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"With eight maps re-drawn from 'The Eastern Boundaries of Poland.'" ; Mode of access: Internet.

Scales of maps vary from 1 : 75,000,000 to 1 : 150,000,000. ; Includes maps of the world showing physical, political, economic and social aspects, prepared by the Office of the geographer, Department of state, by the Office of strategic services, and by the American geographical society of New York, on the sinusoidal equal area and Miller cylindrical projections. International boundaries are as of 1937. ; Caption title. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Several political controversies began with the organization of the territorial government of Washington in 1854, grew in intensity with the passage of years, and did not end on the proclamation of statehood in 1889. Among such controversies was the fight for the location of the capital. In fact, contention over the location of the seat of territorial and state government did not cease until the completion of the capitol building in 1927. During the interval of seventy-three years many efforts were made to relocate the capital, and at some time in this period nearly every important city within the present boundaries of the state made plans or entertained hopes to become the capital. Possession of the seat of government would make a place in the sun for the city which could acquire and retain it. The records show how closely several cities came to winning it, and how one city had the prize within its grasp, only to lose it through a legal technicality. [Courtesy of JSTOR. Posted with permission from Pacific Northwest Quarterly.]

Issue 3.6 of the Review for Religious, 1944. ; for Reh NOVEMBER ~! 5, 1944 t '~ (~°uesfions. Answered,' I Ind~=x tOVolumeThree ,~ ":RE, I EW "FOR R G-IOUS ¯ , "VOL0~ I~I - NOVEMBFR I~, 19.44 - No. 6., CONTENTS- ~ PIUS XII ON BIBLE STUDIES Clemen~J. MeNa.sp~, S.J .3.6.1 SCRIPTURE IN,THE CHRISTMAS LITURGY~Robert G. North, S.J. 3~68 '~. BOOKLET NOTICES '. .~. . ~t~OOM FOR THE EBONY CHRIST?John E.! Coogan, S.J. 377 ~ OUR CONTRIBUTORS " A HUNDR'ED YEARS OF' APOSTOLIC PRAYER~ Alban J. Dachauer. S.J .~. 385 . THE DEGREES' O~: PRAYER~Edward J. McNally, S.J .391 BOOKS RECEIVED , . . . . ~ . " ; . 40l RELIGIOUS PROFESSION: A SECOND BAPTI~M?~Ja~es E.RIsk, S,3,,,, ;~.402 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS~ - -._ , Abbreviating'the Postulancy: Obligation~ to go to Ordinary Confessor: " Commut~)ty Doctbr and Secrecy: ~Dispensa~tion from Eucharistic Fast: ~ Obligafion of Novice to make a Will: Converts and Ent~'ance into Reli- , g~on: Use bf Money given for Specified Purpose: PortiuncuJa~ Indulgence i~ Churches of Third Order Regular: Holding Bd'ads, for Cr6zier Indul-gence: Time for Saying. Little O~ce:" Questioning of Boys by So¢ial~" Workers: Novitiate without Isolation or.Novice Mistress: Transfdr from ¯ " Activ~ to Cloistered Instit~ute: Re-admission to Religious Life; Division of Institute into Provinces. ~.- " . . . . 410 BOOK REV, IEWS (Edited by Clement DeMuth, S.J.) ° . The Ascetical Life: A World to Re¢gnst~ruct; Paul of Tarsus: The Pas-torabCar( of'Souls: Molders 6f the Medieval Mind: Canonical Procedure in Martimonial Cases: Voll II, Informal Procedure: Abridgment ,of the Interior Spirit of the Religious of the Visitation: Maryknoll~ Missi6n Let-terL Vol. I, 1944": Dea¢onship: Conferencel on the Rite of OrdinatiOn; Our Lady's Praise in Poetr~ . " . ' ~ . 42 INDEX TO VOLUME III. ' . ; ~ . 42'8 "~ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. November. 1944. Vol. III. No. 6.: Publish¢d bi-monthly: ~lantlary. March. May. duly. September. and November at the College Press, 606 Harrison Stfeet, Topeka, Kansas, by St. Mary'~s College, St. Marys; " Kansas, with ecclesiastical al~prob;ition. Entered as second class matter danua~y 1942, at the Post Office, Topeka, Kansas; under the act of March 3, 1879. ~Editoria[_Board: Adam C. Ellis, S.d., G. Aughstine Ellard, 8.J., Gerald Kelly, "~.~I,~ Copyright. 1944. b~ Adam C. Ellis. Permission is hereby,granted for'quotations of reasonable I~ngth, provided due credit be given this review and the aut-l~r~. SubScription price: 2~dollars a year: Printed in U. S. A. Before writin(J to us. please consult notice ~n inside back cover. Pius XII on'. Bible $ udies Clemer~t J. McN.aspy, S.J. ~.~,IHEN Rome speaks it is always news: when Rome ~W ¯ speaks in the solemn form of an encyclical it ~is l~ead- line ne~s, But whim" the,Holy. Father gives a pro- , nouncement on Scripture, the whole Catholic learned world feels especially, concerned. It is .now-just .over a year since ,o-the Pope sent out his.encyclical on Bible" studies, called by its oPCning words Divino.A~ante Spi.rim (that is, "Under ,th~ Inspiration of theDivine Spirit':'~). Even, before actuhl. copies We.re available in America.interest was so higla~that 'arti~les beg~,n appearing ~n Catholic, publications of: all ,tyises . -: T~ue,. this encyclical;is~.lar~ge!y directed .to pri~sfs, seminarians, arid theology teachers, Whose. profdssion plainly'has to. do with preachi~ng and studying God's ii~Si~ired word. Yet. the H01y Father speaks to the lait~ 'too and invites them to become outstanding in studies d.eal.ing with the Bible. For they too can "render a. con-spicuous service to the Christian cause." ' ¯ ". . Bi'shops are urged fo "effcourage all th,6se initiatives by ivhi~h men . . . laudably strive to excite and foster among ,.Catholics a greater, knowledge of and love for th~ SacrCd Books." They are to favor '.'those pious associations whose aim it is, to spread copies of ~theoSacred Letters, especially of. the Gospels, among the Faithful and to pr6cur~ by every means that in Christian families the same be read daily, with .~piet~r and devotion." All the more would this seem-to apply to religious 7families," particularly th6se whosd regular program of ~ s~tudies-d~es not a11ot,c.ourses in Scr!pture. To. use the Holy_ Father's words again, if the faithful "are to be nourished CLEMEN'I~ ~J. ~ MeNASPY -~ " Review ~ fo~ Religious °with .thiS same food that:they may, draw fro'~ thence~the~¯ khowle~dge and"lov~ ~f-God a~nd."t~he pr?gress~mperfectton and' the happiness of their own souls," evidently h~does not mean to exclude those striving to live the very~of~ulness of the Christian life:~ - The new encyclical'~is now easily available. Tran~l~- tionshave.appeared in rr;any dio(esan newspapers; th, e May oissue.-of The Catholic Mind c6ntains one, which is being* publish_ed in, pamphlet~ form by America Pres r ry n fafe .cat i v e prayer. ~ ;- o Is there .a ~ype of contemplativ'e~ prayer, wl~kh we can - bring about at leasi: partially by. our'own efforts? It is importar~t to grasp the question at issue" here. Since ~all: me~ritorious prayer requires grace for its performance, we _~are2not ihquiring into our :ibility, to contemplate ,~'ithofit gr~ic~, but Whether, by utilizing the graces which are2avail, -~able. ~to all Christians, we can positively, help in building 6ur owns.ability to pra_y contemplativ~ly. The contra.ry sfippositio~n is that all contemplation, is infused and that we are restricted to-remov.igg the obstacles to such pra~ye?~ Then ~t would be given, finally as. a pure gift of God ~"-. 6ut any infallible causal 'connection with 0hr preparator~r acts. The atlthors v~e are following maintain that there °~n acquired contemplation. Father DeGuibert cites, f~r :thi~ ~ ~po~ition such le~di~ig auth6rities asoSt. Thomas Aquinai,i-~. St. Teresa, and St. 3bhn of the Cross. Experience confirms this teaching and reason would-lead. us.to expect it, For just as in " natural sdehce and ,philosophy when one has become thoroughly, familiar with his subject, he c~an find.mental repose in contemplating the ' ~rderliness 6f the system oftruths he hSs learned, so ih th~ ~bnsideration of the truths of faith, one. would be prone.to ,-,_~ @pect~ that a similar stage Would be reached iri due time2 The practical moment of holding this position is tl~at it~ .-founds the~convic~ion . that contemplatige prayer, admit-.~ .tedly a most efficacious means of spiritual progress, ~s ~. wlthin, the grasp of all and will certainly l~e our~,~ provided. w~ make the necess~ary efforts. _ . >. Method in Disdursioe Prag~r ~ ' 0f~ the forms ~of pi:a~rer thus far considered, discursive. EDWARD.:J. MCNALLY . ~ Reoietu for Religious~ ,, prayer is the only 6ne which may properly bE said,t~ be ~ go~rerned~ by method: These methods have been worked " °out in accord wiith~sup~rnatural prudence and so do" not oppose, obht work' alon~g with, the 0.pera.tions 6f ~race," At' all times it is to be borne in mind that they.are intended' as means to subserve God's _sanctifying influence ~upon the. " soul and-are to be adhered to precisely in the degree that they are helpful to this end. Gerierally speaking, the use of ¯ method°is a real need for those beginning to pray mentally. Not infreq,u~ntly also those who have been p.raying-for., some~years are still unabie at times to make~ use of the ~. simpler forms of prayer profitably; in such cases method sh6uld be followed; ' We find that the various methbds of prayer in use~in the Church ,possess certain common elements. Thus, all methods-insist on ~he importance of the remote prepara-ti0n)~-, This is summed up. by Father De Grandmaison as follows. One ought always sinceiely to pu~ the thin'igs~'of' "God in the highest placd. He shohld trust that intimate friendship with God is possible and relatively easy. should practise self-denial. It will make prayer easy if ond seeks God:in all things, practises interiorsilence~ and tries to put. on the sentiments of Christ Himself. " : 0 ~ According to.-the Ignatian methOd, .which is quite. widely practised today,, the proximate preparation iricludes ¯ a choice of material for prayer.- It shows reverence for God 15y~spending 'some time beforehand in fixing on what we .are to consider in prayer. Furthermore, "the pray~er itself is mdre deeply r~cdllected as a result,-since the entire time of °~rayer can be' spent i~n direct relationship with God and not. ~in the extraneous business of deciding what the~prayer is to-be about. For morning prayer, if'khd preparation be made the evening before, this me'thod has the added adv.an.tageof .enlisting the sub~onsci6us activity of the preceding night ih 394 Of humility and re;terence, and a petition for grace to.rn'ake~ -. the prayer weli. The use of a composition off.place is recom- o --* mended if the subject is an event in our Lord's life, in order ~ ihat thus the'one-praying may as it were projedt himself into the scene. Its use in subjects that are not historica!,bi~t ihvisible,, f3r example, a theological truth, is not favored ~by all. Utility to the individual seems to be the final test~'.- 'here. ~ " .THE DEGREES' OF~ PR)gYE~ the cause of'player. Th~ matter :chosen~-should fit the. needs and inclinatibns of~each one:" The start o~f the player .will, include an act of redalling the presence of God, an act~ An important question is" whether a definite~grace~ sl~ould .~" ~- be sought., Here a distinction is ~o ~be made between the time'of making the Spiritual Exdrcisesof St: Ignatius (for "one who.makei t.hem)and, ordinary daily'prayer. Durifig the Exercises, . the petition for the grace appropriate to each~ exercise is clearly essential, since the Exercises are a cohesix;e wtiole wherein each grace prepares for the succeeding . ~n the other hand, in daily prayer such a specific petition is not hlways required. Yet it is well tO make it frequently in -o~der t9 have definite, sp~ritua.1 aims. The dose of the .prayer should be more directly ~concerndd with God and have some bearing on the p~esent day's endeavor. A definite" resolution, however, may not always be needful ~ince th~ prayer is sufficiently prhctical if therd is a general up!.ifting ,of the heart:saffectibns to God or if a clearer grasp of a truth~ of fai~:h be gaine.d. The fbllowing suggestio.n~ g6v- '~rn the" prayer itself: 1) One 'should Stay where one findsdevotton'-' ~and as l~on~ a.~ one does so. ~ .2) Mote value is to be put on ~he affections of the heart and will than on intellectual considerations. - 3) Yet as the will's affections spring from ~hat the mind apprehends, the intellectual acts are not .to.~ be.-, cut 395 ED~CARD" d. ~McNALL¥~ " ~ )- '-~ Reuiew ,f6i- R~liqious "- ~ -short, prematurely:. ~4) The fUil.time'is to. be given to. pra:yer dedpite desola-. "-tibn. ~" 5) Violent efforts to seek devotion should be avoided. In itself, the e~irly morning se~ms the best-time" for-m~ iking mental prayer, sirice at that tim~ the mind is riot ~yet taken up With the responsibilitie~ of thd "day's work. .Yet if fatigue is too noticeable then,.some other tim~ free f.rom ii~ter.ruptions, i~ preferable. -This' latter suggestion. " applies to those for :whom th-~ time of prayer is not fixed' by ': rule. The posture should be the one most suitable to Obtain the fruit.desired and foi.due reverence:" ¯ - Timel~j:Trarldtions to Higher Forms o~ Pr.a~ter ¯ , .It i~-important that.~he transitions, first fr6m discursive to-affective'prayer and then from affective to contemplative :, prayer, occur at the proper times. To dela~; them.too 1,o.ng would be unnecessarily to render prayer tedious.and to fail to take advantage of the grace God intends for the soul. On '~ the other hand, to encourage the affective or contemplative way befor~ the grace for it is offered would be an atte ~mpt" -.c.ertain to fail., Hence it is important for the director to be ¯ able to recognize the Ordinary signs of a call to'these types of .prayer. The .principal test is the one suggested b~r[ St. Teresa, that the prayer rnu.st produce its effect upon the [,whble life of ~he individuaE by making him more humble, mpr¢closely united with God, and more careful to perform-[ well the duties of his state of life. Besides thi~, there~hould be at least equal facility in" the more. advanced-prayer. In addition to these two principal"criteri_a two others will help. -, recognize a call. They are a distaste for' discursiv~ p~aye'r. ~an~. a persistent attraction for affeCtive prayer: These. lat-'. ter t~o.signs may be called supplementary, as they are not ,always present. ~ Sqme personsad'vance early~to affectjveprayer. In such. ~-:~ casesch~e {s ~obe tak4n cha~ 5~ o~her means--for~examPle, - -~:,.6y conferences and re~ding--s~ch p~rsons'attain tothe deep unders[anding and,personal convictions of the great otruths ": ~ " of the-spiritual life and of their obligations that ordinaril~ a~e the result of discursive prayer. ~, -~ Dan~ers to Be A6oided ¯ Even after one is practising affe~tive praCer and shoul~ ~ bd practising it, certain dangers are to be watched fo~: One of these dangerd is a tendency toward too-violent excitgtion 6f affections ~hich usually occurs when one is laying stress on the sensible emotions instead of the will's determination. be ~givefi in order that affective or "contemplative prayer be : ~ ~ ,made with the g~eatest possible fruit. Another danger is that of spiritual gluttony for "sensible. onsolations. This caff le~d to a "neglect.of the duties.of, one's state of life ,in order noYto be deprived of anysensible consolation. There is also daniier Of presumption based on the judgment that one'must.be far ahead of others.spir-~- itually since one is enjoying great intimacy.with God. , Similarly, acquired ,conteinplation is also attended'b~r ~ certain' spiritual darigers. For example, there may be'dejec-. tion. of mind when this contemplation; at first very swe_et,:- o he.crimes arid and tasteless.: Or one may conceive a gr~eat rep~ugnance for making any distinct act.of the mind, such. as reasomng, even though impelled thereto by grace. A~in: dne. m~iy presume to despise 16wet forms o_f. prayer. Fin~ill y, laziness an,do a superficial spiritual life may derive-from a lack of cooperation with the. graces ,of contemplative prayer. ~ Hence. speaking_p~sitive!y, the following advice might 1) Solid and fundamental~ virtues are:to be rather than subjectively, plea~ing experiences. ,2) Greater recollection should be cultivated. :[.3) The examination of.consciefi~e is" to b~ kept up and - gr3ater purity of consci¢.nc.~ sought. " ., 4) No inspirati.on .of g~race should be disobeyed. " Even for those pr.actising these more advanced forms of .,~ : prayer preparation of material is recomm~n~l~d. °This.!may ~be done more simply than formerly. Thus, the subject chosen might merel, y be a' passage from Holy Scripture ~in, event in a saint'slife, or a certain, supernatural affection "of the will[ The Night of the Senses ¯ " -Th, e,final-pre, p~ratiofi of a soui for the gift of habitual rhysti~al" prayer is almost always the first passive nightof" >the soul, known as the nigh.t of the .senses. This is ch~iracte~- ized by a .great ari,dity. There is a simple memory' of God ~hich persists throughou~ prayer. This is the one constant -~ttraction of the mihd and 'it endures more or less inde-~ pehde,ntl~r of the will. S0metlmes .this i"nemory has conso-la'tion in it. '-MUch more commonds a painfu~ and persist-ent need, of a closer union with. GOd. Those who h~re already had some transient experiences w.ith consoling mysticalprayer can define wha't they Want:,,,,it is the return of that prayer flowering in the possession of God. ~,Grace. begins to induce a distasfe for even such sensible:ple~isures as are lawful. The will is free to resist this purifying proc-e~, ss~ and One is tempted to immerse oneself in, excessive indul-~ genceoin sense experience. The proper course tO be.f6.11owed is just,the opposite. Recoll~ktion is to, be presereed, and the "senses mortified.During time of prayer one should be con-tent with the simple, thought of God; this is all. that ongcaff do withOut tooviolent efforts; 0fie should pray for quick "deliverance from this time of trial if it be'God's will. - Distinctive Nature of MqsticalPrager Three qualifies set infused contemplation, apart f~om ¯ " 398 ' Noi~mbec, 19~44 - T~E DI~_aREES OF PRAYeRs-. ~ill ot~er ~rayer. First,'God's 15r~sehce till now l~nbwn dnly b~r:faith seems ~d be expdrienced. It is felt. This conscious-ness of God's presence has beeia e.xpressed analbgously by othqse who have had it as a~fouc14 of God or a Sl:;iritual ta~sting. Only. in.,the more advanced m~stical~ prayer do the analogies~of hearing and sight.0ccur. .Secondly, this ihtui-tion is simple, not bringing any other new knowledge to soul.~ Thirdly, ttie prayer is simply received from ~od, sifice no human efforts can produce it even for a short tinge. Grades of Myst.ical Prayer " Th~e. ar~, according to the authors we are ~fol~lOwing, three principal-stages' of ~mystical prayer:, the "prayer 6f quiet; the prayer of fhll union; and the .tra.n, sfgiming union, also known as the .mystical marriage. The pr~ayer of .quiet may be described as mystical union.in which tlqd ~divine act.ionis not yet strong enough to exclfid~ distrac- =tio~s. -At first,-this prayer will last only for very brief intervals, say for the space of a Hail-Mary. Gradua113~ attains lofiger duration until finally it is Eossessed almost ali the"time that is spent in prayer. . :-~In the, second stage, of mystical~ prayer, known as the prayer of full.union, the experience of God is su~cient!y ~absorbing to preclude all distractions. At first, this prayer tgo is had "only very briefly, though with profound_effedts .upon thb soul. A half an hour is considered rather 1ong.A person gifyed with .this prayer falls back to the. prayer of ~quie~ in the intervals between periods of full union. I~s_ ~rea~tiofi on the body is rfiore or less pronounced, accc~rding ~.~ to, the[temperament of the recipient. I~ can result ii~ ecstasy. Before ,being admitted to.the final stige of mys~tical' praye[: the transforming union, the soul must be further purified: ~. This purgation is effected through~ the.' 399 MCNALL¥ Reoieu~ for ReligiOus passive~i~h(of the soul known~fis tl~e night of the S]~irit. ' This state is not ~without j0y~resultin~ drom the infused 5ontempla~tion of God~ But it is-chiefly characterized-by" very -. great sufferings. Understanding.God's holiness and love in" a~nev~ way, the' soul also perceives the enormity its own ififidelities and conceives "a torturing abhorrence, c~F- ~them. This great sorrow and destestation of its faults~ cleanses the soul from them and so fits it for more exalted union with God. There is at times agreat aridity making ~ prayer seemimpossible. Very_delightful periods of infused contdmplatjon have been experienced, arousing the soul's desire°for more peLfect union with God; now these graces ha,vd:been Withdrawn, leaviffg the. soul without joy and acutely and painfully conscious of its g~eat .need fo p.os-sess God. ~ - - -/~ At-length th~ finai stage of mystical prayer is reached_. ~, This transformingunion or-mystical marriage has ~'th~reeT' distinctive properties. First, it'is almost .permanent; goin~ ,on'practically all the time even amid external activity. Per~ ;~ so/as gifted With this kind of-prayer ~have been impressed witffa Rindof duality within themselves. - The h!gher fac-ulties of the soul are n~early always_ rapt in prayer, while the lower Qnes are capable of engaging in all sorts of work~;" ~I'n~ .some cases this prayer lasts even during sleep. Ecstasy is -rarer than in p@e~eding degrees[ Temptation~and interidr sufferings Occur only infrequ'ently. ~ ~ The second_ property of this _degree of prayer is an, ~xperience of the transformation or divinization of the°~ 16ul. The supernatural divine concurrencegranted to÷soUls, in~ grace becomes the object, of conscious° appreh~nsiom ~. There" is a Sp, ecial percept.ion of union with G0d~ 'an~t all a~t~bns are. consciously performed with Him and through Hiifi. ¯ Thirdl.~, so~e ~ersons gifted With this prayer have an No.tuber, 1~44~ ~ ~ ,~,~ ~THE DI~GREF~ 01~ ~YER :ilmost con--tindous vision ofthe-Blessed Trinity.-St. Teresa: ~---says that~this is always-so. But St. zJohn of the Cross does not merition it and there seem t6 have been cases-of the tr.ansform!n~ union With God as ~ne, without any co_n- ~.~ sciousness df Hiin as Three. ~,The part phyed by the Sacred Humanity of our Lord with regard to this spiritual marriage seems to be that Of !e.ading the soul to if.- The relations,hip.is between the soul ~and the Divinity. In .different recorded instances of this-union,~ the divine r~ature has ~anifested itself more ~learly as identical with the Word or with. the Holy Spirit. ~ _" AI~ very close ufiion of the will with God's Will is ~the~ result of the transforming union. Deliberate'venial sins: are a~most completely excluded. The soul feels that' it' w0uld be imp6ssible to sin serio~usly. Yet there is no cer, o _~aihty that confirmation in graci is granted., St.~3ohn of theCross thinks that it is. ' But~St. Teresa holds that a fall° is possible, since there is no absolute guaranty th;it~ God.wifl continue to hold the $o1~11 so. close to Himself until death. Books Received (From August~O to October ZO) -THE BRUCE PUI~LISHING CO., Milwaukee. A Month o~ Roses. By the Reverend P. H. Fages. O.P. $1:75. Canonical -~Procedure in Matrimonial Cases:, Volume II. Informal Procedure. By .the Reverend William J. Doheny; C.S.C. J.U.D. $8.00.The Man Nearest" io .Christ; By the Reverend F. L. Filas, S.;J. , $L50. B. HERDER BOOK CO., St. Louis. Lent, By-the Reverend Conrad Pepler, O.P. $~.00." P! J.'KENEDY.~ SONS, New York. Three Reliqious Rebels: By the Reverend M~" Raymond, O.C.S.O. ~' Her Silence 8peaks. By the Rey~erend John S.'Middleton0 Ph.D, GROSSET ~,DUNLAP, New York. " $2.7.5. Men o~ Mar~tknol_l. By the Reverend James K~ller and Meyer Berger. Reprint., $1.00. " R li{gi uS pro e Si ~ a ~Seffo~nd Baptism? 3ames:E. Risk, 8.3. .\V! A~ TOLD~in. the liyes', of the early Fathers that . ,~ one of these heroic men behdd in~ vision two persons. . ~' .~receiving the grace of complete remission~ of th~ terdporal phn!s~hm_ e.~.t due to sin. One of these @as a neo- -~" phyte, the'6ther a religious assuming;the habit of .his order. Be it, fact or legend, this represents an opinion'that has held: an honored .place among the traditions, of the .religious life; " .For centuries theologians and spiritual writers have. likened; ' th4 religious profession to baptism or mar~yrdom,both ~which~car, ry with them the immediate and entire remission of the temporal punishment due to sin. 'In an article publishett in a recent issue of this REVIEW i(~Vo!. 3~ p.-28~),, Father McAuliffe explained the notion of _temporal-punishrfient due to'sin and several ways effecting its payment in this life. If the tradition about the" ,expiatory effect of the religiou~s, prqfess~on~s sblidly founded,-theq we hav~;~in the" pronouncing of th~ thr& ,.public vows, still another means Of riddinKour~elves of-o.u'~- ~ debt of temporal punishment. Some commentators on the religious life ~tate that ~the religious, profession hhs the l same expiatqry, effect, as bap- ~ tism or.martyrdom, but th.ey leave us to search for an argu-ment ,in support of this statement,. Som~ ~imply,~est their case on authority,, partic,ularly on St. Thoma~ Aquinas, -~St. Robert Bellarmine, and Suarez. It is the purpose of the pre.sent investigation to test the merits of the 1png-stand, ing tra.dition° by scrutihizing the testimony of these three emi-rient authoriti.es. 402 " REI~IGIOU$ PRO~$IION~A SECOND t~PllSl? ~ The Problem." By the religious profession we understand the pro-nouncement of the~ ,three vows of poverty, chastity,~nd obedience in a religious~institute~approv~ed by the Church. --For the moment we. ate not distinguishing .between the simple and the solemn profession. Our problem .may .stated simply in the form of a question: if a religious, in.th~ state of grac~ and free from attachment to all sin, were to die< immediately after his profession, would, his soul .~be admitted without delay fo the, beatific vision? Let it. be noted from~ the outset that we presci~id-from ~J~e',plenary _indulgence accorded some religious institutes, whereby their ~members enjoy this spiritual favor on the day that they receive the habit or on the day of their profession. Such a grant, for example, was~ made by Pope Paul V in 1606. We are considering the religious l~rofession in itsel~: and inde- ~endently of the_ remission of the~ temporal punishment'- occasioned by the g~:ant of,a plenary indulgence. -. Baptism, or the r~-birtl~ of a person into the life of.- ~ s~nctifying grace, the. sacrament of regeneratiori, remits the entire guilt 9fsin and with it the eternal and tempor.al puff-ishment due~to sin. On the neophyte, no work of satisfac- ~'tion is imposed. The c~ebt i~ cancelled by the grat(Utous applica~ti~n of Christ's own su{Serabundant satisfaction., This complete,liberation from the'bond of sin and its con- _"~equen(penaltie~s follow~ s immediately in virtuedf the per-., formanc~ of the ~baptismal rite, or, in the language of the theologians, ex opere operato. The,remitting effect of bap-~ tism, theiefore, is rather in the nature of a. free gift than one produced by the laborious procedure of personal penitential. acts. , The voluntary act by which the, martyr sheds his blood ~ in testimony bf the faith likewise produces tile entire remis-siofi of the debt oftemporal punishment, even though the 403 _.-' JAMES'E~ RISK . -, - Review for Religio~us martyr should have only 'imp~rfe¢i-¢ont-ritiom This com~ ,,- plete remission; though not the: result of a sacramental rite, ~ iS als6 prodi~ced ex. opere operato, Or as some. would express ~.--it' quasi ex opere .operato. : St~ Robert Bellarniine; in his . treatise on ,Ihdulgenees, explains this, " " ¯ "For it is'clear that martyidom is such a complete.sat-isfaction that it.can make expiation' for the guilt that has been contracted from sins, no;matter how great their num-ber ~and enormity. For, provided~ it i~ certain that .one i~: ' truly a martyr, the Church does not.heSitate to list him . among the saints and blessed, ¯even if before his martyrdom° he hadbeen coveied with many crimes." What, ofthe' religious profession is :it on a level with baptis.m and martyrdom as an e~piatory ag~ht?'" In sol'ring thd problem we gi~e first consideration to the opinion of the Angel Of ,the SchoOls.~ " ~ " ~ -OPinion of St. 7:l~omas o. ,.Commenting, on the relative~merits of the vow to make - a¯ .pilgrimage *and~ that" of entering the religious state, St. Thomas in his Summa Theotogica (2, 2ae, q.~!89, a. 3; ad3) says: ~ "The vow to enter religiom~being perpetual:is greater ~: than thw vow of .pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which is a ," -tempdral 'vow: and as--.Alexander III says, 'He ~wh~ exchanges~a temporary service for the perpetual service of religion is in no way,, guilty of~ breaking his vow.' More, ¯ over it may be reasonhbly staled that alsoby entrance into religion a man obtains remission Of all his sins. F6r if ¯b3i~ giving alms a man ,may forthwith .satisfy for his ~sins, according to Dan. iv, 24, 'Redeem thou thy sins With alms', ~ much more does it suffice to satisfy for all=his sins'that a ~ man ddvote himself wholly to the divine service by entering religion, for this surpasses all manner of satisfaction,- ever~ 404 November, 1944 ~,. REliGIOUS PROF~'S~ION--A SECOND BAP~SM?~ -that ofpublicpenance, acCording to the Decretals,-jus~ as'a holocati~t exceeds a sacrifice, as Gregory declares. Henc~ we read:in the lives of the Fathers that by entering'religion one receives the same grace as by .being baptized. And yet, if- One were not thereby absolved ~from all debt of punish-ment, nevertheless the entrance into religion is more ~profitable than a pilgrimhge to the Holy Land, which, as regards °the advancement in good, is preferable to th~ abso-lution from puriistimen~.''1 In.explo.ring the. probative value of this almost uni~ y;ersally cited passage 6f'the Ange!ic Doctor, i't is well to note carefully thephrases used. Otherwise than some com-mentators ~duld lead ug to believe, Sf. Thomas does not-mention explicitly the religious profession, that is/the .vows taken ~fter the novitiate, or the final profession,. He speaks first of all of the vow to enter religion, a vow there-fore taken before one embraces the religious life. He then ,°mefitionsth4 entering into religion four times, three of which are associated with the .idea of the complete .rem)ssion of ~ins dr of punishment due to sin, namely: l) "'It,may be reasonab, ly stated that also by entrance .into religion a man obtains remission of all his sins.'" 2) '" . . . much more,does it suffice to.sati~fg for all his sins that a man devote himself ,wholl~t to the divine servi'ce bg. entering religion, for this surpasses all manner of satis-faction, even that of public penance. "" , ~ 3 )' "'Hence we read . . . that b~j entering religion one receives the same grace as bq be(n~ baptized.:" ~ " From the° foregoing we may safely say that St. ,Thomas ~held it as highly probable that entrance into religion is ~n act of the hi~hest satisfactory value, capable of deleting the ~Cf.~The_ Summa Theoloqic-a o~ St. Thomas Aquinas, literally translated b~, Fathers of the English Dominican Province. L6ndon: Burns. Oates. and X,Vashbourne. ~V61. 14, pp. 301-302. - ~ o ., 405 JAME~ E: RISK ,a '~" Revie~ for Religious entire: temporal punishment~ due to sihl~ iind this independ-ently' 6f any special indulgences granted by the ~Church. ' Sinie entrai~ce into religion implies tile voluntary~assump-. - tion of a life of perpetual self-restraint from a supernatural motive,, it is more perfect than~a pilgrimage to the Holy. Land, which=implies only temporary hardships; and since ,it implies a complete giving of-self to God, it is more perfedt' ~- than almsgivin.g. Yet both the pilgrimage to theHoly Land and_ almsgiving were considered to have even complete sat-isfactory- value. " [t is true; as w~ noted, that in the text cited St. Thomas speaks only of the vow to enter religion and of entrance into religion; he does not mention the religious profession. -_ itself. Ye~, surely we can ~easonably argue thht if One may .receive complete pardon by entering the religious life, all the more so will he receive such complete condonation by actually pronouncing the vows: Did St. Thomas hold this opinion as certain? From o the text this is not clear. He seems to have made allowance for a contrary opinion when he says: "And yet, even if one were not thereby absolved fr0m~ all debt of punishment, nevertheless the entrance into-religion is more profit-able. " St. Robert Bellarrnine ~ Commenting on the same problem, another Docto~ c;f the Church, St. Robert Bellarmirie, says: ~ '-"Finally we.say, that~ between baptism and the pro~es-sion of religion, there is some similarity. And just_ as in ° baptism the guilt and the punishment of all sins are per-fectly r.emitted, so when the profession.of the religious life is assumed with th~ proper dispositions, it is'piously~ believed that there is remitted the entire temporal punisl~- merit, for which otherwise satisfaction would have to be made, even after the guilt has been forgiven. On-that 406 Novembbr,'1944-~'~ REliGIOUS PROFESSlON~A SECOND B,~PflSM?, acco~un.t, 'however; we _dcf not rate th~ monastic ,~rofession~s~ ahead of baptism, no~ .place, them o~ an.~qual plafie, '. For_ baptism remits hot, only the tJfinishment bur also the guilt, -hrid that we.know for certain. "The monastic profession, however, does not remove the guilt,-but only the punish-ment, and .this we do not. affirm with certainty, but it is our ~pious belief . . . "~ ,From this text emerge the following conclusibns: " )) (~Ve know,/:or certain that one of the effects of the sacrament bf baptism is the perfect remission of all the pun-isl~ ment due to sin. That the asiumlbtion of the obliga;- tions~of the religious life ~effects a, complete condonation of the ~temp0ial punishment is a pious betid and not a certain j 0pinion. - - 2) We do not, therefore, plac~ the religious professio on an equal plane with~ baptism, mudh l~ss do we rank the vows ahead of the sacrament. - .,,. The conclusions of St. Robert here-stated are cor- .roborated-by_an0ther passage of the same treatise in which he-s~ys that the Works properto the religious state; namely~' tO live c_hastely, to retain proprietorship Over nothing~ and to obey_one's superiors are conducive to satisfaction' for one's sins. ' oo . Th6 0pinign of Suarez. . Comme.nting on the,doctrine of St~i Thomas~and o(her great theologians who refer to" the expiatory capacity of the ~rehg~6u.s profession, Suare~ conte'nds: 1 ) It is rash to assert.that the religious professio~ pr~o-du& s'its propitiatory effect in sacramental fashion. (that is, ex o-pete operato), for the tradition of the Churchoand the . ~estimony of the Fathers-~offer. us no ihformation on the "~ subject. 2Controuersiatum de Membris Ecdesiae, lib. II. cap. VI. ~'~ . 407 r ~eO~ew for Religious 2) "The ai~thors inentioned m.er.ely teach-that-this. ~raceds diyinely granted tothe profession, so that,if any~- one haakes~it in.the.state of grace~ the entire debt of tem-poral punishment is remitted him. [This come~] from the divine generosity or from a ~ort of gratitude~, even though. he.would not otherwise make satisfaction proportionate the guilt. This assertion I admit to be pious.and probable, because 0~ the authority 9f the do~tors of such standing, because "it favors the religious state,.and because 'it seems fi_tting ~hat God will show that liberality, towards a friend Who has given his all to Him.' However, I admit that I dd not see a ~ufficiently Cogent proof. For St. Thomas makCs nb~ menti,on of either~h privilege or of.~divine generosity, "bu't endeilvo~rs to base :~thls effect [of "the-profession] on the excellence of that act.''a Suarez, then, ad~nits the. probability of this opinion because 6f th4 number of great theologians who see in the act of ~ssu ,ruing the religious state, or at least in the consum-mate geneio~ity of the profession, a~work of such merit to gain the condonation of the entire debt of temporal pun-ishment: Of the c~rtaint~.t of this opinion~ however, h~ remains unconvinced: The Simple Profession F~llowing the lead of these, and other, 4mi~n~nt tb'eo-logians, we may consider it as highly probable tl~at, in vir-: ttie of the self-surren~der made in the perpetual prc~f~ssion, the religious, like the neophyte or the martyr, obtains tl~e perfect remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, provided he is in the state of grace and free from attach- ~inent to sin. " May this conclusion, which we accept "as reason;ible, apply ti~ the simp!e as well. as to the solemn pr6fession? A~, ~Opera Ornnia, vol. XV. lib. ~rI, cap~ XIII. n. 6. 408 " ;Nooember, f944"< " ~ RELIGIOUS PROFESSION.-~A SECOND BAPTISM~ " the time°of St. Thomas~ whom so many authors cite as' an ,;~thorlty, the solemn p'rofe~ssion was the only°.~form, of profession kn6wn,. The approval of the simRl~ religiou_s profession, occasioned by the founding of the'Society .of -~ 3.esus about three centhries later, marked a decided :depar- " ~ ture from the existing law that the religious vows should be exclusively solemn. Hov~ever, it appears justifiable to at~t, ribute that same expiatory quali~y, to the perpetual; -'simple profession, for according to the present disposition- - of the Church, the juridicaldifferences between the simple ,_ and the solemn profession little affect the actual prosecution ~3f one's-quest for perfection in the cloister." The demerit ot~ self.surrender, the factor that probably effects tl~is remis-sion, ~s going to be qmte the same in both cases. The a~gu . ments eipressed above.should .be as applicable to the one ÷ form of profess!o~ as the other. COMMUNICATIONS? When possible, we like to have a Communications section in the REVIEW. We "think that (his adds interest and practical value. However¯ as we hav~ stated before. w-e prefer to direct the communications towards a definite topic, especi~lly a topic of ge~u~ral interest and value. Our first topic for communications was "Spiritual Direction by the Confessor." This ran "through several issues aiad was. we think, both enlightening and hellbful. \The second topic chosen was "Vocation." The third was on "'Retreats:" Com-munications on these latter subjects were also helpful, but, we believe, not so'useful as the first. ° We should like to have more communications on some definite topic, but we fihd * it hard tb choose a topic. Hence. we throw the question "'open to the hbuse." Can you give us some suggestigns regarding subjects that would provide forinteresting and useful discussions? Any ideas will be~appreciated. ; Address~'our suggestion_s to: Th~ Editors, Review for Religious. St. Mar~"s_ ;College, St. Marys,~ Kansas. 409- ues ons and Answers' Because of a slight illness, a postulant dntered ten days a{~er her class of March 24. May she receive the habit with her class on September Yes, she may. She had fully intended to enter with her class but" was prevenked from doing so by illness¯ Normally the six months should be complete. However, the prescriptions of the Code regarding the time of thd postulancy do notbind under pain of in;calidity. For grave reasons.superiors m~y shbrten this. tirrle by a few days. " In the presentcase the illness which caused the involuntary delay in~ enterin~ would be a sufficient reason to allow the postulant'to recdive the habit _ with her class, even thoughten days are lacking to complete the six -.months. . --37-- ," What ;s the obligation of a religious regarding the ordinary co.nfe.s.sor~t~ When the confessor a Sister prefers is stationed close to thd convent, may sh.e go to him rather than to the one appointed? It is the mind of the Church that religious women should ~en-erally confess to the ordinary confessor. While canon 522 allows a religious woman to go to any priest who has diocesan faculties for Women, it supposes, that this will be done drily occasion~illyoi because of~iome special reason 'of conscience, which,may persist for'a short time. Mere preference does not justify a religious woman in going to confession regularl~ to another priest stationed close to the convent. Please read explanation of this point in REVIEW FOR RELI-GIOUS, Mar~h, 1943, page 81. Our community doctor (the, only doctor we can consult o~dinariiy) reports to the superior on the phys,cal'con&hon and ~eeds~of. the sisters. In addition he sometimes makes known to the superior damaging facts which he ~has learned through consultation with or examineti6n of patient. Has ~ community doctor an obligation to guard even from the superior the professional medical secrets of ir~ferlors? : A doctor.has a strict obligation to guard tlqe secrds of his clients which come to him in the way. of busindss. When, in virtue of his 416 ~Offic~ he bears or d~scovers a'secret damaging to the clientbe is bound to respect i~ as an inviolable confidence. ~He. can ~reveal it only ~n. the most pressing reasons of ~he common good of s~iety demand the re~elation. Even then he must keep in mind the harm that would b~ ~one if the public-lost confidence in the prudence and silence of its p~ofessional advisers. In a religious community the house .doctor occupiesa peculiar position. To some extent he acts for the superior,'~, yho~must care for the health 0f the religious as a parent does for~a child. But.since the community doctor is the only one to whom the members of the'community can go, he must consider that the infe~or_ is h~ client. He cannot consider himself the me~e agent of the-superi6r, a~d hence enmled to reveal to the sup~or,confide~ces or damaging facts which he has learned professionally fro~ a member ~bf the community. On this point Vermeersch (Tbeologia~ Moralia, lEd. 3, q937], II, n. 649, 3) says :,."Note finally that the case ofa-religious community doctor is differentia doctor to whom the reli- ~'gious men and women have. to ~o. For since they have no choice, they ~ave a right that a strict professional secret be observed in their regard, ex o~cio." Then he remarks: '~A superior who knows some-_ ~:thing through the violation of the secret [i.e. the professional medical-secret], cannot on that account dismiss a subject against his will." Of course, since the supe~or must provide for the subject, the d~tor ~s allowed to make k~ow~ the state of the patient's health, but in such a way as to pro~ect his reputation. ~ Whaf~type of dispensation from the Eu~:harisf;c fast do rel;g;ous~and lay nurses have who are obliged to wo;'k on night duty? We have heard, ;~'thaf in some States the .night workers are bound to abstain from. solid food ~f~ur hours Before reception of Holy Communion and two hours frSm liquids. ¯Does Canon Law provide for. such a dispensation? The general Ia~ .of the Church as~ expressed in canon 858, § l, -~requires that all pe.rsons who wish to receive Holy Commdnion must fast from midnight: In paragraph 2 an exception is made for those who have been sick for a-month, as was explained in REVIEW' FOR REI~IGIOUS, May 1944, l~age 171. There are'no other exceptions as~ fa~ ~s the general law of the Church is concerned--except, of course, those .~vho are in danger ~of death and those who communicate to save ~the t~lessed Sacrament~from profanation. ~ ~ ~ The Holy See can and does grant d~ispensations from~, the law bf 411 QUESTIONS~ AND" ~NSWERS i~he Eucharistic fast in special cases. Thus there'are special d~spensa tions'for members of our Armed Forces, includihg nurses who beloqg to these same Armed Forces. 'Again;'P0pe Piiis XII has granted~ to ,the Bishops.of the Uni~ed~States special fadulties in favor of persons engaged in work of National Defense (see REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. .,March, ~1942, page 1431_. We do not believe that these faculti~'s have been extended to religious and .nurses on hightduty in hospitals. The. only way to find out is to get in touch with your Diocesan Chaficery. Religious and nurses on night duty may follow standard time in compu.ting the fast from midnight: henc~ they may eat and drink up to one" o'cl0ck war time, and receiveH61y Communidn ih the m0r;n-ing. 'This was explained in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, May, 1944, :- page 213. ¯ A novlco who is amlnor owfis a sum of money which was willed %~hlm," ,and,whlch is bolng held under ~juardianshlp by {.he courts of his ~hls' {.6onty-firs{. birthday. Gonsoquontly he has never boon able any disposal oL{.hls money, which was his before en{.erln9 {'he novifia{.e. In such-a case Would {.he novice be permiffed {.o .make a provision in: his will (which will be made~ before his. twenty-firs{, birthday) {.hat this money be cji~en.% his pa~en{.s as soon as {.he courts release ff 'to him? Since the novice, though owning~ the money in question, did not. have the.free, disposal of it before entering the novitiate, he will si~bj~ct to the regulations of canon law regi~rding it. Before taking his first vows he must appoint/in administrator and determine who is to get,the annual income from the money during his lifetime.~ H~ may give this income to his parents if he Wishes, but as long as he lives he" "m~y not dispose of the capital itself without the permission of ~the: Holy See. As to the woill which he must make before taking his first vows, he is free to name the beneficiary of it, and may will this money tb his parent*s. But the will does not take effect until after the death of [h~ novice in question. Therd is widespread misunderstanding among religiou~s with simplevows regarding ~the nature of the will which they~must mak~ before taking their first vows.¯ This is owing in no small.part tO the. wording of canon 569, § 3 "as found in most texts of con~it.u-tionsoand which is taken from the authorised English translation the canons of. the Code regarding~religious. It reads as follows: "In Nooembei, 1944 . " ~ ~ "QufSTIONS AND ANSWERS " e,~ery religiouscon"grega;ti o"n the nbvice, before maki.ng profession te_mporary vows, .-shall _freely dispose by Will of all" the proper~ty, h~ a~tually, possesses or may subsequent.ly possess." The" Latin. ~ext of '~tbe Code merely states: "'testarnenturn de bonis praesentibds oboenturis ffbere condat,'" and-may b~ translatCd simply: "He shall ,.freely make a will regarding his present possessions.as well as regard-- ing those which may possibly come to hifia in the future." ~Wbile the ~afithorized translation "he shall freely dispose by v~ill" is techni-- callyocorrect, still the word "dislSbSe" misleads many. religious into thinking that they are free tO give away their possessions during t~eir lifetime. This notion is absolutel~/fals~ and is contrary to the ¯ ~meanling of the word¯''will or testament," ~which is defined, as~ "~the_ ~ legal°°declfiration of a.man's intention as to disposition of property,. etc., that he wills to be performed after his death." The will .which ~ the novice mak, es has no effect during his iifetime,.but only after his" death. Hence the term "dispose,by" WiW' means simply ~o determine'~ who is to receive his property after his'death. The novice'in question may, therefo~re, determine that his parents " are to receive the'income of his~money during'his lifetime, and he-may ~ ~ make th~.m th~"beneficiaries of his will so that they'will recei~'e the -. ~0 m_oney after his death. But if he wishes to give them this money whet, ~-~ ~iig domes into l~is full possession, on his twenty-first birthdaw, he wi!l ha,ie t0,obtain~permission to do'so from the Hol~ See, since canon ¯ o- 583;-1° forbids him to give away~his po,ssessi.ons during his lifetime;, Is{there any'i'egulafion ;n canon law regard;ng fhe f;me wh;ch musf 'elapse a~er fhe recepf;on of a converf ;fifo fh~ Church before he or she ma) enfer r~l;g;on?" If nor, please g;ve us some adv;ce on fh;s po;nf. Canon 987, 6° tells us that converts are~impeded from the recep-. "tion of orders until they ha/re been sufficiently tested acc6rding to the~" .judgme_nt of the Ordinary. This is the only prescription of the C0~ ~r,~garding~ neophytes. Hence there is no time limit prescribed, before all~wii~g them to enter religion. The determination of such ~ time~ ~ ~<'" li?~it will, therefore, be lefv to the prudent judgment of the superior ~ Who is to receive the candidate. This will depend uPon the circum-stancesof age, education, and other, conditions. Generally _speaking, it will be well to make the candidate wait at least a year after"con-- version .before receiving him. Further extension of this time w~ll _. 4'13 -~ :-. _~: , ~, ~, / ,, ', The ans~ve'r ,pertaining to the Porfiuncula IndUlgence ;n th~ last ,ssue of t_he Review for Religious (July 1_5 "1944, pp.'280-281) gave me. the ;,~- pression that Sec~,lar Tert;aries of St. Francis cannot gain this ;hdulgence ~n a parish church of the Frim's of the Third Order. Regular of 'Saint Francis ofPenahce. Has this privilecje been revoked or has ;t n6ver ~been g;~ven-for churches of the Friars of the Third Order Regul.ar? This impression is hardly justified by the text of the answer. referred to above. "The answer concerned itself p.rin.cipally with the.~ question of Religious Tertiaries (members of a. Religious Institute ~with simple vows, for example, Franciscan Sisters) gaining the In-dulgence in their own community churches and oratories. Neoer~ho-le~ s, the answer also stated that "the faithful" hence, sure. l~ Secular Tertiaries---can .gain the P'ortiuncula Indulgence in all the churcl~es and public oratories of Franciscan ~'ertiarg Communities with'simple. ~Vod~s---a fortiori, Of the Third OrderRegular, a comr~unitg°with solemn oows. ' ~o answer the question asked above: Pope Urban VIII, hy a 414 19~4~ " ~- ~ .QUESTIONS ~ND B_rief, dated~Janu~ry.13, 1643, gra~nted the privilege wher~by~all the faithful' can gain ~he Portiuncula Indi~l~enc~ in "all"churches- (public oratorles are included in wrtue of subsequent grants by the Holy~See) ~of.' the Third Order-Regular of Saint FranCis bf Penance. A~s statett~ in ~he answer referred to in the question, the ~Sacred Penitentiary on 2uly 10, 19~4, declared: "Perpetual grants of thisIndulgence given ~iia ~ny manner up to the present time remain unchanged for the~ fu-ture." Hence there is no doubt whatever that not only Secular. Ter~. ~ tiaries of St. Francis, but ali the faithful as well, may gain the Por: :~'~ tiunc61a Indulgence in :all_ the churches and public oratories of~ the ~." ~Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance. ' When sayln~ Hail Ma~s durln9 the da~ is if necessary to ~a~e a.bead jn one's hand to 9ain the Crozier indulgence affached thereto, or would°ff ~: s~ff;ce fo have.the rosary on one's person? -~ " Generally speaking, one must hold the be~ds in one's hand in, ~order ~o gain a.ny of the various indulgences_, attached_ to th~ recitation o of the rosary. Through a de'red:~issued by the Sacred C6ngregation of Indulgences on January 22, .1858, Pope Plus IX allowed, that when the rosary ~s satd in common by- two or rriore, personL it iuf/ice~ tha~ one.of them hold a phir of beads and lead in ~he recitation pro- ~/ vided tha_t the others abstain froth all external occupation which ~ _ ~vould impede intdrior rec011ec~ion: , In ~an audience granted to the Cardinal Penitentiary on October 20;' 19~3, Pdpe Plus XI deigned to grant that ':when_ever either ma.nu~al labor or some reasonable cause prevents" the faithful from. ".__'~ carrying, in their~hands,: accordifi~ to the prescriptibn, either ~he~ roshry or tl~e crucifix, which, has been.,blessed for the gaining of~ the indulgences dither of thee holy rosary or of the W~ty.of the~ Cro.ssl, the, " faithful may gain those indulgences, provided that, during tl~e reci-~ ration of the prayers in ques~ion,they carry~ with them in any way~ ~the rosary or the crudifix." Will yo~. I;!ea_se inform us,,.whether there is a set time specified "by ~oCanon-law for the recitation of the Liffle Office of th~ Blessed Virg!n~ "" that is, for the J.iHle° Hours, Vespers and Complin, and, the anticipated :-Matins and L~uds. ~ ~R¢l~gious who are ~bound by their constitutions to the r~citation~ 41-5 Rd6iew for Rdigidu~. ~"of t~e Little O~ce'of the Blessed Virgin are not bound by the litur-gical prescriptions' r~gardingthe time of the recitation of the~ single. hours of the Divine O~ce. T~ey may follow these times if .they wish, but they are not obligedto do so. H~re are ~he times allowed for the Divine O~ce: Matins and' Eauds may ~e.said any time after V'espers and Complin have been recited (b~t not before t~o'o'clock in the afternoon of th~ pre~ng day) up'toone hour after s~nrise: Prime may be s~i~ from dawn up" to two. bouts after sunrise, thesmall h6urs u# till boon. Vespers Complin in the afternoon (except during L~nt when ~es~ers should~ be said b~fore noon). I am d~irector of a home for Catholic delinquent boys and a member o~ the Amer,can ~Assgci~tion of Social Workers. In this field Of work, ffofte~ ~becomes necessary in the line of~ duty .to question b~oys recjardincj prob~ lems of a'strictly 'moral-nature; The feeli.ncj~is that one may'be or perhaps. i~ encroachln~ on the ricjhts of the confessor. This fedincj is especi~l!y present in fhe~are,~s.pertainln9 to tSe Sixth Commandment. Is~there any norn~, whereby social, workers ca°n tell when they are cjeHincj into areas ~hat belon~ to the confess~or? , ~ ¯ ~reli'minary to answering the question as stated, we recommend ~i'that so~ia[ glorkers read Father Ford's article, Paternal Government." .dn'cl 'Filial, Con/idence in Superiors (REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, II. p. 146), Father Ford expl.ains th~ impoftant distinction between the judicial and the paternal forum. A superior (and the same-may~ be said of the social worker) act~ judiciall~t, when he questions ~ ~,ubject principally for the common good, and seeks to inflict pu'ni~b-' ment as a vindication of violations of discipline. In this case he must "r~member that ~,the boy qudstioned has a natural right to defen&him-self and to avoid "answerihg any question that would incriminate.° himself. The superioror social worker would l~e acting paterna!lV if ~ were questioning the bo.y prindipally for the good of the boy him-self (for example: to help him "avoid an occasion of sin or to correct a bad habit). In this matter the superior or social, worl~r has ~he :right to ask .any questions he deems necessary for his puri3ose, but he -must observe certain cautions. (l) He is not free to punis~ a b~y who" confes'ses guilt, except in so far'as some punishnient of'a purel_y °' 416 *Not~e~b~;, 19~4 ~_ ~ : . -.QL~ESTIONS~ _ _ AND ANSWERS~: ' - . 2. ~private nature might be judge'd a mdans necessary to l~elp the- , (2) He is-bound by a yigid 'professional sec~recy with regard to the answers given by' the boy. '(3) He should prudently¯refrain from ,~iskjng questions that'he foresees will be answered with a lie. (~)~He ~ sh6uld not ask questions concerning problems with Which he kno~s ~s not competer~t to deal. Perhaps it i~ the fourth cafitibn that causes some social workers to feel that they are trespassing on the rights of the confessor, par- ,ticularl# when they ask about things pertaining to the Sixth.Com- ,~mandment: As a matter of fact,-the confessoi has not an ekclusive righ~t to-ask such questions. But in practice it is frequently true that :6nly~priests are competent to deal wi_th conscience problems that such " questions might'reveaL The social worker, therefore hi~ own i:[ualifi~ations. In some things'i no doubt, and even in very delicate matters, he-may be c[-great help to the boys committed to ~his care: and he may put prudent~questions.on these matters without infrii~ging on the right of the cdnfesso_r. ~ ~ ~We add a final word, of .caution for ~all religious who, as ~ocial -workers or i~ ,some other¯capacity, must treat with youth about ~ sexuaF~atters. We'fhink it is important, for the good of the Church: -=th~zt they-should not underake such work without having a clear ~ ~°: unders[anding, with th~eir dwn superiors as to. what they intez~'d tb. ~-~o~: Entire religio~u~ communities, and even the whole Church iri ,a certaih locality, can ~.suffe~ -grievously -from the imprudence of-one ~erson. ~" Our nov;flare has been wffhout a mistress of novices or a subst;- ~ ~,fute fo~:the past" seven,months. ¯ The novices work with fhe professed, Sis-ters ahd wifh the'lay h~lp. "l'hey'are also allowed fo associate freely with ~:'fhe;younger professed Sisters engaged.in their preparafo~ studies. May ~e i:onsider~as valid a novitiate made und~)r such irregular ci~nd;fions? "_ ~.The novitiate is not invalidated by the~ absence 0f~i "mistreSs 6f 2,_~iz6viceS or by tFie failure ~ isblate the novices fiom the oth~'r_ Sis~ers.~ But~certainly conditi6ns like thes constitute a gravd¯abuse thht shbuld b~ quickly remedied:. _ Canon 559, which preicribes that the novitiate be made under the -supervision of a mistress of novices, enumerates her.qualities, and ~'~-demands,~hat she be free ~from all'offices and duties that might inter-fer~ with the "care and training of the n~vices, makes it. qui~e clear that ~QUES'I~IbN~; AND Alq'.SWER.S :.- ; Revieu2 for Religio~s the~'Church' considers this~" an. offi. ce Of the,. highest importance. As-for the isolation of the novic,es,-canon 564 prescribes that., ,"the novitiate shall b~e, as far as pqssible, sept;rated-from that part of the house inhabited b~ ~he professed religious, so that n6 communi--~ cation may be'carried on b~tween the novices anal professed religious except for some spec!al reason and with thepermission of the Supe-. riot 9r Master (Mistress)." . With much greater reason should inter-mingling with the lay help and other externs~ be avoided, s.ince these naturally have an outlook on spiritual matte'rs quite different.from religious novices. The ideals of ~the novices are b6und to stiffer ~,fr~m ~.such regular contact with Lxterns. Does canon Jaw permit a relig;ous Of' an active institute' to transf6r tO a clo;stered cor~munify? "~f ~o, what ;s the procedure? ~° ° By taking vows in a religious institute, a religious becomes a ~erla-ber o~f that institute and, uhder, normal ctrcumstances, should per~e- .vere in tl~at institute until death. The Church does not favor the transfer of a religious~fro~ one institute to another, since it iscon-trary to the common" good of religious societies: However, in indi-vidual cases the Church will allow such a transfer for the private" good " of the~itidividual, but she reserves t9 herself to pass-final judgment 'i.n each case. Canon 632 tells us: "No religious c~n, without authortza-tidn from the Apostolic See, pass to another institute, even(stfic.ter, ~ or from one independent monastery to another." In practice, in order to pgss j.u~dgment, the Sacred Congregation Of :Religious requires that the religious who wishes to tranifer to another institute must first find an ihstitute willing to receive him. This will-ingness'- must b~ expressed in writing by the proper superior~ Th~n .tpo the Sacred Congregation wishes to know what the religiohs supe: riot thinks abbut~the transfer of his Subject. Hence this sup~rio~r, ~also, must write a letter giving his ~incere opinion whether the trans-fer is desirabl~ or, no~. The religious~wfishing to transfer, will then"~o write out a form'al petition~ to the Sacred Congregation of Religious asking' to be transferred to the institute that is willing to receiye him, and send this. petition,~ together with the two letters mentionedabove, to the Sacred Congregation of Religious. o If a favorable reply.is received, the religious may transfer to the -,.new instftute and must make a novitiate,' during ~rhich the vows 418 - -. Nooernbero i 944 "- whicl~ he has .taken in~ the first' institute remain intact., He is bound by his vow of~obedience to obey the superiors of his new irlstifute. "At,the end of the novitiate, if he does not make profession in the new~ institute, he must return to the 01d one unless, of couise, he had taken only temporary vows, and .these have expired. ' QUESTIONS~^ND AN~WEI~S " ~" Some years ago a Sister who had. taken perpetual vows ;n our °concjre-cja~ ion appliedL for and secured the. necessary~ dispensation to leave in order to take care of her aged parents. Now the parents have died and she has-asked to be. re-admiHed, stating her willingness to repeat the ~novltlate and to do whatever,is required. May she take perpetual vows at~the end of th, e canonical year? Or must she spend three years with ~temporary vows before her perpetual profession? What is her.rank in the_~ community? - Since the Sister in question actually left the institute after having- 0brained .a dispe~nsation from her vows, she sevefed all connection with.it. Superiors will.have to-obtain a dispensation fro~no the Holy See before admitting her a second time (canon 542, 1°). This dis-pe, n~sation will be granted for the asking, since the ~Sister had a very~ good reason for leaving in the first instance, SuppOsing that the dispensation has been gr.anted, the former member ~f. the institute will have to make-her novitiate again and take temporary vows for three years before being admitted topyofes~- sion of perpetual vows. In a word she is'in the' same conditi~on as any ~other novice entering for thefirst time. The only exception will .beo that she may omit the period of postulancy, since she made it before and its purpose is satisfied. , ~ As fo her rank in the community, she Will take it in the class in which she enters, just as any other nowce does. . When, and for what reasons, should a rel;glo.u~ institute b6 divided ~;n~o pro~.,inces? For obtaining such a division, what procedure~is fo followed7 The Code of.Canon Law contains no Provision which directly forces an institute to divide into. provinces. Canon 494, the only canon which de~Is with this subject, merely states: "It pertains exclusively to the Apostolic See: to divide into provinces an institute approved 419. QUESTiOnS AI~:ANSWER$ -- fly the Holy ~e," to unite*exisfing .provinces or otherwise r~Odify their boundaries. ~to estal~lish new provinces or to ¯suppress exis_ting" ones, to separate independdnt monasteries from one monastic congre-gation'and to'unite them to ~nother" (§ 1). ¯ The decision-concerning the necessity or utility of ~lividing into provinces is, therefore, lefLto the .prudent and conscientious judg-ment of the proper superiors. The reason~ Commonly. given for' ¯ divi~ing an institute into provinces ar~ the following: (l) the culty~ of government either because of the wide diffusion of houses; or becai~se of the large number-of subj.ects;~(2) the need of a second ~novitiate--~or ~example, ,because of different nationalities, or becahse of the great distances¯ from the novitiate to the other houses, or because . of the di~cuity, even iinpos~ibility~ for one master~ of novices t~o ~ ~roperly train a very large~number~of novices. The 1~rese~t practice of the' Sacred Cdngregation. of Religious is~'to r~quire for the division of an institute into provinces that at least'roger provinces can be established, each of which will have about two'hun-dred subjects and at least four houses in which twelve or mo~e reli- :gious reside. In some institutes the~constitutions approvitd by the H01y See ~ determine explicitly.tha~t the right to petition the Holy See fpr a diyi-sion of the institute into provinces rests with the general chapter. In ~'others the constitutions grant this power to-the superior geneial, with the consent of his council If the constitutions are silent on the sub-ject, it seems reasonable for the superior, general and his council, to make th~ petition tO the.~Holy See, especially if a general chapter ~ill not be held for several ~rears. "The Holy See will then'either grant the petition or provide for a spedif general chapter to pass on the subject. 420- THE ASCETICAL LIFE. By the Reverend Pascal P. Parente, S.T.D., P'h.D-, J;C.B. Pp. viii -~ 271. B. He~:der Book Co., S~'. Louis, 19_44. $2.50. This work, which has grown out of lectures by-the author at thd Catholk University, Washington, may be said to have two distific-tions. First, it is an American treatise on ascetical theology. As the first American systematic, deve, lopment of ascetical the61ogy, itis of course v_ery much to be xcelcomed. ~ .It~ presentation of the subject seems rather brief and sketchy, leaving one with the ~wish that the writer had gone further. To some extent this wish is fulfilled in the third.p_art of 'the book (pages 181-251), in which certain-select questions are discussed more thoroughly. Numerous quotations from the Fathers~of th~ Church add to the literary and inspiratibnal value Of the work. , : o Secondly, ~:~ither Parente sets out resolutely to steer a middle course ¯ between the two.schgols of opmzon that divide ascetical and "mystical theologians. Moreover he strives to reconcile the two opposing views "'~through opportune.distinctions, whenever feasible." ,Though this volume is limited to asceticism and ~nother volume on mysticism is promised, the author could not avoid touching on certain prbblems !nvolving the differences between the two and between acquired and ¯ infused contemplation. He believes "that there is both 'a distinction and ~ a continuity between acquired.and infuse~l contemplation." " "The distinction is not essential or in the very ziatures of the two forms of contemplat!on. Rat.h.er it is to be found in the mode or, manner in Which the twb forms of contemplation are attained. . Such a difference. is l~ss than specific and more than merely a matter of degree. Acquired contemplation can and ought t0~be the aim of all who ctfltivate~spir- ~, ituality, and it is one of the principal links between the ascetical and the mystical life. On~religio_us ;*nd ascetical theology the authoi writes: "It is neces-sary for religi6us to. be well instructed in ascetical theology. Ordi- -~ naril~ they receive a thorough explanation of their vows and rule, bat bften only a superficial and frhgmentary jntroduction in ascetical -and mystical theology. Some of'them do not know any .form of mental prayer besides meditation. The impression prevails that 421 . BOOK REVIEWS Reoiew /:or Religzous_ _ ,myst!cal graces are.dangerous for both the individual and"the cbm- -mumty. The-consequence is that many are retarded or hindered in theirspiritual advancement. The position of. the religious who has been favored with-extraordinary graces becomes very delicate. A well:enlightened community is better disposed toward mystical phenomena and higher forms of mental prayer" (page 215). Father" Parente's book is suffikiently~ clear, brief, and ,free fr6m .technicalities and more recondite investigations to be intelligible religious, generallg,.-~-~.G. AUGUSTINE ELLARD, S.J. A WORLD TO RECONS~'RUCT. Plus XII on Peace and Recons~ruct;om By Guido GoneJla. Translated by the Reverend T. Lincoln Bous-caren, S.J. " Under the auspices of the Bishops' CornmiHee on the Pope's Peac~ Points. .Pp. x~x -I- 335. The Bruce Publlsh!ng'Co., Milwaukee, 1944. $3.50. The Papal Peace Plan, explains "Guido Gonella, proposes as the basis for a future peace a. "f~derated society," of free and independ~ent . peoples. This "Sgciety of Nations" is to be: Constituted by all states. - joined into an organic union , b' being organized into groups of states. wl~ich groups would be regional, continental, international. All states would be equal ~fore the law, bound by the same morality that governs private action, unarmed,. committed to arbitration of all internationai disputes, wit~ all force and sanctions delegated to the authoritativd, and

Issue 1.4 of the Review for Religious, 1942. ; A. M. D. G. Review for Religious JULY 15o 1942 Direction by the Confess0r" ~ " " ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ The Editors Self-Knowledge . Patrick Perfection and the Relicjious . Augustine Klaas Mqral Beauty in Our Duties to God "~" Gera~d Kelly The General Chapter of Affairs ~ Adam C. Ellis The Precious Blood . Malachl J. Donnelly The Rural Life Apostolate . John, L. Thomas St. Boniface and Giff-Excl~anges . ~., Gerald Ellard Book Reviews Questions Answered Decisions of the Holy See VOLUME I NUMBER 4 FOR RI:::LIGIOUS VOLUME I JULY -15, 1942 NUMBER 4 CONTENTS SPIRITUAL DIRECTION BY THE ORDINARY CONFESSOR The Editors . ,218 BOOKS RECEIVED . 222 SELF-KNOWLEDGE--Patrick M. Regan, S.J .:. . . 223' FRANCISCAN ,STUDIES . 232 PERFECTION AND THE REIAGIOUS--Augustine K]aas, S.J. 233 MORAL BEAUTY IN OUR DUTIES TOWARDS GOD Gerald Kelly, S.J . 244 PAMPHLET REVIEWS . '. . " . 252 THE GENERAL CHAPTER OF AFFAIRS IN A RELIGIOUS CON° GREGATION--Adam C. Ellis, S.J" . . 253 THE PLACE OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE Malachi J. Donnelly, S.J . 259 THE CATHOLIC RURAL LIFE APOSTOLATE---John L. Thomas, S.J2.63 GIFT-EXCHANGES IN THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ST. BONIFACE Gerald Ellard, S.J . 271 BOOK REVIEWS : MARCH INTO TOMORROW. By the Reverend John J. Considine, M.M. 281 WATCI21 AND PRAY. By the Reverend J. E. Moffat, S.J .281 IN THE SHADOV~ OF OUR LADY OF THE CENACLE. By Helen M. Lynch, R.C . " 282 I PRAY THE MASS. By the Reverend HugoH. Hoever, S.O. Cist. 283 MODICUM. By the Reverend Athanasius Bierbaum, O.F.M. ". 284 HOMILETIC HINTS. By the Reverend Albert H. Dolan, O. Carm. '. 284 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: 24. Indulgence on Day of Investiture or Profession . 285 25. Obligation to Perform Penance for Violating Rule .285 26. Community. Prayers when Chaplain Opens Tabernacle . 286 27. Vows when in Danger of Death . 286 DECISIONS OF THE HOLY SEE OF INTEREST TO RELIGIOUS287 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, July, 1942. Vol. I, No. 4. Published bi-monthly: January, March, May, July, September, and November, at The College Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas, by St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kausas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matter January 15, 1942, at the Post Office, Topeka, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Adam C. Ellis, S.J., G. Augustine Ellard, S.J., Gerald.Kelly, 8.3. Copyright, i942, by Adam C. Ellis. Permission is hereby granted for quotations of reasonable length, provided due credit be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 2 dollars a year. Printed in U. S. A. Spiri!:ual Direction by !:he Ordinary Con~:essor THE EDITORS 448 ' UR confessor never say, s a word to us. He just gives absolution, and lets us go. He seems to have no time for us." Thus goes a complaint which, though not exactly common,, is frequent enough to indi-cate a problem that calls for a solution. The problemm a very important one in the religious lifemmay be clearly stated in two brief questions: Does the Church wish ordi-nary ~onfessors to give spiritual guidance? If so, why is this office at times neglected? There seems to be no valid reason for. hesitancy con-cerning the answer to the first question. The Church does wish that, in general, the ordinary confessors should give spiritual direction. The law that these confessors be care-fully selected indicates that they should be able and willing to give direction; the law limiting their number indicates the desirability of uniformity of direction. This does not mean that the ordinary confessor must give spiritual direction to each of his penitents every week. But surely it means that at times during the course of a Yea'r all religious will have the opportunity of benefiting by his counsel. Otherwise large numbers of religious will find their opportunities for direction limited almost exclusively to the time of their annual retreat. Such once-a-year direc-tion was never the ideal; and in these days of large retreats it is even less desirable than formerly. The second question is not so readily answered. We know that some rellgi0us, disappointed over. the fact that the confessional has not proved to be the source of guidance 218 "DIRECTION BY THE CONFESSOR they had expected, are in~lined to. answer: "The confessor isn't able to give direction. He's not sufficiently interested in.us to give ~us his time~". Reasons such .as these may be valid for some cases--though certainly it is not for us to pass judgment on any individual case. It is possible for a priest to be incapable of fulfilling an office to which he has been ai0pointed, and it is possible that capable priests will neglect their duty. Such. failures will never be wholly elim-inated so long as God chooses to carry on His work by means of human instruments. If inability or negle.ct of duty were the only possible explanations for deficiency in regard to spiritual direction, there would be no good reason for the present editorial. But we. are convinced that in many cases there is an entirely different explanation. We think that a situation may fre-quently arise in which the confessor is both able and will-ing to give direction and the community is eager ~o receive it, yet no direction results. Consider, for instance, a case like the following: Father A is a zealous and capable priest. Any of his intimate friends would consider him well-equipped for the office of ordinary confessor of religious. He knows how to direct souls in the practice of virtue, how to encourage the downhearted, how to help those in occasions of sin, and so forth. He has a great esteem for .religious; he knows that the Church wishes them to receive direction and that of all people they are perhaps the most deserving and apprecia-, tire of any spiritual help a priest might give them. He has resolved that, if ever he is made an ordinary confessor, he will do all he can to live up to the Church's ideal. To this end, he has at times made a particular study of the prob-lems that might be peculiar to religious: for example, dif-ficulties with obedience and common life, temptations 219 THE EDITORS against vocation, discou.ragement over lack of'progress in general and over "failure in prayer" in particular. The time comes when Father A is appointed an ordi-nary confessor." Full of zeal, he takes his place in the con-fessional for the first time. One after another the penitents come, and, almost before he realizes it, .Father /~ hears a voice say, "I'm the last one, Father." As he leaves the con-fessional, he notes that he has heard about twenty confes-sions in twenty-five minutes. The speed of this first experience is not lost on Father A. He is chagrine.d at the thought that he seems to have fallen into the one fault that he was always Warned to avoid: he had given little more than absolution--scarcely a word. of counsel or encouragement. He consoles himself, however, with the reflection that this wasonly the first time and that in future .there will be more opportunity to help. Yet week follows week; and there never seems to be any "opportunity to help." Alarmed by his repeated failures to give direction, Father A pauses for self-examination. All his fine ideals seem to have been merd theory. No one asks for direction; no one seems to need encouragement or special :guidance. Perhaps he should take the initiative and give some hdvice, even though none is requested? He has read about this often, yet he finds that now When he faces a practical situ-ation h~ is puzzled. What should he say? In the average confession there are a fewsmall things that might be termed ordinary human failings, even of the saints. None of these things seems to be an apt starting point for any kind of per-sonal advice; yet Father A wishes his counsel to have some kind of personal bearing. He does not wish to impose his own ideals on other souls. He would feel very "artificial" in giving general advice that he feels sure the penitent knows already. 220 DIRECTION BY THE CONFESSOR The self-examination proves of no help. Father A de-cides to wait a little longer. But in the meantime the delay is having its effect on the community. Almost without their realizing it, the members begin to .think of their confessor as "an absolving machine.'~ Those Who have real problems take them to an occasionalconfessor or simply save them for the annual retreat. We have outlined one way in which it can happen that, though a community wants direction and the confessor wants to give it, nothing comes, of it. The community and the confessor are like two friends who have had a quarrel and then go for months without speaking, though each one would be delighted to renew the friendship. ¯ There may be many other ex~planati0ns for lack of direction by the ordinary confessor; yet we believe that cases like that of Father A are not uncommon. In other words, we think that often the only reason why direction is not given is that the community and the confessor fail to ';get together." The confessor does not know how to make the approach: the community does not make it for him. Such a situation is deplorable; there should be many ways of avoiding it. Surely this is a problem, a problem of sufficient importance for sincere and wholesome discus-sion. We think that our REVIEW offers an apt medium for such discussion; hence, now that we have at least par-tially outlined the problem, we turn to our readers and ask for suggestions. We are willing to allow some space in subsequent issues of the REVIEW for communications on this subject, and we hope that our readers are sufficien.tly interested in the matter to discuss it among themselves and to send us any suggestion they deem helpful. This is not a contest. It is a cooperative movement for progress in the use of an important means to peace of soul and self-sanctification. Concerning the communications THE EDITORS sent to us, we wish to make the folloWing observations: :1) Letters will be welcomed from anyone: priests, in-dividual religious, or religious communities. 2.) We seek positive suggestions, not mere negative criticism. By positive suggestions we mean anything that may throw light on the problem outlined and make for a better understanding between confessors and religious. 3) The subject of the confessional is always a delicate one; hence we wish it clearly understood that we are con-fining this discussion only to the gendra! point of spiritual direction, methods of giving it, of profiting by it, and so. forth. 4) Communications, will be printed without names and without reference to places. 5) The communications should be as brief as the sub-ject- ma~ter will permit. We may find it necessary to edit them a bit, even to digest them. But the substance will al-ways be given. 6) Address communications directly to The Editors of REVFEW FOR RELIGIOUS, St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. BOOKS RECEIVED (To be reviewed later.) OUR MODELS IN RELIGION. Marist Brothers. Poughkeepsie, N. Y. THE DIALOG MASS. By Gerald Ellard, S.J. Longmans, Green ~ Company. New York. THE SOLUTION IS EASY. By Mark Schm~d, O.S.B. Frederick Pustet. New York. 222 Selt:-Knowledge Patrick M. Regan, S.J. ALL Religious realize the importance of self-knowl-. edge in the spiritual life. Though one can make some progress toward perfection .without adeep fund of self-knowledge, still it is safe to say that a comprehensive knowledge of one's personal talents or lack of them can be a powerful foice for advancing the soul in sanctity. We are filled with admiration of Christ in all His words and works, but we must remember that one of the secrets of His influ-ence over the hearts of men is His absolute, unerring cer-tainty about Himself, His mission, the prophecies concern-ing Him. This looms large in the narrative of His life, help-ing to explain at every step the reason for His perfect man-ner of acting. A boy of twelve, His explanation of the tragic sorrow He had brought Mary and Joseph, the simple declaration that it was His Father's business, cannot but convey the strong impression that He was so infallibly sure of Himself that neither sorrow, tragedy, nor any calamity could be allowed to interfere. In His dying hour, "all is consummated" is the public avowal for all men of all time that He knew to perfection every step of the way, that nothing unforeseen had ever happen.ed in His life. But Christ is not only to be admired, He is also to be imitated as far as possible; hence with His grace our kn0wledge of self will contribute its share to our success in the work of life. ' On the other hand the .New Testament is careful to re-cord not a few of the tragedies that followed on the lack of self-knowledge. Even after all Christ's training, .Peker had so little Understanding of himself and his weakness that not even a divine revelation of his impending fall gave him 223 PATRICK M. REGAN pause. Had he just a glimmer of self-knowledge, the warn-ing ofChrist would have struck home. How well Judas might have profited in acquiring an insight of his own char-acter, had he but heeded the loving instructions and friend-ly warnings of the most perfect of all spiritual directors. Numerous other examples might be cited to show how our Divine Lord esteemed self-knowledge and the importance He attached to it. And justly so, since it is a fundamental necessity of the spiritual life, without which perfection be-comes so difficult as to be practically unattainable. It is se!f one must pilot alone to the shores of eternity, and to do it securely and with a degree of success, one must make cer-tain he knows that self quite thoroughly. Even from a purely natural sta.ndpoint and on its own merits, this science of our own personality is most desir-able. One can hardly pick up a modern magazine or book without finding references to its need and desirability; hence the numerous plans for developing personality, and charts for rating it. Again,.to cite but one example: in a large city a very capable psychologist of reputation and experi-ence has a large clientele of business men who seek her aid in getting an insight into their characters. One of them, echoing the opinions of the rest, declared: "I know my business, Father, she has the stuff; it is not a racket, for-tune- telling, or anything of the sort; the vision she gave me of myself was i~asily worth the twenty-five dollars she charged, for it was worth thousands to me in my business." Advantages t:or the Religious. It is a great advantage to know yourself,, even in a par-tial, elementary way. Though to a religious it may not be worth much money, still it can save, much valuable time, pre.vent tragic mistakes, relieve one of.much worry and anxiety. How many ~eligious pursue a will-o'-the-wisp 224 SELF- KNOWLEDGE for many a year, which they fancied a necessary virtue or accomplishment. How precious.little, after all, is needed' to sanctify yourself, provided you are certain of what tab ents you possess and make efficient use of them. In this connection the recollection of St. Joseph of Cupertino im-, mediately flashes to mind. His biographers tell us his utter lack of human,knowledge kept him out of one religious order and caused his dismissal from another; yet he built his sanctity on this very defect. One talent--he realized his .great deficiency; b.ut with that one talent he reached the heights. It is not how many talents one has received, but how skillfully and efficiently he uses them that sanctifies. Religious are always eager and zealous to acquire self-knbwledge, t14ough not always so eager and zealous for the work entailed. An instruction or exhortation on the sub-ject so deeply interests them that they will almost certainly seek a special conference with the director for further per-sonal instruction. Regtettably, however, far too man~ labor under the delusion that the director can furnish a perfect insight into self for the asking, that out of the abundance of his genius.and experience he will unfold their whole souls before them to impart comprehensive enlight~ enment on their own mysterious selves. Would the task were so easy! Such an attitude betrays a misunderstanding of spiritual direction, shows a leaning toward excessive passivity and lack of initiative in the spiritual life; every-one should expect to shoulder himself a good. portion of the burden of his own spiritual direction. Yet this very ¯ defect brings out another advantage of self-knowledge. One who has made progress along that line will be able to cooperate intelligently with helpful advice imparted, ia fact will be more capable of enlightened reception of direc-tion offered. Countless persons would quickly reach heights of perfection, if mere passive, receptivity of spiritual guid-. 225. PA'~VRICK M. REGAN ante were sufficient; they are expert at doing just what they are told, provided they do not have to think for themselves in the process or take the initiative. If Providence would furnish tl~em direction requiring nothing more than .that they follow it blindly, they would soon be perfect. But God ordinarily demands that we do some of the leading,, some of the guiding ourselves. The more perfectly one knows his soul, the more perfect will be his performance ~in guiding it and being guided on the. path of sanctity. How necess.ary is self-knowledge for a religious appears from another angle .to which atter~tion is called by Rev-erend Mother Stewart, R.S.C.~I.: "In general, books for spiritual training direct their treatment against strongly-marked and outspoken faults, and take for granted that severe treatment and explicit methods will deal with them. But a whole class of subtle faults that grow up in the shade are not taken into account. Now, in books for spiritual training, it is quite possible to break down a nature of less resistance, by guiding it along lines destined for one of stronger make, and leaving it without knowledge of prin-ciples for its own guidance. It may remain ignorant of its own faults and defects, because they have not come within the scheme that was drawn up for others." (Tbe.Societ~ of tt2e Sacred Heart, p. 82.) Since we cannot demand Pen-tecostal miracles from the Holy Spirit constantly, we must conform to the ordinary way of Divine Providence, and temper and adapt the general doctrine according to our own needs and 'capabilities. This requires a knowledge of our own individual selves. Still another advantage is that when one knows himself, not perfectly it may be: but sufficiently for forming a work-ing hypothesis at least, he will not dissipate his energies, pursuing what may be impossible for him, or quite un- 226 SELF-KNoWLEDGE necessary in his particular vocation. He will also have a strong in~entive to strive .hard to, advance, his goodquali-ties encouraging him tO make sacrifice, his defects urging him forward to strengthen the weakness of character. What is more, he will get at the root 6f the trouble, instead of spending much time and effort on surface symptoms only; it will be pride, envy, sloth, or some other fundamental tendency that he will effectually check, and with each con-quest many surface manifestations such as uncharitable-ness, impatience, intellectual dishonesty, and the like will vanish. Finally, this understanding of self will help very much to understand others, to grasp their problems, sympathize in their troubles, and thus promote the spirit of charity in the soul. One cannot understand the heart of another who does not first understand hisown. There are few religious who do not, at some time or other, have to make some con-tribution to. helping other souls by means of direction. The long, trying novitiate of learning to dirett ond's own soul is the very best preparation for aiding others to advance in God's service. It is the best antidote to a shallow, super.- ficial view of lif~ and of those who share life with us, since it widens and deepens our outlook on everyone and every-thing we meet along the way. Nature ot: SelF-Knowledge. Precisely what is this self-knowledge of which we hear so much? Fundamental as it is, a starting point in our spir-itual life, we should aim at clear ideas of what it is and wl~at it involves. It is the understanding of a particular person, my.self, whom I know through my virtues and defects, my natural and sup~rnatura! talents, my likes and dislikes, m~r own personal life history. We may expand these ideas further. It is' tl~e understanding 6f my own per- 227 PATRICK M. REG~q sonality, especially in the light of the fact that there is ab-so! utely no possibility of there ever being another person-ality exactly like mine anywhere in the whole of cidation. Since my personality is such a unique thing, so different from every other, so isolated from all others, I am the only one, except Almighty God, who can hope ever to acquire a very intimate knowledge of myself. From another point of view, self-knowledge may be said'to be an understand-ing of my life, but not just that; it is seeing my life with a particular pattern or design running through it, my own personality. Hence it is much more than knowing what is found {n spiritual books about the principles and practice .of. asceticism. These stop short at the threshold; I alone can enter in to apply the knowledge to self, observing the effect on all that lies hidden within. Moreover it is much more than knowing faults, defects, sins, virtues, successes; it is the understanding of the person who has these defects and achieves these successes, and the intimate personal explana-tion of them. Many are prejudiced against self-knowledge, even fear to undertake the task of acquiring it; they. misunderstand it. It is not to be confused with morbid introspection-- that avid, uncontrolled interest in self which excludes all else and can be so harmful. No; the. acquiring of self-knowl-edge postulates not only looking inward, but also consid-erable looking outward to God, to our neighbor, and to our models, the saints. Nor does ~he study of self neces-sarily mean constant, cold analysisof selfl for the Very reason that it can also be accomplished by noting the vir-tues of others that impress us and reveal how much we fall short of perfect design in our own lives. Self-analysi~ can be a considerable aid to self-knowledge but it does not lead to it infallibly. Some are expert at analyzing themselves, 228 SEL~-KNOWLEDGE but their self-knowledge is mediocre; while others have a deep knowledge of self, with very little power of self-analysis. Difficutt~/ Perhaps for the majority of people the greatest prejudice against self:knowledge is founded on the difficulty of ac-quiring it. Studying self is something like studying a great painting or other work of art: no matter how expert your. judgment, as long as you are dose to it, you see only the details, hence are incapable of appreciating the whole. His-. tory furnishes the same phenomenon: we are too close to present e~cents to fo~m a true estimate of them in their his-torical perspective. That is e~actly the problem in the pres-ent case: to get far enough way from self to admire the beauty or observe the blemishes in that work of art, A valuable suggestion comes from our Lord Himself in His admonition: "First cast out the beam from .thy own eye, and then thou wilt see clearly, to cast out the speck from thy brother's eye." It is also possible to withdrawfrom self.in several waysto observe self through the eyes of oth-ers; these we leave to a more specific treatmen~ of methods of learning self. Christ's admonition calls attention to a basic difficult~ in the labor of gaining knowledge of self: very likely for years we have been nourishing a flattering opinion of self without even suspecting how dark the picture.°is, so that it is far from easy to face the unpleasant reality. Self-love jealously guards its own achievements, by demanding repression of what is painful, and by enlisting self-deception to hide the reality from us. What chance, then; has self-kriowledge, the truth that disregards praise or blame, the essence of humility that unmasks self for what it really is? Finally, proficiency in this science requires such perse- 22'9 PATRICK M. REGAN vering effort that the tedious task is.ultimately either aban-doned altogether, or only half-heartedly performed. The effort is wearing, too, in that we must observe not only sins and defects which are mentioned in confession, but also other things--talents, likes, dislikes--which not only are not matter for confession but have been ignored so long that they have become part of us; perhaps even, we have never adverted to them. When we are on our guard, how well behaved we are, how humble, how meek, how retiring our evil tendencies, pride for instance, But when. the will is off guard, the mind not intent on self and motives (which is about ninety per cent of the time), how unconscious we are whether it is pride, sloth, or perhaps even a virtue pro-pelling the stream of our thoughts. In a word, it all seems so difficult and complicated, we want to .give up before we ever get started. Simplification. But the difficulty and complexity must not be overrated. After all, weknew eno.ugh of our own intellectual, moral, and physical endowments when we entered religion to make a decision without qualification or condition; affecting the whole of our natural life. Moreover, to acquire a knowl-edge of self sufficient for all practical purposes is far from an impossible assignment. We should expect that; surely God would make such a valuable asset in the spiritual life quite accessible to all.earnest seekers after perfection. As a matter of fact, the whole pro.cess can be considerably sim-plified. For instance there is a remarkable unity in the spiritual life, on which fact we may base our plan for sim-plification. Withthe virtues, for instance, the acquiring of one in its perfection will involve the acquisition of nu-merous others. Thus St. Paul, writing on charity (I Corin-thians 1.3 ), speaks of it as being patient, kind, not envious, 230 . SELF-KNOWLEDGE not .pretentious, humble, not ambitious, not .self-seeking, not provoked, thinking no evil, not rejoicing over wicked-ness, rejoicing with the truth, bearing with all things, be-lieving all things, hoping all things, enduring all thingi. Surely Paul must mean that genuine charity brings in its train all these other virtues. And anyone who has taken St. James to heart on the control of the tongue; will have more than a theoretical knowledge that "if anyone does not offend in word, he is a perfect man" (James 3:3). It is well also to keep in mind with regard to our faults that their number is not infinite, nor even legion; in fact, all are aware-that they can be reduced to the seven capital sins, as they are called. Some of us may be prejudiced or even frightened by such terms as "capital sin," or "ruling passion." In this case, let us dispense with such terms and choose something like "predominant tendency." Surely none will find it beyond him to admit that one result Of original sin has been that we have strong tendencies toward evil, no matter how far we have advanced in perfection. However, we are not so .badly off that all seven of these tendencies strive together and constantly, like an insuper-able force, to drag us to the lowest depths Of every sin and degradation. Many spiritual writers maintain thereis one evil ten-dency that predominates, .one at the root of most of our defects and imperfections; that, if we work diligently at controlling this one, we need scarcely expend any time or energy on the rest. Thus the:Directory of the .Spiritual Ex~rcises of.St.Ignatius (d -13). bid.~ ~he retreat-roadster: '-'. give l~im.[the retreatant] also the particular, ex-amination; explaining tb hima.t, the Same time that in every man there is Usu.a!iysome .one fault 0ilsin @hich is th~ chief one, and is the cause and root ofmany others. And although 231 PA'~RICK M. REGAN in some persons there may be several chief sins, yet it is best to choose some one, and bend all our efforts to rooting it out." Thus the task of planning our spiritual campaign is greatly simplified: it hinges on determining what ten-dency to. evil dominates us in the various-acts of daily life. This should not be too hard to determine. Surely it is at least the "beam th'at is in your own eye." Yet to some it may still appear too hard a task to be.described as simple. More specific methods of determining the predominant ten-dency would be a great help, and these will be furnished in a future article. Meanwhile, taking a.lead from St. Thomas, who traces a!1 seven capital sins back to pride, no one will be far wrong who decides that pride is his predominant ten-dency. Studying and observing .self with God's grace and 'understanding, wisdom and other gifts of the Holy Spirit, he is due for a revelation how much pride really does domi-nate his whole character. He will be astonished at the amount of self-deception that has crept into his life, moti-vating his actions. If he alternates this observation of the depths of pride in his makeup with several weeks of the practice of humility, he. will perceive himself actually mak-ing unexpected prggressi as he draws toward the goal of honesty with self. Once he is honest with himself, he is ready to undertake in earnest the acquirement of a deep knowledge of self. Franciscan Studies Franciscan Studies is a quarterly review of the sacred and secu-lar sciences that serves as the official organ of the Franciscan Educa-tional COnference. Publication of the Studies began in 1920, but it was only recently that they were converted into a quarterly review. The review, is characterized by thorough scholarship. The annual subscriptign price is 5 dollars. Further information may be obtained from The Secretary, Franciscan Studies, S~t. B0naventur¢ College, St. .Bonaventure P.O., N.Y. 232 Pert:ect:ion and !:he. Religious Augustine Klaas; S.3. THE ultimate goal of.life is our maximum union with / God in the Beatific Vision. Since sanctifying grace is the measure of this divine union in heaven, it must be our ceaseless endeavor on earth to augment it as much as possible in our souls, by the worthy, reception of the sacra-ments and by meritorious activity. Hence, our spiritual perfection may be said to consist in a firmly rooted disposi-tion t~o do the-maximum supernatural good of which we are capable, both the good that is of precept and, what is more difficult, the good that is of counsel.This maximum good, however, we are to accomplish, not in a wholly indi-vidualistic way, but normally as corporate members of Christ's Mystical Body, the Catholic Church. At first sight, the effort to do the maximum good would seem to be impracticable. A successful modern play exhibits the havoc wrought in one family by a teen-age youngster who sets to work with determination to do as ¯ much good as possible on every occasion. The results of this youthful resolve are indeed neive-wracking for the other members of the family and highly humorous for the audience, since teen-age youth is not noted particularly for prudence and good judgment. The effective performance of the. greatest possible good requireS the balanced exercise of the virtues, above all, the supernatural ones, both theo-logical and moral. The theological virtues--faith, hope and charity--and the moral virtues clustering about the 1This is the second of a series of three articles on Perfection. The firs~article, which dealt with Perfection in General, appeared' in the March issue. The present article treats of the Essence of Perfection. Though a part of a series, the article is complete in itself.--ED. 233 AUGUSTIN~ KLAAS cardinal ones of prudence, temperance, justice and forti-tude, all perfected and. directed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit,omake up our spiritual perfection. Do we not judge of a person's perfection mainly by his exercise of the vir.- tues? The Church estimates the heroic perfection of one she wishes to raise to the honors of the altar by thoroughly investigating his practice of the virtues, according to the procedure drawn up by Pope Benedict XIV. The saintly Contardo Ferrini, to mention only one example~ notes down with customary perspicacity his "continuous approximation to infinite perfection," by means of "growth in virtue: vigor of faith, joy of hope, fervor of charity, profound humility, angelic purity." Spiritual perfection and a permanent disposition to exercise the vir-tues to the utmost are one and the same thing, for it is by the strenuous practice ~of these varied virtues that we do all the good of which we are capable, and thus achieve the greatest possible increase of sanctifying grace, the measure of our eternal bliss in heaven. Among all the virtues that grace the soul, is there one more important than the rest, one that embodies the very marrow of perfection, one which, if practised faithfully. will bring in its train all the others? What virtue contains the essence of perfection? III. Ped, ection, Its EssencemFalse Notions Before we select the virtue containing the true essence of perfection, we must consider some errors. We shall not. dwell upon the opinions of those pseudo:scientists and philosophers who consider all virtue, but especially that found in the saints of the Catholic Church, as just so much hypocrisy, abnor.mality, or perversion. Their ignorance, prejudice, and lack of scientific method are appalling. Nor shall we delay to discuss the errors of those who contemn 234 PERFECTION AND "THE RELIGIOUS ~the characteristically. Christian virtues .because theii mis~ taken ideologies have led them .to place what they call perfection in the wrong virtues or .in pseudo-virtues. Such are, for example, in our own. day, the Communists and the Nazis. " The virtues lauded by these ideologists are those~of pagan materialism. Some err i.n overemphasizing the pas-sive virtues, and then we have Quietism; while others stress unduly the active ones, and ther; we have what. Leo XIII called Americanism. Both these extremes have. met with positive disapproval, by the Church, because fundamentally they disturb the delicate balance between divine grace and human nature. We shall not delay on these. " What we are chiefly interested in are the ordinary mis-taken notions of the essence of perfection found among Catholics and even sometimes among .religious, at least in practice: They. are generally a matter'of, misplaced empha-sis, In the case.of religious, these errors are occasionally the result of faulty information imparted, to them in their earlier years, or ~more often, I am inclined to believe, they are due to a wrong interpretation, of ideas and practices found in the biographies of the saints. Although there has been great improvement in recent years,~ still many of these lives of the saints leave much to be desired from the point of view of accuracy and perspecti.ve., To secure interest and dramatic effect, things wholly accidental are played up undu!y, to the obscuring of essentials; certain particular means, espe.cially of a heroic kind, are over-stressed to the minimizing and.~even obliterating of the saint's all-important purpose. Thus, the striking and extraordinary tend to throw the spiritual .life of the saint completely out of f0c_us and hence it is .no. wonder-that ~the essence of per-fection is often, misconstrued by the uncritical reader. ~ Wha~e~cer the cause may be, i.tis a fact that some think that perfec.tion consists in long pr.ayers, particularly, ificon- 235 AUGUSTINE KLAAS templation, with accompanying ecstasies, revelations, and other charismatic gifts. Or again, some consider perfection as essentially a matter of penances and mortifications, with emphasis on the heroic ones and still more emphasis on what they like to call "the folly of the cross." It is true that heroic penances and extraordinary gifts of contem-plation are intimately connected with spiritual perfection and that they abound in the lives of the saints, but they do not essentially constitute perfection. They~ are effective means to perfection, but, after all, only means. The stead-fast use of them may indicate a high degree of perfection already achieved, but definitely they are not the essence of perfection. Others are inclined to place the essence of perfection in spiritual or even sensible consolations and. consider the presence of these as indicative of spiritual perfection attained. The greater the consolation, the greater the per-fection, so they think, forgetting that one can be perfect without great consolation. At least, perfection is entirely independent of the fluctuations of spiritual and sensible consolation. Then, there are those who, like the Pharisees of old. place perfection in the meticulous outward observance of the letter of the law--a certain kind of extreme formalism. Our Lord has expressed in no uncertain terms His estimate .of this type of pseudo-perfection (Matthew 23:23-28). Neither is the observance of the three evangelical vows of poverty, chastity and obedience the essence of perfection. These vows are a most important means to perfection, and centuries of religious life bear witness to their efficacy; but they are not the only means, for there are numerous saints in heaven who never took these vows. And I dare'say that there are peopl~ in the world who, without the. vows, are living lives of greater perfection than many religious do 236 j~,. PERFECTION AND THE RELIGIOUS with them. Nor does. spiritual perfection consist in works of zeal, the intense exercise of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, This restless apostolic activity may :be motivated by great interior perfection, but it does not con-stitute perfection essentially. Nor is perfection a kind of liturgical estheticism. These liturgical "thrills'.' are not necessary, though the right, intelligent use of the liturgy is a means to spiritual perfection sanctioned and often praised by the Church. Finally, we come to the good people who seem to equate perfection with the gaining of the maximum number of indulgences, or with the joining of as many religious societies and sodalities as POssible, or with making a record number of novenas, or with the greatest and most varied accumulation of medals, prayer-books, rosaries and holy¯ pictures. They forget ~hat there were thousands of saints in the Catholic Church before most of these things came intouse. St. Francis de Sales, in a famous passage often quoted, pillories the common inclination to judge of perfection according to one's own Pa[ticular character and tempera-. ment. He shows clearly that overstressing the wrong virtue as the essence of perfection frequently has Unfortunate reac-tions in the practice of the other virtues. The passage appears in the first chapter of his Introductior~ to the Devout Life. I cite it, asking thereader to remember that for St. Francis the words "devout" and "devotion" are the equivalent of "perfect" and "perfection." "Aurelius was wont to paint all the faces in his pic-tures to the air and resemblance of the women whom he loved, and so each one paints devotion according to his own passion and fancy. He that is given to fas.ting holds him-self for .very devout, if he do but fast, though his heart be full of rancour: and though he dare not moisten his tongue in wine or even in water for fear of transgressing s'obriety, AUGUSTI'NE KLAAS yet he scruples not to plunge it in the blood of his neighbor, by detraction and calumny. Another will account himself devout for reciting a great multitude of prayers every day, although afterwards he gives his tongue full liberty to utter peevish, arrogant, and injurious words among his famil-iars and neighbors. Another will readily draw an alms out of his purse to give it to the poor, but he cannot draw any gentleness out of his heart to forgive his enemies. Another will forgive his enemies, but will not make satisfaction to his ~reditors, unless forced by the law to do so. And yet all these persons are, in the common est.imation, held to be devout, though .they are by no means so. The servants of Saul sought for David in his house; but Michol having laid a statue in his bed, and having covered it with David's apparel, made them believe that it was David himself sick and sleeping (I Kings 19:11-16): even so do many per-sons cover themselves with certain external actions belong-ing to holy devotion, and the world believes them to be truly devout and spiritual; whereas in reality they are but statues and phantoms of devotion." The various opinions cited above err by overstressing things good in themselves and highly commendable when used prudently and wisely. These practices have their place in the quest for perfection, but their place is that of means to an end. True perfection consists essentially in none of them. IV. Perfection, Its True Essence The true essence of Christian perfection is charity-- the supernatural love of God for Himself and of all else for His sake. But this charity, containing the very marrow of perfectign, is not a low degree of charity, but maximum charity. A great sinner newly converted to a better life has the .charity that necessarily accompanies the state of sancti- 238 PERFECTION AND THE RELIGIOUS lying grace, but no one would say that he is very perfect. This minimum degree of charity is not sufficient, nor indeed is that charity enough which coexists with a habit of delib-erate venial sin and unmortified passions, it is maximum charity which constitutes the essence 0f.spiritual. perfection. St. Paul eloquently stresses the primacy of charity in the spiritual life. He calls it the. "bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:14) and the "fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13~10). Without it, he declares other virtues, even though heroic, to be as nought: "And I point out to ¯ you a yet more excellent~way~ If. I should speak with the tongues of men and of angel~, but do not have charity, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymb~E And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and "all knowledge; arid if I have all faith so as to move mountains, yet do not .have charity, I am nothing. And if I, distrilsute all my goods to f~ed the poor, and if I deliver~my body to be burlied, yet do not have charity, it profits me nothing . So there abide faith;hope and charity, .these three,; but the greatest of these is charity" (I Corinthians 13). St. ,lohn, too, sings a paean in praise of charity in his Epistles: "God is love, and he who abides inlove abides in God, and God in him" (I ,lohn 4:16). But it is from the lips of Our Lord Himself that we have in clear and unmistakeable language the doctrine of maximum charity as'the essence of perfection. I cite the text from the Gospel of St. Matthew (22:34-40) : "But the Pharisees,-hearing thfit he had silenced the Sadducees,' gathered together. And one of them,-a doctor of the Law, putting .him to the test,, asked him, 'Master, which is .the great commandment in the Law?; desus said to him: 239 AUGUSTINE KLAA$ "Thou shalt love the Lord thg God "with thg whole heart, and with thg whole soul, and with thg whole mind. This is the~greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it, . Thou shalt love tl~g neighbor as tbg. self. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.' " The Fathers of the Church. have many passages con-firming and elucidating the same doctrine of charity. Let us hear St. Augustine, who says in his treatise On Nature and Grace: "Incipient charity is incipient justice; advanced charity is advanced justice; great charity is great justice; perfect charity is perfect justice.'" St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theotogica (II-II, Q 184, Art 3) notes that "primarily and essentially the perfection of Christian life consists in charity, principally as to the love of God, secondarily as to the love of our neighbor." And in his treatise on the Perfection of Spir-itual Life (Chapter I) he states that "the spiritual life con-sists principally in charity . . . He is simply perfect in the spiritual life who is perfect in charity." Suarez likewise teaches this (The Religious State, Chapter I, Section 3) : "The perfection of a thing consists in its union with its last end. Our last end is God, Who is manifested to us by faith. Our perfection therefore consists in union with God: and it is charity which unites us with God. The essence of sanctity and perfection,, and the perfection of Christian life, consists therefore in .charity and the perfec-tion of charity." Of the more modern theologians we may cite Tanquery (The Spiritual Life, p. 158): "But what degree of charity is required for perfection? . Charity so 240 PERFECTION AND TIIE RELIGIOUS well established in the soul as to make us strive earnestly and constantly to avoid even the smallest sin and to do God's holy will in all things out of love for Him." ¯ - It is now clear that. the essence of spiritual perfection is charity, the maximum charity of which we are capable according to our particular capacities of n~iture and of grace. What does this maximum charity include? It includes, .of course, the infused virtue of charity, but this alone is not sufficient: A newly-baptized child has the. infused virtue of charity, but it cannot be said to have attained to the perfection we are considering. Neither does a.high degree of infused charity suffice. A religious, for example,: may l~ad a very fervent life for many years and then unfor-tunately fall .into a state of tepidity and laxity in which he may commit many imperfections and venial, sins. If he does ¯ .not sin mortally, he will be possessed :of a great amount of sanctifying .grace and concomitantly a high degree "of infused charity, but no one would say that such a religious is leading a life of.perfection. Charity as an infused virtue is required but is not sufficient to constitute the. essence, of perfection. ¯ In addition to the highest degree of infused charity of which we are capable, there .is required also the maximum activity/of charity. There must be in the s0ul a permanent disposition to perform as many acts of supernatural charity as we can and, in fact, do govern all our actions by the vir-tue of charity. Charity must rule our actions as intensively and as extensively as possible. Does this mean that acts of the other virtues, such as faith, hope, humility, penance and the rest, are to be excluded? By no means. A priest in a Certain widely-read modern novel is likely to convey a wrong impression when he says: "If we have the funda-mentals, love of God and love of our neighbor, ,surely we're 241 AUGUSTINE. KLA/t$ all right." As though the possession of the true faith, for .example, were of minor.importance! No--faith, hope and the other virtues cannot be left out; they must be prac-tised, but they should be practised as much as possible from the motive of charity. As Suarez so cogently remarks: "The perfection of Christian life includes not only the per-fection of charity, but the perfection of the other virtues; charity being their end and crown, .or complement of per-fection . Other virtues contribute towards perfection as they are the instruments of charity; and to charity, as it is essential perfection; they add an accidental perfection." That is why St. Paul says (I Corinthians. 13:4-7): "Charity is patient, is kind; charity does not envy, is not pretentious, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, is not self-seeking, is not provoked; thinks no evil, doesnot rejoice over wickedness, but rejoices ~vith the truth; bears with all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." In a word, the other virtues may be said to belong to the integrit~t of perfection. Charity at a maxi-mum is its essence and charity must rule all the other vir-tues like a queen. If charity abounds in our souls as an infused virtue, if charity .governs our actions as intensively'and as exten-sively as possible, then indeed we shall be perfect. Then we shall be doing the maximum good. Observe a child who. loves its mother with all its heart. Doesit not strive ear-nestly to avoid whatever will displease her, and does it not do positively all it can to please her, out of love for her? So shall we avoid the slightest sin and imperfection and do all the supernatural good we can, if we love God with our whole heart and soul and mind. Love is the keystone of perfection. He is perfect who isperfect in charity. St. Francis de Sales neatly sums UP our doctrine on the 242 PERFECTION AND THE RELIGIOUS relation of charity to perfection, which he .calls dev0.t!o.n; "True and living devotion presupposes the love. of God; nay rather it is no other" thing .than: a true love of God; yet not any kind of love; for, in so far as divine love beautifies our souls, and makes us pleasing to his divine ¯ Majesty, it is called grace; in so far. as it gi~ces us strength to do good it is'called charity; but when it.reaches such a degree of perfection that it makes us not only do good, but do so carefully, frequently, and readily, then it is called devotion . And since devotion consists in a certain excelling degree of charity, .it not only. makes us ready, active and diligent in ~observing the commandments of God; but it also prompts us .to do readily and heartily as many good works as we can, even though they be not in any sort commanded, but only counseled or inspired .,. In fine, charity and devotion differ no more, the one from the other, than the flame from the fire;, inasmuch as charity, being a spiritual fire, when it breaks out into flame, is called devotion: so that devotion adds-nothing to the fire of charity, sav~ the flame which makes charity ready, active, and diligent, not only in observing the commandments of God, but in practising the heavenly counsels and inspira-tions" (It~troductior~ to the Deoout Life, .Chapter I). So far we have considered perfection in general and in its all important essential element, charity: In a con-cluding article we shall apply these thoughts to the reli-gious state. How is the religious to do the maximum good and practise the maximum charity? 243 Moral Beaub/ in our Duties toward God Gerald Kelly, S.3. IN HIS TREATISE on the Blessed Eucharist, St. Albertus Magnus offers this humble apology for the limitations of his work: "Even though we do the best we can, yet in treating of God and the mysteries of God we but babble like babes." In this respect, anyone who tries to work out a scheme for the positive and insp.irational treatment of the Commandments that enunciate our duties toward G0dwill very likely feel a certain kinship to the great Dominican scholar. These Commandments touch on sublime truths, "on-God and the mysteries of God," and it is difficult to speak or write of these truths in words that offer more than a glimmer ofsatisfaction. Because of the difficulty of treating the, subject ade-quately, I prefer to consider the present article merely a series of "notes" on our duties to God. The ideas are not fully developed; but they do, I hope, offer some material for that prayerful study of the Decalogue which, according to The Roman Catechism, is so desirable. Perhaps too, the general plan given here will be of service to teachers who desire material for presenting the positive background of .the various Commandments before explaining the prec.epts. and prohibitions contained therein. Reason and Faith Our duties toward God are epitomized in the first three . Commandments of the Decalogue. These Command-ments, in turn, are summed up and perfected in the first of the two Great Commandments. In terms of the virtues, these Commandments refer principally to acts of Faith, 244 MORAL BEAUTY IN DUTIES TO GOD Hope, Charity, and Religion. The following notes will show, in a somewhat sketchy fashibn, how the practice of thes~ virtues.is associated with the Commandments, .and will indicate, at least imperfectly, their power for contrib-utifig to the moral beauty of the universe. Our duties toward God flow from definite relation-ships that exist between.ourselves and God. The first step in the appreciation and observance of such duties must be a knowledge of these relationships. This knowledge is obtained through reason, and especially through Faith. Even .reason alone can tell us much about God and our-selves; from the visible things of this world, as St. Paul declared, it can penetrate to the invisible things of God. Reason can discover the existence of God and can paint a very sublime portrait of His perfections. Nevertheless, much more important than mere reason, is the knowledge that is ours through F~aith, In the first place, though reason can (perhaps I should say could). attain to a vast fund of knowledge about God, yet it is a simple matter of fact that the difficulties are so great that unaided reason falls into many and grievous errors in its search for God. The knowledge of Faith is free from these errors. Furthermore, even the most highly developed human reason, working under the most favorable natural circumstances, is held within decided limits in its quest for the truths about God. It cannot penetrate the veil of mystery; it cannot even suspect the reality of the inner life of God or know of the divine scheme which actually pre-vails in the universe and which is expressed in the mysteries of the Supernatural Life, of the 'Incarnation, and of the -Redemption. These truths are known only through revelation, and they become our own personal knowledge only when we accept God's revelation by making an ac't of Faith. 245 GERALD KELLY 'Faith, then, is the first step in the appreciation and .intelligent observance of our duties toward God. By Faith we know what God really is and what we are. It is scarcely necessary to enumerate here the sublime truths of Faith. They are contained substantially in the Apostles' Creed; they are unfolded in word and gesture and song in the liturgical ceremonies by which the Church teaches her chil-dren. But it should be mentioned here that any growth in Faith, any progress in the knowledge of God and' His perfections which comes through reading or study or prayer is not only a fine practice of the Commandments but isalso a most excellent preparation, for .living in the spirit of the Commandments. And as for .teaching, we teach the Commandments best when we ourselves know God inti-mately and when we impart this knowledge to our pupils before telling them that they must do this, they must not do that, and so forth. Through Faith we are made aware of a vast number of relationships that exist between ourselves and God. He is our Creator, our Helper, our sovereign Lord, our Redeemer, our Best Friend, our Father, our Goal; and so on. Yet, if we carefully examine these relationships, we shall find that, roughly speaking, they can be grouped under two heads: some emphasize our union with and similaritg to :'God, others emphasize the distinction and distance between ourselves and God. Suppose we consider first the relationships of distance~ and distinction. These present a grand picture of God as the Being of supreme excellence and absolute dominion and ourselves as creatures who d.epend utterly upon Him. This is a true picture; it is decidedly appropriate that we ~recognize it and lead our lives according to it. Down to the very core of our being we are creatures; and any act of 246 MORAL BEAUTY IN DUTIES TO GOD Ours which expresses this relationship to God is in perfect harmony With our natures.¯ : ¯ ¯ .Creqturely .Acts Among these creat.urehj acts, the simplest and most ¯ fundamental is that of adoration. The essential charac-teristic of adoration is perfect homage, the homage due to God alone. It is the acknowledgement of God's supreme excellence and-our absolute dependence on Him. It may be expressed internally by a simple act of the will, or it may be externalized by various gestures, such as the genuflec: tion; or it may seek outlet in the other forms of worship known as the prayer of praise, the prayer of petition, the taking of vows and oaths. Basically, these various acts are but modifications of the one fundamental act of worship. The prayer Of praise is adoration with emphasis on the acknoxvledgement of God's excellence; the prayer of peti-tion is adoration with insistence on our dependence. A vow ~is adoration expressed by partial or total consecration of oneself to God;an oath is adoration in that it pays tribute to one aspect of divine excellence, God's infinite truthful-ness. The worship of God must be not only personal and individual, but social as well, for we depend on God not merely as individuals but also as a community. And social worship demands a fixed time for its exercise and. definite forms for its manifestation. Hence the propriety of days set aside as God's days, days on which acts of reli-gion and rest from 'merely. secular occupations play the principal part. Hence too the need of that chief of all social actsof worship, sacrifice, a commonact of adoration by.which the.whole community, through its legitimate .ministers, makes an offering to God as an agknowledgement ¯ of His :supreme,dominion over the community"and of 247 GERALD KELLY the complete dependence, of the community .on, God. Social worship, from the very fact that it is external and common, must be regulated; and what norm is more appropriate than that which Almighty God Himself has established in giving us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in founding the Church with power to regulate this act of worship and to establish minor forms? Adoration in all its forms is reserved to God alone. But it is natural enough that in the sphere of religion we should find a condition similar to that which exists in practically all secular governments and which, if history, tells us rightly, is well-nigh as old as government itself. Earthly rulers have their ministers, and it is an accepted custom among men to pay honor to these ministers according to their dignity. In much the same way, God has communi-cated His excellence to creatures in varying degrees-~-a fact Which forms the basis for the special acts of veneration that we pay to Mary and the saints. This seems so reasonably in accord with human practice in other matters that one is apt to wonder why people at times strongly object to it. We honor Mary and the .saints because they reflect the divine excellence in a special way; we direct petitions to them because we know that God, Whose special friends they are, wishes to honor them by granting His favors through their intercession. God, the saints of God--and now a brief word about reverence for the things of God. As we pay Him supreme worship, it is surely the appropriate thing to show a special reverence to all the things connected with that worship: for the house of God,~. for the Sacred vessels, for the persons consecrated to Him, for the Word of God, and of course for the~Holy Name of God. All these things represent God, and in honoring them we honor Him. :The acts of virtue thus far enumerated are more fully 248 MORAL BEAUTY IN DUTIES TO! GOD explained in any theological treatise on thevirtue of reli-gionI. These acts, like the virtue of justiceamong human b~ings, all emphasize the distinction between ourselves and God. As such, they are distinctively creatttrety acts. Love and Hope Yet, though we are distinct from God, we are not wholly different from Him; though an infinite distance separates us from Him, yet in a true sense we are one with Him. Even reason tells us of ~ similarity to God that is ours in the possession of intellect and free will, and of a special yearning for God which is a property of our Spiritual and immortal souls. But Faith, in giving us.a knowledge of the supernatural order, tells us of a similarity to God and of an ultimate assimilation to God which reason could not so much as suspect. We are children of God, share~s in His own Divine nature, members of the Divine Family, with the destiny of sharing His own happiness in the Vision Beatific. The distance of creatureship is bridged by the inti.m.acy of friendship; and, though submissive worship is never to be neglected, yet in the present order it yields the primacy to filial love in our dealings with God. Since God has chosen to deal with us on' terms of loving friendship, it is most appropriate that we live according to this relationship. To do so is to live a life of Charity. This expresses itself in various ways: it rejoices in the perfections of God; it labors for the fulfillment of God's designs; it accepts God's gift of Himself and gives self in return to God. It flees from sin, strives for closer union with God and for perfect conformity to the will of God. Especially does it contemplate God-made-man and strive, as all true love 1For a splendid treatment of the virtues, confer The Fullness of Life by Walter Far-rell, O.P. Confer also The Catechism of the Council of Trent (The Roman Cate-chism). 249 GERALD KELLY does, for perfect imitation of Him and for~,the growth of His kingdom in the hearts of men . : Though our union with God has already begun, it is still imperfect and breakable. ~ To preserve it and increase it unto the perfection of heaven is difficult; without the help of God, it is impossible. But God in His fatherly goodness has promised not only this help but a reward as well for our cooperation. Since we know His goodness and His power and His unwavering fidelity to His promises, it is fitting that we trust Him, that always in perfect confidence we stretch out our hands to Him as a child reaches but for ¯ his parents. Such is the worship of Hope. Devotioia All the acts thus far enumerated are in perfect accord with the Commandments that contain our duties to God. To perform such acts, to cultivate such virtues, is to live in the spirit of these Commandments. This is not a dry, mechanical process; these acts do not issue from a sterile soul. They presuppose inthe soul a certain disposition that theologians call deootion. Perhaps it is well for us, particularly if we be educators, to realize that many people have.a false idea of religious devotion. They look upon it as something sentimental, something highly emotional, something they might want to experience only when their friends-are not present. That is a silly notion. In all Other affairs deootiorl has a lofty signification. Men speak with respect and awe of the soldier who is deooted to his country, of a husband devoted to his wife, of parents devoted to their children, of a doctor devoted to his duty, and so forth. In all these uses, devotiorl means something solid---a spirit of self-sacrifice and of true heroism. Yet, in the religious sphere the word has a "fluffy" 250 MOR~L BEAUTY IN DUflES TO GOD ~onn0tati0n;the mere accidentals are ffequently mist'aken for. the isubstance. ~ )kS a matter of~ plain .fact, religious ~devotioriis ~he highest of all forms Of :devoti0n. It is a. ready will to wor-ship God, toserve and love Him as. He deseives. It is the most appropriate and the h0blest form of hero-worship. Itis God-worshipmthe perfect willingnes~ to acknowledge God for what He is and ourselves for what we are. It is the first fruit of a lively Faith; and the very Soul of all the other acts of virtue, enumerated here. A life lived, according to the pattern sketched in this article is a beautiful life. The .greater the number of men who lead such lives, the more does moral beauty shine resplendent in the universe. To labor for this in ourselves. a.nd others is our apostolate. The Church and Moral Beauty 0n¢ concluding word: Nothing so strikingly illustrates the true beauty of worship as the living Church herself. It sometimes impresses and consoles our people when we show them that through membership in the Church they help to conserve this beauty in the world and are thus contributors to a spiritual achievement of almost unbelievable gran-deur. Thoughout the world they have built magnificent churches where the one true Sacrifice, as well as other forms :of worship, is offered. This worship is onduct~ed wi.th exquisite pageantry and with the finest of this world's goods. Daily and hourly in the. name of the Church, there ascends to God the most reverent of all prayers, the Divine Office. Our Catholic people have a wealth of reli-gious festivals in honor of God and His Mysteries; they venerate Mary, the Mother of God, and the angels and saints, His special friends; they cherish the written word of .God and reverence the living teaching authority that He 251 GERALD KELLY established. They have doctrines and a Moral Code of -tranScendent b~auty. They have a priesthood dedicated 'wholly to ,priestly work. Thousands of their men and women are consecrated to Goal by vow. In toil and sacri-rice, they have built countless schools to safeguard the reli-gious education of youth; and there is no work of mercy e~cluded from the~stupendous program of ~harity that~the Church is ever conducting. All those things blend together to form the sweet incense of worship that is constantly being offered to God through the Holy. Catholic Church. It is a living, expres-sion of the first table of the Decalogue and of the Great Commandment of Love. PAMPHLET REVIEWS Martyrdom of Slovenia, by dohn LaFarge, S.d., is a p.amphlet .re-print of three articles from America. It gives a graphic picture of Catholic Slovenia, peaceful and progressive before the German inva-sion but now subjected to terrorizing persecution. Proceeds go to the general relief of Slovenia. The pamphlet may be ordered from American '.Slovene Parish Relief, 62 St. Mark's Place, New York City, N. Y. Price: 5 cents each. Meditorials, by Paschal Boland, O.S.B., is a small booklet of brief, well,expressed thoughts for 'prayerful .reflection. It may be obtained from The Grail, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 10 cents a copy. ,252 The h,p!:er o[ At:t: irs in a Religious Congregation Adam C. Ellis, S.3. ~i A_ FTER kh~ cl~apter of elections, is finished, it is c~s. ]-~ tomary to hold a chapter of affairs (business l~apte.r) under the presidency of the newly .elected superior general. In this chapter the more important matters con-cerning the welfare of the institute as a whole are consid-ered. Agenda ~t: the Chapter.of Affairs ~ We may conveniently divide the subject-matter of this, business chapter into three classes:. 1 ) affairs which require the permission or approval of the Holy-See; 2) other important matters pertaining to the general welfare of the institute as a whole; 3) propositions ,~ubmitted to the general chapter by individual houses and subjects. I. Affairs which require, the permission of the Holy See: Such are, for example: the division of a congregation into provinces; the revision of the boundaries of provinces already established, as well as the establishment of new provinces (canon 494) ; the establishment of houses in mis-sion territories subject to the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith (canon 497, § 1) ; the erectibn of new novitiates, or the transfe~ of .an existing novitiate to another house (canon 544); the assumption of a debt, or the sale or mortgage or property, when the amount exceeds 6,000 gold dollars (canon 534). 2.-Other important affairs: Under this head would come. questions of finance, of discipline, and of good works. A word about each. Questions of Enance. Under the old law the Holy See ~253 ADAM C. ELLIS 0r,.the ~Bishop determined the amount of the dowry, the amg.unt:eadh :houie was to.contribute to the support of the general curia an~d of lnembers'in trai.riing, and so forth. The present policy of the Sacred Congregation of Religious is to allow~the general chapter of a congregation approved by the Holy See tO determine these amounts, thus avoiding the n~cessity, ofrecuiring to. the HolySee for dislSenshtions required b~r .the changing financial status of an~ institute. He'nce the gener.al chapter will determine the following points: the amount of the dowry to be required of postu-lants; the amount of money each house is to contribute to the motherhouse for the support of the superior general and his officials, and for the support of novices, religious who ~ire studying, and so forth; the amount of money the supe-rior general may spend with the consent of his council, as well as the amount he may sper~d without such consent: similarly the amount which provincial superiors may spend with and without the consent of their respective councils: the amount for which local superiors must obtain permis-sion of the superior general for extraordinary expenses as ¯ well as to contract a debt. Matters of discipline will deal with the observance of the constitutions and customs, the development of the ¯ spirit of poverty, obedience, and the like, as well as the suppression of abuses which may ~have crept in. ~ ¯ Good works embrace the particular end for which the congregation was established: teaching, the care .of the sick, and the like. Hence the general chapter may discuss the work-that is being done, new works to be undertaken within the limits of the purpose of the institute, changes, which may be~desirable,~new methods to be adopted. 3. Propositions of individuals: Every ,member of the institute, as well as the individual houses~with their mem-bers, has a right to, submit propdsitions for the" considera- 254 CHAPTER OF AFFAIR8 tion of the general chapter. Individual communities and their members will submit their propositions through the delegates who represent them. These propositions should contain suggestions for the betterment of the congregation as a whole, and should not be devoted to the private affairs of. individuals. All propositions submitted should be caref~ly collated, and submitted to the general chapter in the manner described below. Pretiminarg Work o~: Committees ~ In order to save time and to dispatchthe business of the chapter of affairs in a competent manner, it is desirable that one or more committees be appointed either by th~ chapter itself or by the superior general and his council. In a small congregation one committee will suffice; a larger ~ongrega-tion, especially one divided into provinces, will find it helpful to appoint several committees: for- instance, one .for finance, a second for discipline, a third for propositions, another for good works. These committees will hold pre-liminary meetings in which they will discuss the matters submitl~ed to them, word them in a brief but clear state-ment, giving reasons for and against their acceptance. The committee on.propositions will consider all the propositions sent in and collate them, p.utting a~ide for the time being. those of minor, importance or of a personal nature. A list of even these latter propositions should be read to the chal~- ter at some time or another before its close. The chapter will then decide whether or not it wishes to consider any of them. Some of the propositions will have been included in the matter of other committees and may be omitted. Discussion ot: Proposals The superior general will read aloud the proposals formulated by the committees, together with the reasons 255 ADAM C. ELLIS - ¯ for andagainst them, one question, at a time. Discussion is now in order. Every meinber of the chapter has the right to speak on the proposition if he wishes to do so. Usually the capitulars are asked in order of seniority to express their opinion: They should address their remarks to the president of the chapter. After all who so desire have expressed their minds in turn, the president may call for final remarks before the proposition is put to a vote. Each speaker should first obtain permission from the pre-siding officerl then state his opinion calmly, objectively, and briefly. The president will then sum up the arguments, pro and con, arid put the proposition to the chapter. Manner of Voting in Chapter of Affairs All ques.tions are decided bya majority vote, that is, by one more than half the number of capitulars present. AI.1 matters of greater importance should be decided by secret ballot. Though any individual capitular is not obliged to vote, he should at least turn in a blank ballot. In minor matters, or when it is evident from the dis-cussion that there is little or no opposition to a proposal, the vote may be taken by holding up hands or rising to express an affirmative vote. Any member of the chapter, however, may demand a secret ballot on any proposition. When this occurs, the president will put the matter to a vote, and if the majority of the chapter vote for a secret ballot, it must be taken, otherwise a standing vote will be sufficient. I~ case of a tie vote on any proposition, the president of the chapter may decide the matter if he wishes to do so: It may be well to remark here that it is not necessary for the general chapter .to pass on all the proposition.s sub-" mitted to it. Instead, it may vote to allow the superior general and his council to decide the matter ,in question. 256 CHA~TER OF AFFAIRS This will be the case especially when~ further information.,is:. needed upon a certain subject, or when future: circhmstances may alter the state of the question proposed. :. Changes in the. Constitutions The general chapter has no power to change the con- ", stitutions or to inteFpret them.~ Hence, if it seems desirable. for the general welfare of the institute that such a change should be made, or if some point in the constitutions is not clear, the chapter'of a pontifical institute may vote to ask the Holy See to change the constitutions which it has .approved, or to interpret such constitutions. In the case of a diocesan congregation, such a pet)ition should be addressed to the Bishop of the diocese. But if the congregation has houses in more than one diocese, the Bishop of the diocese in which the motherhouse is situated will have to obtain the consent of all the other ,Bishops in whose territory the con-gregation has houses before he can make any change in the constitutions (canon 495, § 2). Ordinances oF the General Chapter While thi~ general chapter of a religious congregation has no Idgislative power, and cannot, therefore, make laws in the strict sense of the term, it has dominative power over all the members of the institute (canon 501, § 1), and may issue ordinances which are binding upon all, provided such ordinances are not contrary to any laws of the Church or fo the constitutions. Such ordinances should be few in num-ber and really necessary for the spiritual well-being of the institute. They. remain in force until the following general chapter, and are binding upon all the members of the insti-tute as soon as they are promulgated by the superior gen-eral. No legislation imposes a time limit .upon the general 257 ADAM C. ELLIS : dhapter of, affairs., But underI normal, conditions, ,especially ¯ for.a congregation whose constitutions have been approved by the Ho. ly See, this chapter should be completed in.three or four days. Rarely would all the subjects mentioned in this article be discussed in the same chapter: in fact, it may even h'appen that theosubjects proposed for discussion are so few that the chapter can finish its business in one or two .sessions, A majority vote of the chapter members is suf-ficient for adjournment. When the chapter of affairs has concluded its business, a short special session should be held for the signing of the minutes. Every member of the chapter should be present in order to ~ffixehis signature thereto, and these minutes should be carefully preserved in the general archives. The members of the chapter should remember that they are bound by secrecy regarding the matters discussed in.chapter until the promulgatibn of the results of the chapter are made by the superior general. Even after such promulga-tion they should observe secrecy as to details regarding names and matters discussed or voted upon in chapter. Confirmation of Acts of Chapter of Affairs In the case of a pontifical congregation, the acts of the chapter of affairs need not be submitted to the Holy See unless the constitutions require suclq confirmation. In the case of a diocesan congregation, the local Ordinary may reserve to himself the right to confirm tl~e acts of the chap-ter of affairs. If he has not done so, there is no obligation .to submit the acts of the chapter to him for approval. In .both cases, however, as was stated above, individual propo-sitions implying a change in the constitutions or an inter-pretation of them must be submitted to the Holy See or to the Bishop, as the case may be. 258 The Place ot: :he Precious Blood in I:he Spiritual Lit:e Malachi J. Donnelly, S.J. IT IS A COMMONPLACE that the frequently occurring cloys the~ inquiring mind. The infrequent rainbow will stir the s6ul to its depths, the ever-recurring sunrise leave it cold and unaroused. But, who will say that the bow in the skies outshines the brilliance of the early dawn! Even so in the spiritual life, it is often enough the unusual rather than the solid doctrine that attracts our moth-like, unstable souls. The sure cure for this human weakness is frequent meditation on the fundamentals of our Faith. The many facets of the Catholic jewel must be examined up-close. Our goal must be not knowledge, but realization. As the author of the Spiritual Exercises puts it: "it is not an abun-dance of knowledge that fill~ and satisfies the soul, but to feel and taste things internally." The purpose of this essay is to set forth a few doctrinal observations concerning the Precious Blood, in the hope that frequent meditation on them may enkindle within our hearts a great devotion tb that red stream of divine love which wrought our salvation. It is a dogma of our Faith (hat the Son of God assumed as His very own a complete human nature. This is a fun-damental principle in considering the Precious Blood. Scientists tell us that the blood-stream is devoid of life. Hence, did we not have the defined truth that the Word possessed a complete and integral human body, we might wonder concerning the union that exists between the Pre-cious Blood and the Son of God become Man. But our 25.9~ ~ALACHI J. DONNELLY Faith teaches that the Word assumed not only flesh and soul, but also the human blood-~treaml ~' Scripture speaks of the flesh and blood of our Lord in the same terms: "Therefore because children have blood and flesh in common, so he .in like manner has shared in these; that through death he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver them, who throughout their life were kept in servitude by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2: 14-15). Again we read: " . . . . the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). St. Peter writes: "You know that you were redeemed from the vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, not with perishable things, with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" .(I Peter 1:18-19). Scripture, then, is too explicit to allow any doubt about the intimate union between the Precious Blood and the Person of the Word. Wk have it,therefore, on the word of God that our sal, vation was accomplished by the Blood of the Lamb. To this Blood is ascribed an infinite value, for the notion of redemption and satisfaction as effec~ed by 3esus Christ is inseparably linked with infinite value. Now, if to the Blood in itseff is attributed the infinite price of our redemp-tion, this is possible only if the Blood is hypostatically, or .personally, united to the Person of the Son of God. From the words of several General Councils defining that our Lord had a corriplete and integral human body, from the testimony of Scripture which attributes our kal-vation to the Precious Blood (the Scriptural testimony was repeated by Clement VI in his Jubilee Bull of 1349), we may conclude that to the Precious Blood may be accorded the same worship that is Offered to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For both were personally united to the Son of God. 260 THE PRECIOUS BLOOD IN THE~ SPIRITUAL LIFE Let us turn to the Mass. When the priest at the altar says those memorable words, "for this is the chalice of my blood" and so forth, what ieally happens? To answei this we must go back to the. Last Supper, for what ,Jesus did at the Supper the.priest does at the Mass. When, on that most solemn evening, 'jesus took the ctip of wine into His holy and venerable hands and said: "All of you drink of this: for this is mybloodof the new covenant, which is being shed for many unto, the forgiveness.of sins" (Luke 26:2), what really.took place? Now, 'jesus, as the Son of God, can tell naught but the truth. When, itherefore,. He said, "this is-my. blood," a gieat and Wonderful change took place, th~ one and only event of its kind in the history of the world up to that time. What He held in His hands; after these words, was no longer: wine. No, it was a cup that con-tainedHis, most Precious Blood. Beneath the'appearances of wine was contained, as the Council of Trent teaches,~ Christ's own.Blood--and with the Blood, His Body,. Soul, and Divinity. At the Supper the Blood was shed mystically or sym-bolically by the separate consecration of the wine and biead. By this the bloody death of the morrow was symbolized. At the Mass the same holds true, for the Mass reenacts what Christ did at the Supper. The Mass and the Supper are, after the rite of Melchisedech, an unbloody sacrifice: the-sacrifice of the Cross is according to the rite of Aaron, a bloody sacrifice. After the Supper, 'jesus continued to offer Himself to His eternal Father. The bloody sweat in the Garden, the scourging, the crowning with thorns--all were outlets for that great sacrificial .stream of love in the red current ~of which the sins of the world were swept away" as driftwood in a swollen river.' 7Fhen on Calvary, in asublime finale of divine love, the Sacred Heart was emptied~of that most 261~ MAI~ACHI! 3. DONNELLY precious burden, the cleansing Blood of the immaculate ¯ Lamb of God.In this bloody consummation: of the Savior's .sacrifice our.redemption was achieved. It but required the extrinsic a~ceptance on the part of God, that the sacrifice be fordver complete . By the Resurrection the Precious Blood was again united to the Sacred Body and in the Ascension ,lesus was taken-into Heaven, where, as '.'the ¯ Lamb that was slain," He forever pleads our cause. In the Mass, as the Council of Trent teaches, we have the same sacrificial Victim as was immolated on Golgotha: and the same One now offers by the ministry of priests, Who then offered Himself on the Cross, the sole difference being in the. manner of offering. No longer is the Precious Blood drained from the Sacred Heart, but forever will that red current flow through the living Body of 3esus. In the Mass, as at theSupper, there is the mystical, or symbolical, shedding of the Blood in the separate consecration of wine. The species of wine, in its sacramental signification, more directly signifies the Precious Blood; although, of course, we must ho!d that the whole Christ is (equally) present under the sacramental veil of either species. In our spiritual life, then, it is dear what an important role devotion to the Precious Blood should play. The spir-itual life is possible only through Grace. Grace, however, is had only through tapping tl~e great reservoir of the merits of Christ. And the merits of Christ have been won by the ¯ shedding of His Precious Blood on the altar of the Cross. ¯ From His pierced Sacred Heart poured forth the scarlet laver that satisfied for our sins, reddemed all men, merited grace by which we are justified. Indeed, we have been redeemed at a great price. Would. that we could all "feel and taste internally" those words of St. Peter: "You know that you Were redeemed . notwith perishable things, with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." 262 The Catholic Rural Life Apostolate John L., Thomas, S.J. THERE are at least two reasons why religiousshouldbe ¯ well-informed regarding the Catholic Rural Life Apos-tolate. First, it is an apostolate, one of the very impor-tant forms of Catholic Action being conducted in this country today. Secondly, many religious, particularly those teaching in the rural schools, are actually engaged in the work of the apostolate and are in a position to accomplish great good in its behalf. For these reasons, a brief exposition of the Rural Life Apostolate seems appropriate here. Since the best expres-sion of the apostolate in our country is found in the work of the Catholic Rural Life Conference, I feel there is no better way to present the position of the Church in the rural crisis than by explaining the organization and aims of the Conference. The Catholic Rural Life Conference Tile Conference started in 1923 as a voluntary asso- Ciation to cooperate with the Rural Life Bureau of~the National Catholic Welfare Council. Six Bishops and sixty delegates, from eighteen dioceses met at St. Louis to discuss plans for the future. Since then thi~ conference has ignr othwen" ctoou bnetr yo.ne of the outstanding Catholic organizations What are the problems it attempts to solve? They can be put under three heads. First--pastoral and missionary. Eighty per,cent of our Catholic population live in the large cities. This means that the remai.ning twenty per cent are spread throughout the rural sections. Or for. every 263 ,JOHN L. -THOMAS 800,000 Catholics in the cities there are only 200,000 in the country. Hence, facilities for a Catholic education are frequently lacking. Perhaps we can realize the problem better this way. There are about 18,150 parishes in the United States. Only 8,000 of these have parochial schools. This.means 10,000 groups without schools. Furthermore, of the 2,952 counties in the United Sta.tes, 1,022 have no resident priest; 500 more bare none in their rural sections. The Conference is striving to remedy the disastrous effects of these conditions--that is, it is making the Church more effective by building up parochial schools, when this can-. not b~ done it promotes vacation schools .where e~ch year ¯ over one quarter of a million children are given, a religious training. Study clubs and correspondenc,e courses are used to instruct those who can be reached in no other way. It should be noted here that the Conference is the only agency under the huspices of the Church thathas specifically inter-ested itself in the rural Catholic.school. Advantages to Church The second task of the' Conference is to demonstrate the advantages rural welfare brings to the Church. Since the Catholic population in the United States is eighty per cent urban and Since the larger cities fail to reproduce themselves by thirty per~cent, ~it is clear that the continued existence and prosperity of the rural parishes are necessary for the physical existence of the Church in this country. Whether we like it or not our large cities are the grave-yards of the race. Even at the present birth rate, for every 10 adults in the city there will be only 7 in the next genera-tion, 5 in the third, and 3 ~ in the fourth, a decline of two-thirds in a century. For the country the rate runs: 10, .13, 17,, 22, giving an increase of one hundred percent in a cen- 264 THE RURAl. L~FE APOSTOLATE tur~y. And the Catholic Church is s.trong in the cities! Her strength is her weakness. Of course, there are individuals .with ostrich_-like instincts who refuse to look at these facts. Others contend these figures are not true for Catholics. Hard, cold facts, however, prove there is little or no distinction between the drop in the urban Catholic birth rate and that of others. As a prominent weekly somewhat cynically remarked: "Despite the Catholic drive for big families and no birth control, United States' Catholics are not fully reproducing themselves except in the country parishes--and more than eighty per cent of the Catholics of the United States live in cities." Leclercq, in his excellent Work, Marriage and the Family, clearly points out the seriousness of this prob-lem for the West in general: "The second half of the 20th century Will witness the population battle. On its out-come, more than on any other factor, will depend the future of civilization." Bishop O'Hara, treating this same subject, says: "The misfortune of the Catholic Church in America is that it is not strong in the country, that it is not at the natural source of population. The result" is that it is not the bene-ficiary of that natural process but has to fight its way against the decadent influences of the city in building up a people to the Lord. The most shortsighted should see how its influence would be multiplied if, instead of having .roots in merely a few hundred strong country parishes, it could possess several thousand such sources of population-." Monsignor John "Ryan has said in this regard: "To the extent that the Catholics migrate to the city more rapidly than non-Catholics they render inevitable a decline in the Catholic population and its influence upon American life." Besides being the source of population the rural parish is the milieu where the Catholic religious ideal of the family JOHN L. THOMAS finds perhaps its strongest support. This is the contention of the many Bishops and religious leadei~ in. the field today. As Father LaFarge has stated, the strength Of ~he rural, life mbvement is its stubborn insistence on the one fundamental point at issue in ,the world today: "How can best condi-tions be provided fo:r the religious salvation of the indi~ vidual family?" Bishop Vincent Ryan expresses the same general idea: "Essential for the preserVation of our civilization are the sound principles of rural living advocated by the Confer-ence." And Bishop Muench: "True civilization is rooted in' family culture. Without it civilization cannot endure; without it civilization will decay and .die. Alive to th~s great truth the Conference bends all its activities towaid the preservation arid promotion of family culture." Monsignor Ligutti, writing on the work of the Con2 ference echoes the same sentiment: "The Conference con-tends that for the full development of the human person-ality .and the greater good of the family, rural living with its WholesOmeness, integrity, ~ and responsibility is the most desirable mode of life. The Conference contends that the welfare bf the Church and the maintenance of a democracy depend on a balancebetween people in cities and people on theland--a 50-50 ratio rather than the 80-20 ratio of today." ¯ ~Bishop O'Hara has well summed up this point: "The Conference aims to build up in ti~e United States 10,000 strong country parishes and to anchor on the land a larger percentage of the strong, vigorous and intelligent boys and girls, who were born there." He goes on to say that the Church'sinterest in.agriculture arises from the altogether unique relationship ~which exists universally between the agri~cultural occupation and the central institution of Christianity, nay, of all civilization, namely, the family. 266 THE RURAL LIFE APOSTOLATE Now since the learning and experience of these Cath-o! ic leaders enables them to speak with authority, it must be evident to all that a primary source and ideal of Cath-olic parish life is the rural parish. And the aim of the Conference to convince leaders among the clergy and lay-men of this truth and to build up a rural youth convinced of the dignity of their calling, is a noble apostolate indeed. Catholic Agrarianism The third task of the Conference is Catholic agrarian-ism-- that is, to work not'merely to prove the value and dignity of rural life, but actually to conserve and promote rural life. Here the question is not what rural life can do for the Church but what the Cl~urch can do for rural life. As Father LaFarge.has pointed out: "There is a real threat of revolt among rural groups today.Communism can penetrate and demoralize rural America." Pius XI has indicated this danger on a general scale: "The greatest care must be exercised in behalf of the humble classes, especially the farmers and laborers. The Church is concerned at the great dangers by which their souls are increasingly men-ace&" The cause of the danger in this country--its primary source--is farm tenancy. Vanishing ownership is the menace stalking through rural America today. In the last 55 years tenancy has increased from twenty-five to forty-two percent.of all farmers. It is still on the increase. In other words nearly half of the farmers do not own the land that they work. We have only to reflect how simple it' would be for these tenants to become tenants of the govern-ment rather than of some insurance company or. bank, to .realize how easily the change could be made to the Soviet plan viewed with so much favor by many leaders today. That these conditions are contrary to the social 267 JOHN L. THOM,~S teaching of the Church is.clear from what~ Leo XIII has written: "Our first and most fundamental principle, wl~en we undertake to alleviate the conditions of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property. The law should favor ownership and its policy should be to induce as many people as possible to become owners." Pius XI, after speaking of "the immense army of hired rural laborers, whose condition is depressed in the extreme, and who have no hope of ever obtaining a share in the land,", says: "Unless serious attempts be made, with all energy and without delay, to put them [principles leading to wage: earner ownership] into practice, let nobody persuade him- . self that the peace and tranquillity of human society Can be effectively defended against the forces of revolution!" He has given the reason .for the seriousness of the agrarian problem eisewhere, saying: "Land is a nation's primary wealth andagriculture its most natural, vital, and impor-tant industry." Consequently, trouble in this field means a disruption of the very foundations of society. His Holiness, Plus XII, says of land and the family: "Of all the good~ that can be the object of private ownership none is more conf6rmable to nature . . . than the land, on the holding of which the family lives and from the products of which it draws all or patt of its subsistence . As a rule only that stability ¯ which is rooted in one's own.holding makes of the family the most vital and perfect and fecund ~ell of society . If today the concept of vital spaces is at the center of social and political aims, should not one, before all else, think of the vital space of the family and free it from the fetters of conditions which do not permit even to formulate the idea of a homestead of one's own?" , Therefore, Catholid agrarianism in the United States has a twofold job: To promote the ideal Catholic rural 268 THE RURAL LIFE APOSTOLATE community, and to propagandize for those essential norms of social morality which govern rural welfare wherever found, and which can be subscribed to by all persons whose minds have not been corrupted by atheism and materialism. These two aims interlock. Since the Catholic rural com-munity cannot function in a vacuum it must unite with other upright rural forces which are working for the com-mon end of social justice. It does this by organizing cooperatives,credit unions, study clubs, and by promoting a spirit of brotherhood and neighborliness. It maintains friendly relations with other rural life associations and endorses and sponsors all projects looking to the true uplift of the rural population. This leads to frequent contact with non-Catholics and opens up .an immense field for true conversions. Several Bishops have stated that they consider no field more fruitful in con: versions than this apostolate. Conclusion These, therefore, are the main rural life problems the Church must face: 1) pastoral and missionary; 2) edu-cating to values of the rural parish as the source of Catholic population and ideal family culture: 3) Catholic agra-rianism working for ownership of the family-sized farm. The efforts being made to meet these problems are clear from the four working aims of the Conference: 1) to care for the underprivileged Catholics living on the land; 2) to keep on the land Catholics who are now there; 3) to settle more Catholics on the land; 4) to convert the non-Catholics nowon the land. This is the rural life apostolate. These are its prob-lems and its aims. Itis an apostolate to save the Christian family, to .work for conditions which render the existence of the Christian family possible, and to reeducate people to 269 JOHN L. THOMAS ~the true values in life, that is, a reaffirmation of the impor- .tance and primacy of the human person threatened on all sides. .~ It is an aposto!ate that demands work. and study. Pius xi, pleading for more social action in generaLhas written: ,"No easy task is here imposed on the clergy, wherefore, all candidates for the sacred priesthood must be ,adequately prepared to meet it by intense study of social matters.'[' What is said here of candidates to the priest-hood must be applied to all teachers in Our Catholic schools for they tbo must be prepared to instruct Christian youth 'in the true principles ofCatholic action as outlined by the Church. Since the rural life movement is one form of this Catholid social action strongly urged by-the hier-archy today, it too must be studied and promoted by all Catholics. ~ It must be obvious to everyone that much can be accomplished for this apostolate iri our schools. Not, necessarily, by the introduction of new courses, and new textbooks, however. Rather, a sympathetic and intelli-gent understanding .of the importance and seriousness of the problem will enable the capable teacher to reorientate existing courses. At any rate, efficient teachers,~and we have many of them--will find some way to achieve the aims desired. Pius. XI, in regard to the whole social question of which this apostolate necessarily forms a part, has written these stern words: "No stone, then, must be left.unturned to avert these grave misfortunes from society. Towards this one aim must tend all our efforts and endeavors, sup-porte. d by assiduotis and fervent prayers to God."'"And he adds a thought that must be uppermost in the mind of each 6f us: "For with the assistance of Divine Grace, the destiny, 9f~ the human family lies in our ~hands." 270 Git:!:-I::xchanges in t:he Correspondence of $t:. Boniface GERALD ELLARD, S.J. NO OTHER literary likeness, they say, ~can compare with a collected correspondence for providing a realistic .portrait of their writer; equally true, i.t.~). would seem, that not even thebest of letters can dispense with gift-giving in some fashion as a natural expression of ~,. friendship. "Love consists in mutual exchange on either side," as tl~e whole world knows. How this tendency of nature is to be supernaturalized is a page of the science of the saints that all engaged in the pursuit of perfection must carefully study. Happy those in whom this "supernatu-ralization process" is effected as completely and as grace-fully as in the case of St. Francis Borgia, of whom it is recorded to his credit that he "retained through life the most tender and active affection for his children. A packet of their letters to him from 1566 to 1569 has been found, full of minute detail . Presents go to and fro. The General sends his son a map, and a watch . His daughters, in the charming and unchanging manner of nuns, send him jam.s and sweets and syrup of orange-flowers and corpobals and beg 'one little Hail Mary' . . . This article proposes to select from the extant corre-spondence of the great Saint Boniface, Apostle of Germany, passages in which his genius for human friendship is illus-trated by the exchange of gifts. For antiquarians, of course, these letters have a many-sided and engrossing interest; but for putting Boniface before us in his best human light, for making him a living and loving friend among friends high and low, this little store of gifts cancels out the differences 1C. C. Martindale, Captains o[ Christ (London: Washbourne, 1917), 44, 45. 271 GERALD ELLARD of twelve hundred years; we see him twin of any twentieth century noble friend. Bishop Daniel of Winchester, who had once been Boniface's "beloved master," in his old age addressed him as "my hundred-fold dearest friend"; in fact, ohe might say that the entire Boniface correspondence glows with the ardor of the love he'evoked. Still, the great-est monument of his lovableness is, I think, the fact that in " a correspondence extending ovei thirty-five years, roughly half of the personal letters:speak of the receipt or despatch Of some "gift, small indeed in itself, but token of a great affection," as the Bishop of LeiceSter once phrased it. Let us see Boniface in the midst of'his gifts; no picture of him is better! Desire/:or Books . There are gifts and gifts, but those Boniface received most gratefully were books. The r.e~luests he made most frequently were for more and more books, the latest books, the best books, in "all the branches that bore upon his sacred ministry. His letters show how he came by them. In one of the very first letters of the corrd'spondence, an English nun by the name of Bugga writes to Boniface, or Winfled, to congratulate him that the death of King Rathbod (719) opened the door of the Gospel in Frisia. She continues: "Know also'that the Sufferings o/: the Mart~trs which you asked me to send you I have not been able to get, but as-soon as I can I shall send it. And you, my best beloved, comfort my insignificance by sending me, as you promised in your dear letter, ~ some collection of the Sacred Writings. "I am sending ygu by" this same messenger fifty solidi and an altar-cloth, the best I can possibly do. Little as it is, it is sent~with great affection:''-°~ ~Epist VII: the letters are quoted, unless otherwise stated, as translated in The Let-ters of Saint Boniface° XXXI, Records of Chrilization, (New York: Columbia University, 1940). In the remainder of this article, these letters will be referred to by Roman nu~merals placed .after each quotation: ~ . , 272 ST. BONIFACE AND GIFT-EXCHANGES Another .life-.long friend of Boniface was the English Abbess Eadburga; to whom he wrote, about the time he became archbishop: "May He who rewards all righteous acts cause my dearest sister to rejoice in the choir of angels. above because she has consoled with spiritual light by the gift of Sacred Books an exile in Germany" (XXII). 2ustly famous in the annals of his mission is the request of Boni-face that this same Eadburga prepare for him a copy of the Epistt~s ot: St. Peter in letters of gold: "I pray to Almighty God, the rewarder of all good works, that He may repay you in the .Heavenly mansions and eternal tabernacles and in the choir of the blessed angels for all the kindnesses you have shown me, the solace of books and the comfort of the vestmentss with which you have relieved my distress. "And I beg you further to add to whatyou have done already by making a copy written in gold of the Epistles of my master, St. Peter the Apostle, to impress honor and rev= erence for the Sacred Scriptures visibly upon the ca.rnally-minded to whom I preach. I desire to ha~e ever present be-fore me the words of him who is my guide upon this road. I am sending by the priest Eoban the materials for your writing" (XXVI). ¯ Saint Peter's Epistles. in gold lettering on the finest parchment were doubtless very imposing, but Boniface felt very keenly the lack of a ~handy code of canon law to appiy the lessons of Holy Writ according to the mind of the Church. Not a few of his requests touch upon his uncer: tainty concerning marriage within the forbidden degrees of kinship. TtJis i~ reflected,, for instancd, in an urgent request of Archbishop Nothelm of Canterbury for a papal docu-ment he had already sought fruitlessly, at Rome: a"Vestimenta'" in the original, usually rendered as we have given it, but ~ometimes translated as "garments." Here I depart from the Columbia University rendering. 273 GERALD ELLARD "I beg that you will procure for me a copy of the letter containing, it is said, the questions Of Augustine, the first prelate and preacher of ~he English, .and the replies of the sainted Pope Gregory [the First]. In this writing, it is stated, among other things, that marriages between Chris-tians related in the .third. degree are lawful. Now will you cause an inquiry to be made with the most scrupulous care whether or not that document has been proved to be by the aforementioned father, Saint Gregory. For the registrars say that it is not to be found in the archives of the Roman church among the other documents of the aforesaid Pope" (XXIV). Reverence for Bede Among the writings attributed to Boniface are fifteen sermons, but their genuinity is.questioned because-they "contain no quotations, from Holy Scripture . and the books for .which he asked, such as the Spiritual commen-taries of St.Bede, would seem to-point to a different man-ner of preachi"ng. "* The critics are sceptical if these ser.- mons¯coutd be by Boniface in view of such passages as this, written to a~former pupil of his, now an abbot (we know not where), Dudd by name: ¯ "Try to support me by pouring out your prayers to God and help me with the Sacred Writings and the inspired treatises of the Holy Fathers.- Since a spiritual tract is well known to be a teacher for those, who read the Holy Scrip-tures, I beg you. to procure for me, as an aid in sacred learn-ing, apart bf a treat{seupon the Apostle Paul, which I lack. I have-tracts upon two. Epistles, one upon Romans, the other upon First Corint.hia,ns, Further, whatever you may findih your church library which you think would be useful to me and Which I may not be aware of or may not .4Day-Bet~en, .$a_int Boniface (MilwaUkee: Bruce, 193~), 166. . : 274 ST. BONIFACE AND GIFT-EXCHANGES. have in written form, pray let me know about it, as a loving son might do for an ignorant father, and send me also any notes of your own" (XXV). Then there was his epistolary campaign, so to speaL to get something of the writings of Bede, of whom the more he heaid the more eager he became to read. First he mentioned the matter somewhat casually in a long and very weighty letter to Egbert, Archbishop of York, near which city Bede had recently died. The letter opens with a grace-ful acknowledgment: "When I received your gifts and books I lifted my hands and gave thanks to Almighty God who ha.s given me such afriend in my long wanderings " and then passes,to its serious business. At the end. comes the reference to the "lector Bede": "I beg you also to have copied and sent to me some of the treatises of the lector Bede whom, as we learn, divine grace has endowed with spiritual intelligence and permitted to shine forth in your country, so that we too may profit by the light of that torch which the. Lord has granted unto you. "Meanwhile, as a token of fraternal love, I am sending you a copy of some letters of Saiht Grdgory which I have obtained from the archives of the Roman church, and which, as far as I know, have not yet reached Britain. "If you so order, I will send more, for I have received many of them. I am sending also a cloak and a towel for drying after washing the feet of the servants of God" [as the ceremonies of Maundy Thursday prescribe] (LIX). Archbishop Egbert sent on "gifts and books," but fresh canonical problems having cropped up meanwhile, Boni-face appeals for fresh guidance "to his friend in the embrace of 1Qving arms, his brother in the bonds of spiritual broth-erhood"-- and then reverts once more to "Bede, the in-spired priest": "Now we exhort you with eager desire to comfort our ¯ ° 275 GERALD ELLARD sorrow, as you have done before, by sending us some spark from that light of the Church which the Holy Spirit has kindled in your land: namely, that you will be so kind as to send-us some portion of the treatises which Bede, that inspired priest and student of the Sacred Scriptures, has put forth in his writings. Most especially, if possible, his.Lec-tior~ ar~l t:or the Year, which would form a convenient and useful, manual for us in our preaching, and the Prooerbs Solomon. We hear that he has written commentaries on this book" (LXXV). This letter from Boniface, a life-long abstainer, closes with the note: "We are sending you, by the bearer of this letter, two small casks of ~ine, asking you, in token of our mutual.affecti0n, to use it for a merry day with the breth-ren." The.next request was addressed directly to the Abbot of Bede's beloved Wearmouth: /" "Meanwhile we beg of you to.be so kind as to copy and send us some of the treatises of that. keenest investigator of the Scriptures, the monk Bede, who, we.have learned, shone forth among you of late as a lantern of the Church, by his Scriptural scholarship . . . "As a token of our deep affection we are sending you a coverlet, as they call them. here, made of goats' hair, and beg you to accept it,-trifle though it is, as a reminder of me" (.LX). When advancing age had dimmed the apostolic Arch-bishop's sight, he was stillbeset with countless ecclesiasti- . cal problems--and an insatiable desire of sacred learning. In a long letter of inquiries to the patriarchal Bishop Daniel of Winchester, Boniface's pen touched the old man's heart with this passage: "There is one solace in m~i mission I should like, if I may be so bold, tO ask of yOur fatherly kindness, namely, 276 ST. BONIFACE AND GIFT-EXCHANGES that you send me the book of the Prophets which Abbot Winbert of reverend memory, my former teacher, left when he passed from this life to the Lord, and in which the six Prophets are contained in one volume in dear letters writ-ten in full. If God shall incline your heart to do this, you could not give me a greater comfort in my old age nor bring yourself greater assurance of reward. I cannot procure in this country such a book of the Prophets as I need, and with my fading sight I cannot read well writing which is small and filled with abbreviations. I am asking for this book be-cause it is copied clearly, withall letters distinctly writteri out. "Meanwhile I send you by the priest Forthe~)e a letter and a little gift as a token of my sincere affection, a bath towel,° not of pure silk, but mixed with rough goats' hair, to dry your feet" (LI). Correspondence with Rome Boniface was on truly filial terms with several Popes, especially with Gregory III and Zachary. When the last-named was raised to the supreme pontificate in 742, Boni-face's felicitations were supported by: "some trifling gifts, not as being worthy of your Paternity, but as a token of our affection and devoted obedience, a warm rug and a little silver and .gold" (XL). In the face of Boniface's silence in the matter we might add that he also sent some couplets. proof that the schoolmaster of old had not lost his delight in versification. Did Boniface ask for books at Rome? Quite frequently, it would seem, but not always with immediate success. Pope Zachary sent him, ,on request, a carefully-marked copy of the Canon of the Mass, so that Boniface's "Holi-ness would know where the. signs of the Cross should be made during the recitation of the holy Canon" (LXXI). 277 GERALD ELLARD Such a request was not,hard to fulfill, as every altar had its Missal, but when Boniface asked Zachary's Cardinal-Dea-con Gemmulus for a copy of the Registrum (Correspond-ence) of Pope Gregory I, a vast collection of documents, that official pleaded ill-health for delay in complying with the request, sending .some exquisite incense meanwhile: "We are sending by youraforesaid priest some cozum-bet of a marvelous fragrant odor, which you may offer as incense to God at Matins or Vespers or at the celebration of the Mass" (XLIII). By and by came many letters of St. Gregory I to Boniface, as we have seen above. Before continuing our theme, we might recall in pass-ing that the earliest lives of St. Boniface reflect about as much concern, at the time of his martyrdom, for the recov-ery of his numerous books, as for the honor of hi~ sacred body. Whatever may have happened in the Hitlerian up.- heavals, several of Boniface's own books have been pre-se) ved at Fulda through all the intervening centuries! His influence has gone out through those books to the endless glory of Christian culture. To return now. to our gifts of fragrant spices: The same Cardinal-De,icon mentioned above, in giving Boni-face an account of the Roman Synod of 745, in which some of his most vexatious problems were handled, speaks with joy of having been visited by English nuns "with introduc-tions to us from you," and then adds that note without which these letters would be incomplete: "We have received also the gift you sent us--a.silver cup and a piece of cloth, a gift doubly precious to us as coming from so honored a father. Though we cannot repay you in kind, still we send in exchange" of loving remembrance four ounces of cinna- " mon, four ounces of costmary, two pounds of pepper, and one pound.of cozumber'" (L). Sweet ~as these spices ,were, the letters accompanying 278 ST. ~36~qIFAeE AND GIFT-EXCHANGE8 them were of the plainest garden variety, so to speak, in comparison with those sent Boniface by a later archdeaconl the Greek Theophylact, whose flowery epistles are the de-spair of translators. One wades through a good deal of high-water rhetoric before landing on this bit of welcome simplicity: "A little gift of blessing as a souvenir of our friendship: cinnamon, spice, pepper, and incense in a sealed packet" (LXVIII). But the "ambrosial goodness" makes for sticky going in the letter that concludes with this Hel-lenic honey: "With these preliminaries we greet your most holy, nectar-sweet divine fatherliness and pray that with God's favor you may receive your eternal reward and may win the desired verdict as your welfare may require. We are sending you a little gift of. spices, cinnamon, and storax, as largesse from the Blessed Apostle Peter and. beg you gra-ciously to accept it" (LXIX). If the "duration" of today lasts very long, perhaps we shall revive thi~ custom, among our very dearest friends, of sending a little packet, well-sealed, of spices and pepper. A letter from some of Boniface's priests to his friend, Abbess Cuniburg, says most respectfully: "Some little gifts accompany this letter: frankincense, pepper and cinnamonma very small present, but given out of heartfelt affection" (XXXIX). To a Cardinal-Bishop of Italy Boniface once sent "a bath towel, a face towel, and a little frankincense." Again: having a ,request as urgent as it was delicate to make of a priest named Herefridmnamely, that he personally read to his royal master, King Ethelbald of Mercia, a scathing re-buke of his vices--he ends his appeal with this gift-offer-ing: "We are sending you, as a token of sincere affection and of our blessing, a napkin with a little incense" (LVI!I). And we may. well bring thislitany of gifts to 279' GERALD ELLARD a close by recording that on another occasion Boniface him-self dispatched to this same King Ethelbald: "as a token.of true affection and devoted friendship., a hawk andtwo falcons, two shields and two lances;~ and we beg you to accept these trifling gifts for the sake of our affection towards you" (LV). "Your generous gifts, and affectionate letter," "this little gift, unworthy of you,'" "these little tokens of affec-tion," "that I may have you always with me," this was the language of those holy human friendships in Christ cher-ished by St. Boniface, Apostle of Germany, with such pon-tiffs as St. Gregory II, St. Gregory III, and St. Zachary; with such prelates as St. Egbert of York, St. Nothelm of Canterbury, .and St. Cuthbert of the sameSee; with such missionary-bishops as St. Lul, St. Eoban, St. Witta, St. Burchard; such abbots as St. Wigbert, St. Sturm, and St. Wunibald;. such nuns as St. Eadburga, St. Thecla, St. Wal-burga, and the dearest of them all, his kinswoman, St. Lioba, whom Boniface wished to have buried even in his own grave at Fulda. Saint Boniface, befriend us, and forget not the-land of your labors! 280 MARCH INTO TOMORROW. By the Reverend John J. Consldlne, M.M. Pp. 87. The Field Af-~r Press,. New YorE, 194.2. $2.00. With the daily press and current books, so filled with the marches and exploits of death-dealing armies, it is pleasure unbounded to read the history of a corps of gallant soldiers whose campaign is designed to bring lasting peace and life eternal to as many peoples as it can conquer. "March into Tomorrow" is the Maryknoll odyssey from the meeting of Fathers James Walsh and Thomas Price in Montreal in 1910, to the present day when over four hundred men and women, in the midst of total war, are being all things to all men of the Far East, sacrificing all and counting as gain only the benighted souls they can save for Christ. It is a personal introduction to the Maryknoll battalion of Christ's far-flung army of heroes, their hardships, their methods, their small victories. Enriched as it is with interesting pic-tures and enlivening episodes from the lives of the missionaries, it is a book to be read and kept as a priceless document of Catholicism,s progress today, and as a record of a completely American endeavor in the spreading of Christian culture and civilization.--W. M. GENG-LER, S.J. WATC~H AND PRAY. By the Reverend J. E. Moffat, S.J. The Bruce Pub-lishing Company, Milwaukee, 1942. $1.2S. " " This little work was conceived and planned as a help to religlou~ in making their monthly recollections. The general theme running through the whole of it is death, its significance for religious, and the preparation that they should make foi'it. Corresponding to the months of the year, there are twelve chapters. Each of these could be used for spiritual reading at the time of the monthly recollection, and at the end of each there is a brief outline of the reflections arranged in the form of points for meditation. In keeping with the gravity of the general theme, death, a very serious and earnest tone characterizes the thought and feeling of the work. One Who ~makes use of these readings or meditations will be readingor meditating, to quote a phrase that recurs in them, "in the light of the candle of death." Most of the subjects are suitable for any month, but there is a 281 BOOK REVIEWS certain amount of adaptation in them to the time of the year. Thus, for January, the chapter is entitled "Thoughts for the NewYear"; for December, "Sursum Corda," reflections on the eternal reward that religious may look forward to; for November, "Have Pity on Me, at Least You, My Friends," on purgatory, or on being delayed in one's journey toward life everlasting. Naturally enough, death sug-gests the divine judgment that follows, and this is handled in the chapter for October, "What Did You Treat of in the Way?" Perhaps the most concrete and the most highly encouraging of the subjects treated is that for September, "I Will Spend My Heaven Doing Good upon Earth." Vividly to visualize the death-scene of St. Therese of Lisieux and to realize the significance of that celebrated program for life after death should be a great consolation for any fervent religious and a most potent incentive toward becoming more fervent and.holy and supernaturally effective. Religious who make their monthly recollections in accordance with "Watch and Pray," and take its clear and practical lessons to heart, may feel sure of a peaceful and fruitful life, a happy death, and a very rich eternity. ¯ G. A. ELLARD, S.J. IN THE SHADOW OF OUR LADY OF THE CENACLE. By Helen M. Lynch, Religious of the Cenacle. Pp. x;i; -I- 249. The Paulis÷ Press, New YorK, 1941. $2.00. The seal upon the cover of this well-written book contains some adapted words of Scripture which epitomize the work of the Reli-gious of the Cenacle throughout the world, but more particularly in America during their first fifty years just completed: "They continued with one mind steadfastly in prayer with Mary" (Acts 1:14). Under the saintly guidance of Father John Peter Terme, the Vener-able Mother Th~r~se Couderc, a truly humble woman, valiantly founded the new society amid many difficulties and contradictions. The first Cenacle, St. Regis House, opened its doors at La Louvesc, France, in 1826. The work soon became international. In 1892, Mother Christine de Grimaldi, with three companions, arrived in New York, .there to establish the first Cenacle in America, another St. Regis House, with many a hardship and privation. Thence the society spread, until today there are no less than seven busy Cenacles in the East and Middle-West. The Religious of the Cenacle can be 282 BOOK REVIEWS justly.proud of this concrete result of fifty years of determination, steadfastness, and prayer in the shadow of Our Lady of the Cenacle. What is the work of the Cenacle religiofis? In the words of the author, they "devote themselves to spiritual works of.mercy, through Retreats for Women and the teaching of Christian Doctrine to adults and children." Their women's retreats have made them pioneers and 'leaders in the retreat movement and in Catholic Action in Ameri-ca. Pius XI, himself the director of the Milan Cenacle for thirty-two years, once addressed these words to Mother General Marie Majoux in a public audience: "You will have realized that in preparation of that encyclical (Mens Nostra-~on retreats) We had the Cenacle in mind. It was there ~ indeed that We learned by experience the great good which" is effected by the Spiritual Exercises." The harvest of good reaped by the Cenacle Retreats is indeed great. Thousands of women have been led by them to lives of greater perfection. The Cenacles have been the nurseries of hundreds of vocations, some to almost every religious congregation. Hence, all religious will join in congratulating the Cenacle for what is narrated in this modest but splendid anniversary book. Eileen Duggan, the New Zealand poet, writes of Mother Th~r~se Couderc: "She whom they called the silent Mother, the woman in the corner, has withthe faggots of her humility, made a fire that will last and whose burning brands will start strange wood in countries she was not destined to see." The strange wood of America has caught definitely that fire and its flame will spread still more mightily as the,years march on to the century.-~A. KLAAS, S.J. I PRAY THE MASS. A Sunday Missal arranged by ÷he Reverend Hugo H. Hoes, er, S.O.Cist., Ph.D. Pp. 447. Catholic Book Publishing Com-pany, New York, 1942. $.35 to $3.50. This new missal contains the Masses for all the Sundays and principal feastdays of the year, as well as the Nuptial Mass and the Mass for tl~e Dead. The Introduction contains a brief explanation of the meaning of the Mass and a description of the vestments and sacred vessels. It also includes a liturgical calendar good for ten years.: In the supplement are morn.ing and evening prayers, and good sug-gestions and prayers for Confession, Communion, the Way of the Cross, First Friday, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The headingl in the book are printed in red; the translations of 283 BOOK REVIEWS the New Testament are taken from the Revised English E~dition. Before each Mass is a brief, well-chosen "Thought for Today"; after the Mass, a "Thought for th~ Week." This missal offers everything that could be desired in a small book of this kind. As indicated above, the prices .range from $.35 to $3.50. The volume sent us for review is bound in black imitation leather and is priced at $1.10. It would be appropriate for anyone who is not inclined to extravagance. MODICUM. By the Reverend Athanasius Bierbaum, O.F.M. American Edition by the Reverend Bruno Hagspiel, S.V.D. Pp. ix + 204. St. Anthony Guild Press, Paterson, New Jersey, 1941. $1.00. This small book contains twelve monthly recollections for priests. The author has made a fine choice of subjects fundamental to priestly life, and has developed each subject in a complete, orderly, and interesting fashion. His choice of Scripture texts and other quo-tations is apt, and his applications are thoroughly practical. With Modicum, we might mention another small book for priests by Fathers Bierbaum and Hagspid, Seekinq Onlg God. This latter work, published in 1938, is an excellent little treatise on the interior life for priests. Modicum is clothbound: Seeking' Onl~t God is paperbound. Both books should be helpful to priests seeking aid for self-sanctification. They may be obtained from the publisher or from The Mission Procurator, Techny, Illinois. HOMILETIC HINTS. By the Reverend Albert H. Dohn, O. Carm. Pp. 71. Carmelite Press, Encjlewood, N. J. 50 cents. Priests and seminarians interested in a scientific study of preach-ing will find this booklet helpful. As the author states ifi the Intro-duction, the book contains all that his experience tells him it is "'nec-essar~ for the student to know abou