probed the meaning of life by withdrawing from others and praying to his Father in secret. Exposure to solitude and openness to God's ways are integral parts of searching. These opportunities enable leaders to be like the violinist who carefully 335 ~136 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 tunes the instrument before a symphony. Reflection enables the leader to "be in tune" with the divine pitch. Without confidence in God, religious leadership is impossible. The counsel that Catherine McAuley took to heart, to pray as if everything depended on God and act as if everything depended on us, was not only common sense, it was an inspired statement. As Jesus was ever conscious of his Father's power, so must a leader be! All works concerned with the human spirit are beyond human control. Leaders cannot change another pers6n; God reserves that to himself. Yet a leader is called to use all her human potential to create the best environment, and also to pray in confidence, knowing that God's work is ultimately carried out by God-- sometimes through her. Belief in the value of suffering is an essential for a religious leader. Jesus suffered and died. Our congregation was founded on Calvary; there are no easy roads to Mount Tabor. In each human life suffering is present, but Christians are challenged to "take up the cross." Leaders must attempt to follow the Master to Calvary. The particular kinds of suffering which best make an individual an image of Jesus are known only to the Lord. For the leader, however, many of these have something to do with various kinds of poverty. One form 6f poverty is that of spirit, "Why me, Lord?" the leader asks. "There are others holier, more insightful, more loving, more intelligent, more capable, Why me?" And'the Lord replies, "It was not because you are great but because I am great and want to use your nothingness. Don't question my choice--just cooperate." There is the poverty of unfulfilled expectations--those of the leader and those of other members. Unconsciously, leaders sometimes set expectations for them-selves which could not be fulfilled by five people, let alone one. Consider, then, the 335 members of our congregation, multiply by five, and you will have a sense of the number of expectations placed on a leader. The sense of poverty in facing all these unfulfilled expectations is a cause of great suffering. Dealing in realms beyond one's experience and capabilities creates a sense of poverty. Learning about finances, management, interacting with corporate leaders can cause a sense of being entirely out of one's element. Like Ruth, the leader must try to adapt to alien lands, to grow in new knowledge and allow the pinch of human limitations to be felt. There is the poverty of being in an "iceberg ministry." When 1 ask myself what 1 do, it is very hard to define. So much of a leader's ministry is confidential or invisible to others and sometimes to herself. Members of the congregation may wonder why all the paper communications keep filtering into a small community and exclaim, "Another paper from the Mount!" However, some leader may have worked hours trying to simplify and clarify ideas so that they could be shared with (he membership. Dialogue and interaction with members are an important part of leadership but they, too, are invisible parts of the iceberg. Leaders need. to laugh. Although the gospels do not record Jesus as laughing, we can be sure, since we are made in his image, that Jesus did enjoy life. He had Reflections on Leadership special friends, the disciples. He went off with them, shared special meals with them. Without doubt he must have often suppressed a laugh as he experienced their human condition. Leaders, too, need to relax, to have friends, to take time to unwind and be "at home" with family. Rest is a requirement for all human persons and so must leaders be renewed and refreshed. Refreshment help~ one maintain balance--an essential for leadership. Our "Government Synthesis Statement" makes explicit a tension that is inherent in leadership, the tension between internal and external concerns. How does one balance the call to broader church and civic leadership with the need to provide for the growth and development of the membership? There is no answer to that question, only the ongoing struggle to live authentically in that tension. As Jesus lived the tension of the Agony in the Garden, he prayed for the accomplishment of the Father's will. He prayed for courage to fulfill his mission. Leaders need courage, a courage which is strengthened by conviction; made more difficult by uncertainty. In relating to individuals and the total congregation, the leader needs courage to risk--risk to be wrong even when acting in good faith. Leaders can make mistakes and they need courage to face mistakes honestly. Tomorrow's leaders will also need courage to fulfill our "Government Synthe-sis Statement" which calls them to use our corporate power on behalf of the poor. This challenge will take courage and wisdom on the part of the leaders and generosity and willingness for conversion on the part of the membership. As Jesus listened to Nicodemus, so a leader must listen to God, the members, the Church, the world. Jesus was a sensitive listener when he attempted to deal with the needs of others. In Jesus the leader has the perfect model of attentive listening and response to others. Leadership in religious congregations requires a deep realization of the divine help that comes from the prayers of the sisters. Likewise it calls forth a daily prayer: "Glory to him whose power working in me can do infinitely more than 1 can ask or imagine!" Tedium and Burnout in Religious Life Mary Elizabeth Kenel Dr. K(nel, as well as maintaining a private practice in Washington, is a field supervisor in the pastoral counseling program of Loyola College in Baltimore. She may be addressed at 901 Perry Place, N.E.: Washington; DC 20017. In recent years mu~ch of the research in the area of social psychology has focused on the phenomena of tedium and burnout, primarily as these apply to the workers in the human services fields. These phenomena are by no means limited to members of these groups, however, and researchers are investigating burnout at various phases of the life cycle: the tedium experienced by college students, burn-out in marriage and parenting, and that demonstrated in the mid-life and mid-career crises. Everyone at some time or another is vulnerable to the stresses of tedium and burnout and religious are no exception. Indeed, the very qualities that are com-mon to those aspiring to religious life and a ministry of service tend to render religious as a group vulnerable to the burnout syndrome. The term "burnout" was first introduced by Herbert J. Freudenberger~ in his articles on staff burnout in the help-giving inst.itutions. Since that time a number of other authors have made use of the term and have given it various definitions. Edelwich2 defines burnout as a progressive loss of idealism, energy, and purpose experienced by people in the helping professions as a result of the conditions of their work. Pines and Aronson3 define tedium as the experience of physical, ~ Freudenberger, H. J. "Staff Burn-out," Journal of Social Issues, 1974, 30(I) pp. 159-165. 2Edelwich, J., Burn-Out, Stages of Disillusionment in the Helping Professions. Human Sciences Press, New York, 1980. p. 14. ~Pines, A. M. and Aronson, E., Burnout, From Tedium to Personal Growth, The Free Press, New York. 1981. p. 15. 338 Tedium and Burnout in Religious Life emotional and mental exhaustion characterized by emotional and physical deple-tion and by the negation of one's self, one's environment, one's work, and even one's life. They consider burnout to be identical to tedium in definition and symptoms but apply the term particularly to those who work with people in situations that are emotionally demanding. While both tedium and burnout are accompanied by a constellation of symp-toms that include fatigue, lack of enthusiasm, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, burnout may be thought of as a state of mind that afflicts those individuals whose work requires that they pour in much more than they get in return, be that return from clients, patients, students, superiors or peers. The dedicatory nature of the vows can set the stage for burnout. Take, for example, a motto instilled during a novitiate instruction: "Chastity loves without seeking a return." A literal interpretation and acceptance of such an ideal can readily lead to burnout as the religious' energies are depleted over time. One of the biggest difficulties with the concept of burnout, however, is that it has become fashionable, a new item in the evergrowing dictionary of psychobab-ble. Burnout as such has no formal psychiatric status and, indeed, many would see it as depression. The literature, however, tends more and more to distinguish between the two concepts and relates burnout to the environmental stresses under which a person works rather than to intrapsychic forces. The onset of tedium/burnout is rarely the result of a single traumatic or disillusioning event. More typically it is the result of a gradual erosion of strength and spirit. Edelwich,4 for example, recognizes a series.of stages that range from idealistic enthusiasm to apathy. The victims of burnout tend to be those who had once been amoiag the most idealistic and ardent, those who at one time were most enthusiastic and joyful. This is hardly surprising, for nearly every author in the field has noted that in order to burn out one must have been on fire at some point. It is the intent of the remainder of this article to examine the antecedents to burnout and tedium as well as to examine the stages of development that lead fr9m enthusiasm to apathy. To the extent that individual religious and communi-ties can recognize and anticipate burnout they will be better able to avoid the ineffectual, wishful remedies that are often practiced and seek more realistic coping mechanisms. A positive ~pproach to the problems of tedium and burnout, then, will not be based on the hope of total prevention which is almost impossible to achieve, but on the realization that it will happen, even repeatedly, and must be dealt with on an ongbing basis. As with any other life crisis, burnout can be turned to advantage in that it can energize a person to break out of a rut. Creative use of frustration can become a stimulus to the kind of enthusiasm it generally erodes. Antecedents to Burnout Research5 on the phenomenon of burnout as it applies to human service 4Edelwich, J. op. cir. pp. 28-29. 5Pines, A. M., and Aronson, E. op cir., pp. 48-54. 3tll~ / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 workers has identified three common antecedents that would apply equally well to religious. 1. Work That Is Emotionally Demanding In the human serVice professions people work with others in situations that are emotionally draining over long periods of time, during which they are exposed to their clients' physical, social, and psychological problems and are expected to be both skillful and concerned. A similar expectation is placed on priests, brothers and sisters in virtue of their religious profession, in addition, members of religious groups are frequently actively engaged in human service occupations such as teaching, nursing, and counseling. Think, for example then, of the emotional toll of working with the terminally ill, with the mentally ill, with those who have lost loved ones--especially when one's religious profession means one is also expected to explain "God's Will" in these situations. 2. Characteristics of the Professionals Themselves Pines and Aronson6 note that in the human services the occupational task acts as a screening device that attracts people with particular types of personal attrib-utes. The same is true of religious life. Think of the adjectives used to describe priests and religious in terms of the concept of mirfistry. Words such as dedicated, service, and other-oriented are frequently mentioned. 3. Client-Centered Orientation As is the case for members of human services teams, religious focus on people receiving their service. The role of provider of help, understanding, and support is defined by the client's needs with relatively little attention paid to the needs of the professional or the religious. A strictly client-centered orientation does not permit a symmetrical relationship of mutual give and take. Instead a complementary relationship is set up in which the religious or human service worker is expected to give while the client receives. Common to both situations is a dedicatory ethic that elevates service motives and presents work not merely as a "job" but as a "voca-tion" or "calling" in which the reward is supposed to be inherent in the giving. The Prayer of Saint Francis captures this thought: "It is in giving that we receive . 4. Other Antecedents to Burnout In addition to those areas delineated by Pines and Aronson there are a number of other antecedents to burnout that need to be considered. One is that of a lack of criteria for measuring one's accomplishment. There is sufficient difficulty in attempting to define accomplishments in the therapeutic field. How much more so in th6 religious life. How does one define one's success as nPines, A. M. and Aronson. E. ibid., pp. 51-52. Tedium and Burnout in Religious Ltfe 311"1 a "religious"? Does one play the "numbers game"---how many converts, baptisms, hours of donated service? And if there are no hard-and-fast criteria for success, how then does one set standards for reviewing one's life and work? Another source of difficulty lies in the area of career advancement. Far too often the religious who has entered upon a particular form of active ministry because of a desire to work with people is "promoted" to an administrative posi-tion that. while enlarging his or her sphere of influence, many times results in loss of client contact and ultimately in loss of job satisfaction. Antecedents to Tedium While religious life itself is a form of other-oriented profession in which many members actually do work in the human services area, it also has a bureaucratic and hierarchical structure and as such shares many of the antecedents of tedium found in business or government organizations. The literature describes organizational structure as a major determinant of job performance, satisfaction, and tedium.7 Pines and Aronson8 identified three major antecedents of tedium. 1. Overload Overload is a key concept in studies of job stress and its effect on health and can be viewed as having objective/,su.bjective and quantitative/quali!ative dimen-sions. Objective overload refers to the actual volume of work to be processed per unit of time while subjective overload refers to the person's feeling that there is too much work to be done or that it is too hard. Quantitative overload implies that one actually has more real work than can be handled per unit time. Qualitative overload, on the other hand, indicates that the work load demands skills, knowl-edge or training exceeding that of the person assigned a given task. That objective, quantitative overlo.ad is part and parcel of the daily life of most religious hardly needs mentioning. Schedules tend to be full to overflowing and many a prayer has been offered for a few extra hours in the day as well as another pair of hands. Qualitative overload, however, may be even more stressful in the long run and more likely to induce tedium. In a situation of qualitative overload unrealistic ex, pectations are placed on an individual or group who must then deal not merely with the realities of the workload but with a sense of inadequacy and personal failure when it becomes impossible to live up to those "great expecta-. tions." Fortunately, in more recent years superiors and formation personnel have attempted to see to it that people are trained prior to placement in a specific position. With personnel shortages, however, it is tempting to appeal to the per- 7Armstrong. K. 1. "'How Can We Avoid Burnout. Child Abuse and Neglect: Issues in Innovation and Implementation." DHEW Publication #(OHDS) 78-30148. 2(1978). pp. 230-238. ~Pines. A. M. and Aronson. E. op cir. pp. 67-72. 3t12 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 son's "generosity and sense of mission" and propel him or her into a position for which he or she is unprepared and in which he or she expends tremendous energy simply to "stay afloat." 2: I~ek of Autonomy In any area of life, lack of control over one's environment is a highly stressful experience and frequently enough leads to the learned helplessness phenomenon observed by Seligman.9 In this depressed state the person tends !o attribute success to "luck" or "chance" or other forces outside his or her control while accepting full responsibility for failures. A perceived lack of autonomy and the frustration resulting from such a lack is a common cause of tedium in organizations of all types, .for job satisfaction declines as the individual is more burdened by unnecessary rules and red tape and lacks voice in decisions that affect the job and his or her life. Lack of autonomy can also be aggravated by a communication gap between superiors and those further down the organizational hierarchy. This gap may be due to the inherent inefficiencies of communication in large organizations or to differing perspectives among superiors and those actively engaged in a given work. It is necessary then to attempt to build organizational structures that will avoid, to some extent, these pitfalls. The problem of autonomy is a thorny one for religious. Balance must be achieved between a legitimate need for autonomy that is part and parcel of healthy adult functioning and the demand of religious obedience that is, perhaps, the very heart of the religious commitment. To some extent community structures have always made some provision for autonomy, for example, those having perpetual vows might vo~e for the superior, serve as councilors, or in other ways voice an ~pinion on community matters. The proverbial "planting cabbages upside down" type of blind obedience is also a.thing of the past. More recent changes in community life have attempted to address this need for autonomy. For example, the matter of annual assignments is now often handled on ~ consultative basis with the individual religiot~s I~a~'ing more input into the decision than was previously the case. Community meetings 6n the local, regional, and national/international levels also serve to keep the lines of communi-cation open and flowing upward, not merely downward. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the religious, by virtue of the vow of obedience, does surrender much personal autonomy. This surrender is often felt most keenly n.ot'in the early years but later as one must deal with one's own growth and developmeht as a ]'esponsi-ble adult. Much of the "mid-life crisis" seen in religious life centers around the issue of autonomy, the need for personal space and the integration of such concepts as 9Seligman. M. E. Helplessness: On De.pression Development and Death, San Francisco: Freeman Press. 1979. Tedium and Burnout in Religious Ltfe / 343 ob¢dience, choice, power, accountability, and responsibility. Perhaps one of the ways to resolve this conflict is to keep some progressive vision of what the com-munity (small group or larger organization) might accomplish and nurture the scope and consciousness of discretionary behavior. In most life situations things usually are more flexible than they might initially appear. Evaluating the possibili-ties for positive change and focusing one's energies in the realm of the possible enhance one's sense of legitimate power and control. The religious who can be attentive to authority, who can blend personal goals with community goals, and who recognizes both the extent and limit of his or her discretionary power is not as likely to suffer the lack of autonomy that leads to tedium. 3. Lack of Rewards It is indeed unfortunate that most organizations are inefficient in the distribution of rewards, appreciation and recognition, as this contributes to dis-couragement and demoralization among the members and can eventually lead to tedium. It is surprising that better use is not made of the power of positive reinforcement, for common sense would suggest, and research has confirmed, that people are far more able to tolerate considerable stress in situations in which they feel appreciated and their efforts recognized than in those in which they feel the rewards are not commensurate with their efforts. Religious are definitely not exempt from the need for rewards and recognition. Indeed, the absence of high levels of financial remuneration make it imperative that social rewards be given. It is all well and good to appeal to altruistic and spiritual motives, but positive feedback has tremendous reinforcement value that is far too often ignored. As a result, the religious who is.often enough already unpaid or underpaid is deprived of the satisfaction derived from well-earned recognition. Another aspect that frequently causes pain is the fact that the religious may be appreciated by those with whom he or she serves yet get little or no recognition from within the community. It remains true today "there is no respect for a ¯ prophet in his own country" Jn 4:44. While it is true that one should not rely solely on one's superiors for praise there is a need for ~ecognition by one's peers that is often lacking. It is frequently the presence or lack of support at the local level that can make the difference between a vital, contributing team member and a "burnt-out case." Stages of Disillusionment Edelwicht0 defines five stages in the process of disillusionment. Stage one, that of initial enthusiasm, is that period of high hopes, high energy and unrealistic expectaiions when one does not know what the job is all about. In religious life this would typically correspond to the novitiate and formation period as well as the early years of active ministry. 1 recall hearing a novice describe with great anima- I°Edelwich. J., op. cit. pp. 28-29. 344 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 tion the ceremony of initial profession of another sister. The formula of vows, written by the sister, concluded with the words "Surprise me, Jesus!" An older priest seated next to me turned to me, smiled ruefully, and said sotto voce "He will." The second stage is that of stagnation. It is at this point that one's ministry is no longer so satisfying as to substitute for everything else in life. "Is that all there is?" seems to sum up the feelings of this stage. There is a shift in emphasis at this point from meeting the needs of others to meeting one's own needs. For the religious formed in an other-oriented tradition this shift in emphasis can often be accompanied by feelings of guilt and loss of self-esteem as he or she senses that the fervor which marked the early days of religious life has diminished, Edelwich~ calls his third stage that of frustration. It is at this point that one tends to question not merely one's own effectiveness in the ministry but the value of religious life and ministry itself. Frequently emotional, physical and behavioral problems emerge at this stage. The fourth stage, that of apathy, sets in when a person is chronically frustrated. Apathy as such is a typical defense mechanism that occurs after repeated frustra-tion and is analogous to the learned-helplessness phenomenon mentioned earlier. At this point no new challenges are undertaken and one seems to "go through the motions," doing the minimum required to avoid censure. The stage of intervention is defined as whatever is done in response to or in anticipation of the four preceding stages. Intervention attempts to break the cyc!e. It may involve a restructuring of relationships to clients, family, friends and com-munity. It may mean seeking advanced training and new areas of apostolic work. It may, in some instances, mean leaving the ministry and religious life altogether. The Special Problems of Women Religious The antecedents of burnout and tedium mentioned here apply equally well to both male and female religious. The literature has noted, however, that profes-sional women bear a special burden not shared by men. For example, the conflict between career and home demands is more sharply delineated for a woman who, in the effort to balance both, may seek to become a "Superwoman." This sort of role conflict would also appear to be more keenly felt by women religious than by men. Communities of women seem to place more stress on creating a homelike atmosphere in which there is a fairly high level of mutual interaction and group activity. While such a structure has the potential for providing a great deal of warmth and support, the time needed to foster and maintain these community relationships may cause tension if community activities are seen as competing with the demands of one's ministry. Another major contribution to the burnout of women is sexism. As Edelwich~-' ~qbid. p. 29. Tedium and Burnout in Religious 13fe / ~4~3 notes, in the business and professional world large numbers of women are employed in positions of structured inferiority. Sexual stereotyping influences job assignments, allocation of responsibilities and standards of conduct. Sexual polar-ization commonly reinforces polarization by rank and status. This same pattern of sexual discrimination is found within the Church. The hierarchical structure is male dominated and its influence pervades the entire area of religious life and ministry. There is no need even to enter upon a discussion of ordination of women. Think at a more everyday level of the small put-downs, the questions regarding competence, the paternalism that is found all too frequently. How often does "the pastor" win his point by sheer weight of authority rather than by the merits of the case? How many male religious are comfortable dealing with attractive, educated women as peers? How often has a sister's name been reduced to a diminutive form ¯. in jest, of course? How does the treatment afforded male and female faculty members compare--or differ? Needless to say, the additional burden of dealing with one's femaleness takes its toll, for if a woman is sensitive, the professional struggles can be more frustrating. If she is empathic, the suffering she encounters is felt more sharply. If she knew herself as a caring person and a dedicated religious, recognition that she is no longer moved by the needs of others is more crushing. Coping Strategies Once aware of the potential for the development 6f tedium and burnout, what coping strategies can be introduced? This selection will attempt to present coping mechanisms at three levels:, the organizational, the interpersonal, and the intrapersonal. At the organizational level one can seek to reduce tedium and burnout by reducing the overload, making alternative forms of service available to the reli-gious, and by limiting the hours of stressful work. Community-based pre-retirement programs have already begun to make use of these concepts. By extending them to a broader range of personnel, severe forms of burnout may be prevented or at least reduced. Training, of course, is essential, not merely the initial formal education that would prepare the religious for his or her chosen field but continuing education where the !~eligious is given an opportunity to examine the pressures of the ministry, clarify goals and priorities, consider coping mechanisms and develop new skills. In the initial phases of formation training, the interventions appropriate to the stage of idealistic enthusiasm~3 should be taught. Novices or professed in temporary vows should be made aware of the discrepancy between expectations and reality and learn to moderate their enthusiasms before they become bogged down in the stage of stagnation. During this phase of formation the young religious should be taught to examine their motives for entering on ~21bid. p. 18. ~-~lbid. pp. 212-220. 3116/ Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 certain modes of ministry. The need to be needed is a powerful one as is the need to exert control, a motive that one tends to find if one scratches the surface of altruism. With awareness of their own motives religious can use their emotional investment in the ministry as the basis for insight rather than an acting out of their own needs at the expense of those they set out to serve. In an effort to avoid or at least reduce tedium and burnout, thought should also be given to providing positive work conditions that are suited to the needs of the individual and to assisting the religious to gain a sense of work significance. To achieve this end, as far as possible set clear organizationa| objectives, provide feedback and give the individual appreciation for his or her efforts and accomplishments. On the interpersonal level the development of social support systems is essen-tial. Although the conflicting or ambiguous demands of various systems can lead to burnout, on the whole the efficient and creative use of a social support system is one of ttie most effective ways of coping with the burnout syndrome. Social support systems may be defined as lasting interpersonal ties to groups of people who can be counted on to provide emotional sustenance, assistance, and resources in periods of need and stress, who provide feedback, both positive and negative, and who share standards and values. Ideally, one would belong to several supportive groups: community, family, work, recreational, and avocational. William Glasser~4 in his book, Reality Ther-apy, speaks of the dangers of the "small world." In such a situation, one group, for example, the community or work group, becomes the center of one's entire life and the source of all one's emotional and psychological support. Pines and Aronson~5 list six functions of a social support system, namely: listening, technical support, technical challenge, emotional support, emotional challenge, and the providing of social reality. Rather than expect that'one person or one set of people meet each of these needs, it is helpful to the religious to differentiate the support functions one can get from a given source and seek fulfillment of other needs from other groups. Not to do so places a tremendous burdbn on the sole source of support and leads to disappointment and anger when one's needs are not met. A number of coping strategies that would serve to reduce the likelihood of burnout are open to the individual religious. Among the variables that reduce the severity of burnout are learning, meaning and significance, success and achieve-ment, and variety.~6 Learning and understanding and a healthy curiosity are basic motivators. In the stage of stagnation new learning can open the door to new aspects of one's work and prevent the sort of burnout that accompanies one's perception of being at a dead end. Learning need not involve formal instruction; an attitude of open- V~Glasser, W., Reality Therapy. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1975, p. 30. ~SPines. A. M., and Aronson, E., op. cir., p. 124." ~Pines, A. M., and Aronson. E., ibid., pp. 143-144. Tedium and Burnout in l~eligious Ltfe/ 347 n~ss to new experience can serve to keep one interested and alert. ~, Finding or creating meaning and significance in one's work and life is essential. Without these ingredients one becomes apathetic, alienated from oneself and others. Viktor Franklt7 recognized this and incorporated the struggle of the mature person to find, meaning in life into his work Man's Search For Meaning. "Nothing succeeds like success" goes the old maxim and nothing can eliminate burnout more effectively than the acknowledgment of one's achievements. Reli-gious, perhaps more than others, need to learn to acknowledge and enjoy their own successes before pushing on to new challenges. Certainly the drive for success can be self-destructive if one becomes obsessed with competing and pushes for "success" in the absence of other rewards. Nevertheless the religious needs to learn to define areas of accomplishment in which he/she can take justifiable pride. Monotonous activities lead to tedium whether they be found in a work or a non-work situation. A sense of variety and interest, on the other hand, originating largely with the person can susiain one in the ministerial field. Variety need not be a matter of outside stimulation, although that is certainly useful, but can be achieved by an openness to the uniqueness of the people with whom one works or whom one serves. Other ways of seeking variety include job changes within one's field or more total changes that involve seeking a new path. The career changes taking place more and more often at mid-life reflect this desire for variety. One coping mechanism mentioned by Pines and Aronson~8 was the develop-ment of an attitude of detached concern, which they defined as a stance in which the empathic professional (or religious) is sufficiently detached or objective in his attitudes toward the client to exercise sound judgment and keep his/her equanim-ity, yet also have enough concern for the client to give sensitive, understanding service. To attempt such a stance requires a delicate sense of balance. It is a process phenomenon, not a static entity that once achieved is dever lost. The religious needs to discern the level of emotional involvement proper for each person/situa-tion he or she encounters, avoiding a draining, ineffectual overinvolvement on the one hand and a clinical coldness that dehumanizes on the other. Compartmentalization~ is another way suggested by Pines and Aronson~9 to keep a balance between energy invested in the work sphere and the energy invested in life outside of work. This is one area that may prove problematic as there are still many community situations in 'which the religious both work and live together. Situations such as these tend to foster the creation of the "small world" mentioned earlier, and negative feelings generated in one sphere tend to carry over into the other. Newer community structures have attempted to alleviate these difficulties by establishing residences that are not identified with one particular ~TFrankl, V. Man's Search.for Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press. 1963. ~Pines. A. M. and Aronson, E., op. cir., pp. 54-55. ¯ ~91bid., p. 164. ~1411 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 form of ministry. The residents work at a variety of jobs and in'several differe~at locations and "come home" when their workday is ended. While no single living arrangement is perfect, one such as this does provide the individual religious with an opportunity to separate work demands from other aspects of his/her life. Perhaps the most important of the coping mechanisms open to the individual religious is that of "being good to oneself" or "doing to oneself as you have done to your client." Committed religious tend to burn out because they take on too much for too long and with too much intensity. To reduce the likelihood of burnout one needs an awareness of work stresses and a recognition of the danger signs. One also needs to acknowledge areas of vulnerability and put reasonable limits on one's work for there will always be more that could be done. in addition, one needs to set realistic goals, both long-term and short-term, and be willing to provide for one's own needs, treating oneself as a person with legitimate needs, taking time for prayer and pleasure and nourishing oneself so that there will be strength available to continue the service to which one is called, that with St. Paul one can state: ". my life is already being poured away as a libation . 1 have fought the good fight, 1 have run the race to the finish, I have kept the faith" (2 Tm 4:6-7). Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Ps 30:5. Morning Cometh A Quotella Weeping that weeps me far away May bring the night and end the day. Endure: For the human heart is a finite flask, A bottle whose meager store of tears Night and pain may cause to flow. But even as the last tear falls Joy, as the light, lifts my heart and so, Cometh the dawn. In balance must all things lie. The source of nighttime tears allow Morning to come at last somehow. C. Dell Turney 4108 Little Fairfield Eureka, CA 95501 Prayer As an Act of Justice Mary Lou Theisen, 1. H. M. Since September, Sister Mary Lou has been involved in the Active Spirituality program, located in Seton Hall of Mount St. Joseph College, Mount St. Joseph, OH 45051. This is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly. to love tenderly. to walk humbly with your God (Mi 6:8). In this simple statement uttered through the mouth of the prophet Micah, God reveals to us for all times the essence of religion. Religion, in the purity of its meaning, is not an ethic nor a multiplication of actions, but a way of life--an integral act lived out in the intggrity of one's being. In this single act there is no dichotomy between acting justly, loving tenderly or walking humbly before God: one element flows from and feeds into the others, finding its true mehning only in conjunction with them. The purpose of this article is to show how true prayer (walking humbly with God), entered into in the integrity of our being, not only leads to actions of justice, but is in itself an act of justice. In his Dictionary of the Bible,~ John McKenzie points out that the Hebrew word sedek, which we translate as justice, is a very complex term embracing the concepts of judgment and righteousness. It is sometimes translated as integrity and implies a right balance born of fidelity to the truth of what something or someone is supposed to be. To be just or to act justly in the biblical sense, therefore, is first of all to be judged righteous or to be justified by God. To seek justice is to seek salvation or justification in truth. To seek justice is to seek God. To act justly is to tMcKenzie, John L., Dictionary of the Btble (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing CO. 1965). 349 351~ / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 act out of the truth of who we and others are in the authenticity of our being. This truth is discovered ~nd entered into in times of solitude, in times of walking humbly with God, when we are unable to hide behind our actions, our words, or any of the multiple walls we so often build around our true self. It is in solitude that we are forced to come face to face with our sinfulness and inability to save ourself. In solitude we also experience God's willingness to forgive, his power and desire to save (justify) us and all people. Let us reflect for a while on Jesus, to see this reality present in his prayer/life. In Hebrews 5:7-9 we read: During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears to the one who alone had the power to save him from death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard. Although he ~vas son. he learned obedience through suffering: but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation and was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek. St. Paul is here indicating that it was du.ring his time spent in intimate com-munion with his Father, in the solitude of the desert or on the hilltop, that Jesus came to realize and to accept who he was, to realize and to accept his call as the Messiah, the "Beloved Son," with all that this call meant for himself and for others. During these times of reflecting on what was happening in his own life in the light of the words of the prophets and psalms, Jesus came to the truth of his human condition as one destined for misunderstanding, betrayal, suffering, and a death from which he was unable to save himself: This is what I meant when I said, while 1 was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses. in the prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled. He then opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and he said to them: So you see hoffit was written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead (Lk 24:44-47). More importantly, however, through his own reflections on Scripture, Jesus came to know and to trust in the truth of God's faithfulness which alone could and would justify him, and through him, all people: But now. thus says Yahweh: Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you: 1 have called you by your name. you are mine. Should you pass through the sea. 1 will be with you, or through rivers, they will not swallow you up. Should you walk through fire, you will not be scorched and the flames will not burn you. For 1 am Yahweh. your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (Is 43: I-3). He said to me, You are my servant in whom I shall be glorified: while I was thinking, I have toiled in vain, I have exhausted myself for nothing: and all the while my cause was with Yahweh. my God was my strength. And now Yahweh has spoken, he who formed me to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him. to gather Israel to him (Is 49:3-5). This inner realization of who he was in truth and of the power of God's faithfulness working in and through him formed Jesus as an authentic person of justice, both in the biblical sense of one who receives his justification from God, and in practice. Being convinced in the core of his being that it was his Father's love and faithfulness which saved and justified him, Jesus could only act justly Prayer as an Act of Justice / 35"1 toward others for he knew that this gift of God's saving love was not meant for him alone: It is not enough for you to be my servant. 1 will make you the light of nations so my salvation may reach the ends of the earth (Is 50:6). I. Yahweh. have called you to serve the cause of right: I have taken you by the hand and formed you: I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison and those who walk in darkness from the dungeon (Is 42:6-7). As Donald Senior states so well in his insightful book Jesus--a Gospel Por-trait2 (p. 138): "From his intimate life of prayer with his Father and from a powerful searching of Scriptures, Jesus had forged the basic convictions that animated his life and ministry. Basic convictions about God as loving Father and about love as fundamental bond of human relationships were joined to an unshakable integrity that translated principle into action.~ The gospels tell us that this action at times took the form of speaking out against the social injustices of his day. He especially denounced the so-called religious leaders, not as much for their smugness and legalistic interpretation of religion as for their inability to recognize God as a God of love and their own lack of love and compassion: "But alas for you pharisees! You who pay your tithe of mint and rue and all sorts of garden herbs and overlook justice and the love of God" (Lk i 1:42). Jesus' conviction, born of his own reflection on Scripture and his own expe-rience, that God was a God of love whose love and salvation was gratuitously given to all--the just and the unjust, the clean and the unclean, the poor and the rich, the sinners and the outcasts as well as the good and self-righteous--led him not only to denounce the systemic injustices of his time, but more especially to live out of his conviction in his own daily encounters with others. He associated with the sinners, the outcasts, the sick, the poor, as well as with the rich and the righteous, showing by his very presence to them his acceptance and respect of them as individuals. By his gentleness, love and compassion for each one he offered them the experience of God's liberating and compassionate love for them, while always respecting their own integrity as persons and never forcing his vision on them (e.g., the rich you'ng man). It was precisely this attitude of Jesus toward others, his acceptance of sinner and righteous alike, which was the greatest affront to the religious leaders of his day for it contradicted their notion of religion: that one was saved by his own actions, by his minute observance of the law. Consequently, opposition toward Jesus and his teachings grew among the leaders. Jesus, well aware of this increas-ing hostility, was compelled to rely more and more on his Father's faithfulness to save him: Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father. save me from this hour? But it was for this :Senior. Donald, C.P. Jesus, a Gospel Portrait (Dayton: Pflaum. 1975). 359 / Review for Religious, May-June 1982 very reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name (Jn 12:27-28)! Jesus' human struggle to accept his salvation from God and not from his own actions reached its peak in the garden when he pi'ayed in agony, "Father, if it is possible let this chalice pass. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine." This total surrender of his person to God's saving plan for him brought Jesus then to his ultimate moment of prayer--his death on the cross. At the moment of death, when, we are told, one's entire life passes before one's eyes and the dying person often speaks a.word which expresses not only what is being experienced at that moment, but which somehow summarizes an entire lifetime, it was not surprising that Jesus spoke from his heart the opening words of Psalm 22. This psalm, which must have been one on which Jesus meditated often during his life and especially at the end when he knew his death was imminent, truly summarizes his life and death experiences. Although spoken in a moment of extreme agony and intense feeling of being abandoned by God, the psalm is not one of despair, but one of ultimate trust in God's power and willingness to save him as his ancestors who had trusted in God had been saved: Yet. Holy One. you who make your home in the praises of Israel. in you our fathers put their trust. they trusted and you rescued them: they called to you for help and they were saved. they never trusted you in vaifi (3-5). It is a psalm of praise to the God who is already saving him in spite of all the evidence to the contrary: Do not stand aside, Yahweh. O my strength, come quickly to my help . Then I will proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in the full assembly: you who fear Yahweh. praise him! Entire race of Jacob, glorify him! Entire race of Israel, revere him! For he has not despised or disdained the poor man in his poverty, has not hidden his face from him, but has answered him when he called ( 19, 22-24). In this moment of abandonment to the mercy of God who is already saving him in his faithfulness, Jesus is very aware that the meaning of his life and death is not only for his own justification but for that of all peoples: You are the theme of my praise in the Great Assembly. I perform my vows in the presence of those Who ~ar him. The poor will receive as much as they want to eat. Those who seek Yahweh will praise him. Long life to their hearts. The whole earth from end to end. will remember Prayer as an Act of Justice / 353 and come back to Yahweh: All the families of the nations will bow down before him. For Yahweh reigns, the ruler of nations! Before him all the prosperous of the earth will bow down, And my soul will live for him. my children will serve him: Men will proclaim the Lord to generations still to come, His righteousness (justice, salvation) to a people yet unborn. All this he has done (25-31)! Thus Jesus' greatest act of justice in the biblical, as well as the practical, sense occurred at the moment of his death. In that very act of surrender of all that he was to God's saving plan for him, he became justified himself and by that same act won justification for all peoples: Altho.ugh he was son, he learnt to obey through suffering, but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation (Heb 5:8-9). ¯. in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins (Ep 1:7). What does this reflection on the prayer/life of Jesus have to say to us today as we strive to live an integrated life of prayer and justice? It means, first of all, that like Jesus we must learn to seek our own justification and that of others from God and not from our own actions, and to trust in his faithfulness to save us. Like Jesus, we must take time apart to reflect on our !ife in the light of Scripture and learn who we truly are and to what we have been called. In these times of quiet aloneness with God we will come to know ourselves in all of our weakness, sinfulness, and inability to save ourselves or anyone else. But, more importantly, we will also come to know who God is and in this light to know our true self as one already loved, forgiven, called and empowered by God through the blood of Jesus. As with Jesus, this inner conviction of who we are in truth and of the power of God's faithfulness working in and through us will form us as authentic persons of justici~ in the core of our being. Convinced of God's love and faithfulness which has already justified us by gratuitously forgiving our sinfulness in the blood of Jesus, we will be moved to act justly toward others. As with Jesus, this conviction will at times take the form of speaking out against the injustices of our day, of working to bring about a more just social order, and of supporting others who do this. In our daily life, it will affect ourattitude toward others, moving us to accept and affirm the integrity of each individual we encounter, for each has already been loved, forgiven and called to salvation by God. What greater act. of justice can we extend to another than to allow that person the space to discover and act out of his/her own authenticity as Jesus did with those he encountered', instead of forcing our vision on that person? Animated with the Spirit of Jesus we will, then, become."doers" of justice, of liberation in our world, each according to the call experienced in his/her honest encounter with God in prayer. However, like Jesus, in this very act of prayer itself, we will have .already entered into an act of justice. In coming before God in prayer we are acknowledg-ing our own inability~to save burselves and our need to be justified by God. In the 354 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 act of surrendering ourselves in openness to God's power to save us, we enter into the death of Jesus, crying out as he did from our own emptiness for God's saving opresence in our life, while at the same time gratefully accepting the justification we have already received through God's faithftilness to Jesus on the cross. Since through our baptism, as St. Paul tells us, we have been baptized into this death of Jesus, our prayers of surrender, of praise, of trust and gratitude, our prayers for mercy--entered into in the integrity of who we are and of who God is--are an integral part of the prayer of Jesus on the cross. Our prayers are the prayers of the Just One who came to bring justice and truth to all people, and who continues to do so in and through each person who accepts salvation from God. The greatest articulation of this prayer is, of course, the Eucharist. Here we actually participate, with gratitude (Eucharist--thanksgiving), in the eternal act of justification won by Jesus on the cross and reenacted each day "for the glory of God's name, for our own good and for the good of all the world." Moreover, because this death of Jesus into which we have been baptized was for the justification of all people for all time, every prayer of a baptized person affects the whole world for it can never be said in isolation. "A final thing that needs to be said about prayer is that it is always corporate. We often distinguish between private and public prayer, and to an extent this distinction is valid. But whether private or public, Christian prayer is always common, communal, corpo-rate. All Christian prayer is to our Father. in prayer we are united with our brothers and sisters, whether we are alone in our closet or together in our com-munity: we are united to the whole church. The prayer of the community is not a collection of individual prayers: it is common prayer out of our common plight to our common Lord in our common hope. We pray as part of the communion of saints, joining the whole people of God in all history and around the globe."3 Thus, as a person baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, and who has experienced in one's own life the love and saving power of God, the Christian is able to come before God in Jesus' name to offer to God in his/her own person all of the love and gratitude, the care, concern and work toward the establishment ¯ of the kingdom which is being experienced and lived out, knowingly or unknow-ingly, by every person in the world. As a person who experiences in one's own being sinfulness, selfishness, anger, frustration, fear and oppression of others, the baptized person can come before God as Jesus did on the cross, in behalf of the sinfulness of the world and cry out for mercy and forgiveness of sin for all people. As a person who experiences, even in times of prayer itself, emptiness, a search for meaning, boredom, ignorance, a feeling of rejection, a lack of faith and trust, the Christian can unite his/her own emptiness and need with the sufferings, the hunger and search for love and meaning, which exist among all people and, with them, accept his/her human condition and beg for salvation from God as Jesus did on 3Jen"nings. Theodore W., Jr., "Prayer, The Call for God." The Christian CentuG'. April 15, 1981, pp. 410-414. Prayer as an Act of Justice / 355 the cross. A baptized person can pray in this way, for in Jesus' Spirit we are all one before God. A call to pray in this posture is a call to be truly present in solidarity with all of humanity and all of creation which "still retains the hope of being freed, like us, from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God" (Rm 8:21). It is a call to become one with the joys, sorrows, struggles and sufferings of all people and to accept in faith the saving love of God, "our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins" (Ep 1:7), so as to constantly offer to God the thanksgiv-ing and praise due him in justice. A call to stand before God in this manner of prayer in the authenticity of one's being is then, in a very real sense, an act of justice on behalf of the whole world, for it is a sharing in the surrendering love of Jesus. who throughout his life and especially in his death accepted his justification and that of all people from God who alone can save us from death and bring us into the kingdom of truth and justice. An Apostolic Spirituality for the Ministry of Social Justice by Max Oliva, S.J. Price: $.50 per copy, plu~ postage. Address: Review for Religious Rm 428 3601 Lindell Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63108 St. Ambrose's Theology of the Consecrated Virgin George E. Saint-Laurent Doctor Saint-Laurent, of the Department ~f Religious Studies at California State University (Fuller-ton). presented the content of this article as a paper to the American Academy of Religion. He may be addressed at the university. Fullerton. CA 92634. Occasionally we may observe that an individual was ahead of his or her time. More often we are scandalized that an earlier generation could have been so deaf to its prophets and so blind to its evils. The history of Christian thought discloses at least two persistent phenomena which have accompanied its dialectical development. First, when we human beings confront a dipolar aspect of the Christian mys-tery, we are almost irresistibly tempted to assume an either/or stance and opt for one extreme to the neglect of the other. We find it difficult to bear a truth which cannot be pressed into our neat categories but finds itself in a creative tension between two poles. And yet it is invariably in that delicate both/and position that Christian "catholicism" or "orthodoxy" has discovered its authentic home: both the divine and the human in both Christ and the Church, with full attention both to grace and to nature, both to faith and to reason, both to spirit and to matter. Second, since our very existence is historical, contextual, and societal, we human beings are predictably limited and conditioned by the foreshortened hori-zons of our own cultural world. As we attempt to interpret our experience in terms of Christ and make it intelligible, we find our perceptions to be prejudicial in their foci and linguistically determined in their expression. And yet the Christian believes that Christ, the subject of his or her faith, is uniquely and eternally one. We who come later can only sympathize with the giants of Christian antiquity, who, being human~ were incapable.of seeing every facet of the total Christian commitment in undistorted vision. Every Cho~stian (hinke,r risks the occupational St. Ambrose's Theology of the Virgin / 357 hazards of his enterprise: the unconscious bias, the unintentional obscurantism, the unnoticed dislocation of values, the quite innocent use of outrageously sexist, racist, or bigoted language, the accidental imbalance which is far more indebted to his or her concrete situation in this place at this time in the face of this crisis than it is to the actual data of Revelation. The purpose of this essay, is to investigate St. Ambrose's~ theglogy of the consecrated virgin, insofar as it emerges from his liturgical hymns and sermons. It is a view remarkably balanced and far less a victim of negative historical condition-ing than the portraits of his contemporaries 'in the Western Church. His was an era when Platonism, with its flight of the soul from the body, and Manichaeism, with its rejection of the human body and its sexuality as evil, were still significant intellectual currents, predisposing Christians to opt for spirit over (rather than with) matter. No less than a Jerome2 could exceed all bounds of good taste and propriety in his zealous promotion of virginity at the expense of female sexuality, marriage, and motherhood: No less than an Augustine3 could be so haunted by his own sexual confusion that he could grudgingly accept sex within marriage only if procreation were both physically possible and explicitly intended. Yet Ambrose, bishop of Mila'n, was able to nurture the highest esteem for consecrated virginity without denigrating the human body, disparaging females, or detracting from the goodness of Christian marriage.4 Unlike the vitriolic Jerome, torn as he was between a melancholic misogynism and an irrepressible delight in feminine companionship, Ambrose was able to insert into the Christian tradition a more humanistic appreciation of woman and her role. Unlike the self-alienated Augustine, torn as he was between an admira-tion for his mother Monica and a theological pessimism compounded by personal tragedy in his own sexual history, Ambrose was able to pass on a more integral and positive perspective. G. Tavard 'writes: "Ambrose was not only an enthusiastic promoter of the virginal life; he had also put forward what may well constitute the only profound theology of womanhood in the Latin world.~ ~For a life of St. Ambrose, see F. H. Dudden, The Ltfe and Times of St. Ambrose. 2 Vols. (Oxford: 1935): and A. Paredi, St. Ambrose: His L~fe and 7~mes. Tr. M. Costelloe (Notre Dame: 1964). 2On St. Jerome, see F: Murphy, Ed., A Monument to Saint Jerome (New York: 1952); and D. Wiesen, St. Jerome as a Satyrist (Ithaca: 1964). 3The literature on St. Augustine is vast. See, for instance, P. Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley: 1967); and G. Bonner, St. Augustine of Hippo: L~fe and Controversies (New York: 1963). 4This subject has been much studied in recent years. See, for example, R. Ruether, "Mothers of the Church: Ascetic Women in the Late Patristic Age," Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions. Ed. R. Ruether and E. McLaughlin (New York: 1979) 72-98: and eadem, "Virginal Feminism in the Fathers of the Church." Religion and Sexism, Ed. R. Ruether (New York: 1974) pp. 150-183: M, Maxey, "Beyond Eve and Mary," Religion for a New Generation. 2d Ed., Ed. J. Needleman, et al. (New York: 1977) 264-277: D. Carmody, Women and Worm Religions (Nashville: 1979) 113-123: E. Clark and H. Richardson, Ed., Women and Religion: A Feminist Sourcebook of Christian Thought (New York: 1977), pp. 53-77. 5Tavard, Women in the Christian Tradition (Notre Dame: 1973), p. I00. 358 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 It is important to realize just how critical the fourth century was in Church history. It was a period of transition from the. status of a despised and proscribed minority to that of a state religion professed and promoted by the Emperor himself and by most of his s.ubjects. During the era of persecution, only persons of heroic courage, high moral aspirations, and deep faith had been willing to embrace Christianity with its concomitant risk to life and property. Now, however, it had become a distinct advantage socially, economically, and politically to convert, and masses of "average" human beings sought admission. The inevitable consequence was a cooling of fervor, with a compromised commitment to the full implications of the Gospel. ~ in order to forestall unworthy "conversions," the Church instituted a lengthy catechumenate for testing and training candidates before their baptism at the Easter Vigil. In order to preserve her credibility as "The Holy Church," the author-ities created an even more exhaustive and lengthy system of "canonical penance" for the rehabilitation of public sinners who repented. But there was also a more private and individual response in the extraordinary development of asceticism. Previously it had been the martyrs who had constituted the ideal of Christian perfection. Because of their bloody sacrifice, they had been idealized as the perfect disciples who had mystically died in the Lord and could therd'ore anticipate a glorious resurrection in the same Lord. Now it had become the ascetics who achieved a "white" or spiritual martyrdom by their lives of seclusion, self-discipline, and consecrated celibacy. Women as well as men pursued the new ideal. One could retreat into the wilderness (either literally or figu.ratively), and, far from the scandalous vanity and corruption of urban life, die to oneself daily through prayer, fasts, vigils, and the consecration of one's personhood in celibacy. There were the eremitical and semi-eremiticai structures of Anthony as well as the fully cenobitical communities of Pachomius, Eustathios, and Basil the Great.6 There was the growing pressure upon priests to live celibately.7 And there were the convents for women associated with the names of Paula, Eustochium, the Melanias, and Macrina.8 On the other hand, some cohsecrated virgins simply lived privately with their parents or in their own homes or even in the homes of clergymen, although the latter practice was continuously deplored and condemned by ecclesiastical authori-ties. 9 The celebrated sister of Ambrose, Marcellina, for instance, lived with her 6See D. Chitty, The Desert a Ot)' (Oxford: 1960): C. Frazee, "Anatolian Asceticism in the Fourth Century: Eustathios of Sebastea and Basil of Caesarea," The Catholic Historical Review66(1980), pp. 16-33; G. Saint-Laurent, "St. Basil of Caesarea and the Rule of St. Benedict," Diakonia 16 (1981), pp. 71-79. 7See C. Frazee, "The Origins of Clerical Celibacy in the Western Church. Church Histor.v 41 (1972). pp. 149-167. 8See, for example, Gregory of Nyssa, Life of St. Macrina, Ed. V. Callahan. Vol, 8 in W. Jaeger (Ed.), Works (Leiden: 1952). 9See D. Bailey, The Man-Woman Relation in Christian Thought (London: 1959), p. 33. St. Ambrose's Theology of the Virgin / 359 mother and a companion in Rome. Since no convents appear to have been available at Milan, the virgins in Ambrose's care must have resided with their parents. Ambrose himself implies that the native Milanese virgins were relatively few in number, whereas young women came to Milan from Piacenza, Bologna, i~nd Mauritania to celebrate the-rite of consecration. A maiden would solemnly vow her chastity as a bride of Christ in the church before a bishop, with a ritual closely paralleling that of earthly marriage. Accord-ing to Roman custom, a bride was to wear the stola (a long outer garment), receive a fiery-coloredflammeum (her bridal veil) from the priest, and vow her fidelity to h~r bridegroom in the presence of witnesses. A virgin enteri.ng into mystical espousal with Christ also wore a stola and received the flammeum Christi to betoken her new state of life, but both were of somber color. She also pronounced her vow before witnesses, who in her case were the whole community publicly assembled to voice their approving "Amen." We do not know the actual formula of consecration invoked within the Mila-nese liturgy, but we may suppose that it would closely resemble the long preface of consecration to be found in the Gelasian Sacramentary, whose provenance is from Rome about a century later.~° Drawing upon several incidental references in the writings of Ambrose and others, F. H. Dudden reconstructs the general shape of the ceremony thus:' The congregation, at which the bishop himself was the officiating minister, was solemnized with much pomp on one of the great festivals--in the case of Marcellina on the Feast of Epiphany: more usually, however, at Easter, when it was attended by the newly baptized wearing their white robes and carrying lighted tapers. The bishop delivered an address to the' virgin, and offered a solemn prayer. The girl then publicly pledged herself to a life of chastity. Next the bishop took the veil, which had been lying on the altar, and placed it over her head, with the words, q wish to present you as a chastg virgin to Christ.' A benediction was then recited, to which the congregation responded 'Amen." At some point in the service Psalm xlv was chan!ed, and possibly some hymns in praise of virginity were sung." By virtue of her consecration, the "bride of Christ" became a special responsi-bility of her bishop, who was required to visit her regularly, open the Scriptures to her, and impart instructions to her about her duties of state. Although she was separated from the other women in the asseinbly by a screen, she was still believed to,possess a place of honor. Women would sometimes draw near to the enclosure in order to request the kiss of peace from consecrated virgins. As bishop of Milan, Ambrose fulfilled many roles which proved decisive for the later history of the Western Church. Defender of Nicene orthodoxy, champion of the Church's freedom from imperial control, channel of eastern theology to the ~0See I. Mohlberg. Ed. Liber Sacramentorum Romanae Aeclesiae Ordinis Anni Circufi (Sacramenta-rium Gelasianum). Rerum Ecclesiasticarum Documenta Series Major. Fontes IV (Rome: 1960). pp. 124-128. On the consecration of virgins, see P. Camelot. "Virginity." New Catholic Encyclopedia 14 (1967). pp. 702-703. ~tDudden. op. cir. p. 151. ~0 / Review for Religious, May-June, 1982 Latin world,!2 creator and reformer of public worship,Is spiritual father of the great Augustine: Ambrose was all of these and much more as one of the Four Great Latin Fathers.14 But the special object of Ambrose's pastoral concern throughout his years of episcopal service was the consecrated life. Ambrose has been called "The Father of Latin Hymnody.''1S Of the nineteen liturgical hymns which may be ascribed to him with greater or less certitude, five are directly pertinent to our subject, while a sixth holds.indirect interest. Since it is primarily through the sacred liturgy that Catholic and Orthodox Christians have always appropriated their beliefs and values, we may very well be confronting here effectual channels of Ambrosian thought far more significant on the popular level than any discourse could ever have been. Our first three hymns extol Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the perpetually virginal woman who was nonetheless made marvelously fruitful by the interven-tion of God. A fourth hymn glorifies a popular virgin martyr. A fifth hymn praises Christ, the Spouse of virgins. Finally, our sixth hymn expresses the fundamental spirituality of the consecrated women. Ambrose is remembered as an enthusiastic admirer of the Blessed' Virgin, and he holds a preeminent place in the development of Mariolggy. In lain surgit hora tertia,16 a hymn composed for the liturgical hour of Terce, our poet recalls how Christ entrusted his mother to the Apostle John. The strophes pertinent to our investigation, together with this writer's English translation, are as follows: celso triumphi uertice matri Ioquebatur suae: en f!lius, mater, tuus, apostole, en mater tua. praetenta nuptae foedera alto docens mysterio, ne uirginis partus sacer matris pudorem laederet. From lofty pillar of triumph ¯ He was speaking to his mother: Mother, behold thy son, Apostle. behold thy. mother. Covenants of marriage pretended Taught he with deep mystery, Lest the sacred bearing of a virgin Cast hurt upon a mother's honor. The hymn Intende, qui regis Israel17 was intended "for the Christmas liturgy, and it was an ideal opportunity for Ambrose to blend two of his favorite themes: the glories of the Word Incarnate and the wonders of Christ's virginal conception and birth through Mary. Jesus and Mary are praised together from the second stanza through the fifth. The text, together with this writer's translation, follows: ~2See Saint-Laurent, "St. Ambrose and the Eastern Fathers," Diakonia 15 (1980), pp. 23-31. t3See idem. "St. Ambrose as Channel of Eastern Liturgical Customs to the West," Diakonia 13 (1978), pp. 101-110. t4Together with Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. tSFor example, see M. McGuire, "Ambrose. St.," New Catholic Encyclopedia I (1967). p. 375; R. Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry (London: 1874), pp. 87-88: F. Raby, A Histoo, of Christian Latin Poetry 2d. Ed. (Oxford: 1953). pp. 32-36. ~rFor a critical text, see W. Bulst, Ed., Hymni latiniantiquissimi." LXXV Psalmi II (Heidelberg: 1956), p. 41. ~TFor a ~ritical text, see ibid., p. 43. St. Ambrose's Theology of the Virgin / 361 uenL redemptor gentium. ostende partum uirginis, miretur omne saeculum, tails decet partus deo. non ex uirili semine, sed mystico spiramine uerbum dei faetum est earo fructusque uentris floruit. aluus tumescit uirginis, claustrum pudoris permanet, uexilla uirtutum micam, uersatur in templo deus, proeedat e thalamo suoo pudoris aula regia, geminae gigans substantiae, ¯ alacris oecurrat uiam. Come, redeemer of the nations, Demonstrate a virgin's bearing, Let all the world be moved with wonder, So great a bearing befits our God. Not from human instigation, But from mystic inspiration Word of God did flesh become And fruit of womb did flower. Swollen grows a virgin's womb, Door of chastity remains, Virtues' beacons glitter forth, Engaged is God within his temple. ¯ Springs forth he from nuptial chamber, Royal palace of chaste modesty Giant of twofold nature he, Speedily runs he his course. The claustrum pudoris permanet of the fourth strophe is strikingly similar to phrases in Ambrose's De institutione virginis,~8 and expresses a doctrinal concern important to him: the virginity of Mary before, during, and after the birth of Jesus. Ambrose refers to the womb of Mary as aula regali uteri virginalis in that same work,!9 and g~es on to state: "Aula regialis is the virgin, who is subject not to man but to God alone." The hymn Inluminans altissimus2° is a hymn written for the observance of Epiphany, with its threefold orientation towards Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, his manifestation to the Magi, and his first miracle at Cana. Our immediate interest is focused upon the third stanza, the text of which follows, together with the present writer's translation: seu stella partum uirginis caelo micans signauerit et hoc adoratum die praesepe magos duxerit, A star shining from heaven Will have shown a virgin's giving birth And on this day will have led The Magi to adore the crib. Christ, "the most high Enlightener," has beenborn of a virgin, and so a radiant star in turn becomes a sign, bathing the crib in its light for the Magi to see. From the preceding three passages it is evident that Ambrose d~lights in dwelling upon Mary's perpetual, yet fruitful, virginity. Mary is the womanly model of the consecrated virgin par excellence, and her miraculous conception of Jesus by the power of. the Holy Spirit constitutes a quasi-paradigmatic event. The consecrated virgin, may approach the regal dignity of Mary through her own state of life, and so become spiritually in her own body a royal palace for God. The divine maternity is a privilege unique to Mary, of course, yet her self-donation to ~Ambrose. De institutione virginis 8.52 (PL 16.320). ~91bid. 12.79 (PL 16.324). 20For a critical text. see Bulst. op. cit. p. 45. 362 / Review for Religious, May-June 1982 God is imitable. Ambrose suggests that the Word can mystically enter into union with the consecrated Virgin for spiritual fruitfulness in the service of others. Our fourth hymn, Agnes beatae uirginis,2t was composed especially for a litur-gical celebration of the Feast of St. Agnes (January 21). It is effectively a poetic paraphrase of a sermon of Ambrose wherein he recounts the martyrdom, of this famous young maiden, a homily which he actually preached for that feast and which is found in his De virginibus.2~ The bishop's basic theme is praise for the valor of a maiden who willingly died as a witness to her faith in Christ. In the first stanza, Ambrose announces that it is the feastday of Agnes, who consecrated her virginity through martyrdom. In the second stanza, our author marvels'that such a child, too young for marriage, should nonetheless be suffi-ciently mature to give her life in testimony--and that at a time when even adults were wavering in the" face of persecution. In succeeding stanzas, Ambrose narrates the story which his audience knew so well. Agnes deliberately sought out martyr-dom, and presented herself as a bride about to meet her Heavenly Bridegroom, her mystic dowry being her very blood. When commanded to offer idolatrous wor-ship, she condemned the altar-fire and promise, d to exiinguish it with her blood. In concluding stanzas, our poet dwells upon Agnes' dignity upon the deathblow, as she drew her garments about herself in chaste modesty. The entire hymn is significant for our purpose, and so all eight'strophes, together with this writer's translation, are here reproduced: Agnes beatae uirginis natalis est, quo spiritum caelo refudit deb#um pio sacrata sanguine. matura maro,rio fuit matura nondum nuptiis, nutabat in uiris fides, cedebat e.ffessus senes. metu parentes territi claustrum pudoris auxeram soluit fores custodiae .tides teneri nescia. prodire quis nuptum putet, sic laeta uultu ducitur, nouas uiro.ferens opes dotata censu sanguinis. aras ~fandi numinis adolere taedis cogitur, respond#: baud tales faces sumpsere Christi uirgines. hic ignis extinguit fidem, Of the blessed virgin Agnes It is the bi~'thday, on which she Poured back her spirit owed to heaven ' Consecrated b~ her faithful blood. Mature was she for martyrdom ' Though for marriage not yet mature, Faith was faltering among men, Conceding old men to be weak. Terrified by fear her parents Had provided a prison of shame Faith dissolved the gates of custody Not knowing how to be,restrained. One might think her advancing to wed So~,joyful in countenance is she led Bringing new wealth to her bridegroom With dowry of her blood endowed. Altars of a devilish god by Tortures she is pressed to worship, Answers she: Not such fires Have Christ's virgins chosen. This flame blots out the faith, For a critical text, see ibid., p. 46. -'~Ambrose, De virginibus 1.25-29 (PI. 16.-189-190). ~ St. Ambrose's Theology of the Virgin / 363 haec flamma lumen eripit. hic hic ferite, ut profluo eruore restinguam focos. percussa quam pompam tulit ham ueste se Iolam lege?ls curare pudoris praestitit, ne quis retectam cerneret. in morte uiuebat pudor uultumque texerat manu, terram genu flexo petit lapsu uerecundo cadens. This fire extinguishes the light. Here destroy me, here, that with Spilt blood I may quench the flames. Struck down what splendor she showed For covering her total person She displayed her care for modesty Lest anyone should see her unclothed. In her death, chastity was living As with hand she veiled her face, With bent knee she besought the earth Falling forward with modest movement. Ambrose was resolutely incarnational, not only in his doctrinal convictions, but also in his pastoral instincts. For him, the cult of the martyrs--like the cult of the virgin--was but an obvious implicate of any sound and balanced Christology. Grace could transfigure the material, the earthy, and the human into a sacramental epiphany of the spiritual, the. heavenly, and the divine. It was inevitable that Ambrose shot~ld exploit the

Issue 59.3 of the Review for Religious, 2000. ; Continuing Formation Apostohc Life Fertility and Intimacy Seeking God MAY JUNE 2000 VOLUME 59 NUMBER 3 Review for Religious helps people respond and be faithful to God's universal call to holiness by making available to them the spiriiual legacies that flow from the charisms of Catholic consecrated life. Review for Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) is published bimonthly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province. Editorial Office: 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393. Telephone: 314-977-7363 ° Fax: 314-977-7362 E-Mail: foppema@slu.edu Manuscripts, books for review, and correspondence with the editor: Review for Religious ¯ 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, MO 63108-3393. Correspondence about the Canonical Counsel department: Elizabeth McDonough OP P.O. Box 29260; Washington, D.C. 20017 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Review for Religious ¯ P.O. Box 6070 ° Duluth, MN 55806. Periodical postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri, and additional mailing offices. See inside back cover for information on subscription rates. ©2000 Review for Religious Permission is herewith granted to copy any material (articles, poems, reviews) contained in this issue of Review for Religious for personal or internal use, or for the personal or internal use of specific library clients within the limits outlined in Sections 107 and/or 108 of the United States Copyright Law. All copies made under this permission must bear notice of the source, date, and copyright owner on the first page. This permission is NOT extended to copying for commercial distribu-tion, advertising, institutional promotion, or for the creation of new collective works or anthologies. Such permission will only be considered on written application to the Editor, Review for Religious. LIVING OUR CATHOLIC LEGACIES Editor Associate Editors Canonical Counsel Editor Editorial Staff Advisory Board David L. Fleming sJ Clare Boehmer ASC Philip C. Fischer SJ Elizabeth McD0nough OP Mary Ann Foppe Tracy Gramm Barbara J. Soete SSND James and Joan Felling Kathryn Richards FSP Joel Rippinger OSB Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla SJ David Werthmann CSSR Patricia V~qttberg SC MAY JUNE 2000 VOLUME 59 NUMBER 3 contents 230 continuing formation Theological Education in Jesuit Formation Avery Dulles SJ shows that some principles from St. Ignatius Loyola help in dealing theologically with three characteristics of our technological age: the expansion of personal freedom, the sharpening of historical consciousness, and globalization. 241 From Resentment to Acceptance: Elderly Religious Return Benedict Auer OSB looks at the adjustments necessary for the healthy return of elderly religious retiring to a larger community setting. 249 apostolic life Electing Leaders in Women's Congregations Beatrice M. Eichten OSF explores the issue of power in community, as it underlies both election and ongoing leadership/membership relationships. 263 Apostolic Religious Communities in America: Moving in the Right Direction! Francis W. Danella OSFS stops, glances back appreciatively at the road U.S. religious life has traveled, turns again, and sees encouraging signs on the new road ahead. 271 Look to the Future Joel Giallanza CSC identifies some five essential tasks if religious life is to continue moving vigorously into the future. Review for Religious 277 fertility and intimacy Fertility Awareness and Women Religious Ren~e Mirkes OSF presents medical and spiritual-theology reasons for the practice of fertility awareness in the lives of consecrated women religious. 286 "I Stand Here Ironing": Delays in Developing Intimacy among Candidates and Members Suzanne Mayer IHM addresses intimacy concerns at two points: (1) if women entering religious-life communities come deficient in forming voluntary closeness and (2) if formation within religious life lacks such vital experiences. 294 seeking God Sharing Our Spirituality: Top-Down, Bottom-Up, or Lateral? Bertrand Webster FMS gives perspectives to consecrated people sharing a spirituality which likely was a lay inheritance in its origin. 299 Two Journeys: Coming Home and Going on Pilgrimage Janet Malone CND proposes hard questions to women and men religious about being at home in their community and about being available for a true pilgrimage. 3 11 Let Me Alone! True Christian Solitude Donald Macdonald SMM gives insights into why solitude is a necessary part of our Christian life and how it can be practiced. departments 228 Prisms 318 Canonical Counsel Duration of the Novitiate: General Norms 324 Book Reviews May-June 2000 Ergiveness is a major theme of this jubilee year. Forgiveness is not unknown in various religious traditions, but it holds central place in Christianity. The one truly Christian prayer--the prayer common to all ChristiansIis the Our Father as taught by .Jesus. In this prayer, the only phrase that interrelates God's action and our own is forgiveness. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who tres-pass against us." As we recognize anew in this jubilee year, forgive-ness does not come easy to us. It is hard for us to ask for forgiveness. Moreover, while God is ever ready to for-give, we do not so readily find other persons forgiving us when we express our sorrow and our desire to be forgiven. From those who seek forgiveness, others may ' ask more--the fulfillment of this or that condition, the probation of longer time, a retribution that demands something beyond the debt incurred--before they even consider forgiving us. In the United States, the inmates on death row may truly be contrite and seek forgiveness, but the state and those offended still demand punish-ment, the punishment even of death. If we limit our-selves to a justice system, there is little place for forgiveness, whether it is the justice formally imposed by a secular judicial system or informally exercised by us in our day-to-day familial and more general social interactions. The worldly social context in which we are immersed makes it difficult, then, for us to forgive as Review for Religious well as to .seek forgiveness. The difficulty goes beyond the indi-vidual seeking forgiveness or the individual offering forgiveness. Each one is involved in the decision made regardless of the other individual involved. We know that we may seek, even beg, for-giveness and meet a stony heart. We also know that we may offer forgiveness, but we may be met by the turning away of the offend-ing party. Regardless, the beauty of the grace of forgiveness remains for the one seeking to forgive or to be forgiven, even when it is not reciprocated. Above and beyond the difficulty of a forgiving attitude is the true wonder of reconciliation. For reconciliation to happen, which is beyond forgiveness, it takes two--both parties active and, in a way, passive as well. From the first moment in the pursuit of rec-onciliation, a cooperation, a working together, is necessary. That forgiveness should be an integral part of our everyday Christian living is presumed. But, as St. Paul imaged it, our real work as Christians is the v?ork of reconciliation. We are given by God the "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:18). In such a ministry, we will know the demands of dialogue, and we will experience the fatigue of negotiation. But this effort is required if we are to act a~ ambassadors of reconciliation. As we live this jubilee year, we find ourselves called as Christians to live, with renewed effort, the forgiveness that must be an integral part of our life with Christ. But more, we step for-ward to work at a special responsibility within our Christian voca-tion: to be a people committed to laboring for reconciliation. In a world, in a nation, in a church, in parish life, in family life, in community life, we have much to do if we are to work at being ambassadors of reconciliation. David L. Fleming SJ Note: I draw your attention to the most recent Best of the Review book, titled Praying as a Christian. You will find it a rich resource book for personal growth, for help in counseling and directing others, and for class study and discussion. Please see the last page of this issue for the order form. 229-- May-June 2000 continuing formation AVERY DULLES Theological Education in Jesuit Formation Jesuits ire fortunate in having some principles for the study of theology spelled out for them in the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, including the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius himself, as we know, spent some eleven years of his adult life in studies, and sev-eral of these years were devoted specifically to the study of theology. He and all of his first companions obtained masters' degrees at Paris before they embarked on their apostolate. Having experimented with various programs of study, Ignatius became convinced that the curriculum at Paris was the best, and he prescribed that theology should not be taught until'the student has received a solid foundation in philosophy (Constitutions, §366).' St. Ignatius and Theology Anyone reading the Spiritual Exercises or the Spiritual Diary will be struck by the deep theological content of Ignatius's piety. For him the most holy Trinity, the incarnation of the Son, the redemptive death of Christ, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the mediation of Mary and the saints were not just 23,0 Avery Dulles SJ presented this paper 30 December 1999 at the New Millennium Formation Conference held in Barrington, Illinois. His address is Fordham University; 441 East Fordham Road; Bronx, New York 10458. Review for Religious theological theorems. They were realities known to him from experience, so much so that in his Autobiography he claims he would have believed these great mysteries of faith even had they not been taught by Scripture and the church. Through prayer every Jesuit should seek to attain something of this kind of experiential knowl-edge in order to have a more personal apprehension of what God has revealed. Theology is supremely important for the religious life, accord-ing to St. Ignatius, and was foundational for the apostolate of the Jesuit order. In a crucially important paragraph of the Constitutions he writes: Since the end of the Society and of its studies is to aid our fellowmen to the knowledge and love of God and to the salvation of their souls, and since the subject of theology is the means most suited to this end, in the universities of the Society the principal emphasis ought to be placed upon it. Accordingly, there should be diligent treatment by excel-lent professors of what pertains to scholastic doctrine and Sacred Scripture, as also to that part of positive theology which is conducive to the aforementioned end, without entering into the part of canon law directed toward court trials. (§446) In the 16th century many humanists, including Ei'asmus, advo-cated the abandonment of Scholasticism and a return to Sacred Scripture and the church fathers as sources for theology. Ignatius was himself ardently devoted to the Scriptures, as is evident from every page of the Spiritual Exercises. He also had a great love for the fathers, as may be seen from many of his letters, such as the Letter on Obedience and the Letter on Perfection, both addressed to the scholastics of Coimbra. In the Spiritual Exercises Ignatius declares that the study of the fathers is well suited "to rouse the affections so that we are moved to love and serve God our Lord in all things." But he then adds that the Scholastic .doctors, such as St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, and Peter Lombard, had the advantage of being able to build on the teachings of the fathers and saints. They are, moreover, better able to define and elucidate the doctrine of the faith according to the needs of our times, and to expose and refute prevalent errors and fallacies (§363). It is noteworthy that Ignatius picks names from the golden age of Scholasticism and omits more recent theologians such as Scotus, Occam, Biel, .Gersgn, and Nicholas of Cusa, all of whom he may have seen as less reliable. A further point that Ignatius makes in favor of the Scholastic May-June 2000 Dulles ¯ Tbeological Education The term "hie 'archical church" was a favorite of Ignatius, occurring three times in the text of the Spiritual Exercises. doctors is that they were able to profit from "the decisions of the councils and the definitions and decrees of our holy mother church" (§363). Emphatically a man of the church, Ignatius con-sidered that theology had to be done within the church and in obedience to church authorities.2 While he upheld the value of mystical graces, whether received by himself or by others, he insisted that such graces should be tested for their authenticity by reference to the teaching of the church. No conflict was possible for, as he put it, "one and the same Spirit" is at work in the hier-archical church and in the most intimate personal experiences (§365). Authentic mystical gifts, he once wrote to Francis Borgia, are to be esteemed, "always provided that humility and reverence are preserved towards our holy mother church and towards the rulers and teachers appointed in her." 3 The term "hierarchical church" was a favorite of Ignatius, occurring three times in the text of the Spiritual Exercises (§§ 170, 353,365). This epithet may in fact have been an original coinage of Ignatius himself.4 He looked upon the church as an organized society in which some members by divine institution exercise spiritual authority over others. In the first of his Rules for Thinking with the Church, calling for obedience of the judg-ment, he insists that "we must put aside all judgment of our own~ and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things the true spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy mother, the hierarchi-cal church" (§353). In Rule 13 he lays down what some regard as a scandalous principle: "What seems to me white, I will believe to be black if the hierarchical church so defines" (§365). This principle, I submit, should be almost self-evident for Catholics. The faithful are required to believe on the authority of the church mysteries such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, all of which are contrary to sensory appearances or to our ordinary ways of thought. As Thomas Aquinas writes in his famous Eucharistic hymn Adoro te devote: "Seeing, touching, tast- Review for Religious ing are in thee deceived; / How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed."s In a particular way Ignatius and his first companions trusted the guidance of the pope, whom they saw as the vicar of Christ, for the teaching and government of the universal church. According to Hugo Rahner, "Christ's vicar in Rome was for [Ignatius] a kind of supreme instance of that visibility which was both an essential mark of the church ,nd a necessary yardstick for measuring the invisible.''6 For this rea~.on he and his first companions placed the Society at the disposal of the pope, so that he might direct them to do what was most conducive to the glory Of God and the sal-vation of souls. They were convinced that Christ himself, through the mediation of his vicar, would show them the way to his greater service) That act of confidence was amply justified by the suc-cessful collaboration to which it led. In the Constitutions Ignatius laid down some very clear direc-tives about the kind of doctrine that should be taught in the for-mation of Jesuits. He writes, "The doctrine which they ought to follow in each subject should be that which is safest and most approved, as also the authors who teach it" (§358). A little later he v~rites: "Those books will be lectured on which in each subject have been deemed to contain more solid and safe doctrine"(§464). In the remainder of the paragraph, Ignatius specifies that there should be lectures on the Old Testament, the New Testament, and , the Scholastic doctrine of Thomas Aquinas. Ignatius's insistence on safer and more approved opinions does not flow from timidity, but from a holy reverence for the purity of God's word. Lest any-one think that these norms of St. Ignatius are no longer relevant aCto tmhep leevmee onft atrhye Nthoirrmd sm aipllpernonvieudm. i,n i t1 m99a5y bbye tuhsee f3u4lt tho G neontee rtahlat the Congregation reaffirm these principles in slightly modified lan-guage. The norms specify: 101. Professors should bear in mind that they do not teach in their own name, but in the church, in accordance with the mission received from the church, and that they teach joined together in charity in the Society of Jesus. Hence, they should let themselves be guided by the mind and will of the church, show proper respect for the teach-ing authority of the church, and have regard for the build-ing up of the faith in their students and in all the faithful. At the same time they should keep in mind those who are separated from us. May-June 2000 Dulles * Theological Education 102. Both professors and scholastics should faithfully adhere to and diligently study the written word of God along with sacred tradition. Let them have high regard for the teaching of the holy fathers and other doctors, specif-ically St. Thomas, and for those authors of the Society who are highly regarded in the church. 103, §1. Professors should clearly distinguish between matters of faith to be held by all and teachings approved by the consent of theologians. Probable, new, and personal explanations are to be proposed modestly. Norm 104 provides for the removal, in certain cases, of pro-fessors whose teaching departs from the doctrine of the magis-terium. As these quotations abundantly show, Ignatius did not con-ceive of the Society as a kind of theological avant-garde, adven-turously blazing new trails for the magisterium to follow. He would have condemned any such attitude for its lack of humility and sub-ordination. Jesuits, in his view, should prefer the safer and more approved doctrine and never fail in respect for the hierarchical teachers. Thanks to their acceptance'of the doctrine of those who teach in the name of Christ, they will have a solid base from which to engage in fruitful theological reflection. Ignatius and his companions were keenly alert'to the dan-gers posed by reform movements in the church of their day, espe-cially to crypto-Protestant positions being preached in Catholic pulpits in Italy by priests such as Bernardino Ochino, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Agostino Mainardi. To guard against such doctrinal innovations, Ignatius, after moving to Italy in 1535, added the last five of the Rules for Thinking with the Church (SpEx §§366-370). He there advocates speaking with great pru-dence so as not to play into the hands of those who are seeking to undermine the doctrines of the church. These rules apply, he says, "above all in times which are as dangerous as ours" (§369). Were he alive today, he might find our own times no less dan-gerous than the early 16th century. ---234j The Jesuit Theological Tradition The early Jesuits threw themselves into the struggle against heresy throughout Western Europe. They rendered outstanding service as papal theologians at the Council of Trent. Though few in numbers, they were largely responsible for the successful preser- Review for Religious vation of Catholicism in Austria, Bavaria, the Rhineland, the Low Countries, and Poland. Peter Canisius and Robert Bellarmine, as doctors of the church, provided the theological rationale for this work. Inspired by love of Catholic truth and devotion to the Holy See, many Jesuits laid down their lives in the effort to regain England and Scotland for the faith. In subsequent centuries Jesuits, working closely with the Holy See, led the opposition to Baianism, Jansenism, Gallicanism, and various forms of rationalism and fideism, thus helping the Catholic Church to clarify and develop its own doctrine. The dogmatic schemata for Vatican I were almost exclusively com-posed by Jesuits. Under Leo XIII and Pius X, the Society promoted the renaissance of Thomistic philosophy and The Ignatian theological heritage is not static and repetitive, but dynamic and cautiously creative. theology. In the 20th century Jesuits were at the forefront of many movements of renewal, such as biblical studies, the liturgical move-ment, the ecumenical movement, and the theology of ressource-ment, sometimes miscalled la nouvelle thdologie. The Ignatian theological heritage, therefore, is not static and repetitive, but dynamic and cautiously creative. As Ignatius him-self adapted the Spiritual Exercises to different persons, consid-ering their age, health, education, and intelligence, so the church must adapt its presentation' of the Christian message to the chang-ing times. This process of adaptation is a delicate one because in our haste to adapt we could easily lose sight of the real content. My advice to the student and the young Jesuit theologian would therefore be to immerse himself in the sacred sources of Scripture and tradition, knowing that one cannot pass on what one has not first received. Ignatius himself spent more than .a decade in philo-sophical and theological studies before presenting himself for priestly ordination, and we should not do less. He loved the Scriptures, the fathers, and the Scholastic doctors, especially Thomas Aquinas, and we can drink at the same wells. Only after having mastered Christian doctrine in its purity and integrity can we adapt our presentation of it without risk of losing the substance. May-June 2000 Dulles * Theological Education I The Technological Age To whom or to what should we adapt as we are swept into the third millennium of Christianity? Obviously, to our own age. Although this age is too complex to be described in a few sen-tences, it might be designated, in a word, as the age of technol-ogy- an age replete with dazzling new possibilities for transmitting the faith, but also with unprecedented dangers for faith itself. The rapidly burgeoning means of electronic communication make it possible to reach new audiences and to present the faith in more varied ways than were previously possible. But we cannot be sure that our presentations will be effective. Can we confront people with the Christian message in its full depth and integrity, eliciting a firm response of faith? The ambivalence of the age is illustrated by several new factors, all intimately connected with technological advancement: the expansion of personal freedom, the sharpening of historical consciousness, and globalization. Each of these factors demands a theological response. The expansion of human freedom results in part from technol-ogy itself. Until now, people's lives were generally predetermined by the circumstances of their birth. Their nationality, their social status, their language, their occupation, and likewise their religion were normally those of their parents and grandparents. While this is still the case in many parts of the globe, it is increasingly less true in affluent countries such as our own. People are what they choose to be. Religious adherence is a matter of personal decision. St. Ignatius, living at the dawn of the new era, grasped the crucial importance of decision making and made it the central theme of the Spiritual Exercises. He had an acute perception of the gift of freedom and of the need to use it wisely. In his Rules for Thinking with the Church, he put his followers on guard against what he called "the poison of doing away with liberty" (§369). Down through the centuries Jesuits have contributed to the theology of freedom in various fields. Some, such as Luis Molina, dealt with the dilemma of human freedom and divine sovereignty in the distribution of grace. Jesuit moral theologians, defending freedom ofconscience, opposed rigorism in its various forms. Jesuit political theologians, protesting against tyrannical govern-ments, helped to lay down the theological foundations for the modern democratic state. Closer to our own time, John Courtney Murray was the principal architect of Vatican II's epoch-making Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis humanae). Review for Religious In our culture today, freedom is badly misunderstood. All too many define it as an entitlement to do what I choose without regard for my responsibilities. Freedom is seen as something opposed to commitment, and thus also to religious commitment, including especially commitment to the priestly or religious state. We urgently require a philosophy and theology in which freedom is linked with responsibility. It needs to be more clearly shown that freedom is enhanced and fulfilled by adherence to the true and the good, and that only Christ, who is the truth, can make us truly free (Jn 8:32). A second characteristic of our technological era is the inten-sification of historical consciousness. Under the impact of new inventions, our world is changing so rapidly that we are in danger of estrangement from the past. It is easy to fall into a kind of his-torical relativism, in which the certainties of our predecessors are subjected to doubt or rejection simply because they are old. In the religious area, some find it difficult to give more than a tentative and provisional assent to articles of faith, assuming that they may be invalidated by some future discoveries. Standing as he did at the end of the Middle Ages and the dawn of modern times, St. Ignatius knew how to deal with historical change without loss of permanent truth. Although he was involved in the Catholic Reformation and established an original style of Catholic religious life, he was quick to recognize and resist osten-sible reforms that were contrary to the true Catholic spirit. In our day we face even more radical problems. Since Christianity is a historical religion, we should have no difficulty in accepting the fact of change. But history is not the ultimate horizon of the human spirit, which reaches out to the eternal. Through God's gift, the human mind can grasp permanent and unalterable truths. With the aid of deep philosophical and the-ological study, we can help our contemporaries to see that God will not cease to be God and that Jesus Christ is always to be adored as the Son of God, the same yesterday, today, and for-ever (Heb 13:8). The church is and remains the pillar and the ground of truth (1 Tm 3:15) because Christ remains with it to the end of the age (Mr 28:20). A third characteristic of our era is globalization. Our con-sciousness is not limited to any particular region, nation, or con-tinent. Religiously, this means that we are increasingly exposed to the claims of many different religions and ideologies. In a country May-June 2000 237 -- Dulles ¯ Tbeological Education such as the United States, innumerable churches and religions rub shoulders day by day. Is it not arrogance, some ask, for any religion or church to claim privileged access to the truth? 'Here again Ignatius can be a guide. Living at a time when Western Europe was ceasing to be religiously united, he realized the need to resist unsound doctrines. W~th a vision encompassing the whole world, he sent out companion Jesuits to evangelize the new world, Africa, and Asia. Before long, Francis Xavier would be debating with bonzes in Japan, and Jesuit missionaries would be inculturating the faith by means of the Paraguay reductions and similar experiments in the Americas. Today we are witnessing religious and cultural interaction on a much vaster scale. The new situation creates opportunities for understanding and dia.logue, overcoming the parochialism of the past. But it also contains dangers of hostility and conflict or, at the other extreme, agnosticism and religious indifference. Some fall into a superficial religious relativism, as though Buddha could be for Buddhists and Krishna for Hindus what Jesus Christ is for Christians. One of the major problems of our day is to construct a viable theology of religious pluralism--one that gives due value to all religions without compromising the dogmatic truths of our Christian faith. Discerning the Times In its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes), the Second Vatican Council recalls the church's duty to "scrutinize the signs of the times and to interpret them in the light of the gospel" (GS §4). It declares that the church, led by the Spirit of God who fills the whole earth, "labors to deci-pher authentic signs of God's presence and purpose in the hap-penings, needs, and desires" of men and women of our day (GS §11). A little later the same document points out that it is the task of the entire church--pastors, theologians, and the laity--"to hear, distinguish, and interpret the many voices of our age, and to judge them in the light of the divine word" (GS §44). St. Ignatius is an outstanding master of the art of discern-ment. In the book of the Exercises, he provides two admirable sets of rules for the discernment of spirits. He puts us on guard against deceptions in which we might easily be entangled. These principles, I believe, apply not only to individual decision mak- Review for Religiotts ing about something like a vocation, but also to the church's effort to discern the signs of the times and to adapt prudently to new conditions of life. In this connection it is well to keep in mind another key Ignatian principle, that of agere contra. Ignatius bends over back-ward, so to speak, in order to defend the church on precisely those points where he sees the enemy employing his deceptions. Several times in the Exercises he states that we should always do the oppo-site of what the tempter, or the evil spirit, is urging (§350). "The enemy," he writes, "becomes weak, loses courage, and turns to flight with his seductions as soon as one leading a spiritual life faces his temptations boldly, and does exactly the opposite of what he suggests" (§325). When the traditional doctrine of the church is being attacked, we should avoid anything that smacks of compromise. On the con-trary, we should present the received doctrine at its full strength, throwing our entire weight on the side of the scales contrary to the dominant temptation. Ignatius himself does this in his Rules for Thinking with the Church, in which he calls upon Catholics to praise the religious institutions and practices thaf are currently under attack. It will be for the Jesuits of your generation to organize the Society's response to the dominant temptations of the present age. The church requires a team of highly educated persons, able to engage in the intellectual apostolate on a variety of levels and in various modes, such as teaching in schools and universities, preach-ing, writing, and electronic styles of communication. Mere activism is not enough. The church has the right to expect from the Society of Jesus the capacity to understand the problems at some depth. We must see the plausibility of the fal-lacies and be sensitive to the temptations to dilute or fall away from the faith. And, having seen these things, we should throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the struggle, acting energetically against the predominant temptations. The Topic and the Point I may seem to have gone somewhat beyond my assigned topic, which was to deal with Jesuit formation. But I believe that noth-ing I have said is beside the point. I am pleading for a theology that is solidly founded on Scripture and tradition, utterly loyal to the May-June 2000 Dulles ¯ Theolog~cal Educa~ion m'agisterium and to the pope, nourished by reverent prayer and sacramental worship. In matters open to debate, we Jesuits should, I believe, follow the safer and more approved opinions. At the same time we should courageously face the deepest questions of our own day, making the necessary adaptations without the slightest compromise in matters of doctrinal truth. Using the techniques of Ignatian discernment, we should seek to mount a balanced cri-tique of the emerging technological culture. To do this we need an updated theology of freedom, of historicity, and of intercultural and interreligious dialogue. If the Society of Jesus is seen to be effectively addressing cru-cial issues such as these, it will earn the gratitude and respect of all who love our holy faith. It will attract talented and dedicated can-didates and will, I believe, enjoy a new springtime at the beginning of the new millennium. Notes l The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary. Norms (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996). Numbers refer to paragraphs of the Constitutions. 2 On Ignatius as vir ecclesiasticus, see Henri de Lubac, The Splendor of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), pp. 241-278, esp. pp. 249 and 258-267. 3 Hugo Rahner, Ignatius the Theologian (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990), p. 229. 4 Yves Congar, L'Eglise de Saint Augnstin i, l'gpoque moderne (Paris: Cerf, 1970), p. 369. s I here use the translation by Gerard Manley Hopkins. In the orig-inal Latin these verses go: "Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, / Sed auditu solo tuto creditur." 6 Rahner, Ignatius the Theologian, pp. 219-220. 7 Rahner, Ignatius the Theologian, p. 221. --- 2405 "Review for Religious BENEDICT AUER From Resentment to Acceptance: Elderly Religious Return Ibn recent years a topic of concern for religious communities, oth male and female, has been the return of large numbers of community members who are now retiring or have become too old or ill to continue in their present apostolates. Many come back full of resentment, not wishing to return under any cir-cumstances to an institution they left twenty, thirty, or even fifty years ago. The place they return to is not the place they left. In many cases they left before Vatican Council II and now are return-ing to a motherhouse or monastery they never lived in--for it has taken on a totally different aspect physically, psychologically, and even spiritually. Not only are they not prepared to come "home" to such alien places, almost like different planets; they return as strangers. The religious who have remained home or are now living in the moth-erhouse often do not know these returning persons except as names on rosters or ordos. Sadly, these religious often see the returning members as a burden or an intrusion. The welcome is there, but sometimes not as real as it should be. Superiors find themselves faced with people who have not wished to return, who may have been sent away years ago because they were not "good" community members or were more adapted to the external apos- Benedict Auer OSB returns to our pages after some years. He has a doctorate in Christian spirituality and is an associate professor of edu-cation at Saint Martin's College; 5300 Pacific Avenue, Southeast; Lacey, Washington 98503. -24! May-j~tne 2000 Auer ¯ From Resentment to Acceptance tolate. And meanwhile the local community wonders who these incoming people are. This is a crucial issue for our graying communities, and one that is only now starting to be addressed. Having raised the issue with many different religious communities, I have found one uni-versal response: "Yes, it is occurring with us, but what do we do?" It would be foolish to think that I have a universal answer, but I know that we need to look at the problem. This article will address some common issues and may help us think about our hospitality toward longtime members who have not lived at home, but are now returning to that "home" as a place to die. Offering Hospitality A key to Benedictine hospitality is "treating all guests as Christ." Usually Benedictine monasteries are noted for their hos-pitality. It is easy to treat guests well because they come and even-tually go. Being hospitable to our own members who come and stay is more difficult. But in truth these returning religious are guests too. Why? Because they have to be newly introduced to what life is like now at a given institution or motherhouse. Even such a simple thing as the daily horarium is new to them. Many left years ago when 4:30 or 5 was the rising hour and often the entire Office and even Mass were crammed into a small section of the day so that "other things could be done." After Vatican II the Liturgy of the Hours came to be said at the proper times, yet out in the parish and school apostolates this was often not the case. The people returning may not have been saying the Office regularly or may have been saying it only in a modified form. Those who prayed the liturgical hours in private have to relearn doing it once again as a member of a choir or community. But how do you gently yet firmly instruct someone who has been a religious or monk longer than you have been alive? Returning members need a care-filled orientation. (It might not be good to call it an orientation, but that is what it is.) They are deeply in need of compassion. They have been serving the community for most of their lives, often entering at fourteen or sixteen years of age and giving their entire lives to the service of the Lord as members of that community. When they are "forced" to return to the motherhouse or monastery, they have the rug pulled out from undertheir feet. They leave behind the local Review for Religious support system they have had for many years, and in some cases, because of distance or infirmity, they are unable to maintain even minimal contact with their friends in their former surroundings. Often these religious feel more alone than eve~" at a time when they need friends and support persons more than ever. The people of the motherhouse or monastery community are so busy with various responsibilities that they have little time to help these returnees adjust to their new environment. Someone within the community should be appointed just for this purpose. Sadly, a one-week retreat has not been enough to introduce these religious to rudimentary aspects of life in their old yet new com-munity. Many people in the new community do not know them: they have heard of them, but they do not share common experiences. One or two of their classmates may have remained at or returned to the institution, but this is seldom enough. Psychologically they feel abandoned. They have given their lives to an apostolate, and now it has left them, at least in their own estimation. Where they are now required to go and live is not what they expected; it is not how they expected to await death. Many missionary orders have this same problem after their members have spent years in a mission thousands of miles away. Aging missionaries may be required to leave all the friends they have made in the missions and to return to a climate in which they no" longer feel at Aging missionaries may be required to leave all the friends they have made in the missions and to return to a climate in which they no longer feet at home. home. In such circumstances they need to be given a reintroduc-tion that will help them move from being guests to being fellow religious once again. They need someone to accompany them at Office recitation and even to inform them about community events and about simple things like how to use the washing machines and where to find various necessities like mops or bandages. Gentling Resentment Another problem is anger or resentment. Many of these members are not returning as happy campers. Some are down- May-June 2000 243 -o- Auer * From Resentment to Acceptance right angry men and women. They have to go through the steps on death and dying outlined by Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross, for their previous lives have ceased to exist. At first they are in denial, denying that thirty or forty years have passed and that what they have given their lives for no longer needs them. Many felt them-selves irreplaceable and now find themselves, in one way or another, abandoned. The natural next step is anger. Recently I was present when a returning monk was met by another monk before dinner. The returning monk was angry, and so, when the other monk said, "Isn't it great to be home and no longer responsible for a large parish?" the response was less than edifying. The returnee brought to speech what was inside. Another monk, asked whether he was happy to be home after being away for years, replied, "This is not my home." These were not the right places and times for such feelings of resentment to come out. But no other place or time had been arranged, and so the feelings spilled out here, much to the embarrassment of the community and of the guests who were present. For all concerned, better occasions should be created for returnees to articulate their anger. Then, of course, bargaining begins along this line: "I will go back eventually to do some parish work, or teach part-time, or help the new priest." Additionally, bargaining will take on many different character-istics. Eventually the returnees realize that they have exagger-ated a feeling of despair~maybe not total despair, but despair nevertheless: "I am waiting to die . . . I have nothing to look forward to but death. I have no value." Communities often fail to realize that this crisis is taking place. I have heard superiors say, "Well, you now have time to rest," the worst response that could be made. These people do not want to rest: perpetual rest is staring them in the face. They need a program that helps them see aspects of them-selves they have forgotten. As active religious, they may have been neglectful of prayer. Some reintroductions to contempla-tive prayer might help, but people should not be pushed into them. One monk told me that at ninety-six years of age he was in charge of praying for vocations. He took this responsibility seri-ously. He had worked in parish ministry until he was ninety-five and now was adjusting to inactivity and doing an excellent job of it. He had reached the final stage: acceptance. He had accepted that he would not be returning to his apostolate, but would Review for Religious remain home. This was not fatalism. Religious all too frequently move from despair to fatalism, and everyone around them suffers, and prays for their happy death, and hopes it comes quickly. There are, of course, also many who return and do not take long to pass through these stages and adapt quickly to community life, at least on the surface. I remember a returning monk (he had been a parish priest and a hospital chaplain) who seemed to fit in immediately. But six months later he was dead. I remember find-ing him in his cell with paper on his bed so his shoes would not make a mark on the bedspread. He was a good man, but as an introvert nothing came out; his feelings remained within, and he soon died, never really having accepted his fate. Some religious returning to the community are not just anx-ious, but living in fear. One religious told me that his order has set aside a house in Ireland for its retiring members. They are sent there from the missions to die. Many have spent their lives in African countries, and now, returning after forty or fifty years, they are scared. Death is easy to address in someone else but not in ourselves. Some of us feel unafraid of anything until we are faced with our own vulnerability and eventual death. Some returnees are sick or even terminally ill, but many are not. A cousin of mine, after spending much of her life in missionary work in China, was imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II and by communists afterwards. When she finally returned home, she was sent to a new convent built just for the elderly. There, isolated from the convent and motherhouse she knew, she felt abandoned by her sisters. She wanted to walk the grounds of the convent she had been a part of long ago. She could not. After a few years she died, I believe not from illness but of a bro-ken heart. I have talked with many other retired and elderly reli-gious who feel the same. There are, of course, illnesses that require special treatment. And there are terminal cancer patients who need help the com-munity cannot adequately give. But some commfinities have cre-ated "dumping ground" convents or monasteries for their elderly or retired religious, places to put them so they are not in the way. Of this, one superior said, "They are happier together." Are they? I wonder. For they are now without meaning in their lives. They do not have around them their fellow religious to help them, nor are they let in on what is occurring in their reli-gious congregation. May-June 2000 Auer * From Resentment to Acceptance r Finding Meaning. Part of the problem is that these returnees need something to do. Their lives seem to have lost meaning. In a monastery the suggestion was once made to assign several retired monks some manual labor to do, like cleaning a floor or setting up the refec-tory for meals. The abbot's response was "These are priests. They cannot be asked to do manual labor." How sad! Many of them would have loved to do something. Any service given to the com-munity is better than sitting and watching television all day long. Communities have to find ways to employ returning religious. Today, when many retire quite young, a good number start new careers. Permitting and encouraging this is the least we can do for them. We should call on the abilities of our retired members. We should give them as much attention as we give to the recruit-ment of new members, for this reason among more urgent and important ones: the treatment that candidates see our elderly and retired members receiving will affect their own decision to enter or stay in the community. Most communities have addressed the issue of caring for ill members and those with handicaps. We have insurance policies, we have arrangements with nursing homes, and we have even added infirmary wings to our buildings. But beyond that not much is done. One sees elderly members wandering listlessly down community hallways. They need access to events in the house and in the surrounding community. My parents and many others in their eighties travel across the country to visit people and to see things that interest them. Many elderly religious have interests they were once too busy to pursue, and now they have time. I know a monk who wrote articles on contemplative prayer until he was in his late eighties. Some religious can finally work on the rose garden that they never had time for before. My pre-sent abbot hopes to write that book on birds, an intense interest of his, when he retires. Communities sometimes have to help their elderly discover what they would like to do. We can help people do this by initi-ating some semiretirem~ent programs in which people can start cultivating other interests before they turn eighty or ninety. This is not the job of the superior alone, but also of the entire com-munity, including the older people themselves. Religious should not look at retirement or a smaller work assignment as an indi-cation of their own failure. These things are, rather, new oppor- Review for Religious tunities to grow in ways that most of us will be called to do. Hopefully, religious will be encouraged not to work themselves to death, something that communities too often considered sim-ply heroic. Working ourselves to death is likely to be suicidal, not heroic. I heard one aged religious say, "It is one way out of here." What a sad comment on a life dedicated to Christian prin-ciples and an active apostolate! Included in this program to re-form our returning religious should be some counselors to work with them. Many may think that these religious would not go near a coun-selor, but I disagree. They may have been too busy to take the time for their own personal growth, and now they are able to do so. Some may need extensive counseling to help them cope with a fear of death, facing the unknown, and even facing themselves. We are all called to conversion, and many have not had the time to really convert in the Lonergan sense, "to probe into the depths of our being" and accomplish "a radical trans-formation." I have seen elderly and retired members of communities do just that. I have heard stories of hor-ror: "Father was such a terror in the classroom," "Sister was a beast toward her children in the first grade." I have met these people at seventy or eighty and found them delightful and deeply religious. What had happened? Often they were not suited to teaching, but more often they had undergone a radical conver-sion in their latter years. This call was to acceptance, and many have accepted their vocation with a new emphasis on contempla-tion or prayer. Such transformations are a joy to behold. Their communities have been supportive and given them an opportunity to tell their stories, stories that are stories of God, of God in their lives. Indeed, such stories are more for our benefit than theirs. Each of us walks a similar path, and we need to hear the witness of those who have gone before us. Father John Scott OSB, a professor of history at St. Martin's College and a confrere, has done a wonderful job of accumulat-ing an oral history, recording what people can recall and tell us of our past. Although it is an historical record, it is also a story of individuals being called to conversion--struggling with and finally accepting what has happened in their lives. Experience Communities sometimes have to help their elderly discover what they would like to do. 247 May-June 2000 Auer * From Resentment to Acceptance comes first, meaning later. Father Scott helps monks in our com-munity see the meaning of their lives by helping them tell their story. Many other communities are doing similar things with oral history. Finally, I would suggest something else, a change in our for-mation programs. During formation religious should be explic-itly taught that we do not own our apostolates. They do not belong to us; they are our mission, and our mission is from Jesus Christ. Many religious spend their lives building kingdoms-- from snack bars to institutions to parishes. They consider these their own domains. But apostolate assignments may be changed. Young recruits need to be made aware of this when they enter, and they may also need to be reminded from time to time so that they remember it even when they are eighty or ninety. These suggestions may give rise to further dialogue on this continuing problem. In justice we cannot assign persons to one or two apostolates over a span of fifty or sixty years and then not help them adjust to a new segment of life: retirement. Whatever their temperament or their virtue, the elderly of the present and the future need compassion, and new members need to see that we treat our returning lifelong members with as much charity and hospitality as if they were simply guests. They, of course, are more than guests. The love we show them is an important con-temporary way of following St. Benedict's recommendation to treat all guests as Christ. Bibliography Auer, Benedict. "Monastic Asylums," on institutionalization and monastic formation. Human Development 19, no. 4 (Winter 1998), pp. 35-39. Ferruci, Piero. What We May Be: The Vision and Techniques of Psychosynthesis. London: Thorsons, 1995. Fry, Timothy, ed. The Rule of St. Benedict in English (RB 1980). Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1982. Goffman, Erving. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1961. Lonergan, Bernard, SJ. "Theology in Its New Context." In The Theology of Renewal, Vol. 1. Montreal: Palm Publications, 1968. Review for Religious BEATRICE M. EICHTEN Electing Leaders in Women's Congregations Election in a religious community is always a time of anxiety, tension, and hope. The impact of elected lead-ership on each person and on the future of the commu-nity is significant, even though communities know that in four to six years new leaders will be elected. When women's religious congregations elect leadership, they deal with a number of issues: their conscious and uncon-scious learnings about power, the changing role of lead-ership, and the qualities members look for in their elected leaders. I will explore the issue of power in com-munity as it underlies both election and ongoing lead-ership/ membership relationships. Then I will reflect on implications this has for the function of leadership and on qualities needed and called forth from those serying as congregational leaders. Power and Community Relationships Power is a human reality, and operates in religious communities as it does in other groups. People have per-sonalpower coming from their identity and presence. In Beatrice M. Eichten OSF is a consultant with religious communities of both men and women and with congrega-tions that sponsor healthcare. Her address is P.O. Box 406; Winona, Minnesota 55987. May-June 2000 249 E~cbten * Electing Leaders addition, certain persons exercise informal power through their influence, whether in a negative or positive way. Organized groups select or elect persons to exercise formal power to help them stay focused on and faithful to their goals. These same expressions of power are present in religious con-gregations, especially in the matter of electing and then relating to their elected leaders. There is value in understanding the func-tion of power within this process of electing some women to exer-cise formal power within the congregational structures, structures that all the members together have defined for the congregation. Power is a word and a reality that women in general consciously avoid. It is for most women a negative word connoting undesirable characteristics, and it is a reality they try to deny. This is not true for men. Vv'hy is that? Women's Relationship to Power Dr. Pat Heim in her book Hardball for Women looks at the games children play to explain why women relate to power so dif-ferently from men.~ Though her book relates to women in business settings, I will explore how her explanation of childhood learn-ings also applies to women's religious congregations. Women's main focus is relationship. As children, women learn how to be competent interpersonally and how to develop and sus-tain relationships with others. Today many girls participate in team sports--a rare thing for girls ten or fifteen years ago. Given that recent change, some of the learnings attributed to boys will undoubtedly happen for girls. Most of today's women, however, and most of today's women religious, have done almost all of their playing one-on-one with other girls, usually with a best friend, sometimes with two friends. What Girls Tend to Learn at Play How to play one-on-one. Girls develop interpersonal skills, including how to "read" and respond to another's emotions. The skill works well for adult women in families, communities, and work settings as they tune in to emotional dynamics and offer care and nurture to the persons involved. Playing one-on-one, how-ever, can keep women from going beyond how something affects another to acting on principles and deciding what serves the larger Review for Religious whole. Knowing that some members will be upset by the decision may paralyze many a woman who needs to make hard decisions. Also, playing one-on-one, with its focus on individuals, can prevent women from envisioning the whole and defining clear responsi-bility and accountability within a large group of people. How to get along. Good little girls learn to be sweet, cahn, gen-tle, charming, mild, and helpful. Conflict, assertiveness, and direct confrontation are to be avoided at all costs. Instead of being up front and direct, girls learn indirect methods of dealing with dis-sension, such as involving a third party, dropping hints, or practic-ing avoidance, all in order to pre-serve the relationship. All women religious in conflictual situations recognize these and similar meth-ods in themselves. In fact, other women often see directness on the part of women as aggressive and pushy. This sometimes leads to conflict. In religious congrega-tions, where relationships are important and carry a "familial" character, conflict may feel very threatening. It is important, however, that it be dealt with directly, not in a blaming or judgmental way, but with each person owning her own experience and feelings. Unfortunately, some people, in their desire to maintain "nice," "positive" relationships, may see this directness as causing trouble, causing damaged relationships. How to be fair to everyone. Little girls try to resolve conflicts by compromising and being fair so that everyone wins. They want to be sure no one feels left out, and so they flatten differences to make everyone "all the same." When that carries over into adult relationships, some convoluted relationships occur between elected leaders and members. Members are not all the same; they each have unique gifts and needs. Setting a policy for all because a few need limits, and creating a committee rather than asking a person with special skills to do a task, are two examples among many. Being "fair to everyone" can cause chapters and assemblies to set-tle for a middle-of-the-road arrangement when they should be promoting a visionary life. An effort to accommodate everyone's sense of direction for the community leads to an unfocused and hard-to-accomplish plan. An effort to accommodate everyone's sense of direction for the community leads to an unfocused and hard-to-accomplish plan. 251 3lay-June 2000 ' Eicbten ¯ Electing Leaders I ] How to engage in play as a process. Girls' games seldom have a goal (one does not "win" at dolls or playing house). If there is a purpose, it is to get along with playmates,.create intimacy, and share imaginative ideas. This learned behavior serves congrega-tions well when it is the time for dreaming, for developing ideals and fostering goals. The challenge is to follow this up with clear assignments and holding people accountable, thus bringing the dreams into reality. All communities have reams of documents filled with wonderful ideals. Have they brought them to fruition? Have they stopped the process because it would be unpopular or because the responsible persons did not follow through and no one dared confront them? How to negotiate differences. For girls, decisions are reached by group consensus. When there are different views about the best way to set up doll house, or whose turn it is to play dress-up, girls learn to talk their differences through, take turns, compromise. The goal is a win/win outcome, not a win/lose one. "You want to play house, I want to play nurse. Okay, you be the mommy and bring your sick baby to me at the hospital." This is a learning that supports collaborative models of leadership and efforts at recon-ciliation. The goal is not "anything goes"; it is true collaboration that aims at the good of the whole. The risk is that including every-one's ideas leads to a mediocre outcome. How to keep the power "dead even." Girls grow up in flat orga-nizations, not hierarchies. They learn to cooperate within a web of relationships for the sake of preserving friendship. It does not take long for a little girl to discover that, if she wants to be the leader and starts giving directions, her playmates will call her bossy and avoid her. As a result, girls try to keep the power "dead even" and learn to exercise it ve.ry carefully. This is a learning that makes elected leadership in congregations very difficult. For, even though the power of elected leaders is not "dead even" with that of other members, the latter still tend to define for themselves how obedi-ence and authority will be understood and carried out, in routine functioning and also in special efforts regarding mission or com-munity or both. How that reality is dealt with is critical for con-gregations' life and vitality. When it is not dealt with,.when communities attempt to flatten power and authority, untold energy is spent on internal dynamics rather than on mission and vision. Such learnings from their earlier years have an effect on how women religious relate to each other in community. Men, on the Review for Religious other hand, learn very different behaviors from their childhood play, which often involves numbers of boys in team play. Women who have grown up playing team sports will recognize as their own some of the learnings males tend to acquire. Whether women have grown up learning things typical of women or men, those learnings have implications for women religious. Things Boys Tend to Learn from Their Play How to compete. Competition is the name of the game. The games little boys play involve adversarial relationships: us vs. them. They learn that competition and conflict are stimulating and fun, to be welcomed, not avoided. They also learn that when the game is over the game is over. The adversarial, competitive relationship during the game does not affect their relationships afterwards. After a bruising discussion over a controversial issue, men will often go out together to play a game of golf. Women, on the other hand, may have learned to compete, but they are likely to take the competition personally and retain negative feelings towards one another afterwards. How to always do what the coach says. Boys learn early that, in order to win the competition, there must be a leader or coach to focus strategy and effort. This creates a structural hier-archy unlike the flat organization common among girls. In order to move up the hierarchy, boys and men learn to do what the coach or boss says--period. No negotiation! How to be a good team player. Boys learn early that they will not always get to be team captain or coach and tell others what to do. Most often they will be in the position of receiving instruc-tions. Good team members learn to give up their individuality and independence for the good of the-team. They see the importance of supporting the other team members so that the team wins--a win that is "their" win. (Women have a more difficult time sacri-ficing their individuality for the team goal.) Men also learn that, to be a good team member, it is vital to know how to play with peo-ple you do not like, but whose skills will help the team win. (Because women tend to personalize conflict, they have a more Good team members learn to give up their individuality and independence for the good of the team. -2Y3 -- May-June 2000 Eicbten ¯ Electing Leaders difficult time getting past their dislike of the person to the estab-lishment of a good working relationship.) How to be a leader. Despite the team nature of their play, boys do at times get to take on the mantle of leadership. This gives them the opportunity to experience their own authority, to prac-tice leadership, to give directions and make them stick. When they do, they are rewarded and valued for their leadership. How to be aggressive or appear aggressive. In order to do well for the team, little boys learn that it is important to look like a mean, aggressive player, even if they do not feel all that tough. They learn power plays that help create an illusion of power. (As we will see later, women are more likely to accommodate one another, to negotiate.) How to take criticism and praise. In sports, boys receive con-stant criticism from the coach and from other players. They learn the connection between getting feedback and improving their per-formance. They also learn how to take criticism as feedback so it does not damage their self-esteem and destroy their feelings of self-worth. (For girls, however, criticism is not usually experienced as feedback about behavior or performance. It is more often expe-rienced as criticism of their person.) Howto stay focused on the goal. Rather than perfecting the details (as girls and women might), in team play boys set their sights on the goal line. If they make a mess in getting there or knock some-one over, that is just part of the game. They learn early on that they cannot do everything perfectly, but that perfection does not really matter, since winning is what counts. Winning is all that matters. Boys play games to win. Their stance is that there is no point to playing the game if you are not going to win. And, in order to win, you must take risks--playing it safe will never make your team number one. Half the time, boys will lose. Rather than feeling devastated by the failure, boys learn how to take a loss, learn from it, and move on. (On the other hand, women tend to replay the failure over and over, to beat themselves up for failures and attempt to fix blame. This is reflected in women's response to negative evaluations of com-munity meetings. They are overly sensitive, paying greater atten-tion to one or two criticisms of the meeting than to three hundred positive evaluations.) How to have a game plan. Little boys play in crowds, not in dyads or triads as little girls do. So they need a way of organizing Review for Religious an unwieldy group of people. They do so by following the coach's game plan. They learn early that, if each one plays independently of the others, the team will not score that coveted touchdown. (For adult women, their own individuality and creative expression are important. It is difficult for them to subordinate their indi-viduality to the team goal--note such areas as dress, living arrange-ments, ministry, and availability for leadership positions and motherhouse roles. Adult women can set their independence aside, but they intend to do it consciously and for a significant reason.) Would that the behavior patterns that girls and boys develop could be combined in such a way that the best of both would improve people's ways of being and working together. Member/Leader Relationships among Women Women need to be alert to power relationships. In girls' play, direction is negotiated, not set by a power figure. There is no sin-gle leader, and, even if one is identified as an official leader, she is expected not to act the part. What does that lead to? Girls learn early that negotiation is the key to getting things done their way. More often than not, a woman's goal is to bring others around, not direct them. When women are in a hierar-chical structure, their discomfort with not having "dead even" power, with being a subordinate or a boss, can lead to inappro-priate negotiation after a decision has been reached, or to passive-aggressive behavior. Such behavior is more likely when the person in power is a woman--"Who does she think she is?" The response of communities needs to be "She thinks she is, and she is, your elected community leader (or your supervisor, or your local com-munity leader)." Sometimes women sabotage other women in power through indirect cattiness, gossip, negativity. Often these women are responding unconsciously to their negative perception of another woman's power. Leaders need to practice and encourage direct communication, done so as to build and maintain relationships that express genuine interest in the other sisters as persons. Women in leadership, as they move from membership to elected leadership positions, realize quickly that the move changes relationships with other women in community. This is because the flat relationships women enjoy are antithetical to hierarchical relationships. The elected leader, like it or not, is in a position of xYlay-June 2000 Eicbten ¯ Electing Leaders power. Friendships can be lost or damaged when one is elected to lead the community. Simple statements made by the leader can seem to carry negative meanings, but such outcomes derive more from the hearer's family and communal experience than from the words and their intent. Also, confidentiality may prevent leaders from disclosing every reason and circumstance; this, too, may bring negative judgments and unfounded criticism upon them. Women leaders may find that their need to be liked keeps them from doing a competent job. The desire to preserve harmo-nious relationships can make it difficult for a leader to make the tough, right decisions, knowing that Sister X will be angry with them. Consultation and team processing can help the leader move toward making the needed decision, but it may still damage some relationships. If the decision is tough but fair, however, people will eventually come around. It is helpful for congregational members and leaders to under-stand how power tends to affect relationships among them. On some projects both women and men find it relatively easy to use power appropriately or to acquiesce in its use. But, when there are disagreements in their communal and personal lives, leaders and members of women's communities need to be alert to power dynamics. We will look at some behaviors as they operate in con-flict situations. Exercising Power in Conflict Accommodation. Accommodation means giving in; the others are allowed to have their way. This may be appropriate when oth-ers feel strongly about something and you really do not care. But, because women have been trained to accommodate others for the sake of preserving the relationship, it is important for them to attend to what is important to them and to be willing to take a stand on that issue. Inappropriate accommodation occurs when persons do not know what they want or feel, when they give up what is important to them in order to keep the peace, or when they decide to "help" another win because they see that it is impor-tant to him or her. Avoidance. In avoidance, a conflict is ignored in the hope that it will disappear. Women commonly do this because they detest confrontation. A situation that is avoided, however, worsens for having been ignored. When conflict is not addressed directly, it Review for Religious does not go away; it just goes underground. The hostility gets rechanneled into passive-aggressive, destructive behavior. Women use a particular kind of avoidance, especially in communication. They avoid addressing the issue directly with the relevant parties because that could damage the relationship. Instead, they drop hints (and think they have been clear), or they tell others about the dispute (and hope it will get back to the person concerned). Compromise. In compromising, you win some and you lose some. "I'11 give you this if you give me that." They do not get all they want, but they decide half a loaf is better than none at all. The down-side of compromise is that it may be used to avoid the interpersonal work that happens when people resolve conflicts through collaboration as described below. Competition. In competition there is usually a winner and a loser. Men are very comfortable with competi-tion and often make things a win/lose dynamic. For women, a win/lose dynamic is not attractive. They tend to see it as not "fair" or "dead even," and thus damaging to relationships. Collaboration. In collaboration, two individuals or groups find a way to work out their differences so that both are satisfied with the result. They delve into why they hold such disparate views. Collaboration takes time and trust. For a worthwhile discussion, persons must care about their own underlying concerns, be will-ing to understand the other side, and be open to appropriate influ-ence. When differences are resolved collaboratively, relationships are improved; the level of trust increases. Women are adept at col-laboration because as children they have learned to share equally with everyone and to focus on being fail to others. Men tend to be less adept at collaboration because they focus on winning, on doing better than their colleagues. Women look for solutions that help everyone win. These learnings about power continue to operate in women, often unconsciously and often in contradiction to their profes-sional training and the c6mmunal/spiritual values they espouse. They affect women's perception of themselves as leaders in com-munity and of those they elect as leaders. It is important that con- When conflict is not addressed directly, it does not go away; it just goes underground. May-June 2000 Eicbten ¯ Electing Leaders gregations give attention to these unconscious learnings as they reflect on the meaning of leadership as a call to ministry. The Ministry of Leadership in a Religious Community Leadership in a religious community is a ministry, one that facilitates and focuses the purpose and goals of the community. Often women called by their community to serve in the ministry of leadership need to put aside their current ministry--where they feel effective, secure, and significant--in 6rder to serve their con-gregation. The call of the Spirit draws such women to place their gifts and their vulnerabilities at the service of their sisters and the church, going beyond individual and sometimes even communal needs and concerns to global needs and concerns. They do this knowing that leadership is a dynamic, relational exercise of power between members and leaders, a relationship fraught with opportunities and risks. Elected leaders, in their for-mal exercise of power, are called to help members work together for the common good and achieve spiritual and ministerial ideals. The function of that leadership is defined and authorized by the. community, and is exercised through the community's governance model in a mutual obediential manner. Leadership, then, is an experience of reciprocity, of being both leader and follower. I~ asks all, especially those elected to leader-ship, to take the initiative, to see problems, and to point toward creative solutions--to give direction and to take action that moves the community towards a common goal. Leadership is relational. It is based on mutuality and respect even as the differing roles and responsibilities of the elected lead-ers and the members are recognized. Being relational begins with both leaders and members seeing the value of each person's gifts and weaknesses, seeing these as part of the communal reality of persons drawn together for mutual witness and service. Not every-one is capable of doing this. Leadership focuses on the common good, and so leaders are asked to: ¯ go beyond the perspective of the individual to the perspective of the whole; ¯ see the congregation as part of a bigger whole and to keep it from getting enclosed or focused only on surviving; ¯ bal-ance the purpose of the congregation with the good of the indi-vidual; ¯ keep the mission as the focus, going deeper into its Review for Religious meaning and reality in their charism and community life; ¯ be spiritual leaders, relating to community charism, to personal and communal spirituality, and being attentive to how the Spirit is moving the community into the future; ¯ be stewards of congre-gational resources guiding decisions relating to ministerial, finan-cial, material resources available for the accomplishment of mission; ¯ be stewards of human resources by attending to the personal and communal needs of each member; ¯ carry out corporate responsibilities, which include sponsorship, ministry engagement, administration of the congregation's properties, assets, and liabil-ities, and civil and canonical legal responsibilities; ¯ carry out canonical responsibilities (these involve community viability, mem-bership, documents, relationships with dioceses and the broader church, and convening the community for governance through the congregation's governance model). Qualities for Leade.rship in a Religious Community What does all this have to say about qualities needed for lead-ership today? Community leadership moves one into a complex set of relationships with the community (remember what was said above regarding women and "dead even" power), the church, and the public. It calls for the development and public exercise of many skills in order to carry out the functions defined and expected by community. Leadership pushes one to an awareness that encom-passes both individual and common good within the context of the broader world. Because of this, it is important to feel positive about the min-istry of leadership. It cannot be simply an obligation or a duty. If a person accepts congregational leadership, she needs to have energy and willingness for such service. This comes from a sense of personal readiness and ability for community service. It comes, too, from a personal vision and hope for the life of the congrega-tion, even as one acknowledges the limitations and pains experi-enced in the all-too-human experience of living community. The person needs to know herself as gifted and called to leadership both by community members and by her own inner spirit. This call assumes a faithful relationship to God, who challenges, guides, and sometimes pushes one in new directions. Being a leader today requires being a learner, a communicator, and a unifier. As a learner, a leader needs to be able to think, open May-June 2000 Eicbten ¯ Electing Leaders to influence, and ready to gather relevant information. As a com-municator, she needs to be adept at both listening and speaking. As a unifier, she is called to draw together the diverse gifts and talents of members, associates, and ministry partners. Leaders need to be willing to make tough decisions for the good of the whole and to base their decisions on clear principles and careful consideration. Leaders need a consultative, collabora-tive style for decisions affecting the life of the members. Because they also carry organizational and canonical responsibility and authority, they need to be able and willing to make leadership decisions affecting the good of the congregation. The leader needs to be visible and to make connections within the community and within the larger church and society. Research shows that outstanding leaders emphasize setting goals and achiev-ing them by careful planning and by building group commitment; they give less attention to the personal adjustment of members.2 Against the background of women religious thinking of their leader as "Mother" (nurturer, caretaker), this change in leadership style can be misunderstood as "not caring for the members." In every community there are members who want "a mother" who spends her time nurturing and being available to individual members. Other members want a leader that inspires vision, mobilizes energy, supports risk taking, and is engaged in church and world issues. The challenge for leaders is to know their leadership role and to address and deal effectively with members' differing expectations. Martin Heidegger says that to be human is to be called to become a "shepherd of being." Each person carries that call. The leader carries this call for herself and for the community, shep-herding her own well-being and the well-being of the community. The leader needs to know that her leadership is based on human-ity, her own and the congregatiori's. This requires knowledge of herself as a person of intellect and feeling, 6f gift and limitation, as one called but also a sinner, blessed and still in need of conver-sion. The leader is called to compassion and mercy as well as truth-telling and tough love; she needs to see the person, not just that person's deficient performance or its impact on the community's image. The leader is called to keep alive the vision of this human, blessed community of persons drawn together in personal and communal experiences as an expression of the face of God in our world. She does this by working to create an inclusive community of persons who, simultaneously gifted and vulnerable, are corn- Review for Religious mitted to mutuality and respect, to growth in holiness and faith-ful witnessing to the presence of God in our world. A leader needs to understand that leadership is an invitation to be creative through frailty. The first reality of the incarnation is the principle of limitation. We are not God. There is no such thing as a "perfect" leader, with all the gifts and skills needed. Leaders need colleagues that balance and compensate for limitations. They need community members who are willing to support, to be direct and honest, and to allow for frailty and mistakes. Leaders and members need to be comfortable with the experience of the inter-dependence of gifts and limitations. Concluding Questions Power can be a positive force in the life of a congregation-- power with and for, power that energizes and challenges, power that knows and loves the strength, gifts, and limits of all the com-munity. As women religious reflect on how power can and should benefit themselves and their communities, there are many areas for personal and communal exploration. I will put these questions in a personal mode, since that is where each person needs to start. ¯ How does what I learned as a girl about power operate in my life? ¯ What learnings from group (boys') play would be helpful in enhancing my relationships in community~ At work? ¯ How might making those learnings conscious help me relate better with oth-ers in my local community? In regional and large community gath-erings? At work? ¯ How do I view leadership before and after leaders are elected? How does that affect my communication, sup-port, and conflict patterns, both with the leaders and with other members? ¯ How does my approach to elected leaders diminish or enhance my engagement in con, gregational endeavors? ¯ How do my relationship to power and my view of leadership and its impli-cations affect my availability for service to community in the lead-ership role? Honest answers to these questions and in-depth conversation about their implications in member/leader relationships could move a community to a greater readiness to see leadership focus° ing--beyond the "nurturing mother" role--on the achievement of communal goals through careful planning and through building group commitment. It would, I believe, strengthen the interplay between member and leader and would lead to better communi- May-June 2000 Eicbten ¯ Electing Leaders cation, to a healthier dynamic among adults properly aware of their own and the organization's power, and would enhance engagement around communal goals. Notes ~ Pat Heim PhD with Susan K. Golant, Hardball for Women: Winning at the Game of Business (New York: Penguin Books, 1992). z David J. Nygren CM and Miriam D. Ukeritis CSJ, "Religious- Leadership Competencies," Review for Religious 54, no. 3 (May-June 1993). Free and Groaning We are children of earth In birth Goslings Tapping On the shell of our next Resurrection Creaking branches wind-moved Almost into flight Not Quite Tight-bound buds breaking Flames that leap Anchored in ash Clouds thai float in th~ sky But the clouds weep Autumn leaves let loose We dance and we die Careless clowns With foolish faces Wild doves flying So in need Of footing places Riders of reckless surf Baptized in waves As for me I am a free Woman Constrained Chained ¯ At once being born And giving birth Crucified I survive Alive Alive! Mary Alban Bouchard CSJ 262 Review for Religious FRANCIS W. DANELLA I Apostolic Religious Communities in America: Moving in the Right Direction! During the thirty-five years since the Second Vatican Council, religious life has endured a trial by fire. At the beginning of a new century, a mixture of cautious optimism and open despair is often evident when religious speak about their communities' future. While numbers continue to decrease and members continue to age, one wonders if the cautious optimism is not simply denial. The perspective of history, however, would sug-gest that, while some congregations will die, others will serve well into the next millennium. Some will even flourish2 Thirty-five years after the council, some trends seem to encourage that spirit of cautious optimism. Many religious com-munities have wandered through the post-Vatican II desert, and they perceive there might be a "Promised Land." These religious communities are successfully exploring their roots and the stories and spirituality that underlie those roots. This has led to a clearer sense of identity and then to internal renewal and a clearer sense of mission. Apostolic religious communities are emphasizing mission even as they cope laboriously with the endless issues of maintenance. Beyond mission they need to address the issues of community life Francis W. Danella OSFS, clinical assistant professor of pastoral the-ology at the Catholic University of Aanerica, served recently as director of planning for his province. His address is Oblates of St. Francis de Sales; 2200 Kentmere Parkway; P.O. Box 1452; Wilmington, Delaware 19806. May-June 2000 Danella * Apostolic Religious Communities in America and vocations. After the thirty-six years of my religious life, I would prefer never to discuss community life and vocations again. But the time for reassessment on both fronts is at hand. Not to muster the strength to ask the difficult questions regarding these two issues would be to the detriment of these apostolic religious communities of ours. Below we will consider religious life before the council, the challenge of the post-Vatican II church, and the future direction of apostolic religious communities with respect to mission, commu-nity life, and vocations. The fundamental mission underlying the particular apostolates became blurred. Religious Life before the Second Vatican Council As a young man I wanted to know, love, and serve God in this world so as to be happy with him in the next. Towards this goal I sought a singular focus and complete absorption. This desire, com-bined with a predisposition toward teaching, led me to my religious community, whose pri-mary ministry is teaching. There I learned that religious life in my community is about three things: the search for God, eschatologi-cal witness, and the education of youth. Other apostolic religious congregations are similar, but their specialized ministry may be something different in the con-text of religious community. All people are called to search for God. An inner yearning to find our origin, purpose, and destiny gnaws at all of us from the time we are able to think clearly. The catechism had clear answers for the children of immigrants to this country, and their own chil-dren in turn. Religious life became the place in which persons could be devoted full-time to this quest, with fewer distractions to get in the way. Religious gave eschatological witness to a kingdom that was not of this world. While religious were building the kingdom of God on earth, they were clearly giving witness to a fullness of life beyond this one. This religious witness was evident in their lifestyle, their way of being in the world. In this context vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience made sense. The virtues of humil- Review for Religious ity, gentleness, and simplicity became ways in which God's people could experience powerfully God's presence in the persons of these devoted servants. Most religious congregations devoted themselves to a partic-ular good work. Most engaged in a ministry of education, health-care, or social work. Most often religious congregations were in service of the poor or the lower middle class. Religious life suc-cessfully educated and cared for immigrants and their children. Many in the Catholic community were able to develop their skills and intellectual gifts, thereby acquiring a better standard of living and a richer and fuller life. Catholics were now positioned to have major influence on the American culture. During the years preceding the council, religious congrega-tions were deeply absorbed in the work that they did so well. An unfortunate by-product of this successful period of religious living is that many religious congregations became identified with their work. Many perceived their charism to be education, healthcare, or social services. As the ministry of service became more intense, the fundamental mission underlying the particular apostolates became blurred. The Challenge of the Post-Vatican II Church With the advent of the Second Vatican Council, religious were challenged to renewal. The council said: "The up-to-date renewal of religious life comprises both a constant return to the sources of the whole of the Christian life and to the primitive inspiration of the institutes, and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time.''2 The effort of religious institutes of the last thirty-five years to be faithful to this .injunction has borne much fruit. The movement forward has been a struggle. The emphasis on freedom and personal responsibility evident in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes) had a profound effect on the future direction of religious life. There was a strong emphasis on each religious developing his or her gift to the fullest. This was in sharp contrast to the tradition of many religious communities, which determined the needs of the schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and so forth and then decided who would fill the need, no matter what their personal preference. This corrective from moving in lockstep to a more May-June 2000 Danella ¯ Apostolic Religious Communities in America individual way of developing one's gifts and talents was met with varying degrees of acceptance. Many religious communities resisted the more individual approach and the quest for self-fulfillment. Such resistance had disastrous consequences because it failed to recognize the legiti-macy of what was being sought. Consequently, there was no inte-gration between individual needs and community priorities, between personal growth and the common good. In this atmo-sphere, self-fulfillment became an end in itself rather than the means by which religious became all that God was calling them to be in the service of the church. At times this led to an exaggerated individualism and a misguided quest for self-fulfillment that was reinforced in American society by our strong bent toward indi-vidualism. In this period there were parallels with the best and worst of the human-potential movement. In the main, however, religious life was attempting to be faith-ful to the council's injunction to return to the primitive inspiration of the institute and to adapt to modern time. The efforts to recap-ture the spirit of the foundation have been the singularly most hopeful development in religious life since the council. This quest has led to internal renewal and a new sense of mission. There are common elements among the groups that have taken this course, a commonality that is clearly the work of the Spirit. Most groups have recaptured and reinvigorated for our time the spirit of their foundations. Many have experienced a resurgence in scholarship in their spiritual traditions. This new look at foundational texts and spiritualities is leading to an internal renewal. The search for God is once agaiia on track. With a clear sense of their origin, purpose, and destiny, religious congregations are in a better position to carry out their mission in the service of the church. Those faith-ful to the task will play a large role in shaping the future direction of the church. Ok/It The Future Direction of Religious Life Mission. A clear identity has led to internal renewal and a clear sense of mission. Apostolic religious communities are focused on living and disseminating their charism. Religious congregations that were instrumental in improving the quality of life for gener-ations of immigrants have begun to share their charisms with an educated lay faithful as they assume their expanded role in the Review for Religious church. Just as apostolic religious communities helped generations of immigrants to assume their rightful place at the table in American society, they will assist the current generation to assume their rightful place as religious leaders in our society. Religious life can help the laity to be the leaven in the world that the Second Vatican Council desired. By virtue of their baptism, the lay faithful share in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ. Besides being faithful to the duties of their state in life, they are called, as the council points out, to work at the evangelization and sanctification of all God's people. They do this when they endeavor to have the gospel spirit permeate and improve the temporal order.3 Parish communities need to help the lay faithful to be aware of this mission and to carry it out. Religious congregations, too, can assist the lay faithful in their efforts at evangelization, sanctification, and the transformation of the temporal order. They can create forums in which lay people can come to understand their role and develop a plan of action for permeating the temporal order. Recently I participated in a symposium on the care of the dying jointly sponsored by George Washington University Medical Center and the Center to Improve Care of the Dying. Among the participants were medical doctors and other healthcare profes-sionals intently interested in how patients' spirituality affects their overall well-being. These dedicated healthcare professionals are carrying out the council's mandate to permeate the temporal order with the gospel spirit. One physician told me of her involvement with the Carmelite community, of the importance of the Carmelites in her life. Inspired by them, she has been instrumental in bring-ing courses on the spiritual dimensions of healthcare to medical students across the country. Last year I was captivated by a piece in Wilmington's Catholic newspaper on the graduation ceremony at a local private high school, the Salesianium.4 A graduating senior had spoken at some length about the influence of Salesian spirituality in his life. This was no passing comment. He detailed the teachings of De Sales that had influenced him, pointing out that he and his fellow graduates could take such teachings with them into their life ahead. This is the direct result of the school's effort to live and disseminate its charism. One physician told me of the importance of the Carmelites in her life. 267 May-June 2000 Danella ¯ Apostolic Religious Communities in America The many new forms of community life that have appeared need to be reevaluated. Apostolic religious communities need to live and disseminate their charisms for the well-being of the church. They need to share the theological and spiritual wisdom of their traditions, tra-ditions that answer the fundamental questions of origin, purpose, and destiny. They need to share the spiritual practices that guide daily living and daily choice. Apostolic religious congregations can encourage and even bring together people of similar professions and people from different walks of life to put together a plan of action that responds to the council's call to bring the gospel spirit into the temporal order. This is precisely what many apostolic communities excel in today. They need to reinforce their efforts. They need to have clear pastoral plans for the future. They need to bring even greater zeal and enthu-siasm to this vital mission. Many apostolic religious communities are effectively developing lay leadership and entering into collaborative ministry with the laity. They share with the lay faithful not only their spirituality but their mission as well. Religious communities are moving in the right direction and will greatly help a new generation of lay faithful to fulfill their complex mission in today's world. Community Life. Religious life of the future will be lived by those young men and women who currently are associates, novices, temporarily professed, and young perpetually professed. We need to listen to what they are saying to us. Some tend to be more con-servative than those of us who have reached our middle years, but this must not lead to new polarization o'r a new age of friction resulting from personality differences or other biases when there may be no substantial differences at all. My own experience suggests that the young enthusiastically embrace the efforts of congregations to revisit their spiritualities and to disseminate their charisms. This is an exciting mission. The young also seek a community life that is based on community prayer, mutual concern, hospitality, and self-sacrifice. They seek a religious community that is a genuine witness to both the "already" and the "not yet." Thirty-five years after the council, the many new forms of community life that have appeared need to be reeval-uated. For example, those who question the suitability of parish Revlew for Religious ministry for religious communities deserve a hearing. I would dis-agree, on the ground that parishes are ideal places for dissemi-nating the charism and helping the lay faithful to become the leaven in the world, but I would agree that we need to reassess the ways in which parish community life is lived. We need to hear the wisdom of all the members in order to make good, Spirit-filled decisions. Hearing all sides of issues can lead to a rich response. Also, we must examine the vitality of our eschatological witness if the choice for poverty, chastity, and obedience is to continue to make sense. We owe this to one another, to ourselves, and to those we will invite to join us. Vocations. What are we to do about the shortage of vocations? I remain convinced that the best advertisement for religious life is faithful, enthusiastic religious charged by their clear sense of pur-pose and mission. We need to be especially attentive to women and men in their twenties and thirties who have not made a per-manent commitment and who know in their hearts that there is more to life than what they are currently experiencing. Men and women of every age have been attracted to religious communities that have a clear purpose and mission and a healthy community life. Today as in the past the young and not so young will be attracted by religious who clearly put the welfare of others ahead of their own. We must not turn our vocation offices into maintenance oper-ations focused on numbers and survival. Vocation directors need to touch all potential candidates with the spirit of the institute, whether their final decision is to enter or not. A faithful, enthusi-astic commitment to mission will captivate the minds and hearts of those inspired by the Holy Spirit to look into this form of life. Furthermore, beyond traditignal vocations, we need to rec-ognize and affirm the enormous asset that lay associates are to our congregations. These women and men share not only in our spir-ituality but also in our mission. Influenced by the enriching guid-ance of the traditions embodied in apostolic religious communities, they make a unique contribution to the church. Religious life exists in the service of the church, whose future is assured by Christ in the gospel. And so with courage, hope, and determination and most especially with faith, we can march con-fidently into this millennium. We walk with our God, who began the good work in us and who will bring it to fulfillment. May-June 2000 Danella ¯ Apostolic Religious Communities in America Notes ~ See Sean Sammon FMS, "The Transformation of U.S. Religious Life," in Living in the Meantime, ed. Paul J. Philibert OP (New York: Paulist Press, 1994), pp. 23-38. 2 Pofectae caritatis (Decree on the Up-to-Date Renewal of Religious Life), §2. ¯ 3Apostolicam actuositatem (Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People), §2. The Dialogue, 10 June 1999. Spring Prayer To Whoever makes hard wood of maple grow and bud, sprout green lace of leaf; to Whoever breaks open frozen ground to receive water and seed to bloom; to Whoever stirs tiny throat of wren to sing, waking sleepy human to dance; to Whomever, I send up hope-filled cry, dizzy praise, begging for the same miracle to pulse in me. Patricia G. Rourke Review for Religious JOEL GIALLANZA Look to the Future paope John Paul tells us in Vita consecrata: "You have not only glorious history to remember and to recount, but also a great history still to be accomplished! Look to the future, where the Spirit is sending you in order to do ever greater things" (§110). "A great history still to be accomplished! Do ever greater things"--an affirming image and a challenging mandate, to say the least. And yet speaking about the future of religious life always runs the risk of degenerating into soothsaying, its content far removed from .reality. It would be interesting if we could somehow eavesdrop on religious at the beginning of the 1900s, and more so at midcentury, as they spoke about or even predicted religious life's future. Their descriptions of how religious institutes would look in the year 2000 probably assumed that our sponsored ministries would keep mul-tiplying, that the majority of our members would be in active midlife, that our next chapter might consider--"if there is a real need"--expanding our one retirement facility, that formation houses would be veritable skyscrapers with No Vacancy signs hang-ing out in front, and that vocation promoters would be requesting a year off to process the multitude of applications already received. By contrast, today's prospective vocations and our members in for-mation are sometimes stunned to learn how many entered our communities in the early and middle years of the 20th century and are surprised to learn the median age of the present members. The numbers can evoke a nod of wonderment even in those who knew of and experienced something of that earlier era. Joel Giallanza CSC has written for us a number of times. His present address is Congregation of Holy Cross; 1101 St. Edward's Drive; Austin, Texas 78704. 271 -- May-3~une 2000 Giallanza ¯ Look to the Future We have sobered enough in the past thirty years to know that the "greater things" of which Vita consecrata speaks cannot be summed up in statistical increases and demographic optimism. Nevertheless, it would be inaccurate to characterize contempo-rary religious as inactive, discouraged, cynical. Admittedly, some of this is present and operative, but in fact it always has been. Such characteristics come with the reality we call human nature. Lack of energy or enthusiasm, discouragement, cynicism or uneasiness about the future flow more from the inconsistencies and variables within our human nature than from the current situation of reli-gious life within the church. What, then, do we look to in the future? I would suggest some essential tasks. I would say we need to be ready and willing to do these tasks if religious life is to continue moving vigorously into the future. The tasks I mention are necessarily basic and general; they must be addressed from the experience of local communities and individual religious in their living of their particular institute's heritage and tradition. __ 2_72 Build and Cultivate Relationships We call ourselves sisters and brothers of Christ, of one another, of God's people, for the sake of greater sisterhood and brotherhood in the church. Vita consecrata emphasizes this relational character of religious life (see §60). Our very titles as religious have more to do with the kind of relationships that we are called to have and foster and support than with any hierarchical arrangement in the church. The task before us is to sharpen our skills for building and cultivating relationships. The witness value of doing this should not be underestimated. Religious live and work in societies and settings in which rela-tionships are expendable because individual independence has become a priority to preserve at all costs. People desire personal autonomy over all else. In response, religious must be entre-preneurs of union, cooperation, and reconciliation. We must become experts at initiating and nurturing relationships, over short and long distances, in times of blessing and burden, with sincerity and integrity. We should not underrate the transforming power of the witness we can give simply through the friendships we estab-lish among ourselves and the variety of relationships we build with and among others. That witness reflects the importance we assign Review for Religious to Jesus' mandate of love and the commitment we have to build-ing and cultivating relationships. Demonstrate the Possibility of Permanent Commitment Our way of life witnesses to the fact that permanent commit-ment is a possibility for human nature. Too often in our world, commitment is interpreted as a temporary arrangement; perma-nence is perceived to be beyond human capability. And significant decisions in life are made accordingly. Further, explicitly short-term commitments are also considered adjustable, to fit the pri-orities of one or several individuals. We see the effects of such common cultural patterns even within the church. The durability of a commitment comes to be gauged by the comprehensiveness and precision of the legal specifications that make it binding. On the other hand, legal rearrangements can be used to dissolve the commitment; forever is conveniently reinterpreted as "for as long as I am interested." By our religious profession, we claim that commitment is a matter of the heart, not legal provisions. It is the heart, the Lord's own dwelling place, that gives meaning and direction to our activ-ities in ministry and community. Commitment is rooted in and nourished by the convictions of the heart. Our life as religious often stands as a wonder to others, partly because of their fasci-nation with its components--vows, community living, types of ministry, prayer, and so forth. The more intriguing wonder, how-ever, will be simply that we choose to and profess to and do live this way forever, and thereby demonstrate the possibility and reality of permanent commitment. Show and Accompany Others along the Pathways to God There is a hunger evident among people, a growing desire to find a path toward union with God. In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in spiritual matters of all types and tradi-tions. In response to this our task is twofold. First, we must our-selves be acquainted with some pathways to God and speak with integrity and sincerity and some fluency of our own relationship with God. Second, we must accompany others along the pathways May-June 2000 2.73- Giallanza ¯ Look to the Future of the spiritual journey. We need not be trained spiritual direc-toi's to offer basic, everyday support and encouragement, but we do need to love the Lord and be faithful to a life of personal and com-munal prayer. Otherwise our accompaniment is more theoretical than real. The pathways to God are known most clearly and surely by actually traveling along them. Only so much can be absorbed by the head. It is the heart that must be saturated with the knowl-edge of the ways to union with God. A significant part of our com-mitment in religious life as people of prayer is to know those pathways by heart. Whatever the nature of our ministry, however we encounter others in daily life and work, we as religious, as peo-ple committed to the mission and message of Jesus, must actively encourage and enthusiastically accompany others along the path-ways to God. They expect us to know the way. And we should. The pathways to God are known most clearly and surely by actually traveling along them. Notice and Take Up Emerging Apostolic Needs The needs of the mission to which our religious institutes respond are always emerging and ever endless. Even though our communities have been involved in some specific ministries for years, possibly even since our foundation, it is important to deter-mine if those ministries continue to address specific contemporary needs.' There will be undoubtedly much emo-tion surrounding such a determination. Very fine may be the line marking the difference between continuing a ministry because it responds to the current needs of God's people and continuing a min-istry because the religious involved are trained to do it and have not considered an alternative. And, because ministry has a large part in shaping our identity, people may resist any serious exploration of alternatives. In "determining the continuing relevance of particular min-istrieb, the institute's heritage and vision and values must have a guiding part. We should ask ourselves, "What would catch the apostolic attention of our'founders and foundresses today? What emerging and pressing needs would urge them to send us in response?" Admittedly, the world and the towns and countrysides in which they lived and worked were quite different places from Review for Religious those we experience today, but we must try to glimpse and describe what they would do in response to our world and church and soci-ety and culture. Such an'effort would express our fidelity to the heritage and charism that have marked our religious communities from their foundation. And that fidelity would give us a fresh vital-ity for addressing today's emerging apostolic needs. Clarify Our Heritage, Glimpse and Sketch Its Future In recent years religious institutes have spent time and energy exploring the spirituality of founders and foundresses and the her-itage they have passed on to us. Much of that was done to fulfill the church's mandate to revise constitutions and rules. It would be a mistake to think that the time and effort spent have brought the task to completion. Today religious--particularly male lay reli-gious- often express the feeling of being invisible within the church. While some of that invisibility has to do with church struc-tures, we must guard against contributing to it by any lack of famil-iarity with the unique heritages of our various institutes--especially their relevance for today and for tomorrow. That familiarity will enable us to answer two important ques-tions that touch our identity and our effectiveness in carrying on Jesus' mission. First, what contribution does my religious insti-tute make to the church today? Second, what challenges does my religious institute present to the church today? Answering such questions is no simple task, but it will be less daunting if we con-tinue to clarify our institute's heritage with a view to the future. Be Always Ready These tasks should be supplemented from the experiences of religious within the context of their own communities and min-istries. The tasks identified here can support and strengthen our continuing fidelity to this way of life in general and to our own reli-gious institute in particular. The tasks, of course, are not com-pletely new to religious. I mention them to emphasize the need for examining our present approach to them and for refining that approach as necessary for continued effectiveness. These tasks will be accomplished differently in accord with each religious institute's p~rspective on living the gospel. The common ground will be the qualities of life that energize and guide May-June 2000 275" Giallanza ¯ Look to the Future I the efforts of all religious in completing them. Our effectiveness in addressing these tasks will be determined by our attentiveness to living these qualities. To build and cultivate relationships we must be people of love. In demonstrating the possibility of permanent commitment, we proclaim that we are people of hope. Suggesting pathways to God and accompanying others along them require thfit we be people of faith. To notice and address emerging apostolic needs, we must be people of discernment. And all these qualities of life assume that we are people of prayer. Love, hope, faith, discernment, passion, and prayer lie at the very heart of our efforts to look to, prepare for, and work toward a future for religious life that is marked by integrity, credibility, and vitality. I close this brief reflection with a text from Vita con-secrata reminding us .of the sacred responsibility we bear and of the graced consequences that flow from committing ourselves anew to live our consecrated life: "Be always ready, faithful to Christ, to the church, to your institute, and to the men and women of our time. In this way you will day by day be renewed in Christ. and contribute in your own unique way to the trans-figuration of the world" (§ 110). Traditional Practice Values mixed with a touch of the past, bring together rituals and habits, turning them into modern ideas. Donna Bauman Review for Religious REN]~E MIRKES Fertility Awareness and Women Religious I thoroughly agree with the Mock Turtle who advised Alice that "no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.'" Whether I am undertaking a journey, a life vocation, or for that matter this composition, I ought to have my telos or end securely in mind. The goal of this essay is to offer an apologia for the practice of fertility awareness in the life of a consecrated woman religious. More specifically, it is a personal apology for this activ-ity and how it metamorphosed in my very doing and experiencing it. By that I mean that the program of charting the cycles of my fertility--at base a natural dis-cipline-- gradually evolved into a practice that benefited me and my commitment to my vowed life on a meta-physical or super-natural level. Beginnings I attribute the circumstances that disposed me to see a theology behind the practice of fertility awareness to two events that were simultaneously occurring in my life. In the first place, I had been tracking my ovulation and menstrual cycles for two years through a system of Ren4e Mirkes OSF is the director of the Center for NaProEthics, a division of Pope Paul vI Institute; 6901 Mercy Road; Omaha, Nebraska 68106. 277 - May-June 2000 Mirkes * Fertility Awareness and Women Religious What is the significance of "'being a body" as a man or a woman ? charting that is specific to Creighton NaProEducation Technology. While tracking fertility is most generally taught to married women as a component of a moral means of family planning, unmarried women also use it as a way of tracking their gynecological health. It was for this latter reason that I adopted the exercise. In the second place, in the same two-and-a-half years, I was immersing myself in the pope's theology of the body as prepara-tion for my work as a Catholic ethicist. One day I read something that proved to be the turning point in my practice of tracking my fertility. Pope John Paul II, explaining the complementary nature of the vocatons of Christian marriage and consecrated religious life, noted the following. Marriage and religious-life decisions presuppose "the learning and the interior acceptance of the nuptial meaning of the body, bound up with the masculinity and feminin-ity of the human person.''2 If I was correctly understanding the Holy Father, he was suggesting that, even though this kind of sexual knowledge and understanding is typi-cally associated with the decision to marry, it must also be present in those who are called to a celibate life. In other words, both married persons and celibate religious must ask the important anthropological question: What is the significance of "being a body" as a man or a woman? Furthermore, and with great import for me in my daily practice of charting, the pope went on to insist that, given this "full consciousness" of the truth of the human body, "a man or a woman who has vgluntarily chosen continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven must daily give a living wit-ness of fidelity to that choice, heeding the direction of Christ in the Gospel" (italics mine).3 If I were to couch in Thomistic language what happened when my practice of fertility awareness intersected with these insights of John Paul, I would speak in terms of matter and form. As these two life experiences converged, the "material" aspect of my project of fertility appreciation fell into place, and it simultaneously received a new "form." I was charting my fertility every day. But, with the new light of grace that came from my studies of the pope's personalist thought, I began to see this practice in its more comprehensive Review for Religious moral and spiritual implications. The pope's insight acted as a powerful reminder to me that I must be a personal testament each new day to my vowed commitment. With this important new dimension, tracking my fertility was a personal experience whose benefits could very well far exceed those initial ones of health and bodily stewardship. Now it was also an effective tool that brought me into direc~ contact with the meaning of my vowed life, particularly the meaning of the total way I had vowed myself to love Jesus and the members of his body. The earthy, biology-based practice of fertility awareness became, from this point forward, a direct contact with the essential meaning of my vowed life, particularly the meaning of my vow of chastity. Tracking my fertility and my gynecological health could be an integral component of a daily "living witness" to my decision to become a bride of Christ forever. Health Benefits The cumulative information from the practice of tracking fer-tility on a regular basis gives a woman a picture of what her cycles look like when they are normal. Against this yardstick she can more readily notice indications of physiological change that it would be good for her to be aware of. The following are some of the gynecological conditions that are not healthy and to which the practice of charting cycles might alert a woman in the future.4 First, PMS (premenstrual syndrome) will frequently manifest itself in the charting with biological markers that signal hormonal deficiencies. These include a limited mucus cycle, premenstrual brown bleeding, or a short post-peak phase, all of which are abnor-mal cyclic developments. A religious sister might suspect she is experiencing PMS because she struggles with the classic psy-chophysical symptoms seven to nine days before her menses (bloat-ing, fatigue, irritability, depression, breast tenderness, carbohydrate craving, weight gain, headaches, and insomnia) and because of what she sees on her chart. The hope is that, having evidence from both her charts and her lived experience, she can get medical help early before this condition escalates into a debilitating psychoso-matic condition,s Second, endometriosis can be detected in abnormal symptoms that the woman religious and her instructor-practitioner may notice, perhaps from the very beginning of her charting process. May-June 2000 Mirkes ¯ Fertility Awareness and Wo~nen Religious [ I must be a personal testament each new day to my vowed commitment. These signs include the presence of premenstrual and postmen-strual spotting, a limited mucus cycle, and a short post-peak phase, all conditions that deviate from the defining parameters of a nor-mal cycle. At the identification of these symptoms, the sister could be referred to a physician and thereafter take a proactive kind of stewardship over her gynecological health. Third, one of the early warning signs of endometrial cancer is abnormal bleeding. Women who do not chart could easily miss this sign or dismiss it as insignificant. That will not happen with the sister who is charting, since she has been instructed to note on her chart any bleed-ing that is abnormal in either its timing or its color. Needless to say, the earlier one detects this type of cancer, the better.6 Fourth, it stands to reason that there are proportionately as many celibate women as there are married women in the general population who experience such conditions as irregular cycles, irregular bleeding, or dysmenorrhea. These sisters should know that there are physicians trained by the Pope Paul vI Institute who prescribe cooperative hormone replacement therapy (HCG or pro-gesterone) that often alleviates these conditions.7 And, good news, these situations can be treated without recourse to a medical reg-imen that introduces the abnormal, artificial chemical environ-ment of the oral contraceptive into the woman's body. Fifth, cervicitis, inflammation of the cervix, is another condi-tion that can be diagnosed early with the knowledge that comes from charting one's cycle. Again, the early detection of this disease will give the woman a running start in its medical management. There are two specific criteria for the identification of cervicitis. One is the presence of sticky, tacky, or gummy mucus in the woman's early pre-peak phase. The timing of this type of mucus is abnormal because in go6d health the woman observes it only dur-ing her peak time of fertility, in and around ovulation. The other is the presence of sticky, tacky, stretchy, or gummy mucus in the post-peak phase; it may also be yellow in color. This type of mucus could signal a health problem by reason of the abnormal time of its appearance. Sixth, a woman can identii:y the problem of a luteal ovarian cyst when, besides the experience of pain in her side, the post- Review for Religious peak phase.of her cycle is longer than normal. Clinical research at the Pope Paul VI Institute shows that these tumors will often shrink and disappear when they are managed nonsurgically through coop-erative hormone replacement therapy, particularly, progesterone therapy. Finally, as a woman religious approaches menopause, chart-ing will also help her identify certain pre- and peri-menopausal conditions that need to be carefully monitored. For example, she might observe long ptt ~ods of peak-type mucus that could involve critical adverse effects on gynecological health because it would mean a prolonged estrogemc stimulation of the uterus. Unchecked, this unhealthy situation cou'd lead to a precancer-ous uterine condition. In the case of irregular cycles (another perimenopausal symptom), it is good for a sister to be noting it on her chart and discussing it with her practitioner and physician. Most of the time the woman religious will be assured that this irregularity can be expected in perimenopause and need not be a problem or a concern to her. It is, however, only in a fertility awareness program of regular observation of cervical mucus that the precancerous condition or worrisome pre- and peri-menopausal conditions can be carefully identified and monitored in their very earliest appearance. Moral and Personal Benefits I consider the intersection of human and divine realities in fertility awareness to be yet another example of our human nature's inherent capacity for God. The development of a theology from what is a natural (and, for some, perhaps a pedantic) exercise pro-vides yet another "window" onto what I believe is the basic rela-tion between God and human persons. Human nature, including my human sexuality and fertility, is open to receiving a transfor-mative meaning from the side of the supernatural. Things human, including my fertility, although they are decidedly of an unstable, transitory, and mixed character, have an obediential potency for stable, lasting, and pure supernatural realities. It is my conviction that, if we women religious peer through the window provided by the experience of fertility appreciation, we will have a view of how the supernatural life of God confers on human nature, including human fertility, the very completion toward which it tends. What we will see is that to be fully human May-June 2000 Mirkes ¯ Fertility Awareness and Women Religious in the existential, historical living out of the meaning and the truth of our human sexuality and fertility is to live a life of grace. Bear with me as I repeat something I have already mentioned. That I would be so bold as to speak in terms of a theology of a prac-tice that is at base natural is testimony to the reciprocally inte-grative way that nature and grace function in our lives as persons who are at once physical and spiritual. I experience the practice of (racking my fertility, now trans-formed by grace, as an ever renewing reminder that, in the essen-tial nature of my sexuality, God has created me to be a gift. The reality slowly begins to sink in: Human beings, myself included, are the only creatures on earth that God created for their own sakes, and I find myself by making a gift of myself (see Gaudium et spes, §24). I hav~ my origin in the love of my parents and in the person of God, who is love. In this context should I, could I, doubt that the deepest meaning of who I am is that of a person who exists ~r another? The truth to which fertility awareness points is the mys-terious paradox summed up in Simone Weil's thought, "We only possess what we renounce." And that renunciation applies even to my very sell In short, I will find myself only when I give myself away. Keep ifi mind that the supernatural "form" of the practice of tracking fertility not only brings the process itself to its fullest meaning, but als'o helps the one who uses the method to more precisely understand the ethos of her personal being. No longer is charting only a way of tracking gynecological health and coming to fertility appreciation on a biological level. It is a growth-inducing encounter between a woman religious who practices fertility awareness and the wisdom exemplified in John Paul II's theology of the body. A consecrated woman religions who genuinely gives herself to others in community and receives oth-ers as gift experiences the opposite of a lust that uses rather than loves the other. Instinctively such a woman religious will want to curb any spirit of competition between herself and other persons-- within or outside of her comm

'- u VOL. IX. No. 6 NOVEMBER, 1900 ooTheoo Gettysburg Mercury CONTENTS An Evening Lesson, Abraham Lincoln, Lament for the Pine, Rabbi Ben Ezra, . Thanksgiving Day, . Editor's Desk, A Chapter of a Life, The Stability of a Republic, Shakespeare's Attitude Toward Education, . 193 The Horse vs. the Automobile, 196 Our Old School Ground, . . 198 When Should a Young Man Choose his Profession, . 201 How it Looks from the Road, 203 My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is, 203 m FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine- Printing go to i Jo Co Wile Priiptlipg Sfaw CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes- and. Gents' Furnishing Goods \ Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR S. MARTIN, ^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. q^f l2^ t&* Chambersburg St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S PURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony ? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STIINE McPherson Block. No. II BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, The Literary Journal of Ptnnsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 6 AN EVENING LESSON. [J. B. B., '01.1 'Twas in a dusky twilight hour I wandered down the vale, Beneath the cooling- azure bower My spirit to regale. I spoke to God ; He answered back And nought our talk disturbed, Till down the narrow winding track A noise our talk disturbed. 'Twas not the sound of human tongue, Nor beast nor bird aloof; But ringing from the hills among, A call to man's behoof. I stepped aside and turned awry To watch the iron steed, Till rumbling, roaring, rolling by He vanished o'er the mead. My thoughts again to God returned, He spoke once more to me, And from his sovran lips I learned These words of majesty: So run my plans creation through Across the track of time, Tneir goal as sure, their course as true Their journey more sublime; And nations, that as thou will show Attention's early gaze, In wisdom, and in strength shall grow, To prosper all their days. 172 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY ABRAHAM LINCOLN. [ORATION BY J. FRANK HEILMAN.] '"PHIRTY-FIVE years have passed and the Republic is stronger A than ever. The battle smoke of civil war has rolled away, and as we look into the clear past our first glance meets the colossal figure of Abraham Lincoln. He seems a mountain— when you examine each particular crag and feature how homely he appears; but stand back half a century, behold the entirety. —Do you not see the hand of God ! We wonder at him for his greatness, and we are proud of him that he is ours. We cannot imagine Lincoln as a Grecian or a Roman ; he is not English and certainly not French—he belongs to us alone but his fame is the world's. Our broad land can no more contain that than the pres-ent generation can estimate its duration; ages are the units which shall measure its extent and eternity shall not behold its com-pletion. Let us for a while then consider him who, under God, more than any other preserved our liberties and kept us as a peo-ple what we are. The nation was falling; that government of which sages had dreamed, that Republic toward which the Liberian exile cast his longing eye, the hope of mankind, the home of the brave sink-ing into theory ! On the fate of our country hung the fate of the human race for all time and our country was perishing. "Hu-manity with all its fears" was "hanging breathless on her fate ! " Should kings reign forever and the people never be free ? Then came the hour and the man;—from the ranks of the common people appeared the "rail-splitter" of Illinois. Who was that unknown man ? When England saw him she jeered at his home-ly face, France mocked his big hands and bent shoulders, the great men of his own land had no faith in him—but he had come with a mission, God had sent him ; and amid the clash of armies and the hell of war he rose Godlike. Those big hands erased the Mason and Dixou line, tore the shackles from the slave and held our country on the great world map ; those bent shoulders lifted our Republic to the highest place in history—and when his work was done he sealed it with his own blood. Then France took the name of the backwoodsman and said, "It belongs with Richelieu and Napoleon " ; then England took that homely face and hung it with Shakespeare and the elder Pitt; while the negro, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 173 holding up to the world the shackles and chains of two centuries, exclaimed, "Lincoln broke these." The hisses turned to cheers ! While he lived, however, Lincoln was never fully appreciated, it was only when he had passed away and strong men staggered under the great burdens which he had borne so well, that his countrymen began to feel how strong he had been ; it was not until the giant of the forest had. fallen that, by the space unoccu-pied, its magnitude was realized. Then the world looked on and wondered—that child of poverty, that rail-splitter, that uncrowned king! His influence rose from an unseen shoot to a vast and mighty tree, and now in the hour of civil heat and international suspense our country rests beneath its shadow. Unknown, untried, slandered, without a single precedent in all history, called by the American people to lead them—where ? —through an earthquake epoch that was splitting the land north from south and shaking the pillars of human liberty. When Abra-ham Lincoln entered Washington, kings rejoiced, proclaimed that republics were forever done ; but when they bore him back to the west, historians wrote, "Republics shall stand and kingdoms fall." When amid the jeers of Europe he entered the Capitol our coun-try was breaking apart and five million slaves breathed our air; but when they bore him, murdered, back to Illinois our land had been united forever and our flag made the flag of the free. Yes, he was poor and unpolished, awkward and homely, true, he was a rail-splitter, and yet—he was a king ! His wisdom, his elo-quence, his humanity, courage and prophetic vision blended into the ideal statesman just as the prismatic shades fold into the pure white. Then, too, so many heroes are famous either for great heart or great brain power, but in Lincoln the great heart and the great brain were together. While the awful responsibility of the Re-bellion was sinking its story deep in his brow, and while the re-peated disasters of our armies where so nearly overwhelming him that occasionally his mind was weak, he found time to write and in the name of the Republic to thank mothers whose sons had fallen in battle. A master of language ! what did he know of Latin or Greek—to-day a university of Great Britain is studying the perfect English of an off-hand letter. A stump speaker who distorted his face to provoke a laugh, they tell us that his Gettys-burg oration will live with "De Corona." Washington was 174 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY proud, aristocratic, in habit and reserve English; Lincoln was a democrat, out and out a man of the people, distinctively Ameri-can. How appropriate it is that he sleeps his last sleep far away in the West, on an arm of the "Father of Waters," in the bosom of our country, in the heart of the people he loved so well. It is said that the greatest of Italian sculptors owing to the superstitious fear of losing his genius always left unfinished some parts of his creations, but it seems that when God formed the masterpiece of American history, He gave to the world the in-comparable boon of a leader perfect in every respect. Your children's children shall lisp his name with reverence, aye, when continents have changed their coasts and the twentieth century shall be called the dawn of history, your posterity, the great American people, shall point with pride to Abraham Lincoln, our uncrowned king. LAMENT FOR THE PINE. [C W. WISER, '01.] High up on the mountain side, In his cabin lone and drear, Pondering o'er the glowing fire, Sits the aged pioneer. Cold without the wind is roaring, Thro' the tops of many trees ; Dismally its wierd notes moaning:— "Gone is summer's gentle breeze." Darkness now is quickly gathering 'Neath her folds the parting day, And with forces growing fuller, Comes the storm, the night to sway. Bright within a great log burning On the ancient hearth aglow, Lightens up the little cabin, With its smoky rafters low. In his arm chair, dozing, napping, Sits in peace the aged swain; While upon the window pattering, Fall the little drops of rain. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Thus he sits and gently dozes, In the fire's cheery glare, While without, in roaring tempest, Mournful sounds now pierce the air. Hark ! he cries, what do I hear In the wildness of the night, Is it then a lost one near,—■ Or the eagle in its flight. Ah I I know, it is the sighing Of the top of yonder pine, How it sets my heart a throbbing, When I think of days long syne. How my heart aches at the thought Of those days so long gone by, When beneath the mighty forest Naught was seen of yonder sky. When within its darksome shadows Roamed at large the nimble deer, And upon its mossy carpets Walked the panther and the bear. When beneath its mighty shelter Naught was felt of winter's sting; Snugly sheltered 'neath its branches We did wait the coming spring. Long since those trees have fallen Like stout heroes of the past; Felled by the brawny woodman, Tho' they braved the wintry blast. Ah ! no more I'll see those pines, As they towered to the sky, And no more will feel their shelter As I thro' the forest hie. In their place new ones have risen, Scrubby trees of oak and pine, But no more I'll see its glory As I did in days long syne. 17S The dead leaves their rich mosaics Of olive and gold and brown Had laid on the rain-wet pavements, Through all the embowered town. —Samuel Longfellow- -November. 176 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "RABBI BEIN EZRA." [C. C. GROVE.] /^"\N taking up the present theme, realizing as I hope some of ^S the great depth and beauty of the poem, my spirit is found breathing with Milton: " What in me is dark Illumine ; what is low raise and support," that I may bring to the notice of someone the consummate beauty of religious philosophy in Browning's "Rabbi ben Ezra." "Bring to the notice," I said, for it has been well written, "This is one of those poems which can never be profitably anatyzed or commented on: it must be read." Therefore, it is ours only to give the poem in sections with some outside substantiating and explana-tory thoughts. Like Longfellow's "Psalm of Life," this poem is an address of an old man, the Rabbi, to a young man, concerning the course of life, to light him on the way and to counsel him that he may come off victorious. He begins :— Grow old along with me ! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made : Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God : see all, nor be afraid ! " The glory of the sun in the zenith is one; in its setting, a more serene, benignant glory. Such is old age—"I shall know, being old." In "Saul," the poet expresses the same in other language, thus :— By the spirit, when age shall o'ercome thee, thou still shall enjoy More indeed, than at first when unconscious, the life of a boy. Would there were more who think Tennyson's Ulysses :— How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use ! As tho' to breathe were life ; More ready to "see all" nor "be afraid." The fears and hopes of youth's doubtful stage are thus out-lined :— Not that, amassing flowers, Youth sighed, "Which rose make ours, Which lily leave and then as best recall ? " Not that, admiring stars, It yearned, "Nor Jove, nor Mars ; Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all I " THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 177 Not for such hopes and fears Annulling youth's brief years, Do remonstrate ; folly wide the mark ! Rather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without, Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. While "Young, all lay in dispute" and so it must needs be. i/ove, hope, fear, faith,—these make humanity These are its signs, and note, and character.—"Paracelsus." These are exponents of character, as Bailey says, in Festus, Sc. A Country Town :— Who never doubted never half believed, Where doubt, there truth is, 'tis her shadow. Yet this is not all; the hopes, joys, and pleasures of youth although not remonstrated against are nevertheless proper only in their place and season. Poor vaunt of life indeed, were man but formed to feed On joy, to solely seek and find and feast; Such feasting ended, then as sure an end to man ; Irks care the crop-full bird ! Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast "Such feasting ended" would but mark the beginning of a period of lassitude, inactivity, and indifference. Does any care harass the crop-full bird or doubt the well-fed beast? But strong souls, having passed the days of being fed on broth, are different. Says George Eliot in "Spanish Gypsy," Book IV :— Strong souls Live like fire-heated suns, to spend their strength In furthest striving action. Not enjoyment and not sorrow Is our destined end or way, But to act that each to-morrow Finds us farther than to-day. Let us then Rejoice we are allied To That which doth provide And not partake, effect and not receive ! A spark disturbs our clod; Nearer we hold of God Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe. We have a nearer hold of God, possess a closer relationship with God who gives than with His tribes that take. Ours it is to minister, not to be ministered unto; to provide and not par-take ; to sow and not share the harvest. Our relationship is more close with God, the giver, than with the hosts who would merely receive. 178 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Then, welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting- that bids nor sit nor stand but go ! Be our joys three-parts pain ! Strive, and hold cheap the strain Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! Enviable ye "strong souls"; yea, ye, who like Paul say, "I glory in tribulation also." For from such a course, For thence,—a paradox which comforts while it mocks,— Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me : A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale. Aspiration, breathing toward higher things, ennobles, exalts man more perhaps than a backward glance at past achievements, as is said in "Saul," " 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man would do." He might sink to low depths, to the brute even, but would not. To the brute ? Yes, for What is he but brute Whose flesh hath soul to suit, Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play ? To man, propose this test—Thy body at its best, How far can that project thy soul on its lone way ? The body cannot stand this test, nor was it intended to do so. Yet it dare not be looked upon as a mere encumbering tenement as Browning in the next four stanzas shows, bringing out the fact that our body is holy ; that it is glorious, even divine to live in the "rose-mesh" of flesh. Yet gifts should prove their use : I own the Past profuse Of power each side, perfection every turn : Eyes, ears took in their dole, Brain treasured up the whole ; Should not the heart beat once "How good to live and learn ? " Not once beat "Praise be Thine 1 I see the whole design, I who saw Power, see now Love perfect too : Perfect I call thy plan : Thanks that I was a man ! Maker, remake, complete,—I trust what Thou shalt do ! " For pleasant is this flesh ; Our soul in its rose-mesh Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest: Would we some prize might hold To match those manifold Possessions of the brute,—gain most, as we did best! Let us not always say "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole ! " As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!" m THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 179 To revert to the second of these stanzas, this is the expression of man at the very crest of the mountain of his glory and power. It all follows the order of Divine Revelation—Power, Love—first Elohim, then Jehovah, then "God is love." There also appears the trust begotten of love. Here is a man in his prime. "The truth of truths is love." Now we pass to age. Its glory, knowledge : "I shall know, being old." Therefore I summon age To grant youth's heritage, Life's struggle having so far reached its term : Thence shall I pass approved A man, for aye removed From the brute , a God though in the germ. And I shall thereupon Take rest ere I be gone Once more on my adventure brave and new; Fearless and unperplexed, "When I wage battle next, What weapons to select, what armor to indue. The former years have taught; age comes to pass sentence on youth ; then shall aged man go forth unperplexed by the varying changes and problems of life, removed from the brute, a God in powers and thought though embryonic. Stanza five presented man in Youth as gladly being of those who "provide" and "effect." Now at the beginning of the period called "Age," he tries, tests, calculates the profit or loss resulting from those efforts, those "fires." "Every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Youth ended, I shall try My gain or loss thereby ; Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold: And I shall weigh the same, Give life its praise or blame : Young, all lay in dispute, I shall know, being old. Thus ends Youth, and Age begins. The latter carefully ex-amines the past and pronounces at last its worth. Youth dies as the day and glory tinted Age begins. For note when evening shuts, A certain moment cuts The deed off, calls the glory from the gray : A whisper from the west Shoots—"Add this to the rest, Take it and try its worth : here dies another day." So, still within this life, Though lifted o'er its strife, Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, "This rage was right i'the main, That acquiescence vain: The Future I may face now I have proved the Past." THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY For more is not reserved To man, with soul just nerved To act to-morrow what he learns to-day, Here work enough to watch The Master work, and catch Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. How beautifully expressed the thought that the Master's life was for an example that we should follow, and that too, carefully, devoutly, day by day ! The previous stanza reminds one of that superb simile of Goldsmith's in "Deserted Village" lines 187-192. Age has passed the active stage. As Youth was told to ' 'trust God; see all, nor be afraid," so our minds are turned back to think of the beginning of a new stage by similarity in verse: As it was better, Youth Should strive, througfh acts uncouth, Towards making-, than repose on aught found made: So, better, age, exempt Prom strife, should know, than tempt Further, Thou waitedst age : wait death, nor be afraid ! Now comes the serene period of waiting. It is glorious only as it is found in the way of righteousness, Prov. 16 : 31. Enough now, if the Right And Good and Infinite Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own, With knowledge absolute, Subject to no dispute From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone. Be there, for once and all, Severed great minds from small, Announced to each his station in the Past! Was I, the world arraigned, Were they, my soul disdained, Right ? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last! Supply the relative whom twice ; first, with / as antecedent, sec-ond, with they as antecedent. The sentence is hard to pass, for the decision is not easily made. The Right some would say is not absolute therefore. It is so and universal too but man in applying the principles to particular cases does not know all the conditions, and circumstances or may be laboring under a delu-sion or superstition ; hence, the difficulty. Now, who shall arbitrate ? Ten men love what I hate, Shun what I follow, slight what I receive; Ten, who in ears and eyes Match me : we all surmise, They, this thing, and I, that: whom shall my soul believe? There follow now several paragraphs concerning the proper judgment of life, comparing man's with God's estimate of worth. "Man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh on the heart." THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 181 Not on the vulgar mass Called "work," must sentence pass ; Thing's done, that took the eye and had the price ; O'er which, from level stand, The low world laid its hand, Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice: But all, the world's coarse thumb And finger failed to plumb, So passed in making up the main account: All instincts immature, All purposes unsure, That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount. Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act, Fancies that broke through the language and escaped: All I could never be, All men ignored in me, This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped. The great Judge shall consider the secret intents of the hear t We know not these, how can we judge? We may know them for ourselves ; therefore, we are commanded to judge ourselves. The last clause attracts to itself (its own elaboration) or causes the poet to expand the metaphor most beautifully. "We are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand," Isa. 64 : 8, or Jeremiah gives it more fully, 18 : 2-6. Aye, note that Potter's wheel, that metaphor ! and feel Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay— Thou, to whom fools propound, When the wine makes its round, "Since life fleets, all is change ; the Past gone, seize to-day !" Fool! All that is, at all, Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: What entered into thee, That was, is, and shall be: Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. He fixed thee 'mid this dance of plastic circumstance, This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: Machinery just meant To give thy soul its bent, Try thee, and turn thee forth sufficiently impressed. What though the earlier grooves which ran the laughing loves Around thy base, no longer pause and press ? What though, about thy rim, Skull-things in order grim Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress ? Look not thou down but up ! To uses of a cup, The festal board, lamp's flash, the trumpet's peal, The new wine's foaming flow, The Master's lips aglow ! Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst thou with earth's wheel? But I need, now as then, Thee, God, who moldest men ! And since, not even while the whirl was worst, Did I—to the wheel of life With shapes and colors rife, Bound dizzily—mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst: 182 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Foolish proposition that, that "since life fleets, all is change," when applied to man's real self, his spiritual being and its life. The "Past is gone," but only in that it is "past recall." "Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." The deeds in the body shall all have to pass examination. They are not gone forever. " Tempus res humanas mutat," but not the characters of men. " Potter and clay endure." How meter, rhyme and alliteration, everything conduces in the first two lines of the next stanza to show the evanescence of circumstantial influences ! These are just enough to bring about the proper results in all God's people. " All things work together for good to them that love God." We must fret and chafe because in later 3'ears the shapings may be more stern in character and less attractive. They all and each have their place to bring about true beauty and strength of char-acter. Let us look to the higher import and purpose in all works, and especially in ourselves, "heaven's consummate cup.'' We need not fashion ourselves upon earth's wheel, according to the designing of men. " Be not confor7ned to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Not " earth's wheel" then, but the great Fotter we need now as ever. Lastly, after striving in youth, following meekly and trust-ingly in later life, and waiting reverently to have the Potter's plans completed, the whole is surrendered, to be taken for use in the temple above, when the flaws shall have been righted, when this inglorious body shall be raised in glory, incorruption and im-mortality. So, take and use Thy work, Amend what flaws may lurk, What strains o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! My times be in Thy hand ! Perfect the cup as planned ! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same ! c*p The drying up of a single tear has more Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore. —Byron. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 183 THANKSGIVING DAY. E. C. RUBY, '02. /'"VUR Thanksgiving Day is a composite one. It is made up ^-^ from parts of celebrations of that day by other peoples. We have taken the time from an Indian festival which used to take place during the fall of the year. The wild-wood festival, with its feasting, its dancing of Indian warriors to the songs of their dusky sweethearts, may well be called the original Thanks-giving Day in this happy land of ours. The Thanksgiving we celebrate at the close of every harvest season owes something to the religious rites of ancient nations. The oldest of these is the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, with its magnificent festivities. It was the feast of the " ingathering" of the harvest of all the fruits, the corn, the wine, and the oil. The labors of the field were then over for the year, and the feast was an occasion of joyousness and gladness to the people. The glory of the great Hebrew festival has long since passed away, but the fundamental principle—that every one should equally rejoice in the fruits of the current harvest, together with the whole people of the land '' before the Lord''—has entered into the harvest observances of Christian lands. Greece celebrated the great feast known as the Eleusinia, or the feast to Demeter of the beautiful robe. Demeter was the goddess of harvests. Her daughter, Persephone, had been kid-napped by Pluto, and, because she had tasted a pomegranate seed, could remain with her mother only part of the year. This made Demeter angry, and she left the gods, made her dwelling upon the earth, and taught Celeus, King of Eleusis, how to plow, sow and reap. For this the Greeks celebrated the Eleusinian feast, one of the grandest of the Greek festivals. The Romans celebrated a harvest festival called the Cerealia. It took its name from Ceres, who was the Demeter of the Romans. This festival was a general holiday, every one resting from work, and eager for enjoyment and pleasure. Coming nearer to our own harvest festival is the English Har-vest- home. This was usually a day of boisterous mirth. The people kindled bonfires, danced on the green sward, and engaged in athletic sports. The Pilgrim Fathers remembered this festival in their new home, and expressed their thankfulness for their first harvest by 184 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY a feast. Of their harvest, Governor Bradford tells us that " they began now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recov-ered in health and strength, and had all things in good plenty." Thereupon the Governor issued a proclamation appointing a Feast of Thanksgiving. On the appointed Thursday the feast was opened with religious services. Then came a period of feasting and recreation. The real Thanksgiving dinner took place on Saturday, the last day of the celebration. The earth, the air and the water had yielded of their bountiful supplies to make this Thanksgiving dinner, and when the pioneers sat down to the meal they saw a table spread with water-fowl, wild turkey, veni-son, corn and barley ; with this cheer they gave thanks that "by the goodness of God they were far from want." Our Thanksgiving of to-day has taken some part from each of these different festivals. It has taken the time of the Indian meeting ; its charity is gained from the Jewish Feast of Taberna-cles ; it has copied the festivals of Demeter and Ceres, in giving thanks for the crops ; its mirth and festivity has a flavor of the English Harvest-home festival ; and its spirit of thankfulness and religious adoration was given to it by our Pilgrim forefathers. When the American Colonies had established their independ-ence, and had united themselves under one form of government, the New England Thanksgiving custom was gradually extended to the Middle States, then to the West, and more slowly to the South. In 1863 it began to be annually proclaimed for observ-ance throughout the country. For more than thirty years has Thanksgiving been a national institution throughout this country, while as a religious festival it dates back over two and three-quarter centuries—to the first celebration by the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. In the early days of the planting of church and commonwealth on this continent, when a sterile soil began to yield its bounties to the often-famished settler, it is pleasant to recall that the little community took delight in giving public ex-pression to the spirit of thanksgiving, which has now grown into a mighty custom over the entire Republic, after the annual har-vesting of the fruits of the earth. The following extract Irom Mrs. H. B. Stowe's " Oldtown" indicates graphically the general character ot the New England Thanksgiving observance : "Great as the preparations were for the dinner, everything was so con- I ~ THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 18S trived that not a soul in the house should be kept from the morn-ing service of Thanksgiving in the church, and from listening to the Thanksgiving sermon, in which the minister was expected to express his views freely concerning the politics of the country, and the state of things in society generally, in a somewhat more secular vein of thought than was deemed exactly appropriate to the Lord's day." There is no religious tradition more interesting from its an-tiquity and its general significance, or more suggestive and useful as an American custom, than that of the annual Thanksgiving service, the purpose of which is to express general thanksgiving for the bounties of the year, and especial thanksgiving for national prosperity and progress. In this light alone the service ought to command, without any exception whatever, a more than usual interest in every church of every name. It is little less than a national misfortune that the opportunity of Thanksgiving Day is not universally improved by all churches. Throughout the entire history of the most ancient tradition of Thanksgiving it has always been recognized that the best and highest expression of Thanksgiving was that of charity to the suffering and the needy. The same Thanksgiving Day which marks the close of a season of bounty should not less mark the opening of a season of benefaction, the giving of thanks finding its full expression in the sharing of our bounties with those who may suffer want. A more recent and no less commendable feature of our Thanks-giving Day, is the custom of gathering together in family reunions which keep well knit the bonds of kinship and attune hearts, often sundered by discord, to the universal note of harmony and common rejoicing. This pleasant feature is beautifully expressed in the following verses from a poem written by Phoebe Carey: " O men, grown sick with toil and care, Leave for awhile the crowded mart; O women, sinking- with despair, Weary of limb and faint of heart, Forget your years to-day and come As children back to childhood's home. Walk through the sere and fading wood, So lightly trodden by your feet, When all you knew of life was good, : ■ 186 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY And all you dreamed of life was sweet, And ever fondly looking- back O'er youthful love's enchanted track. Go sit beside the hearth again, Whose circle once was glad and gay ; And if from out the precious chain Some shining links have dropped away, Then guard with tender heart and hand The remnant of thy household band. Draw near the board with plenty spread, And if in the accustomed place You see the father's reverend head, Or mother's patient, loving face, Whate'er your life may have of ill, Thank God that these are left you still." November woods are bare and still, November days are clear and bright; Each noon burns up the morning's chill, The morning's snow is gone by night ; Each day my steps grow slow, grow light, As through the woods I reverent creep Watching all things lie "down to sleep." —Helen Hunt Jackson. All brilliant flowers are pale and dead And silent droop to earth, While pansies chill in velvet robes Count life but little worth ; But in these dark November days That wander wild and wet, Our thoughts are winged to summer hours On breath of mignonette. —Eliza O. Pearson. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. Vol. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 6. Editor-in-Chief, S. A. VAN ORMER, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HETRICK, "W. A. KOIII.I'.K. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. I\ D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg") College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending* the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS' DESK. '"■pHERE is a tendency on the part of college students to sell *■ their text books as soon as the branches in which they have been used are completed. There can be no objection offered to this custom in general, for many of the books will not be needed again during the college course, while the money invested in them can be used to advantage by most students ; but there are books that ought not to be sold—books that ought to be not only kept but used throughout the college course, and chief among these is the Rhetoric. If we measure the importance of a branch, in comparison with others, by the use to be made of it in after life, surely no other branch can claim more of our time and energy ; it we would express ourselves forcibly and accurately in 188 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY speaking and in writing, we must be familiar with the principles of Rhetoric ; if we would obviate the humiliation that comes from having our writing in after life criticised and condemned, we must cultivate the habit of looking up troublesome and un-certain points while in college. J> That the colleges of our country are taking an active part in the present political campaign is evinced by the number of clubs that nave been organized and the selection of the great issues of the campaign for discussion in literary societies and debating clubs. Colleges rightly invite free thought and free discussion of political issues in the class room as well as in student organiza-tions, for these and similar issues are to confront those now in college when they shall have become local leaders in political circles. A careful, thorough and unbiased study of National economic problems must necessarily broaden the intellectual hori-zon of the student and prepare him the better to meet the de-mands that shall rest upon him as a citizen. A CHAPTER OP A LIFE. T,. W. GROSS, '01. INVITATIONS were out announcing the wedding of Miss *■ Estella Wellington to J. Harry Ashland. It was to be a church wedding in the Episcopal church of that town. Friends and relatives of both families from far and near were invited. At last the day dawned and the merry wedding chimes rang out bright and clear. It was in June, the beautiful month of roses. Nothing could be more beautiful than the gay and happy scene that was presented to the honored guests who filled the little church on this occasion to witness the ceremony. Nature seemed to offer her congratulations in the extravagant profusion of flowers she furnished for the bride and the decorations. The birds in the tree tops along the deep, shady drives warbled a merry march for the bridal party as it passed to the elegant mansion of the bride. Harry Ashland was not rich. He was the only son, and the pride and joy of his mother's heart, and so it was with a feeling of sadness THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 189 that she, regardless of the gaiety and mirth around her, saw another woman claim a place in his affections. He had married against her choice. Yet she saw that her son dearly loved the one he married and was loved in return, and so said not a word except iu gentle reasoning; but even the desire of his mother, much as he cared for her, could not alter his intention. He married his choice and Mrs. Ashland calmly submitted, and made the occasion of the wedding and short visit at home of her son as pleasant as possible. Harry was industrious, popular and a general favorite in his home town, as was always shown by the host of friends who greeted him on his visits to his mother. He had no other profession, but traveled for his uncle, who was manager of a large machine in-dustry in the South. He had been in his uncle's office for some time, and when he was promoted to collector his salary was raised sufficient, he thought, to warrant his taking the step he did, and so he married. His wife came from an old Maryland family, bringing him wealth, social distinction and culture in exchange for his name, honesty and good character. He met her since he was working for his uncle, and although she was, perhaps, above him in the social scale, yet his manliness, comeliness and winning personality won her heart and hand for him; and finally she decided to share his fate through life. He had no fortune to depend on, yet his prospects for a successful life were bright as the morning sun. And they hoped in a year or so to have a home as beautiful as her own down in Maryland. In August Mr. and Mrs. Ashland moved to their residence in a small town in the territory Harry was to work, storing their goods and boarding at a hotel. He at once took the road and began business for his uncle. L,ong trips had to be made, some-times by rail, others by stage, and sometimes he drove in a buggy over long, lonesome roads through the wild and mountainous country. Business was good, and although it required him to be away from home a great deal of his time, he was happy in the thought that it was done for the one he loved above all others. His uncle entrusted him with collecting large amounts of money from which he drew his own salary and paid other assist-ants under him, turning the balance over as the net earnings of the company. 190 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Harry had now been married a year, expecting by this time to have a neat little sum over and above his family expenses at the hotel, but found that their boarding there was very expensive. His wife was accustomed to the luxuries of life and dressed according to the fashions of the day. Thus the satisfaction of her fastidious tastes drained his yearly income to its lowest dregs. It was with disappointment that he learned these facts; yet he started again with renewed determination to make more money the next year than he did the first, and in'spite of everything, make his coveted home for himself and wife to enjoy life with the wealthy. The second year rolled around without apparent change in his financial affairs. His expenses were increasing, the savings decreasing ; yet he made more trips through mountain and valley, and through town and city than ever before in his energetic struggle for existence. Besides his loving wife he now had a little girl to welcome him home with her childish prattle and glee, and he often dissipated his gloom and disappointment on coming in from a hard trip by talking and a frolic with little Iyida. But still it seemed as if the clouds were lowering and his domestic horizon getting darkei instead of brighter. He was often found in deep thought by his wife, who would try to cheer him, unconscious of his real trouble, never dreaming that she might be the cause of it. He often thought of his mother's advice about this very thing, of marrying within his class, and thought, now there might be something in it, after all. But he would rather struggle to the last than say a word to check his wife in the spending of the money he would earn. May be Harry had too much pride. About this time he was sent out to make one of the largest collections of the year, and he rather dreaded the trip because it had to be made in a buggy over lonesome and rough roads. However, giving his wife and daughter a loving farewell he started on the trip. He visited subordinate agents and dealers, collect-ing money from each till, by the time he was ready to start for headquarters, he had a little over five thousand dollars in his possession. This money he kept in a tin box securely fastened under the buggy seat. He had never been molested by highway-men himself, but often had heard of such robberies occurring in the vicinity through which he had to pass, and he felt a peculiar THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 191 dread pass over him lest he should be attacked on this particular trip when he carried so much money. Harry had been driving all day and his horse became very tired and somewhat jaded. He hoped to reach his destination before night-fall, but being in Autumn and the days growing shorter, darkness gathered sooner than he anticipated. A drizzling rain set in, and to add to his difficulties, his horse became lame from much traveling. As a result intense darkness caught him in the very worst part of the road. Yes, he was robbed. His worst fears were realized. A full and vivid account of the bold and daring robbery appeared in the daily papers giving all the details. But the highwaymen had the money and were still at large. It was the same old story. The tired horse was stopped and held while three or four men sprang at the occupant of the buggy, bound him hand and foot, gagged him, tied the horse to a tree in the wood by the road side and then hastened away with their booty. He remained in his help-less condition till at last, after a night of agony trying to free himself, he was set free by a passer-by in the morning after the banditti were miles away. He went at once to his uncle, told his story and had detectives started in pursuit of the robbers. But the old man was angry, flew into a rage at such a great loss of money, blamed Harry for neglect and carelessness, and finally discharged him from his service. This was the climax to all his trouble. He tried to reason with his uncle but he would hear none. Harry could not pacify him. He went home to his wife with a heavy heart; his bright-est gleams of home and success blasted, utterly ruined. His wife tried to console him, but with no avail. He saw bills staring him in the face, his month's salary stolen and nothing for the future in sight. Here again pride came in his way and he refused several offers of help by kind friends because the salary was lower than he had been used to getting and in the humbler occupations. His discouragement increased; at times he became moody and silent. The thought of his great misfortune, his uncle's relentlessuess and his domestic affairs weighed heavily upon him. At last it became unbearable and he told his wife he must go to the city and obtain a position worthy of his station in life. He bade 192 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY them goodbye and left little L,ida and her mother in their rooms at the hotel. Harry was gone, alas! never to return. He failed to obtain the position, his money was soon spent, and he paid his last dime for a piece of rope. The next morning his cold, distorted and lifeless body was found hanging to the limb of a tree in a secluded part of one of the parks about the great city. His body was identified by his friends, who were notified by the authorities, and taken home and buried. Time, the great physician, the healer of all wounds, bound up the broken hearts of his many friends, and soon they looked up again. He was rid of the world and its struggles and soon for-gotten by it, remembered only by a few of his friends. One life less in the world ; one leaf fallen from the great tree—the world; one pebble less on the great sea shore; one drop less in the ocean. Soon the waters closed over the ripple and were as placid as before. THE STABILITY OF A REPUBLIC. W. H. HETRICK, '01. TVTATIONAL, evolution in the course of its progress has finally •*■ ^ given government a sublime perfection in the principles and constitutions of modern Republicanism. A republic such as our own, firmly grounded on union, liberty and independence, is not modern in development, but stands as the complete product of the ages. Its grand perfection and accomplishment is the re-sult of long centuries of national experience. Out of the confu-sion of the past, the rude primitive rule of patriarchs, the disso-lution of empires, the unrelenting tyranny of despotism, the heart-less cruelty of kings, out of innumerable wars and inhuman wrongs, God, the maker of destiny, has perfected a government for man, and we call that government a republic. Heretofore the government of nations was, to a great extent, at variance with the desires and thoughts of the human mind. There was no satisfaction in serving ; no morality in slavery ; no justice in taxation without representation ; no virtue in ine-quality. Man since his creation has felt and expressed a strong dissatisfaction with the government imposed upon him. It was his conviction that he was and by right ought to be free. A deep inexplicable fact of his being forced him to the belief that the law THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 193 which governs society should conform to his own conscience and reason. This was the requisite of his soul. When once attained and instituted, government would be perfect. There would be nothing beyond it; no deeper principle for higher attainment. It would be the consummation of law. Such is our own republic. The principles in her constitution strike deep into the heart of being. Liberty, union and inde-pendence are not artificial, not the invention of mind nor even the result of thought. No ! They are the aspirations of the soul; the uniformities of all natural law. Ages of time, millions of people and hundreds of civilizations, by the power of progress, have at last evolved from the great powers of human experience an en-during form of government, that can never fall or be dissolved by the presence of faults or the schemes of men. Our country shall never degenerate from her elevated place of greatness. To bring this about would necessitate retrogression, and retrogression means a changing of law for something worse. It would be the destruction of a perfect law for the adoption of one whose im-perfection was the principal cause of its revision. It would be contrary to the nature of things. It would mean imperialism which belongs to the past. It would mean despotism, militarism, disorder. It would be forcing the law of nature, of reason and of justice against its own development. No! Our constitution is founded upon a rock, the rock of tried experience, the deepest law of progress. It must ever stand as a monument built for all time to come. SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD EDUCATION. EMORY D. BREAM, '02. WHRN we turn to the history of education to ascertain the relative position of Shakespeare among the great writers of the world, we are told that Greece had its Homer, Rome its Virgil, Italy its Dante, Germany its Goethe, France its Hugo and England its Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton and many others ; but if one of these distinguished writers were to be chosen king over the others, Shakespeare would, by common consent, be placed upon the throne. Naturally, then, we would expect a man of such a lofty liter-ary position to be a patron of education. Although he has written no treatise on education, nor is he recognized as an educator, yet 194 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY one cannot read his works intelligently without noticing how careful he is to endow the nobler characters of his plays with the love of knowledge. For instance, in " As You L,ike It," who does not admire the noble discontent of Orlando with a condition that hinders manly development ? In the " Tempest " do we not immediately recognize Prospero as a true Student ? Shakespeare distinguishes the educated man from the unedu-cated. The fact that he firmly believed that the mind, God's greatest gift to man, should be cultivated and adorned, is proved by the case of Orlando. He is discontented with his breeding, and recognizes that though he is a gentleman by birth, yet that avails little if he lacks breeding. " For call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox ? His horses are bred better." How strongly Shakespeare empha-sizes in these lines the fact that God would not have endowed us with minds superior to animals if he did not intend that we should cultivate them. Intelligence is a distinguishing mark of a lady or gentleman. In the " Merchant of Venice " this fact is brought out clearly. Bassanio lacks commercial ability and is unable to win for him-self the means necessary for the support of a man of rank ; yet he possesses the elegant tastes of a gentleman, and when supplied with money, he has no trouble in winning the heart of Portia, a young woman of wealth and high social position. Shakespeare is careful to portray her even as having good sense enough to esteem spiritual higher than material qualities. This is clearly shown in the.conversation between Portia and Nerissa when Nerissa recounts to Portia the various suitors that have sought her hand. She finds fault with all until Bassanio's name is mentioned. Here Shakespeare shows a distinction. The Nea-politan prince took so much interest in his horse that he boasted even of being able to shoe it. Faulconbridge, the young baron of England, is, in Portia's words, "A proper man's picture ; but alas ! who can converse with a dumb show ? '' But when Bas-sanio, the Venetian, a scholar and soldier, is named these two ac-complishments win for him favor in the eyes of Portia. In these examples Shakespeare made the educated man of greater weight than all the men of wealth, noble birth and polish. An educated person is recognized by people of less ability as being superior to them. This is also brought out plainly by THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 195 Portia after Bassanio has opened the leaden casket, and, according to the command given in the stanza of poetry that it contained, has claimed her with a kiss. In the conversation that follows she calls herself an unlessoned, unschooled and unpractised girl, but not too old to learn. Thus she recognizes Bassanio as her superior. In turn, when Portia is pleading for Antonio, Shylock admires her ability to argue, and as soon as she seems to be giving justice to his side of the question, he bursts out in exclamations of praise. " A Daniel come to judgment! Yea a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I honor thee ! " Considering the fact that Portia has before this confessed herself to be an unschooled girl, such ability to plead a case seems contradictory ; but this shows that educa-tion is not merely book knowledge. Though Shylock may have thought that it was to his interest to laud the wise young judge, yet doubtless Shakespeare wished to lay stress upon the influence that an educated person has over an uneducated one. Lastly, a love for study and close application is necessary to acquire an education in the true sense of the word. In " Hamlet," where the king tells Hamlet that his intention to return to Wit-tenburg to school is contrary to the wishes of the king and queen, from the words, "We beseech you, bend you to remain here," we would infer that he was a diligent student and loved study. The most forcible illustration of this, however, is Prospero. He was so attentive to his books that he neglected his duties as a ruler even so much as to allow his brother to usurp the throne. In the conversation between Miranda and Ferdinand, while he was piling up the logs, Miranda requests Ferdinand to rest awhile, saying that, "He's hard at study. He's safe for these three hours." Indicating how diligently Prospero studied. These seem almost like words of advice from the great dramatist to those who wish to be real students, and they show that Shakespeare not only was favorable to education, but believed that everyone should be educated. O reader ! had you in your mind Such stores as silent thought can bring ; O gentle reader ! you would find A tale in everything. —Woods-worth. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE MORSE VS. THE AUTOMOBILE. H. L. STIFEL, '03. pVER since this world began there has been in existence a cer- -*-' tain class of persons, who have opposed, with all their strength, every innovation, every invention, which untiring labor or a happy chance has brought before the public. Though I do not consider myself as one of this mean-spirited class, I wish to speak a word in favor of that good friend and servant of man, the horse, as opposed to the automobile. Of the three classes of the automobile, steam, gasoline and electric, it is hard to make a choice of the one with the least ob-jectionable features. The latter we may reject at once, owing to the difficulty in charging the batteries. An average electric ma-chine will run for twenty miles ; then it must be recharged. This circumstance renders it absolutely useless for long tours, as there are but few places along a country road where this recharging may be effected. Even in the city, the owner of this type of the automobile may find himself compelled to procure a team to drag home his horseless carriage. Nor is the steam wagon much better. It requires a great deal of labor in firing up before each trip. Another disagreeable feature is the incessant noise of the steam. Besides, a man must, to all purposes, know as much as a licensed engineer before he is capable of managing such a ma-chine. The steam pressure and the amount of water in the boiler must be careiully watched. The fire and fuel also require con-stant attention. There remains only the gasoline type. This is the most practical of all three, but it also has one very unpleasant feature. It is everywhere accompanied by the disagreeable odor of gasoline. Any one of these three classes, moreover, needs as much care as would two horses. The machine is fitted up with a large amount of nickel and brass trimmings, which, in order to be kept presentable, require as much polishing and cleaning as would a team. Then, too, the mechanism must be kept clean and free from rust, and must be thoroughly oiled, not to mention the fact that it must be kept in good running order. It has been asserted that the automobile will eventually dis-place the horse entirely. This I emphatically deny. In my opinion, it is only a fad which society, bored to the last degree, has taken up. At all events, in its present stage of development, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY it is nothing but a toy. In the course of time the automobile may prove to be more serviceable thau the horse for heavy haul-ing or rapid transit, but it can never take the place of the hon-e for pleasure driving. There is a vast difference between guiding a mere machine and spinning along a road behind a spirited horse. The keen sense of satisfaction felt in the mastery of a creature of flesh and blood, intelligent, and with a will of its own, would be entirely absent in the running of an automobile. In regard to the matter of safety, the horse is again superior to the steam or gasoline wagon. A horse, on the darkest night, will keep on the road by instinct. An automobile, guided by a man, of course cannot do this, for man hasnot this instinct which is given to the animal. Therefore, the driver, if we may call the person who runs the automobile by that name, is likely to find himself lying in a ditch beside the road. We have often read of horses stopping and refusing to go on when their instinct tells them there is danger ahead. This again is impossible to the auto-mobile driver, for he receives no such warning. Naturally, an accident may happen to a careless driver with the most intelligent of horses; but is not the danger much greater when a careless man has a boiler full of steam, or a tank of gasoline under him ? A small stone, lying in the road, may strike a front wheel and throw the steering gear to one side, ditching the machine or send-ing it over an embankment, with an explosion, perhaps, as the result. An ordinary vehicle would simply run over the obstruc-tion with no worse effect than a slight jolt. In view of these facts, let us cling to the horse, an intelligent animal, capable of loving and of being loved, rather than take up the automobile, a thing of cogs and machinery. In following out this course we shall obtain more pleasure, and we shall obtain it with greater safety. Is it not, therefore, the more desirable ? o*p I hold it true, whate'er befall, I feel it when I sorrow most ; 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. -Tennyson. 198 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY OUR OLD SCHOOL GROUND. [D. M. MISLCHIOR, '02.] TT may seem very odd that one should select a plain, country "■ school as the most interesting place he ever knew, yet, for me, there is no other place that carries with it so much personal interest as those nooks and crooks about our old school house. The beautiful parks about Philadelphia are very interesting not only for their beauty, but also for their historical connections; there is pleasure in watching the ocean dash its breakers against the beach of some seaside resort ; the rush and bustle of Broad-way is fascinating ; yet, I imagine that if I ever live to be an old man and think of the happy days of my past life, no recollections will come before me so vividly as those connected with that old school-ground. I should not say old so far as the building is concerned, for when I started to school it was a comparatively new one. About a quarter of a mile east of Springtown it stood—and still stands —upon a little hill beside a quaint, old Evangelical church. The house was a substantial brick building—much after the manner of all country school houses in a prosperous farming community. The playground was not much of a recommendation, for aside from being small it was uneven and rocky. It was probably for this reason that we sought other places for our sports and often wandered far beyond our prescribed limits. There was a row of sheds back of the church for the accom-modation of such church goers as were willing to pay a yearly rent to protect their teams from the rain or the burning sun. Here we would all gather on a rainy day, as long as it was not too cold, and amuse ourselves as best we could, playing such games as a half a hundred lively boys and girls could play in so small a space. On the east side of the building was an anything-but-hand-some- looking rail fence, and on the inner side of this we built huts, made of rails, corn-fodder, and dry leaves. At the back of these stood a row of cider and Baldwin apple trees, and many a feast we had off them, the owner having long before given up hope of ever getting any of the apples for himself. Running at right angles with the school ground was the road and right in front of the school house was the top of a very steep THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 199 hill which afforded us ample means for coasting. And what sport is more fascinating than coasting when you have a straight '' drive " tor a quarter of a mile or more ? I remember one im-mense sled (double-deckers were unheard of at that time) which was the pride of the whole school. Two big fellows would sit on it facing each other, and then a heap of little boys would be piled on crosswise and away they'd go. At the top of the hill there were usually immense snow drifts, and it was lots of fun to tun-nel them. First a fellow would start from the top and, feet first, would work his way through until a good sized hole would be made. Then little subways were made until the top, becoming too weak, would fall in. In the field on the other side of the road we would often build an immense snow fort, and how hard we would fight to defend it! It would be captured and recap-tured, until the teacher's bell would call us to our afternoon's work. Below this field ran a mill race, and I can well remember how, in the early part of September, we would sneak down to it, undress and take a lively little swim in the almost bitter cold water—a practice that was prohibited not only by the teacher, but also by our parents. Once, especially, do I remember how I sneaked away one noon with a fishing line in my pocket to try a half hour's luck at angling, and how I slipped from a log, fell in to my waist, and in the hope of not being detected put on a brave face and determined to sit the whole afternoon in my wet trousers. But the teacher had heard of my misfortune through someone else and was waiting for me. Instead of getting a thrashing, he gave me a sealed note to take to my father and sent me home. Believing that a great deal of harm is often done by exposing domestic affairs, I'll not say anything of the interview with my father in his private study. After the long, weary winter months were past, Spring would arouse the sleeping fields and woods, and then perhaps the most fascinating part of those school days would come. The early flowers, especially arbutus, would come out in the valley below the school house, or on the mountain back of it; and many, many times we would scour those fields and bring back not only flowers, but turtles, snakes and other such harmless creatures as would terrify the girls. Then, although perhaps chiefly in the Autumn, would come the time to play Hare and Hound, and through fields, over 200 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY streams, up the hills we would run, heedless of wet feet, torn clothes or of being late for school. Down at the foot of an adjoining field stood a lime kiln, and back of it along a small mountain creek we would sit and cut willow whistles, dare each other to do almost impossible feats, and just have a jolly good time. It was down there that on the last day of school we were always permitted to play that forbidden game—"ring tag." That was one of the times when the boys condescended to play with the girls, and everybody kissed every-body else good-bye. It was a bit of foolishness, and yet when one thinks back, and the faces of all those schoolmates come before him, he is struck with surprise to note what changes eight or nine years may bring. Some of them are married, a few have died, others are away attending some higher institution of learning, while the majority are still there, but gradually scattering one by one. Often, when thinking ofhome, I see before me that school house —a church on one side enclosed by a row of trees, fields of corn stubble on two other sides, and the well-travelled road directly in front. There is the narrow, rocky lane leading down to the mill-race, coasting down which a little girl, caught between a sled and rock, once broke a leg and was lamed for life. To one side stands the coal shed. On the right is the rock on which the auctioneer stood when we had "horse sales." So as I stand there and look upon spot after spot where one little thing or another happened that I shall never forget, it seems to me that if I live to be ninety years old, I shall never find a place of more personal interest than the scenes of my early country school life. Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air. —Grey. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 201 WHEN SHOULD A YOUNG MAN CHOOSE HIS PROFESSION ? HEIGHTMAN, '02. '"PHIS question, manifestly of so vast importance to every young *■ man, should be presented to him at an early age. But he should be careful lest he make a decision too hastily. Often does a man see his mistake too late when, after spending a long time in preparation, he enters upon his chosen profession, and feels that it will be neither pleasant nor profitable to him. But he can put the blame upon none else than himself, unless perchance he has been forced by his parents against his own will to choose a certain profession, though he has had from his early youth a long-ing to be engaged in another—one in which he is confident of success. This we know ought not to be. Every young man has, without doubt, an inclination to some one profession, and he should be allowed to pursue it and not be persuaded to follow the same profession in which his father is engaged, simply because his father has made a success of it. And then, too, how often is a young man led into his father's business at so early,an age that he is scarcely old enough to have formed a true conception of the world. True, it may be the very best thing the father can do to give his son employment as early as possible, especially if he be inclined to be wayward ; and still more, it may, as is often the case, make a good, energetic busi-ness man of him, when, if he were allowed to remain idle a year or more, he might contract slothful habits, which would cling to him all through life. But yet, I think the father makes a mis-take if he does not give his son ample time to learn to know the world, and to be able to decide rightly and satisfactorily his pro-fession for life. In doing this, however, the father should not allow him to spend one moment in idleness. If he cannot send him to college, he should ever have some duty for him to per-form, and should afford him every facility for improving his in-tellect, by encouraging him in a desire for knowledge, and by surrounding him with the best books. If a young man can go to college, and would make the best possible success in life, let him, by all means, decide before he goes to college, what will be his profession. Doing this he will have a motive before him, and will press onward with renewed vigor at every step of his advance. Throughout his course, 202 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY whenever he learns anything which he knows will be of value when applied to his chosen profession, for the very reason that he realizes its worth to him, that knowledge will impress itself upon his mind, and he will retain it when he enters upon his pro-fession. How essential is it, in this our day, to concentrate our efforts upon one line of study or thought in order to reach that degree of excellence required if we would be among the men in the first ranks of our profession. Especially is this so in the ministry. It is the belief of some that the successful minister is the one who has made special preparation in the study of God's Word all through his college years before he enters the seminary. He will surely be able to understand theology much more readily if he is well versed in the truths of the Bible, upon which theology is based. So it is in the preparation for any profession. First to choose a profession, and then to use every effort to advance to as high a degree of perfection as possible in this one line of study, is the secret of the success of all eminent men. But there are those who are at a loss to make a choice—some thinking that they would not be suitable for the profession they would like, and continuing on in a state of indecision possibly throughout their course, while others, somewhat indolent, put it off until they find which one will require the least energy on their part. What a fatal mistake ! Not prepared for anything espe-cially, they may go out into a business life and be successful, but not, indeed, to the degree of success they would have had they made special preparation—nor would they have as much satisfac-tion. And again, does not every young man have some one talent, which, if he cultivate it, may not only give him wonderful suc-cess in life, but may make his name famous ; while, if he allow it to remain dormant, and gives it no attention, though it mani-fest itself repeatedly, he doubtless loses his one chance of suc-cess in life. However, a man cannot always know what this talent is. In this case, let him make an earnest endeavor to find out what he may best fit himself for, and in what direction his mind and pleasure are bent the more ; but let him quickly make his decision. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 203 MOW IT LOOKS PROM THE ROAD. A. L. VERMILYA. Search the woods and rake the meadows For a robin, owl or bat; Something that when slain and mounted May adorn my lady's hat. Rip the feathers off the songsters, Take each head and tail and wing, For them is my lady waiting, Tender-hearted, gracious thing. See her sitting in her carriage Making all the show she can ; On her head a cemetery, In her hand a feather fan. Yet she talks of love and mercy To all things in honeyed words, While she's decked in borrowed plumage Torn from slaughtered singing birds. O, Consistency! thou jewel, Teach these women common sense ; Teach them, while they prate of kindness, They themselves give rank offense. MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS. My minde to me a kingdome is; Such perfect joy therein I finde As farre exceeds all earthly blisse, That God or Nature hath assignde ; Though much I want that most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave. —An Old Song. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. P. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming- Fall andWinter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and -wearing-durability. Also altering-, repairing-, dyeing- and scouring- at moderate prices. .FOR UP-TO-DATE. Clothing, Hats, Shoes, And Men's Furnishing- Goods, go to I. HALLEM'S MAMMOTH CLOTHING HOUSE, Chambersburg St., GETTYSBURG, PA. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON Superintendent. flammelstomn Broom Stone Company Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut StoneWork. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting' the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. R. For a nice sweet loaf of Bread call on J. RAMER Baker of Bread and Fancy Cakes, GETTYSBURG. PA. EIMER & AiUEND, Manufacturers and Importers of Chemicals and Chemical Apparatus 205, 207, 209 and 211 Third Avenue, Corner 18th Street NEW YORK. Finest Bohemian and German Glassware, Royal Berlin and Meissen Porcelain, Pure Hammered Platinum, Balances and Weights. Zeiss Mi-croscopes and Bacteriological Apparatus; Chemical Pure Acids and Assay Goods. SCOTT PAPER COMPANY MAKERS OF FINE TOILET PAPER 7th and Greenwood Ave. PHILADELPHIA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Century Double-Feed Fountain Pen. Fully 'Warranted 16 Kt. Gold Pen, Iridium Pointed. GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. No. 1. Chased, long- or short $2 00 No. 1. Gold Mounted 3 00 No. 3. Chased 3 00 No. 3. Gold Mounted 4 00 Spiral, Black or Mottled $2 SO Twist, " 2 50 Hexagon, Black or Mottled 2 SO Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO., WHITEWATER, WIS. Askyour Stationer or our Agent to show them toyou. Agood local agent-wanted in every school mmmmwmmmmwmwmmmmmmwwmm^ Printtigand We Print This Book THE MT. HOEEY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing' and Binding, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything1 pertain-ing to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you give them the opportunity. gi Mt. Holly Stationery and Printing Co. ^mTSiV ^iumiiuuiUiiuuiuuiiiUiuuiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiumi^ R H. S. BENNER, .DEALER IN. Groceries, Notions, Queensware, Glassware, Etc., Tobacco and Cigars. J7 CHAMBERSBURG ST. WE RECOMMEND THESE BUSINESS MEN. Pitzer House, (Temperance) JNO. E. PITZER, Prop. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Battlefield a specialty. Dinner and ride to all points of interest,including-the three days' figrht, $1.25. No. 127 Main Street. MUMPER & BENDER Furniture Cabinet Making, Picture Frames Beds, Springs, Mattresses, Etc. Baltimore St., GETTYSBURG, PA. You will find a full line of Pure Drugs and Fine Sta- People's Drug Store Prescriptions a Specialty. .00 TO. .fjotel (Gettysburg Barber Sfyop. Centre Square. B. M. SEFTON J. A. TAWNEY ** Is ready to furnish Clubs and Bread, Rolls, Etc. At short notice and reasonable rates. Washington & Middle Sts., Gettysburg. \YT TJ rT\nODT Successor to W. T . ^KJUKJISJ., Simon J.Codori Dealer in Beef, Pork, Lamb, Veal, Sausage. Special rates to Clubs. York St., GETTYSBURG. Davib Croxel, Dealer in ^ine (groceries anb notions t^x^york Street. .GO TO. CHAS. E. BARBEHENN, Barber In the Eagle Hotel, Cor. Main and Washington Sts. YOHN BROS Agents for the Keystone State, Waldo, Washburn, Groupner & Meyer. Highest Grade Mandolins, Guitars, Banjos, Mandollas and Mandocellos. Headquarters for Phonographs, Graphophones and supplies. Trimmings of every description. All sheet music one-half off. Large discounts on Books and studies. 326 Market St., Harrisburg, Pa. FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. Spaldings Foot Ball Supplies Are universally used wherever the game is played, thetrade mark being- the guarantee. TheSpalding-Official Inter-collegiate Foot Ball is used by all the leading- colleg-es and athletic clubs of the country/ Price $4.00. Send for catalogue of all Athletic Sports. Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide, with the new rules for 1900, and records, reviews and instructions, including- pictures of 1600 play-ers. Price 10 cents. Sandow's Spring- Grip Dumb-Bells. In-vented by Sandow. Have no equal as an exerciser and developer. Every muscle benefited. Spalding-'s Championship Hammer with ball bearing* pivot and wire handles. Used by all experts. "H. Vardon" Golf Clubs. Made from Harry Vardon's own models furnished ex-clusively to us. Spalding-'s Athletic Library. Devoted to Athletic Sports. Published monthly. Ten cents per copy. Send for list. A. G. SPALDING & BROS. (Incorporated) NEW YORK CHICAGO DENVER ROWE, Your Grocer Carries Full Line of Groceries, Canned Goods, Etc Best Coal Oil and Brooms at most Reasonable Prices. OPPOSITE COLLEGE CAMPUS. S. J. CODORI, y* Druggists* Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Toilet Articles, J> Stationery, .Blank Books, Amateur Pho-tographic Supplies, Etc., Etc. BALTIMORE ST. R. H. GULP PAPER HANGER, Second Square, York Street. COLLEGE EMBLEMS. EMIL ZOTHE, ENGRAVER, DESIGNER AND MANUFACTURING JEWELER. 19 S. NINTH ST. PHILADELPHIA SPECIALTIES: Masonic Marks, Society Badges, College Buttons, Pins, Scarf Pins, Stick Pins and Athletic Prizes. All Goods ordered through A. N. Beau. To Repair Broken Arti-cles use Remember '< MAJOR'S RUBBER CEMENT, MAJOR'S LEATHER CEMENT. Meneely Bell Co. TROY, N. Y. MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR BELLS The 2000 pound bell now ringing; in the tower of Pennsylvania Col-lege was manufactured at this foundry. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Pleased Customer Is not a stranger in our establish-ment— he's right at home, you'll see him when you call. We have the materials to please fastidious men. J. O. LIPPY, Merchant Tailor 39 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, Pa. G, E. SPANGLER, Dealer in Pianos, Organs, Music, Musical Instruments, Strings, Etc. YORK STREET, 1ST SQUARE. GETTYSBURG. L. D. Miller, GROCER Confectioner and Fruiterer. Ice Cream and Oysters in Season. 19 Main St. GETTYSBURG City Hotel, Main St. Gettysburg. J* Free 'Bus to and from all Trains Thirty seconds' walk from either depot Dinner with drive over field with four or more, $1.35 Rates $1.50 to $2.00 per day- John E. Hughes, Frop. Capitol Ctt£ Cafe Cor. Fourth and Market Sts. HARRISBURG, PA. First-Class Rooms Furnished. Special Rates to Private Parties. Open Day and Night. European Plan. Eunch of All Kinds to Order at the Restaurant. ALDINQER'S CAPITOL CITY CAFE. POPULAR PRICES F. Mark Bream, Dealer in Fancy and Staple Groceries Telephone 29 Carlisle St., GETTYSBURG, PA. .Photographer. No. 3 Main St., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. Our new effects in Portraiture are equal to photos made anywhere, and at any price. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS Klrigbt, 140-142 Woodward Avenue DETROIT, MICH. Manufacturers of High Grade Fraternity Emblems Fraternity Jewelry Fraternity Novelties Fraternity Stationery Fraternity Invitations Fraternity Announcements Fraternity Programs Send for Catalogue and Price List. Special Designs on Application. MOTEL GETTYSBURG LIVERY GETTYSBURG, PA. LONG & MOLTZWORTM, Proprietors Apply at Office in the Motel for First-Class Guides and Teams THE BATTEFIELD A SPECIALTY Ube :S5oIton Market Square Ibarriaburg, flJa. Large and Convenient Sample Rooms, Passenger and Baggage Elevator. Electric Cars to and from Depot. Electric Light and Steam Heat. J. M. & M. S. BUTTERWORTH, Proprietors Special Rates for Commer-cial Men " EZ 1ST IMMER CUT ET WAS ZU WISSEIN." These are the words of Goethe, the great German poet, and are as true in our day as when uttered. In these times of defective vision it is good to know something about eyes. A great deal has been learned about the value of glasses and their application since Goethe lived. Spectacle wearers have increased by thousands, while at the same time, persons losing their eyesight, have been greatly diminished. If your eyes trouble you in any way let me tell you the cause. Examination free and prices reasonable. We grind all our own lenses and fit the best lenses (no matter what anyone else has charged you) for $2.50 per pair and as cheap as SO cents per pair, or duplicate a broken lens if we have one-half or more of the old one, at a reasonable charge, returning same day received. .E. L. ECOLE. 807 and 809 North Third Street, HARRISBURG, PA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS- (^entpol Jlotel, ELIAS FISSEL, Prop. (Formerly of Globe Hotel) Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Two doors from Court House. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Steam Heat, Electric Light and Call Bells all through the House. Closets and Bath Rooms on Every Floor. Sefton & Fleni-ming's Livery is connected with this Hotel. Good Teams and Competent Guides for the Battlefield. Charges Moderate, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Rates $1.50 Per Day. GET A SKATE ON And send all your Soiled Linen to the Gettysburg Steam Laundry R. R. LONG, Prop. R. A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc. Scott's Corner, Opp. Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. c Try My Choice Line of A High-Grade Chocolates ^ at 40c per lb. Always fresh at J[ C CHAS. H. McCLEARY (| Carlisle St., Opposite W. M. R. R. U Also Foreign and Domestic Fruits Y' Always on Hand. JOHN M. MINNIGH, Gonfeetionepy, lee, •■-""lee Creams. Oysters Stewed and Fried. No. 17 BALTIMORE ST. The Leading Barber CSfyop (Successor to C. C. Sefton) Having- thoroughly remodeled the place is now ready to accommodate the public Barber Supplies a Specialty. .Baltimore Street. ESTABLISHED 1876 PENROSE MYERS, Watchmaker and Jeweler Gettysburg Souvenir Spoons, Col-lege Souvenir Spoons. NO. 10 BALTIMORE ST., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. L. f\. klltW Manufacturers' Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, Paints and Queensware. GETTYSBURG, PA. The Only Jobbing House in Adams County.

*mt*m*m**m+***¥* N^CURY MAT, 1800 VOL., XVII NO. 3 I*** GETTYSBURG COLLEGE GETTYSBURG, PA. C9MPILIR PRINT HELP THOSE WHO HELP US. The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume. Cotrell & Leonard, ALBANY, N. Y. Makers of CAPS AND GOWNS To Gettysburg College. Lafayette, Lehigh. Dickinson, State College, Univ. of Penn sylvanin, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wellesley, Bryn Mnwr imd the others. Class Contracts a Specialty. Correct Hoods *• Degrees To The Glass of '09. We have begun our college campaign for Dext Spring and Summer. Over 25,000 employers look to Hapgoods for their men in sales, offices and technical positions in all departments. Most of these firms use college men. They arrange with us to cover the entire college world for them. We have a unique proposition of immediate interest to any college man who will be open for a propo-sition. Let us tell you about it. Write to-day. TJIJJ Commonwealth Trust Building, Philadelphia, Pa JWATMOJYAl, Ott6UIJVlZ«*TfOJV OM> BUJWJY BKOKERtj. HOTEL GETTYSBURG, Headquarters for BANQUETS. Electric Lights, Steam Heat, All Conveniences. Free Bus to and from station. Convenient for Commencement Visitors. RATES $2.00 PER DAY. .Livery Cbbiackecl. Jol)ri P. M^tH Proprietor. L E. REILING, ~ Successor to BECKER & Co,, DEALERS IN kinds of Fresh and Smoked Meats Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, Pa. WE RECOMMEND THESE FIRMS. Established 1867 by Allen Walton. ALLEN K. WALTON, Pres. and Treas. ROBT. J. WALTON, Supt. HUMMELSTOWN BROWN STONE COMPANY QUARRYMEN and Manufacturers of BUILDING STONE, SAWED FLAGGING and TILE. Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. CONTRACTORS FOR AEL KINDS OF CUT STONE WORK. Te'egraph and Express Address, Brownstone, Pa. Parties visit i ng quarrjes will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R R. R. For Artistic Photographs —GO TO — TjPTON The Leader in PHOTO FASHIONS Frames and Passapartouts Made to Order. D. J. 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Sole Agent for WAEK- OVER SHOES ECKEHT'S STORE, Prices Always Right Ttie Lutheran PuMcaliori Society No. 1424 Arch Street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Acknowledged Headquarters for anything and everything in the way of Books for Churches, Colleges, Families and Schools, and literature for Sunday Schools. PLEASE REMEMBER That by sending your orders to us you help build up and develop one of the church in-stitutions with pecuniary ad-vantage to yourself. Address HENEY 8. BONER, Supt, THE: KA ERCURV The Literary Journal of Gettysburg College. VOL. XVII GETTYSBURG, PA., MAY, 1909 No. 3 CONTENTS. THE IRON CROSS 2 BY EMIL FEOMMEL. AN EXTENSIVE OB' INTENSIVE ACQUAINTANCE WITH GBEAT AUTHORS 5 SAMUEL FAUSOLD, '10. NEW ENGLAND RAMBLES 7 EEV. CHAELES W. HEATHCOTE, A.M., '05. THE CATACOMBS 12 MCCLEAST DAVIS, '11. OUTWITTED 17 ELMEE STOUFFEE, '11. NAPOLEON IN LITERATURE 19 CHAELES SHINDLEE, '10. A GREAT TEACHER 22 E. H. HINTEENESCH, '13. THE EDUCATION OP THE INDIAN 25 H. S. HOSHOUB, '10. MAY—Poetry. (Submitted by 1911.) 27 EDITORIALS 29 EXCHANGES 31 THE MEPGUKY THE IRON CROSS. BY EMIL FEOiniEL. (Translated, from the German by Earl Bowman, '11.) iJSTE morning about a year after the Franco-Prussian War a Pomeranian landlord notices among his work-men a sturdy day-laborer who was wearing the Iron Cross upon his breast. When the hour of leisure comes be calls him, and in order that the taciturn Pomeranian might be induced to speak, he first gives him something substan-tial to eat, for then the mill begins to run. Then he asked him how he came into possession of the Iron Cross. "Yes," remarked the Pomeranian, "that is a long story—for I have got it from King William himself, and that too for pegging away." Thereupon the Pomeranian takes a draught from the pitcher and proceeds. "It was after the battle of Champigny in which the Wiirten-burgers bad conducted themselves so bravely and were driven back only by greater numbers. Our regiment is ordered to ad-vance. My company was to swarm out, and I sought shelter that I might shoot comfortably. "Now for a fight, boys," said our captain as the French, who had to be kept back until our comrades had come up to us, were coming out thicker and thicker. "Shoot away to your heart's desire." "I pour my cartridges out before me, all to the right so that I can easily reach them, and shoot away. Here, however, more Frenchmen were coming; conditions appear to the colonel to be rather critical and he gives orders to retreat. I hear it,—but think: "To pack up all the cartridges is not pleasant, and to let these dear and costly goods lie, that you can't do either,— therefore you just let the fellow blow his bugle, remain here and shoot away your cartridges, and then you have time enough to take your heels." I am busily engaged in shooting, when the adju-tant of our regiment comes galloping up and shouts: "Back, THE MEBCUBY. 3 boys, don't you have any ears?" "Never mind," says I," turn-ing myself halfway around, "not until I shoot my cartridges." And gone was the adjutant, nowhere to be seen At last I was entirely alone and before me everything was red with French-men, barely twenty paces away. As I shot the last cartridge I think to myself, "Now it's high time that you break away" So I take to my heels and run behind the regiment like a deer. The French were shooting after me like a hailstorm but all their bul-lets were too high and I got to the regiment hale and hearty, Just as I am about to enter the lines I see the adjutant parley-ing with the colonel and pointing to me with his hand. "Now,"' think I, "a charge is made against me for disobeying orders." Our colonel, a downright good man, comes riding up to me, laughs heartily about the whole affair, and said: "Fellow, are your bones all together?" "Please Your Honor," says I. Here he laughed again and says: "Well, now you can eat more than bread." "Ah, this time," I mused, "the affair turned out all right and the tale-bearing of the adjutant didn't do any harm. The next the report goes around: "His Majesty, the King, is coming." What a joy there was when the old hero came. He rode by and I had already procured a few potatoes, for I had an enormous hunger. Then suddenly our adjutant conies gallop-ing up to me and says that at once I am to report at His Ma-jesty's headquarters. "Now," think I, "that's the last of you." But I took cour-age and said: "Please, Your Honor, you know I have'nt done anything bad." But the adjutant had an expression on his face as if he were about to say: "Just wait, I've got you for not obeying orders and you shall not get off so easily." I indeed did not think that a person could be so spiteful. My knees tottering, I was led into a house, then into a hall where there was such an odor that my mouth watered, so good it was. I am just thinking: "0 happy the man who can have his dinner here,—" when I am called into an adjoining room. Then the king who is as friendly as the sun comes up to me and says: THE MEECUET. "My son, how was that affair yesterday with the cartridges ? Tell me all you know about it, just exactly as it was." "Please Your Majesty," says I, "and tell everything just as it ■happened and that I had indeed heard the signal, but that I had not been willing to leave behind the costly goods when the adjutant had come up and shouted: "Go back, boys" Then I thought indeed that there was no time to pay compliments and said: "Oh! I'll first shoot my cartridges. That is the whole -affair, King, I have done no other wrong." His face aglow with a smile, the king said: "That you did •well, my son." I think to myself, "Now it's all right, now the adjutant may say whatever he will." "Have you had your din-ner, my son?" asked His Majesty. "Please, Your Majesty," says I, "I am still quite empty." "You are probably very hungry," His Majesty again re-marked. "Yes, and also very thirsty," says I. The king again laughed and said that I was to take dinner with them. So I sit down to the fine large table with all the high officials and generals. We had soup, pea-soup, extra fine. But my plate was only half full, so I thought: "If only you could have more of this soup." When I had almost finished with it, the king called to me: "My son, do you care for any more soup?" "Please, Your Majesty," say I, "if there is enough of it." This caused the men to laugh and one of the waiters brought me another plate full. Sir, I can taste that soup with my pal-ate to-day! Next a servant comes in and brings a portion of roast veal almost as large as a joint of an ox, another takes a large knife and carves one piece after another from it upon a large platter. "This fellow," thought I," "undertsands his business better than the one with the soup." The large platter comes to me first and I put it before me, and aside of it also a small plate with potatoes. I think to my-self: "It is a little too much, but you must show yourself equal to the occasion," and begin to eat. Bright drops of per-spiration were standing upon my forehead by the time all the thin slices of meat were eaten. While the gentleman at my THE MEECUHT. 0 •side uninterruptedly kept filling a glass that I might wash it ■down, His Majesty, the King, asked me: "How about it my son, will you have some more?" "Please, Your Majesty," I say, "if there is enough of it." All the men gave a hearty laugh and the King himself was holding his sides. Why, I did not know. But the King said: "No, this is enough for to-day, my son, now we shall have an-other course." Well, I was glad we were done with the roast veal, and was thinking to myself: "Kow what's coming,— when a high officer with epaulets comes up and fastens upon me the Iron Cross. When I returned to my regiment again the adjutant laughed all over his face, twisted his mustache and gave me his hand. I was glad that he was again reconciled, that his lively talking with His Majesty had after all been of no use, and that for peg-ging away at the banquet, I even got the Iron Cross from His Majesty himself. That is the way it happened and not otherwise—. Note.—The Iron Cross is a military decoration bestowed upon the soldiers of the German army who had distinguished them-selves for bravery during the war of 1870-71. AN EXTENSIVE OR INTENSIVE ACQUAINTANCE WITH GREAT AUTHORS. SAMUEL FAUSOLD, '10. 0 sound the depths of the world's literary artists from Homer to Tennyson is well nigh impossible. To make a slight acquaintance with all of them is possible but hardly desirable. The better plan is: know as many great authors as possible intensively and then seek, at least, a slight acquaintanceship with the rest. The tendency of the day seems to be an extensive rather than an intensive acquaintance with the world's great authors. What college man of mediocre ability does not have a passing acquaintance with Homer, Horace, Goethe, Milton, Shakespeare 6 THE MERCURY. and Tennyson, and yet very few of us can call one of these men a comrade in any sense. What pleasure it must be to forget the present and turn back the hands of time to Shakespeare's day and catching the spirit of the seventeenth century, see the world as Shakespeare saw it; and read his masterpieces through spectacles uncolored by pre-judice and pre-conceptions. Such a process must ultimately end in giving us that comradeship with Shakespeare which deepens the insight into the workings of the human heart, broad-ens the vision immeasurably and quickens one's sympathy for humanity. Such results are not attainable by a slip-shod ac-quaintance with the greatest play-writer of English literature. We must know tlie man and his work. To have drunk deep of the springs of Shakespeare's genius is a requisite of true culture. AVhat Las been said of Shakespeare can be applied with pe-culiar fitness to Milton. The great blind poet must, in fact, be known intensively', if we would know him at all. Of course his genius has given to the world more than one production and yet his "Paradise Lost" stands out conspicuously as the high-water mark of his achievement and to know Milton we must be familiar with this poem—the grandest and greatest epic of Eng-lish literature. To be familiar with "Paradise Lost" means ex-tended study and thoughtful meditation which has but one logical sequence, viz, intensive acquaintance. Having cultivated an intensive acquaintance with these two giants of English literature, I would recommend the same pro-cess with respect to the other poets, if time permits. If time forbids an intimate acquaintance, we should learn to know the rest, at least, in a slight way. It is well for us to know our Burns to keep our dispositions sweet; Macaulay to teach us perspicuity, and Bacon for his logic. It is well to come in contact with the melancholy Poe and then to be entertained by the quaint and kindly verse of Whittier. Neither can we afford to miss the rare and spicy descriptions of Washington Irving or the vivid character portraitures of Dick-ens. Again, the author of Hiawatha should be known to all of us; also the master hand that penned Thanatopsis. We may close by saying that if you learn to know any one of these, your desire shall be whetted to know them all. THE MERCURY. NEW ENGLAND RAMBLES. EEV. CHARLES WILLIAM HEATHCOTE, A.M., '05. ARTICLE III. JHEEE are many outlying districts of Boston which are very interesting from the historical viewpoint. They have been in many cases annexed to Boston proper, but they still retain their interesting characteristics. Charleston is famous from the revolutionary period. It was settled in 1629. Almost the entire town was burned during the battle of Bunker Hill. The Navy Yard, which is close to Charleston, is certainly worthy of a visit. Visitors are admit-ted and there is much to be seen. One will be very anxious to see "Old Ironsides" of the famous navy of the 1812 War. She performed glorious service for the country and she now lies very quietly at her anchor. From the Navy Yard one should go to the Bunker Hill monument on Breed's Hill. The monument is placed on the southeast corner of the "old redoubt behind which the Ameri-cans stood on the seventeenth of June, 1775." "The obelisk measures thirty feet square at its base, and rises to the apex, two hundred and twenty feet. The observatory at the top is reached by a spiral flight of two hundred and ninety-four stone steps. It is a long climb, but the magnificent views from the windows amply repay one for the effort. In the lodge at the base of the monument is a statue of General Warren." The monument was dedicated on June 17, 1843. President Tyler and his cabinet officials were present and Mr. Webster was the orator of the oc-casion. The monument stands near the spot where the hero, Warren, fell. The spot is also marked where Prescott stood at the opening of the fight. In Charleston we ought to visit the old graveyard. It is closed to the general public but admission can be secured. The oldest slab bears the date of 1643. There is a piece chipped from the corners which was done by a shot from a British war vessel. The Harvard monument, a granite shaft was erected in 1828 by alumni of the university. The following inscriptions are upon it: 8 THE MERCURY. (On the eastern face.) "On the twenty-sixth day of Septem-ber, A. D. 1828, this stone was erected by the graduates of the "University of Cambridge in honor of its founder, who died at Charleston on the twenty- sixth day of September, A. D. 1638." (Western face. In Latin.) "That one who merits so much from our literary men should no longer be without a monument, however humble, the graduates of the University of Cambridge, New England, have erected this stone nearly two hundred years after his death, in pious and perpetual remembrance of John Harvard." There are many beautiful suburbs around Boston but none can compare with Cambridge. It is the largest of Boston's su-burbs, having a population of 92,000. It is famous as the cen-ter of Harvard University. The following inscription taken from an old London pamphlet published in 1643, which is near the college gate reads: "After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded.our houses provided necessaries for our livili hood reared convenient places for God's worship and settled the civill government one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity dreading to leave an illiterate ministery to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust." Another interesting inscription reads: "By the General Court of Massachusetts Bay 28 October 1636, Agreed to give 400 £ towards the schole whearof 200 £ to be paid next yeare & 200 £ when the worke is finished & the next Court to appoint wheare & wt bvilding THE SiJSKCUKY. » 15 November 1637. The College is ordered to bee at Newe Towne 2 May 1638 It is ordered that Newe Towne Shall henceforward be called Cambridge 15 March 1638 It is ordered that the colledge Agreed vpon formerly to bee built at Cambridge Shallbee called Harvard Colledge." An unique tablet in the entry of Massachusetts Hall states a number of illustrious men who were its occupants: "William Ellery, 1747, signer Declaration of Independence. Artemas "Ward, 1743, commander Massachusetts forces, 1775. Eobert Treat Paine, 1751, signer Declaration of Independ-ence. William dishing, 1751, chief Justice of Massachusetts. John Lowell, 1760, chief justice United States Circuit Court. Elbridge Gerry, 1762, Vice-President of the United States. Francis Dana, 1762, first minister to Eussia. Theophilus Parsons, 1769, chief justice of Masaschusetts. Joseph Story, 1798, justice of Supreme Court of the United States. Charles Henry Davis, 1825, admiral of the United States Navy. Eobert Gould Shaw, 1860, soldier." "Mather Byles, 1751, clergyman and wit. Jeremy Belknap, clergyman and historian. Samuel Gillman, 1811, author of "Fair Harvard." James Walker, 1814, president of Harvard College and his, torian. Jared Sparks, 1815, president of Harvard College and his-torian. John G. Palfrey, 1815, professor and historian. George Bancroft, 1817, statesman and historian. Horatio Greenough, 1825, sculptor. Eichard Hildreth, 1826, historian. Francis Parkman, 1844, historian. Phillips Brooks, 1855, bishop of Massachusetts." 10 THE MERCURY. The tablet on the face of the building is thus inscribed: "Massachusetts Hall Built by the Province 1720. Occupied by the American Army 1775-177G. Used for students' rooms until 1870-71." Harvard presents many things -which are interesting to the tourist. Her beautiful and stately buildings are worthy of close inspection and study. On Cambridge Common can be seen cannon which were cap-tured by Ethan Allen at Crown Point in 1775. During the fol-lowing winter they were brought by General Henry to Cam-bridge, being drawn across country by eight yokes of oxen. Then there is the famous "Washington Elm which bears an in-scription thus: "Under this tree Washington first took command of the American Army, July 3rd, 1775." One should also view the Longfellow and Lowell houses which are located in one of the most beautiful parts of Cambridge. Mount Auburn Cemetery should be visited as a sort of a pil-grimage for the following reasons which we quote from a pamph-let: "It is impossible to think of Cambridge and Harvard with-out having Mount Auburn also in view, and at least a part of the day assigned to Cambridge and its attractions should be kept for this spot. The entrance is at the junction of Mount Auburn and Brattle Streets, Watertown. The grounds contain over thirty miles of avenues and paths, and half a day would be too short a time to visit the most distinguished among its thou-sands of graves. The grounds are beautified by many trees, flowers and shrubs, and costly sculptures and statuary are to be seen on all hands. Passing through the Egyptian entrance gate a short distance a turn to the left leads to the Longfellow sarchopagus, on Indian Path, and close at hand is the tomb of THE MEKCURY. 11 Motley. The grave of Oliver W. Holmes is just beyond, on Lime Avenue, and on Fountain Avenue, at the base of Indian Eidge, under tall pines is the grave of James Bussel Lowell. To the right of the gate a curving main avenue leads past the Ball Hughes' bronze statue of Nathaniel Bowditch to the mort-uary chapel, in which are the marble statues designed to rep-resent the Colonial and Eevolutionary periods, the Eepublic, and Law; the first, a sitting figure of John "Winthrop, by Horatio Greenough; the second, a standing figure of James Otis, by Thomas Crawford; the third, John Adams, by Eandolph Eog-ers; the fourth, Judge Joseph Story, by his son, William W. Story. In front of the chapel, beyond, is the granite Sphynx, by Martin Milmore. which commemorates the dead of the Civil War, with the inscription: "American Union preserved American slavery destroyed By the uprising of a great people By the blood of fallen heroes." A short distance from the chapel to the right, on Menoza Path, is the grave of the "Good Bishop," Phillips Brooks. On Spruce Avenue Anson Burlingame and Dr. Thomas G. Morton, the discoverer of ether, are buried. On Walnut avenue may be found the graves of Eufus Choate and N. P. Willis. On Greenbriar Path is William Ellery Channing's grave. On Sweetbriar Path are the graves of Josiah Quincey and John G. Palfrey. In the neighborhood of the tower, is the monument to Margaret Puller. Truly New England is a part of the nation which is rich in history and tradition. It is a beautiful part of the country which is worth all the time we can give to study and view. Her people are hospitable, kind and cultured. We owe her a debt of gratitude for her part she played so well in the history of our nation. We owe her much for her determined stand in the cause of liberty. May her influence never cease! Chambersburg, Pa. 12 THE MEKCURY. THE CATACOMBS. C. MCLEAN DAVIS, '11. 3WS IHE hills which surround Borne are formed of three' strata of volcanic tufa. The topmost stratum is com-posed of volcanic ashes called pozzolana which are not. solidified, next comes a harder rock called tufa grano-lare, and lowest of all is found a solid and compact conglomerate called tufa lithoid. The last was used for building purposes and because of its hardness, the early Jews chose the softer middle-stratum in which to cut out their burial places. These were long narrow passages, not more than three or four feet wide, and intersecting and crossing each other again and again. If drawn out into a straight line these passages would extend for a distance of three or four hundred miles, a line long enough to stretch from one end of Italy to the other. On each side there are niches for bodies, and occasionaly we find little chambers called cubicula, or bed chambers, which were used as family vaults. The darkness and gloom of the place were re-lieved by light and air passages in the roof which were concealed above in the fields by bushes. As before stated, these underground passages, or catacombs,, were used as burial places. Prom Old Testament history we full well know that it was the custom of the Jews to bury their dead in caves and rock-hewn tombs. Consequently when the Jews were dispersed throughout the Eoman Empire, they car-ried this custom with them; and those who settled in Eome it-self, found that the only available place for their tombs was irr the underground stratum of rock. Accordingly we find that be-fore the birth of Christ catacombs had been excavated for burial' places, and the Eoman's careful protection of the right of sepul-ture permitted of no interference. But the coming of Christ and the early persecution of the- Christians in Borne changed the purpose and character of the catacombs. No longer could the Christians practice their re-ligion openly; no longer had they even the right to exist. They fled to the catacombs to live and worship according to their faith. Then did Valerian in A. D. 257, forbid the observance of their- THE MEECUKT. 13 religion even in the catacombs. Like the hunted hare closely fol-lowed by its pursuers, seeks safety in the secret passages under-ground, so did the Christians pursued by the relentless and. merciless Eoman soldiers, seek their safety in the depths of the-catacombs. The old entrances were walled up and many pas-sages were closed. On the other hand new passages were made,, narrower and more intricate than the former ones, and secret winding stairs approached by a ladder movable from within, led. to the open air. Small chapels also were made in which the hid-ing bishops conducted worship. Wells were dug for water, and. store rooms were made for corn and wine; many lamps have been found which were used for lighting up the dreary passages. Hither were the bodies of the martyrs brought for burial, and in a short time hundreds of graves bore testimony to the spirit of the early Christian Church. Sometimes the inscriptions state that a whole family lies buried here, strangled to death for the cause of righteousness; and again we read that here lies the bones of ten, twenty, thirty or forty martyrs. Is not this holy ground, a place consecrated by the bones of the martyrs interred there ? Is it any wonder then, that during the period of toleration which was ushered in by the coming of Constantine in A. D. 312, the Christians continued to use the catacombs as a place of' burial, and moreover made them an object of pilgrimages? In life the catacombs were to them not a series of dark gloomy passages, but a place of inspiration, a place filled with the mem-ory of loving sacrifice and holy zeal, a place glorified by the true faith; and in death it was a source of great joy and peace to know that their bodies would rest near those of the saints. Dur-ing this period the catacombs were reconstructed. The passages which had been closed up were opened again. Parian marble-was used for doorways; silver tablets were put on the walls, dedi-cated to the memory of the saints; chapels were built and old ones remodeled; new passages for air and light were created and these underground chambers took on an entirely different aspect. But in the year A. D. 410 disaster again befell them. Alaric with his barbarian hordes fell upon Eome and despoiled it Prom this time until; the sixteenth century was a period of dis- 14 THE AIEBCURY. mantling, and finally of utter neglect of them. The popes in the first years of this period carried away many of the remains of the saints to sanctify the churches, and relics were carried forth in abundance; and in the last centuries the catacombs were utterly forgotten. Finally in the latter part of the sixteenth century Antonio Bassio rediscovered them, and spending thirty-six years in groping around in their crypts, he desciphered many of the inscriptions and copied many of the pictures. These inscriptions and pictures reveal to us much of the be-lief of the early Christians, and it is very interesting to know their character. There are two series of biblical pictures, the first dealing with Old Testament scenes, and the second with those of the New Testament. Under the first we find pictured the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden, the sacrifice of Isaac, Moses taking off his shoes, Moses receiving the law, Moses striking the rock, the sufferings of Job, the translation of Elijah, Daniel in the lion's den, the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, and the main incidents in the life of Jonah. Under the second series we find illustrations of the adoration of the magi, Christ with the doctors, and various other incidents and some of the miracles of Christ's life. Once is the nativity shown, and once the crowning of Christ with thorns. No fur-ther into the sufferings of Christ do these pictures go. The early Christians shrank from the horrors of the scourging and the mockery, and from the agonies of the cross. But the most important consideration in regard to these pic-tures is not the amount of art evidenced in them, but the pe-culiar facts concerning the belief of the early Church which are brought out through them. It has long been supposed that the cross was the earliest emblem of the Church. Now in the cata-combs the cross does not appear at all in the first two centuries. Moreover, the Virgin Mary does not appear until the fourth century, and then only as a human mother, sometimes with the infant Jesus, and sometimes in the attitude of prayer. In the latter case it is well to note also that her head is simply covered with a veil, and not with a nimbus such as is given to saints and angels. Here surely we can find mo grounds for the adoration of the Virgin. THE MEKCUEY. 15 Light also is thrown on the question of the primacy of St. Peter. This apostle is represented in two different scenes; oftencst with the cock at his feet indicating the denial, and fre-quently he is standing on one side of Christ with St. Paul on the other. Nowhere is he represented as being the rock on which the Church is founded, and nowhere is he shown as hav-ing the keys in his possession. Now while we do not hold that the inscriptions and the pictures of the catacombs portray fully the faith of the early Christians, nevertheless it is not probable that the early Church, if it had believed in the primacy of St. Peter, would make him an equal with St. Paul in their paint-ings. But brightest and most inspiring of all is their portrayal of their blessed Lord and Master. Here they dwelt with a fond-ness that evidences their great love for Him His miracles, His works of healing, His acts of love and mercy are here recorded. Christ the good shepherd with the lamb upon His shoulders, and with his sheep about Him, is frequently found. Again He is leaning upon a shepherd's crook or seated at a well. Never do we see Him being scourged or hanging upon the cursed tree. Always He is the gentle, loving and kind shepherd of the sheep, caring for His flocks, leading them into green pastures and be-side still waters up into an eternal vale of peace. Moreover the hopeful character of the early faith is attested by the 11,000 inscriptions which commemorate the dead. Here breathes the sweet atmosphere of the Christian love. The affec-tion of husband and wife, of parents and children, and of the Christian fathers for each other is here beautifully set forth. Moreover prayers to the dead are not infrequent. But in reality these prayers are more to the living than to the dead, more to those who have gone on a little farther, for whose love and assist-ance they implore. No evidence is found of belief in a Purga-tory. To them death seemed indeed but the portal of.eternal life, and an eternal life of joy and peace. They had no fear of Hell or future punishment for sins; in fact their sins no longer caused them anxiety, for, the blood of Christ had cleansed them from all sin. Heaven was secured them by the sacrifice upon Calvary. Thus we see that in the catacombs we find no grounds for the 16 THE MERCURY. supposition that the cross was the earliest emblem of the Church, for the adoration of the Virgin Mary, for the primacy of St. Peter, or for the belief in Purgatory. Moreover there are no representations of the Trinity, the Atonement, the Last Judg-ment, Satan and punishments in the underworld, and Christ is no where shown as one of the Trinity, but rather as the good shepherd, the true vine, the bread of life, and the fountain of truth. This was the sum and substance of their theology. This was sufficient for them to live righteous lives, and die martyr's deaths, if need be. Love rather than theological controversy righteousness rather than scruples concerning creed, character-ized them. They were the believers in the one Supreme God, and the man of Galilee was to them "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Saviour of the living." Under such conditions gloom could not reign in these under-ground passages. Where so much of life and light are revealed, gloom can not be. These are indeed glorious abodes where the saints sleep the peaceful sleep of the righteous. The light of the hope of an eternal day shines here, and these passages, these crypts, these halls loudly proclaim:— t "ISTo, no, it is not dying, The Shepherd's voice to know; His sheep He ever leadeth, His peaceful flock He feedeth, Where living pastures grow. Oh, no, this is not dying, Thou Saviour of mankind! There streams of love are flowing, No hindrance ever knowing; Here only drops we find." * THE MEKCUUY. OUTWITTED. 17 i ELMEK STOUFFER, '11. HEN" James Bryce, police captain of West Hampton came into his office last evening, everybody from the janitor to the sergeant saw that something which was pleasing to him must have happened. To-night the usually exacting chief seemed to be pleased with everything and everybody. But no wonder he felt happy. For his orchard of young peach trees which were now loaded with the choicest fruit were the special pride of his heart. And ever since the opening of the fall term of Hope College the orchard had suffered from nightly raids by some of the students, and try as he would he couldn't catch them at work or find out who they were. But that morning he had met with a piece of rare good fortune which it seemed to him would discover the culprits for when he went into his orchard he found the Sophomore class roll-book lying under a tree of his choicest peaches. This was the cause -of Captain Bryce's unusual good spirits. He knew that the boys. would never lose that book yet whoever came to get is must ex-plain how it came to be lost in his peach orchard. Accordingly he put an advertisement in the evening paper announcing the rinding of the class roll book and that the same could be pro-curred by calling upon Capt. Bryce at City Hall. Meanwhile there was consternation in the Sophomore class. They never would lose that book. Yet how was it to be recov-ered without someone going to the police captain for it? And to go to Bryce would be giving himself away entirely. What should they do? Hammond, to whom the book was entrusted, volunteered to go to police headquarters, confess to stealing the peaches and get the book, but his classmates wouldn't permit such a procedure. They thought there must be some way to outwit the captain. That night a meeting was held in the class president's room and various means of recovering their roll were discussed. JSTone of the plans proposed seemed satisfactory until at last Hammond suggested what they thought would do the trick. So the meeting adjourned and the boys retired to their rooms. 18 THE MEltCUEY. An hour later two young men wearing slouch hats pulled low over their eyes stole out of the shadows of the dormitory and walked rapidly up town. They came to Eyan's barber shop just as Byan was closing up for the night. The boys exchanged greetings with the little barber and Hammond said, "Say Byan, how much will you take for your barber pole?" Eyan stared at the boys a moment bu t when they assured him that they were in earnest, he replied: "Well its beginning to look pretty shabby so you may have it for two dollars and a half. I need a new one at any rate." The boys paid the money, got a receipt and then marched away carrying what had been Eyan's barber pole. After they had gone several blocks they met a policeman, who thinking them up to some prank, arrested them and took them to police headquarters. Here the boys showed the receipt which they got from the barber and were promptly set free with apolo-gies from the captain. Soon after they ran into the arms of an-other policeman who also arrested them and took them to head-quarters with the same result as before. A third arrest followed and an hour later the chief was again confronted by two youths who were charged with stealing and carrying off someone's bar-ber pole. Captain Bryce now lost all patience. Calling a ser-geant he said to him: "Wagner, reach every officer on duty and tell him not to arrest any fool college students who are carrying a barber pole around town." The sergeant immediately departed upon his errand and so far as the boys with the barber pole were concerned, the captain had peace for the night. The next morning there was a lively scene about police head-quarters. No less than the two dozen barbers of the town were clamouring about the theft of their barber poles some time dur-ing the night before. "Nice state of affairs," said one irate old fellow. "A crowd of young vandals carry off half the town while the police are in league with them." "Why don't you complain to the officer on your beat," asked the captain. "I did complain," answered the barber, "but he said that he had posi-tive orders from you not to arrest anyone stealing barber poles." Bryce was in a dilemma. He saw that he had been outwitted by the students. But as for a solution of his own difficulties he was at sea entirely. While pondering upon his position a solu-tion came in an unexpected manner. The postman brought in THE MERCURY. 19 the morning mail, and among it he found a short typewritten note which ran, "You have our roll book. We have the barber poles. We are willing to exchange on even terms. If you wish to see the barber poles returned, deliver the class roll book to the colored messenger boy whom we shall send to you this after-noon." Signed, The Sophomores. Bryce saw that this was al-most his only relief, so when the messenger came he at once gave the book to him, soon afterwards a dray loaded with barber poles drove into town and a pair of carpenters soon replaced them all. X NAPOLEON IN LITERATURE CHARLES SHINDLER, '10. | HE literary genius is often'considered a dreamer and a man of little worth in other realms. In fact, the world is prone to place upon him the brand of imprac-ticability. However just such a characterization may be, we have had men of great literary talent who have been in-tensely practical. So practical that as statesmen, soldiers, and civilians, they have won imperishable fame. Such men were Caesar and Grant. The commentaries of Caesar were written by him when in the midst of stirring ac-tivities. His information was first hand and the resulting liter-ary production has never wearied the world. Grant, too, pre-eminently a general, wielded a facile pen. At the end of a stirring life, he lived over again the events of his crowded career and his "Memoirs" have been added to the world's masterpieces of literature. We now turn to another soldier with whose military exploits we are so familiar and yet whom we have, perhaps, failed to* meet in the fields of literary achievement. Napoleon has not given us a great commentary but the orations delivered to his soldiers disclose the genius of the man and reveal the secret of his power. Even as Caesar held his legions by the eloquence of his speech, so Napoleon prodded on the emotional Frenchmen to greater and greater efforts. It is not extravagant to say that 20 THE ME11CUEY. the marvelous success of the Corsican can be attributed more to the personality and cogent speech of the man than to his cun-ning on the battlefield. Napoleon is irresistible. The enthu-siasm of the man is contagious. Eead his speeches and then cease to wonder that he fired the hearts of the quick-tempered warm -hearted Frenchmen. Imagine yourself in his army when he delivered the following speech upon entering Milan.: "Soldiers: You have rushed like a torrent from the top of the Apennines; you have overthrown and scattered all that op-posed your march. Piedmont, delivered from Austrian tyranny, indulges her material sentiments of peace and friendship to-ward France. Milan is yours and the republican flag waves throughout Lombardy. The dukes of Parma and Madena owe their political existence to your generosity alone. The army which so proudly threatened you can find no barrier to protect it against your courage; neither the Po, the Ticino, nor the Adda could stop you for a single day. These vaunted bulwarks of Italy oppose you in vain; you passed them as rapidly as the Apennines. These great successes have filled the heart of your country with joy. Your representatives have ordered a festival to com-memorate your victories, which has been held in every district of the republic. There your fathers, your mothers, your wives, sisters, and mistresses rejoiced in your good fortune and proudly boasted of belonging to you. Yes, soldiers, you have done much—but remains there noth-ing more to do? Shall it be said of us that we knew how to conquer but not how to make use of victory? Shall posterity reproach us with having found Capua in Lombardy? But I see you already hasten to arms. An effeminate repose is tedious to you; the days which are lost to glory are lost to your happiness. Well, then, let us set forth! We have still forced marches to make, enemies to subdue, laurels to gather, in-juries to revenge. Let those who have sharpened the daggers of civil war in France, who have basely murdered our ministers and burnt our ships at Toulon, tremble! The hour of vengeance has struck; but let the people of all countries be free from apprehension; we are the friends of the people everywhere, and those great men whom we have taken for THE MERCOKY 21 our models. To restore the capitoL to replace the statues of the heroes who rendered it illustrious, to rouse the Eoman people, stupefied by several ages of slavery—such will be the fruit of our victories; they will form an era for posterity; you will have the immortal glory of changing the face of the finest part of Eu-rope. The French people, free and respected, by the whole world, will give to Europe a glorious peace, which will indem-nify them for the sacrifices of every kind which for the last six years they have been making. You will then return to your homes and your country. Men will say as they point you out, "He belonged to the Army of Italy." The ability of Napoleon in persuading men to follow him in the most hazardous attempts was extraordinary. He could make the most difficult task appear as child's play and by the offer of rich rewards allured the undecided. This is seen in the following: "Soldiers: You are naked and ill-fed! Government owes you much and can give you nothing. The patience and cour-age you have shown in the midst of this rocky wilderness are admirable; but they gain you no renown; no glory results to you from your endurance. It is my design to lead you into the-most fertile plains of the world. Eich provinces and great cities will be in your power; there you will find honor, glory, and wealth. Soldiers of Italy, will you be wanting in courage or perseverance? " In ability to shame his "soldiers and secure better service, Napoleon reminds us of Caesar. Soldiers: I am not satisfied with you; you have shown neither bravery, discipline, nor perseverance; no position could rally you; you abandoned yourselves to a panic of terror; you suffered yourselves to be driven from situations where a hand-ful of brave men might have stopped an army. Soldiers of the Thirty-ninth and Eighty-fifth, you are not French soldiers. Quartermaster-General, let it be inscribed on their colors, "They no longer belong to the Army of Italy." 22 THE JIEKCUKT. A GREAT TEACHER. E. H. HINTERNESCH, '13. N" the Chinese race we have the mightiest aggregation of human beings in any one nation on earth "with a written history extending as far back as that of any other which the world has known, the only nation that has throughout retained its nationality, and has never been ousted from the land where it first appeared." How can this be explained? Greece and Eome have lived and died, the Per-sian Empire has long since passed away, the map of Europe has changed a hundred times, yet China is much the same as in hoary antiquity. Investigators of this subject are most thoroughly united in declaring the result to be due to the fact that, whereas other nations have depended on physical force, China alone, has re-lied on moral force. Whence has come this moral force? Dr. Williams says, "It would be hard to overestimate the influence of Confucius in his ideal princely scholar, and the power for good over his race which this conception has ever since ex-erted. The immeasurable influence in after ages of the charac-ter thus portrayed proves how lofty was his own standard " Realizing the great influence which this one man has exerted on after ages we cannot help but anticipate profit in the study of his life. From the middle of the sixth to the end of the seventh cen-tury there swept over this earth one of those tidal waves of rea-son, "when the nations were full of unrest, and the mountains of thought were shaken with discontent." Then lived Themisto-des, Leonides, Cyrus the Great, Miltidates, Cambysese, Xerxes and Darius. Of course then occurred the battles of Marathon, Salamis and Thermopolye. Then, too, lived Budda Gantauma. Lo-Tesse, Ezekiel, Hazzai, Daniel, Zachariah, Pythagoras, Pin-dar, Aeschylus and Anacreon. It was then that Confucius K'ung-foo-tsze," "the master K'ung"—was born, B. C. 551. Confucius was the result of a peculiar union, a man of seventy married to a girl of seventeen. When the boy was three years old his father died, and his care and education was left upon the shoulders of his girl mother. THE MERCURY. 23 Though the son of a governor and of royal birth, he was brought up in the village like other boys of his time, not being allowed to think himself better than his playmates. As a boy he showed his superiority; at fifteen he was considered a phe-nomenal musician. He himself tells us that at that age his mind was set on learning. At nineteen he married, and in the same year was given his first public trust, that of keeper of the herds. This made him a sort of government overseer. He collected rents, enforced the laws and settled disputes between rival herders. At first he rode about much as an itinerant judge, but after a little sum-moned the disputants to him and gave to them a series of talks, or lectures on the absurdity of quarrelling and the necessity of getting together in complete understanding. He taught them the "Golden Eule." At twenty-two he commenced his career as a teacher. His pupils were not school boys but young and inquiring souls, who had a thirst for knowledge. He charged no fees, but like Plato accepted the goodly honorarium left by an admiring pupil. Yet no pittance was too small to be acceptable to the master. Sin-cerity and ability were the main requirements. The chief men of the state gradually became aware that a "prophet" had risen among them, and gave their sons into his keeping. His fame now quickly increased and we find him soon surrounded by a host of disciples. In B. C. 516, the marquis of the province of Lu, his patron, having been worsted in a struggle fled from the country. Con-fucius followed him but finding he could do him no good, re-turned. He now continued without official employment until B. C. 500, when at the age of fifty-one he was appointed "chief magistrate of the town of Chung-tu, and a marvellous reforma-tion in the manner of the people took place." He was now pro-moted from position to position until he held the office of Min-ister of Crime, in the province. The appointment made an end of crime. The existing laws did not need to be enforced. No offender showed himself. His administration was so wise that the neighboring states began to take alarm. At length, through intrigue, Tsze-Lu, the governor, was induced to forsake his wise counsel and say to him, "It is time for you to leave." 24 THE MEKCUKY. The sage was now fifty-six. He traveled from state to state, offering his service, and though many a prince would have gladly given him office, yet not one was ready to accept and prac-tice his principles. In B. C. 483, he returned to his native land and in the five last years of his life wrote several of his works. He died B. C. 478. He was pre-eminently a teacher and reformer. He taught rhetoric, mathematics, economics, the science of government and political and natural history. He pointed out the foibles of society and the wrongs visited upon the people by those who pre-tended to serve them. He denounced hypocracy, selfishness, vanity and pretense. Let us now consider some of the teachings of this wonderful man. He taught filial piety; that we should serve our parents while living and adore them when dead. Of the future the master knew nothing, in fact he was accus-tomed to say, that as man knows very little of the past, how can he expect to know the future? He knows not whence he has come, how can he expect to know where he is going ? In regard to worship his advice was to "reverence the gods, but to keep at a distance from them," and, "to respect spiritual things, but to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom.'" The word "God" he does not use, but is constantly speaking of "Heaven," of "doing the will of Heaven" and says, "He who sins against Heaven has none to whom he can pray." "Heaven is speaking through you." Heaven to him was a principle. The word is used in the Chinese classics in such a way as to convey the idea of a personality or a will. He did not claim divinity, not even divine revelation. He was not a religious teacher, but rather a teacher of ethics. Perhaps D. Legg's words give a better statement: "He was unreligious rather than irreligious; yet by the coldness of his temperament and intellect in this matter his influence is un-favorable to the development of true religious feelings among the Chinese people in general." Did he live to-day he would undoubtedly be one of the world's THE MERCURY. 25 foremost peace advocates; for it was one of his sayings, that, "To fight decides who is the stronger, the younger and most skill-ful in the use of arms, but it does not decide who is right. That is to be settled by Heaven in your own heart." He spoke in parables and was an epigramist. These then are some of his words: "Beware of ever doing that which you a,re likely, sooner or later, to repent of having done." The cultivator of the soil may have his fill of good things, but the cultivator of the mind will enjoy a continual feast. "Be slow in speech, but prompt in action." "He whose principles are thoroughly established, will not be easily led from the right path." "The cautious are generally to be found on the right side." "By speaking when we ought to keep silence, we waste our words." "If you would escape vexation, reprove yourself liberally and others sparingly." "Disputation often breeds hatred. "Make friends with the upright, intelligent and wise; avoid the licentious, talkative and vain." THE EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN. H. S. HOSHOUR, '10. | HE Indian sat a"ione on the vast prairie meditating his own miserable fate, a shadow fell across the path of his vision. He looked up and saw a white man. The white man told him that it had been decided that por-tions of the corintry,—the Indian country—were set apart for the exclusive use of the Indians "Where," said the white man, "you shall be taught the white man's ways, and once more be happy." "You would teach us?" repeated the Indian thought-fully. He gazed intensely in all directions. As he turned to-ward the north, a ray of hope came over his dusky brow. "There is a valley yonder, there I will take my people." The Great 26 THE MERCURY. Father hesitated. "Some of the white men have taken a fancy-to that valley. See the hilltops yonder. There is your reser-vation." A mighty passion shook the whole frame of the In-dian, He stretched his arms fiercely towards the north. "My country," he gasped, and stood mute, rigid, motionless. The Great Father had gone. The Indian was alone, plun-dered, forsaken. His head dropped upon his breast. "It is as I thought," he muttered. All was lost. The furrows once more seamed his weather-beaten face—deeper than before. Fifty years of the American Indian's story lies in the reserva-tion. There they are grouped and dare not leave. The Indian is taught such things as beadwork, pottery, basketry and the like. White men generally disdain the Indian. Such condi-tions can only take away from the Indian the self-respect and manhood which is innate in him. Some thirty years ago the maltreatment of the Indians impressed itself forcibly upon Colonel Pratt, an old Indian fighter, who determined to do something whereby the condition of the Indian might be better-ed. Out of this resolution came the Carlisle school, which has been the American Indian's greatest boon. It is not my pur-pose to describe the system of education which has stood the test for so many years and has become so famous, as to be known the world over. It has been assailed frequently but a large propor-tion of the criticism against the "Carlisle idea" is only of the class which proves the system's real efficiency. Though the In-dian is by nature proud and haughty, no person will respond more readily to a genial and kindly interest, than he. It has been said that the educated Indian returns to his people and takes up their ways and thus his education has been worthless. This is the exception rather than the rule. Of a group of about three hundred Carlisle graduates, one hundred and twenty-five went into the government employ, seventy-five went to higher in-stitutions and the others took up various lines of work. The important point is that all—with but three exceptions—are self-supporting and many support others. Surely higher education is not wasted on the Indian. Instead of being an expense to the government, the educated Indian becomes a vital part of it. The fact that "no man has a place or fair chance to exist under the government of the United States, who has no part in it," is THE MERCURY. 27 becoming more evident every year. The detractors of the In-dian schools have demanded that the idea be abandoned. In-stead the American public, with the love of a "square deal" for everyone, should arise and insist that these schools should be multiplied, so as to educate all the Indians and at the end of fifty years every Indian in this land would be a worker, a pro-ducer, and best of all, an American citizen. * MAY. (Submitted by 1911.) 0 how we feel the thrill of spring, "When leaves appear, and song-birds sing, When woods are bright, and blossoms sweet The morning sun with fragrance greet; When all around new life appears, Creation smiles and nature cheers. 0 who feels this and is not gay, For this is spring-time!—it is May! 0 how the robin sings his lay And warbles glad notes all the day; 0 how he thrills the saddened heart, And helps a thought of love impart. He lightens many loads of care, And in their stead brings hope, so fair. Remember him and then be gay, For this is spring-time!—it is May! 0 what a thrill of joy it brings, When nature all around us sings; When in the green and flowery lea, We hear the buzzing of the bee, And in the orchard and the field We see the signs of life revealed; 28 THE MERCURY. And all about are tokens, gay Of nature's resurrection,—May! This is the season of the year That we love best for it brings cheer; Eeminding us, that, though some days Of life point dark and dreary ways, Yet after each dark night, forlorn, There comes a bright and joyous morn, Then cast thy sorrows far away And with the world, be glad in May! T H I HERCURY Entered at the Postoffi.ee at Gettysburg as second-class Matter. VOL. XVII GETTYSBURG, PA., MAY, 1909 No. 3 Editor in-Chief SAMUEL FAUSOLD, 'IO. Exchange Editor G. E. BOWERSOX, 'io Business Manager PAUL S. MILLER, 'IO Ass't Bus. Managers ROY R. ALLEN, 'II RUFUS N. WENRICK, 'II Assistant Editor RALPH E. RUDISILL, 'IO Associate Editors E. J. BOWMAN, 'II C. M. DAVIS, 'II Advisory Board PROF. G. F. SANDERS, A. M. PROF. P. M. BIKLE, PH. D. PROF. C. J. GRIMM, PH. D. Published each month, from October to June inclusive, by the joint literary societies of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, one dollar a year in advance ; single copies 15 cents. Notice to discontinue sending THE MERCURY to any address must be ac-companied by all arrearages. Students, Professors and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. est positions- EDITORIALS. The sure test and only test of an institution of learning is the worth of the product, turned out. By this criterion, the college is judged and it justifies its exist-ence by the intelligence, culture, and forcefulness of its alumni. Thus, in most walks of life, the college man excells. This is partly true in politics. The college man holds our high- -state and national and yet the curse of greed and 30 THE MEECURY. graft is upon us. Why is this? Is the influence of the college man for honesty so out of proportion to his powers in other quarters; or is it possible that the college man condones corrup-tion and himself openly courts it? We cannot believe this and yet the college man, permeated by the spirit of graft, tolerates it. This is true of some college men, at least, and the Alma Mater must bear her share of the blame. A professor of one of our sister colleges has said that in that institution boys learned the tricks of dirty politics and later car-ried their baneful methods to the state legislature. This is a shocking indictment, applicable to many of our colleges. Each college is a small republic, set aside from the world. In it, we elect officers for the various organizations. In these elections, the true standard of merit is too often discounted; lesser consid-erations prevail; and the astute politician, in embyro, does his questionable work. The most despicable creature on earth is the unscrupulous politician and woe unto the college that develops him. If we, are guilty, let us clear our skirts and make our beloved college a most potent factor in teaching the proper relations between the individual and the state. Another fault of the college man is a tendency to theorize and procrastinate while the other fellow controls the ballot box. The franchise is a glorious privilege and the neglect of its exercise can be termed almost criminal. The college man must enter the political arena. This is his duty. He must set an example to his neighbor and help destroy that monster which blights our cities and debauches-our legislatures—political indifference. May the colleges in the future turn out men with a more lively sense of political duty, who shall make politics respectable. When our best men learn to be politicians, the perpetuity of the American state shall be assured. THE Seniors' farewell to our Alma Mater is nigh at hand. This is perhaps the most interesting period of their lives. It crystallizes in deathless memory the pleasures of the past and the aspirations of the future. They are taking the final review of the work done and the last lingering words of advice. At THE MERCURY. 31 this time their thoughts are concentrated in two phases: Are we ready? and success. We must acknowledge that the present opportunities are ac-cording to one's ability. It is an occasion for them to use what they have already won by toil and labor. "With these qualifica-tions, there is a success which comes to the educated man, and gives pleasure and joy which money cannot buy. We know that all college men and women living in a community are en-gaged in professions or in business. They are leaders in the church with trained ability, or they are leaders in everything which promotes the culture of manhood. Let him go forward into the competition of business, or the rivalries of the professions or the envious struggles of politics without trust and confidence and life would be a failure. ,But let him go forward with the stamp of Gettysburg's manhood upon him and with the idea that fame is not got by a single bound and their wishes will be answered. As the Seniors are pushed forth amidst the contending forces of the world, let them bear aloft that "manhood crowned" which Gettysburg gives to them and let all unite in wishing them God-speed. EXCHANGES. "Now fades the Jast long streak of snow, Now burgeons every maze of quick About the flowering squares, and thick By ashen roots the violets blow." "Now rings the woodland loud and long, The distance takes a lovlier hue, The lark becomes a sightless song." And drown'd in yonder living blue We are glad indeed, that as we see the beauty of spring all about us, nature taking on new life, there is seen also this quickening effort in the college papers. Most of them show the 32 THE MEECUEY. effect of the spring environment, and poetry is more in evidence than it was in the winter issues. The general subject matter is more inspiring. There appears to be a tendency on the part of college men in their eagerness to prepare for a profession to neglect the study of the mother tongue and especially what is known as "Old Eng-lish." The advantage of an extensive and intensive knowledge of English cannot be overestimated. This subject is well treat-ed in an article in the "Newberry Stylus." It is a well-written and valuable essay peculiarly applicable to many college men. The story "Maviael the Violinist," in the same issue is worthy ofmuch praise.- The characters are well chosen and the plot well developed, and suited to the season. The other articles of the issue are well composed, but "How John Wells Got His Life Insurance" is rather out of place and not fitted for a college magazine. The "Haverfordian" since devoting its pages entirely to lit-erary productions is quite measuring up to the expected stand-ard. Its appearance in the new cover is quite attractive; the contents are also well arranged. The leading aricle, "The Poetry of William Morris," does much credit to the author. Among our new exchanges we are glad to welcome "College Kays." The paper, though not attractive in appearance, con-tains much worthy of reading. "The Destiny of the Mongo-lian," merits special mention. It shows in a very logical and forceful manner the developments of the various races, and how the trend of events points to the Mongolian as a rising race, and no longer a "Dragon" to be feared but a race co-equal with the more favored peoples. The idea in the "College Student" of the "Keview Depart-ment" for criticizing the articles in the same issue is worthy of comment. There are many benefits to be derived from so close and exact criticisms; yet one feels that the same attention given before publication would greatly increase the literary standard of the paper and at the same time give the writers an opportu-nity to correct his deficiencies before publication, which they will scarcely do once their articles are published. We gratefully acknowledge all exchanges received. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. IN this Drama of Four Year's Course, Play your part without dad's horse ; This to do is up to you With just a little tact between each yearly act, In some domain take a stroll And sell ALUMINUM for next year's Role (roll). Every summer hundreds of students make BIG MONEY selling Aluminum Cooking UteusiJs. For particulars address LOUIS HETZEL, Gettysburg College, GETTYSBURG, PA. THE STEWART & STEEN CO., COLLEGE ENGRAVERS, 1024 Arch Street, PHILADELPHIA. MAKERS OF Invitations, Programs, Menus, Visiting Cards, Dance Cards, Monograms, Class and Fraternity Stationery. P. S. MILLER, 'to, Representative, Who has a full line of samples. ^\> The times an 1 the Schools demand that the best things shall be done and in the best manner. WateFmans^FountainPen accomplishes everything that can be required of a good writing in-strument. Made to last for years of service and give its owner the satisfaction which comes with owning "the best." From all dealers. The Globe trademark Is our guarantee S Sthool St., Bo.Ion .1.5' San Fr>pci«ce. 136 St. Jama* St. Montreal 12 C.jUen L« 0 ^TYX'XV^LtAJ-rX/VJ., V Uty FATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. FU^NITU^E Mattresses, Bed Springs, Iron Beds, Picture Frames, Repair Work done promptly. Under-taking a specialty. - Telephone No- 97. H. B, BENDER. 37 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, P&- EDGAR C. TAWNEY BAKER West Middle Street. J. B. WINEMAN, DEALEK IN CHOICE FAMILY GROCERIES, PROVISIONS AND FRUITS, BOARDING CLUBS A SPECIALTY. SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON HELPS AND SUPPLIES P. ANSTADT & SONS, Publishers, Book and Job Printing of all kinds. Write for Prices. YORK, PA. PATRONIZE OTJR ADVERTISERS. EMIL ZOTHE, College Emblems, Engraver, Designer and Manufacturing Jeweler. 722 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. Specialties: Masonic Marks, Society Badges, College Buttons, Pins, Scarf Pins, Stick Pins and Athletic Prizes. All Goods ordered through G. F. Kieffer. Charles S. Mumper, DEAI.E FURNITURE, DEADER IN PICTURE FRAMES OF ALL SORTS REPAIR WORK DONE PROMPTLY I will also BUY or EXCHANGE any SECOND-HAND FURNITURE No. 4 Charnbersburg street, Gettysburg, Pa. D. J. Swartz, DEALER IN COUNTRY PRODUCE, GROCERIES, CIGARS AND TOBACCO. GETTYSBURG. OHLER BRO.'S RESTAURANT, F-iist National Bank Bld'g The place to eat the best Ice Cream QUICK LUNCH and Oysters in season. -IS— J. [. MUMPER Your Photographer, If not, why not? 41 Baltimore St., Gettysburg. FLEMING I BAIR'S LIVERY, Baltimore Street, First Square, Gettysburg, Pa. Competent Guides for all parts of the Battlefield. Arrange-ments by telegram or letter. Dock Bock 257. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. WINDSOR HOTEL, W. T. BRUJBAKER, Manager. Midway between Broad St. Station and Beading Terminal on Filbert St. A convenient and homelike place to stay while in the city shopping. An excellent restaurant where good service combines with low prices. ROOMS $1.00 PER DAY AND UP. The only moderate priced hotel of reputation and consequence in PHILADELPHIA. The Modern Steam Laundry . . OF YORK . . Offers the COLLEGE STUDENTS first-class work at Special Low Prices. E. C. STOUFFER, Local Agt. C. D. SMITH, Prop. The Baltimore Medical College Preliminary Fall Course begins September ist. Regular Winter Course begins September 20th. Liberal teaching facilities ; Modern college buildings ; Comfortable lecture hall and amphitheatres ; Large and complete equipped laboratories; Capacious hospital and dispensary; Lying-in department for teaching clinical obstetrics ; Large clinics. Send for catalogue. Address DAVID STREETT, M. D., Dean, N. E. Cor. Madison St., and Linden Ave., Baltimore, Md. COMPILER IMPRINT ON JOB WORK MEANS TASTY WORK CAREFULLY DONE. MENU CARDS WINDOW POSTERS LETTER HEADS ENVELOPES DANCE CARDS TICKETS Programs of all kinds. Everything' the College Man wants in Haper and Ink. Specially designed work. Latest Effects in Paper, done in Colors along lines of College Men's Associations. Catalog and Book work. The Gettysburg Compiler will keep old and new students in touch with town and college life.

AjN \Z r t SK*-*—*— DECEMBER, 1900 Qettysbtiir Mercury CONTENTS The End of the Nineteenth Cen-tury, 205 Pennsylvania College at the Close of the Nineteenth Cen-tury, 206 The Belles 208 The Mysterious Picture, . . 211 Father Hawkin's Observations, 215 King- of Reformers, . . .217 An Old Camera, . . .220 Editor's Desk 222 Elements of Inspiration in the Earliest Greek Poets, . . 224 Words add Things, . 228 A Financier, . 233 Book Review 236 Among Our Contemporaries . 236 FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine. Printing go to Tk J° Co Wile Prifltiig ftwe CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Leadership Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S fURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony'! The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : EDGARS. MARTIN, F^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES Chambersburg St., Gettysburg ST McPherson Block. No. li BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG. PA., DECEMBER, 1900. No. 7. THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. "Old Time's great clock, that never stops, Nor runs too fast nor slow, Hung up amid the worlds of space Where wheeling planets glow; Its dial-plate the orbit vast Where whirls our old earth free— Has pushed its pointers round again And marked a century." «^2> 'T'HE century ends. The startling records of to-day are being ■^ stamped upon the last lap of the scroll. Marvelous have been the achievements of the last ten decades. Strange are the inscriptions on the escutcheons of the nations of the world. May the American not cease to hallow the ground where rest the ashes of the sages, patriots and warriors! Remembered be the deeds of the fathers ; long live their admonition ! Soft be the breeze that sways the trees on the famous fields of battle! Forgotten the strife that stained our soil with blood! Firm be the future grasp of Labor's callous hand—recognized, in every sphere, the noble and the true! Appreciated be the heritage of the fathers ! Bared be every arm in defense of our common, sacred trust! Solid be the phalanx in freedom's holy cause! 206 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE AT THE CLOSE OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. E. S. BREIDENBAUGH, SC. D. T N this last issue of the MERCURY for the nineteenth century it *■ is proper to consider Pennsylvania College in connection with the present condition of higher education in our country. While not attempting a complete survey, a few glimpses of the field will be a source of congratulation and encouragement in our work, and may be an incentive to further effort for advancing the interests of our college. During the last third of the century there has been a large in-crease in the number of college students, proportionally a larger increase than the increase in population. There are no available statistics to show whether the number of Lutheran young people in institutions of learning has grown in proportion to the growth of our church membership, there are sufficient facts to show that there has been a very decided increase in the number of our young peo-ple who are having the advantages of the higher education. This increase in number of college students is due in part, if not wholly, to the growing conviction that a higher education is advantageous to men in every field of activity. While formerly the college graduates rarely entered any other profession than the ministry, law or medicine, we now find a minority of all the college graduates entering these professions. In our own college we find in recent years an increasing number of our graduates entering on business or technical pursuits. This change in the life work of college men has accompanied and has been in part the cause of and in part the effect of changes in the college curriculum. There have been introduced into the curriculum many important subjects, which in the early part of the century were hardly thought of in connection with a college education. This large increase in number of subjects taught has necessitated the introduction of electives into the requirements for entrance to and graduation from college. The same conditions have lead to the opportunity being given to the student to substi-tute for Greek, L,atin and Mathematics, which formerly occupied nearly the whole of the college time, Modern Languages, Natural and Physical Sciences, History, Politics, etc., thus giving the student the choice of subjects in which he may specialize. At the same time the requirements for entrance and graduations have THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 207 been notably increased. In all departments of study there have been changes in method of work which increase the labors of the teachers and require more and better study on the part of the pupils. Pennsylvania College has enlarged her courses of study —has adopted to a fair degree elective courses of study—and in every department has increased the requirements for graduation. These changes in subjects of study and methods of work have necessitated an increased teaching force and enlarged equipment. Our college has in recent years somewhat increased her teaching force and added laboratories of chemistry, biology and elementary mechanics. We have also greatly improved our accommodations for class work in new and convenient buildings. The duty of our college is not rivalry with our neighbors, nor is it at present to do university or technical work, but is to do the best possible for our constituency in providing a sound college training such as is demanded by the present times, to this end we need, and we need greatly, additional teaching force, increased facilities for laboratory work and larger library equipment. Our professors are required to teach too many subjects, and other subjects barely included or not included in our curriculum require attention which cannot be given them. While there has been no increase in the personal interest teachers have for their pupils, there has been a change in methods which requires more immediate individual work between teacher and pupil. This personal teaching in all subjects, while greatly benefiting the student, is a great drain on the vital power of the teacher. As the number of pupils increases the personal attention to individual pupils must lessen unless the teaching force is in-creased, thus enabling each teacher to have fewer subjects and a smaller number of pupils. Co-education has been adopted to a limited degree by Penn-sylvania College. If we desire to enlarge this work, which can easily be done, we must have suitable accommodations for the young women. There has been in our colleges a great change in the dormitory and other accommodations for students. What thirty or forty years ago was regarded as excellent is now deemed wholly inadequate by parents and pupils. In some places these provisions have grown to extravagant proportions, while Pennsylvania College 208 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY has not developed to such a degree, we are in these respects fully abreast of the times. We find the college student yearly taking a greater interest in matters outside the college curriculum—this when properly guarded, is wise and of educational advantage. Our students have shown reasonable activity and had fair success in many of these enterprises, such as athletics, musical clubs, publications and debating clubs. With all these changes in college work—with the greater pressure of material things, with the ever increasing claims of study on the energy of the student and the accompanying greatly increased personal freedom and self-control of the individual student there has been an equally increased interest in religious subjects—this is shown in many ways, not the least being the activity of the College Y. M. C. A. and the accompanying Bible study. In this brief summary of the changing conditions of college work—and we believe they are changes for the better—we find that Pennsylvania College has been advancing in the same direction as the general educational world, and while there is always room for fuller growth, we feel encouraged with the past and are hope-ful for the future. These improving conditions are due to the diversified and united labors of trustees, presidents, professors,students,numerous liberal friends and the general loyalty of the alumni of the college. It is in reliance on the continued energy and loyalty of all these friends that we are assuredly hopeful for the future of our college. THE BELLES. J. B. BAKER, '01. Hear the singing of the belles— Choir belles! What a world of vanity their rhapsody foretells ! How they wrinkle, wrinkle, wrinkle, All the muscles of their bite 1 While the gems that oversprinkle All their tresses, seem to twinkle With a hyaline delight; THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 209 Keeping time, time, time, In a faintly falling: rime, To the nasal proclamation that so dissonantly wells From the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— From the singing and the ringing- of the belles. II Hear the flippant summer belles, Giddy belles! What a string- of soda bills their coquetry foretells ! Throug-h the balmy air of nig-ht How they draw us out of sight! From their starting, darting eyes All aglow, What a funny feeling hies To the bosom of the lover, while he spies Not the bow. Oh, from out those spheric cells, What a gush of repartee extravagantly wells ! How it swells ! How it dwells On the future ! how it tells Oh the philter that impels To the flushing and the blushing Of the belles, belles, belles, Of the belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— To the flushing and the blushing of the belles. Ill Hear the loud alarum belles— Infant belles ! What a train of muffled oaths their noisiness compels ! In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright! Too much horrified to speak, They can only shriek, shriek, Out of tune, In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the sire, In a mad expostulation with his warm erratic ire Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor To resign the job forever That he undertook alas, too soon. Oh, the belles, belles, belles What a tale their horror tells Of the crier! 210 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY How they squirm, and kick, and roar, What a horror they outpour On the palpitating bosom of the sire ! Nor the father fully knows, By the wiggling-. And the wriggling, How the sulphur ebbs and flows ; But the mother t'is who tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking and the swelling in the squealing of the belles,- Of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— In the squealing and the reeling of the belles. IV Hear the moaning of the belles— Ancient belles ! What a world of sympathy their monody compels ! Through the day and oft by night, How our tears spring into light, At the melancholy mumble of their tone ; For every sound that floats From the rust within their throats Is a groan. And the lovers—ah, the lovers— They who go and wed some others, Altar prone, And who strolling, strolling, strolling, By discarded belles alone, Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone— They are neither false nor true men— They are neither brute nor human— They are fiends, And their king the devil, tolls, And he rolls, rolls, rolls, Rolls A threnode from the belles ! And his scaly bosom swells With a threnode from the belles! And he dances and he yells ; Keeping time, time, time, In his Tartarean grime, To the threnode of the belles— Of the belles; Keeping time, time, time, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 211 In his Tartarean grime, To the throbbing- of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles,— To the sobbing- of the belles ; Keeping time, time, time, As he knells, knells, knells, In his Tartarean grime, To the groaning of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles,— To the moaning of the belles Of the belles, belles, belles, belles— Belles, belles, belles— To the moaning and the groaning- of the belles. THE MYSTERIOUS PICTURE. STANLEY C. FOWLER, '04. 44QPEAKING of mysteries reminds me of a very curious, yes, ^ startling experience I had when a struggling young artist in Paris," said Wilbur Cutting. " What was that? " we asked. " Go ahead, let her rip, said Coleman, the irrepressible, "we're all attention." Wilbur puffed at his favorite corn-cob pipe and we all drew our chairs nearer the grate fire which burned cheerily and lighted up our cozy club-room. Presently we heard Wilbur's voice from behind a cloud of tobacco smoke, saying: "I was searching for a new model to pose for my 'Abraham.' I had been told of an old, patriarchal Jew, living in one of the many by-ways in the Latin quarter. While walking down a dingy, narrow alley, my attention was attracted by a picture lying on a heap of canvasses, in an old curiosity shop. Drawn by an irresistible impulse I entered and purchased it from the shop-keeper, a queer, little, old Orient, who seemed eager to dispose of it. I took it under my arm and hurried back to my studio, in-tending to retouch it. I placed it on my easel and scrutinizing it closely, marked what a peculiar face it was. Pure oval, the fore-head low and square, eyebrows high-arched meeting over a long, Roman nose, the nostrils were contracted, the mouth, tight shut, was cruel and sinister. The eyes had been scratched through the pupils, completely destroying its expression ; the hair, long 212 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY and black as a raven's wing, was painted as though blown by the wind and finally blended into the deep crimson background. The head had the appearance of flying through the air, for there was neither shoulders nor neck. I failed to recognize the style and searched in vain for the artist's name. "I was soon at work on the eyes, hoping to complete them before the arrival of Archie Armstrong, a young American, who, attracted by the gayeties of Bohemian life, had adopted them as his profession. He had a rich, indulgent, spinster aunt, living in Paris, who descended periodically upon his studio, which was across the hall from mine, and purchased all his masterpieces. To tell the truth, the only parts of them not painted by me were his signatures, which he persistently painted in the brightest colors and in the most conspicuous places. He was expecting a visit from his aunt that afternoon and was about to make a raid upon my studio and carry off all the paintings, finished or not. "As I painted the eyes, it seemed as though an invisible hand was guiding or directing my brush. They were soon finished and I stepped back to see my work. What an expression ! Simply hellish. The eyes seemed like living coals of fire. They burned and blazed and seemed to pierce one through and through. I felt a most peculiar tingling sensation. "I looked at lny hands. No longer were they covered with oil and paint stains, but were changed to long, slender white hands with tapering fingers. My velvet jacket and paint covered trous-ers were changed to an evening suit. Even the studio had changed to a drawing-room elegantly furnished. "Stepping over to one of the mirrors that adorned the wall, I looked in. I started back with a cry of surprise and alarm. The face that had stared at me from the canvass now gazed back at me from the mirror. Could it be possible? Was it I? I raised my hand to my face and when the glass reflected the action, I knew then that I had changed. "Presently I heard footsteps and turning, beheld a young man advancing towards me with outstretched hands to welcome me. I hastened to meet him and he led me into an inner room where a young woman was reclining gracefully on a high-backed, old-fashioned seat. She blushed prettily as we entered and he presented me to her—his wife. As I bowed low and kissed the tips of her dainty fingers, I had an uncontrollable desire to kill THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 213 her, take possession of me. I cannot explain it. It seemed as though I must kill her or myself. "The young man took me to his "den" where we were soon drinking her health. I took up a jeweled dagger from a table and told him of some murders I had heard of done under hypnotic influence. He asked if I believed in hypnotism and I replied in the affirmative, saying, that I could hypnotize him if I so desired. He seemed startled but continuing to drink heavily was soon in a stupor. "Seizing the dagger I stole into the room where his wife was; I raised it aloft and struck with all my might, again and again. As I felt the blade sink into the soft flesh, I could not refrain from laughing exultingly. I knew that when he was aroused from his stupor he would believe himself guilty of the crime. I think I must have been changed into the devil, for I chuckled and gloated over the misery that would come to the young man. "I stole away still gloating over my crime. Suddenly my face grew warmer and warmer. It seemed that flames were creeping slowly over my head. I screamed aloud for agony and then I must have fainted. "When I regained consciousness, I found myself in my own bed with Archie leaning over me and the.morning sun pouring in the window. " 'What has happened ?' I asked. " 'Blamed if I know,'said Archie, rubbing his head. 'Icame yesterday afternoon and nearly banged my fists off, trying to make you let me in. I heard you sputtering and as time was valuable, I pushed the door in and found you staring at the queerest picture I ever saw. You turned around to me sputtering gibberish and I took you into your room. I thought you had been indulging too freely. In the night you stabbed your lay figure with your pallet knife. You'll have a nice job replacing that gown. You had it spoiled before I discovered you. You've been raving until you screamed just now,' said Archie, looking disgustedly at me. ' 'I looked at my easel. The picture was gone. "'Where's the picture?' I asked. Archie looked sheepish and said: 'Well, auntie would have it. There's the check on the table.' % % if. ■%. % "That afternoon as I was relating my experience to Archie, the 214 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY door flew open with a bang and in stepped his aunt with head erect and fire in her eye. Without returning Archie's greeting, she opened hostilities thus: " 'What do you mean by selling me that picture, sir ! I don't believe you painted it at all! I think the devil did ! ' " 'Why, auntie, you surprise me. What's the trouble,' asked Archie. " 'Trouble! Humph! I should say so. Trouble! There's been nothing but trouble since I brought that thing to my house. Why, when I had Henry hang it in my saloon with the rest of your paintings, he acted like a lunatic. Tried to stab me ! He raved so all last night about that picture that I took it down this morning and threw it in the fire, and as I did so, it shrieked! My nerves have had such a fright that it'll be months before they'll get quieted again. How did you ever get it, tor I don't believe you painted it? ' she finally asked Archie. " 'Well, I'll confess I didn't paint it. My friend Wilbur bought it in an old shop and I thought since you liked it, you know, when—er—that is—I thought you would like it better if you thought that I painted it. I am sorry that I deceived you, but shan't do it again,' said Archie, looking very penitent. " 'You'd better not, for I am very shrewd. I thought you didn't paint it,' said his aunt, and turning to me said: " 'Mr. Wilbur, if you would turn your attention toward art, as my gifted nephew has, and paint a few pictures like his, it would be better than tramping around buying such things as that picture and calling them your own as I guess you were going to do. I hope this will be a lesson to you, Archie. Don't follow in your friend's footsteps again or attempt to deceive me again, for I am too shrewd for you !' and off she stamped, followed by Archie, whose face was purple with suppressed laughter. I was in deadly fear of the eruption and heaved a sigh of relief as they disappeared. "All those symptoms Archie's aunt attributed to his shame and mortification he felt at being caught trying to fool her. "I made inquiries afterwards at the shop about the picture. All that I could learn was that the shop-keeper had bought it at the auction of the art treasures of a young man who had killed his wife and died crazy. It was said that he had imported the picture from the Orient, where it had been, probably, for many I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 215 years. It was the shop-keeper who had scratched out the eyes, for he said they haunted him. Whether or not I should have died mad, as did its former possessor, had it not been destroyed, I can't tell." e^pj FATHER HAWKINS' OBSERVATIONS. CHAS. W. WEISER, '01. Well, Lizer, I'se been up ter town, Ther college fur ter see, And talk about yer country Jakes— Ther same as you and me. Of bildins fine I saw a heft, That's fine as ever I've seen, And trees, and signs—"Keep off ther grass' I guess because its green. The Profs' got lots of larnin, And plenty fur ter spare ; But me thinks they need it all, Ter train thim fellers thare. So guess we'll send our Kier, Ter eddicated be, Fur he must have more larnin, Than ever you an me. I saw thim fellers go A stragglin long ther walk, Ther one he looked so strait ahead As any line of chalk. He looked not ter ther right er left, But just strait down his nose, And where that little nose did point, He always surly goes. Ther one did run his hands, Inter his pockets deep. With hangin head and crooked back, He ter the class did creep. His knees did knock each other gainst, And pigeoned were his toes. Well such er sight I niver seed Where ever I do goes. 216 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Another one went walkin long, A lookin at ther cloud ; His nose er pointin in ther air, His heels er stumpin loud. He wore er collar high er enough, Fer any six months calf ; And tie like my red handkichief, That made er feller laugh. And one he said "Wha don chu knaw" I took my "cut" ter day ; Another one he got er "zip," And wished he'd stayed away. They say they "horse," and "make a stab, An some times make a "break." But if I had them in my field, I'd make them take a rake. When yer do hear a college chap, Yer don't know what he says I guess its Latin—but don know, In all my born days. We send our men from off ther farm— They have some common sense ; Ther "city's" call them "greenies" But grapple for ther pence. But soon they larn to shporty dress, And know ther college slang, They come back with swellin heads, Too fine ter help er lang. They think they know a heft of stuff, And flaunt it in yer face, But 'fore ther thro' ther college course, They've set another pace. But don't cher know, I often see, Ther boys from off ther farm, Who think ther "dad" has got ther "mon," Make oft ther shports—yes marm. And tho I kin not spaik mam Like eddicated men I'm not so dull as ruff mam Tho' kin not hold ther pen. And so they musn't judge mam, 'Cause farmin is our lot, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 217 That we are slow and kin not tell Ef they're er man er not. They ortend fur ter be mam, More than thay really was, But live ter what ther trained fur, And not make sich a fuss. " KIING OP REFORMERS." GEO. W. NICELY, '01. Honorable mention Junior Oratorical. HPHE sixteenth century gave birth to the most remarkable man A the world has ever known. Welcome must have been the change in all Germany, created by the reformation. " From Germany proceeded the power which caused Rome, the once proud mistress of almost the whole world, to tremble, even when she was at the zenith of her potency. And from Germany also proceeded the power which shook the triple crown of the most artful religious and temporal usurper at modern Rome, and brought her to the very brink of inevitable ruin; it was in Ger-many where the morning dawn of a pure worship of the Supreme Being, and of a wise liberty of conscience was destined to arise." In order to realize, to some extent, the magnitude and im-portance of Luther's services to mankind in promoting the cause of freedom and progress, as well as in reformiug the church, it is necessary to recall the condition of the civilized world at the time he appeared and began his career on the stage of human affairs. In the beginning of the 15th century the church was almost universally corrupt, and popes and bishops and people were alike involved in the general demoralization. For a hundred years before the papal chair was occupied by princes, most of whom attained their elevation by intrigue and bribery, and some even by assassination. " It was an age of monasticism." Thousands of men and women in all countries had renounced the world and entered into monasteries and convents to lead lives of superior holiness, but these retreats from the world had changed from their original character and many of them were now places of in-dolence and sensuality. Guiler Von Kaiserburg declares that convent life had become a mere mockery. Infessura, a Roman 218 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY historian, says: "Everyone in Rome knows, alas, that monas-teries have now become dens of corruption.'' Such was the general character of the clergy, from the pope down to the lowest priest; and such also was the condition of religious teachers. Ignorance, superstition and immorality prevailed generally among them. All who questioned the authority of this complex despotism, or denounced its usurpations, were soon silenced or crushed. John Huss and Jerome Prague suffered martydom at Constance for preaching the truths of the gospel a hundred years before Luther; Savoiiavola, at Florence, met a similar fate in 1498. Thousands of others were persecuted, imprisoned, assassinated, tortured to death; hunted down like the wild beasts, or burned to the stake, for worshiping God according to the dictates of their own con-science, for reading the scriptures or for exposing the wickedness and usurpations of the clergy. It was under this state of civil and ecclesiastical despotism, when corruption and profligacy were dominant in the church, and ignorance and superstition prevailed among the people, that Luther appeared and entered upon the great work of reform, for which God had prepared him. It is difficult, if not impossible, at the present day to appreciate the magnitude of that work. All sources of power and influence in church and state; all customs and habits of the people for generations; all existing institutions and the entire structure of society were against him, and had to be assailed, confronted, overthrown and reformed. The word of God was buried in the Latin vulgate version, which only the educated few could read, and copies were so dear and scarce that they were inaccessible to the common people, even if they had been able to read them. " It was one of the achievements of Luther, and a service of ines-timable value to the Germanic nation, that he translated the Bible and gave it to the people in their own tongue, so that all could read it and know that the doctrines he proclaimed were the living truths of the living God, before whom popes and kings and priests and all men were alike accountable." But Luther's work was not confined to reforming the church and furnishing the Bible to the people. It was not only the overthrow of usurped ecclesi-astical power and the restoration of religious toleration and free-dom in Europe. It was all this, but it was also more. There is not an interest or reform affecting human welfare in modern civilization—whether educational, social, industrial or THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 219 political—upon which Luther did not shed the light of his great intellect and soul, enlightened by the word and spirit of God. He taught that it was the duty of the state to educate all the children of the people in order that they might become intelligent and useful citizens; and thus he was the pioneer advocate of uni-versal education four centuries ago. In quelling the outbreak of communism in Germany, known as the "peasant war," he de-clared it to be the duty of all to be subject to " the powers that be," and to acquire property, not by the plunder and robbery of others, but by industry, frugality and honesty. In an address to the princes and nobles of Germany, he taught the reciprocal duties of rulers to their subjects, and of subjects to their rulers, suggest-ing the fundamental principle announced in our Declaration of Independence, that governments, though " ordained of God, de-rive their just powers from the consent of the governed." " I will call this Luther a true, great man," says Carlyle. " Great in intellect, in courage, affection and integrity, one of our most lovable and precious men; great, not as a hewn obelisk, but as an Alpine mountain, so simple, spontaneous, honest, not set-ting up to be great at all; therefore quite another purpose than being great. A.h, yes, unsubduable granite, piercing far and wide into the heavens; yet, in the clefts of its fountains, green, beautiful valleys with flowers ! " "In my judgment," said Senator Wellington of Maryland, " Luther is the greatest man that hath yet lived." "Challenging the license To make gain of sin, Luther nails his protest; Listen to the din. "Striking with his hammer— How the panels shake— How the gateway trembles— How the timid quake! "Blows on blows resounding, Echoed from afar; How the world is shaken, How the churches jar. "We to-day are feeling Heart and conscience thrill, And throughout the ages Men will feel it still. 220 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "Till the death-stroke's given To all force and fraud; For the striking' hammer Is the word of God." AN OLD CAMERA. P. W. EYSTEB, '03. A BOUT twenty years ago there lived in Dowingtown, about •**■ thirty miles west from Philadelphia, a young man by the name of Warren, whose ambition it was to succeed. He started out in life by teaching school in his native town. So, during the school term he was busy, but during vacation he did all kinds of work about his home. His neighbor was a photographer, and business being dull, he sold his old camera to Mr. Warren at a small price. After young Warren's school had closed, he packed up his camera and left the town, visiting the small villages and towns, to take the pictures of buildings and family groups. Finally he came to a small vil-lage called Pleasant Hill. There was at the time a small show in the place, and as Warren was strolling over the show grounds, he saw an Italian organ-grinder, and a curly-headed boy about six years old on whose face were the features of an American parent-age. Just then the intoxicated assistant-manager of the show came out of a nearby hotel, and tossing to the organ grinder a dime, said, "Make the little rascal dance." The organ grinder, after a few kicks and cuffs, got the boy to dance. The photographer, Mr. Warren, was among the onlookers and took a picture of the Italian and the daucing boy. Warren went to his lodging place, and after developing the picture, put it with others in his traveling case, forgetting all about it. Not meeting with much success at Pleasant Hill, he went to Ardmore, a suburb of Phila-delphia. He took the pictures of the pretty houses and beautiful scenes to be seen in and about Ardmore. One morning as he was stopping before a large sandstone house, preparing to take a pic-ture of it, a handsome lady, on whose face were signs of inward grief, came walking across the lawn, and commenced to talk with the photographer. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 221 This was the house of Mr. Sheffield, a wealthy Philadelphia banker, who lived in Ardmore, and conducted his business in the city. About five years before, his little only son, then one year old, had wandered into the street and was kidnapped. Mr. Shef-field offered a large reward to any one who would make known the whereabouts of his child, but was not successful. Mrs. Shef-field, who admired children, was so grieved at the loss of her only child that she, at times, came near losing her reason. She would every morning, at the time the child was kidnapped, walk across the lawn as if looking for some one; and she Could frequently be heard repeating a low prayer, in which she asked but one favor from God—the return of her sou. This accounted for her pres-ence on the lawn at this time. Mr. Warren invited her to look over the pictures in his travel-ing case while he was fixing the camera. She examined them all till she came to the last, the picture of the organ-grinder and the curly-headed boy; and as she recognized the boy's picture, she exclaimed , "Oh, my boy, my dear little George," and fell over fainting. Just then Mr. Sheffield came; arid Mrs. Sheffield soon recovered sufficient to hand the picture to Mr. Sheffield, He took a long look at it, and judging from the tears that rolled down his cheeks, one could easily tell what his feelings were. Mr. Sheffield asked young Warren where and when he had last seen the organ-grinder and the little boy. Warren gave Mr. Sheffield the desired information, and in less than four hours the police in every town and village in eastern Pennsylvania were looking for an organ-grinder and a little boy, who answered the description of those on the picture. Both were soon found. The organ-grinder, who was the kidnapper, was dealt with according to law and the child was sent to the home of his loving mother. The boy grew up to take part in his father's business, and to-day the Philadelphia firm of Sheffield & Son is well known. The young photographer received from Mr. Sheffield the reward which gave him a good start in business. At present Mr. Warren lives in Baltimore as a retired mer-chant, and he often tells his friends about the old camera stored on the garret of his house. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., DECEMBER, 1900. No. 7. Editor-in- Chief, S. A. VAN ORMEK, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HBTEICK, W. A. KOIILEH. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD. D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address'must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS' DESK. "VVTE hear with regret of the death of Business Manager Hoff- " man's father. Mr. Hoffman was summoned home some weeks ago on account of his father's illness, and accompanied him to a Philadelphia hospital, where an operation to save his life was performed in vain. The MERCURY extends sincere sym-pathy to the bereaved family. Since the close of the foot ball season there is a noticeable in-crease in interest in the work of the literary societies. Special programs were rendered in both societies last evening (Dec. 7)— THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 223 in Philo, "An Evening with Kipling"; in Phrena, "A Mock Trial.'' Both halls were filled. It is to be hoped that enthusiasm in and the healthy rivalry between the two societies will continue increasing as time advances. A college man is expected not only to talk intelligently on the current topics of the day but also to meet his adversary in debate with clean-cut, forcible arguments. Men are needed who can think accurately and think on their feet. That Gettysburg men may be the better able to meet these de-mands, a course in Argumentation has been provided for. It is in charge of Professor Klinger, whose enthusiasm and magnetism will prove a source of inspiration to the members of the class, which, added to a knowledge of the principles of Argumentation and practice in the application of these principles, will amply pay for the time and energy expended. As this is the last issue of THE MERCURY for the year and for the century, we wish to bespeak a continuance of the kindly feeling and hearty support of the journal on the part of the stu-dents, alumni and friends of the college. We wish all a pleas-ant vacation, and hope that all may return with renewed ambition and high ideals. When we shall have been transported by the machinery of the world into a new century, may we behold a "New Era" that con-tains bright visions for the coming years ! *3^ab Do not look for wrong- and evil, You will find them if you do; As you measure to your neighbor, He will measure back to you. Look for gladness, look for gladness, You will meet them all the while; If you bring a smiling visage To the glass, you meet a smile. —Alice Cary. 224 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY ELEMENTS Of INSPIRATION IN TME EARLIEST CREEK POETS. C. M. A. STINE, '01. "VVTHAT do we mean when we speak of a book as inspired ? " What is the signification of the word inspiration? These two questions present themselves at the very outset of the subject. The word inspiration means, literally, a breathing into, that is, it is the breathing of God's spirit into the mind of man. When we speak of a book as inspired we mean that it makes the divine will known to man, or contains some great principle or truth in regard to the life of man. It is in this sense of the word that we use the terms inspired and inspiration. In considering the elements of inspiration in the earliest Greek poets we naturally inquire what these elements are in order that we may know what to look for. Let us consider the subject from three standpoints: first, the revelations of God and of the hereafter which they gave to their readers ; second, any prophecies which they contain ; third, their influence upon Greek morals and civilization. Homer and Hesiod are the earliest Greek poets of whose works we have any definite knowledge. The great epics of Homer and the "Theogouy" and the "Works and Days" of Hesiod may fairly be considered as representative of this earliest known period of Greek poetry. Hesiod, in his "Theogouy," as the name indicates, endeavored to harmonize and systematize the numerous myths in regard to the gods b}' arranging the gods themselves in the order of exact genealogy. Homer portrays the gods as grand in the strength of their passions and in their power, yet they leave the impression of being scarcely more than human beings endowed with great power and with immortality. In the Iliad they take sides against one another. Zeus at first is not favorable to the Greeks, and they realize that without the favor of Zeus it is useless to fight. They therefore prosecute the war by wiles and by spies till Zeus has been propitiated. The power of Zeus is recognized, but there are none of the attributes portrayed as pertaining to him which belong to the true God. In his portrayal of the character of Athena, Homer gives the loftiest conception of the Deity. Athena is mind personified. She is without the lower attributes and the petty jealousies which attach to the. other gods. Athena, "the flashing eyed," is essentially the goddess of the keeu-witted THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 225 Greeks. It is necessary that the Greek be constantly on the lookout not to offend the Deities, and if by some mischance a god or goddess is offended, it is necessary that the offended deity be placated at any cost. The various divinities have their favorites over whom they watch and whose actions they direct. In the first book of the Iliad Athena is represented as restraining Achilles by his yellow hair when he is about to draw his sword against Agamemnon : ***** jiffy g> •AOrjvrj ******* * * * l-avOTfi $k ho/ir/i HX* TTTjXziwya, (II. I. 193-201.) Again, in the Odyssey, she assists Teleuiachus to set out from Ithaca in search of his father, and watches over the wandering Odysseus. But how far is all this from the love of the Christian Jehovah ! There is a power spoken of against which it is useless to strug-gle or to appeal to the gods. The decrees of the fates are unalter-able. Even the gods themselves are subject to them. As com-pared with the Christian idea of God as the supreme power there is a wide difference to be noted here. Homer gives a high con-ception of God, when it is remembered that he was a pagan, but the Zeus of Homer and of Hesiod is far indeed from the God of the Christian. From the foregoing we see, first, that there is no clear revela-tion of the attributes of God; second, that there is no idea of Provi-dence; when a guiding hand is revealed it is still within the limitations of stern fate. As to revelations of the future life, the hereafter as painted by Homer is gloomy and forbidding. Instead of regarding the soul as the real ego, and the body merely as a fetter from which the soul is freed at death, the soul is regarded by him merely as a "shade," the shadow of the physical body. This life is all, and there awaited the Greek after death a joyless exist-ence in a gloomy twilight at best, and perhaps even the tortures of Tartarus. He makes the shade of the great Achilles in Hades to say: "I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some nian of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, Rather than reig-n o'er all who have gone down To death." Od. XI. 489-90, (Bryant's Trans.) 226 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Such a conception of the hereafter must certainly be regarded as unfavorable to the attainment of the highest and noblest life. As to the revelations of God and of the hereafter as contained in these poems we may say that God never reveals half of himself, or in contradictory lights, nor can an idea of the hereafter be for a moment entertained as the correct one if it is hostile to the attainment of the noblest life and the fulfillment of man's highest ideals. Second, as to the element of prophecy as contained in these poems. Prophecy, strictly defined, is "a prediction under divine influence or direction." We ask then, what predictions are there in the works of these poets and what indications do these predic-tions give of having been made under divine influence or direction ? These poems contain not a single instance of this kind of prophecy. It is true that Homer represents predictions as uttered and later on as fulfilled, but there is no prophecy made by either Hesiod or Homer in regard to the future. The predictions of oiacles are mentioned, and later on we see the fulfillment of these predictions worked out as the action of the poem moves on, but in no case is a prophecy in regard to future ages uttered. We come next to the influence which the works of these poets had on the morals and civilization of the Greek people. It is from this third standpoint that we are most likely to speak of these poems as inspired. The"Theogony" of Hesiod moulded the vast number of myths which we find to have existed in that early period into an orderly, polytheistic theology and was accepted as authority by the Greeks. Any book which brings the idea of God nearer to a people and gives more definite form to that idea, whatever form it may be, will have an influence for good upon the morals of that people. In this way such a book as the "Theogony" must have influenced Greek morals. Hesiod's "Works and Days," however, came nearer home to the hearts of the common people. This poem is a sort of a farm-er's calendar, and in addition to the enumeration of the various lucky days for sowing, etc., it contains a collection of precepts, ethical, economical and political. While the style is homely and unimaginative there is a lofty and solemn feeling throughout, found-ed on the "idea that the gods have ordained justice among men, have made labor the only road to prosperity, and have so ordered THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 227 the year that every work has its appointed season, the sign of which may be discerned." A poem of this character certainly had a beneficent effect upon the minds of the people. It is before the immortal Homer that we must pause in wonder and almost in awe. The influence of the Iliad and the Odyssey upon the Greek mind can hardly be over-estimated. Tbe char-acters which stand forth in his poems, with their matchless symmetry and trueness to life, even to this day, twenty-five hundred years after the writing of the poems, play a part in the formation of the ideals of all who read them, and cannot but enoble the reader. Nausicaa, the loveliest of Homer's female creations, is a character which, in her innocence and her queenly maidenhood, has scarcely ever been equaled. Penelope is the ideal of a con-stant wife, faithful and unswerving in her affections through the most trying experiences. Hector is an ideal of a loyal, unselfish patriot. While no less brave than the fiery Achilles, he is yet more human than that mighty warrior, who has been rendered by the gods practically invulnerable. The appeal of the white-haired Priam for the body of his son will never fail to touch human hearts. With characters such as these ever before them in the lofty poetry of Homer, Greek minds could not fail to be purified and ennobled. Their influence upon the general culture of the age must have been very great, and they are therefore treated as one of the great factors in Greek civilization by many historians. To sum up, we find that while these early poems failed to give the highest conceptions of God, contain nothing of the idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and were entirely lacking in the element of prophecy, they, nevertheless, were of the greatest value in the education of the Greek people and the advancement of civilization. In this third aspect, at least, they do not fall short of that lofty ideal which we expect an inspired work to fulfill. While we are not warranted in conclud-ing that they were inspired, yet so long as either Hesiod or Homer are read, the homely truth of the former and the superb genius of the latter must command our highest admiration. 228 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY WORDS AND THINGS. D. C. BUBNITK, '01. I ANGUAGE is God's gift to man. The lower animals pos- *~* sess memory, will and intellect, and in a few cases even the ability to repeat words; but to man alone has the Creator given the power of expressing his thoughts in words. This dis-criminate use of words is the most prominent mark of difference between man and beast. The value of language is realized when we try to imagine man without it. How limited would be his knowledge and how nar-row his range of thought, for he would be unable to receive from his fellows one single idea with which to compare his own thoughts, and thus arrive at new conclusions. Nor would reason have any value without words to communicate to others its re-sults. What would be the extent of scientific knowledge today had Copernicus, Newton, Franklin and all the host of discoverers been unable to preserve their results in words? "Thoughts without words are nothing." * Words are valueless without a knowledge of the relations they bear to the things for which they are the symbols. But an ex-tensive knowledge of their significance is inestimable, for upon this foundation rests all learning—that alone which can procure true appreciation of life and its blessings. Acquaintance with the real meanings of words is necessary to scholarship. One must be able at a glance to discern that which lies back of a word, the thing for which a word stands. He must have appropriate terms with which he can readily give accurate expression to his own thoughts. "A word fitly spoken," says Solomon, "is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." T_et us attempt to substitute one word for another in a passage of Milton, and we destroy the effect of the whole. It was Webster's accurate selection of words that placed him in history. How do we acquire this ability to join the right word with the right thing ? This faculty, like most other endowments, develops with age. The infant hears a word and learns by mere observa-tion what thing it represents. He wishes to denote an object or express a thought, and his elders supply him with the necessary words. And this process of obtaining the meanings of words may be pursued in this same manner all through life. No con- *Max Muller. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 229 scious effort in this direction need be made in order to prosper, but to pass into the sphere of education one must apply himself to the work of definition; he must faithfully consult his dic-tionary. The student's vocabulary is also increased, as in the case of the infant, by being supplied with the ideas before he is given the corresponding terms. That is, a definition may precede the word it explains. This is the modern inductive method of teaching, especially in the natural sciences. By it we are lead first to form a conception and then given the appropriate word. By repeated use every word whose meaning is understood be-comes a complete possession. But not only mere definition and repetition suffice to procure for us in all cases true appreciation of the meanings of words. The things for which some words stand must be experienced before their real significance lies open before us. Who knows what the word "sorrow" really means but him who has had trouble ? The mild tempered person can-not realize fully what lies back of the word "anger." The true meaning of "ocean" is inconceivable to him who has never be-held its beauty. Words are living beings to one who has expe-rienced the things they represent. One of the greatest obstacles to retard our progress is the lack of this absolute requirement for advancement—total command of the words in common use. We wonder why this is. Of course some of us lack original capacity to understand words, and some of us have not had sufficient opportunities to obtain a good vocabulary. But most of us have this capacity and have had the best of chances, and yet we are deficient. The failure to understand and use words in their true import can generally be traced to the habitual disinclination to do that which requires .special effort; in short, we have been lazy. It is surprising how few of us are willing to attribute some of our fail-ings to that cause. Many of our present shortcomings are owing to wilful neglect in the past. In the case in hand we have failed to perform the fundamental process. We have procrastinated, deferring the definition of unfamiliar words till "the next time." We have done this again and again, and now when we attempt higher pursuits, we find our error. An exceedingly large proportion of persons are in this condi-tion. And it is to be deplored that a very large part of those in 230 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY this plight do not seem at all anxious to remedy their condition. How shiftless and inaccurate is their use of words. How feeble their attempts to argue, or even to hold intelligent conversation. The artisan must have materials with which to work. He who would make his thoughts known must have suitable words. But these persons are satisfied with their poor attempts, both to ex-press their thoughts and to understand the thoughts of others. "The world," says Paschal, "is satisfied with words; few care to dive beneath the surface." How true this is. We see it everywhere. Where it is possible the student uses his memory. Words, empty words, are all he tries to obtain; and, sad to say, he gets what he is after. He fails to see beyond the narrow present into the broad future. He strives for present reputation and marks, and he gets them; and that is all. He soon loses words, and he has never received their corresponding ideas, and all that is left is a record "on the books," which in these days of the survival of the fittest, counts for naught. But then there is that large class of persons who do thoroughly realize the necessity of greater command of language, who do want to make up for past neglect. How can we accomplish this ? "There is no royal road to learning." The rudiments of any study must be mastered before there can be advancement. We must now do what we have before neglected. We must use our dictionaries and weigh the significance of each word before we attempt to use it. To attain the highest use of language we must not pass by a single word without thoroughly understanding the thing it stands for. Extreme care must be exercised in the selec-tion of words with which to express our thoughts. Constant watchfulness is the price of success. This work of improvement is an arduous task, the performance of which persistence alone can accomplish, but the end fully repays the effort. Who that has reached this goal would trade his accomplish-ment for all that man could offer? With this possession one dwells upon a higher plane than that of his less intelligent fellow. By it he is brought a step nearer to the Being with whose help he obtains it. No other acquirement can produce such pleasure as this knowledge of the relations of words to things. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 231 THE REFINING FIRE IN NATURE. J. R. STONER, '01. A T that period of the year when the process of oxidation is **• going on more rapidly than at any other, preparing nature for a state in which she may resume anew the forms of activity and life,—look out over the landscape ! The autumnal equinox has ushered in another season to succeed the vanished summer, and the robe of verdure is changed into the beautiful golden garb of autumn. The forest and the grove reflect a hue of amber and gold as they lie in the distance, bathed in the rich sunlight against the blue background of the sky. It is but the flame of this burning process in nature now fanned into a great conflagration consum-ing all that has flourished in the past year that is no longer of value in the economy of nature, except it be decomposed into its elements and taken up in the formation of other substances. But all is not consumed. The golden grain and the fruit of the tree; that which at one time appeared but as an obstructed growth of leaves, now contains within its narrow shell the capability of un-folding in another life. By its persistence in complying with the law that turns all hindrances to good effects, while it could not assume the beauty and prominence of a leaf in the bright robe of the herb or the tree, but submitting to its allotted destiny, it grad-ually developed into the permanent kernel, able to survive in the test under which the leaf must perish. We see all around us the work of nature purging the earth of all that is useless at the end of a period of creative activity or growth, preparing for another period of vigor and work. By means of this oxidation or slow burning "all effete substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up" and only that which has the promise of life and usefulness passes un-harmed through the ordeal. Without this conflagration by which the earth is swept in autumn, there could be no.new, fresh growth in nature. Through the amber flames of autumn comes the pure, fresh verdure of spring. Everywhere is this refining fire purg-ing the universe of all that is worthless, perpetually tending to bring it into a purer state. Even the rivulet, whose crystal waters have been made foul by the natural contamination of the soil over which it has flown, is made purer by being thrown into a state of agitation as it ripples down over the obstructions in its way. The grand column that dashes precipitately over the awful 232 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY cataract and is separated into multitudinous particles of spray reaches the plane below in a purer state ; because the molecules have been bathed in the refining element of oxygen pervading the atmosphere. Thus we see that hindrances or adversity in nature are the means through which all great and phenomenal feats are brought about. And may not this principle be traced into the ethical life of man ? Surely all great heroes of the past, whose deeds are worthy of immortality, and whose careers merit the height of fame they have attained, have been disciplined by the stern school of adversity. They were men who met the hindrances with a de-termined will that would not flinch, when faced by difficulties, or cower in the presence of misfortune, their destinies were not moulded by circumstances ; but circumstances were controlled by their high destiny, the goal of their illustrious lives. And as a consequence the hindrances they met and surmounted prepared them to survive in the refining fire of trial, and instilled into their very sinews pure and noble principles of life. Thus estab-lished in character, they came from the ordeal all the more beauti-ful for having been submitted to the test. Arduous accomplishments that require an extraordinary amount of perseverence, patience, tact, and earnest toil should not be looked upon disparagingly. They are but the means, the testing fire, as it were, by which those who are fit to rise high in the walks of life, to take charge of responsible positions and to wield the sceptre of influence over the world in a manner to di-rect it in the channels of righteousness, are separated from those who are frivolous, trifling, insignificant idlers. And like the evergreen,—fitting emblem of the eternal that it is,—as it stands robed in its brilliant garb, unscathed by the withering effect of the autumn frost and the snows of winter, an object of life stand-ing out in sharp contrast with the seemingly lifeless world around it; so shall those, who have stood the test, be clothed in immor-tality though all things else may perish. CQgj 111 fares the land to hastening' ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. —Goldsmith. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 233 A PINANCIER. FRANK 8. FITE, '01. \ HAD the rare privilege, some forty years ago, to make the ac- * quaintance and to be favored with the confidence of a finan-cier who had risen to eminence from the lowest social grade. As a beggar boy, his exceptional talent for begging had roused the enthusiasm of a set of elderly maidens, who were attracted by his peculiar cry of helplessness and his boast of honesty. They put him to school. He learned there the fundamental principles of arithmetic, and little else; but his aptitude for trade was devel-oped in a marvelous degree. All the spending money of the scholars was invariably found at the end of a vacation in Chaucey Alcott's pockets. Yet, no boy could say that he had been cheated. All the fellows felt that their bits of silver coin had mysteriously disappeared in their various business relations with Alcott; but still they reluctantly confessed that everything had been "fair and square." He was said to be "on the dead level," yet plucked them, it would seem, pitilessly; but he stood by his own contracts, as he compelled them to stand by theirs. No act of positive dishonesty was ever proved against this plausible, cautious and relentless trader. The boys declared that he was shrewd, cunning and hard, yet he was "so obliging!" They disliked him, and at the same time accepted his services. Could they have caught him in any act of rascality his life would have been made a misery, but he was so discreet in his early preparation for his future career that, at the age of ten, he already gave promise of the great merchant and banker he eventually became. On leaving school, young Alcott found that his possessions amounted to thirty dollars. Instead of rushing at once to the elderly maidens who had helped him he went to the city and offered himself as clerk in a wholesale fish house. The senior partner was attracted by his evident talent and felt his youth renewed in looking at the youngster; he gave him a position in his counting room at once with a salary of fifty dollars a year. The keen youth, seeing at a glance that his employers were pious misers, instantly became, to all appearances, a pious miser himself. But in the course of five or six years he astonished the firm by show-ing that he knew more about the wholesale fish business than they did, and had made some money by quiet speculation of his 234 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY own. They oSered to double, treble, quadruple his salary, but nothing would satisfy Alcott but a partnership in their question-ablegaius. This they refused and Alcott promptly set up for himself on a small capital of money but a large capital of knowledge and intelligence, and soon cornered his former employers in a few heavy dealings and put them into bankruptcy in twenty-four months after he had left them, with the skillful use of their own methods. In the course of a few years he ventured cautiously but surely into other departments of commerce. He became a general merchant and at last assumed the dignity of ship owner and shipped his o-oods in his own vessels. He had two grand qualifications for business: his mind was quick and his heart was hard. In all financial panics he collected what was his due relentlessly, regard-less of the suffering it might bring upon nobler people than him-self; and paid all his own notes punctually as they fell due. To "fail'' was to him the worst of crimes. Almost everybody detested him, yet all knew that they could rely both on his word and his bond. Such a merchant, perhaps, should be judged by his own prin-ciples ; he had no sympathy with the great body of merchants of the country and laughed at all such sentimentality. "Get the better of 'em," was his motto. About this time he was a little wearied with commerce and bonds and stocks held for him the charm which merchandise had lost. He had obtained about two million dollars and amazed the moneyed world by a rush into Wall street, where he became a gigantic stock-jobber and banker. Here, as in school, the same shrewd, cunning characteristics were manifest, and slowly at first, but surely, his fortune increased and he obtained big commissions on the doubtful and worthless securities he sold; but just as his school-mates, those wbo relied on him could not assert that he had done anything to forfeit his reputation for honesty. It was at this point that I happened to have the honor of being one of his clerks, and in a short time his confidential one. I at once noticed his profanity. Everybody and everything interfering with his business designs brought forth a volley of oaths. There is probably no greater shock to the mind of an honest, well-intentioned country lad who is sent to confront the tempta- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 235 tions of a city, with a mother's prayers hovering over him, than when he finds his employer is a rascal disguised as an honest man. Shall he also become a rascal ? Shall he stoop to scoundrelisms which his inmost soul abhors ! His behavior under such circum-stances is a test of his character ; his father, mother and sister, if he is fortunate enough to have a sister, combine all their moral energies to help him. There is no reason why the boy should have more privileges thau the girl, but the fact that he has is too evident to admit of a doubt. The denial of sisters to advance their brothers is one of the tragedies of human life. The re-verse SHOULD be the case, but unfortunately is not. But to return to my theme. As soon as I found out Mr. Al-cott, I began to look upon him with a certain horror. He had the greatest confidence in my honesty and even allowed me to sign his name to checks, but when I suggested that my services were worth more than I received, and that fifteen hundred would but partly recompense my unceasing work in his journal and ledger, he used his favorite formula and cursed me and my ser-vices roundly. He really thought that my services were due his pre-eminent position, though he was aware that I might ruin him in a single day had I chosen to "skip" at the close of business hours with his stocks and bonds. It is curious that I never had the slightest temptation to use the vast powers with which Mr. Alcott endowed me, for I might easily have become a millionaire in some European country had I chosen, like my employer, to become a rogue. I witnessed, as do clerks every day, the process of plundering, without any desire to plunder the plunderer. His wife, a meek woman, whom he swiftly scared into the grave, left him a daughter. She appeared to me a foolish, gig-gling creature, with large black eyes, a pug nose, and a complex-ion which was red to the point of ignition. A younger clerk in the office, much to our amusement, with a salary of five hundred dollars a year, declared that he was madly in love with her and convinced her of his sincerity ; as it was ridiculous to suppose that the father would consent to such a match, the clerk and heiress eloped and were married. When Alcott heard of it, he blasphemed with a savage fluency that was Wonderful even in him. His son-in-law was a bright fellow, however, with some rich connections, and with their backing, soon appeared in Wall Street. He made money, backed as he was, and Mr. Alcott went deliberately to work to ruin him, but at first he didn't succeed, as the son-in-law, in an early "corner in Erie," took eight hundred thousand out of his father-in-law's pocket: but this only stimu-lated Mr. Alcott and he ventured his millions without stint in an attempt to "corner" his son-in-law. [Continued.] 236 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY BOOK REVIEW. Quicksand, by Hervey White :—Small, Maynard, and Co., $1.50. QUICKSAND is the life history of a family with many more downs than ups. It is divided into three parts, in each of which a particular member of the family is the central figure, although all the members of the family enter into each divi-sion. The birth, boyhood, education, marriage, struggle for literary fame, and tragic death of Hubert form a conspicuous current in the narration. The varying dispositions of the members of the family, the appearance of the Indian, Maude, and the faithful hired man give an abundance of variety. The characters are depicted in striking detail, and the descriptions of the three homes (which the cover-ing of shame made necessary) are complete. The effect of a number of follies (crimes in some instances) are so clearly brought out as to emphasize the necessity of straight forward living. AMONG OUR CONTEMPORARIES, TT has not been the policy of THE MERCURY to devote much *■ space to an exchange article, but we feel it our duty to say something at intervals of those journals of other institutions, the reading of which gives us much pleasure and is profitable. The fact that an exchange article was crowded out of the November number explains why, in a few instances, reference is made to October numbers. The University of Virginia Magazi?ie is one of the most com-plete literary journals on our table, and the November number is an especially good one. It contains an article on "Keats—A Conscious Reformer of English Poetry," that is worthy of study. "The Quiet Indian's Ghost" in the November Touchstone is a well written story. The editor makes a strong appeal to the "men of Lafayette" in behalf of the literary journal of the insti-tution . The recent changes in the form and general get-up of the Pharetra make it the neatest and most attractive of our exchanges. The material is of a high grade, and the pen-sketches add ma-terially to its attractiveness. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 237 "The Living Relic of Barbarism" in the October Ursinus Col-lege Bulletin is decidedly above the average oration in beauty and in force. An increased number of pages of literary material should accompany the change of The Bulletin from a biweekly to a monthly. The November Midland contains in its literary department a poem by Longfellow and one from the Denver News, an article by an alumnus and one by a student. Will this encourage liter-ary work among the students at Midland f The Dickinson Literary Monthly has materially raised its standard and, in general, does not suffer in comparison with the best; but the November number contains a partisan article that is unworthy a place in a college journal. Those interested in the educational condition of Puerto Rico will find an interesting article by Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh in the Juniata Echo for October. The Echo is to be congratulated on being able to publish these articles. We regret that the Novem-ber number did not contain one. "The Spanish Arnaida," an outline with explanations, by Stanley Ecker in The Western University Couranl reflects credit upon the author and the journal. It is the result of effort and thought. The poetry of The Lesbian Herald is an important feature of the publication. A well written article on "The Sun's Eclipse," accompanied by a photograph of the total eclipse at Centreville, Va., May 28, 1900, appears in the last issue. ««*£> "Over and over again, No matter which way I turn, I always find in the book of life Some lesson that I must learn ; I must take my turn at the mill, I must grind out the golden grain, I must work at my task with a resolute will, Over and over again." PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. F?. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming- Fall and Winter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and wearing durability. Also altering-, repairing-, dyeing and scouring at moderate prices. .FOR UP-TO-DATE. Clothing, Hats, Shoes, And Men's Furnishing- Goods, go to I. HALLEM'S MAMMOTH CLOTHING HOUSE, Chambersburg St., GETTYSBURG, PA. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON Superintendent. Hummelstomn Bromn Stone Gompany Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co-, Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut Stone Work. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. R. For a nice sweet loaf of Bread call on J. RAWER Baker of Bread and Fancy Cakes, GETTYSBURG. PA. EIMER & AMEND, Manufacturers and Importers of Chemicals and Chemical Apparatus 205, 207, 209 and 211 Third Avenue, Corner 18th Street NEW YORK. Finest Bohemian and German Glassware, Royal Berlin and Meissen Porcelain, Pure Hammered Platinum, Balances and Weights. Xeiss Mi-croscopes and Bacteriological Apparatus; Chemical Pure Acids and Assay Goods. SCOTT PAPER COMPANY MAKERS OF FINE TOILET PAPER 7th and Greenwood Ave. PHILADELPHIA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Century Double-Feed Fountain Pen. Fully Warranted J6 Kt. Gold Pen, Iridium Pointed. GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. No. 1. Chased, long or short $2 00 No. 1. Gold Mounted 3 00 No. 3. Chased 3 00 No. 3. Gold Mounted 4 00 Spiral, Black or Mottled |2 SO Twist, " 2 SO Hexagxm, Black or Mottled 2 SO Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO., WHITEWATER, WIS. Askyour Stationer or our Agent to show them to you. Agood local agent wanted in every school ^Mirmm^fr^wmmwwMmmmmmmwmm^ Printingand Binding We Print This Book THE MT. HOLLY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing- and Binding-, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything- pertain-ing to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you g-ive them the opportunity. Mt. Holly Stationery and Printing Co. K SPRINGS, PA. 73iUMtimU4UMtMlJUiUJUiUiU4UJUJUJUiUM R H. S. BENNEP, .DEALER IN. Groceries, Notions, Queenswcire, Glassware, Etc., Tobacco and Ggars. 17 CHAMBERSBURG ST. WE RECOMMEND THESE BUSINESS MEN. Pitzer House, (Temperance) JNO. E. PITZER, Prop. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Battlefield a specialty. Dinner and ride to all pointsof interest.including the tb ree days" fight, $1.25. No. 127 Main Street. You will find a full line of Pure Drugs and Fine Sta-tionery at the People's Drug Store Prescriptions a Specialty. J. A. TAWNEY^_ Is ready to furnish Clubs and Boarding' Houses with Bread, Rolls, Etc At short notice and reasonable rates. ■Washington & Middle Sts., Gettysburg. R. A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc. Scott's Corner, Opp Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. MUMPER & BENDER Furniture Cabinet Making, Picture Frames Beds, Springs, Mattresses, Etc. 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Issue 57.3 of the Review for Religious, May/June 1998. ; f,or relig i ous C~sfian Heritages and Cont~empora~ Living MAY-JUNE 1998 ¯ VOLUME 57 ¯ NUMBER 3 Review for Religious is a forum for shared reflection on the lived experience of all wl~o find that the church's rich ¯ heritages of spirituality support their personal and apostolic Christian lives. The articles in the journal are meant to be informative, practical, historical, or inspirational, written from a tbeological or spiritual or sometimes canonical point of view. Review for Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) is published bi-monthly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province. Editorial Office: 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393. Telephone: 314-977-7363 ¯ Fax: 314-977-7362 E-Mail: FOPPEMA@SLU.EDU Manuscripts, books for review, and correspondeuce with the editor: Review for Religious ¯ 3601 Lindell Boulevard ° St. Louis, MO 63108-3393. Correspondence about the Canonical Counsel department: Elizabeth McDonough OP 1150 Cedar Cove Road ¯ Henderson, NC 27536 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Review for Religious ¯ P.O. Box 6070 ¯ Duluth, MN 55806. Periodical postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri, and additional mailing offices. See inside back cover for information on subscription rates. ©1998 Review for Religious Permission is herewith granted to copy any material (articles, poems, reviews) contained in this issue of Review for Religious for personal or internal use, or for the personal or internal use of specific library clients within the limits outlined in Sections 107 and/or 108 of the United States Copyright Law. All copies made under this permission must bear notice of the source, date, and copyright owner on the first page. This permission is NOT extended to copying for commercial distribu-tion, advertising, institutional promotion, or for the creation of new collective works or anthologies. Such permission will only be considered on written application to the Editor, Review for Religious. Editor Associate Editors Canonical Counsel Editor Editorial Staff Advisory Board David L. Fleming $3 Philip C. Fischer SJ Regina Siegfried ASC Elizabeth McDonough°OP Mary Ann Foppe Tracy Gramm Jean Read James and Joan Felling Kathryn Richards FSP Joel Rippinger OSB Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla sJ David Werthmann CSSR Patricia Wittberg SC Chr~s6an Heritages and Contemporary L~v~ng MAY-JUNE 1998 ¯ VOLUME 57 ¯ NUMBER 3 contents 230 247 responding to the spirit Journey Inward, Journey Outward: ATheology of Call Gregory J. Polan OSB brings together personal experience and patterned scriptural examples in discussing the mystery of vocation. An Itinerant Approach to Theological Updating Marie Chiodo DW and Mary Irving SSND set forth a four-stage process used in one province's theological updating. 26O 275 celibacy and sexuality Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste Life Donald J. Goergen OP considers various aspects of sexuality and celibacy that contribute to a healthily centered religious life. Skills Needed for Celibacy Martin Pable OFMCap focuses on celibacy as a set of behavioral skills by which people can assess their own (and candidates') actual living of the charism. Review for Religious 286 299 finding God The Books That Led Ignatius to God Joseph N. Tylenda SJ presents Ignatius Loyola as an example of spiritual reading bringing about a lifelong conversion. The Desert as Spiritual Landscape Dennis J. Billy CSSR finds in a desert sojourn risk, humbling reality, and whispers of hope. 304 report Women Religious and Sexual Trauma Paul N. Duckro, John T. Chibnall, and M. Ann Wolf present summary data from their extensive survey on this sdrious and sensitive topic and offer some pertinent reflections. departments 228 Prisms 314 Canonical Counsel: The Evangelical Counsel of Poverty 320 Book Reviews ~Ylay-June 1998 The Spirit is God's mark of ownership on you. le on a recent visit to South Africa, I noticed how often automobiles have distinguishing num-bers, letters, or symbols painted boldly on their doors and even on their rooftops. I came to realize that these signs are not just expressions of beauty or individuality, but they provide a visible way of claiming ownership and discour-aging carjacking or thievery. St. Paul exhorted the members of his Christian com-munities to rejoice because the Spirit is God's mark of ownership over them. As we celebrate Pentecost in this year dedicated to the Holy Spirit, we may have a certain longing for tongues of fire as a vivid experience of the Spirit's presence and power in our lives. But I wonder whether today we in the Christian community seize the opportunity to welcome the gripping--though common-place-- idea of the Spirit as God's ownership. We own things, but we do not like to think of ourselves as being owned, even by God. We want to think of ourselves as autonomous, free, in charge of our own fate. Sometimes, though, we may admit to ourselves how much we have bought into (or, perhaps more correctly, "been bought by") the values of our culture, the prejudices of our eth-nic groups, and the political assumptions of our times. We are likely owned in many more ways than we care to discover--and we may show it by the way we live! Perhaps, then, we need to work at making our lives belong more visibly to God. Our Pentecost experience may not include rushing wind or fiery tongues, but the presence of the Spirit in our lives is still meant to be--as in Paul's communities-- the mark of God's ownership. Sometimes we too facilely identify the church as a hierarchical church or, more in Review for Religious vogue today, a church of the laity. But the truest reality is that the church is one people assembled, all belonging to the Spirit, marked with God's ownership. Living this reality consciously is part of our personal efforts in preparing for the millennium. Our personal witnessing of this reality is central to our evangelizing efforts, more necessary in the secularizing trends of our times than in Paul's Roman Empire days. What does God's ownership mean for us? God's ownership of us, marked by the presence of the Spirit in our lives, is meant to shine out in our way of acting. The traditional expression is "giving glory to God." Giving glory means that we become trans-parent enough that God and God's life and God's love can shine out through us. For example--to draw from the everyday behav-iors suggested by St. Paul--the way we talk. St. Paul stresses that a person marked by the Spirit speaks only helpful words, words that build up and provide for what is needed. It is how Jesus speaks. What we say should do good for those who hear us. Beyond our words, what can distinguish our dealings with peo-ple- the occasions for God's glory to shine out in us--is our kind-ness and our readiness to forgive. It is how Jesus acted. At a time in our world when massacres of Christians by Christians take place in Rwanda and Burundi, when fellow Christians seek revenge for age-old wrongs in Northern Ireland, when Orthodox, Catholic, and Muslim (all believers in the one God) slaughter one another in ethnic feuds, we can rightly won-der about our welcoming God's Spirit as a mark of God's ownership over us. But let us look into our own mirrors. When everyday human interaction includes ourselves as automobile drivers whose road rage leads us to endanger others, when we "good people" con-tinue to flee from neighborhoods that are in the process of racial integration, when we find ourselves hardened to the reality of abor-tion and assisted suicide, we can question whether we as individu-als and as communities have allowed the Spirit enough welcome to dwell within us, whether God's ownership of us shines out. In an engaging childlike way, St. Paul exhorted the early Christians not to make the Spirit sad. As we celebrate this year specially dedicated to the Spirit, we need to assess whether our Christian living shows forth God's ownership. Or do we make the Spirit sad? David L. Fleming SJ May-June 1998 229 GREGORY J. POLAN Journey Inward, Journey Outward: A Theology of Call 230 As someone who has studied the Scriptures for a number of years, I find reflection on a theology of call particu-larly interesting for several reasons. First, there is much to be said from the perspective of the Scriptures, from Abraham and Moses in the Hebrew Scriptures to Mary and Paul in the Christian Scriptures. Second, as rector of a college seminary for almost a decade, as spiritual direc-tor to both men and women religious over the years, and now as abbot of a Benedictine community, I have been privileged to hear stories of divine in-breaking in the lives of many people--stories as varied as the people who revealed them and as similar as the human nature we all have. The beauty and sacredness of these accounts tell of divine and human communion struggling to express itself in words, yet unable to relate its richness fully. And, third, something within me longs to continue the search for a deeper understanding of my own call and its meaning, past, present, and future. Those who help others discern their call should know well, understand fully, and discover anew the source of their own calling. The vocational story of each person is sacred; it is rich in faith. Our growth in faith should enable Gregory J. Polan OSB, the abbot of Conception Abbey, teaches courses in Scripture at Conception Seminary College and serves on the editorial board of The Bible Today. His mailing address is Conception Abbey; Conception, Missouri 64433. Review for Religious us to see with new eyes what God was choreographing in our first encounters .with the divine. The episodes of divine in-breaking in our own lives should say more to us now than they did thirty, twenty, or ten years ago or maybe just a year ago. The mystery of God's plan in our lives can be a source of strength and hope, of deepened faith and commitment, of renewed zeal and joyful response, of serious reflection and lighthearted humor for us and for others. Thus, the experience of renewing our call can be both a journey inward and a journey outward. I would like to consider some of the major call narratives of the Scriptures from a form-critical perspective, then move to a consideration of their meaning in our own lives by reflecting on their theological significance, and, finally, consider their rele-vance in the lives of candidates who come to us in our roles as vocation directors or directors of formation. Though these remarks are directed primarily to those who help candidates dis-cern a vocation to the ordained ministry or religious life, they may also help all who seek to rediscover the roots of their calling and to discern God's will in their lives. A Form-Critical View of Biblical Call Narratives For at least ten years, biblical scholars have been challeng-ing the practices of the historical-critical method of scriptural exegesis and showing its limitations. Solid scholarship has warned us about paying too much homage to historical criticism. It is not dead; it is just not the god some had made it out to be. Bringing different questions to the text for our topic at hand, I have found form criticism particularly helpful. Form criticism considers the oral transmission of a tradition and attempts to discover the life situation from which it arose. One aspect of form criticism has been neglected: its potential for revealing a theological message in a text. One effort of form crit-ics is to see a common pattern of thought among texts. Such a pattern reveals the manner in which a text unfolds in a topical, nearly thematic, presentation. For example, in laments of the Psalter, the thought pattern is rather consistent: The speaker (1) makes a plea for divine assistance, (2) describes the situation that causes distress and (3) tells God why divine assistance is needed, (4) then expresses a certain trust that God will heed the request, and, finally, (5) makes a promise to God or acknowledges deliv- May-June 1998 Polan ¯ Journey Inward, Journey Outward There are significant repercussions not only for the one being called, but for others as well. erance from other distressing situations. With remarkable con-sistency this pattern runs through the laments of the Psalter. But discovering the pattern is not the place to stop. There is more to be said, particularly on a theological level. What is the theological significance? How is it that our ances-tors in the faith followed such a pattern to express their need for divine assistance? Is there something in the human spirit that rec-ognizes these elements as essential when a person comes before God in a time of need? I suggest that, more than simple ancient conventions, the elements reveal to us something deep in the experience of the human-divine dialogue. The pattern is a perceptive sketch of the mystery of faith found in a particular kind of human expe-rience. "The Form and Significance of the Call Narrad;ces," a 1965 article by Norman Habel of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, distinguishes a pattern found in several call narratives of the Old Testament: ~ 1. The divine confrontation. God or a divine messenger enters the scene. It is clear that a divine encounter is to take place. 2. The introductory word. A particular preparatory or explana-tory statement sets the scene further. It can be a greeting or a few clarifying words. 3. The commission. Next the person receives a direct command or imperative relating the task that lies ahead. 4. The objection. Invariably, there is a negative. The person shrinks from what seems to be an overwhelming task. 5. The reassurance. God (or the messenger) responds immedi-ately, assuring the person that the task will not have to be accom-plished alone; divine assistance will be on hand. 6. The sign. Though not every call narrative includes a sign, several do. In a sense, the sign continues the assurance of number 5 by guaranteeing that the promise God has made will be carried out. The divine word is faithful. I would like to illustrate the elements of this pattern, first revisiting biblical scenes and then relating them to our own sense of call and our work with candidates for the seminary and religious life.2 Review for Religious The Divine Confrontation (Scene 1) The biblical scene. Key to the significance of the opening scene is that God is breaking into ordinary life in an extraordinary way. The cattle-herder Amos tells of "being snatched away" from car-ing for his herd and being told to "go and prophesy" to neighbors who are at civil war with his own people (Am 7:15). In some mys-terious way the person being called knows that a divine encounter has taken place. The prophet Ezekiel is sitting by the river Chebar in Babylon when he encounters God. He comments, "The hand of the Lord was upon me" (Ezk 1:3). God enters the human scene. A visible manifestation of the divine presence has taken place. Scholars suggest that insistence on direct contact with the divine was seen as necessary for one who stood as mediator between God and other mortal beings) Consistently, the person being called "sees" God or something divine. Isaiah sees "the Lord sit-ting on a throne, high and lofty" (Is 6:1). Jeremiah tells of his experience in "the council of the Lord" (Jr 23:18). When the priests and prophets of the temple say Jeremiah deserves death for his harsh condemnation of the temple, he responds, "The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard . As for me,here I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you" (Jr 26:12, 14). The words are not Jeremiah's. He is a mouthpiece for God. What is important for our reflectiofi is that the call scene is of divine origin. And in each case, because God is acting, there are significant repercussions not only for the one being called, but for others as well. The divine confrontation situates an event of great importance for those who hear or read about the one called. Consider the divine confrontation in the call of Mary of Nazareth. At a critical moment in the history of salvation, God enters the scene through an angelic messenger--the divine presence is essen-tial. It signals a turning point, not only for the person receiving the call, but also for others--here, the whole human race. To support the significance of the divine origin and its impact, we need only ask how the Book of Jeremiah ever came to enter the canon of Scriptures. Its message from beginning to end (with rare moments of hope) is gloom and doom, suffering and pain. Why would such a message be reverenced as a measuring rod of the faith of Israel and the church? I suggest it was because of the con-viction that the prophet was visited by God, and the message he Mlay-June 1998 Polan ¯ ~ourney Inward, Journey Outward delivered, harsh and biting as it was, was true. The community of faith deemed it authentic, of divine origin. For the vocation director. Divine intervention is sometimes dif-ficult for us to express in words. Yet it is an important, even essen-tial, experience for each of us to examine. I dare say God is never more clearly God than when we experience divine presence and know we have been called. For Isaiah it was being in the pres-ence of the wholly/Holy Other (Is 6:35). While it need not be a "bolt of lightning," an encounter of "otherness" reveals divine in-breaking. And, if we take the Scriptures as our norm, it is the wholly/Holy Other who has called us. What remains is to dig deep within, to recover the moment or moments, to claim them as sacred, and to struggle to wrap words around what will never be adequately expressed. One of my favorite spiritual writers, Maria Boulding, speaks of divine encounter with eloquence and simplicity: "We live very close to a mysterious presence. God is 'nearer to me than I am to myself,' as St. Augustine put it, but we do not see or understand him. God is utterly mysterious, and strangely gentle. When he makes himself known we are confounded, yet at the heart of our bewilderment there is a sense of recognizing something we have always known. There is nothing else quite like it in our whole experience."4 It has been important for me to return to the moments of my call and see them in their stark simplicity. This return has awak-ened in me both a sense of the seriousness of the divine call in my life and a daily awareness of the divine presence steering me toward fuller, more joyful and faithful responses to everything around me. I have come to see how it was that God called me in my utter weakness, in my fears, in my doubts, in my naivet~, in my immaturity, and even in my sinfulness. God called me beyond those self-absorbing concerns and into new life. And as I con-tinue to return to themoments of God's call, an understanding of the meaning of divine visitation becomes fuller, brighter, and deeper. For the candidate. In A Touch of G~d, Dom Philip Jebb tells a personal story of an experience early in his religious life. It speaks to this point rather well: After a period of almost delirious joy in my praying, I had an experience of annihilation: I felt that I was being sucked into a "black hole." It was a positive experience of noth- Review for Religious ingness. It was the most horrific experience I have ever had: I seemed to be teetering on the edge of becoming nothing. This was not physical, it was not precisely in the mind, it was in the spirit, in the very roots of my being. I went to Dom Leander in a real terror, feeling that at any moment I was going not only out of my mind, but out of existence. And, when I told him of it in words of panic and despera-tion, he replied, "This is marvelous! The best thing that could happen to you; I only wish I were there with you in this." And I said, "If you can say that, then you have no comprehension of what I am talking about." He assured me that he did, and that I was experiencing the infinity and total otherness of God. In prayer we keep making concepts or ideas of God, and then making these into God, but, as we remain faithful to God and God to us, he has to break out of everything that appears to contain him, the bottom has to drop out of the world and the effect appears to be one of annihilation . It was at this time that I wrote a poem which begins, "Wonder is so sudden a gift.''s More than a few times in my experience as spiritual director, as seminary rector, and even now as abbot, someone has come to me in tears with a story similar in its horror but unique in its description. It is important that we be alert to the circuitous and mysterious paths God takes in human experience. Though so often it is God who provides the tender and gentle reminder of divine compassion amidst the assaults on our spirit, here it is the human director who responsively and kindly helps the struggling person understand that encounters with the divine often entail a night like Jacob's--who was afterward renamed Israel (Gn 32:22- 32). But, unless our own experience of the divine is close at hand, we risk missing the signs of a turning point, a moment of grace, a transition, an experience of conversion in the life of the candi-date. The Introductory Word (Scene 2) The biblical scene. The introductory word is important because it establishes a relationship between the human person and God. Here the person's importance before God is made clear. The word to the great unknown prophet of Second Isaiah was a promise of a covenant renewed in comfort and forgiveness (Is 40:1-3). For Mary of Nazareth, God's own delight in her is expressed: you are the "favored one; the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28). Mary is indeed May-June 1998 Polan ¯ Journey Inward, Journey Outward special among God's people. Jeremiah is told that, before he was formed in his mother's womb, he was set apart to share in a divine mission (Jr 1:5). The introductory word makes the person receptive to the divine word that will come. It says that the divine choice is pre-ceded by divine love.6 The election to a special vocation comes, not because of talent or giftedness first, but out of divine love. Divine delight impels God to call the person to share in the salvific and redemptive plan. Here the word of God informs the person that he or she has a relationship with God that has been and is touched by blessing. Like God's constant and watchful love for Israel through desert wanderings and times of infidelity is the same divine love ever accompanying the recipient of God's call. The divine word is present in fidelity, in the assurance that God's justice--that is, right relationship--has inaugurated communion even before the commission is announced. For the vocation director. Whatever we hear in the Scriptures, even in the most obscure passages, tells us "who we are in rela-tionship to God." As with the introductory word of our call-nar-rative pattern, so the Scriptures constantly tell how God chooses to become one with us in all ages and times. Even in the harsh judgments given to Jeremiah to proclaim, we are reminded that God knows Israel's destruction is a prelude to its being rebuilt and renewed (Jr 1:10). In Hosea's suffering with his unfaithful wife, we are reminded not so much of human infidelity as of God's desire for healing and the restoration of a relationship of mutual intimacy and communion (Ho 2:21-2 3; NRSV). The introductory word or the call narrative is a sacrament of the divine word, the whole of Scripture. It is the font of truth and wisdom that reveals our truest identity. For those of us who are involved in the work of formation and discernment, God's word carl be the surest source of daily nourishment, satisfying and building up an inner vitality. For us who have experienced a call and responded to it, the divine word unfolds an ever deepening realization of "who we are" and "what we are to become" before God. By our attentive listening to the word of God, our awareness of God's voice in our daily lives is heightened and sensitized. A favorite passage of mine which strongly witnesses to such attentive listening comes at the end of the Book of Deuteronomy. As the people stand ready to cross over the .Jordan, their leader Moses says, as part of his final words to them: "This commandment that I enjoin on you today is not too Review for Religious hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us that we may hear it and observe it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and get it for us, so that we may hear it and observe it?' No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart; you have only to carry it out" (Dt 30:11-14). If we choose to be a people of the word, the word will trans-form us by its inherent power. In that power we will come to the deepest sense of our own identity and, importantly, the rich identity of every per-son created by God. For the candidate. In recent years I have been struck by the pastoral sensitivity of one of the members of the hierarchy, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini sJ. In 1979 he was appointed archbishop of Milan. Before that, he had been rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute (1969-1978) and of the Gregorian University (1978- 1979) in Rome. He is a man of interna-tional reputation as a biblical scholar, a text critic to be exact. He was a member of a team of five text critics (and the only Catholic) that prepared the most up-to-date critical edition of the Greek New Testament, In Milan he inaugurated a program of spiritual renewal for the young adults of the city. He met with them weekly to read and discuss the Scriptures, dealing with a particular book of the Bible or a biblical theme.7 Martini always began with a brief explanation of the texts under consideration; but after this presentation it was time for the young adults to talk, to ask ques-tions, and to pray from the Scriptures--to be formed according to the word of God. I would like to suggest that, in this era after the Second Vatican Council, we use the Scriptures with ever greater convic-tion as our document of faith in the work of formation. From cover to cover the Bible tells us time and time again what I con-sider essential for the experience of formation: (1) our identity in relationship to God, the divine-human relationship moving toward communion; (2) the continuous call to conversion, the need for the sinner to return to God; and (3) the meaning of the paschal mystery, our union with Christ in the experience of suf- The introductory word or the call narrative is a sacrament of the whole of Scripture. 2Vlay-June 1998 Polan ¯ Journey Inward, Journey Outward fering, dying, and rising to new life. In a time when our candidates suffer deprivation of Catholic culture, we can use the divine word to get them rooted in the reality of God's steadfast love for them and aware of the offer of redemption which is theirs and ours each day. The Commission and the Objection (Scenes 3 and 4) The biblical scene. At the moment when God gives the imper-ative, there is a sharp demarcation between the past and future of the one being called. A new course is being charted. The com-mission from God encapsulates the task that lies ahead. There is a clear sense that the one being commissioned goes in the name of God, as a kind of ambassador--not to give his or her own word, his or her own decision, but God's. The mission is a divine one; and, fittingly, it is the challenge of a lifetime. For Moses, slow of speech, it was to deliver God's command to release the Hebrew slaves. For Amos it was to enter the territory of his enemies and there deliver a condemnatory message. For Isaiah it was to con-tinue speaking God's word, to make the hearts of the people even more sluggish than they were. Mary, the fianc6e of Joseph, was told that she would bear a son who would assume the Davidic throne; she was to be the mother of the Messiah. At this point the narrative moves into a moment of tension. Clearly, the task is beyond the person's immediate or native capa-bilities. The task is so different that the commission becomes life-altering. The cattle-herder Amos will become an orator. The tender of flocks, Moses, is to be a political mediator. The priest Ezekiel will assume the role of a prophet. Because of this mis-sion, life will no longer be as it was. By their words and their lives, those being commissioned will witness to God's inteiwention in the history of their people. It is no exaggeration to say that the commission informs the persons that the call has an impact beyond their own life and will touch the lives of the people to whom they belong. It has an impact on the history of God's peo-ple. These people will be living reminders of what God is doing at what appears to be "the turn of the ages." Two scenes that tell of the impact of the commission on the lives of the prophets stand out in my mind. Isaiah had two sons. Each was given a symbolic name to tell the people what God intended to do. One son was called Shear-yashub (Is 7:3), which Review for Religious means "a remnant shall remain." The other son was called Maher-shalal- hash-baz (Is 8:1), which means "quick the spoil, speedy the plunder." Both names tell of an impending doom. In the Scriptures, names are linked to people's identity and mission. The sons of Isaiah reminded him that he was to tell the nation of Judah, "You are damned"--so life-altering was the call to Isaiah! A second scene comes from the confessions of the prophet Jeremiah. In the prophetic literature we rarely glimpse the prophetic experience; what we are given is the words, the utter-ances of the prophets, In the confessions of Jeremiah, however, we have a rare insight into the challenge this prophet faced. Consider this passage: "O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak I must cry out, I must shout, 'Violence and destruction!' For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and deri-sion all day long. If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' Then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up within my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot" (Jr 20:7-9). Jeremiah says that the mission entrusted to him has brought him nothing but rejection, hatred, and mockery. So he resolves not to speak the words God gives him. But then that very word becomes a raging fire within him; he cannot but utter the message God has given him. He is impelled and driven to accomplish the mission given to him. Both of these passages supplement the com-mission given to the prophet in the call narrative and help us bet-ter appreciate the demands of God's task. Not surprisingly, the person receiving the commission always shrinks from so enormous a challenge. It is difficult to say with certainty where the objection stems from. Some suggest that humility or a sense of inadequacy is the reason: Who would not shrink from the duty of being God's agent?8 The examples drawn from Isaiah and Jeremiah are, in psychological terms, occasions when a person submerges his or her own ego in order to repre-sent or live for another. We may classify such behavior as some-thing unhealthy and odious, but it nevertheless emerges from the biblical text as an example of the personal dynamics involved in the commission and the subsequent objection. Furthermore, it tells us something of what our ancestors in the faith realized when God made total claim upon their lives. May-June 1998 Polan ¯ Journey Inward, Journey Outward For the vocation director. Most of us could tell a compelling story of how the experience of call or the living-out of that call yanked us from something comfortable into something challeng-ing and new. And yet such life-seasoning in the priesthood or religious life has probably brought us considerable blessing to balance the challenge. But there is another aspect of the commis-sion- objection experience we sometimes take for granted: how the response of one has an impact on the destiny of many. We can, at times, become so caught up in what we are doing or how we are responding that we fail to realize that God is in the midst of our activity and that our work for the gospel is having an effect far more sweeping than we can see or realize. We call this phe-nomenon corporate personality from the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures, and Body of Christ in the Christian Scriptures. We are more intimately bound to one another than we can com-prehend. As the sin of one affects others, so also does the good-ness of one have a ripple effect. And the Scriptures tell us powerfully how the destinies of many are affected by the response in obedience to God's invitation. In Genesis 12:1 God calls Abram to go from his country, his relatives, and his immediate family to a land that will be pointed out to him. Then in Genesis 12:4 the terse description of his response is potent: "So Abram went as the Lord had told him." The text is concise, not because there was nothing to say about the experience, but because the obedi-ence of one with an unknown future was to be the very founda-tion of a people yet to be created--but it started here. The fiat of Mary is another powerful example: theyes of an unassuming young woman set in motion the final eschatological age, the inaugura-tion of the end times. Reflection on such experience in our own lives reveals how our "journey inward" w!ll direct our "journey outward." Consistently in the Scriptures we see how a call by God sends a person on that inward search to respond, to assess the situation, to weigh the daunting challenge. An affirmative response then sets off another dynamic movement. The inward journey then--by divine design, I believe--attaches a person ever more closely to the human fam-ily, to the faith community, to yet unknown persons who will be touched by a faith-filled fiat. In ways mysterious, we become agents of the divine, touching the lives of others by following the call we have received. For the candidate. Some time ago I was struck by the promo- Review for Religious tion materials of a college seminary which promised its students all kinds of benefits: numerous majors from which to choose, big-city life with its hustle and bustle, and high-tech opportunities. Is this what should attract a candidate to the seminary or a religious community? What occurs to me is that, if we are assisting adult men and women in their discernment of God's call, our biblical tradition tells us that we had better be honest in telling them what the divine in-breaking in their lives will bring. Certainly there are rich benefits in responding to the call. There are joys in God's service that cannot be purchased--they are of divine giving. But real challenges lie ahead demanding personal sacrifice of con-siderable magnitude. Further, there are the "nuts and bolts" of what we mean by vocation, by being called. I have to distinguish between my vocation and my career. In essence, as a Benedictine monk I am called to live under a Rule and an abbot, to live in community and where I witness to the meaning of the paschal mystery. This is my vocation. My pre-vious work as rector of a seminary, as teacher, and other things I do are secondary; they are, for want of a better word, my career. And the works of my community are secondary to the essence of our life together. For those who belong to religious communi-ties, getting back to our roots, understanding our charisms, and witnessing to the reasons why we followed the call of God are essential. Those who come to stay with us as they discern God's call will see who we are from only one perspective, from a limited view. They need to receive honest answers to their questions about religious life. We must not promise them anything other than what the gospel promises. Are they in love with the Word they are called to preach and teach and live? Can they happily encourage all to realize their potential in the community of faith, and so assist in building a church of living stones? Every Christian is called into the paschal mystery. But the call to priesthood or religious life is a unique entry into that mys-tery- not better, but special because of its demands. As a novice, I remember, I had a certain fascination with the person of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and an appreciation for his writings, especially those from the time of his imprisonment and his personal struggle to return to his native land. In Life Together Bonhoeffer writes of the call each baptized Christian receives: "When Christ calls a person, he bids that individual, 'Come and die.'''9 Those three words, "Come and die," are a mighty challenge. In my experi- May-June 1998 Polan ¯ Journey Inward, Journey Outward ence of working with college-age candidates for the priesthood and monastic life, I see within them the desire to be challenged to live life more generously, more radically, and more distinctively. VChat we have to do is capture their zeal, help them direct it in a positive and healthy way, and challenge them to selfless service. The Reassurance and the Sign (Scenes 5 and 6) The biblical scene. The reassurance is integral to the develop-ment of the pattern in the call narratives, and important as a response to the objection which has been given. Notice that the divine response is particular to the protest, emphasizing that God will be dynamically present in the situation and intimately involved in the endeavor. There is something distinctly symbolic in the way objections are answered in God's call to Gideon, Moses, and Jeremiah. When the negative reaction comes with an excuse explaining why they cannot respond affirmatively, God simply says, "I am indeed with you." In this response we see a hint of the divine name YHWH, "I am," that is to say, "I stake my name on it." In the biblica'l tradition, personal names are intimately tied up with identity and mission. A person receives a new name, and with that change comes a shift in both identity and mission. For example, the name Abram means "exalted father"; the name Abraham means "father of a host of nations." The word of reas-surance from God links the divine identity with the human mis-sion, forging a bond of divine commitment to this human person and the task at hand. Of further importance here is the under-standing that, in the divine reassurance, the person who has received God's call is now impelled, not by feeling, not by self-direction, but by the power of the divine word. God has given to the one who has been called not only a word to establish rela-tionship, not only a commission, but also a word of reassurance. On equal footing with the word of commission is the word of reassurance. Sometimes there is a further elaboration to heighten the prominence of the reassurance, namely, a sign. Sometimes a sign is asked for, as in the case of Gideon. At other times, God gives a sign--to Moses, for example, in the form of wonders he per-forms before Pharaoh, Mary was told that her kinswoman Elizabeth, even in her old age, had conceived a son; the one thought to be barren was now in her sixth month. The sign is a Review for Religious complement to the divine word and brings to light the full assur-ance that God will be true to the promise already given. For the vocation director. One of the things which the call nar-ratives do not tell us is how it all worked out in the end. We know nothing of the final days of some who received calls, like Amos and Ezekiel. However, there are a few glimpses of successes and failures in prophetic voca-tions. Isaiah's word of advice to Hezekiah saved the people when the threat of Assyria's armies foretold ultimate doom (Is 36-39). The wrenching vocation of Hosea found confirmation in the healing of a bro-ken marriage bond. But the vocation of Jeremiah brought him to gaze on the ruin of Jerusalem as he was carried off against his will to Egypt (Jr 40:13-43:7); where Israel had been a slave, Jeremiah was now a captive. The life of Jeremiah came to symbolize the broken and fragmented experience of Israel's history. Somehow, in the mystery of both successes and failures, there is the belief that God's mission is being accomplished and the call was authentic. Our work in vocation ministry embraces the joys of seeing candidates move into community life or become productive ordained ministers, the sorrows of seeing a call declined, and the anxieties about individuals' uncertain futures whether in respond-ing to God's calls or in rejecting them. How important it is for us to realize that our work as vocation directors is part of a larger vocation, a broader calling that is still unfolding. I am reminded of another autobiographical sketch from A Touch of God that speaks to the mystery of vocation. Maria Boulding recalls her appoint-ment to work in formation: At about the time the Second Vatican Council ended, I was appointed novice mistress and held the job for nine years. It was a complex experience. In some ways it was joy: there was all the dynamism of the council; I had a feeling of being fully used, of being in a job where I could give all I had to give; there was the work with people, and some lasting friendships were established. But there was also, especially in the later years, a sharp sense of personal inadequacy for the work. I helped a few people, but others not at all, and I ended up with a general sense of failure. I am heartily Somehow, in the mystery of both successes and failures, there is the belief that God's mission is being accomplished. 2Ylay-~ne 1998 glad that I was taken off the job, although at the time it was wrench, a little death . At the same time I had another experience of great significance. This was the work of the English Benedictine Congregation's theological com-mission, on which I served for years in the production of Consider Your Call and in other enterprises which grew from that. This whole experience has been one of the most enriching of my entire monastic life . The result of all this experience has been that in those years and subsequently the greatest friendships of my life have flowered. I have found a capacity for friendship with many people both inside and outside my own community, gained confidence in my ability to love and to dare a little more to let myself be loved and known. Even when everything seems primed for a perfect way of living out one's call, the blessing we experience is often not the one we anticipated. And when one door seems to close in our face with a shocking slam, another opens on untold blessings, if we will enter it. In our own calling we are invited to live in the faith of the assurance that was once given to us. What lies at the core of that promise is my willingness to live fully, not in my career, but in my vocation, in my calling. This is not to say that the two are not intimately connected; they are, but they are also separate. In our assignments we live part of our "journey outward" by being of service to others. As vocation directors we give of ourselves by offering our wisdom, by letting our story be known, and by direct-ing others as best we can. In whatever we do, when we live out of our calling, our vocation, we give witness to the ground of our committed life. And there we can enrich the lives of others in ways we do not know, for by living in the power of God's word to us we are able to accomplish much. For ibe. candidate. One great challenge in working with voca-tion prospects is the difficulty they have making a commitment. At times I have asked myself: Do I know more students who have committed themselves to trying the seminary, or do I know more who are "sitting, on the fence"? It is a phenomenon of our society and our age that young adults are making commitments later in life. Our own seminarians gasp when I tell them that I entered the novitiate at age twenty. And yet psychologists tell us that our twenties are the years most formative of the pattern of life we live as adults. What can we do? What should we do? To share with our candidates the reassurances and signs of God in our own experiences could be one of the greatest gifts we Review for Religious offer them. Here we speak from a faith that has been tested and proven to be one of our greatest treasures. If we can help our candidates to view life through the lens of faith, they will see an essential ingredient in living their religious or ordained life. Especially in their youth we need to capitalize on their zeal and enthusiasm for trying new ways and seeing from new perspec-tives. I have been pleasantly surprised to discover only later that the times I have challenged seminarians and spiritual advisees to a deeper faith have been the moments that have stuck with them, even haunted them. Our candidates need the experiences we share with them. Allowing others to hear of our circuitous journeys inward and our journey~ outward may be more formative for our candidates than we realize. What the Scriptures tell us of a theology of vocation has roots in personal experiences of God, experiences that are life-altering. Many of us grew up in a time when priests and religious did not talk much about their experience of call. But, when they did, even the slightest glimpse of their response to God's call set us on fire with zeal, enthusiasm, and the desire to follow their example. That the Scriptures reveal the call narratives in a recognizable literary form tells us that our ancestors in the faith saw such stories as deeply formative, not only for the persons called, but for the whole community of faith. They remind us how sacred our own jour-neys of faith are, not only for ourselves, but for others as well. Reflecting on "call" stories continues our own formation and our development of a theology of vocation. When we discover even mere bits of our own story in the pages of the Bible, we give to others a living theology of vocation. And, when we see our lives reflected on the pages of Scripture, we are strengthened to bring that written word to bear on our own lives. What we have come to consider, then,-is that a theology of vocation unites the journey inward, where we discbver the divine resources given us, and the journey outward, where we live selflessly in accord with the divine word that summoned us. Notes l N. Habel, "The Form and Significance of the Call Narratives," ZAW 77 (1965): 297-323. z The following are the classical call narratives in the Scriptures: Moses (Ex 3:1 - 12); Gideon (Jg 6:1-40); Isaiah (Is 6:1-13); Deutero-Isaiah (Is 40:3-8); Jeremiah (Jr 1:4-10); Ezekiel (Ezk 1 : 1-3:11); Hosea (Ho 1-3); Amos (Am 7:10-17); Mary (Lk 1:26-37). Others that can be considered call May-J~ote 1998 scenes but do not follow the usual pattern include: Abraham (Gn 12:1-4); Samuel (1 S 3:1-4:1); Elisha (1 K 19:19-21); Paul (Ga 1:11-24; Acts 9:1- 19; 22:3-16; 26:2-18); Peter (Mt 4:18-22; Mk 1:16-22; Lk 5:1-11); Matthew (Mt 9:9-13). 3 Habel, "The Form," p. 317. 4 Maria Boulding, The Coming of God (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1982), p. 125. s Philip Jebb, "Wonder Is So Sudden a Gift," in A Touch of God: Eight Monastic Journeys, ed. Maria Boulding (London: SPCK, 1982), p. 7. 6 Gerard Meagher, "The Prophetic Call Narrative," Irish Theological Quarterly 39, no, 2 (1972): 17. 7 A number of these conferences given by Carlo Martini to the young adults of Milan have been translated and published in several volumes; see Carlo Maria Martini, The Joy of the Gospel, trans. James McGrath (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1994). s Habel, "The Form," p. 319. 9 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1954), p. 8. ,0 Maria Boulding, "A Tapestry, from the Wrong Side," in A Touch of God, pp. 33-35. Antiphon in the Style of Hildegard 0 You who made the sharp shinned hawk with red eyes rend the singing sparrows with the silent slice of death, who fill the sunset sky with roses and crows, who paint the breast of the warbler with flashes of your Spirit and crown the finger small kinglet with your blood, bless me with wonder at the paradox of your plans. Like birds, may my heart's croaks and arias praise You. Anne Higgins DC Review for Religious MARIE CHIODO AND MARY IRVING An Itinerant Approach to Theological Updating As an introduction to their book Toward a Human Worm Order, Gerald and Pat Mische recount a parable, "The Coat That Got Too Small." An outsider had met on a strange planet about a hundred fifty gasping and groaning people with contorted faces. Their coats "were much too small. Buttons and zippers were being strained to the limit and seams threatened to tear at the sides. Their bodies bulged against the overstretched fabric as if the contents had been stuffed in with tremendous effort." In talking with one of the women in the group, the out-sider pointed out: "It's your coat . It's too tight . Maybe you should get a new one that fits you better. It looks like this one has served you in the past, but now it is more like a straitjacket than a coat.". After considerable time., she started, between gasps, to tell me their story. They had had these coats since they were young, she said. It seemed to be the fashion. No one ever questioned it before. Marie Chiodo DW, a member of the provincial board of the United States province of the Daughters of Wisdom and an organizational con-sultant, does facilitation and process and program design with religious congregations and other nonprofit groups. Her address is 416 Branch Drive; Silver Spring, Maryland 20901. E-mail: mchiodo53@aol.com Mary Irving SSND, DMin, served as the itinerant theologian for the Daughters of Wisdom theological renewal process. A consultant in spir-ituality for religious communities, she also teaches and offers retreats and spiritual direction. Her address is 2202 Westview Drive; Silver Spring, Maryland 20910. E-mail: mirvingssnd@juno.com . May-finite 1998 Cbiodo and Irving * Theological Updating "But surely you have grown very much since then," I said incredulously, trying to constrain myself. "But what else is there?" She strained, but went on whenever she could get enough breath to say that she liked this coat. It had, after all, been hers for a very long time. 'Tm used to it now. It makes me feel . " She searched for a long time, looking for breath and for the right word. "Secure," she puffed out at last.I The coats help us picture an individual's or a community's unnecessarily limited theological understanding of self and oth-ers, the world, and God. Christian tradition is passed on through time with the in~ent of bringing Jesus Christ's transforming action to each generation of believers. Yet each era brings new cultural and historical settings. The new experiences and new questions about God and the self, others, and the world that arise in these new settings must be brought into a dialogue with the ancient traditions of the faith. From the 15th century to the 19th, new questions about evan-gelization and the education of the poor were raised by many European Christians, including women who were concerned about the care of the sick poor and the education of poor girls. The result was the establishment of numerous "apostolic" religious congregations, a category unknown till then. Vatican Council II's Gaudium et spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, explicitly addressed the new questions and atti-tudes with which the church needed to engage that world, which had been viewed more as an opponent than a friend. If the Christian tradition and contemporary experience do not regu-larly engage in such dialogue, an individual's or a community's "coat" becomes strained and stretched. This article reviews the efforts of women religious to be free of unnecessarily constrictive theological coats, tells of one province's theological updating, and then offers reflections on these matters. An Historical Perspective on Theological Updating The impetus toward theological updating for United States women religious in the late 1990s is the most recent manifestation of a recurring pattern of the past fifty years. Three major moments will illustrate the pattern. The first moment was the expansion of the Catholic school system in the United States. The need for sisters to teach in the Review for Religious many schools often meant that young women religious were sent out to teach with little if any academic preparation. The 1941 doctoral research of Sister Bertrande Myers DC revealed grave inadequacies in the academic and theological preparation of many United States sisters in the first four decades of the 20th cen-tury. A 1949 presentation to the National Catholic Educational Association on the education of young religious sisters by Sister Madeleva Wolff CSC brought this problem to a wider audience. By 1953 the Sister Formation Conference, led by Sister Mary Emil Penet IHM, had been established to initiate a major project: seeing that new members received college degrees before entering the classroom. This effort was fash-ioned from the beginning with an integrated vision: theological, spiritual, and profes-sional elements were to be present simu.lta-neously in the curriculum. The sisters who were sent for master's and doctoral degrees and the young sisters who benefited from their teaching were the first recipients of updated thinking in both theology and pro-fessional fields,z As this integrated profes-sional, theological, and spiritual formation became standard at the undergraduate level, many sisters went on for degrees in higher education in their fields, but their contin-uing theological and spiritual updating was often overlooked. The second historical moment was brought about by the teachings of the Vatican Council in the 1960s. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen gentium) brought long-for-gotten biblical and sacramental images of the church into focus. The juridical emphasis of the past four hundred years was expanded and deepened by the new prominence given to the bib-lical image of the people of God; the baptismal holiness of the laity was proclaimed once again. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World transformed centuries of dichotomy between the church and the world into reverent and realistic openness. These and many other documents--for exam-ple, those on liturgy, religious freedom, and revelation--demon-strated the universal church's own desire to let out theological coats, some of which had remained unchanged for centuries. A pervasive if nebulous spiritual hunger discloses itself in the United States culture generally and in the members of many faith traditions. Cbiodo and Irving ¯ Theological Updating Countless short- and longer-term initiatives surfaced in a variety of, congregational, parish, and educational settings, providing necessary biblical and theological.updating for many sisters. Now, thirty years .after the council, a third moment has arrived. The imminence of the millennium heightens in many congregations an awareness of the need for new theological and spiritual coats for these times. Theology expands and deepens in every area. The modern era in culture has yielded to a postmod-ern one. Scientific discoveries at the micro, macro, planetary, and cosmic levels challenge both theology and spirituality. Societies worldwide move increasingly into an awareness of their inter-connectedness and interdependence. A pervasive if nebulous spir-itual hunger discloses itself in the United States culture generally and in the members of many faith traditions. Women religious, too, find theological and spiritual challenges in this new world as well as in the diminishment of their numbers. Many apostolic congregations of women intuit with faith and hope the need for renewal that will enable them to minister better to today's church and society. Some have already initiated such a process. Looking at this spirit-hungry world, other congregations, chapters, and assemblies are recognizing the need for both theological and spir-itual updating for their members. For many, apostolic work of a theological kind provides the initial impetus. But with this moti-vation comes the realization that a sister's own integrity requires that she look to her own theological and spiritual updating if she is to be credible to others. One Province's Story The United States province of the international congrega-tion of the Daughters of Wisdom responded to the mandate of their general and provincial chapters "to deepen the spirituality of the congregation, in order to allow ourselves to be transformed by Wisdom, so as to live according to Her ways and to reveal Her." Responsibility for the implementation that would lead to theo-logical updating about Wisdom was shared by the leadership team and the membership. Leadership saw its role as, first, to initiate the conversations that would identify and articulate the theolog-ical needs among the sisters and then to put in place the structures to respond to those needs. Together sisters, associates, and lay collaborators would take a good look at their theological coats. Review for Reli~ous They would do so in the light of their personal spiritual experi-ence of the charism, contemporary writers and theologians, and the shared wisdom of the community. The leadership team fash-ioned a process that would engage a planning committee, cluster conveners in several geographic areas, and sisters and laypersons in the search for Wisdom. The province numbers approximately a hundred fifty sisters, mostly on the East Coast. Their diverse ministries include edu-cation, healthcare, religious education, retreat work, and social services. For four years the sisters had participated in faith-shar-ing groups called wisdom circles where they had pursued Wisdom spirituality with associates and other laypersons through books, articles, and prayer together. Threads for refashioning theologi-cal coats were already being spun. Yet the sisters wanted more. Though all of them sought Wisdom, there were conflicting views that involved cherished convictions about God and prayer, Christology, the emerging Sophia/Wisdom spirituality, and fem-inist theologizing. A Theological Education Process A four-stage theological education process was developed that would involve sisters, associates, and ministry colleagues in study, reflection, and dialogue on contemporary theology, church tra-dition, and present world realities. The four stages werd: (1) a think tank, (2) an itinerant theologian, (3) a province gathering, and (4) a year of itinerancy. The Think Tank. Twelve sisters with widely differing approaches to God, prayer, and spirituality were invited to be part of a think tank. Their role was twofold: to find out what the operative theologies were among the sisters and to engage in a weekend of discernment focused on the Wisdom charism. The twelve who agreed to participate in the think tank were given several articles for their study and were asked to interview five randomly chosen sisters in the province about their rela-tionship with God. Interview questions were devised for each to use. In the interviews, conducted by phone or face-to-face, the think-tank participants explored who God has been to the sister, how her ideas of God had or had not changed,.and what she still yearned for in her relationship with God. The interviewers took notes from these interactions and formulated their response to May-June 1998 Cbiodo and Irving ¯ Theological Updating this question: From your interviews, what did you learn about the transformation by Wisdom in the life of our sisters? The twelve expressed awe at what took place during these interviews. Sisters spoke candidly and with deep wisdom about their life journeys. One recurring comment was, "No one has ever asked me these questions in the community." Excitement was generated in the province, such that the discernment week-end was not just for an elite twelve. It would now bear the imprint of the spiritual search of all the sisters. The responses collated from the interviews formed the start-ing point of the work on the weekend. In the course of the two days, the twelve sisters and the leadership team prayed and dia-logued as they struggled with the differing and often conflicting theological understandings among themselves. But most notable was the effort to hear and have a reverence for what others cher-ished in the tradition. The vision statement that emerged from the weekend articulated both our commonly held understanding of Wisdom and the theological diversity regarding Wisdom as Sophia/Wisdom and as the Christ: We are united in our desire for the fullness of God's trans-forming love. Consistent with our Congregational tradi-tion, we see ourselves as seekers of God as Wisdom. We acknowledge and accept that we hold diverse understandings of Wisdom: for example, Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus, Christ/Sophia, Sophia. As we seek Wisdom, we remain mutually receptive. It is through dialogue and faith sharing that we claim our own individual experience, cherish the experience of others, and in that engagement enrich each other. In so doing, we com-mit ourselves to the process of transformation by Wisdom. This transformation by Wisdom impels us to active involve-ment in our fractured world. Equally important was the emergence of identifiable theo-logical areas that the community needed to explore together in more depth: Christology, feminist spirituality, Wisdom/Sophia. Finding an Itinerant Theologian. The planning included having one theologian walk with the province for an extended period of time. This would provide consistency in content and process. The term itinerant theologian was thus coined. The theological task was clear: to provide exposure to both traditional and contem-porary theology around the areas identified by the think tank. It was also clear that this was to occur in a climate of reverence for Review for Religious diverse theological positions and of openness to understand posi-tions different from one's own. The leadership team proceeded to identify what it sought in a theologian who would walk with the province over the next eighteen months. Criteria indicated some-one who would engage the province in theological reflection on their experience of God/Wisdom; on someone with breadth of knowledge and vision in regard to traditional and contemporary Christology and Wisdom theology; on someone who would respect the differing positions while inviting all to grow in new understandings of Wisdom; on someone who could integrate theology with spirituality. A tall order indeed! But a necessary one if the province was to continue together the retailoring of its theo-logical coats. The leadership team found a person with the theological education and experience in spiritu-ality. What is more, they found a person who knew how to place the contemporary in the heart of the tradition of the church. The retailoring would involve weaving new threads into appropriate ample fabrics, The province--sisters, associates, and other laypersons--would weave various strands together at the province gathering. The Province Gathering. The theme ~elected was "Touching the Textures of Wisdom." A planning .committee was put in place to work with the results of the think-tank weekend and with the itinerant theologian. They developed a design for the four days of the gathering, with particular attention given to content, process, and ritual around the three themes of Christology, Wisdom, and Women. In the months before the gathering, sisters received the results of the think tank and articles in each of these areas for their study and reflection. The gathering itself provided time for reflection on one's own experience, time for input and ritualizing, time to process its meaning, and time to dialogue with one another and with the itinerant theologian about emerging understandings. The atmo-sphere was conducive to forming new insights about God and Wisdom in such a way that sisters did not feel coerced to change We acknowledge and accept that we hold diverse understandings of Wisdom: for example, Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus, Christ/Sophia, Sophia. 253 . iYlay-June 1998 Cbiodo and Irving ¯ Theological U.p~,__tin~ the way they approached God. Yet many said they saw both God and Wisdom with new eyes. The consistency, between traditional and contemporary insights regarding Wisdom wove new theo-logical fabrics for many. These fabrics had patterns of theologi-cal themes which the sisters wanted to examine more closely in the itinerant year. The themes were: ¯ Wisdom Christology in the New Testament ¯ Wisdom and Contemplation of God's Creation ¯ Lady Wisdom in the Old Testament ¯ Sophia Theology ¯ Feminist Theology ¯Julian of Norwich ¯ Liberation Theology. This large group of themes needed to be reduced to a man-ageable number. In the end there were three. "Wisdom in the New Testament" was a top choice of four of the six groups. "Sophia Theology" would involve looking at the emerging under-standing of the Trinity from feminist perspectives on Wisdom. "Creation, Women, and God" was to explore theologies of cre-ation emerging from feminist and ecological perspectives. The six cluster groups were scheduled for the fall of 1996 and the spring of 1997. The year began in St. Agatha, Maine, traveled to Islip, New York, Litchfield, Connecticut, and Portsmouth, Virginia, and concluded in Islip. The Year of Itinerancy. The cluster weekends were open to sisters and to invited lay people. Sisters indicated their first and second choices of topics, and attempts were made to honor choices. Sisters in each geographic area were invited to be cluster conveners. This involved their being in contact with the itinerant theologian, seeing to preparation of prayer and ritual, and basically organizing travel and hospitality for sisters and lay people. Several months before their cluster weekend, sisters received articles and materials for their study and reflection. The itinerant theologian traveled to the various sites to conduct the weekend in much the manner of her work at the province gathering: reflection on experience, theolog-ical input, and time for reflection, interaction, and ritual. The Itinerant Theologian's Reflection on the Year The interrelated themes of charism and community serve as pivotal points around which to structure these reflections. Review for Religious Charism. The charism of seeking after Wisdom, of hunger-ing and thirsting for her, is vibrant in the Daughters of Wisdom. For three hundred years the members have been nourished by St. Louis Marie de Montfort's profound biblical and theological book titled The Love of Eternal Wisdom. The province's participa-tion in wisdom circles was apparent in the July gathering and intensified in the cluster groups. Many biblical passages on Wisdom were old familiar friends. Some sisters had broken ground with new research on Wisdom/Sophia; others continued to find richness in Montfort's articulation of Christ as Eternal Wisdom. All were eager to deepen what they knew, to make con-nections, and to move to the unfamiliar, even when risky. This was as true of the women in their seventies, eighties, and nineties as it was of the newest members. The charism was evident in the prayers developed for the opening of both days of each work-shop. Local sisters prepared and led these prayers with remarkable originality, incorporating Scripture, ritual, guided meditations, and dialogue. The prayers' power each time reinforced the truth that the cluster workshops reverenced both the biblical theology that was being presented and the praying community as equal sources of Wisdom. Community. A community is, at any given historical moment, the living incarnation of its charism. In this time of new scholar-ship on biblical Wisdom, more diversity has surfaced than in pre-vious years. Province members struggled to be faithful to the tradition of Wisdom as it continues to develop theologically and spiritually. Since such struggles intimately involve community, two interrelated goals become central for the entire updating pro-cess: to assist each member to recognize her own Wisdom spiri-tuality and to respect the diverse Wisdom spiritualities of others. The cluster weekends with their smalle~ numbers (averaging twenty sisters and lay participants) allowed a more intensive use of the dynamics of the process. Three components promoted the goals: (1) a historical perspective, (2) theology and spirituality working together, and (3) religious and lay solidarity through baptism. History. A central conviction shaped the presentations in the province gathering and in the cluster workshops: to know history is to grow in freedom. Thusl history was a key factor in the clus-ter workshops. Only recently have biblical studies made possible a coherent look at the Old Testament Wisdom literature and at the May-June 1998 Cbiodo and Irving * Theological Updating Theology assists believers in speaking about the God they believe in; their experience of God's invitation and the response they make is what we call spirituality. influence of Wisdom categories on the New Testament under-standing of Jesus Christ. Only recently has feminist theology explored Wisdom/Sophia as a help in rethinking Christology and Trinitarian theology. Even more recently, Sophia theology is becoming a source for ecological theology. Over and over, the participants expressed gratitude for the historical, biblical, and theological perspectives that allowed them to place their own charism and spirituality in context. Overall, the province gathering and the cluster workshops provided a uni-fying and freeing focus for all mem-bers of the province as they participated in events with a common historical perspective and a common set of biblical, theological, and spiri-tual experiences. The members can now speak across geographical bound-aries with a language which all under-stand. Theology/Spirituality. As charism and community are strands in the reweaving, of our theological coats, so are theologyand spirituality. Theology assists believers in speaking about the God they believe in; their experience of God's invitation and the response they make in their individual and community lives is what we call spirituality. In the gathering and in the cluster work-shops, the act of clarifying historical and contemporary speech about Christ, Wisdom, and women's relationship to God allowed the members of the province to distinguish between speaking about God in theological terms and reflecting on their own and others' experience of and response to God. This crucial clarifi-cation reduced conflict and enhanced the goals of helping each member to understand her own Wisdom spirituality better and to respect the diverse Wisdom spirituality of others. The refash-ioning of theological coats allowed people to breathe more com-fortably in. their own spirituality and their community relationships and to achieve what improved breathing provides: a renewed and healthier life. Unity through Baptism. Most cluster workshops contained pro-fessed sisters, former sisters, associates, .and "Friends of Wisdom": Review for Religious ministry colleagues and others interested in Wisdom. Careful guidelines were developed for invitation. The inviting sister-- after describing, to those who showed interest, the content and proceedings of the July province gathering--distributed the mate-rial to be read and later reflected on in the cluster group. This ori-entation provided a common ground for the cluster experience. Despite differences in life experiences, sisters and laypersons were able to relate to questions and issues that had emerged from the province gathering--this was the reading matter for use in the cluster groups. The energy and richness of the different per-spectives provided a model of an ecclesial community of women where historically rigid boundaries between laywomen and women religious could be reshaped. Their unity as baptized Christians became the pattern of deftly woven fabrics suitable for retailoring theological coats of Wisdom. Learnings. How can this concrete and particularized account of one province's experience of theological updating serve oth-ers who may be embarking on a similar project? What general movements can be gleaned for the benefit of all? How can the theological coats be let out to fit without harming the cloth? Six components of this process contributed to the careful alterations of this province's theological coats. First, this project demonstrated the value of a solid founda-tion. The general chapter's directives provided such a founda-tion. Other groups would need something similar. Second, the project combined clear provincial leadership with respectful attention to the members' theological and spiritual experience. The leadership wisely recognized that it was dealing with adults whose experience (gleaned through the interviews) had indispensable contributions to make to the planning process. This continued as the members of the gathering chose their pre-ferred areas of concentration for the cluster groups. Third, the leadership's commitment to a program that would have a reflective theological/spiritual style allowed participants to pause and deepen what they had learned, rather than over-powering them with more knowledge than they could assimilate; and music and poetry provided powerful alternative ways to inte-grate the material. In all the workshops, the opening prayers set the atmosphere in which the biblical and theological presenta-tions could resonate deeply and reach the whole person. The time provided for dialogue and personal reflection in each cluster group' 2.Y7 . May-ff~une 1998 Chiodo and Irving ¯ Theological Updating helped the participants to integrate the material both personally and communally. Fourth, the mission to spread knowledge and love of Wisdom beyond the congregation is vibrant in this community. The work-shops provided models for the sisters to keep in mind as they dis-cern how to communicate to others their own new appreciation of Wisdom. Fifth, the Daughters of Wisdom have nourished their partic-ular charism for three centuries. It is clear, compelling, and solidly grounded. Many congregations, founded in the 19th-century era of apostolic expansion, lack such clarity. Preliminary tasks for them will include reviewing their Vatican II renewal of their charism in the light, not only of the continuing experience of their members, but also of present theological, spiritual, and apos-tolic conditions. The preliminary time spent in such reformula-tion would be well spent. Finally, this small province chose an itinerant theologian in order to provide unity in presentation and spirit. This decision fit their group and may fit others. Larger congregations and those with different needs and hopes may make other choices. Planning that is attentive to the uniqueness of each group will enable the careful refashioning of theological coats so that members can breathe more freely as they move into the future. Outcomes. What came of all these efforts by one province to update itself theologically and spiritually around its charism? There seemed to be both a personal and a communal response to this question. Many spoke of their wanting to pursue Wisdom/Sophia spir-ituality more deeply in their personal prayer. One lay colleague said, "I have never in all my thirty-five years of knowing the Daughters felt so close to them and so personally enriched." One sister said it was wonderful to "see the interconnectedness between the Scriptures and the Wisdom theology as it developed in the tradition"; another said, "Sophia/Wisdom finally made sense to me." One cluster convener wanted to know what'we would do com-munally to continue the education we had begun. Some want to see more Montfortian.aspects in an ongoing study of Wisdom. One sister on holiday in the states reflected on what she had been hearing from the sisters about the province gathering and the cluster weekends: "Sisters from whom I would never expect it Review for Religious have told me of their deeply moving experiences with Wisdom/Sophia. One 82-year-old said she now prays to Sophia." Our theological coats have been stretched and refashioned with added cloth woven of threads newly spun from prayerful experience and theology and even our worldly surroundings. We have not finished. We bring our renewal in Wisdom spirituality to bear on ministry with the poorest of the poor. What differ-ence will our spiritual search and enlightenment make in terms of how and with whom we will minister? The spinning and the weav-ing and the careful alterations go on! Questions for Your Story. United States women religious have a history in this century of recognizing and responding to the need for theological updating among their members. The few remaining years of this centur~z may provide congregations with opportunities to consider whether they need to refashion their members' theological coats and therefore need some careful plan-ning that reflects their charism, ministry, and spirituality. This article has described one province's effort. As you reflect on it, you may inquire about the implications for your own con-gregation: What are the religious, spiritual, and cultural contexts within which you live today? What do you need to do to prepare yourselves to respond to them? What is your situation? What is the condition of your theological/spiritual coats? Are they need-lessly tight? Beginning to tear? Can you breathe freely? Do they restrict your apostolic effectiveness? These are the questions asked by foundresses centuries ago and by members of United States religious congregations earlier in this century. We who are pres-ent- day members find ourselves with the same questions as we look toward the dawn of a new millennium. The answers we give to the questions are important. Notes 1 Gerald and Patricia Mische, Toward a Human World Order (New York: Paulist Press, 1977), pp. 1-3. 2 Lora Ann Quifionez CDP and Mary Daniel Turner SNDdeN, The Transformation of American Sister~ (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), documents this first "moment" in the firstchapter, "Changing Times," pp. 3-30. May-June 1998 DONALD J. GOERGEN 260 Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste Life We often hear about being centered and about centering prayer; we hear, too, about wholeness. Centeredness and wholeness go together. Thus we cannot talk properly about how chastity and sexuality are integrated into the entire human person without first having a sense of our center. Otherwise we are off to a false start. As a sage once said, "There's no point in going fast if you're headed in the wrong direction." We want to be sure we are headed in the right direction. Provinces and congregations are concerned about mission statements and vision statements because they give us a focus and clarity about ourselves. Centering likewise gives u~ focus and clarity. Centering is not simply something that we do for our-selves personally, but something that we do for our com-munity or congregation as well. Centering is one of the main tasks of leadership. Without it, how could we know we are l~eaded in the right direction, no matter how pro-fessionally we might be equipping ourselves for the jour-ney? And so I ask: What is the center of your community or province's life? What or who is my center? Our center? What or who are we? We have to answer that, or be aware of it, before any talk about chastity, because a healthy chastity is a properly Donald J. Goergen OP, formerly the provincial of the Midwest Province of Dominicans, presented this paper, here somewhat revised, to the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in August 1997. He teaches theology at Aquinas Institute, where he may be addressed: 3642 Lindell Boulevard; St. Louis, Missouri 63108. Review for Religious centered or focused sexuality. A sexuality lacking a proper center, or falsely centered, is a distorted sexuality. It is as simple as that-- not as easy as that, but as simple. Now, however we phrase it, given our traditions and charism, we are God-centered people, followers of Jesus, called by Jesus, men and women who have turned our lives over to the gospel. If someone says to me, "Don, do you really believe in celibacy, really see any human value in it?" my response must begin with "Do you believe in God?" For indeed how do I talk about the meaning of chastity as I understand it with someone whose cen-ter in life is altogether different from my own? If the person were to respond, "Yes, I do believe," then my next question might be, "Do you believe in the God of Abraham and Sarah, in a God who calls people forth, calls people to be who they can be and to be servants of humanity?" If they again say yes, we then have some common ground on which to discuss our call and its celibate char-acter. Otherwise we are at a disadvantage in describing what a healthy Christian chastity is all about. When we call to mind who our center is, the One on whom our mission and vision are focused, we realize that this puts us at odds with the society in which we find ourselves. Many of the struggles with sexuality have to do with false attempts to adjust our happiness to the ways or perspectives of today's post-Christian world. Some of the struggles, however, are simply human, and to those we will turn later. Here it is important to differentiate the two. Is the struggle of some member of the province a futile effort to give allegiance to two masters, to try to live out of two centers, to live a continuously divided life? Or is it simply the struggle to be more deeply human as the vulnerable creatures we are? Thus, just as there is a need for us corporately to be God-- or Christ--or Spirit-centered, so there is a need for us not to be centered in our culture or society. In it, yes; centered in it, no. Ministering to it, yes; coopted by it, no. Seeing value in it, signs of God's presence there, yes; blindly idolizing it, no. Any healthy sexuality must begin with being a properly centered sexuality, which is rarely the sexual understanding provided by our secular culture, and often not the sexual understanding provided by rep-resentatives of our church. Being centered, then, also means being countercultural, in this area as in every other area of our reli-gious lives; not going out of our way to find fault with our soci-9£1 May-ff~tne 1998 Goergen ¯ Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste L~ It does us no good to be countercuttural in one area of life alone. ety and culture, but not making them the object of our primary allegiance either. If being healthy and chaste implies a countercultural approach to our sexuality, it also implies being countercultural in all areas of our living. Too often we attempt to shore up a rationale for celibacy by dragging in the countercultural justification. But it does us no good to be countercultural in one area of life alone. This is where poverty, chastity, obedience, community, prayer, mission, and servanthood form a whole tapestry. Is our approach to our sexuality consistent with our approach to life as a whole? What good does it do to be sexually abstinent if we are addicted to work, are first-rate consumers, and enjoy almost all the comforts our society offers us? Can we truly say, then, that our center is in a spir-itual or "evangelical" way of life? The chal-lenge is not how to be both healthy and chaste, but how to be both healthy and countercultural. Does health imply adjust-ment to our sociocultural context? From where or whom do we derive our understanding of a healthy life? Could true health imply "unable to adjust to the demands of a secular world"? What does it mean to be "at home" in a society that is not "at home" with religious values? Now, I am not suggesting that Christianity and secularity are at irreconcilable odds with each other. Indeed, we search for seeds of sacrality in the soil of secularity. Yet secularity in the West does imply a neutrality toward religion that becomes an indiffer-ence to it, often even a hostility or a lack of respect--certainly towards religion as central or essential to social and human life. Secularized living neither values nor structurally supports reli-gion. It may give lip service to spirituality, but more often it favors spiritualities as marketable commodities. We ought :not be naive. And so I return to the question: What is the center, corner-stone, focus of my life and ministry? Of yours? Of your congre-gation or community or province? We must first be healthily centered and go from there. Another way of putting it is to ask: What is the ethos of your community, its atmosphere, character, sense of values? What does it structurally support? Is our way of being sexual consistent with that ethos? Is it sexuality that gets dis- Review for Religious torted, or does our sexuality simply manifest a deeper distortion in our lives: the loss of our center? To what does our congregation give witness? If we merrily go along with consumer society, defend capitalism at all costs, tolerate machismo, smugly see Western civilization as superior to others, and are sexually abstinent, then that is what we give witness to. In that context, sexual abstinence is hardly mean-ingful. One of the responsibilities of leadership is to cultivate a cli-mate, help develop an ethos, sketch out the vision, focus the mem-bership. In what sort of environment is it most likely that the men or women of the community will reach healthy maturity as chaste celibates? What threats are there to such an environment? The Credibility of the Gospel In our search for a healthy celibacy, a chaste sexuality, we must feel deeply that there is something important at stake, some value that gives our way of life meaning. We might each express that differently, but I will call this core value the gospel. I do not mean as such the four Gospels, but the gospel at the heart of the Gospels, the gospel of God that formed the center value in Jesus' own life and mission. Like Paul, we live "for the sake of the gospel" (1 Co 9:23).1 Thus a primary, urgent, felt concern in my own life is the credibility of the gospel, which is nothing other than the credi-bility of the God whom I preach. My witness helps to make it credible; it makes my life credible. This is the rationale for a healthy, culturally contextualized (even if countercultural) chastity. The gospel makes sense of my celibacy, and my celibacy must help to make sense of that gospel in our world, my world, at this period of its history. The gospel itself, of course, does not require celibacy, nor does ordained ministry in itself necessitate celibacy. But religious life does see celibacy as essential to its way of being in the world. As religious we freely choose to be celibate as one dimension of our way of living the gospel. This freely chosen celibacy for the sake of the gospel, then, cannot be taken lightly. It is central to who I am as a witness to the gospel, as a witness of the risen Lord, of the presence and power of the risen Christ and his Spirit in my life. The risen Christ and the Holy Spirit are the source of my May-June 1998 Goergen ¯ Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste Life celibacy, and I at least desire, even in my weakened humanity, to live what I believe. One of the most poignant questions raised by Pope Paul VI in his still unsurpassed apostolic exhortation on evangelization-- which so emphasized witness as the primary form of preaching-- was the question: Do you live what you believe? In fact he raised three questions: It is often said nowadays that the present century thirsts for authenticity. Especially in regard to young people it is said that they have a horror of the artificial or false and that they are searching above all for truth and honesty. These "signs of the times" should find us vigilant. Either tacidy or aloud--but always forcefully--we are being asked: Do you really believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you really preach what you live? The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness in preaching.' My faith in the resurrection, in the risen Jesus, my own human experiences of the risen Jesus, Jesus' self-presentation to me inviting me to follow him and my response of trust and faith, all these reconstruct me, reorient me, as a human being into being a witness to that grace which has been granted me. By that grace I trust God and God places trust in me. A witness is who I am. I desire never to betray that responsibility, any more than I would wish to betray th.e. most profound friendship given me in life. My witness includes a call to celibacy that I find in my own human experience of God as present to me in this world, Celibacy by itself does not witness to anything. But celibates are witnesses. And so the question is: To what do I give witness? If I am racist, sexist, consumerist, clericalist, arrogant, ambitious, greedy, and sexually abstinent, what I give witness to is racism, greed, male privilege, and sexual abstinence. Celibacy does not give witness, but Francis of Assisi did, and Mother Teresa did, and Cardinal Bernardin did, because the totality of their lives gave witness. Their celibacy made sense only in the context of their lives. And Francis of Assisi's celibacy did not make sense in the context of his world. By merely rational norms any generation would judge him a fool, but Francis's life made sense in the con-text of the gospel. That is the only context that makes sense of our own celibate lives. We are evangelists, not because we are some-how superhuman or something other than human, but because we are convinced that living the gospel is for us a better way to be Review for Religious human. My celibacy is a part of my own humanity and makes me more truly human. It is not necessary for being human, nor nec-essary for living a gospel-centered life, but it does make me to be the human being I am. Without a perspective such as this, there can be no healthy chastity, no freedom, no desire, only fear, only obligation. This is to say, not that living chastely and cslibately is easy, but that it is the only humane way for me to live. Becoming Human Together Beyond the sexuality promoted by the secular culture in which we find ourselves, there is another whole side: mature adult Christian sexuality understood in the context of our total human-ity, with its aspirations, its limitations, its vulnerabilities, its dis-appointments, its joys. We are vulnerable human beings through and through. In my own experience of leader-ship, I learned both how talented and how frag-ile my brothers are. Fragility is not just a matter of misplacing our center, of failing to live from within the depths of our souls, but it is also a matter of what chastity asks of us even when we are centered. It is not easy to be human. A friend of mine likes to say that we are not human beings struggling to be holy, but holy peo-ple struggling to be human. Achieving the deli-cate balance in our lives between the consoling compassionate gentleness of the gospel and its radical challenging demands is not easy, and never achieved or given once and for all. Our vision should be clear, expectations should be high, but our capacity for understanding deep. When there are failures in keeping the vow, the common good makes its demands, but so does the good of the individual human person created and loved by God. Leaders need to be able to distinguish between, on the one hand, some-one who manipulates us, exploits the fraternity or sisterhood or religious family, disregards the reputation of the community, or has been seduced by the false philosophy of our unliberated soci-ety and, on the other hand, the brother or sister who falls short, needs forgiveness, is moving toward deeper integration, and is genuinely caught up with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here only the one without sin can cast a stone. Does the brother or sister have genuine affection for the com- Celibacy by itself does not witness to anything. May-June 1998 Goergen * Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste Life munity? Are we the source of his or her deepest identity? If so, then the one who is not against us is for us (Lk 9:50), and we give him or her the benefit of the doubt. Chastity is there, and growth in love and commitment to the gospel. If not, we are being used. If someone is stuck in some rationalized disregard for truth, then the one who is not with me is against me (Lk 11:23). Is the per-son genuinely "in the Spirit" or not? I would trust and help any-one grounded in the Spirit. I would help but not trust those who are grounded in their own agenda. Healthy chastity in a sexually saturated, religiously indifferent society is asking for heroism. Unfortunately, to be heroic is the only way we can go. Areas of Specific Concern. There are several areas of particular concern that have an impact on our living a chaste life. I comment on them only briefly here, but they can well be pursued further in community discus-sions. I have one hesitancy. Several years ago I spent several months in India. One thing I learned about India at that time is this: Regarding anything I might say, the opposite is equally true. Accordingly, I am mindful here that I can only raise or emphasize certain points that naturally leave many other points left unsaid. Gender and Individuality There are many reasons, feminist thinking among them, why gender receives much attention today. We have become accus-tomed to distinguishing between sex and gender, sex referring more to the biological aspects of sexual identity, and gender more to the pyschosocial and sociocultural aspects. I want to stress here, however, that individual differences are as important as differ-ences of gender, or even more so. One of the criticisms of Euro-American feminism by third-world feminists is our assumption that such a thing as "women's experience" can speak for all women. Culture, race, and class deeply affect who we are, So does our individuality. I am not speaking here of individuality individualistically understood, but of each one's unique personhood. When dealing with people, we must remember the significance of these individual differences. Men are not all alike. Gay men are not all alike. Black men are not all alike. A major fallacy in many gender studies may be to assume the insignificance of individual differences. Gender is to Review for Religious be understood not so much as two abstract categories into which we place people, but rather as people first of all, whose gender is secondary. Gender must accommodate itself to persons, rather than persons being made to conform to gender stereotypes. There is more than one way to be human, more than one way to be a man, more than one way to be a woman, more than one way to be gay or straight. The question behind gender is not what I am, but who I am. Along with this, let me include my hesitancy--simply a cau-tion- about topics like masculine spirituality, men's groups, and getting in touch with our maleness. Although there can be value in this movement, I am suspicious that it might buy into a misunderstanding of gender wherein my sexual identity becomes dependent upon group consciousness. I am very hesitant to use the word masculinity and give it precise con-tent. How are groups understanding it? With respect to the men's movement, who are the men we are talking about? What is it they have in com-mon? Maleness only? What is the underlying con-cept of masculinity operative in men's groups? Can one deviate from it? How flexible is it? Is there any stereotyping of femininity in such groups? I am not suggesting that there is no value in a men's movement, or in a gathering of males, but I am suggesting that critique is necessary if there is an underlying assumption that all men experience themselves as sexual beings in a common way. If men come together to interact around issues of "soul" and how soul or spirit manifests itself in our sexualities, that is clearly good. If coming together reinforces a sense of "us men," it perpetuates a false understanding of gender. The question behind gender is not what I am, but who I am. Homosexuality There is no question today but that homosexuality plays a significant role in discussions of celibate sexuality. To some degree this is the influence of our social context, of the gay liberation movement on both society and religion. HIV and the tragedy of AIDS also enter into the discussion. Again my comments here are necessarily brief. There is a place for homosexual or gay and lesbian people in religious life. They can be very creative, pastorally compassion-ate, and spiritually sensitive. Homosexuality is not accepted May-June 1998 socially, however, as of equal value to heterosexuality, although it is fairly well acknowledged psychologically that it is not intrinsi-cally pathological. The challenge for us, however, is not only how to screen in order to accept only healthy homosexual men or women and what our expectations of them should be as regards living a chaste life, but also how to clarify for ourselves whether all healthy homosexual or gay people are capable of living a celi-bate communal life. For our purposes here, I will make some distinctions, risky distinctions, but they can clarify discussion. (I refer here specifi-cally to communities of men.) I distinguish between gay men, homosexual men, and closeted men. Religious communities do not benefit from closeted homo-sextiality. I do not mean that men need to be public about their sexuality, a notion that seems to be an odd bane of our period of history. By closeted homosexuals I mean men who are closeted as regards their own selves. That is, they are significantly out of contact with their sexuality and thus unable to accept the degree or kind of homosexuality present in them; as a result, they are men who live in denial and fear and self-hatred. For homosexual men to live in religious communities, they need to be comfortable enough to be unafraid of their homosexuality, and they certainly need to be able to acknowledge who they are to trusted friends. The deeper issue is the distinction I make, for our purposes, between homosexual men and gay men. This is a distinction not ordinarily made in the gay community. There you are either gay or in the closet. But this has led people to make some mistakes, for the word gay is ambiguous and certainly not univocal. It can refer to gay culture or cultures, to people, to styles of life, even to an ethos, a set of beliefs, a movement~ When so .used, it is unhelp-ful for our purposes of discernment or our witness to the gospel. Although a particular "gay" person may very well be called to religious life and ministry, not everything that is gay is compati-ble with religious life. Many styles .of gay life, dimensions of gay cultures, even cofiamonly held assumptions among many gay men, all these may be quite incompatible with our call and our life. Religious life itself is a particular style of life, a particular sub-culture, grounded on certain convictions held in common. Thus I will here use the word homosexual to describe someone whose sexual orientation is predominantly homosexual, but whose deep-est source of identity is not his sexuality but his faith and its Review for Religious accompanying required way of life. A gay person's deepest iden-tity is frequently his sexual identity, or at least his sexual identity has for him a high level of significance. In other words, while it is possible for homosexual men to live and contribute immensely to religious life, the same cannot be naively said of all gay men or even all healthy gay men. If the network of significant relationships that a man feels he must main-tain for the sake of his identity and health is a gay network, then his heart and soul may lie more with the gay community than with a religious community, no matter how many gay men there may be in a religious community. The defining characteristic of a gay community is its sexuality, for a religious community its spirituality. A gay man can be deeply spiritual, and I place here no judgment on the realities of the gay worlds. I am simply saying that, whereas homosexuality is capable of integration into reli-gious life, gay life is not. Where does one's deepest commitment, heart, and soul lie? If one needs to express one's gay identity in the ways encouraged by secular gay life, so be it, but in religious life this cannot be one's defining identity. What I have said should in no way whatsoever be taken as legitimating homophobia or prejudice against homosexual people in religious life or gay and lesbian people in the society at large. Nor is it meant to disparage the legitimate struggles that people encounter as they attempt to mature sexually in religious life. This article is an effort to clarify who we are as religious commu-nities. We are not and never can be communities of gay men, no matter how many homosexual members there may be. We are and must be religious communities. Affectivity I want to underscore the importance of our affective lives. Among men in particular, this can be left undeveloped or its importance minimized. Although, as I said above, Ihave ques-tions about "the men's movement," I think it important that'men find affective support for themselves among their brethren in community and among women religious and other women too. Affective bonds not only sustain us in our lives and ministries. They also help us live the spiritual life deeply. Affective prayer is deeper than reflective prayer, and contemplative prayer even deeper than affective prayer. Affect ordinarily opens up for us deeper recesses of our being and thus allows us to live life more fully, May-June 1998 Goergen ¯ Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste Life beyond dull routine, addictiveness to work, and human bonding that is merely cerebral. If nothing else, our lives must be seen by others as loving, perhaps especially by prospective members. There is both a role for affection and a human need for it. The challenge is to live a balanced, integrated, wholesome life. And balance is not something achieved once and for all, but something regained daily. Life implies movement; perpetual sta-bility is death. Integration implies integrity, which is inner freedom graced by God and constant in pursuit of a worthy quest. There are individual and cultural differences in our affective lives, but the world to which we witness, the brothers and sisters to whom we are joined by profession, are asking us: Do you care? Do you feel? We need examples of affecdve maturity among us. Affective growth has a sexual component to it. Among the major reasons for pur-suing sexual maturity among us are the affective maturity that accompanies it and the increased spiritual maturity as well. Hope and Forgiveness I cannot here go into the complexities, difficulties, and vari-ations of sexual misconduct that we have had to confront in the past ten or fifteen years. I do not want anything I say here to minimize the seriousness of these issues or to lead us to excuse ourselves. Our concerns are for the good of our own members, the common good of our communities, along with our primary con-cern for the victims of abuse at the hands of community members who were occupying positions of trust. For the pastoral care of our members in crisis situations such as these and also for the future health of victims and of perpetrators as well, two things are impor-tant: hope and forgiveness. Whatever one's situation in life and whatever the condition of one's life, we cannot allow it to confine us to living without hope. At least three things can contribute to a healthy even if "non-normal" life for perpetrators, victims, and all of us: (1) personal support and clearly defined boundaries, (2) a deepening of one's spiritual life, and (3) personal involvement with available thera-peutic programs. We can all ask ourselves how woundedness in some cases gets transformed into the making of a wounded healer and how in other situations wounds end up in a cycle of wound-ing others. How are wounds "healed" even if never "cured"? Whatever the path we must take, hope is essential to recovery. This much I have learned from my own walking with perpetrators Review for Religious as well as victims: Never let anyone destroy your hope. Strangely, as I was revising this article, I saw the obituary of Viktor Frankl in the New York Times (4 September 1997). Certainly his three-year experience in a concentration camp contained every justifi-cation for giving up hope along with confirming him in the conviction that one's attitude in the face of suffering is essential to well-being. Every one of our brothers, whether a pedophile or a perpe-trator of some other abuse or one of our outstanding members, needs hope. People cannot survive much less thrive without it. All people, as brothers and sisters, need to experience forgive-ness from others in their lives if they are to move beyond various large or small crises towards healing; also, for this same healing, they may need to do some forgiving of their own. To live a whole human life, we must learn to forgive and to be forgiven. This ought not be precipitous. Perpetrators of abuse need to own their guilt and responsibility, go through cognitive restruc-turing, acknowledge their genuine need for reconciliation with victims, their community, and their God. When the way has been prepared, however, forgiveness and understanding need to be there for them if they are to have hope of being restored to their own lives. This does not predetermine how forgiveness happens. Acceptance, forgiveness, and love can be mediated, and must be, from somewhere within the perpetrators' network of relation-ships, from their Christian community. As with all of us, both perpetrators and victims must eventually feel God's presence in their struggle to remake their lives. Health is never a heart of stone. Even though victims cannot take risks and need to protect their increased vulnerability, the goal is not to be limited to resigned anger. It lies in learning a painful compassion. Of course, much more needs to be said here about our mem-bers who have violated the sacred trust placed in them. There has to be an owning of responsibility on their part; they have to have a genuine desire to reform their lives; there must be coop-eration with the congregation or province and its leadership. One thing all of us can learn from these crises is how important for our communities hope and forgiveness are When it comes to the vul-nerabilities in our lives, especially vulnerabilities in our sexual-ity, and most especially when these vulnerabilities become public. We need to learn forgiveness, to forgive and be forgiven, and to May-ffune 1998 Goergen ¯ Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste Life have hope. These two are at the heart of the Christian gospel to which we have given our lives. They are also pertinent to a healthy attitude toward sexuality. After formulating these reflections of my own, I found Sogyal Rinpoche's Tibetan Book of Living and Dying saying the same thing: "I would like to single out two points in giving spiritual help to the dying: giving hope, and finding for-giveness." 3 Common Fraternal Life Summ.ing up, I must say that the best way to promote a healthy sexuality and chastity among us is to promote healthy community life. The fraternity, sisterhood, or community itself is a significant formative context for us.4 How deep is the bond that unites us? Can the communal context of our living both chal-lenge us and enrich us? Does it come from that deeper spiritual desire, that deep spring, from which our lives and ministries ought to flow? Perhaps common life has suffered assault more than any-thing else during the past twenty-five years; the fraternal charac-ter of that common life has perhaps been too long neglected. If our community is not a deeply spiritual and humanly healthy con-text for the workings of the Holy Spirit, individuals find it a lonely struggle to live the heroic lives we are called upon to live, lives of selflessness in a society that rationalizes greed, arrogance, and exploitive forms of power for which obedience, poverty, and chastity are the only antidotes. And so, what do I ask of present-day leadership in this quest called religious life? --Call us to center ourselves; help us to remember who we truly are; challenge us to be our. best selves. Few things in life, very few things, are truly important. Help us to remember that. --Create a climate, an ethos, for healthy living, for open discussion, but also for the freedom to be spiritual and holy men and women and to give religious witness as well. --Respect and trust the brothers and sisters unless someone clearly manifests that such trust is unde-served. --Trust yourself, seek advice, and be human. --Keep an inner balance, keep your eye on extremes and help us to avoid them. Review for Religious --Be aware that there is a rhythm in our personal lives for all of us, like inhaling and exhaling, a time to plant and a time to reap. Do not supervise our personal growth. --Keep our focus on the charism, and keep our expec-tations clear. --Affirm the importance of sexuality in our lives, but help us to put it in perspective. It is not the be-all and end-all of life. --Call us to lives of integrity, but respect our wound-edness and be aware of how vulnerable we are. Help us to be caring, loving men and women. Teach us to pray. --Have a sense of humor. Life is a way of the cross, but help us to look at that cross from the vantage point of the resurrection. Give us hope. I close with some poetic reflections from a Protestant Brazilian liberation writer, Rubem Alves: What is hope? It is a presentiment that imagination is more real and reality less real than it looks. It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress is not the last word. It is a suspicion that reality is more complex than realism wants us to believe and that the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual and that in a miraculous and unexpected way life is preparing the creative events which will open the way to freedom and resurrection. The two, suffering and hope, live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair, hope without suffering creates illusions, naivet~, and drunkenness. Let us plant dates even though those who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. This is the secret discipline. It is a refusal to let the creative act be dissolved in immediate sense experience. It is a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren. 273 --- May-June 1998 Goergen * Calling Forth a Healthy Chaste Life Such disciplined love is what has given the prophets, revolutionaries, and saints the courage to die for the future they envisaged. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope.5 Notes l On this point see letter 20, "Religious Life and the Gospel," in my Letters to My Brothers and Sisters (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1996), pp. 137-142. Available through Dominican Central Province Office; 1909 South Ashland Avenue; Chicago, Illinois 60608. 2 Evangelii nuntiandi, §76. 3 The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992), p. 212. A highly recommended spiritual book. 4 See letter 11, "On Community Life," pp. 75-79, and letter 17, "The Continuing Nature of Formation," pp. 115-121, in my Letters to My Brothers and Sisters. s Rubem A. Alves, Hijos del Magana (Salamanca: Ediciones Sigueme, 1976). The above lines have been gathered together from Alves's reflec-tions on pages 219-231. Morning Ear "Morning after morning, he opens my ear." --Isaiah I want to keep my ear wide open like a door foldingout to the sun, ready to receive all that the ball of fire spills across the threshold. I want the Word to trickle through the long canal to the heart and find a place to stretch out in a dream, then expand through my senses to some form in reality. I want it to grow sturdy like a tree that dances in every emotion of the wind, hearing music even when there is only silence. Patricia G. Rourke IHM Review for Religious MARTIN PABLE Skills Needed for Celibacy ~chonaset cIr aotfefde rc hisa sntoitty a, nboirb dlioc aIl e oxrp tlohreeo iltosg sipciarli truaatli oonr amley sf-or tical significance. Such reflections have in recent decades been put forth in masterful fashion by other writers. My purpose is different. Assuming that readers of this journal already have an understanding and appreciation of the value of religious chastity, I focus on this question: What skills ar.e required in order to live out this commitment in a faithful and life-giving manner? I was prompted toward offering an answer to this question by reading a couple of years ago Father Raymond Carey's "Psychosexuality and the Development of Celibacy Skills." As many readers may know, Carey favors a strongly behavioral approach to the assessment of candidates' fitness for priesthood or religious life. Instead of relying on someone's verbalizations about the value of celibacy (which may be impressively lofty and elo-quent without being grounded in lived experience) or even on psychological testing, Carey bases his assessment on the person's life history. The underlying principle is that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. In assessing people's capacity to live the vow of chastity, the key question would be: Is the can-didate for religious life developing the skills needed for celibate living? Martin Pable OFMCap has a doctorate in pastoral counseling, has taught courses in it, and has done extensive counseling. Besides giving retreats and workshops, he directs a wellness program for his order and does evangelization ministry. His address is House of Peace Community Center; P.O. Box 05656; M!lwaukee, Wisconsin 53205. 275 . May-3~une 1998 Pable * Skills Needed for Celibacy Carey went on to name--very briefly--twenty-seven such skills. I found his list a bit overwhelming, but I selected a few of the skills and worked out a retreat conference for religious who were already in final vows. The retreatants later encouraged me to put my talk into written form. That is the genesis of this arti-cle. I will follow Carey's distinction between intrapersonal skills (needed to manage internal conscious states) and interpersonal skills (for dealing with other persons), but sometimes my naming of the skills will differ from his. Intrapersonal Skills Self-knowledge Dr. William Menninger once noted that the first meaning of intimacy is "that which constitutes one's own inner self." This . implies, he said, that we must become intimate with ourselves-- know ourselves--before we can hope to be intimate with others. "Know thyself" is a well-known axiom of the ancients. St. Teresa of Avila used to say, "Almost all problems in the spiritual life stem from lack of self-knowledge." Why is self-knowledge so founda-tional? Because it is the precondition for freedom of choice. If I know when I am feeling sad or inadequate or confident or resent-ful or contented or discouraged, I will have important data for making better decisions; whereas, if I am unaware of these inter-nal states, I will likely fall or be driven into choices without really intending them. Then come the regrets: "Why in the world did I do that?" The same dynamics apply to my awareness--or lack of it--of long-standing patterns of people-pleasing or compulsive activity or competitiveness or demanding my own way. Without self-knowledge, change and conversion are not possible. Such self-knowledge is especially crucial in matters of chastity. I need to know what is driving me: my erotic feelings and desires? my tendency to seek companionship to feed my vanity or soothe my bruised ego? my need to feel important to at least one person so as to compensate for my sense of failure in my ministry? None of these necessarily precludes honest celibate living, but I need to be aware of them if I am to manage them. The skill here consists in the ability to tune in to and correctly identify these internal feelings and tendencies. How do we grow in self-knowledge? The basic tool is inter-nal reflection, such as the process described by Father George Review for Religious Aschenbrenner in his famous article "Consciousness Examen" (Review for Religious 31, no. 1 [January-February 1972]). Instruments such as the Myers-Briggs or the enneagram can be helpful in coming to know ourselves. So can the regular practice of journaling and the time-tested practice of spiritual direction. Enjoyment of One's Own Company We have all seen the opposite of this: people who seemingly cannot stand to be alone. This does not come naturally for those who are extroverts. Still, most extroverts do develop the capacity for solitude as they grow older; it is one of the tasks of midlife. Also, we find religious who always have to be busy doing something; they seem unable to just be still or engage in quiet reflection. One has to wonder: What are they avoiding or running away from? Perhaps it is some inner voice that keeps chiding, "You will never be good enough, will never measure up." In any case, celibates need to develop the ability to be alone, to enjoy their own company. This is simply a demand of reality. Having chosen not to marry, we can-not expect that someone will always be there for us. Even in the best of religious communities, there will be times when no one is around. It is the same in ministry, even in these days of collaboration. Much of our time may be spent alone--in our office, our cubicle, our car. The skill lies in the ability to accept that reality and deal with it creatively. Some religious may need therapy to help them understand and manage those inner voices and restless feelings that drive them to avoid solitude. But ordinarily the skill is acquired with time and practice. We begin to actually enjoy quiet time for read-ing, walking, listening to good music. To do that well, though, perhaps most of us will lneed a reasonably comfortable room or office and some degree of pleasant surroundings. It would be well to include here what Carey calls "skills to mon-itor fantasy." This would obviously exclude behavior such as indulging in sexually stimulating reading or viewing, but it would also exclude allowing oneself to fantasize about "what might have been" (or still could be) in terms of romantic/sexual relationships. It is certainly appropriate to do the necessary grieving over such renunciations, but not to keep revisiting them in one's imagination. Celibates need to develop the ability to be alone, to enjoy their own company. '277 May-June 1998 Pable * Skill~ Needed for Celibacy~ One of the instructive stories from the life of St. Francis of Assisi is related by St. Bonaventure. One night, when Francis was severely tempted by lust, he ran out into the snow and formed several snow figures. Then he said to himself, "Look, Francis, the larger one there is your wife and the others are your chil-dren. Now hurry up and find clothes and food for them--they are cold and hungry. But, if all the trouble it takes to look after them is too much for you, then keep your services for God alone." The story is a stark reminder of how chastity sometimes requires a hard dose of "reality therapy" to iolt us out of our dreamy fan-tasies. The "greener grass" on the other side can turn into a cold night and a hungry family. ~ Being grounded in the love of God, I recognize that this is not so much a skill as an attitude or conviction. But it needs to be acquired and strengthened through behavior. Initially, probably most of us accepted celibacy as part of the "package deal" of reli-gious life, or celibacy made sense because it gave us greater free-dom to be of service. But over the long haul that will not be enough to hold us in our commitment to chastity. Something more profound, more soul-inspiring is needed. Stephen Rossetti has called it "the celibacy experience" (Review for Religious 41, no. 5 [September-October 1982]). Rossetti quotes psychologist Ignace Lepp as saying that the chastity of those consecrated to Christ must be "counterbalanced by a genuinely mystical life." There must be, then, a necessary connection between celibacy and mysticism. Rossetti uses Karl Rahner's definition of mysticism as "a genuine though mediated experience of encounter and communication with the personal God." It is this personal experience of being held in the uncondi-tional embrace of God's love that protects religious chastity. It is not something that happens once and for all, but is a chain of real encounters that renew and strengthen the individual's surrender to God. Rossetti says: "It is this experience and the resulting vision which grounds the celibate's apostolate. The celibacy experience, which eventually grows into a total response to the radical question 'Do you love me?' provides the charter and gives life to his or her ministry. Without this growing intimacy with Christ, the celibate's ministry is without an anchor and will drift with every theological and psychological breeze that comes along" (p. 676). The skill required here, it seems to me, is to make oneself available to this experience and to foster it. In the concrete, this Review for Religious means regular, personal prayer. If celibacy is grounded in my per-sonal relationship with the living God embracing me with uncon-ditional love, that relationship can grow and be sustained only by communication, by opening myself to that Mystery, by allow-ing the risen Christ to address me as "friend." Psychotherapist A.W. Richard Sipe puts it very clearly: "Prayer is indispensable and fundamental for the celibate life, for there is no other effective way to confront God-Self-Other within the core of celibate reality. ¯ . All other relationships and friendships are grounded in this core or, in the end, they will fail from the point of view of celibacy or celibate love. In studying religious celibacy for thirty-five years, I have never found one exception to this fundamental rule: prayer is necessary to maintain the celibate process." Skill to Prize One's Sexuality Prizing one's sexuality involves at least two elements: first, appreciating one's sexuality as a positive life energy. In my recent book The Quest for the Male Soul, I note that one of the Hebrew words for "man" in the Bible is zakar, which literally refers to the male phallus. The rite of circumcision had deep spiritual sig-nificance for the Hebrew male: it was a sign of his covenant with God as well as of his ethnic identity. Therefore, every time he looked at or used his phallus he was reminded: "I am a Hebrew. I belong to God's chosen people. I am dedicated to God.'.' What a contrast with our own socialization into sexuality. There is no sacred ritual to help us to prize our sexuality. The culture around us tends to idolize it, while our religious training tends to make it an object of shame. It is crucial that celibates come to value their sexual energy as a positive gift of God that needs to be channeled toward nongenital forms of love and cre-ativity. Second, this skill involves coming to a peaceful sense of own-ership of one's sexual orientation¯ Thankfully, as the wider soci-ety is becoming more open about homosexuality, religious life is likewise becoming more open. It is now widely acknowledged that there are homosexual and bisexual brothers and sisters in our communities who are spiritually deep, ministerially effective, and faithfully celibate, just as there are heterosexual religious who embody these same qualities¯ We salute them all. Hopefully, we are growing to the point where we can say: (1) We will not tolerate or cover up deliberate violations of celibate chastity; (2) we will279 . ~Vlay-June 1998 Pable ¯ Skil~ Needed for Celiba not tolerate any discrimination against any brother or sister because of his or her sexual orientation; (3) we will not demand perfection in matters of chastity--only that each of us try to grow, even by our mistakes and sins, toward faithful and loving celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of God. Interpersonal Skills Most celibate religious eventually learn to control their gen-ital sexual drive--through common sense ("monitoring fantasy"), self-discipline, prayer, and the grace of God. What is often more difficult, however, is to deal with longings for emotional inti-macy: the experience of closeness, sharing, and exchange of affec-tion with at least one other person as a kind of healing for the sense of loneliness. Celibates know they are called to love the people entrusted to them, though this is often a one-way love with little reciprocity. Moreover, celibates can and do have good friendships marked by true mutuality. But the vow of chastity does require them to renounce the desire for "that one special

Issue 37.1 of the Review for Religious, 1978. ; pies of Discernment According Jesus of N~zareth Culti~atingthe Cegtering Pr yer REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS is edited in collaboration with faculty members of the Department of Theology of St. Louis University. The editorial offices are located at 612 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boulevard; St. Louis, Missouri 63103. It is owned by the Missouri Province Educational Institute; St. Louis, Missouri. © 1978 by REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. Composed, printed and manufactured in U.S.A. Second class postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri. Single copies: $2.00. Subscription U.S.A. and Canada: $8.00 a year; $15.00 for two .years. Other countries: $9.00 a year, $17.00 for two years. For subscription orders or change of address, write REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; P.O. Box 6070; Duluth, Minnesota 55802. Daniel F. X. Meenan, S.J. Robert Williams, S.J. Dolores Greeley, R.S.M. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Jean Read Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Questions and Answers Editor Assistant Editor January, 1978 Volume 37 .Number 1 Correspondence with the editor and the associate editors, manuscripts and books for review should be sent to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; 612 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boulevard; St. Louis, Missouri 63103. Questions for answering should be sent to Joseph F. Gai/en, S.J.; Jesuit Community; St. Joseph's College; City Avenue at 54th Street; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131. "Out of print" issues and articles not re-issued as reprints are available from University Microfilms International; 300 North Zeeb Road; Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Review for Religious Volume 37, 1978 Editorial Offices 539 North Grand Boulevard Saint Louis, Missouri 63103 Daniel F. X. Meenan, S.J. Robert Williams, S.J. Dolores Greeley, R.S.M. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Miss Jean Read Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Questions and Answers Editor Assistant Editor Review ]or Religious is published in January, March, May, July, September, and November on the fifteenth of the month. It is indexed in the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index and in Book Review Index. A microfilm edi-tion of Review ]or Religious is available from University Microfilms Inter-national; Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Copyright (~) 1978 by Review ]or Religious. Principles for Discernment According to Jesus of Nazareth Br. Jonathan of God and Br. Carith of the Incarnation Brothers Jonathan and Carith reside in the Elias Desert House of the Zion Carmelite Com-munity; R.R. ~1; Garnet, KS 66032. Our age is one of sincere sign seekers unlike the Pharisees and Sadducees rebuffed by Jesus in Matthew 16:1-4. The Pharisees and Sadducees came along, and as a test asked him to show them some sign in the sky. He gave them this reply: "In the evening you say, red sky at night the day will be fight, but in the morning red sky and gloomy, the day will be stormy. If you know how to interpret the look of the sky, can you not read the signs of the times? An evil, faithless age is eager for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah." With that [the evangelist editorializes rather graphically] he left them abruptly.~ We long, with a deep interior lohging, to know God and to live in his truth. We are the generation that has spawned the Jesus Movement. We have responded, more openly than any previous generation, to the teachings of the Religious East. Titles like Swami, Guru, and Yogi as well as Eastern spiritual practices like Mantra and chanting are becoming well-known in the West. Messianic personalities .have appeared on nearly everyone's spiritual horizon. These wise men from the East speak with persuasion and attract many faithful devotees. All claim to speak the truth and present themselves as ambassadors of God. Religious communities in this climate of sincere aThe New American Bible, (New York: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1970), p. 1089. 3 4 / Review for Religioas, Volume 37, 1978/I spiritual search have many men and women who feel called to a deeper life of prayer. For superiors this current direction has become an administrative problem by having to replace "good workers'" in now-vacated positions. For the religious seeker it has become a time of painful self-examination. Whether we are attempting to discern the words and actions of a particular spiritual teacher or determine if we have in our religious community a prophet or pious pm'anoid, we will do well to look carefully at the principles for discernment given to us by Jesus himself. Jesus gave ten very clear principles for the discernment of a person's spiritual claims. The principles are found in John's Gospel, chapter 5, verses 27-44.~ The verses are easily divided into two categories: 1) Prin-ciples for judging the person discerning: the subjective element that does come to play in every discerning situation. 2) Principles for discetvdng the person in question: the object of discernment. Since discernment of a religious phenomenon is of ultimate and not relative importance, Jesus was not satisfied with presenting a few static principles applicable by the spiritual and technical man alike. Just as a judge may know the law but lack wisdoml a person seeking to discern a spiritual matter needs more than a set of criteria, even if the norms used are the legacy of a great saint. Jesus insists that the "discerner" begin by scrupulous self-examination. The first set of principles, five in number, are for the purpose of self-discernment. Once the judge can assure himself that he does have the "gift" of discernment, he may turn his attention to the religious question to be reviewed. In testing the spirit of the person being considered, the discerner may use Jesus' second set of criteria, also num-bering five. Principles for Self-reflection The Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. You have been deaf to his voice, blind to the vision of him, and his word is not continually present in your hearts; that is why you will not trast one whom he has sent (Jn 5:37). FIRST PRINCIPLE Men can recognize that one is sent by God if they are attuned to God and. his voice and vision, and if they continually have his word in their hearts. Commentary A group of teenagers from a street gang are not asked to review a new ballet about to open at the civic auditorium. Promoters of rock music do not solicit opinions from senior citizens. ~The Holy Bible, Trans., Ronald Knox. (New York: Sheed and Ward, inc. 1956), pp. 91-92. New Testament section. Principles fi)r Discernment According to Jesus of Nazareth / 5 With no reflection on teenage gangs or the aged, the pollsters are honestly judging the inability of these groups to evaluate the situations validly. According to this principle of Jesus a person must know God in more than an intellectual manner. He must know God and not only know about God. To put it in thi~ eloquent phraseology of the Carmelite hermit, William McNamara, "He must know the God of theology, not just the theology of God." You pour over the scriptures, thinking to find eternal life in them (indeed it is of these I speak as bearing witness to me) but you will not come to me to find life (5:39). SECOND PRINCIPLE Men fail to trust one as coming from God when they interpret scripture in a static way. Or when they subject gcripture to their own mind's inter-pretation. Commentary This is the problem of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism had tripped up many in the time of Jesus: "'The pharisees and scribes approached Jesus with the question: why do your disciples act contrary to the tradition of our ancestors?" Fundamentalism is the problem that has subdivided Chris-tianity. It is a problem we in the Catholic-Christian tradition, flatter our-selves in having overcome. We have become erudite in scriptural exegesis and are long removed, from the narrowness of the Inquisition. But who among'us can say that we look at reality without our limited personal perspective? Who among us is so egoless as to welcome in an unbiased manner God's messengers? I do not mean that I look for honor from men, but that I can see you have no love of God in your, hearts (5:41). THIRD PRINCIPLE Men fail to trust one as coming from God when they have no genuine love of God in their hearts. Commentary Just as "loving" our offspring by insisting that they become doctors may be a subtle form of self-glorification, so a .person's sincere love for the organization or institution can be a real bloc to God's plan of salvation. If the "temples" of our work are to be destroyed by a genuine loving response to a messenger of God, then we must have faith that better structures will be raised up in "three days." The demons that darken our vision in this area are the ones that Jesus suggests can be expelled only by copious prayer and fasting. 6 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 I have come in my Father's name and you give me no welcome, although you will welcome some other if he comes in his own name (5:43). FOURTH PRINCIPLE We welcome men with credentials from other men and fail to recognize a man who comes from God. Commentary When Saint Peter of Alcantra went to the bishop of Avila to seek his approve! for Theresa of Jesus to open a convent with no "fiked income" he. was rebuked and turned away because he was speaking poor economics. Francis of Assisi needed an introductory letter from ,Bishop Guido to see the pope and the intercession of a cardinal to keep him from being dismissed summarily. We are all beginning to realize that an academic degree does not tell us the degree of real knowledge, wisdom, a person has. The amount of technical information to which an individual has been exposed is indicated by a degree. True knowledge cannot be earned or discerned by degrees. How should you learn to believe, you who are content to receive honors from one another, and are not ambitious for the honor which comes from him, who alone is God (5:44). FIFTH PRINCIPLE Men fail to recognize a man from God when they look for honor from men only instead of being anxious for God's honor alone. Commentary This needs little comment. We are all wounded deeply in this area. Human respect is a serious problem. We all relate with the sentiment of Cardinal Wolsey: "IfI had but served my God as faithfully as I have my king, I now would not be naked to my enemies." Principles to Discern the Man from God As the Father has within him the gift of life, so he has granted to the Son that he too should have with him the gift of life (5:26). FIRST PRINCIPLE The man of God gives life like God gives life. Commentary The holy men of the East state it in this way: A flower filled with honey need not wear a sign to attract bees. The type of life referred to here is the kind Principles for Discernment According to Jesus of Nazareth / 7 we have the privilege of witnessing in the life and work of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. We stand in awe of the miracle of her activity but we are believers like Thomas. We have seen so much evidence of God's work in her life. Blessed are they who first commissioned her to respond to her "call within a call" and go live as the poorest of the poor. Many of us might have looked upon her proposal as a bit too idealistic. I cannot do anything on my own authority. I decide as I am bidden to decide and my decision is never unjust because I am consulting the will of him who sent me not my own will (5:30). SECOND PRINCIPLE A man from God does nothing on his own authority, only on God's, thus he is never unjust. Commentary The men and women who refused to cooperate with the "justice" of the Third Reich because of higher laws are the kinds of individuals seen operating under this principle. Acts done as an obedience to God, by interior realization or e.xternai vision, may contradict man's law but not the Law of God. Although Theresa of Avila seemed disobedient to her local superiors the day she opened her first convent of the then incipient Carmelite Reform, she had acquired permission from the pope and local ordinary. Theresa, also, had the support of her ardent admirer, the General of the Order, Fr. Rossi.3 The father., has also granted him the power to execute judgment (5:27). THIRD PRINCIPLE A man from God judges wisely. C6mmentary Wisdom is a gift that transcends technical thinking. Solomon's wisdom befuddled the two women seeking the custody of the child but the intuitive conclusion to which Solomon came did lead to justice. The words of the wise will often confuse those of us lost in our heads. All of life is mystery yet we want to "understand it." The wise person does understand by transcendir~g his thinking, limited and ego-filled, and begins to see reality through the eyes of God. 3The history of the Carmelite Reform of St. Theresa is immensely complex. For further reading see: Journey to Carith, Peter-Thomas Rohrbach, O. C. D. (Garden City, New York: Dou-bleday and Company, Inc., 1966), Chapter V., and The Carmelites, Joachim Smet, O. Carm. (Darien, Illinois: Carmelite Spiritual Center, 1976), Vol. II., Chapter If. I~ / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 lfl t'estify on my own behalf, that testimony of mine is worth nothing; there is another.who testifies to me, and I know well that the testi-mony he bears me is worthy of trust. You yourselves sent a message to John, and he testified to the truth (not that I depend on any human testimony; it is for your own welfare that I say this) (5:31). FOURTH PRINCIPLE A man from God gets testimony from holy men and from God, not from any human testimony. Commentary When it comes to discerning a spiritual person the otherwise hackneyed expression takes on a certain profundity, "it takes one to know one." The example of Peter of Alcantra's witness to the worthiness of Theresa of Avila as described under the commentary of section four of the first, set of principles is applic~.ble here. But the testimony ! have is greater than John's; the actions which my Father has enabled me to achieve, those very actions which I per-form bear me witness that it is the Father who has sent me (5:36). F~F'rn PRINCIPLE A man from God performs actions that are greater than a man can do on his own. Commentary Use Mother Theresa of Calcutta as a present day example of this principle in operation. The growth of her community is precisely the phenomenon that it is because it occurs in an age of vocational depression. Her efforts to sustain the efforts of thousands of Missionaries of Charity from alms alone, refusing any fixed 'income, is an economic miracle. Of simple peasant stock, Mother Theresa has been received as royalty by pontiff, prelates and presidents. Her resources she claims come to her on her knees. Rejecting the benefices of men who wish to tangle her work in red tape, Mother Theresa clings with childlike confidence to the only Benefactor she really trusts. The crowds were divided over the issue of Jesus. Some maintained "he is a good man" and others felt he was misleading the people: They were unable to comprehend how his knowledge surpassed his slight formal religious education. Some went so far as to voice the question: "When the Messiah does come, can he be expected to perform any greater signs than this man?" (Jn 7:31). We believe Jesus did come from God but many of his, and our, contemporarie's did or do not. It is grace that makes us free enough of our own perception of reality to believe that God, who is infinite, Principles for Discernment According to Jesus of Nazareth / 9 manifested himself in toto, in the finite son of Mary. Many of life's givens have been challenged, some taken away. Less of us are certain that those who cry, "the end is near" are mad. Living in a time of technological chaos and intense spiritual confusion, with salvation being offered us in monasteries and marketplace, how do we know who spi~aks with God's authentic voice? A sincere use of the principles given us by the Master will assure u~ of knowing whom he has chosen to represent him and to whom he has entrusted the words of etei'nal life. "Give beauty Retreat's End back., back to God" (G. M. Hopkins) I give you back this pure, full mountain morning, all leaping, blue as robins' eggsr here at Isaac Jogues where giving feeds, feeds the air. I give you back but keep the love, this gentlest affirmation of my need. Each moment as a specially-cared- for now, a nest of robins' eggs that could be eagles-- each one I give you back, but heart-wise I go down this mountain slowly, though light with love, renewed fidelities. I do not look back; the heart has eyes that memorize such mornings. Mary Enda Hughes, S.S.N.D. College of Saint Joseph the Provider Clement Road Rutland, Vermont 05701 Cultivating the Centering Prayer Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. Abbot Keating's article is based on talks given at "Advanced Centering Prayer Workshops" given at his abbey, St. Joseph's, Spencer, MA 01562. A practical method of contemplative prayer based on the Cloud of Un-knowing, developed by Father William Meninger and called "Centering Prayer," has been made available by means of tapes, workshops sponsored by the Religious Life Committee of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, and the increasing number of retreats in different parts of the country designed to communicate this method. An introduction to the Centering Prayer by Father Basil Pennington appeared in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS in September, 1976. His book on the same subject, Daily We Touch Him, was published by Doubleday in March, 1977. In any form of prayer, listening, waiting, attending to God have an important place. This article deals with the kinds of thoughts that occur in the silence of listening and gives some indication of how to deal with them. How we cope with unwanted thoughts is of crucial importance since it affects the quality of prayer, its refreshment, and the presence or absence of tension. Considerations proposed in this article in reference to the prac-tice of Centering Prayer, therefore, may be applied, in a manner adapted to it, to one's own preferred form of prayer. Centering Prayer Centering Prayer is a renewal of the traditional prayer of the Church leading to contemplation. It is an attempt to present it in an up-to-date format and to put a certain order and method into it. This prayer is not meant to replace all other kinds of prayer. But it puts all the other kinds into 10 Cultivating the Centering Prayer / 11 a new perspective. It centers one's attention on God's presence within and moves on to discover his presence everywhere else. Thus it is not an end in itself, but a beginning. It is not to be done for the sake of an experience, but for the sake of its fruits in one's life. Here is a parable that points to what is happening in this prayer. There was a little fish who swam up to his mother one day'and said: "Mummy, what is this ocean I hear so much about?" She said to him, "You stupid little fis!! It's all around you and in you. Just swim up onto the be~ch and lie there for a while and you'll find out." Another time, there was a little bear who walked up to his mother one day and said: "Mummy, what is this air I hear so much about?" She said to him, "You stupid, little bear! It's all around you and in you. Just stick your head in a pail of water for a while, and you'll find out." Finally, there was a certfiin beginner in the spiritual life who was having a hard time. One day he went up to his spiritual director and said: "What is this God I hear so much about?" , The spiritual director should not, of course, say to him, "You stupid little novice! He's all around you and in you." But he is supposed to be able to tell him what to do to discover and experience this reality. Centering prayer is one way of doing this. By turning off the ordinary flow of thoughts, which reinforces one's habitual, way of looking at the world, one'.s world begins to change. It is like turning a radio from long wave to short wave. You may be used to a long wave set and the stations it picks up, but if you want to hear stations from far away, you have to turn to the other wave length.' In similar fashion, if you turn off your ordinary thought patterns, you enter into a new world of reality. To do this systematically, take up a position that will enable you to sit still Close your eyes. Half of the world disappears, because we think most of what we see. Then slow down the normal flow of thoughts by thinking just one thought. Choose a sacred word of one or two syllables with which you feel comfortable. It will be the sign of your intention to open yourself interiorly, to the mystery of God's enveloping presence. Keep thinking this sacred word. When you become aware that you are off on some other thought, gently return to this word. As you go to a deeper level of reality, you begin to pick up vibrations that were there all the time but not per-ceived. This broadened perspective gives you a chance to know both your-self and God in a new way. ' Method Our ordinary thoughts are like boats sitting on a river, so closely packed together that we cannot see the river that is holding them up. We are normally aware of one object after another passing across the inner screen 12 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 of consciousness: thoughts, m~mories, feelings, external objects.¯ By slow-ing down that flow for a little while, space begins to appear between the boats. Up comes the reality on which they are floating. The prayer of Centering is a method of directing our attention from the boats to the river on which they are resting, from the particular to the general, from the concrete to the formless. At first you are preoccupied by the boats that are going by. You become interested to see what is on them. You must train yourself to let them all go by. If you catch yourself becoming interested in them, return to the sacred ¯ word you have chosen, which expresses the movement of your whole being toward God who is present within y.ou. A familiar gesture of devotion consists in placing the palms of the hands together with fingers pointing upward. It is meant to express the movement of our body and soul toward God. All our faculties are gathered together and pointed toward God by this gesture. That is what the sacred word is trying to say. It is a pointer. The wofd itself can become vague or disappear. It can be only an impulse of the will. But it points one's whole being to God. Quieting the Mind Various kinds of thoughts may come down the stream of consciousness when one starts to quiet one's mind. The appropriate response is a little different for each. The most obvious are the superficial thoughts that the imagination grinds out because of its natural propensity for perpetual mo-tion. These should be treated like the weather which you just have to accept. The important thing is not to pay any attention to them. They are like the noise in the street which floats through the window of an apartment where two people are carrying on a conversation. Their attention is firmly directed to each other, but they cannot avoid hearing the noise. Sometimes they reach a point where they don't notice it at all. At other times the honking of horns may distract them momentarily. It would be useless to get in the elevator and g6 downstairs and tell the people on the street to shut up. You would have to discontinue the conversation, and you might not be able to take it up again where you left off. The only reasonable attitude is to put up with the noise and pay as little attention to it as possible. In this way you give as much of your undivided attention as circumstances allow to the person with whom you are conversing. The second kind of thought occurs when you get interested in something that is happening in the street. A brawl breaks out and attracts your curiosity. This i~ the kind of thought that calls for some reaction. Here is where returning gently to the sacred word is a means of getting back to the general loving attention you are offering to God. It is important not to be annoyed with yourself if you get involved with these interesting thoughts. That would be a great mistake, because any annoyance or any curiosity that you give in to is another thought, and that takes you farther away from the Cultivating the Centering Prayer interior silence which is the proximate goal of this prayer. Interior silence is always going to be relative. It is important not to reflect on what is happening while doing Centering Prayer. You can do that later. While in this prayer, dedicate the time to interior silence. Silence As we sink into deep peace and then silence, a third kind of thought may arise. Something in our nature--or maybe it is the devil--starts fishing. Brilliant intellectual or theological insights or what seem to be marvelous psychological breakthroughs, like tasty bait, are dangled in front of our minds and we think, "If only I can remember this fantastic insight!" But acquiescence to some beautiful or illuminating thought long enough to remember it afterwards will bring you out of the deep waters of silence. Any thought will bring you out. A very delicate but intimate kind of self-denial is necessary in this prayer. It is not just an experience of rest and refreshment--a sort of spiritual cocktail hour. It involves the denial of what we are most attached to, namely, our own thoughts and feelings---our very selves. This kind of asceticism goes to the very roots of our attachment to our superficial egocentric selves and teaches us to let go. It is the most thorough kind of self-denial, but also a delightful kind. Self-denial does not have to be afflictive to be effective. It is a question of choosing the best kind of self-denial and working at it. This is not the time to think about praying for yourself or somebody else. You can do that at another time. The basic principle for handling thoughts in this prayer is this: whatever thought, feeling or experience attracts your attention, always return to the sacred word. A thought can be anything you notice--inwardly or out-wardly. Even if you should have an overwhelming experience of God, this is not the time to think about it. As you quiet down and go deeper, you may come to a place that is outside time. Time is the measure of motion. With few or no successive thoughts, you may experience the time of prayer passing like the snap of your fingers. "It certainly did not seem like half an hour." As you settle down to deep peace and inner freedom from all thoughts, a great desire to reflect on what is happening may arise. You may think, "At last I am getting some place?' Or, "This feeling of peace is just great." Or, "If only I could make a mental note of how I got here so that I can get back to it whenever I want!" These are good examples of the fourth kind of thought. In deep tranquillity you are offered a choice between reflecting on what 14 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 is going on or letting go in faith. If you let go, you go to deeper silence. If you reflect, you come out and have to start over. There will be a lot of starting over. The presence of God is like the atmosphere we breathe. You can have all you want of it as long as you do not try to take possession of it and hang on to it. Nothing is more delightful than the divine presence. For that very reason we want to carve out a piece of it and hide it in the closet for safe-kee. ping. But that is like trying to grasp a handful of air. As soon as your fingers close over it, it is gone. The presence of God does not respond to greed. It has a different dynamism. It is totally available, but on condition that we freely accept it and do not try to possess it. This prayer is communion with the Spirit of God who is charity, pure gift. The possessive instinct in us wants to hang on to what is good for dear life and the tranquillity is so good and brings such a deep sense of security that the temptation to hang on is very great. But let it go. Accept each period of Centering Prayer as it comes, without asking for anything, having no expectations. In that way its fruits will grow faster. We always want to possess. That is why it is so hard to let go, why we want to reflect on moments of deep peace or union in order to remember how we got there and thus how to get back. But charity is non-possessive. It gives all back to God as fast as it comes. It keeps nothing for itself. The tendency to reflect is one of the hardest things to handle in deep prayer. We want to savor the moment of pure joy, pure experience, pure awareness. But if you can gradually train yourself to let the temptation to reflect go by,just like any thought, you will pass to a new level of freedom, a more refined joy. We are accustomed to think we do not experience something until we express it in a thought. It is difficult to be childlike, to enjoy what is happening and.forget it when it has passed--to savor the immediacy of reality. Reflection is one step back from experience. It is a photograph of reality. As soon as you start to reflect, the experience is over. Reflection on joy is an attempt to possess it. Then it is lost. This method of prayer is a t~-aining in self-surrender. It teaches us by our own experience and mistakes not to be possessive, but to let go. If in this prayer you can get over the inveterate habit of reflecting on what is going onnhave peace and not think about having peace--then you will have learned how to do it. Interior Purification There is a fifth kind of thought which arises in Centering Prayer. Any form of meditation or prayer that transcends thinking sets off the dynamic of interior purification. This dynamic is a kind of divine psycho-therapy. The experience facilitates the coming to consciousness of one's motivation Cultivating the Centering Prayer and evil tendencies, and sometimes enables the organism to release deep rooted tension in the form of thoughts. Generally, thoughts Which are the result of this process arise in the mind when one is most at peace, without one's knowing where they come from or why. They may introduce them-selves wih a certain force or even with an emotional charge. Once again, the best way to handle them is to return to the sacred word. If you can once grasp the fact that thoughts are not only inevitable, but necessary as part of a process of healing and growth initiated by.divine grace, you will be able to take a positive view of them. Instead of looking upon them with negative feelings as distractions, you see them in a broader perspective that includes both silence and thoughts--thoughts that you do not want or accept, but which, for the purpose of inward purification, are just as valuable as moments of profound tranquillity. Conclusion Take everything that happens during the periods of Centering Prayer peacefully and gratefully, without putting a judgment on anything, and just let the thoughts go by. It does not matter where they come from, as long as you let them go by. Don't worry about them. Don't fret about them. Don't judge the prayer on the basis of how many thoughts come. Simply follow the fundamental directive. When you are interested in a thought, either positively or negatively, return to the sacred word--and keep returning to it. This is fulfilling the Gospel precept to watch and pray. It is a waiting game to the nth degree. All through the Prayer of Centering your mind will be in and out of deep silencemlike a balloon floating in the air on a calm day. Just when it seems to be sinking and about to touch the earth, along comes a little zephyr from nowhere and up goes' the balloon. So it is with our consciousness. You should pick up the sacred word at whatever level you find it--a simple impulse of your will may be sufficient. Then you can go back into silence without delay. If you get angry--"O, I wish my mind would keep still!"--then you get thrown out farther. You must be non-judgmental about particular experiences of this prayer. The only way to judge it is by its long-range fruits: whether in daily life you enjoy greater awareness of the presence of God, greater peace, humility, and charity. Having come to deep silence, you see more clearly your capacity to relate to others at the deepest level, to pass beyond superficial appearances like social status, race, nationality, and personal characteristics. To know God in this way is to perceive a new dimension to all reality. The ripe fruit of this prayer !s to bring back into the humdrum routine of ordinary life, not just the thought of God, but the constant awareness of his presence beyond any concept. He Who is--the infinite, incomprehensible, ineffable Onemis the God of faith. In this prayer we are asking, "Who are you?"--and waiting for the answer. We Are No Longer Strangers. Ecumenism, the call of all Christians, is especially the apostolate of the Atonement Fathers who annually prepare special materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. along with their many other works. We present here two of the articles thus prepared which we deem of. special interest to religious. Contact: Rev. James J. Gardiner. S.A.; Graymoor Commu-nications: Graymoor/Garrison, NY 10524. Ecumenism- Source of Confusion or Renewal? Kenneth G. Stofft, S.A.* In 1889 a Southern Baptist pastor and editor proposed that "'representative men and competent scholars" from the churches come together to "con-sider the: differences of belief from the Bible standpoint." Thomas Tread-well Eaton was convinced that, even though scholars could not agree on all points, they could at least establish some agreement and clear the field of "much useless and cumbersome rubbish" impeding Christian reunion. This piea was taken up the following year by the Southern Baptist Convi~ntion in Fort Worth, Texas. Approvingly, the convention suggested that othe~ denominations appoint representatives to study together the biblical teaching on those points of doctrine and ecclesial government over which the churches were divided. At least, said the convention delegates, this concerted study could help achieve "a better understanding of the issues involved." In addition to the joint study, it was proposed that the *Father Stofft is Staff Officer in'ihe Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 16 We Are No Longer Strangers results of such deliberations "'be Widely published in all denominational papers, so that the Christian public may be thoroughly informed" and that "progress may be made toward true Christian union" (see Proceedings of the SBC, 1890, Atlanta, GA: Franklin Printing House, 1890, page 22). Even though the pleas of Eaton and the Southern Baptist Convention of 1890 were generally ignored by the churches and communities, the prin-ciples espoused were continually taken up by lone voices who attempted to keep the evangelical call for Christian unity before the ecclesiastical public--no matter how small that public became. The cali for '~a better understanding of the issues involved" in Christian divisions was reiterated by a small group of missionaries who ushered in the ecumenical movement at the turn of the century. The suggestion by Eaton that "competent scholars, . . consider the differences of belief from the Bible standpoint" Was recognized and officially affirmed by the Roman Catholic Church dur-ing the early part of the Second Vatican Council in 1963. The need to keep the Christian public "thoroughly informed., that progress may be made toward true Christian union" has been one of the major aims of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25), as well as of the national and international dialogues between the churches and Christian communions. Because of the pioneering vision of men and women like Thomas Treadwell Eaton and the Southern Baptist Convention of 1890, the biblical call for "conversion" through Christian unity is gradually being realized before our eyes in the present decade of human and ecclesial history. But has this perennial call become the source of unwarranted confusion among the churches or a true renewal of mind and heart for the sake of mission? As each Church tradition has reluctantly or enthusiastically entered various stages of renewal (liturgical, scriptural, ministerial), Christians have also entered a period when confusion, rath+r than a clean perception of renewed life and ministry in .the Spirit, seems to have grasped them. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between what is an historical accident or custom of Church life, and what is primary and essential to Christian belief and life. The ecumenical movement began with a di~dication to the scriptural mandate to witness to all nations concerning the saving work of God in Jesus Christ. However, the movement has grown in strength and credibility because, of its critical, historical eye toward the past and present, having firmly placed its precarious future within the will of the Father through prayer, patient study and continued shared ministry for the sake of the Gospel. The 1978 Week of Prayer for. Christian Unity (January 18-25) has for its theme: "We are strangers no longer" (Ep 2:12-22). In this passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Church at Ephesus, the apostle from Tarsus stresses the need for the Church to ground its faith in Christ Jesus, its foundation. Review,for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 Within the Church we are no longer strangers, because we form together the household of God, are saintly citizens, and rise up as the building whose foundation is the Risen One. Since we are no longer strangers to one another, nor to the Lord, we are presumably fellow saints who understand the issues having to do with our household. If this simple fact is not reflective of reality, or even close to our daily lives, then perhaps we are treading on dangerous ground and following the way leading to confusion, rather than renewal. Scholars of our various traditions and communities have attempted to examine both the truths we hold in common as followers of the Lord and the numerous differences in understanding these truths which characterize us as distinct "churches." These same scholars have passed on their research and findings to church officials for examination and dissemination to the wider community of the Church. We are requested to examine the results of these national and international dialogues and ask ourselves: Do these agreed statements re-flect our living faith? The first step toward Christian familiarity has been taken: to consider our differences in light of Scripture. The second step has been attempted: to publicize the progress of these dialogues through denominational media. The third step along the path to an intelligent process of education and renewal has not adequately been taken: to ask, is this our faith? The third step, however, presumes a great deal about church people and churches. It presumes we are familiar with the unique heritage we possess as part of the Church universal, with the inherited gifts we have as churches. Each church or Christian community has its own history but it also shares a common, history with others. Are we familiar-with the development of the Church and churches? Do we appreciate our differences as factors of his-tori~ al development? What binds the Southern Baptist churches to the Roman Catholic Church, for example? What has been the history of our development under the guidance of the Spirit and the pressures of world society? What separates and unites us as part of the household of God, fellow citizens of the saints? An examinatirn of such questions may help to reduce prejudice and confusion and may well achieve in the power of God a renewal, conversion of mind and heart for the sake of mission. A thorough renewal in the light of Scripture and history may aid the people of God in becoming more visibly the Church, in attaining "true Christian union" in close relationship with our. Savior and Lord, who is also our brother and the Son of Man. The historical period we are entering today is critical because it chal-lenges all of us to identify ourselves as "church" in relationship to one another and the Lord. Without educated lay people, religious educators and pastors, the challenge will be a major source of chaos. We must be familiar with our ecclesial history as both the source of our divisions and the oc-casion for our "reunion" in the Spirit for the sake of the Church's identity We Are No Longer Strangers I 19 and mission in the world. Who are we? Why are we who we are? Ecu-menically, we may be able to clear the field of "much useless and cum-bersome rubbish" impeding our "access to the Father" as "fellow citizens of the saints, and members of the household of God." Oo Ecumenical Worship: What Do We Say to the Father? Charles Faul, S.A.* ~n those first "spring-time" days of ecumenical dialogue that followed soon after the Second Vatican Council, I became involved with an interfaith discussion group in my hometown. We knew little about each other and the tone of our discussions, while friendly, was also a good deal defensive. Most of us, in the beginning, felt the need to defend the rituals and doctrines of our particular segment of Christianity. This was natural enough, since we had been raised to believe that our way came closest to what Christ had ordered for his Church. Due no doubt to the breath of God's Spirit;-we gradually came to understand each other better and moved toward the vision of the faith we held in common. Certainly,. some favored a Church centered on sacra-mental life and hierarchical order~ while others favored the primacy of Word and less structure,, but we also learned that words like "Father," "Lord," "Spirit," "Baptism" and "Gospel" had much the same meaning for all of us. Most important, we came to this understanding as we learned to pray with one another. When our lips spoke the words of faith that sprang from our hearts, the commonality of our beliefs became apparent to us all. Ten years or so have passed since that time, and the historians, liturgists and theologians of Western Christianity have Confirmed in their speeches and writings what we discovered in our grass-roots dialogue ~uring the 1960's: the faith that we share as Christians, whatever our denomination, *Brother Faul is a theological student atAtonement Seminary, Washington, DC. 20 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 is monumental. ,Our common bonds reach back to the faith of the Fathers of the early Church and to the New Testament. Our traditions vary, of course, but our willingness to rethink our positions has led to some remarkable convergences. The Roman Catholic Church, forexample, has centered much 6f its renewal on the need to rediscover the importance of the Word for liturgical and doctrinal formulations, while, at the same time, the more evangelical churches have developed an ever-increasing awareness of the importance of sacramental life and, in particular, the centrality of the Lord's Supper in the expression of Christian life and witness. Dialogue between the theo-logians of major church bodies has produced statements affirming one another's ministry and express.ing a common view of eucharist and church order. Truly it has been a remarkable decade, but what does all of this mean for the personal and congregational level? We live', work and celebrate not with theologians or liturgists, but with each other. Each of us is that most enigmatic of figures, "the average Christian." The average Christian, how-ever, is the Church of Christ in miniature. The summation of our faith is the faith of the Church, and our worship, its prayer. How then in our joint worship can we express this valuable new insight? The theme selected for this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is~'No Longer Strangers" (Ep 2: 19). It describes the feeling, mentioned at the beginning, that is experienced by those who have come to know that Christians outside one's own tradition are not competitors, but rather brothers and sisters in the journey of God's Pilgrim People. The question, then, is how might our prayer reflect this point of view? First of all, we must understand that all Christian prayer is ecumenical, since we pray to the one Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, through his Spirit. This is the basis of prayer for all Christians. Thus, whether we pray privately or in a body, with our own congregation or in an ecumenical - setting, we are praying with and for the Church of Christ. We, in fact. come to a deeper sense of the universality of Christ's Church. Second, at those times when we engage in specifically ecumenical wor-ship, that is, when Christians of various traditions come together to pray, we need to recognize the bonds which join us together. We all suffer fiom brokenness and division, not only as a Church, but also as individuals and communities. However, our hope is found in the redemption won for us by Christ, won for all of us, and in the grace of his Spirit poured out freely on each of us. This is the source of any healing that might stem from our common worship. We share the belief that the dying and rising of the Lord is the model of Christian life for each of us. We must die each day to sin, in order to rise, though the grace of God, to a new life. Realizing we need each other's prayer and support in order that God's action in our lives might be fruitful, we come to a deeper sense of the unity of Christ's Church. Ecumenical Worship: What Do We Say to the Father? Finally, when we examine the liturgical heritage of the Christian faith, we can find the practical elements of ecumenical worship. Christians can pray together, not only for eight days in January, but on any and every.day, using the sources common to Christian believers in every age, namely: I) the words of Scripture and the early church writers; 2) prayers of praise, thanksgiving and intercession; 3) the church creeds, especially those com-monly known as Apostle's and Nicene; and finally and most important, 4) The Lord's Prayer which is the model for all Christian prayer. None of these elements is the possession of any one denomination. They are the liturgical inheritance of all Christians. In their usage we come to a deeper Sense of the holiness and apostolic foundations of Christ's Church. In coming together to pray for Christian unity, one group might want to follow the formats suggested for Morning Prayer (Lauds) or Evening Prayer (Vespers) in the revised Roman, Anglican or Lutheran Prayer Books. Another group might wish to use a more flexible structure, such as has developed in the many prayer communities which have sprung up recently. It is not the format that matters, but rather the act of Christians praying together. We must remember that Christ did not organize a discussion group. Heprayed "that all may be one" (Jn 17:21). Mutual dialogue is vital to the future of ecumenism. We must discern, however, that the most important, fruitful dialogue is the exchange between God and the com-munity of believers in Christ Jesus. If we are able to worship together in "Spirit and in Truth" (Jn 4:24), we will have advanced the cause of Chris-tian unity, for we will have come not to lament our divisions, but rather to realize our need for one another as sisters and brothers, "no longer strangers." Integration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation Robert F. Morneau Father Morneau is a frequent contributor to these pages. He resides and teaches at Silver Lake College of the Holy Family; Manitowoc, WI 54220~ Integration is concerned with "putting it all together." This admirable quality is sometimes ascribed to actresses who excel in their art, to pro-fessional athletes who have reached the peak of performance, to persons who live healthy, balanced lives. How common or rare these people are is a matter of dispute. Perhaps most of us could identify, not so much with the integrated universal man of the Renaissance, but rather with the plight of poor Humpty-Dumpty. Like him, all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot quite get us put back together again. The fragmented life of Humpty-Dumpty is a universal image in that all people of every age have had to contend with the realities of division, alienation and anomie. These forces are strangers to no one, though the intensity and longevity of each varies from person to person. Lest we despair in the face of this disinte-grative factor of reality, we must also come to recognize that the process of healing is a significant power in life. The healing process mends and restores persons, relationships and the world. A realistic view of life de-mands that the dialectical nature of division and healing, sin and grace, sickness and health all be fully appreciated for what they are. Despite the fact of disintegration, the Christian vocation has as its goal both individual and communal wholeness: integration in love is God's call to mankind. Our trust and hope is grounded in the Spirit of love who unifies and heals all of life. This love, God's gift of himself to his people, draws us into an intimacy with him that is the core of Christian living. Like a fish in Integration and the Sacrament.of Reconciliation / 2~i water or like a bird in the air, the very existence of the Christian demands the presence of God's love. St. Paul's message to the Ephesians summa-rizes this so well: "To live through love in his Presence." God's love is the source of all integration; living outside that love results in the darkness and estrangement flowing from separation from the source of light and peace. Those who have traveled before us have expressed well the central role of God in human life: the psalmist prayed, "You are my God. My happiness lies in you alone" (Ps 16). Augustine also summarized the nature of true peace: "For thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in thee." The succinct call to integration comes from scripture: This is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God (Mi 6:8). Though we smile at the slight understatement ("only this"), the prophet presents a vision of life that is radically simple. The complexity of intricate theologies, the score of duties and obligations, the multiplicity of laws all seem less threatening when we can summarize God's will in terms of being and becoming a just, loving and faithful person and people. These qualities reveal the interiority of integration. Justice leads to peace and oneness, whereas injustice, by withholding from others their proper due, causes division. Love unifies through affirmation and support, thus providing hope to the weary and discouraged, whereas apathy and indifference isolate and separate person from person. Faith, the intimacy of a personal relationship with Christ, is an integrative power shedding light and warmth on the spirit of man, while faithlessness terminates in the despair of meaninglessness. Justice, love and faith are seen as the ingredients of an integrated existence. . The sacrament of reconciliation aims at fostering the vocation common to all of us: to-be-one with God, with others, with the world and with ourselves. As with all the other sacraments, the sacrament of reconciliation makes present God's love and forgiveness in a special way. Through the encounter with Christ, the penitent is offered the grace of healing which helps to put back together again all the spiritual.humpty-dumpties of his-tory, and we are in that number. God's gracious love hurries to friend the deep split within the person which Paul Tillich describes so well: It is important to remember that we are not merely separated from each other. For we are also separated from ourselves. Man Against Himself is not merely the title of a book, but rather also indicates the rediscovery of an age-old insight. Man is split within himself. But the depth of our s.eparation lies in just the fact that we are not capable of a great and merciful divine love towards ourselves.1 1Paul Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations (New York: Charles Scdbner's Sons, 1948), p. 158. ~4 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 It is in Jesus that this divine and merciful love touches our lives to mak~ us whole once again. Integration: Personal and Communal--The HHH Principle The historical pendulum swings violently fl'om one extreme to the other. One period will stress the uniqueness of the individual withoutgiving prop-er attention to the social nature of the person. The rugged individualism of American history is a case in point. Then the pendulum, having reached its one extreme, swings its reactionary way to the other pole. Collectivism and totalitarian ideologies arise to stress the social whole to, the exclusion of individual rights. The twentieth century's political and social theories of fascism and communism are examples of this one-sided mentality. The truth of the maiter lies in the middle: both the individual and the social facets of human existence must be recognized, protected and fostered. Their interdependence and interrelatedness are principles of in-tegral living. Oneness involves both the individual person and the com-munity. The new rites for celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation carefully protect both dimensions. This fact must be kept in mind through-out the following description of.integration. The themes and principles of ¯ integration applicable to the individual are also, by way of analogy, nec-essary for an understanding of communal integration. On the personal level, there are three major elements seeking integra-tion. Anatomically, each of us has a head, a heart, and hands (HHH). Symbolically, these parts of the human body represent the capacity to ¯ know, to feel and to act. In the field of education, the concern for growth of the whole person is spoken of in terms of developing the cognitive, affective and behavioral domains. On a community level, these elements might be described as common beliefs, common sentiments and a common life-style. In~ofar as there i~ harmony (congruence) among these various . components, there is a sense of integration and peace; when these elements contradict each other or are unrelated, the result will be one of varying degrees of conflict and tension. Looking more ~losely at the personal level, we can discover the inter-relationships among the various elements seeking integration. Through cognitive powers we search out the truth, often at a high cost: ¯. who has given up much that he loved and prized and could have retained, but that he loved honesty better than name, and Truth better than dear friends,2 The consequence of living in the truth, as St. John's gospel points out, is that it leads to freedom: the truth makes us free while ignorance en,slaves and issues in fears. We were born to see reality in its deepest dimensions 2John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1956), p. 1 I. Integration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation / 25 and to act on the knowledge discovered there. Carl Jung in his autobiog-raphy shares a universal principle that deals with the relationship between knowledge and action: It is equally a grave mistake to think that it is enough to gain the understanding of the images and that kn.owledge can here mak.e a halt. Insight into them must be converted ifito an ethical obligation.3 It is through the cognit.ive capacities of reason and intuition that insights emerge, concepts and principles are formulated, conclusions are drawn and life is lived. Our creeds, constitutions, journals and discoi~rses attempt to i-ecord our mental travels. Though our perceptions are always limited and our articulations fail to capture the fullness of the reality, yet the extent of our knowledge is amazingly vast. The affective domain, symbolized by the heart, takes us into a rich though complex area of life. Feelings, emotions,, urges, tendencies, and drives are terms attempting to describe some of the powrrful and ambig-uous movements of our affectivity. Here it is that joy and sorrow, panic and calm, anxiety and peace .are experienced in degrees which only our unique person can narrate. Because literature claims for her own the mat-ters of the heart, it has universal appeal. So often the literary genius speaks of the affective level: When your own heart's been broken it will be time for you to think of talking.4 "1 do not know at all," said Martin. "'i should have to be in your heart to know.''3 The relationship between the cognitive and affective domain is complex. During certain periods of life a dichotomy exists between the two. (One calculation measured the distance from head to heart to be two light years!) How many Christians. know intellectually that God loves them and is al-ways present to them and yet do not experience this truth in their hearts? Possession of an accurate and sound theology does not guarantee an ex-perience of the heart. With integration between intellectual Conviction and personal affectivity, the distance seems to vanish and there is a mutual support and affirmation. Emerson's insight is profound:. "Our intellectual ¯ and active powers increase with our affection.''~ Truth experienced af-fectively and affections experienced in truth enrich life.7 ~C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe. Translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston (New York: Vintage Book, 1963), pp. 192-193. 4C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1946), p. 97. 5The Best Known Works of Voltaire (New York: The Book Leagu~e, 1940), p. 142. 6"Friendship," Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York: The Book League of America, 1941), p. 65. 7Two comments might be made at this point. Newman's well-known distinction between real and notional knowledge explains the dichotomy in more academic terms. Secondly, in light of the importance of affectivity in human and spiritual living~ our educational institutions must more systematically attempt to educate the affective area of life as well as the intellectual. 26 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 The old line, "Do as I say, not as I do!" draws attention to the third ingredient in personal and communal life, behavior. The question arises: do the words that I speak and the actions I perform truly express what is in my mind and heart? Do I live out my beliefs and values? Disintegration is experienced when a discrepancy exists between what I know to be true intellectually and a life-style that contradicts this truth, or when a dis-crepancy arises between that life-style and what I am feeling at the gut level. Every day life provides examples of such discrepancies: to know that a certain substance (alcohol) is dangerous in certain quantities and yet con-tinue to drink; to prize physical fitness as an important value and yet never take tim~ to exercise; to yearn for intimacyowith a loving God and never take time for prayer. Integration is realized when we channel into behavior our limited time and energy in such a way that this behavior parallels our thinking and feeling. A single stream is formed, a stream that contains truth, beauty and goodness. Integration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation The new rite of the sacrament of reconciliation delineates four basic and essential components: contrition, confession, satisfaction and absolution. These four elements directly foster both personal and communal integra-tion. The sacrament is the means by which the Lord Jesus makes us whole, healing the division within each person and the communal fragmentation resulting from injustice and apathy. The new rite speaks to the head, the heart and the hands, to the whole person. ~ In the new ritual, contrition is described as "a profound change of the whole person by which one begins to consider, judge and arrange his life according to the holiness and love of God" (Ritual, ~6). This is a call to integration, to put our lives together with God's help and to continue to grow in his gracious love. This process of growth implies an openness to God's word which transforms and molds us. It means that, as a pilgrim people, our lives are always in process and stand in need of conversion. Minimal self-knowledge exposes the dark areas of our life where selfishness flourishes and superficial change predominates. The new rite speaks of contrition as something that goes down to the very depth of our person, radically touching our ideas, attitudes and conduct. Integration is only possible at this level. Though conversion is a gradual process involving grace, time and en-ergy, it is not meant to be piecemeal. God calls the whole, person, not just one aspect of life. This realization helps to protect the unity of the person and implies that what affects one area of life will affect, if not immediately at least eventually, every other area. The ritual spells out the process of conversion as it touches upon three components of integration explained earlier: 1) Consideration. We are challenged to use our cognitive abilities to consider how our personal and communal lives measure up to the holiness Integration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation / 27 and love of God. 2) Judgment. After deliberation, we draw conclusions about how to improve our response to God and his will, employing the richness of our affectivity to sustain and give dynamism to that response. 3) Arranging life. Authentic contrition means that our life-style, what we say~and how we say it, the kinds and quality of our relationships, the reaching out to others, must at certain points be adjusted and modified. This broad, panoramic view of contrition challenges both the inner and outer man. The sacrament of reconciliation calls the whole person to turn to the living and true God in hope and fidelity. Confession, the second main component in the new rite, "comes from true knowledge of self before God and from contrition for those sins" (Ritual, ~6). Our sacramental system, concerned as it is with the covenant relationship between God and man, is obviously person-centered. It in-volves our worship of the person of our gracious Father, a deep partic-ipation in the paschal mystery of our Lord Jesus, the giftedness of peace and joy flowing from the Spirit. The trinitarian God is the core of all the sacraments. The challenge is to come to an even deeper knowledge of the living God, and from this perspective, to achieve our true identity. The crucial role of the scriptures becomes obvious in this framework. In God's word we find the revelation of his love and forgiveness; we enter into the rich world of faith. Cognitively we discover the reality of God's love which is the truth that creates freedom. Experiential knowledge of this most central fact necessarily touches the deepest affections of the heart. We are stirred interiorly to respond with our whole lives to this gaze of love. The canticle of Mary is a confession of being loved: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant,a True affective knowledge works its way into the behavioral domain. Our life becomes different; our words and deeds originate from the wellspring of God's mercy and goodness. The confessing of sins will thus involve the whole person: what we know, what we feel, what we have done and will do. Confessing both expresses and promotes integration. Satisfaction or the act of penance is the third important element in the new rite. In a special way satisfaction reaches beyond the notion of per-sonal integration to embrace the larger community. In doing the truth, in correcting injustices, in serving more deepiy, we implicitly call others to witness and experience the newly gained integration of our own lives. The Roman Ritual states: "true conversion is completed by acts of penance or satisfaction for the sins committed, by amendment of conduct, by repara-tion of injury., to restore order"'(Ritual, #6c). Integration implies and aLuke 1:46. 21~ / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 necessitates order. Wholeness exists when things are in place just as frag-mentation is experienced in chaos. In a sense, sin is being "out of place." In Gibson's play The Miracle Worker, Annie Sullivan, the teacher of Helen Keller, speaks to herself in a mirror: '~Don't worry. They'll find you, you're not lost. Only out of place." The "hound of heaven" pursues us when we lose our way in the darkness of sin; in being captured by mercy and love, the Lord relocates us in the plan of the Father. For true satisfaction we must be aware and understand that the proper order of things has been broken (cognitive element); we must interiorly feel and be concerned about the anguish and restlessness caused by sin in our lives and the lives of those we touch (affective element); with God's. grace we must reconstruct the harmony shattered by our infidelity (behavorial element). This whole process of reconciliation is no abstract, nebulous role playing; it touches the core of our lives. It is based on fact and experience. Though somewhat overstated, Carl Jung's reflection that "in religious mat-ters only experience counted" does express the seriousness surrounding the sacrament of reconciliation. Satisfaction, the acting out of heartfelt sorrow in°experience, is a vital integrative force restoring that order that leads to justice and peace. Absolution is the fourth main element in the celebration of God's mercy. The new formula of absolution contains a wealth of theology, deserving in its own right a detailed explication. The minister, representing the Risen Lord and the Church, prays: God, the Father of mercies. through the death and resurrection of his Son,. has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace. And ! absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The wholb person is drawn to respond to this majestic oration. The mind is nourished with the experience of a merciful God, with the marvel of the paschal mystery, with the fact of the instrumentality of the Church, with the knowledge that pardon and peace are gifts from God, with the under-standing that all three persons of the Trinity heal the sickness of the person. These insights liberate us from false fears and narrow slaveries, enlighten the darkness of our minds and enrich our faith, foster wisdom, allowing us to see what is truly essential and worthwhile. Our affectivity is also nour-ished by this prayer of absolution. Our heart is touched by the revelation of God's love and graciousness, by the joy of reconciliation, by the dis-pelling of anxiety and guilt, by the calmness of peace and pardon. The sacrament intends to soften the hardness of heart and to foster the gen-tleness that alone brings life. Full, active and conscious participation in Integration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation / 29 this encounter with the Risen Lord abets a richer, affective life. Integration proves itself in action and the prayer of absolution necessarily includes Christian living; it touches the transformation of our truths and feelings into words and deeds. The absolution formula provides an example of what forgiveness is, thus challenging us to forgive each other as God forgives us. We are called to participate in the death-resurrection of Christ in our daily lives, dying to our selfishness in being for others. Through the gift of the Spirit, we are empowered to enrich the world by sharing the Spirit's love, joy and peace. Our lives are different when we recognize experientially the price of our sins: the cross. The shadow of the cross calls us to repent and to believe. The prayer of absolution is a prayer leading us to authenticity. It provides the vision that harmonizes our visible life of daily conduct with the new mind and heart we have put on in Christ. Integration and the Holy Spirit The possibility of Christian integration is based on the gift of Spirit. The Risen Lord in union with the Father sends their Spirit into the world to complete the work of redemption. Through the sacrament of reconciliation this work of restoration takes on visibility and becomes efficacious in the lives of those who believe. The Spirit directs us in .our struggle toward oneness within ourselves and among all people. Within the framework of the HHH Principle, we can examine the role of the Spirit in the process of integration. The tradition of the Church points out that there are four gifts of the Spirit that aid the intellectual and faith growth of God's people: wisdom, knowledge, counsel and understanding. Through these "cognitive" gifts we contend with the ever-present forces of folly, ignorance, rashness and dullness of mind. God, coming to the aid of our finite minds, supplements our ability to grasp truth through the personal Light of his presence. The heart, often bruised and broken, also stands in need of special gifts. Through the Pentecost event, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord are offered as powerfui nutrients enriching our affectivity. Thus we are enabled to stand firm in the face of fear, to struggle valiantly against hardness of heart and acedia, to deal honestly with the arrogance of pride seeking to remove God from the center of life. In the sacrament of reconciliation, these gifts are available with the coming of the Spirit. But discernment is a difficult task ih life. How do we know whether or not we are growing in the Lord? Are we really allowing the mind and heart of Christ to influence our lives? What are the signs of health and illness in our Christian lives? Through the writings of St. Paul, God has given us an evaluation system to aid us in testing the quality of Christian growth. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul spells out the evidence indicating the spirit of evil and the Spirit of God. If the signs of God's Spirit are present, we have some assurance that we are doing the will of the Father and that the gifts 30 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 of the Spirit are truly effective in our words and deeds. If the opposite signs are present, we are provided with some hard evidence that we are failing in our Christian responsibilities. Paul writes: But when you follow your own wrong inclinations your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and crit-icisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group~ and there will be wrong doctrine, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing . But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gen-tleness and self-control? Conclusion The revision of the sacrament of reconciliation provides the contem-porary Church with a process and vision to bring about the oneness we all desire. Unity is something intrinsic to our lives. William Lynch beautifully expresses this need in every.person: What I want first to propose, as a sort of working point of discussion, is that the very deepest need the pe6ple have is the need for closenenss to, union with, things and persons and God. This principle underlies every need of man. It is not a luxury or a gimmick. It is fundamental, primitive; eternal and universal . Everybody knows, when it is put in his language, that real solitude is hell and that unity is peace)° The sacrament of reconciliation deals directly with that aspect of our life which obstructs and prohibits unity: the reality of sin. The great marvel is that God's love and mercy have conquered sin and death and through the sacrament of reconciliation bring us in touch with this victory of God. A schematic summary of this article might appear as follows: A. God's initiative: the call to justice love (lived out fully in the person of Jesus) faith B. Mankind's response: so much injustice / apathy / faithlessness (mystery of sin) C. Jesus came to reconcile all creation to the Father---continues to come in their Spirit to heal the whole person--to bring about integration Truth overcomes falsity Beauty overcomes ugliness Goodness overcomes evil Head Heart Hand Gifts of wisdom, knowledge, counsel understanding Gifts of piety, fortitude, fear of the Lord Signs: love, joy, peace, patience, kind-ness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. D. Result: Oneness with the Father through Christ in the Spirit. Wholeness, union, sanctity,' integration. gGalatians 5:19-23. ~°William F. Lynch, S.J. The Integrating Mind (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1962), pp. 134-135. Integration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation / 31 A growing appreciation of the depth and breadth of the sacrament of reconciliation is important if we are to fully enter into this great gift. The revised rite provides us with many advantages: the stress and variety of scripture, the personal touch with the face-to-face option, the emphasis on the communal nature of sin, the demand for authentic conversion, the joyful tone of celebrating God's mercy and love and not getting caught up in oneself. Our challenge is to understand as fully as possible the meaning of the sacrament and to experience its tremendous force in our personal and communal lives. .0 Now Available As A Reprint The "Active-Contemplative" Problem in Religious Life by David M. Knight Price: $.75 per copy, plus postage. Address: Review for Religious 612 Humboldt Building 539 North Grand St. Louis, Missouri 63103 To Make Good Again: A Selected Bibliography on Reconciliation Mary Colurnba Offerman, P,B.V.M. Sister Mary Columba, a librarian, has contributed other bibliographies to these pages. She resides at 2360 Carter Rd.: Dubuque, IA 52001. The word reconciliation evokes many meanings. Its primary meaning is "to make good again" or "to restore." The need of reconciliation pre-supposes that some harmony has been violated or disrupted. Many times man has broken his bond with G~d. Man must choose to be reconciled completely. God's plan for the return to complete harmony involves God himself, man, his neighbor and his community. When God created the universe everything was good. The psalmist tells us that every-thing existed in harmony, peace. Man misused his power to be steward over God's creation. The way to restore peace and unity with God, our neighbor and our world is through repentance, conversion and reconciliation. There are various levels of reconciliation. There is a reconciliation with God and a reconciliation with one's fellowman. Reconciliation for the Catholic Church entails the relationships of the Church with other churches. Reconciliation Within society is required when we have differ-ences due to race, nation, class, degrees of economic and social devel-opment. Every person's life is filled with numerous calls to reconciliation. Oppor-tunities arise daily when we can reconcile with .brothers, neighbors and those around us. Reconciliation begins at home. By turning towards God, our Father, we can become aware of how little we are without him, we can 32 To Make Good Aga. in: A Selected Bibliography on Reconciliation realize the worth of each individual and our own personal worth in his eyes and create situations that promote cooperation and sharing. We can ob-serve God's goodness in all the events of life. The recent Holy Year of 1975 offers opportunities for reflection on those things and happenings that direct us toward Christ and the eternal reward of heaven. We had many occasions to be more concerned with our interior or spiritual life, rather than with the exterior and materialistic things of life. That year of reconciliation called us to promote works of charity, to do penance and to perform works of piety. The Holy Year theme of renewa[ and reconciliation has been an in-vitation to respond to interior renewal in order to become better instru-ments of reconciliation with God, neighbor and the world. By developing a true spirit of joy, compassion and kindness and by using our creative instincts, our love for life and for our fellowmen will contribute to holier years to come. The Church expects much of the religious man and woman. Religious have been urged to reflect on their way of life as this was asked of them by Vatican Council II. We are reminded to persevere in faithfulness to prayer, becoming more perfect followers of Christ and a radiation of joy in carrying the crosses that cannot be separated from our state in life. On each religious community rests its future destiny. The living out of the vows from day to day frees us to be a sign of reconciliation. The ministries of the religious woman have taken many forms. Some are in education, others turn to .nursing and still others perform one of the ministries of service which has emerged recently. The ministry which is chosen will become a healing ministry if the religious is a person of rec-onciliation, deeply rooted in Christ and proclaims him as her Lord and Master. How do we make our ministry h service of reconciliation? By being a peacemaker among the students, parents' and those with whom we work, by being more prayerful, reflecting on the gospels and on spiritual' reading, by showing enthusiasm, uniting our sufferings to those of Christ, by consoling, developing ,a spirit of forgiveness, "to come away from each new grief without bitterness in continuing service, to see no one as an enemy and everyone as worthy of my service. Such are the realities of reconciliation. And they are reflected in thequiet dignity ofa fai.th-filled valiant woman.''1 In an article on teaching children about reconciliation, Rod Brownfield says, "If they come to appreciate more their own worth as friends of God, loved individually for their own lovable selves, if they come to see all the material world as gifts for their use and for their sharing, if they come to appreciate other human beings, as images of God loved by God; if they learn the spirit of awe and reverence for a generous Father; if they come to qennings, Sister Vivien, O.P., The Valiant Woman (New York: Alba House. 1974), p. 33. 34 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 want to mend what is broken and right what is wrong; if they can pray as they experience the good gifts about them; if they promote peace among themselves, their religion is a reality, reconciliation is going on and the kingdom of God is nearer.''z This could be our goal and we wou~d be striving to "make good again." Our relationship with God would be renewed or strengthened and all would be right with the world and our conscience. The following selected bibliography has been compiled to provide spiritual reading on the topic of "reconciliation." Methods, ideas, exhor-tations, reflections and worthwhile knowledge on "reconciliation" can be acquired from reading these books and periodicals. Thus Pope Paul's ad-monition "to make good again," to reconcile, to renew, will keep the religious woman in touch with her God, in touch with her Church, in touch with her world, her feliowmen and in touch with herself. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Abbott, Walter, S.J., ed., The Documents of Vatican 11. New York: Herder and Herder, 1966. Bailey. J. Martin, From Wrecks to Reconciliation. New York: Friendship Press, 1969. Paper. Banks, Robert, ed,, Reconciliation and Hope. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974. Barry, David W., Ministry of Reconciliation. New York: Alba House, 1975, Paper. Basset, Bernard, S.J., Guilty. 0 Lord, Yes. 1 Still Go to Confession. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1975. Burghardt, Walter, J., S.J., Towards Reconci6ation. Washington, D.C.: United States Bishops Conference. 1974. Paper. Elliott, Ralph H., Reconciliation and the New Age. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1973. Paper. Farrell, Edward, The Father Is Veo' Fond of Me. Denville, New Jersey: Dimension Books, 1975. Chapter 3. Surprised In the Spirit. Denville, New Jersey: Dimension Books, 1973. Chapter 2. Foley, Leonard, O.F.M., Your Confession: Using the New Rite. Cincinnati: St. Anthony Press, 1975. Paper. Guzie, Tad, What the Modern Catholic Believes About Confession. Chicago: The Thomas More Press, 1974. Paper. Hanson, Michael. O.M.I., and John Maronic'. O.M.I., The Pilgrim's Prayerbook (Holy Year Edition). Belleville, Illinois: Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, 1974. Pages 25-32; 211-217; 237-287. Haring, Bernard, C.S.S.R., Prayer: The Integration of Faith and Life. Notre Dame, Indiana: Fides Publishers, 1975. Chapter 14. Harkness, Georgia, The Ministry of Reconciliation. New York: Abingdon Press, 1971. Paper. ZBrownfield, Rod. "'The Holy Year That Wasn't,'" The Catechist. IX, No. 3 (November, 1975). 9. To Make Good Again." A Selected Bibliography on Reconciliation / 35 Hellwig, Monika, The Meaning of the Sacraments. Dayton: Pflaum-Standard, 1972. Paper. Hessel, Dieter T., Reconciliation and Conflict: Church Controversy Over Social Involvement. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969. Paper. Hinnebusch, Paul, O.P,.Friendship In the Lord. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1974. Chapter 6. Praise God! Denville, New Jersey: Dimension Books, Inc., 1972. Chapter 6; Chapter 23. Hunter, Gordon. When the Walls Come Tumblin' Down. Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1974. Jennings, Sister Vivien, O.P., The Valiant Woman. New York: Alba House, 1974. Chapter I; Chapter 4; Chapter 7. Nelson, John, Dare to Reconcile: Seven Settings For Creating Community. New York: Friendship Press, 1969. Paper. Nouwen. Henri, With Open Hands. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1972. O'Reilly, James, Reconciliation and Renewal. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1974. Powell, John, S.J. He Touched Me. Chicago: Argus Communications, 1974. Paper. Rabalais, Sister Maria, Come Be Reconciled; Youth Penance Resources. Paramus, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1975. Schillebeeckx, Rev. Edward. O.P. Sacramental Reconciliation. (Concilium Series, Volume 6), New York: Seabury Press, 1971. Sisters of the Presentation, Witness to Love. Dubuque, iowa: Mount Loretto. 1977. Page 24. Stuhlmueller, Rev. Carroll, C.P., Reconciliation: A Biblical Call. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1975. Paper. Tibbetts, Orlando L., Reconciling Community. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1969. Torrance, T., Theology In Reconciliation. Westminster, Maryland: Christian Classics, 1975. Van Kaam, Adrian, C.S.Sp., Spirituality and the Gentle Life. Denville, New Jersey: Di-mension Books, 1973. Periodicals Abeyasingha, N., "'Penance and the Holy Spirit." REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, May, 1974, 565-573. America, "'1975: Holy Year of Reconciliation," America, January 11, 1975, 2-6. Baumer, Fred, "'An Hour of Reconciliation," Liturgy. August/September, 1975, 227-231. Bernas, Rev. Casmir, O.C.S.O., "' Reconciliation In Paul,'" The Bible Today. December, 1973, 1395-1400. Brungs, Robert A., S.J., "'Reconciliation: Man-the-Maker and Man-the-Made," Theology Digest. Winter, 1974. 324-333. Bryce, Sister Mary Charles, O.S.B., "'Reconciliation Means Change," Modern Liturgy, February, 1977.8-10. Callahan, William R., "'Reconciliation," National Catholic Reporter, May 16, 1975. 7-8. Cranny, Rev. Titus, "'Renewal, Reconciliation and Christian Unity," Onr Sunday Visitor. January 12, 1975. I. Deutsch, Sister B., "Operation Fervor," Today's Catholic Teacher. February, 1975. 40. Du Charme, Jerome and Gall, "Introducing Young Children to the Experience of Recon-ciliation." Modern Liturgy. February, 1977, 12-13. Every, Robert L., O.P., "'Theology of Reconciliation." Emmanuel. October. 1974, 404-41 I. Fitzgerald, Frances, "'Vietnam Reconciliation," The Atlantic.June. 1974, 14-28. Galluzzi, Alessandro. "Reconciliation Is Main Motive For Holy Year," L'Osservatore Romano, June 28, 1973, 2. Hatton, Sister Vianny, "'The Communal Rite of Reconciliation," Folk Mass and Modern Liturgy, January, 1975, 12-14. Jolliffe. P,, "'Prayer and Christ's Reconciliation," The Way, January, 1975, 66-76. Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 Joyce, Sister F., "'Reconciliation and the Teacher," Today's Catholic Teacher. February, 1977, 14, Krol, J. Cardinal, "'Human Rights and Reconciliation," Dimension. Winter, 1974, 148-151. Lynch, J. A. "'Meditation On Reconciliation," Sisters Today, January, 1975, 273-280. Maly, Rev. Eugene H., "'Haggadah,'" The Bible Today. October, 1975, 484-489. Miffletori, Rev. Jack, "'Rites and Lefts of Reconciliation," Folk Mass and Modern Liturgy. January, ~975, 23-26. Mossi, Rev. John P. S.J. "'A Reconciliation Service," Folk Mass and Modern Liturgy, January, 1975, 28-29. "Reconciliation Sevices For Children," Folk Mass and Modern Liturgy. August?September, 1975.25-26, North, Robert, S.J., "Yore Kippur and the Jubilee Year of Reconciliation," Theology Digest, Winter, 1974, 346-59. Notebaart, Rev. James, "'Symbols of Reconciliation." Folk Mass and Modern Liturgy, Janu-ary, 1975, 6-8. Paul VI, "'The Duty of Reconciliation," L'Osservatore Romano. April 18, 1974, I I. __, "Essential Characters of the Holy Year, Central Theme Is Reconciliation." L'Os-servatore Romano. May 17, 1973, 3. __. "'Human Rights and Reconciliation: Statement of Pope Paul VI and the Fathers of the 1974 Synod of Bishops," The Pope Speaks. Winter, 1974, 216-220. __, "'Peace Depends On You, Too," The Pope Speaks. Winter, 1974, 352-354. __, "'Reconciliation With God," L'Osservatore Romano. November 8, 1973, I. __. "'Renewal and Reconciliation," L'Osservatore Romano. June 14, 1973, I. Purdy. William, "'Holy Year and Reconciliation." L'Osservatore Romano. July 26, 1973, 10. Russell, John F., O.Carm., "'Reconciliation a Reflective Expression," Spiritual Lift,. Summer, 1977, 67-72. Saulnier, Rev. William P., "'Reconciliation: Let It Begin With Me," Modern Litargy. February. 1977, 8-10. Schaeffler, Sister Janet, "'Reconciliation Is Growth." The Catechist. November, 1975, 10-11. Schall, James, V., S.J., "'On the Mosl Dangerous Virtue." REVIEW FOR REI,I~OUS, November, 1974, 1301-1308. Seelaus, Vilma, "'Contemplation/Reconciliation/Inner Freedom," Spiritual Life, Summer, 1974.99-105. Senior, Donald, C.P., "'Resurrection and Reconciliation," The Catechist. Winter, 1974, 346-360. Seromik, Gary, "'The Holy Year: Renewal and Reconciliation." The New Covenant, January, 1975, 6-7. Stuhlmueller, Rev. Carroll, C.P., "'Reconciliation With the Old Testament," The Bible Today, October, 1975, 473-484. Wenz, Jack. O.F.M., "'The Cost of Reconciliation: An Interview With Anthony Padovano," St. Anthony Messenger, December, 1974, 14-19. Winiarski, M. "'Reconciliation Assailed, Upheld," National Catholic Reporter, May 13, 1977, 12. Bird With a Broken Wing: Christian Mysticism and Ministry Mar~ Ellen Dougherty, S.S.N.D. Sister Mary Ellen is director of novices for the eastern province of her community, in an interprovincial novitiate in Hinsdale. For this purpose, she is on temporary leave of absence from Notre Dame College in Baltimore where she is associate professor of English. Her present address: 427 S. Clay St.; Hinsdale, IL 60521. In his book A Third Testament, Malcolm Muggeridge says of the con-troversial personality William Blake that he was "sane to the point of sublimity." Blake, considered by some of his contemporaries to be mad and by others to be a mystic, was an early Romhntic English poet and visual artist who reported ea~;y dialogues with the spirits of Socrates, Milton, and Voltaire. At the same time he had the simplicity to urge his readers: To see the Word in a Grain of Sand ¯ And Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Etei:nity in an hour. Indicating Blake's creativity and originality, Muggeridge narrates the following incident: On another occasion, he told a visitor he had a great rarity to show him. This turned out to be "a naked figure with a strong body and a short neck--with burning eyes which long for moisture, and a face worthy of a murderer, holding a bloody cup in its clawed, hands, out of which it ~seems ea~ger to drink." "But what is it?" his visitor asked. "It is a ghost, sir," Blake replied. "The ghost of a flea~a spiritualization the thing!" Whether Blake was mystical or mad (o.r both), debates about him do suggest some of the standard tensions about mysticism. In current society, 37 31~ / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 sanity is one thing, sublimity another. Fleas do not have ghosts. As a result of lived history and the statements of Vatican II to religious, monastic traditions in most apostolic orders have diminished. There has been, concommitantly, an increasing emphasis on service. Many religious orders, at one time known for a single apostolic commitment, now embrace multiple commitments. Dress, daily orders, life-styles are frequently and often wisely subordinated to apostolates. There is a fresh and creative view of the needs of the Church. Ministry is a command. Any simple analysis of apostolic theology would indeed be simplistic. The practical effects are complex, and their reverberations are not totally without irony. For example, while contemplatives sometimes struggle to justify their existence to themselves, members of apostolic orders con-sistently apply for transfer to the cloister. Contemplative groups experi-ment with appropriate ways to expand a ministerial dimension, while apos-tolic religious seek credible ways to circumscribe activity with prayer. In this, there is more than just an intimation of the traditional contempla-tion- action dilemma. There are implicit questions about the authenticity of mysticism in this apostolic age. We return again to fleas and ghosts. Recently in the Chicago Tribune a cartoon entitled "The Now Society" featured a young man and woman seated casually at a cafe table. She is saying to him, "Oh sure, I've felt funny a couple of times, but I can't honestly say I've had a mystical experience." In popular concept, mysti-cism is often characterized by a withdrawal from reality. It is connected with everything from marijuana to sunsets. Even among serious thinkers, it is somewhat suspect as a way of prayer for a Christian, especially for apostolic religious. I have met more than one competent spiritual director who will not encourage directees of apostolic orders to contemplative prayer, even when they are so inclined, on the grounds that it is generally incompatible with their responsibilities. This, it seems to me, is a mis-understanding of contemplative prayer. In his book The Still Point William Johnston, S.J., speaks of Christian mysticism. He says: ¯ . . in the long process which precedes the canonization of a Christian saint, the Church never asks about the profundity of his enlightenment or the depths of his mysticism, but only about his practice of heroic charity; traditionally, mysticism is valued only as a means to something more imporlant--namely, the charity which is the center of the gospel message. When this charity expresses itself in mystical experience (that is, when the love of God becomes so violent that it drives the soul down into its very center in mystical darkness and existential abandonment of thought), then it is inestimably precious. On the other hand, he says, "Granted this . everyone must recognize that deep contemplative prayer is indeed a way (and perhaps the best way) to Christian charity . " The purpose of this article is not to describe the contemplative ex-perience that Father Johnston speaks of. There are numerous experts, Bird With a Broken Wing including Father Johnston, who do this well, namely Thomas Merton, and Evelyn Underhill, as well as more traditional writers like Tanqueray and Poulain, and, of course, saints like Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross. The purpose here is to suggest some of the practical effects of Christian mystical prayer, whether it is occurring in the life of a contemplative or an apostolic religious, to show that it is a way to the active "charity which is the center of the gospel message," to indicate that sanity and sublimity can coexist. Here, then, references to mysticism are meant to apply to the Christian tradition, not to other forms of mystical prayer. Mystical prayer as a way to ministry is verified if we look at the lives of those whose mysticism is judged by history and the Church to be authentic. If we focus not so much on their experiences in prayer as on the fruits of their experiences (their practices of heroic charity), we will see that they are concerned not with looking or sounding like mystics, or even with being mystics, but with acting out of their experiences, in accord with some call to service. St. Theresa of Avila, for example, steadily confirms this. As she grew in mystical graces, she grew in active service to the Church, and to her Order. One has only to read the works of St. Theresa to see that she is an assertive, energetic woman. Throughout her writings she integrates steadily emotional response with idea and daily experience. Unlike her companion mystic, St~ John of the Cross, whose prose is as austere as his message, and whose poetry is charged quietly with passion (and who, in his own life, apparently integrated the two), Theresa is never a writer of academic prose, or a poet. She is a narrator of the spiritual life whose warmth and intelli-gence fuse into an explication of mystical experience that is as loosely personal as it is loosely objective. She says in her autobiography ". sometimes love makes me foolish." In her prose we read of the pain, the joy, the humor of this foolish lover. We read, too, the history of mystical prayer as Theresa knew it, as well as the history of an active woman who believes firmly, as she tells us in the Interior Castle, that "what the Lord desires is works." Theresa's mission was to reform. And so she did. Theresa took the Carmelite habit at the Convent of the Incarnation in Avila at the age of twenty-one. It was approximately twenty years later that she experienced her first visions and locutions (after, as she tells us, going for the first fourteen years as a religious unable to pray without a book). In her early forties, then, she experiences mystical graces with some regu-larity. It is interesting to note that it is at this same time that she first engages in discussion about the reform of her order. It is at the age of forty-seven that she establishes the daring (and some might say devious) foundation of the convent of St. Joseph in Avila, a beginning that was to launch significant reform in religious life in the Church. At the age of fifty she completes the final version of her autobiography (written, as most of her works were, under obedience), and she begins The Way of Perfection. Both of these 40 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 works, especially the second, reflect a woman of deep contemplative prayer, and the recipient of significant, mystical graces. 'They lack, how-ever, the clarity and totality about the mystical life that is evidenced in The Interior Castle. It would seem fair to assume that between the composition of The Way of'Perfection and The Interior Castle Theresa's own experi-ences in prayer matured and expanded, so that clarity and totality were possible. The latter work is a portrait of a mystic Who has experiential knowledge ofeverything from the prayer of quiet to. the spiritual marriage, and who is thus able to order her observations in readable fashion. It is in this~work that she tells us, quite practically, that."perfection consists not in consolations but in the increase of love," and that "love exists not in the extent~of our .happiness but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God." It is here thb.t she. reminds us that "God's will is that no bounds should be set to his works." Theresa, herself, during these years, set no bounds. It was at this time, the interim betwee.n, these written works, that the bulk Of her endeavors for. reform occurs. In The Interior Castle Theresa says, '.'When I think of myself, ! feel like a bird with a broken wing . " Nevertheless, before her death at the age of sixty seven, this bird with the broken wing was responsible for the foundation of more than a dozen Reform convents; she served several terms .as prioress; she acted unofficially as spiritual director for many priests and sisters (for women in those days the role had to be unofficial); she was the author of several solid volumes on the spiritual life. And she was a mystic. One could do a similar, profile of St. John of the Cross, to the same effect. He died at the age of forty-nine, after a full life as a 6ontemplative. A prolific and profound writer, he is better known as mystic than he is as theologian, reformer, spiritual director and confessor, administrator. And yet it was these tasks that consumed his energies, that accounted for his imprisonment, poor health, and untimely death. An"accomplished poet ,whose lyrics reveal the mysterious rhythm of his spirit, he was also a writer 6f practical pros~e. He was capable of mystical poetry that was ap-propriately elusive and at the same time concrete: When the breeze blew from the turret Parting his hair He wounded my neck, With his gentle hand . He was also the author of stark precepts: "Endeavor to be inclined always not to the easiest, but to the most difficult; not to the most .delightful, but to the harshest; not to the most gratifying, but to the less pleasan,t; . desire to enter into complete nudity, emptiness, and poverty" . .I.n poetry and precept, he, too, knew that what the Lord desires is works. ¯ St. Ignatius of Loyola, another man of action~ demonstrated, too, the compatibility between mysticism and ministry. Unlike the Carmelites Bird With a Broken Wing / 111 Theresa and John whose actions seemed to flow from their mysticism, Ignatius' mystical experience, it seems to me, emerged from his action. In all three of these saints, there was, nevertheless, a mutuality between prayer and service. On a more contemporary scene we have Thomas Mer-ton who~e last years, and last books, suggest, too, a proportionate growth between contemplation and outward reach. The point seems evident. An authentic mystical experience does not begin and end in itself, nor does it begin and end in self and God. While a genuine encounter of this sort will, as St. Theresa tells us in the sixth mansion of The Interior Castle, create an ambivalence (on the one hand, the soul seeks much solitude; on the other "it would like to plunge right into the heart of the world . ") the final option is usually for service. In the seventh mansion, the ultimate of the mystical life, St. Theresa says of mystics, '~They have now ari unusually strong desire to serve Him . So what they desire.now is not merely not to die [the "delectable pain" of the sixth mansion was accompanied by a desire for death, and thus union] but to live for a great many years and to suffer the severest trials, if by so doing they can become the means whereby the Lord is praised." To "become the means" is perhaps what Christian mysticism is all about. Itis what prayer is all about. Whatever methods God chooses to use in cultivating us as his ~means is not the issue. Whether our prayer is like the songs of Blake on his deathbed ("They're not mine, you know. They're not-mine,''~ he said, implying, again, a current of mystical grace), or whether our prayer is the solid, structured meditation of prelude and point does not matter. Whether we are contemplatives seeking to clarify our service, or apostolic religious trying t.o deepen our action by prayer, perhaps does ri'ot matter either. It seems as erroneoog to say that all mysticism is an evasion of reality as.it is to say that we are all c~alled to be. mystics. Service is no more a contradiction in the life of a Christian mystic than mysticism is in ¯ the life Of an apo.stolic religious. History defies such.myths. It seems clear that while Christian mysticism ~s alw_ays characterized by service, Christian service need not be rooted in mysticism. It seems, clear, too, then, that the most practical of us in. the Church today have nothing to fear from an increase of Christian mysticism. That would mean, in effect, a fear of an ¯ increase of charity. In the contemporary drama "The Belle 6f Amherst," Julie Harris re-cords sensitively the insight of another poet, Emily Dickinson (no less eccentric than Blake)as she listens intently to a.warbler on a bush. Emily asks, "Why are y~ou singing, when there is no one here to listen?" The. warbler replies, "I was born to sing." With this, Ern, ily is affirmed as a poet. Watching the bird in flight, she says, "I, too, was born to sing.'" And so it is with each of us, whether we sing (or pray) as warbler or poet. Ministry in the Church and a Structural Concern for Justice Francis X. Meehan Father Meehan is Associate Professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary; Overbrook; Philadelphia, PA 19151. Much has been written recently about theologies of social concern. This article is not an effort to review those theologies. Rather it aims simply to point out some very mainstream considerations on social justice as it per-tains to the Church. Its original context was an ecumenical gathering of Church leaders, and this revision attempts to keep a focus on those social insights that are by now practically consensus teaching. In any consideration of the Church and social justice one must start by citing both the clear problem and the challenge. The problem surely is that we have not been as outstanding as we should have been. Barbara Ward in a booklet written for the Vatican Commission Justice and Peace speaks of guests who are invited to the banquet but have other things to do. She then touches upon the key problem for Christians in developed societies; namely, the problem of not being exposed in any concrete way to massive poverty and of therefore not developing a prophetic voice. She says: In this general climate of indifference, the Christian does not yet stand out as prophet or catalyst. All too many of us aresimply relatively fortunate citizens who., are not exposed to the massive, growing miseries at the base of the world society. We are proving, if proof were needed, that it is very difficult for wealthy societies, like families or individuals, to get through the eye of the needle (The Angry Seventies, p. 61). 42 Ministry in the Church and a Structural Concern for Justice The Challenge Barbara Ward as an economist devoted to human life has given an example of single-mindedness. Throughout her wril~ing she remains hope-ful. She knows well the challenge yet she sees no reason why the Christian community cannot be a worldwide "catalyst of energy, devotion and re-form." She articulates the challenge in a way that sets the focus of this paper: ¯ . . if, then, with courage and persistence and the energy of true hope, Christian citizens are ready in season and out of season, to lobby legislators, rally voters, instruct fellow citizens, worry the indifferent, encourage the active and create a new kind of justice and world responsibility in the Church and in the nations, the world may be saved from the evident wrath to come (pp. 62-63). Notice she asks for a new kind of justice and world responsibility in the Church. Thus she speaks not merely of giving food to a hungry man, but of "lobbying legislators" and "rallying voters." If we take a look at official Church teachings over a long range, we can see in this past one hundred .years one broad and obvious evolution. It is a movement that is very well summarized in that key article of the Pastoral Constitution: The Church in the Modern World, that underscored social concern: Profound and rapid changes make it l~articularly urgent that no one, ignoring the trend of events or drugged by laziness, content himself with a merely individualistic mo-rality. It grows increasingly true that the obligations of justice and love are fulfilled only if each person . . . promotes and assists the public and private institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life (n. 30). It is fitting that such words should be in a document concerned with the Church's relation with the world. For here, too, there is an evolution of awareness. The Church's moral concern gradually becomes, in the social documents of the last century, not only a concern over individual salvation, but also over the collec.tive future. She recognizes that certain structures of history are man-made and that Christians therefore must have a respon-sibility not only for individual men, but also for structures of history. The Church must not be worldly, but she is in the world and has a responsibility for the world. Perhaps such an evolution could be understood by pointing to one man's autobiography as a metaphor. I think the life of Thomas Merton capsulizes a whole movement of the Church. This journey of the Church is symbolized so very aptly by Merton's monastic journey. It has often struck me that his own evolution as a monk said something to us about a model of holiness in the Church of our day. A recent thesis by Sister Elena Maltis makes this point more systematically.~ She cites Merton writing, in his early work, Waters of Siloe: ~"Thomas Merton: Symbol and Synthesis of Contemporary Catholicism." Critic, Spring, 1977, pp. 26 ff. 44 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 It [monastic life] takes a man above the terrors and sorrows of modern life as well as above its passing satisfactions. It elevates life to a superhuman level to the peace of the spiritual stratosphere where the storms of human existence become a distant echo and do not disturb the center of the soul--no matter how much they may rage in the senses and the feelings (p. 28). Then she cites the later MertOn who, in his workFaith and Violence, writes with different images of the monastic life: My :own peculiar task in my Church and in my world has been that of the solitary explorer who [instead of jumping on all the latest bandwagons.at once] is bound to search the existential depths of faith in its silences, its ambiguities, and in those certainties which lie deeper than the bottom of anxiety. It is a. kind of submarine life in which faith sometimes mysteriously takes on the aspect of doubt.when, in fact, one has to doubt and reject conventional and superstitious surrogates that have taken the place of faith. (p. 30). Notice holy Mertonno longer conceives of himself as above and beyond the world. He is not in a stratosphere above the terrors and sorrows of modern life, but now, at the bottom of things where the phrase "submarine life" becomes a dominant image. His very spirituality of the 1940's does not cease, but in the 1960's it is a spirituality that takes integrally within itself the role of social criticism. He sums up who we are in the Church today when he says~: That I should have been born in 1915, that I should be the contemporary of Auschwitz; Hiroshima, Viet Nam and the Watts riots, are things about which 1 was not first consulted. Yet they are also events in which, whether I like it or not; I am deeply and personally involved (Contemplation in the World of Action, p. 145). What is central here is not only that a man's spiritual journey should lead him to the welfare of our fellow humans. Indeed this is true of all the saints. But what is central is that now such a spiritual journey leads also to a structural concern for others. Merton is implicated in the world's move-ment. He is, and we are, and the Church is, not only helping others socially in the world as a static theatre, but taking responsibility for the very move-ment of the world itself, for the very milieu of humankind. And the point of this article is that such an hwareness is now flowering in the Church and we ought not to miss it or take it for granted. Perhaps a concrete example will help us see more clearly. In 1830 a French pastor of good will may have courageously preached to factory owners that they must give their wo~kers a living wage. But what he could little understand was what Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman called the "social construc-tion of reality." In other wqrds, reali.ty had been constructed by humans themselves in such a way that ifa converted factory owner did pay a living wage, he would go out of business because of the competition. What was needed was--as we know today--a new construction of reality, namely some empowerment of the workingman through unionization. NotKze that such a new reality had to be created not only to allow workers to achieve . Ministry in the Church and a Structural Concern for Justice / 45 just wages, but also to allow an employer to pay a just wage while remaining competitive. Such an element of structural justice was recognized by Leo XIII when he said in Rerum Novarum that even though someone made an agreement, such an agreement (contract) could be invalid because of the unequal bar-gaining positions. In Leo's teaching we see the beginnings of an awareness in the Church of the meaning of a structural reality in morality. Justice is denied not only by the individually greedy man, but through the inheritance of circumstances embedded in social systems. Application to Ministry In the last eighty years such an insight has developed richly in Church teaching. John XXIII in Mater et Magistra and Paul VI in Populorum Progressio applied the teachings to inequalities inherent in relations with the Third World. There have even been some high points of pastoral ap-plication in the Church. For example it remains the glory of the American Church that she (unlike some of her European sister-Churches) did by and large keep faith with the immigrant workers in her midst. Yet while the insight is old enough to trace to even before Leo, it nevertheless remains a new insight in need of fresh application in many areas of social concern. Most of all it calls for fresh application in the Church's ministry. Ministry must concern itself not only over individual conversion, not only over healing hearts, but also over healing structures. Otherwise the healed heart will be unable to inscribe its fruit of justice on the world itself. In Reinhold Niebuhr's classic terms, "moral man" ~will remain powerless and ineffectual in an "immoral society." The word structure is not always an easy term to understand, It has many meanings in many contexts. A helpful articulation of a meaning sufficient for our purposes here is one given in the statement of the Appa-lachian Bishops. They speak of how the forces of corporate giants become perverted, and destructive growth patterns develop.The principle of ~'max-imization of profit" becomes an idolatrous power. Then they give a clear understanding of what an evil structure does: This power overwhelms the good intentions of noble people, it forces them to com-pete brutally with one another. It pushes people into "conspicuous consumption" and planned obsolescence. It delivers up control to a tiny minority whose values then shape our social structures. Then they point out how difficult it is for good individuals to change things when structures militate against change. We know that there are many sincere business people, zealous reporters, truthful teachers, honest law enforcement officers, dedicated public officials, hard working lawyers and legislators, who try to do a good job. But we know too that, the Way things are set up, it's hard for good people to do a good job. Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 Such an insight by the bishops into structural evil corresponds to con-temporary insights into scriptural understandings of the powers of evil. The simple phrase, ~'. the way things are set up, it's hard for good people to do a good job," is a perfect way to describe what theologians today mean by "'the situation of sin." So the power of evil becomes autonomous and embeds itself into structures. These structures entrap us. They tend not to draw good from us but to draw out our worst--sometimes despite good will to the contrary. We have what some see here as one perspective on the original-sin tradition in the Church. Obviously, then, the work of redemp-tion, in which Jesus has given his Body the Church a certain share, must include a healing of this history of sin. Thus the very baptismal function of induction into a saving community implies a ministerial work to heal struc-tures. The Domain of Gospel Ministry and Arthur Simon's Parable The foregoing ushers into focus a problem, namely, how can work for structures remain a gospel work and not merely become a social-secular work. Arthur Simon, the founder and leader of Bread for the World, a Christian Citizens Movement for world food resources, tells a parable that helps us understand this problem of placing work for structures into min-istry. The parable is basically this: Once there was a farming town that could be reached by a narrow road with a bad curve in it. There were frequent accidents on the road especially at the curve, and the preacher would preach to the people of the town to make sure they were Good Samaritans. And so they were, as they would pick the people up on the road, for this was a religious work. One day someone, suggested they buy an ambulance to get the accident victims to the town hospital more quickly. The preacher preached and the people gave, for this was a religious work. Then one day a councilman suggested that the town authorize building a wider road and taking out the dangerous curve. Now it happened that the mayor had a farm market right at the curve on the ~oad and he was quite against taking out the curve. Someone asked the preacher to say a word to the mayor and the congregation next Sunday about it. But the preacher and most of the people figured they had better stay out of politics; so next Sunday the preacher preached on the Good Samaritan Gospel and en-couraged the people to continue their fine work of picking up the accident victims. The parable illustrates what Paul Ricoeur says about man's new aware-ness, namely an awareness of being in relationship with others in structured ways, i.e. not merely as "neighbor" but as socius. Father Chenu, the French Dominican, calls it the.new way of charity. He says that man has always been social, but he adds: Today, not accidentally but structurally the collective event lends scope and intensity to the social dimension--human love treads these lasting paths, these organizations Ministry in the Church and a Structural Concern for Justice / 47 of distributive justice, and these administrative systems (in G. Cottier et al., eds., Eglise et pauvret~, 1965, p. 174). The problem then is very real. When is ministry for life religious and gospel, and when does it become secular? What work for life is natural and what is supernatural? What is gospel and what is humanism? The questions are age-old. And without presuming that the Church today has completely solved the problem, I do think a good part of the answer is already within the Church's official grasp and official teaching. In official meetings and synods, papal and episcopal teachings have addressed the problem and have given us enough of a theological answer to go on. Let us just cite chosen, illustrative texts from the Catholic context. First, the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World has many comments on the subject. But one celebrated sentence is as follows: While we are warned that it profits a man nothing if he gain the whole world and lose himself, the expectation of a new ean.h must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one . Earthly progress must be carefully distinguished from the growth of Christ's kingdom. Nevertheless, to the extent that the former can contribute to the better ordering of human society, it is of vital concern to the kingdom of God (n. 39). The World Synod of Bishops of 1971 and 1974 both dealt with the problem. The famous statement of 1971 said this: Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel, or, in other words, of the Church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation. And in 1974 Pope Paul after citing the danger of losing the religious di-mension of our mission says this: There is no opposition or separation, therefore, but a complementary relationship between evangelization and human progress. While distinct and subordinate one to the other, each calls for the other by reason of their convergence towards the same end: the salvation of man. The continuity of the two Synods is sharply manifested in the Human Rights document of the '74 Synod. There the Bishops used a theology of the Divine Image and taught that the "integral development of persons" makes clearer in man the divine image. Then they say: Hence, she [the Church] believes firmly that the promotion of human rights is required by the gospel and is central to her ministry. Summarizing this brief set of quotes we can say that healing structures of irreverence for life and of injustice is part of the ministry of the Church because such healing is "of vital concern to the kingdom of God" (Gaudium et Spas), "a constitutive dimension of preaching the Gospel" (Synod '71), "required by the gospel arid central to the Church's ministry" (Synod '74). 41~ / Re~iew for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 Why take time to cite these examples of official documentation? First, awareness that such insights are now mainstream official teachings will keep us from being intimidated by those who would accuse us of humanism or of becoming social agencies. ' But more than that: it is to underscore that the concern for structural justice and the concern to place the struggle for structural justice within the mission of the Church is not merely a concern of a Daniel Berrigan, of a Helder Camara, or of a Latin American theologi~an, but rather it is official and central teaching within the Church. Most of all it is a matter of rejoicing that such an insight is found not only in official teaching, but is making its way into the popular religious psyche of our.people. At the Eucharistic Congress, when people struggled to touch Mother Theresa, they were struggling to touch, in this case, not someone known for mystic gifts such as Padre Pio, but someone known for simply picking men up offthe sti'eets of Calcutta. But more than that, the people also welcomed Dom Helder Camara. And those who knew his history, knew that his life has been a different struggle from that of Mother Theresa. Dom Helder symbolizes .not just an enormous interpersonal love for the weak, but also the struggle for justice against systems of dependence and exploitation. Dom Helder in the midst of his talk at the Philadelphia Civic Center walked over, picked up and embraced Mother Theresa. I like to think this embrace was more than a kinship of courageous people. Rather I see a symbol of two forms of ministries-in-the-Church meeting and embracing. And in a way, Dom Hel~ler's emphasis is a struggle that poses the most important challenge to Church leaders. His work is less clear, more risky, more apt to provoke misunderstanding even among one's own people, and yet all the more urgent today. The Problem of .Ambiguiiy Yet this ministry .that attempts to heal structures has a special problem connected with it. I would term it the problem of ambiguity. Many Church leaders can agree that gospel includes work for human life and human rights--even structural work. But they rightly fear choosing certain con-crete options that commit the Church to one economic or political view that may riot be the only valid Christian view. The point of Paul Ramsey'.s work Who Speaks for the Church? was to purify us of easy assumptions that the charism of leadership will lead us to right decisions in the complex area of socio-economic and political affairs. So there is a special need for a humility and tentativeness that, in the words of Paul VI, "will rid action of all inflexibility and sectarianism" (Coming Eightidth n. 48). We do not wish to preach our own ideology, but Christ crucified. So we seek to avoid easy partnership. This is a common caution perhaps needed today. But I would like to accent another side to the issue that sometimes Ministry in the Church and a Structural Concern for Justice goes unaccented. Namely, that not always what appears to be neutral ground is really neutral. And sometimes when the Church refi'ains from taking sides in an issue, for fear of partisanship, she sometimes, willy-nilly, by not taking a side has taken a side. Another way of saying it is simply that sometimes our silence speaks loudly. This may not be an everyday occa-sion, but it does happen that situations become radicalized to the point where there just is not ample neutral ground in which a large institution can find room. Historical examples may be easiest here. In the Germany of th~ 1930's was there a political neutral ground? Can we not at least in hindsight recognize that what looked like neutral ground was not so neutral? There was a personal heroism of many priests, ministers and bishops, yet in the episcopal statements of the German hierarchy (in the words of Gordon Zahn) there was "not even a hint of any question, of whether or not the Hitler war effort met the conditions set for a 'just war' " (cited in Paul Hanley Furfey, The Morality Gap, p. 13). Another example. In the bombings of Hamburg of July-August, 1943, the dead numbered 30,000. The raids on Dresden of February, 1945 killed some 135,000. On March 9 and 10 the raids over a four mile residential district of Tokyo are estimated to have killed 84,000. On August 6 and 9 the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed an estimated 68,000 and 38,000 respectively. My point here is that the killing of noncombatants was even at that time, clearly recognized as evil. Yet one can find no significant corporate criticism of these actions. Moreover, despite Pius XlI's pleas to statesmen for a negotiated peace, no official Catholic spokesmen gave sustained'protest against the allied policy of unconditional surrender--an omission John Courtney Murray called a "classic example" of a failure to apply moral principles. ¯ A third example concerns racism and segregation in this country. It could be summed up in a symbol. The symbol is contained in the words of Leander Perez, political boss of Plaquemines Parish in New Orleans. He was, you may remember, the man excommunicated for his opposition to the integration of the parochial schools (a courageous act .ot~ Archbishop Rum-mel). But Perez' comment was "How come we could have slaves, separate schools and churches for these Negroes for ages and ages and now all of a sudden it's a sin?" (see Paul Hanley Furfey, The Morality Gap). The point in all of these questions is not historical Monday morning quarterbacking. Indeed even at the time of these incidents there were clear teachings already in the mainstream of Catholic thought--teachings that were not applied. The point is that the Church took stances that at the time m. ay have seemed to be stances of moderation or may have seemed to be prudent neutral ground. But now we know they were not, Rather they appear to have been examples of an immigrant Church so anxious to be " established that it became absorbed in the zeitgeist of the times, and so lost its prophetic voice. 50 / Review for Religious, Volume 37, 1978/1 The main point is this: we may be right in our anxiety that the Church not be pulled into partisan blocs, in our anxiety not to provoke undue division in the Church by too quickly identifying one social option as the gospel option. But we must be careful not to allow this anxiety to bring us to a silence that really is an unwitting speaking in behalf of the status quo. There is a corollary to this problem. It concerns the matter of com-petefice. Often times it is stated that the Church or a churchman cannot speak on an issue because it is so complex and specialized. Surely we must be careful of easy and abrupt position-taking in the complex areas of so-ciooeconomics and international politics. But the deeper question must always be asked. Namely why is it that at times we choose certain areas in which to be competent, to research care-fully and to locate manpower and resources and other areas in which we do not? We must always ask ourselves what might be our cultural and theo-logical biases that predispose us to give certain questions a priority. Too many good Germans said they could not protest because, after all, they really did not know enough. Dualisms That Lead to Neglect Sometimes a certain idea about ministry can lead a man of good will to neglect a certain gospel reverence for life. For example, I am sure that the chaplains of institutions in which recent press releases have exposed cruel treatment would be men of good will. But if they observed some of the same things newspaper reporters saw, and if they did not complain in any effec-tive way, we must ask how did they conceive their ministry? What kind of dualisms between soul and body, between spiritual and physical, between creation and redemption must have been going on in their understanding of ministry? Has speaking in behalf of ill-treated mental patients, ill-treated children, ill-treated elderly in profit:making nursing homes, ill-treated pris-oners, ill-treated h