Suchergebnisse

PO polls conducted at the time of the important elections for the upper & lower houses in Italy, Germany & Japan furnish valuable data about electoral behavior in these countries. In Italy, results show that the new & controversial electoral law sponsored by the Christian Democrats did not move or even reach the great mass of the people, that the Nenni Socialists are the party with the highest % of people who feel that co-existence between East & West is possible, etc. In West Germany, polls show an increasing feeling of econ well-being & a concomitant increase in the belief in the values of a free econ, a correlation between the riots in East Germany & increasing sentiment for the Christian Democrats, etc. In Japan, the Hatoyama liberal forces seemed to have a good opportunity for increasing their strength & decreasing the power of the Yoshida forces. Hatoyma was personally more popular as a possible Premier than was Yoshida, & Yoshida's dissolution of the Diet was unpopular. K. Geiger.

The assumption that we can punish constructively has been shaken, due to the series of recent destructive riots. When today's prison is compared with one of 1811 tremendous changes are noted, yet we are assailed with doubts 'as to whether we have been going too far or even in the right direction in the treatment of the delinquent and the criminal.' Have we relied too much on the mere relaxation of discipline? If the prison is to be an asset something must replace punishment; if we want to get rid of punishment we must put something equally effective in its place. If punishment is regarded a technique through which men can become better it may be an effective tool. This depends on a firm acceptance of the principle along with all the understanding that various disciplines can supply. If a prison in its execution of punishment is careless it can make bad men worse. But it can discipline and educate men for democratic living. H. M. Trice.

Issue 17.2 of the Review for Religious, 1958. ; A. M. D. G. Review for Religious MARCH 15, 1958 Teaching Brothers . Pope Plus XII Religious and Psychotherapy . Richard P. Vaughan A Sense of Balance . Robert W. Gleason Pattern for Religious Life . Da.ie~ J. M. Ca~aha. The Might of ~ood . c. A. I-lerbst Summer Sessions Book Reviews Communications (~uestions and Answers Roman Documents about: Movies, Radio, Television Seminarians and Religious The Role of the Laity VOLUME 17 NUMBER 2 RI::VII:::W FOR RI::LIGIOUS VOLUME 17 MARCH, 1958 NUMBER 2 CONTI::NTS THE HOLY SEE AND TEACHING BROTHERS . 65 SUMMER SESSIONS . 72 RELIGIOUS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY-- Richard P. Vaughan, S.J . 73 A SENSE OF BALANCE~Robert W. Gleason, S.J . 83 COMMUNICATIONS . 90 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 90 THE PERFECT PATTERN FOR RELIGIOUS LIFEm Daniel J. M. Callahan, s.J . ' . 91 THE MIGHT OF GOD--C. A. Herbst, S.J . 97 SURVEY OF ROMAN DOCUMENTS~R. lq. Smith, S.J . 101 BOOK REVIEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Editor: Bernard A. Hausmann, S.J. West Baden College West Baden Springs, Indiana . 112 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: 7. Sisters Overworked . 121 8. Elimination of Silence .¯ . 122 9. Illegitimacy and the Office of Local Superior . 123 10. True Meaning of Tradition in the Religious Life .124 11. General Councilor as Treasurer General . 126 12. Unsuitable Spiritual Reading . 127 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, March, 1958. Vol. 17, No. 2. Published bi-monthly by The Queen's Work, 3115 South Grand Blvd., St. Louis 18, Mo. Edited by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approval. Second class mail privilege authorized at St. Louis, Mo. Editorial Board: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.J.; Henry Willmering, S.J. Literary Editor: Robert F. Weiss, S.J. Copyright, 1958, by The Queen's Work. Subscription price in U.S.A. and Canada: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U.S.A. Please send all renewals and new subscriptions to: Review for Religious, 3115 South Grand Boulevard. St. Louis 18. Missouri. The Holy See and Teaching Bro!:hers A LETTER BY Pope Plus XII, dated March 31, 1954, and addressed to Cardizial Valeri, prefect of the Sacred Congre-gation of Religious, discussed the nature and dignity of the teaching brothers' vocation. The official Latin text of this letter is in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 46 (1954), 202-5. Several English translations have appeared in our country. C, ornmen-tarium .pro religiosis, 33 (1954), 150-61, published the Latin text, with some annotations by Father A. Guti~rrez, C.M.F., and some interesting background. According to the Commentariurn, the procurators general of~i~!ght institutes of teaching brothers have the custom of meet-ing.~.' in Rome and discussing their mutual problems. The insti-tutes are: Christian Brothers; Christian Brothers of Ireland; Marists; Marianists; Brothers of Christian Instruction mel; Brothers of the Sacred Heart; Brothers of St. Gabriel; and the Xaverian Brothers. The main point discussed in their meeting in the spring of 1953 was the problem of vocations to their institutes, and especially the very delicate problem of mis-understanding by the clergy. Deeply concerned about this prob-lem, the procurators general de.cided to ask His Holiness for an official statement concerning the nature, .dignity, and value the teaching brothers' vocation and apostolate. Thus, with the approval of their own superiors and of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, they addressed a letter to the Pope. The French text of their letter, dated October 15, 1953, is given, in. the Commentarium /~ro religiosis. The Annotations Since Father Guti~rrez' remarks serve as a so~rt of brief commentary on the papal letter, the Gommenlarium publishes them immediately after the letter. It seems better for our 65 TEACHING BROTHERS Review for Religious purpose, however, to incorporate his principal points into this introductory background material because this will help to appre-ciate the' content of the papal letter, as well as of the letter addressed to the Pope by the procurators general. The principal points stressed by Father Guti~rrez are these: (1) The teaching brothers are religious in the full sense of canon law. (2) They have a special divine vocation, which is approved and specially protected by the Church. (3) Their apostolate of teaching is given to them by the Church itself; and the Church recognizes this apostolate as a higher call than Catholic Action. (4) The object of this apostolate is to form good men, good Catholics, and leaders; and this is accomplished not only by having excellent schools and teaching methods, but also and especially by teaching Christian doctrine and morality. (5) Since the pontifical institutes of brothers have received from the Holy See a commission to teach religion, they have a .right to exercise this apostolate within the limits of canon law. (6) One sign of the fruitfulness of the brothers' apostolate of teach-ing is the number oi: ecclesiastical vocations among their alumni. On the last point, Father Guti~rrez gives some interesting statistics concerning seven it~stitutes of teaching brothers with a total professed membeiship of 31,006. Of their former pupils who were still living in 19~3, there were 10 cardinals, 218 bishops, 31,938 priests, and 11,398 seminarians. I. Letter of the Procurators General Most Holy Father: The undersigned procurators general of eight institutes of teaching brothers lay at the feet of Your Holiness their respect-ful homage as loyal and obedient sons; and, in full agreement with the officials of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, they beg you graciously to consider a problem which their superiors are now making efforts to solve, that is, the misunderstanding by certain members of the clergy of the usefulness and canonical 66 TEACHING BROTHERS status of our vocation as lay religious men engaged in the teach-ing apostolate. Recalling the provisions of canon law (c. 107), Your Holi-ness declared to the religious' assembled in an international congress at the end of the Holy Year, I950, that "Between the two states--clerical and lay--which .constitute the Church, there falls the religious state." As religious with simple vows, our profession places us in the humblest category of the religious state. We are religious in so ~ar as we tend toward the perfection of charity by the practice of the ~three vows of the state of per-fection; we are laymen inasmuch as we have deliberately offered to God our sacrifice of~th_e priestly dignity and of the spiritual privileges which priests enjoy in order to concentrate all our activity on one apostolate alone: the Christian education of youth. This apostolate wa~ entrusted to us by the Holy Church. It is "a tedious work and a thankless task,''~ as Your Holiness pointed out when speaking to the m~sters of the French uni-versities on April 10, 1950; -But divine Providence. has con-tinually blessed such work and has rewarded it with the most noble of harvests through the priestly and religious vocations which spring up in our schools. "It is an unassailable fact that the number of p~iestly voca-tions is, if not the only criterion, at least one of the surest criterions for measuring the strength and fruitfulness of a Catholic school or of any Catholic educational institution." This is the judgment Your Holiness pronounced on May 28, 1951, at an audience marking the fifth centenary of the College Marc-antonio Colonna. The statistics on this subject which we have. the honor submitting to Your Holiness are based on the most recent research and are of such a nature as to console the heart of the Holy Father by showing in just what proportion the labors 6¸7 TEACHING BROTHERS Review for R~ligious teaching brothers contribute to the increase of the clergy through-ou~. the entire world. These results would be even more noteworthy if the nu-merical growth of our own institutes permitted us to answer all the appeals we are constantly receiving for the further expan-sion of our present works and for ventures into new fields of apostolic endeavor. We here touch upon the unfortunate problem which we wish to bring to the attention of Your Holiness. In many places our recruiting is hindered and the perseverance of those whom we do recruit is jeopardized by the misunderstanding or the opposition of certain members of the clergy. These ecclesi-astics are ignorant, or appear to be ignorant, of the canonical status of our vocation as well as of the mission which the Church, by its approbation of our institutes, has confided to us. In Appendix No. 2 0f this petition, we recount to Your Holiness some of the fallacious arguments disseminated against ui and some of the methods used in certain regions to turn young men away from our novitiates or to direct toward the clerical state some of our own religious even though already bound by perpetual profession. We thought, Most Holy Father, that a word from the Chair of Truth would-be most helpful to us in our efforts to refute these fallacies, to break down the prejudices which they engender, to encourage and guide souls of good will somewhat confused by these false ideas. The recent yearly congress of the Union of Teaching Brothers held at Paris--the report of which we beg you to receive as a humble testimony of our loyalty--seemed an appro-priate occasion for addressing the present petition to Your Holiness. Confident of the gracious welcome it will receive from the head of Christendom and the father of all religious and implor-ing your blessing, very respectfully we profess ourselves once 68 March, 1958 TEACHING BROTHERS more Your Holiness's most humble and obedient sonsR. ome, October 15, 1953. II. Letter of Pius XlI to Cardinal Valeri Beloved Son, Health and Apostolic Benediction: The procurators general of eight religious institutes of brothers, whose special mission is the instruction and education of youth, have presented Us with an official report of the annual meeting of the French provinces of their institutes, held last year at Paris, in order to inform Us of what had been accom-plished there and what they hope to accomplish in the future. At the same time, they besought Us in a submissive and respect-ful spirit to give them paternal instruction and to point out to them the best means to increase their numbers and to achieve the happiest results in their recruitment of vocations. That is what We gladly do in succinct form by means of this letter. And in the first place, We congratulate them very much, because We know with what zealous and untiring will these brothers are fulfilling the mission confided to them, a mission that can be of the greatest assistance to the Church, to the family, and to civil society itself. Indeed, their work is of great importance. Boys and young men are the blossoming hope of the future. And the course of events in the years ahead will depend especially upon those young men who are.instructed in the liberal arts and every type of discipline, so that they may assume the direction not only of their private affairs but also of public matters. If their minds are illumined by the light of the gospel, if their wills are formed by Christian principles and fortified by divine grace, then we may hope that a new gen-eration of youth will era"" t, appily triumph over the difficulties, beil -esently assail us a:ad which by its I e can establish a better and health. It is Our grent c~. ~nat these religious institutes are laboring to that end, guided by those wise rules 69 TEACHING BROTHERS Review for Religious which their founders have bequeathed to their respective insti-tutes as a sacred inheritance. We desire that they perform this task not only ~vith the greatest alertness, diligence, and devotion, but also animated by ~that supernatural spirit by which human efforts can flourish and bring forth salutary fruits. And specif-ically We wish that they strive to imbue the youth confided to them with a doctrine that is not only certain and free from all error, but which also takes account of those special arts and prodesses which the present age has introduced into each of the disciplines. But what is most !mportant is this, that they draw super-natural strength from their religious life, which they ought most intensively to live, by which they may form to Christian virtue the students committed to their care, as the mission confided to them by the Church demands. For if this virtue were relegated to a subordinate position or neglected entirely, 'neitl~er literary nor any other type of human knowledge would be able to estab-lish their lives in rectitude. In fact, these merely human attain-ments° can become effective instruments of "evil and unhappiness, especially at the age "which~ is as wax, so easily can it be fashioned to evil" (Horace, De arte l~Oetlca, 163). Therefore, let them watch over the minds and souls of their pupils; let them have a profound understanding of youth-ful indifference, of its hidden motivations, of its deep-seated drives, of its inner unrest and distress, and let them wisely guide them. Let them act with vigor to drive away at once and with the utmost determination, those false principles which are a threat to virtue, to avert every dange~ that-can tarnish the brightness of- their souls, and to so order all things about them that while the mind is being illumined by truth, the will may be tightly and courageously controlled and moved to embrace all that is good. While these religious brothers know that the education of youth is the art of arts and the science of sciences, they know, 70 March, 1958 TEACHING BROTHERS too, that they can do all these things with the divine aid, for which they pray, mindful of the word of the Apostle of the Gentiles: "I can do all things in Him who strengthenth Me" (Phil. 4:13). Therefore, let them cultivate their own piety as much as they can, as is only right for those who, although not called to the religious priesthood, yet have been admitted to the lay form of the religious life (c. 488, 4). Such a religious institute, although~ composed almost entirely of those who by God's special calling have renounced the dignity of the priest-hood and the consolations that flow therefrom, is all the same held in high honor by 'the Church and is of the gr.eatest assist-ance to the sacred ministry by the Christian formation of youth. On a previous occasion we turned our attention to this subject, saying: "The religious state is in no sense reserved to either the one or the other of the two types which by divine right exist in the Church, since not only the clergy but likewise the laity can be religious" (Allocution to the meeting of re-ligious orders held at Rome, AAS, 1951, p. 28). And by the very fact that the Church has endowed laymen with this dignity and status, it is quite plainly signified to all that each part this holy militia can labor, and very ~ffectively, both for its own salvation and that of others, according to the special canonical rules and norms by which each is regulated. Wherefore, let no one lack esteem for the members these institutes because they do rmt embrace the priesthood, or think that their apostolate is less fruitful. Moreover, it is afact well known to Us that they gladly encourage the youths com-mitted to their care for instruction and education to embrace the priesthood when it seems that" divine, grace is calling them. Nor is there any lack of instances of their former pupils who now adorn the ranks of the episcopate and even the Sacred College of Cardinals. These religious institutes merit and de-serve Our praise and that of the whole Church; they deserve, also, the good will of the bishops ~and" the ~ clergy, since they give them their fullest support, not o.nly in providing a fitting 71 TEACHING BROTHERS education for youth, but also in cultivating the vocations oi~ those students whom divine grace attracts to the sacred priest-hood. Therefore, let them hold to the way upon whichthey have entered, their vigor increasing day by day; and one with the other religious orders and congregations to whom this work has been confided, let them devote themselves to the instructior~ and education of youth with peaceful an~d willing souls. As a pledge of the divine help, which" we implore for them with earnest prayer, and as a testimony of Our personal benevo-lence, we lovingly impart the apostolic blessing to you, Our beloved son, and to each of the superiors of these institutes, to their subjects and to their pupils. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 31st day of the month of March, of the year 1954, the sixteenth year of Our pontificate. SUMMER SESSIONS [EDITORS' NOTE: The deadlinefor summer-session announcements to be included in our May number was March 1. Since the May number is the last one to be published before the summer sessions begin, it will be useless to send us further announcements for 1958. We wish to take this occasion to make one candid remark. In our November, 1957, number, page 32~, we outlined several specifications to be observed in draw-ing up summer-session announcements. Most deans who sent us announcements either completely or partially ignored these specifications. May we suggest that someone who reads this magazine might call his or her dean's attention to this?] St. Louis University will feature an institute in liturgical music: Gre~gorian Chant and Polyphony, June 9-13. During the six-week summer session, June 17 to July 25, there will be graduate courses .in the Theology .of the Mystical Body and in Moral and Ascetical Theology, together with undergraduate courses in Sacred Scripture, Divine Grace and Corporate Christianity, and in other topics. For further details write to: Department of Religion, St. Louis University, St. Louis 3, Missouri. Registration for the summer session at St. Bonaventure Uni-versity will take place on June 30. Classes will extend from July 1 until August 7. Special attention is called to the School of Sacred Services for the sisters. The purpose of this program is to afford teaching sisterhoods an opportunity of broaderiing and deepening their knowledge of religion and of acquiring a scientific and scholarly (Continued on page 81 ) 72 Religious and Psycho!:herapy Richard P. Vaughan, ~.J. THE PAST TWO decades have seen an ever-increasing awareness of the p~esence of mental illness in our midst. Newspapers and magazines have served as media to educate the public. As a result, the person who previously had been ac-cepted by his family and friends as "just naturally odd" is looked upon as mentally disturbed and in need of psychiatric care. The usual treatment of twenty or thirty years ago, which consisted of relegating the peculiar member of the family to the back of the house or excusing his presence by an embarrassing wink, has to a great extent given way to the realization that the emotion-ally and mentally ill can be helped only by adequate psychiatric treatment: Within the cloister and the convent, however, this changing attitude has been slow to make its appearance. Many superiors recognize signs of mental disorder in one or more ot: ¯ their subjects, but they are hesitant even to consider the pos-sibility of psychiatric aid. In general, they will exhaust every other possible source-of assistance before they will send the subject to a psychiatrist. If one stops to analyze this distrust, a number of reasons come to mind. Sources of Negative Attitudes In the first place, this negative attitude toward psychiatry is partially due to the historic role of the priest. From the earliest days of the Church, the clergy have been the accepted pastors of souls. The very notion of pastor implies a duty to guide and direct. Since there was no other source of profes-sional guidance until quite recently, the full burden of this duty fell upon the shoulders of the priest. It became the accepted practice for the faithful to seek his help when confronted with the vexing problems of phobias or compulsions as well as in their strivings toward spiritual perfection. As a matter of fact, many looked upon these purely psychological disorders as spiri-tual difficulties. 73 RICHARD P. VAUGHAN Review [or Religious This attitude has persisted uniil our own day. It is espe-cially prevalent among priests, brothers, and sisters. Even though experiende has shown that most prie.sts are not equipped to deal with pathological emotional disturbances, many religious cling to the outdated view that the priest should be the sole ~source of assistance. They are convinced that spiritual guidance and the frequent reception of the sacraments are the best remedies for neurotic disordeks. Psychiatric care is deemed necessary only in those cases where the individual can no longer live in the religious community. A further source of antagonism is tl~e materialistic and anti-religious philosophy held by some of the most important psy-chiatrists. Foremost among these is Sigrnund Freud, who. has done more to shape psychiatric thought than any other individual. Unfortunately, most rdligious have heard only of Freud's errors. They have made no attempt to understand his valuable contribu-tions to the science of treating the mentally ill or to sort out his scientific findings from a biased and i'rreligious philosophy, which came as an after-thought. They summarily dismiss Freud's works on the false assumption that their sole topic is sex in its basest form. This view has led to a condemnation of the scien-tific as well as the philosophical teachings of Freud. Since most psychiatrists are Freudian to a degree, a distrust for the whole profession has resulted. Finally, there are the often-quoted examples of seemingly immoral advice given by some psychiatrists. One of the traits of the mentally ill is a resistance to treatment. It sometimes hap-pens that this resistance takes the form of trying to undermine the reputation ot~ the therapist. If this can be successfully ac-complished, the neurotic feels justified in discontinuing treatment. Thus, he sometimes either consciously or unconsciously misin-terprets the words of the psychotherapist. This misinterpreta-tion gives rise to some of the stories of immoral suggestions offered during 'the sessions ot: therapy. Of course, it cannot be 0 74 Marck, 1958 RELIGIOUS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY said that this is true in every instance.~ Undoubtedly, thereare genuine cases of psychiatrists advocating sinful actions. Such advice does not, however, constitute good therapy. It is not the function 0~ the psychotherapist to make moral judgments 'for his patients. It is rather a sign of incompetence. However, just as there is a certain amount of incompetence in the other branches of medicine, so too we should expect it in psychiatry. We do not condone such incompetence, but look forward to the day when it will be eliminated. The s01ution to the problem is not to ~ondemn the whole .profession, but to know the qualifications of the psychotherapist to whom we refer a patient. Church's Position As can r~eadily be seen, the three above-mentioned sources of hostility toward psychiatry as a medium for treating mental illness are the product of personal attitudes and personal ex-perience. They in no way express the official view of the Church. Up to a few y~ars ago, the Church had not as yet officially indicated her position in regard ~o psychiatry. She prudently and cautiously waited before making any statement. The nega-tive views that were prevalent among Catholics some ten or fifteen years ago simpIy reflected the personal attitudes of a large percentage of the clergy. In 1953 th~ Holy Father, Pius XI.I, at the Fifth Congress of Psyhotherapy and Clinical Psychology concluded his address to the delegates with these words: "Further-more, be assured that the Church follows your research and your medical practice with warm interest and best wishes. You work on a terrain that is very difficult. Your activity, however, is capable of achieving precious results .for medicine, for the~ knowledge of souls in general, for the religious dispositions of man and for their development. May providence and divine grace light your path!" These words represent an official statement of the Church. They certainly indidate anything but a negative and hostile attitude toward the arduous work oi: the psycho.therapist. 75 RICHARD P. VAUGHAN Review for Religious Types of Psychiatry In general, therapy for the mentally ill takes two forms: one which is strictly medical and one which is psychological. The medical approach makes use of such means as brain surgery, electric shock tre~i~ment, and the use of drugs. This approach is entirely in the hands of medical specialists. The second ap-proach, which is called psychotherapy, makes use of a continuing series of interviews. This latter approach is not limited exclu-sively to the medical profession. At present, not only psychia-trists but also psychologists and psychiatric social workers are practicing psychotherapy. In a number 0f instances, the mem-bers of the latter two professions practice psychotherapy under the supervision of a psychiatrist, because of the physical impli-cations involved in many cases of mental illness. With those who are so seriously ill that little personal con-tact can be established, the purely medical techniques are used until such a time as psychotherapy can be profitable. With the less seriously disturbed, some psychiatrists make use of a com-bination of psychotherapy anddrugs, while others look upon drugs as a crutch and prefer to depend entirely upon psycho-therapy. It is this latter type of treatment toward which numer-ous religious are so antagonistic. If the only technique used by psychiatry were the administration of drugs or surgery, there would probably be much less oppogition to it. Psychotherapy If one surveys the history of mankind, it becomes apparent that a type of psychotherapy has been practiced for centuries. It seems safe to say that people have always had problems that they were unable to solve without the help of others, and these problems disturbed their emotional equilibrium in" varying de-grees of seriousness. The writings of ancient Greece and Rome tell of troubled individuals seeking advice and aid from the wise and learned. From the very beginnings of the Church, people brought their troubles and problems to the priest. In past 76 RELIGIOUS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY generations, most had a dlose friend with whom they could dis-cuss their most intimate affairs. The help derived from these above-mentioned sources came not only from the advice given by the friend, priest, or learned counselor, but also from the relationship that was established through numerous sessions of conversation and from the insight into the problem that the disturbed party g~ined through the very act of talking about it. However, because of a lack of knowledge and skill in deal-ing with human emotions and feelings, those consulted fre-quently found themseives at a loss to help those who sought their assistance. With the development of scientific methods in psychiatry, men discovered that they could apply the results of their in-vestigations to the emotionally and mentally ill and thus aid those who had previously been immune to all known sources of help. In this manner, psychotherapy, as it is known today, was born. One practices scientific psychotherapy when he car~ analyze an emotional disorder and then during the course of his dealings with the afflicted person apply the psychological techniques that are the product of fifty years of clinical experi-ence and research. The good therapist must have learning, skill, and experience. Basically, therefore, psychotherapy is nothing more than the age-old practice of aiding others through communication, but now built upon a scientific foundation. It has the added factor that the therapist has a psychological knowledge and skill which his predecessor lacked. Morality and Psychotherapy Since religious men and women are by no means free from emotional and mental disorders, the development of psycho-therapy should have offered a welcome solution to a very vexing and persistent problem. However, owing to the previously mentioned factors, a negative and hostile attitude arose among religious toward the whole movement. As a result of this at-titude, today when a religious superior is faced with the necessity of seeking psychiatric help for a subject, he frequently hesitates 77 RICHARD P. VAUGHAN Review for Religious for a "considerable length of time, questioning the advisability of such a step. Because of the seemingly close connection between religion, morality, and psychiatry, the superior sees in psycho-therapy a potential danger to the faith and religious vocation of the subject. Psychiatric aid has, therefore, become in most instances a last resort. For the most part, this attitude is built upon a false notion of the nature of psychiatric treatment. The treatment of mental illness pertains to the science of medidine. Just as there are specialists in the fields of surgery, obstetrics, and internal medicine, so too there are specialists in the area of mental disease. The specialist in this branch of medicine is the psychiatrist. His training, which consists of three years of concentrated study and work with the mentally ill over and beyond his general course in medicine, adequately equips the psychiatrist to treat the mentally ill. His auxiliaries, the psychologiit and psychiatric social worker, likewise have an in- ¯ tensive training; but the orientation of their studies restricts their activity to psychotherapy and diagnostic testing. The religious who .is psychotic or neurotic is just as sick as the religious with a heart or stomach disorder. And he is just as much in need of treatment. He, therefore, has an equal righ~ to the specialized services of those who have been trained to treat his particular disorder. In all probability, unless he does obtain this specialized care, his condition will grow progressively worse. In view of this fact, the emotionally afflicted priest, brother, or sister is certainly justified in making a request for psychiatric care. And in those cases where the mentally ill are unable to make such a request because of their disorder, superiors have the obligation to see that these sick religious obtain specialized treatment. We are all bound to preserve our life and health. Severe mental diseases sometimes hasten death, and in almost every instance undermine physical health. More-over, mental health is equally as important as physical health for happy and efficient living. The superior, therefore, who disregards the condition of a severely neurotic or psychotic sub- 78 March, 1958 RELIGIOUS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY ject because of an erroneous prejudice against psychiatric treat-ment works a gross injustice upon the afflicted religious. Any Psychiatrist? Granted that a religious is given permission to seek psy-chiatric treatme.nt, the next problem that presents itself deals with the particular therapist to whom the religious is sent. In brief, should a priest, brother, or sister seek the services of any psychiatrist? Obviously, some psychiatrists have a'better reputa-tion than others, just as some heart specialists have a better repu-tation than others. Thus, it seems needless to say that religious should seek out the best possible psychiatric treatment available in the area. This means that the therapist should be competent in his profession.One of the foremost characteristics of a com-petent psychiatrist, in addition to knowledge and skill, is a deep understanding and respect for the person of his patient. These two factors result in a relationship between the patient and the therapist that becomes the cornerstone of successful treatment. Understanding and respect naturally include an appreciation of the religious and moral convictions of the patient, since these are an integral part of'his ipersonality. Thus, contrary to the thinking of a number of priests and sisters, the competent psychiatrist does not try to undermine the faith and moral principles of his patient but rather accepts these convictions. He knows that he has had no specialized training in religion and morality which would qualify him as an authority in these areas, Furthermore, he looks upon these areas as foreign to his "function as a professional man. Should a religious problem arise with a patient, he sends the patient to a specialist; namely, the priest who is a trained theologian. Thus, any conflict that might arise between morality and psychiatry is the product of incompetency rather than the natural outcome of the psychotherapeutic process. A Catholic Psychiatrist? One of the questions which is most frequently asked is whether a Catholic should seek the services of a Catholic psy- 79 RICHARD P. VAUGHAN Review for Religious chiatrist in preference to those of a non-Catholic. This question is especially pertinent when one is dealing with a religious who is in. need of psychotherapy. If there is a choice between two psychiatrists who are equally skilled, but one is a Catholic and the other is notl then it would seem that the better choice would be ~he Catholic. The reason for such a choice does not rest upon moral issues, but rather upon the need for full under-standing of the patient. A Catholic psychiatrist is in a much 'better position to understand the religious life and all its implications than the non-Catholic. Thus he is more likely to be able to offer greater assistance to the mentally-ill religious. However, it sometimes happens that a particular non-Catholic psychiatrist has a deep interest in priests, brothers, and nuns and, as a result, has spent considerable time and effort in trying to gain an appreciation of the religious life. In such instances, it may well be that the non-Catholic psychiatrist is equally as well equipped to treat the religious as the Catholic psychiatrist. It should also be noted that the fact that a psychiatrist is a Catholic does not mean that he is a good psychiatrist and capable of treating religious. Some Catholics have little understanding of or sym-pathy for the religious life. In those few cases where religious and moral problems are deeply interwoven with the neurotic co.ndition, the Catholic psychiatrist who is well versed in his faith is in a considerably better position to help the religious patient than the non-Catholic, because he has a better understanding of what his patient is trying to convey to him. It is needless to say that in these instances the priest with training in psychotherapy is in a unique position. Unfortunately, however, there are very few priests who have sufficient skill and experience in psychotherapy. In the majority of psychological problems found among religious, however, faith and mo.rality play a relatively minor role. Generally speaking, the roots of the disorder spring from those periods of life which preceded entrance into the convent 80 March, 1958 RELIGIOUS AND PSYCHOTHERAPY or cloister. The conflicts" and problems that have to be faced are of such a nature as to be experienced by any patient, re-gardless of faith or walk of life. In these instances, psycho-therapy aims at helping religious get at the source of the neurosis and then change the patterns of thinking and feeling that pro-duce the condition. Thus, for many emotionally disturbed religious the non-Catholic psychiatrist who has some under-standing of the religious life is adequately equipped to handle treatment. Conclusion The pr~actice of psychotherapy is a rapidly developing method of treating mental illness. Because of certain negative attitudes and a lack of understanding, many religious hesitate to make use of it or turn to ~t only as a last resort. As a result, numerous priests, brothers, and sisters needlessly continue to suffer untold anguish from the various forms of mental and emotional illness. In as much as mental and emotional dis-turbances disrupt the whole personality and hinder advance in the spiritual life, this usually unfounded distrust of psychiatry is in all likelihood damaging the growth of the religious 'spit:it in our country. Summer Sessions (Continued from page 72) understanding of the teaching of the Church. Further information will be gladly supplied by the Director of Admissions, St. Bona-venture University, Olean, New York. The Theology Department of Mai'quette University will offer two non-credit summer institdtes from June 30 to July 12. An institute on canon law for religious will be conducted by Father Francis N. Korth, S.J., J,C.D., a specialized lecturer and consultant in canon law. The institute will provid~ a thorough course in the current church law for religious. Although the lectures are designed especially for superiors, mistresses of novices, councilors, bursars, and others engaged in administrative or governing functions," other religious would profit from the course. These lectures will be held in the mornings. In the afternoons an institute on prayer will be 81 SUMMER SESSIONS conducted by Father Vincent P. McCorry, s.J, author, professor, and spiritual director. The purpose of the institute is strictly prac-tical: to provide for an interested group such exposition and direction as will enable the individual religious to practice mental prayer with greater fidelity and profit. Campus housing for the institute par-tidipants will be the new Schroeder Hall. For further information write: Director of Summer Institutes, Marquette University, Mil-waukee 3, Wisconsin. Graduate courses in theology leading to the Master of Arts degree will also be offered. The two introductory courses i:or those students entering the graduate theology program are: Fundamental Theology which will be taught by Father Bernard .L Cooke, S.J'., S.T.D., of Marquette University, and the Church of Christ to be conducted by Father Cyril O. Vollert, s.J., S.T.D., professor of theology at St. Mary's, Kansas. For advanced students, The Unity and Trinity of God will 'be taught by Father John J. Walsh, s.J., S~T.D., of Weston College, Weston, Massachusetts; and Father R. A. F. MacKenzie, S.J., S.S.D., of the Jesuit Seminary, Toronto, Canada, will conduct the course on Special Topics in Scripture. For further information about the program write to: The Graduate School, Marquette University, Milwaukee 3, Wisconsin. In the Canadian capital, the Pontifical Catholic University of Ottawa offers courses in its summer school, July 2 to August 6, leadin~ to the degree of Master of Arts in Sacred Studies. The curriculum stresses the kerygmatic presentation ot: theology. It is planned particularly to meet the needs of sisters and brothers teach-ing religion, and of novice mistresses or others giving religious or spiritual instrudtion. These courses are also open to students work-ing toward other degrees. The summer school offers a separate series of courses in sacred studies in which the language of instruc-tion is French. For the sacred studies prospectus and the complete summer school announcement, write: Reverend Gerard Cloutier, O.M.I., Director of the Summer School, or Reverend Maurice Giroux, O.M.I., Head of the Department of Sacred Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa 2, Canada. Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, California, will open a iix-week summer session on June 24. An extensive liberal arts program leading to the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees will be supplemented by workshops in art, drama, language arts, and library science. T[fe curriculum of undergraduate courses lead-ing to a Certificate in Theology will be continued this summer. The Immaculate" Heart Graduate School will ina~ugurate a new depart-ment of religious education, offering a major ia theology and minors in Sacred Scripture or church history. Elective courses will be given in Catholic Social Thought and Liturgy. Designed especially to prepare teachers of religion ~•or high school and college, this program .is open to those who hold a Bachelor of Arts degree from an accredited college (with a major in any field) and. have sufficient (Continued on page 128) 82 A Sense Balance Robert ~X/. Gleasonr S.J. IT IS CHARACTERISTIC of Christian doctrine to maintain the delicate balance between extremes. Moreover, without los-ing hold of any aspect of a" complex truth, the Church unites all its elements in a synthesis that throws light on each of them. And the Christian himself is often called upon to do something of the same sort in his spiritual life. He has to tread a careful path between attitudes which are apparently opposed, though each of them reflects some truth. This di~i-culty is sometimes experienced when the Christian soul ap-proaches the antinomy between the natural and the supernatural or between what we migh't call the accent of optimism and the accent of pessimism in Christianity. For both currents, opti-mism and pessimism, have played an historic role in Christian thinking; and both seem destined to be with us for ~quite awhile. Each of these perspectives is capable of dangerous exaggeration', ~for Pelagianism is an overblown optimism and Jansenism is pessimism run riot. As an examl61e of a thoroughly unchristian pessimism, we might point to those words of the French novelist Andr~ Gide: "Commandments of God you have embittered my soul; com-mandments of God you have rendered my soul sick; will you never draw a limit? Will you go on forever forbidding new things? Is all that I have thirsted for as beautiful on earth, forbidden, punishable? Commandments of God you have poisone.d my soul." Gide was a tortured personality, even to the end of his life; and in these lines we can perhaps glimpse a reason for his unhappiness. For they reveal a fundamentally unchristian point of view, a thoroughly pessimistic point of view that perfectly reflects his Calvinistic background. In striking contrast to those lines are two sentences from St. John's Gospel which are almost startling in their optimism. 83 ROBERT W. GLEASON Review for Religious In the tenth chapter of that Gospel, Christ the Lord, the Alpha and Omega of truth, gives us a summary of His plat-form. "I am come that you may have life and have it more abundantly." In this direct utterance Christ enuntiates a posi-tion of relative optimism. He explains the purpose of His existence as Incarnate Word, both God and Man, and He explains it in terms of an increase of life---an optimistic point 'of view, surely. He put it in other words at other times, but they all come down to the same thing in the end. He also said: "Those who are well have no need of a doctor; I am come to the sick." And He said: "I am come to rescue all that which was in the act of perishing." But perhaps the clearest expression of His purpose is that simple declaration: am come that you may have life and have more of it." In that one line Christ compressed the whole spirit of what we might call Christian optimism. It has taken philosophers and theologians a good many years to unravel some of the implica-tions of the program summed up in these few words. God has planned a new life for us; He has planned to expand, to increase our capacity for living beyond any capacity we might have dreamed of. In fact, He has planned for us an entirely new grade of life~-known as the life of sanctifying grace. The story of Christ's coming we usually call the Gospels; and the Gospels, the e.vangels,are the great and good news, the announcement of the definitive victory of this new life over death, over sin, and over Satan. As the whole of human history unfolds before us centered in this momentous figure of Christ in whom God wrote the definitive chapter of the history of our salvation, we cannot but feel the optimistic position in which we Christians of these latter days find ourselves. The victory belongs to the Christian; that is the meaning of Christ. The victory over death, sin, and Satan is ours. Is ours, we must say, not will be ours, for Christ, our Victory, already exists. We have conquered in Him; and 84 Ma~'ch, 1958 A SENSE OF BALANCE the victory is ours for we ,are not separated from the conquering hero, rather we are closely united by physico-mystical ~bonds to Him who has the victory, who won it on Calvary. There is one of our race and family, one of .us, crowned with victory in the glory of the Trinity in heaven. And His victory i.s ours for He did not enter into it as an isolated individual alone, but as the Head of the Body, His Church, .of which we are mem-bers. The Head of the great column o.f humanity to which we belong has already entered upon His triumph; and, if we but remain united to Him, our victory too is assured and inevitable. After the conquest which was Calvary, then, there is really no place in the Christian life for a depressed pessimism. There is no place for a spirit of defeatism. There is no place for a small-spirited, mean-spirited mentality. We are the victors al-ready, and ours is a ~spirit of optimism. Despite this, life still has its dangers and its difficulties. The roses did not lose their thorns on Easter day. Because this is true, the Christian must be realistic about the dangers ~nd the difficulties of life. His traditional asceticism, maintained in a spirit of optimism, will preserve him from both'. But at bottom there still remain two fundamentally opposed ways of looking at life. One we have labeled pessimistic, and Gide's words exemplify it. The other we may call optimistic, and the words of St. John are its charter. The pessimistic attitude is negative. It is a depressed view 6f things ifi wh~ich the vic-torious Redemption which has already taken place appears to be forgotten. It might seem a~ though such an attitude could never creep into authentically Christian li~es, yet, since error is al-ways possible, even for the well-intentioned, such negati~,e at-titudes have not been entirely unknown even among earne'st Christians. It is surprisingly easy t6 drift into these" dangerous waters, particularly if one's theological perspectives are' awry. This will be clear if we think for a moment on the rigfi't and the wro_ng understandings of certain religious realities. 85 ROBERT W. GLEASON Review fo~" Religious Consider, for example, the way in which these two classes of souls, the negative and the positive, approach the great mystery of God. The negative ~oul will light at once upon certain isolated texts from Scripture and come up with a picture of God as a hard Master who reaps where He did not sow, who lies hidden in the shadows of our life, always prepared to fall upon us in a moment of surprise and seize us in some misdoing or sin. The God of these people is a hard God, ready at any moment to drag out the account books and show us our deficits, not omitting the idle words. Alas, if God takes to playing the mathematician, how few of us can endure. For as the De Pro/undis puts it: "Lord, if you take to numbering our in-iquities, who ot: us shall survive?" ,. The attitude of the op.timistic Christian, on the other hand, is quite different. He knows that God is the absolute Lord and Master, the unapproachably holy and just one, the transcendent, the totally.other. But He also recalls God's recorded definition of Himself, "For God is love." St. John gives Us this phrase, and St. John was neither pietistic nor particularly poetic. He was an excellent theologian, the best in this respect of all the evangelists; and his definition is inspired. God' is indeed a just God, but He is als0 a justifying God. He justifies us irz His sight by the free, undeserved gift of His grace. He is indeed a demanding God--"I am a jealous God"--but He is never hard, uncomprehending, or cruel. He is very demanding, and His demands are ever-increasing. But they all go in the same direction. For they all rgquire us to accept more from Him. God insists that we prepare ourselves, with His help, to receive His floods of generosity. He asks us, to be sure, for ~more--more acceptance, more readiness to receive the new gifts He has laid up for us. His demaads are the demands of one who loves, not the demands of a suspicious bank auditor. We see somewhat the same contrasts if we look at the way these two classes of souls regard man himself. For ~he 86 March, 1958 A SENSE OF BALANCE pessimistic soul, man is essentially/ a spoiled creature, a ruined, unbalanced creature all too heavily laden with the effects of original sin. Evil seems so often triumphant in him. Hell is always just around the corner. Satan appears to 'be the real victor in this world, and man is his victim. Man is a poor thing; his nature is fallen. The phrase "fallen human nature" is repeated even with a certain relish. Fallen indeed, but fallen and redeemed, replies the Christian soul. We cannot underrate the Redemption of Christ our God. Satan is not triumphant. His back was broken on a certain hill outside Jerusalem, and the victory of Christ is written large for all to see who have eyes to.look upon a crusifix. Man is no .ruined, spoiled .creature, half-demon and victim of his own determinisms. He is the spoils of the victory of Christ. He is the prize of the Redemption, won in the sweat and the blood and the tears of Calvary and valued at a great price, bought with no blood of oxen or goats, but with the blood of Him who is God. In. the center of :all creation stands Jesus Christ, and with Him stands man. We two, He and I, are members of the same race, members of the same family. Where sin did abound now grace does superabound. Grace it is which replaces sin at baptism and raises us to the heights of quasi-equality, where we can claim the friendship of the God of the Old and the New Testaments. We Christians are a family with a great tradition. We are wounded but remade and more marvelously remade, for God does not do a poor patchwork job when He repairs us. In our family we have legions of martyrs, men like us. We have legions of virgins, men like us. We have legions of con-lessors in our family, and t.hey have all put their merits at our disposal for this is only normal in a loving family. When we turn trrom the question of the meaning of God and of man to the third great problem of the spiritual life, the 87 ROBERT W. GLEASON Review for Religion,s meaning of creatures, we find the same two contrasting attitudes. For the negative, pessimistic soul creatures are all deformed, twisted beings with little value or meaning in themselves. They are only tenuous beings serving us as instruments. In general they are things to be feared, for they are all traps for the unwary soul. They all conspire to ensnare man and to destroy him. But the genuine Christian insight discovers in creatures.a meaning, and a dignity of their own; for they, too, are mirrors of God. The sacred humanity of our Lord is a creature; and, if it is a net, it is a net designed to catch and save us--that I may be caught by Christ, says St. Paul. The wine at Mass and the water at baptism and the oi! of 'confirmation . . . all are creatures. We live in a sacramental universe in which all crea-tures speak of God. For they are the means God has given us to form us as His children. They are called by" a wise and ancient writer "our viaticum," our sustenance during this period when we are on the way. It is on creatures that we practice our apprenticeship in the art of loving God. They do demand of us a wise, lucid, and generous choice; but they 'are not evil. We learn much about loving God from our use of them--a use that can take many forms from contemplation to absention. Creatures always have a role to play in our lives, and we cannot forget that we too have a role to play in theirs. We have to reconsecrate them to God and rededicate them to Christ, the Center and Owner of all cre~turedom. We have to bless them by our use and stamp them with the image of the risen Lord. Does not the Church write special blessings for such shiny new creatures as typewriters and fountain pens? In doing so she resp'onds to the age-old appeal of creaturedom for its redemption. For the very material world about us groans for the day of its liberation, and we are called upon to extend to it the effects of the Redemption.~ 88 March, 1958 ASENSE OF BALANCE Of course, with such different conceptions of the world, the two classes of souls we have been envisaging will regard the moral or spiritual life in very different lights. For the negative soul the moral life is a long battle, a series of prohibitions, an ever-expanding Decalogue that is purely negative. Above all, one must be on his guard to do nothing to .anger a God who is always ready for anger. Do nothing that can be punished . . and there is almost nothing that is not tainted in some fashion, and so punishable. Such a view, replies the truer Christian, is essentially in. adequate. The moral life consists above all in living, in doing something, in being something. It consists in life and an expansion of our divinized life so that we may live for God and gro.w in love and make our talents fructify. Virtues ire not negative dispositions but positive .dispositions. And prime among all the don'ts on that list is the one great and transcendently great do. "Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God." The spiritual life is not one long escapism. It is not a flight from life. It is a positive living of love for God and my neighbor. The Christian soul's apostrophe would run quite differently from Gide's. "Commandments of God," the Christian would say, "you are all so many-signposts on 'the road toward the lasting city; you point out the road to love and of developing life to foolish humanity. And if I but read you right, you are all so many declarations of love on the part of God for me. Commandments of God, you indicate and you preserve all that life has to offer that is beautiful and worthy of search. Without you beauty would dry up from the face of a scorched earth." The pessimist has an unrealistic view of God and the world, for he lives as though the Redemption had an incomplete efficacy. The realism of the Christian's optimism takes into account both his own weakness and the power of God who has conquered the world. The pessimist's view is an incomplete view and an incomplete truth; it needs to be completed with 89 COMMUNICATIONS a real assent to the truth of the Redemption, gloriously accom-plished. For an incomplete truth is a half-truth, and a half-truth is nearly as dangerous as a lie. Communica!:ions More on Delayed Vocations (See REVIEW Fog RELIGIOUS, May', 1957, page 154) Reveiend Fathers: The Congregation of Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus professes a special worship of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, above all in the Blessed Sacrament. This spirit of reparation is concentrated in daily adoration before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and offered in an active apostolate in the education of youth, retreat work, catechetical instruction, and foreign missions. The spiritual training is based on the rules of St. Ignatius. The Handmaids have some sixty houses throughout the world. The mother house is in Rome. Mission work has taken 'root both in South America and in Japan. A future field of work is opening up in India. The foundress of the congregation, Blessed Raphaela Mary oic the Sacred Heart, was beatified in 1952, only twenty-seven years after her death. Her process of canonization is now,going on. Candidates are accepted up to the age of thirty. Those who wish to dedicate themselv'es to domestic work are accepted up to the age of thirty-eight. We accept widows. Our novitiate is located in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Private retreats, may be made there by a candidate to decide her vocation. Mother Maria Angelica Iq'an, A.C~J. Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus 700 East Church Lan~ Philadelphia 44, Pennsylvania OUR CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD P. VAUGHAN, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of San Francisdo and a staff member of the McAuley Clinic, St. Mary's Hospital, is currently engaged, in psychotherapy with religious men and women. ROBERT W. GLEASON is a professor of dogmatic theology in the Graduate School of Fordham University, New York. DANIEL J. M. CALLAHAN is professor of ascetical and mystical theology at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. C. A, HERBST is now a missionary in Seoul, Korea. 9O The Pert:ec(: Pa!:l:ern t:or Religious Lit:e Daniel J. M. Callahan, S.J. DIVINE REVELATION assures us of our elevation to the supernatural state and of'the o.rganism which equips us for life and action on that superhuman level. The question immediately presents itself: Who will inspire us to respond to God's .beneficence and supply the pattern for such a life? God predestines us to be, not creatures only, but His children through adoption and heirs of His beatitude. ~Voblesse oblige; rank has its obligations; nobility of station demands nobility of con-duct. As God's children we should resemble our Father in our conduct no less than in our nature, and such is the injunction placed on us by Christ: "~ou therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48) and resumed by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (5:1): "Be you, there-fore, imitators of God, as very dear children and walk in love, as Christ also loved us." To imitate God we must first know Him, and this is one reason why He has manifested I-Iimself to us. in His Son and through His Son. It is by means of the Incarnation that the Son has revealed to us the Father. Christ, the incarnate Son of the Father, is God brought within human reach under a human expression, and in Him and through Him we know the Father. In reply to Philip's request: "Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us," Jesus said to him, "Have I been so l~ng a time with you, and you have riot knowa Me? t~hilip, he who sees Me, sees also the Father . . . I am in the Fathe.r and the Father in Me" (John 14:8 ft.). To know and imitate God, we have only to know and imitate H~s Son, who i~ the expression at once divine and human of the perfec-tions of the Father. Jesus is perfect God and perfect, man, and under both aspects He is the ideal for every one, for religious most of all. 91 DANIEL J. M. CALLAHAN Review for Religio~ts He is the natural Son of Go,d, and it is His divine sonship that is the primary type or pattern of our divine adoption. Our filiation is a participation of His eternal filiation; through Him and from Him we share in divine grace, are in reality God's children and partake of His life. Such is to be the fundamental characteristic of our likeness to Jesus, the indispensable requisite for our sanctity. Unless we possess sanctifying grace, we are dead spiritually; and all that we can do is of no strict merit entitling us to our everlasting inheritance. We shall be coheirs with Christ only if we are His brethren through habitual grace. Here it may not be amiss to examine our appraisement of sanctifying grace, our prudence in safeguarding it, and our diligencd in its increment in our souls. Do we ~ippreciate its embellishing effects and how unlovely and helpless we are with-out it? Mortal sin alone despoils us of this precious treasure; and, because we are subject to temptation from within and from without, it is expedient, at least occasionally, to probe our atti-tude to sin, to the frailties and perhaps unmortified passions that induce it, and to the constructive measures to be adopted. Growth is the law of life, and it is through the cultivation of the theological and moral virtues that we are to fortify and expand our supernatural life. . Every least good action per-formed with the requisite intention by one in the state of grace, as well as every sacrament worthily received, effects in us an iricrease in grace and in all the infused virtues. Christ is in truth a perfect man, and in this He is for us the attractive and accessible model of all holiness. In an in-comparable degree" He practiced all the virtues compatible with His condition. He did not have faith in God, for this theo-logcal virtue exists only in a soul which does not enjoy the immediate vision of God, a vision that was Christ's privilege from the mbment of the Incarnation. He did, however, have that submission of will inherent in faith, that reverence and adoration of God the supreme truth that imparts to faith its excellence. Neither did Christ possess the virtue of hope in the proper sense, 92 March, 1958 PATTERN FOR RELIGIOUS LIFE since the function of this 'virtue is to enable us to ddsire and'to expect the possession of God and the means necessary for its attainment. Only in the sense that Christ could desire and expect the glorification of His body and the accidental honor that would accrue to Him after the Resurrection, could He have hope. Charity He possessed and practiced to a supreme degree: the purest love of the Father and of His adopted children in-undated His soul and motivated His activities. Love unites the wills of the lovers, fusing them into oneness of desire and con-duct. Christ's first act in entering into the world was one of ardent love: "Behold I come . . . to do Thy will, O God" (Matt. 10:7), and His subsequent life was the prolongation of His initial sacrifice: "Of Myself I do nothing He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, because I do always the things that are pleasing to Him" (John 8:26 ft.). Our Blessed Lord's soul was adorned with all the moral vir-tues: humility, meekness, kindness, patience, prudence, jus-tice, temperance, chastity, fortitude, zeal, each in its own per-fection. His every least action glorified and eulogized His Father, and was the object of the latter's complacency, as voiced by Himself: "This is My beloved Son in whom I am ~ell pleased" (Matt. 3:17), a proclamation which covered everymome.nt and every deed of Christ's life. His actions as man, while in them-selves human, were divine in their principle, for there was in Him only one person, a divine person, performing all in union with the Father and in the most complete dependence on the divinity and therefore confdrring on the Father infinite glory. Religious, obligated by their state to strive for perfection, have need of an ideal, of a perfect pattern to be realized in their lives. Mere human beings are too imperfect. God in His divine nature seems too distant from us and beyond our repro-duction. The God-man is the consummate ideal for all, at all times, for childhood, youth, maturity; for the hidden, public, apostolic, and suffering life. There is no phase of human life' which He does not exemplify, illustrate, adorn, and enoble. 93 DANIEL J. i~I. CALLAHAN Review fo~" Religious Far from resembling the cold blueprint of the architect or the lifeless page of our favorite author, Jesus is always the most attractive and appealing man who lived in circumstances similar to our own; and, while He enlightens our mind, He awakens love and emulation in the will, meanwhile offering the necessary strength and the assurance of ultimate success. In our endeavor to fashion a Christlike character, obviously there is need of intelligent interpretation. As we turn over the pages of our New Testament, often we read of deeds that were the outcome of superhuman power and clearly beyond us. However, even in such instances we can fall back on the spirit and motive of these achievements. Christ used His infinite ¯ power, not for His selfish aggrandizement, but for the honor of the Father and the benefit of souls--a procedure within our finite reach and sedulously to be duplicaked. In our attempt to imitate Christ we are constrained by the nature of the case to reduce His traits to terms of human capability. We cannot, for instance, forgive sins against God; but we can pardon offences against self. We are unable immediately to cure the sick, but we can alleviate their sufferings by sympathy and kind-ness. We may not be permitted to spend the night on the mountain in prayer with Jesus, but we can cultivate the spirit of communion with God amidst our activities throughout the day and pray with attention when we do pray. We may not be in a position to teach with authority, but we can say a salutary word of instruction and counsel when occasion offers. We may not hope to die for mankind, but we can sacrifice our-selves for the convenience and happiness of our fellow religious. 'We are not called on to undergo the scourging and the crown-ing with thorns, but we are expected to endure a little pain or accept a humiliation without becoming ill-tempered and render-ing others miserable. We cannot redeem the world from sin, but we can exercise zeal in promoting the fruits of the redemp-tion by shunning sins ourselves and prudently doing what may be feasible to draw our neighbor to a better life. Thus, every- 94 March, 1958 PATTERN FOR RELIGIOUS LIFE where we can reduce our Lord's example to the humbler terms of ordinary life; and, out of the result, together with appropriate precepts from His moral teaching, we can construct for our-selves an ideal which, ever haunting our minds, is to be pon-dered and realized, or at least aspired to systematically in shap-ing our lives. "A Christian is another Christ" applies with' additional force to every religious. These have dedicated their lives to Jesus in order to share through sanctifying grace in His divine filiation and to reproduce by their virtues the features of His asceticism. To ambition a career so sublime, far frora being presumption, is God's eternal design for them and His sincere will Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6). Such is the pattern faith proposes to us, truly transcendent and yet easy of access, since through grace we share in the divine filiation of Christ and our activity is supernaturalized. Clearly we keep our personality, remaining by nature merely human creatures. Our union with God, however intimate, is accidental, not substantial; but it in-creases in perfection the more the autonomy of our personality, in the order of activity, is effaced before the divine. If we "desire to intensify our intimacy to the extent that nothing interposes between God and us, we are to renounce not only sin and willfdl imperfection, but moreover we are to despoil ourselves of our personality in so far as it obstructs perfect union. It is such an obstacle when our self-will, our inordinate self-love, our suscepti-bilities lead us to think and to behave otherwise than in accord-ance with the divine will. The habitual attitude of soul which wills to keep in everything the proprietorship of its activities seri-ously hampers familiarity with God. We must, therefore, bring our personality to a complete capitulation before Him and make Him the supreme, mover of our thoughts, volitions, words, and actions, entire life. Only when we have divested ourselves of our excessive attachment to self and to other creatures, in order to surrender ourselves to God in absolute dependence on His good 95 DANIEL J. M. CA~LAHAN pleasure, shall we have attained to the perfect imitation of Christ and be able to say with St. Paul: "It is now no longer I that live, but Chrisf lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not cast away the grace of God" (Gal. 2:20-21). And we should apply to ourselves his plea to the Romans (12:.I): "I exhort you therefore brethren, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God, your spiritual se~rvice. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed in the newness of your mind, that you may discern what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God." Christ is the head of the Mystical Body of which we are the members, and there should be identity of life and conduct in both. He has merited for us the courage and strength ¯ requisite; and divine revelation assures us that with Him, in Him, and through Him we are competent to travel the one and only way to the Father. Our persevering endeavor consequently should be to know Christ more thoroughly and more intimately through prayer, study, and our manner of life: "He who has My command-ments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. But he who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21). Love issues from knowledge, and love adjusts our daily conduct to that of Jesus. This was the mind of St. Paul when he reminded his converts of Ephesus that they were to be: "No longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine devised in the wicked-ness of men, in craftiness, according to the wiles of error. Rather are we to practice the truth in love and to grow up in all things in Him who is the head, Christ . Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man which has been created acdording to God in justice and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:14- 24). To accomplish in us this transformation is the precise pur-pose for which Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion. 96 The MighI: o1: C. A. I-.lerberI:, S.J. A meditation made at sea enroute to the Korean missions AS THE S. S. Fair/~ort plows her way through the wild Pacific a few thousand miles out of San Francisco, the thought that strikes one forcefully is the thought of the might of God. Religious seem not to emphasize this attribute of God so much, seem almost to de-emphasize it, in fact. It is rather God's love and mercy that occupy their thoughts and prayers. Yet in God's mind and in that of His Church, His almighty power stands out. "I believe in God, the Father. al-mighty, Creator of heaven and earth." The creator-creature relationship is most fundamental to all religion. Only the Al-mighty can create. In the creed, both in and outside of Mass, "almighty" is the only attribute of God mentioned at all. And how often the official prayer of the Church begins with "al-mighty!" The Old Testament is full of almighty God, the God of armies, and very, very often the God of the sea. As I sit here on the boat-deck reading the Invitatorium of the Office I pray: "His is the sea: for He made it" (Ps. 94:5). Only He could. One realizes that more and more as one looks out or~ the vast circle of water stretching away to the horizon in every direction. Yet those are only a few of the seventy million square miles of the Pacific. God reaches from end to end of it mightily, up-holding every particle of it by the word of His power. A great artist works miracles with his brush and a little pair~t. He tries to imitate nature. What a masterpiece the almighty Artist creates in each sunset at sea! Tonight, Hallo-ween, I watch the sun sink into mountains of gold and silver clouds and make the whole ocean a cauldron of blazing gold. There is no imitation of nature by this Artist; He is at play 97 C. A. HF_~BST Review for Religious creating the most exquisite origina!. The more delicate shades and colors come. as the evening deepens. This is the time for the most loving and awesome thoughts of God. Somehow, on this particular night, I cannot help thinking of the little lights flickering on each grave in southern Austria on All Souls' eve. As the last rich violet cloud is absorbed into the night up north toward Siberia, I think of the suffering, silenced Church behind the iron curtain. The moon is high in the east now, building a silvery bridge to the Philippines three thousand' miles from here. The shep-herdess of the night is queen over her flock of woolpack clouds. She is a type of Mary, our queen, reflecting the light of her Son as the moon does. The stars seem so near and companion-able out here so far away from home and everyone. The big-gest and brightest are the ones we long to see in the crown encircling the head of the Artist's virgin mother. We constantly hear of the power and destructive force of typhoons. We are running into the typhoon area now. Again, we are reminded of the might of God: God of old came in the whirlwind. We struck south several hundred miles in order to get away from the wild weather the equinox brings to the north Pacific but ran into a gale. As the wind thunders through the gear fore and howls through the rigging aft and one sees the angry ocean all around, one feels very small and helpless. The largest ship is a tiny toy in an angry ocean. It is good to be at peace with the Almighty out here. I think of the heavy toll the ocean has taken. How many a guardian angel has had to plead the cause of his charge in these depths! Perhaps the angel of the Pacific helped him. Countries have their angels to watch over them, the Scripture says. Should not these boundless waters have one, too? The Far East radio network out of Tokyo is telling us these days of the troubles in Egypt and the sinking of ships in the Suez Canal. Their number is zero compared with the burden 98 Marck, 1958 THE MIGHT OF GOD this north Pacific bears. What are the secrets of the sea? They have always enticed man. But to them again only the almighty mind of God can reach. One of the mates says there are eight thousand feet of water under this ship; ahead of us there are forty thousand and more. What lies down there and what goes on down there only God knows. Uncounted ships and men have perished here. Here the almighty Judge sat enthroned to pass the sentence of justice and mercy on many a lonely,child of God since Pearl Harbo.r struck. Only He and this restless, silent ocean know the anguish of those-days. Time means nothing to the great timeless One. But its mystery, too, confuses us. We have just crossed the one hundred and eightieth meridian and passed from Monday to Wednesday. There will be no Tuesday for us this week. But for us time is the stuff of which we make our eternity. God gave it to us for that and it goes by quickly. For wasted time and every idle thought we shall have to give an account. Such an occasion as this is like the year's ending. It gives us pause for some serious thinking on the value of time. Here one is impressed by almighty God's providence, too. Large albatross-like birds, "gooney birds" the seamen call them, have been following the ship since San Francisco. For hundreds, even thousands of miles now, they have been following: soaring, soaring all the while, never flying or exerting themselves. Beauti-fully colored little birds appear, too, just out of nowhere, catch-ing insects and feeding, then resting on the water. They are very content ' and carefree. ~At night they sleep on the sea. Naturally there come to mind some of the most consoling words the almighty Christ spoke in the Magna Carta He gave His Church: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they?" (Matt. 6:26). A school of porpoises went sporting by today. Their omnipotent Father has given them a happy disposition. They 99 C. A. HERBST are playful and friendly to men, yet are one of the few watery creatures a shark holds in dread. Then a whale went spouting by: big, showy, always attracting attention, but terrible, too, in his way, and almost the hero of the sea since Moby Dick. How big the Almighty has made him, the largest of all known animals, to supply so many products for man! In the evening, as I say the fifth glorious mystery, the Coronation of Offr Blessed Mother Queen,of Heaven, I look up into the big comfortable-looking clouds "over the East China Sea towards Nanking and Shanghai. I wonder what our Lady of China is thinking about tonight. A missionary to China wrote: "Our men are still rotting in Shanghai. They really must be suffering now because the winters in Shanghai are grim." Mary was assumed and crowned for China, too, even for today's China. This evening we are slipping through the East China Sea toward Korea. Off to the right over fifty miles of beautiful blue water to the northe~tst lie Nagasaki and Nagasaki Hill, the hill of the martyrs. Again I think ~f the might of God: how these poor frail men needed His .almighty arm to support them in the terrible torment they had to undergo. Three hundred years later came to the same spot a manifestation of might of another kind; August, 1945, brought the atom bomb that smashed this same Nagasaki to pieces. The power of God, at work in the death of the martyrs and the fissure of the atom, is also bringing a second spring to the Church in Japan. As we pass among the countless rocky islands along the west coast of Korea, mighty China lies four hundred miles to the west over the Yellow Sea. Its iron curtain closes her to Christ toda~ as her exclusiveness made her impenetrable to St. Francis Xavier four hundred years ago. But all things are pos-' sible to almighty God. The length of His arm is not shortened. The exquisite sunrise over the hills around Inchon Bay at the end of this voyage seems like a promise that in these Far Eastern lands the might of God will bring forth a rich harvest. I00 Survey oJ: Roman Document:s R. F. Smlth~ S.J. IN THE FOLLOWING pages there will be given a survey of the documents which appeared in the ~cta /Ipostolicae Se~/z's (AAS) during the months of October and Novem-ber, 1957. Throughout the article all page references will be. to the 1957 AAS (v. 49). Motion Pictures, Radio, and Television Under the date of September 8, 1957 (AAS, pp. 765-805), the Holy Father issued a lengthy encyclical which, is entitled IVIiranda/~r~rsus and which treats of the mass communication arts of the contemporary world. After an introduction wherein he gives the reasons why the Church must be interested in the matter of movies, radio, and television and outlines a brief history of previous papal documents on the subject, Pius XII begins the main body of the encyclical, dividing it into four principal parts which treat in succession the following topics: general norms for the movies, radio, and television; the movies; the radio; television. In developing the first principal part of the encyclical, the ViCar of Christ points out that God who communicates all good things to men has also. desired that men themselves share in the power of communication; human communication, therefore, is an activity which of its very nature possesses nobility and if evil is found in it, that evil can come only from the" misuse of human freedom. Because true human freedom demands that men use for themselves and communicate to others whatever augments vir-tue and perfection, it follows that the Church, the state, and the private individual have the right to use the communication arts for their differing purposes. It is blameworthy, however, to maintain that these arts may be utilized for the dissemination 101 R. F. SMITH Review for Religious of matter that is contrary to sound~mora!ity, provided only ~hat the laws of art are observed. Human art, the Pontiff remarks, need not perform a specifically ethical or religious function; nevertheless, if it leads men to evil, then it corrupts its own nobility and departs from its first and necessary principle. To avoid such evils the Church, the state, and the communication industries should cooperate with each other in working for the attainment of the legitimate goals of the communication arts; this is particularly necessary in the case of the cinema, the radio, the television, for each of these arts is a remarkably effective way of large scale communication. Motion pictures, radio, and television, the Pontiff points out, must first bf all serve the truth by. avoiding the false and the erroneous; they must also aim at the moral p'erfecting of their audience, and this especially in th~ case of those enter-tainment programs where vivid scenes, dramatic dialogue, and music are united and which, by appealing to the whole man, induce him to identify himself with the scene being presented. The power of these communication arts to affect the whole man together with the fact that these arts are destined not for a select audience but foi ~he great masses of the people leads the Holy Father to consider solutionsto the moral problems connected with these arts. He accordingly proposes three practical means by which the mass audience can be led to pass a mature judgment on the products of the communication arts and to escape being carried away uncritically by their superficial attractiveness. The first of these means is that of education, whereby men will be given the artistic and moral norms by which the products of communication arts can be ~orrectly evaluated. Accordingly, the Holy Father expresses the desire that training in the right .appreciation of motion pictures, radio, and television be in-cluded in schools of every kind, in associations of Catholic Action, and in parish activities. The second means is that care be taken that young people should not be exposed to programs 102 March, .I958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS which can harm them psychologically and morally. The third means is that in each country the bishops should set up a na~ tional office for the supervision of motion pictures, radio, and television. The second principal part of the encyclical then considers the problems of motion pictures in particular. The bishops should see. to it that the national office of supervision imparts needed advice and information concerning the movies and moral evaluations of current films should be published. The faithful should be reminded of their obligations to inform themselves of the decisions of ecclesiastical authorities ~ith re-gard to films. All those connected with the movie industry, from the exhibitor to the director and the producer, must be mindful of their duty of fostering morally wholesome produc-tions. Finally, the Holy Father urges that the approval and t.he applause of the. general public be generously given as a reward to those motion pictures that are really worthwhile. The third principal part of the encyclical concerns the radio. Listeners should admit into their homes, only programs which encourage truth and goodness. National Catholic offices for radio should attempt to keep the public informed of the nature of radio programs, and listeners should make known to radio stations and chains their preferences and criticisms. The bishops are encouraged by the Holy Father to increase the use of radio for apostolic and doctrinal purpose~, taking care, however, that such programs meet the highest artistic and technical, standards. The fourth part of the encyclical concerns itself with tele-vision which, among other advantages, has that of inducing members of the family to stay at home together. The obliga-tions with regard to television are the same as for the movies and for radio. In the conclusion to his encyclical the Holy Father encour-ages priests to acquire a sound knowledge of all questions per-taining to motion pictures, radio, and television; moreover, as 103 R. F. SMITH Review for Religious far as it is possible and usefu!, they should utilize these aids for their pastoral work. The same subject matter of the communication arts was the topic of the Pontiff's talk on October 27, 1957 (AAS, pp. 961-65), on the occasion of the blessing of the new quarters for the Vatican radio. In the course of his talk the Vicar of Christ pointed out that radio furnishes Christians a new means' for the better fulfillment of the command to preach the gospel to every creature; and he expressed the hope that the new and more powerful.radio station of the Vatican will prove a new bond of unity among the Christian community, since by its aid more peoples will be able to hear the voice of the Vicar of Christ. To Seminarians and Religious On September 5, 1957 (AAS, pp. 845-49), the Pope addressed a group of students from the minor seminaries of France. After encouraging them to look forward to their priesthood with the greatest of eagerness, he praised their clas- " sical studies as an unrivaled means of' developing penetration of judgment, largeness of outlook, and keenness of analysis. The Pontiff concluded his talk to the seminarians by extolling the value of minor seminaries for the good of the whole Church. On July 30, 1957 (AAS, pp. 871-74), the Sacred Con-gregation of Religious published an important decree, M'ilitare servitium, which henceforth will be the controlling legislation in the matter of religious who must undergo military service for at least six months. Full and exact knowledge of all the provisions of the decree can be obtained only by a direct study of the docu-ment, and no more than the principal points of the legislation will be noted here. According to the decree perpetual vows may not be taken unless a religious has already served his required time in the armed forces or unless it is certain that a given religious is immune from such service. During milit.ary sekvice temporary vows are suspended, though in given-cases the major superior can allow a religious to retain his vow~ during such service. 104 March, 1958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS In either case, however, the person involved remains a member of his religio~s institute and under the authority of its superiors. One whose vows are suspended during the period of mili-tary service may leave religion •luring that time according to the norms of canon 637, provided that he has declared his intention of leaving to superiors either in writing or orally in the presence of witnesses. The decree also gives directives concerning temporal possessions acquired during the time of military service and stipulates that between the conclusion of military service and the taking'of perpetual vows there must be a probation period which generally should not be less than three months. The final provision of the decree is to extend the above legislation, where applicable, to all societies liging in common, but without vows. The same Congregation of Religious issued on March 12, 1957 (AAS, pp. 869-71), a decree giving the norms for aggre-gation to the pontifical institute Re~ina 2V~undi. (For the nature and purpose of this institute, see REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, January, 1957, p. 25.) Aggregation places a house of studies of religious women under the patronage of the institute Regina Mun~/~" and allows the house the right to confer pontifical diplomas, with the reservation that the highest diploma can be granted only to those students who have studied at least one year at Regina 2"V~unc/i. The decree concludes by noting that a house of studies may acquire a special relationship to Regina 2V~unc/i by reason of a special act of recognition, which, how-ever, does not give the house the right to confer pontifical diplomas. By an apostolic letter dated December 27, 1956 (AAS, pp. 889-94), the Holy Father united the two parts of the Order of the Daughters of Mary Our Lady' under the new title, Order of the Company of the Daughters of Mary Our Lady. Two documents of the period surveyed were addressed to religious orders of men. The first was a letter from His 105 SMITH Review fo~" Religfous Holiness to Very Reverend Michael Browne, Master General of the Order of Preachers. Written on the occasion of the seven hundreth anniversary of the death of St. Hyacinth, the letter proposes the saint as a clear image of the apostolic work entrusted to the Dominican order. On September 10, 1957 (AAS, pp. 806-12), the Pope addressed the members of the general congregation of the Society of Jesus, recalling to their attention their ideals of loyalty and obedience to the Holy See. He urged superiors to be vigilant in their care for re-ligious observance and discipline. The Pontiff insisted on the need for austerity of life to be manifested especially by an observance of poverty involving not only a dependance upon superiors but a moderate use of temporal things and the priva-tion of many comforts. In conclusion the Vicar of Christ insisted, to his listeners upon the need to retain the Society's traditional monarchical form of government. For Laymen and Laywomen A large number of the documents published in AAS during October-November, 1957, were devoted to the role of the laity in the .life of the Church today. In a radio message deliv-ered September 15, 1957 (AAS, pp. 854-57), to the faithful present at the Marian shrine of Mariazell in Austria, the Holy Father touched briefly on the subject of the urgenc.y of the lay apostolate in the Church today; three weeks later on Oc-tober 5, 1957 (AAS, pp. 922-39), th.e same topic formed the subject matter of the long and important allocution which the Pope delivered to the Second World Congress for the Lay. Apostolate. The Pontiff began his allocution by framing and answering the question whether a layman who has an ecclesi-astical mandate to teach religion, and whose professional work is almost exclusively such teaching does not therefore pass from the lay apostolate to the "hierarchical" apostolate. The Holy Father replies to the query in the negative, for the layman possesses neither the power of orders 'nor that of jurisdiction. It is interesting to note that at the end of this part of the allocu- 106 Marck, 1958 .ROMAN DOCUMENTS tion the Holy Father refers to the possibility of re:establishing in the Church deacons who would have no intention of going on for the priesthood. His Holiness does not show himself unsympathetic to this idea, but nevertheless notes that the times are not yet ready for such a practice. The Pontiff continues by noting that it is wrong to dis-tinguish in the Church a purely active element (ecclesiastical authorities) and a p.urely passive element (the laity), for all the members of the Church are called to collaborate in the building up of the Mystical Body of Christ. Even apart from a scarcity of priests, the work of the laity is necessary, for the task of the "consecration of the world" is essentially the work of laymen, intimately associated as they are with the economic, social, political, and industrial life of the world. In showing the relations between the lay apostolate and Catholic Action the Pontiff begins by saying that the lay apostolate is the performance by the laity of tasks which derive from the mission given the Church by Christ. Accordingly, the apostolat~ of prayer and personal example and the Christian practice of one's profession are lay apostolates only in a wide sense of that word; the Pontiff emphasizes, however, that lay Christians who exercise their professions in an exemplary fashion perform an activity that is comparable to the best kind of lay apostolate in the stric~ sense of the word. Catholic Action, the Pope remarks, always bears the char-acter of an official apostolate of laymen. It cannot, however, claim for itself a monopoly of the lay apostolate, for alongside of Catholic Action there always remains the free lay apostolate. In this connection the Holy Father discusses a possible change in terminology and structure which may eventually be put into effect. According to this plan the term. "Catholic Action" would be used only in a generic, sense to signify the sum of organized lay apostolates recognized on the national level by the bishops or by the Holy See on the international level. Each individual movement would then be designated by its own proper and 107 R. F. SM~ Review for Religious specific name and not by the generic term "Catholic Action.;' Each bishop would remain free to admit or reject such or such an individual movement, but he would not be free to reject it on the grounds that of its nature it Was not Catholic Action. Observing that not all Christians are called to the lay apos-tolate in the strict sense of the word, the Pope then notes that the lay apostles will always form an elite, not indeed because they stand apart from others, but precisely because they can influence others. As such, they need to be given a serious formation; and this training of lay apostles should be taken care of by organizations within the lay apostolate itself, though diocesan and religious priests, secular institutes, and women religious should assist in this formation. The final part of the allocution is devoted to a detailed consideration of the many areas where lay apostles are urgently needed today; and the Roman Pontiff concludes his allocution by urging his listeners to conquer the world, but only by the weapons of Christ. On ~ugust 25, 1957 (AAS, pp. 837-45), His Holiness addressed thirty thousand members of the Young Catholic Workers. He spoke of his audience as a great hope for the Christian regeneration of the world and urged them to re-establish the Christian notion of work as the personal act of a son of God and of a brother of Christ for the service of God and of the human community. On September 29, 1957 (AAS, pp. 906-22), the Holy Father addressed the Fourteenth International Congress of the World Union of Catholic Organizations of Women, speaking on the mission and apostolate of women. Women's apostolate, he notes, must be rooted in the tru.th, that she comes from God; that she is an image of God;" and that h'er everlasting destiny is God. Not only has God created woman, He has also given her her proper physical and psych!cal structure. 108 March, 1958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS She has been given the gifts which permit her to transmit not only physical life, but also qualities of a spiritual and moral nature---and this not only to the children she bears, but to social and cultural life in general. In married life woman expresses the gift of oneself; this symbolization, however, of self-giving receives a higher form in consecrated virginity, for there her giving is more total, more pure, and more generous. Moreover, the Pope continues, woman belongs to Christ; accordingly no form of heroism or sanctity is inaccessible to her. This belonging of woman to Christ attains its perfect realization in the Blessed Virgin. If actual life sometimes reveals to what depths of evil woman can descend, Mary shows how woman in and through Christ can be raised above all .created things. In the exercise of the apostolate, says the Pontiff, woman finds herself in a welter of ideas, opinions, tendencies, and systems. She needs, therefore, a guide and a norm of judg-ment and action; and this she will find in the Church which is the guardian and interpreter of divine revelation. The aposto-late of woman, concludes the Holy Father, even when rooted in the above truths, will remain largely ineffective, unless it is inspired by a deep love of God that flows over into a universal and fruitful activity which seeks to bring all men into one fold under one pastor. In an allocution given on September 16, 1957 (AAS, pp. 898-904), the Vicar of Christ gave a moving allocution on the nature of Christian widowhood. The Church, he ob-served, does not condemn second marriages; neve~rtheless she has a special love for those who remain faithful to their spouses and to the perfect symbolism of marriage. Christian widow-hood is based on the conviction that death does not destroy the human and supernatural love of marriage, but rather per-fects and strengthens it. Doubtless after~death the juridical institution of marriage does not exist;¢~but that which con- 109 R. F. SMITH Review for Religious situted the soul of the marriage--conjugal love--still continues in existence, for it is a spiritual reality. If the sacrament of marriage is a symbol of the redemptive love of Christ for the Church, it may be said that widowhood is a symbol of the Church militant deprived of the visible presence of Christ, but nevertheless indefectibly united to Him. Socially too the widow has a definite mission to perform, for she participates in the mystery of the cross and the gravity of her comportment should show the message she carries: she is one who has through sorrow gained entrance to a more serene and supernatural world. "In times of trial and discourage-ment the Christian widow should strengthen herself by the thought of the Blessed Virgin who lived as a widow during the early years of Christianity and who by her prayer, interior life, and devotion called down divine blessings on the infant com-munity. Miscellaneous Matters By a decree of July 1, 1957 (AAS, pp.'943-44), the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments announced that local ordinaries need no longe~ send an annual report to the congre-gation concerning the number of confirmations conferred in their territories by extraordinary ministers of that sacrament. On October 7, 1957 (AAS, pp. 954-58), the Holy Father spoke to a group of sick persons reminding them that they do not suffer alone, for Christ lives in them and makes of them in a real but mysterious sense tabernacles of His presence; moreover, they must complete the Passion of Christ by their suffering and the offering of their pain can preserve the in-nocence of many, recall sinners to the right path, assist the indecisive, and reassure the troubled. In a message dated August 5, 1957 (AAS, pp. 857-61), His Holiness wrote to a group of teachers meeting at Vienna that the Catholic teacher who perfectly exercises his profession I10 March, 1958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS performs an activity which is equal to the best lay apostolate', adding that this is true of those who teach in Catholic schools and almost more so of those teaching in non-Catholic schools. In a later letter dated September 18, 1957 (AAS, pp. 830-36), and directed to Cardinal Siri, President of the Italian Council of Social Weeks, the Pope urged the necessity of protecting the human values of rural life and stressed the need for an increase of faith in agricultural areas. On November 4, 1957 (AAS, pp. 966-69), the Holy Father addressed the parliamen-tary representatives of the European Coal and Steel Authority, congratulating them on the success of their work and expressing the wish that their accomplishments may lead to a greater federation ofEurope. On September 8, 1957 (ASS, pp. 849- 53), His Holiness addressed a group of dentists, showing a competent grasp of the latest phases of dentistry and manifest-ing a delightfully human side of his personality by his solicitude for children who suck their thumbs or bite their nails and by' his hope that the newly discovered method of painless drill-ing of teeth may prove to be really effective. The Sacred Consistorial Congregation issued three decrees by which it canonically established military xiicariates in Argen-tina (AAS, pp. 866-68), in Belgium (AAS, pp. 940-43), and in the United States (AAS, pp. 970-73). The Sacred Con- ¯ gregation of Seminaries and Uni~iersities by a decree of July 28, 1957 (AAS, pp. 975-77), canonically erected De Paul University, Chicago, as a Catholic University according to the norm of canon 1376; moreover, the faculty of music of the same institution was a~liated to the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. Finally, by the same decree the metropolitan archbishop of Chicago was made grand chancellor of De. Paul Catholic University. In the last document to be noted, an apostolic letter of May 9, 1957 (AAS, p. 823), the Holy Father announced the inauguration of an apostolic internhntia-ture for the country of Ethiopia. 111 Book Reviews [Material for this department should be sent to Book Review Editor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana.] MARIOLOGY, VOL. II. Edited by Juniper B. Carol, O.F.M. Pp. 606. The Bruce Publishing Company, 400 North Broadway, Milwaukee 1. 1957. $9.50. This second volume of a most ambitious trilogy on Marian theology contains fourteen articles by some of America's leading theologians. The treatment is scholarly; the articles are well docu-mented; proofs are advanced soberly in an attempt to shed light, not generate heat. . Primarily a reference work, Mariology, Vol. II, covers the major fea'tures of Marian dogma: Mary s-- predestination, divine maternity, perpetual virginity, fullness of grace, knowledge, universal queenship, etc. Among the better parts of the volume are Father Cyril Vollert's two introductory essays, "The Scientific Structure of Mariology" and "The Fundamental Principle of Mariology." The latter serves as a natural basis for some of the articles that follow. Father John Bonnefoy's article "The Predestination of Our Blessed Lady" and Father Gerald Van Ackeren's "The Divine Mother-hood" should provoke discussion and stimulate theological specula-tion among readers of the book. The latter article contains a brief interesting account of modern Protestantism's attitude toward the Mother of God which is worthy of study. Since the volume's bent is less devotional than scientific, the reader should not expect from it what the editor and his contributors did by no means intend. This second volume offers the reader considerable insight into the past progress and present status of the science of Mariology; it makes a distinct, and quite co~ivincing, apology for Mariology's place in the traditional theological dis-ciplines. Religious and priests will especially profit from a thoughtful reading of the book. Seminarians and teachers will find in it a concise and ready reference work on the more important tenets of Marian dogma as it has developed to this day. But for the study of Marian devotion we must await Volume III. To prove the numerous theses presented in Mariology, Vol. II, the individual authors invoke the Church's magisterium, Scripture, tradition, and theological reasoning--the traditional approach. The 112 BOOK REVIEWS general method of presentation is excellent; it is orderly and clear. If there be a flaw in this mode of argumentation, it will probably be found in the scriptural interpretations advanced by some of the theo~ logians in this volume. Quite briefly, they fail to convince. This is especially true of the treatment given the oft-invoked text of Genesis 3:15, which, according to Father Wenceslaus Sebastian, refers to Mary alone "and that in the strict literal sense" (p. 355). The case for Mary's prerogatives as found in the Old Testament seems in this article--fis well as in some others--to be somewhat overstated. But these are slight blemishes on the canvas. No better reason for this entire series can be assigned than that employed in a more specific context by Father Francis Connell. At the conclusion" of his article on Mary's knowledge, he asserts: "And so it is not unprofitable to seek some definite ideas on Mary's knowledge, since a study of this kind helps us to understand the sub-lime dignity of the Mother of God and inspires us to be more ready to seek through her intercession the wisdom and the understanding that we need in the journey of life" (p. 324). What Father Connell remarks about Mary's knowledge may legitimately be predicated of the other facets of her unique personality and character, about which a volume such as this affords us all the opportunity to learn more and more.--THo.x~AS G. SAVAGE, S.J. MANUAL FOR NOVICES. By Felix D. Duffey, C.S.C. Pp. 232. B. Herder Book Company, 15 South Broadway, St. Louis 2. 1957. $3.50. Father Duffey is to be congratulated on his book Manual for Novices. As the title indicates, the book is written primarily for novices and those who have the care of novices; but it is pertinent, profitable, and of interest even to those formed religious who have been away from the novitiate training for a number of years. Is not a good treatment of the vows always a welcome book for our spiritual reading! Manual for Novices is geared to a better understanding of the three vows and their corresponding virtues, which we know to be the essence of the religious life. Father Duffey's thesis is that novices should be carefully schooled in the science of the vows; they should know what the vows entail, what is demanded by the rules and con-stitutions that they might enter the life of the vows with "minds pre-pared." Thus the novitiate is a place where the novice is to form 113 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious the proper religious attitudes, where each novice has ample time to test himself and to be tested to see if he can live the life of the vows. It is a time to consider and pray over the great privileges and duties of being a vowed laborer with Christ; /~ time to examine his intention and motives and even to purify them if necessary; the novitiate is a time to understand himself as he has never understood himself before and establish a correct hierarchy of valui~s based on Christ, the model of the vows. Father Duffey tries to give, and quite successfully too, the moral and canonical demands of the vows together with a doctrinal back-ground and ascetical incentive for the faithful living out of the vows. He emphasizes over and over again that the vows are a supernatural way of life led in imitation of Christ; they are something positive, and not a series of "suffocating denials" nor a legalistic ladder to heaven. The living of the vows gives the religious freedom from creatures to do God's will. It is on this positive character of the vows that novices should fix their minds and hearts, for it is the vows that permeate the whole day of the religious! The-book is well planned. There are twelve interesting chapters dealing" with such subjects as: The Novitiate, The Religious Life, Perfection, The Meaning of a Vow; two chapters on each of the three vows; one on Authority and Obedience, which is a very fine treatment of the duties of superiors; and a final chapter on Religious Profession. As the book stands it is broad enough to embrace all spiritualities. It is not meant to be a substitute for the instruction that the master or mistress is accustomed to give, but rather a complement to that instruction. The novice has a source to which he can go if he wishes to refresh his knowledge. The great insistance on the dynamism of the vows as the religious way of living in imitation of Christ is to be commended. "The chap-ters on chastity and obedience are especially well done and bring out the positive character of the vows exceptionally well. However,' the chapters on poverty fall short when compared with the treat-ment of the other two vows. In general the book is instructignal, motivational, full of good common, as well as supernatural, sense. It will be easily understood by the novices. Like a good teacher, Father Duffey repeats his key ideas throughout the book and frequently makes a summary of what has been seen in various chapters. In all the book is most worth-while, highly recommended, and will repay with. interest the time one spends reading it.--RALPH H. T~.LK~N, S.J." 114 March, 1958 BOOK REVIEWS THE YOKE OF DIVINE LOVE. By Dom Hubert Van Zeller, ¯ O.S.B. Pp. 238. Templegate, Springfield, Illinois, 1957. $3.75. The tireless pen of Dom Hubert has, in this small volume, pre-sented another challenge to comfort-loving nature, this time taking for his audience the seekers after conventual perfection. He makes it clear from the outset that he is not writing merely for monks, and certainly not exclusively for those of Benedictine Rule, but for all religious, men and women, though the medium through which he aptly chooses to impart his lessons and deliver his frank and kindly blows is Benedictine vocabulary culled from the wisdom of St. Benedict and his greatest interpreter St. Bernard, The whole concern of his book, as he tells us in the preface, is to show how to work up from the fundamentals of religion, prayer, reading, silence, labor, and enclosure to God and not inward toward self. Such a caution is of vital interest to all religious; and they will eagerly submit to Dom Hubert's admoni-tions, delivered with a freshness and candid realism not too often encountered in spiritual treatises. The volume might almbst be ~ermed a "Book of Sentences," or another version of The Following of Christ, with its many incisive, diminutive paragraphs. Thus the first chapter on Supernatural Motive of less than nine pages is presented in gixty-two thought-packed para-graphs. Any one of them might serve as an outline for a more pro-found meditation. And almost a good third of them would present the thesis of the book, the yoke of divin~ love, in a nutshell. There is always love in the background to give light and warmth whenever it does not appear explicitly or at the head. But it is not an easy doctrine of love the book preaches. It can and does issue startling warnings. "The heart of the monk, if it deviates from the love of God alone, can become an unquiet evil. It wanders, looking for rest and finding none. It fastens on other hearts and drains them of the love of God. If it shrivelled up in solitude it would be a waste enough, but the heart that has tired of the love of God and that hungers still for love is a menace." Dom Hubert tells us exactly what his method in writing the book will be. "What we have to do is to find principles common to most religious orders and examine them in the light of love, prayer, and faith. To agree on foundations is at least a start." From' this humble beginning he develops a gripping code of religious life as he finds it substantially presented by all religious founders. The Yoke of 115 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious Divine Love, a clever title for the book that follows, is broken down into three minor "books" treating of the religious life, prayer, and community life. Each of these essential constituents of religious life is reviewed with a freshness and vigor that opens the eyes of the reader to a number of surprising subterfuges and alibis that even sincere religious may construct for themselves to escape the more exacting pressures of the yoke of love. One might cite countless instances of plain-spoken axioms of religious living which in one form or another bear out the author's verdict: "The trouble about renouncing the world is that it comes back in another form. You bar the windows of your cell against it, and it comes up through the boards of the floor. You throw it out by the door, and it comes in through the ventilator." It appears that this candid volume to be truly appreciated had better be read first cursorily, with many a smile and more than one mea cull~a, and henceforth be left on the desk or priedieu as a vade mecum for the purpose of snatching now and then tiny crumbs from its pages to be refreshed by its invigorating frankness. More than one reader will be disappointed at the lack of definite references to the many scripture passages cited. St. Thomas, too, St. Benedict, and the Fathers are frequently quoted by name only. ~ALoYSIUS C. KEMPER, S.J. BOOK ANNOUNCI:MI:NTS THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 400 North Broadway, Milwaukee 1, Wisconsin. Conferences on the Religious Life. By Aloysius Biskupek, S.V.D. You will find these conferences refreshing and original both as .re-gards the topics chosen and as to the treatment accorded them. Some of the unusual topics are: The Religious Habit, Patrons, The Refectory, Living the Mass, Sick Religious. The author is forthright in his treatment. Part of his answer to those who say that they cannot meditate reads as follows: "Meditation requires the exercise of memory, mind, and will; the use of these faculties is wholly or partially impossible in the case of infants, mental defectives, and insane persons. Does any one who claims he cannot meditate classify himself as belonging to these categories?" Pp. 204. $3.50. Live in the Holy Spirit.By Bruno M. Hagspiel, S.V.D: This is a book" of conferences onthe religious life written for religious 116 l~larch, 1958 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS women. The author speaks with the authority 6f one who has done much work for religious women and knows their virtues as well as their faults. It is a modern book and does not omit to discuss modern topics such as motion pictures, radio, television. Pp. 170. $3.50. You. By Father M. Raymond O.C.S.O. Living in an age that looks on the individual as expendable and negligible, we have great need to realize anew the dignity, sublimity, exalted vocation, and priceless character of even the least of the children of men. Father Raymond emphasizes these truths not in the abstract but in the concrete; not as applied to some one else but to you. His exhortations, . each chapter is a fervent exhortation, are addressed to both religious and lay people. There are no chapters applicable only to religious, and only one (14) intended specifically for parents. It makes encouraging spiritual reading. Pp. 301. $4.50. My Sunday Reading. A Popular Explanation and Application of the Sunday Epistles and Gospels. By Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M. We have all heard the Sunday Epistles and Gospels oftener than we care to admit. Do we understand them? This .book serves as an excellent introduction to such understanding. It is written primarily for the layman, but even the religious can profit by a study of this volume. Pp. 345. $5.00. A Christian Philosophy of Life. By Bernard J. Wuellner, S.J. We are guided on our journey through life on earth by the light of reason and by the light of faith. Both are necessary, and both should come into play many times each day. Both also need to be developed. As we may grow in faith by the study of revela-tion, so we perfect reason by the study of philosophy. If you have had the advantages of a college education, you will find Father Wuellner's book an excellent refresher course in philosophy; if you have not, it will give you a brief introduction to the most significant course a Catholic college has to offer. A great merit of the book is that the author does not hesitate to appeal to revelation to supplement the findings of reason. Here is a book which a religious can afford not only to read but to study. Pp. 278. $4.25. Angels Under Wraps. By Edward. Vincent Dailey. A book of stories, all about angels. They are interesting and enjoyable, and it would be surprising if they did not increase your devotion to your own guardian angel. Pp. 149. $2.95. 117 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS .Review for Religious FIDES PUBLISHERS, 744 East 79th Street, Chicago 19, Illinois. One in Christ. By Illtud Evans, O.P. The author accurately describes this collection of essays in these words: "The purpose of these pages is not to argue or to prove. It is simply to say that the life of the Church is the life of Christ continued in time and place, made available to men. The truths we believe are declared every day and the prayer of the Church (which is the prayer of Christ) exists to express them. The life of charity exists to make them incarnate here and now." Pp. 82. Paper $0.95. The Modern Apostle. By Louis J. Putz, C.S.C: Priests and religious will be interested in this book as a means to learn more about the modern lay apostolate and to help to spread this move-ment among the laity. It was written by a priest who has probably done more for this movement in America than any other. The material in the book first appeared as a series of articles in Our Sunday Visitor. Pp. 148. $2.95. Key. to the Psalms. By Mary Perkins Ryan. More and more lay people are beginning to discover the treasure of the Psalms. To help them Mary Perkins Ryan has written this book. She has made her own all the latest findings of the scripture scholars and has written a book that is both authoritative and popular. The translations of the Psalms are particularly excellent. Read this book and discover for yourself why the Church has always made the Psalms such a large part of her liturgical prayer. Pp. 187. $3.50. Together in Marriage. By John J. Kane. This i~ another volume in the "Fides Family Readers Series." It is of special interest to priests who are engaged in Cana Conference work and very suitable for the libraries of 'all houses for lay retreats. Pp. 154. $2.95, The Meaning Of Christmas. By A. M. Avril, O.P. Translated by S. D. Palleske. This is a volume of sermons that were orig-inally broadcast on the National "French Chain. Their subject matter is the Christmas cycle, from the first Sunday of Advent to the sixth Sunday after Epiphany. Pp. 153. $2.75. Going to God. By Sister Jane Marie" Murray, O.P. This is the first volume of a four-year series of textbooks in religion for high schools. The series bears the title "The Christian Life." These books are the product of much thought, study, planning, and con-sultation with fifteen experts in the fields of theology, Sacred Scrip- 118 March, 1958 ~BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS ture, education, the apostolate, and art. All four of the volumes are to be available by the summer of 1958. Before adopting a new set of texts for the religion classes in high school~ be sure that you examine these new books. Pp. 430. GRAIL PUBLICATIONS, St. Meinrad, Indiana. Pope Plus XII and Catholic Education. Edited by Vincent A. Yzermans. We owe a debt of gratitude both tb the editor and to the publishers for collecting in d single volume twenty-two addresses of Pope Plus XII on Catholic education. Teachers will find in them encouragement, wise directives, and much matter for fruitful examination of conscience. Pp. "180. Paper $1.00. B. HERDER BOOK COMPANY, 15-17 South Broadway, St. Louis 2, Missouri. The Sacred Canons. A Concise Presentation of the Current Disciplinary Norms of the Church. Volume I, Canons 1-869; Vol. II, Canons 870.2~14. Revised Edition. By John A. Abbo and Jerome D. Hannan. The purpose of this commentary on the Code of Canon Law is explained in the preface: "The work was begun to answer in some degree the spontaneous demand for a better knowledge of ecclesiastical law that has arisen in~ English-speaking countries among religious who are not clerics and among laymen, especially those engaged in the professions." Vol. I, pp. 871; Vol. II, pp. 936. $19.00 the set. P. J. KENEDY & SONS, 12 Barclay Street, New York 8, New York. Handbook of Moral Theology. By Dominic M. Priimmer, O,P. Translated by Gerald Shelton. Adapted for American usage by John Gavin Nolan. This is0 an English compendium of the justly celebrated four-volume Latin edition. It requires no gift of proph-ecy to predict that it will prove very popular with priesis, sem-inarians, and any who have frequent occasion to familiarize them-selves with the moral teachings of the Church. Pp. 496. $4.00. Maryknoll Missal. If you are looking for an English missal, you will want to examine this one, the first to be published since the recent decrees simplifying the rubrics. It is dom. pletely up-to- . date, and the translation is in modern English. References have been reduced to a minimum. It is a very handsome and convenient missal. Pp. 1699. 119 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review ]or Religious LONGMANS, GREEN & COMPANY, INCORPORATED, 55 Fifth Avenue, New York 3, New York. Catholicism and the Ecumenical Movement. By John M. Todd. Introduction by the Abbot of Downside. Mr. Todd, author, as-sistant editor of the Downside Review, and radio commentator, writes for both Catholics and non-Catholics. His aim is: "(1) To inform Catholics of the nature of the ecumenical problem and of the solu-tions that are offered by the non-Catholic world; (2) To inform non-Catholics of the reasons for the contemporary (Roman) Catholic attitude to the problem, and to show how a Catholic layman ap-proaches the situation today." Pp. 111. Paper $1.50. THE NEWMAN PRESS, Westminster, Maryland. God's Bandit. The Story of Don Orione, Father of the Poor. By Douglas Hyde. The author, a newspaper reporter by training and temperament, writes the dramatic story of a priest possessed of an immense love of the poor and unfortunate. To promote his work he founded four religious congregations, of which the principal one is the Sons of Divine Providence. As a boy he spent two years with St. Don Bosco. As a priest he was on intimate termswith St. Plus X. He died in 1940 and already many legends have grown up around his memory. It is probable that we shali one day honor him as a saint, for the causeof his beatification has been introduced in Rome. Pp. 208. $3.50. New Life in Christ. By Ludwig Esch, S.J. Translated from the German by W. T. Swain. The author spent forty years working for youth and in' this very comprehensive book gathers together what he has learned so that others may profit by his experience. There are four main divisions. ¯ The Fundamental Principles Gov-erning Our Growing Up in Christ, Our Life in Christ, The Growth of Life in Christ, and Maturing in Christ. Any of the problems that youth must meet today you will find treated in these pages. The book will be useful not only for youth but also for all those who have to assist in their training and education. Pp. 294. $4.50. SHEED & WARD, 840 Broadway, New York 3, New York. Martyrs from St. Stephen to John Tung. By Donald Attwater. Here are fifty-eight graphic and gripping accounts of martyrdom. They will make many a saint you know only as a name come to life for you and, as a result, become a real influence in your life. Pp. 236. $4.00. 120 March, 1958 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS The Roots of the Reformation by" Karl Adam; Marriage and the Family by F. J. Sheed; Confession by John C. Heenan; The Rosary by Maisie Ward; The Devil by' WC'a[ter lCarreI[, O.P., and Bernard Leeming, S,J. These are the first five books of a new series called "Canterbury Books." They are paper-covered books that average one hundred pages and sell for seventy-five cents. They treat their subject matter in greater detail than is possible in a pamphlet but more concisely than a full-length book. They are to be on religious topics and are intended for both Catholics and inquiring non-Catholics. The Making of Church' Vestments. By Graham Jenkins. Part One details the history of the liturgical vestments. Part Two gives easy-to-follow instructions abundantly illustrated on how ~o make church vestments. Pp. 32. $0.95. The New Guest Room Book. Assembled by F. J. Sheed. Illus-trated by Enrico Arno. Here we have a miniature library guaranteed to contain something to please any taste. Pp. 448. $7.50. ( ues ions and Answers [The following answers are given by'Father Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., professor canon law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland.] When you repeatedly state that sisters are overworked, don't you realize that almost universally the blame is cast on their superiors? And yet what can the superiors do? Are they to blame for the num-ber of Catholic children to be educated? for the opening of new schools? for the vacation schools? for the added demands of modern education? The fact that sisters are overworked is an evident and incontro-vertible fact, and the harmful effects are equally evident. The sense of the remarks on this point has never been that superiors are wholly to blame but that they can do something to lighten the burden. This thought is also completely evident and has been expressed by many others. "In my opinion, a policy almost heroic adopted by certain superiors is deserving of signal praise, that is, the refusal to accept 121 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious new works, certainly useful, but which would overwhelm their religious men or women. A more cogent reason is that these religious are already overburdened as they become too few to accomplish the works already accepted which become progressively more compli-cated. The religious who is overburdened, exhausted, iaervous is in danger not only of doing his work poorly but, what is more serious, of being unable to draw spiritual profit from the time of prayer pre-scribed by the constitutions. He thus falls into activism, and there is no need to demonstrate here that this is the contradiction of the . primary and common purpose of the state of perfection" (Reverend A. Pl~, O.P., ztcta et Documenta Congressus Generalis de Statibus Per-fectionis, II, 146). "Superiors should be forbidden to accept new foundations unless they are able to staff them in such a way that their subjects are given the leisure needed for their own souls. What 'is needed are fervent foundations, not mere physical buildings in which a few religious, overwrought and exhausted, live and work in a frenzied round of activity. I believe that the cause of the Church would prosper far more with fewer buildings and projects, erected at the cost of the religious spirit, and with more prayerful religious" (Reverend F. Rice, C.P., ibid., III, 517). "Overwork will inevitably pull down the sl~iritual life. It is al-most impossible to live up to the ideals of the religious life when we are launched upon a troublesome sea ill-prepared and ill-equipped. Careful training and a good, broad education will do much to obviate this and so help considerably in preserving the religious spirit" (Brother P. C. Curran, F.S.C.H., Religious Life Today, 181). Since we are not contemplative, couldn't we dispense with the rule of silence? You are partially contemplative. The mixed religious life is the harmonious union of the contemplative life with apostolic activity. Every religious is supposed to attain a deep spirit of prayer and interior life. Neither of these is possible without recollection

Issue 7.4 of the Review for Religious, 1948. ; "Review-for Rehg ous J:ULY 15, 1948 The Pres~ence of God . c.A. Herbsf ,An Ency~cllcal on the Lifurcjy . j. P~tz Plus XI! on Bees . ~Aucjustlne.Klaas Giftsto Relicjious-IV ." . Adam C. Ellis LaSallian Formula for Apos÷ola÷e--J.i Brother Charles Henry Book Reviews VOLUME VII Questions Answered NUMBER- ! REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS VOLU~IE VII JULy, 1948 NUMBER CONTENTS THE PRESENCE OF GOD-~C. A. Herbst, S.J .1.6.9 " AN ENCYCLICAL ON THE LITURG'~--J. Putz, S.2 .1.7.5. OUR CONTRIBUTORS . . ". . 190 PIUS XII ON BEES-~-Augustine Klaas, S.2 .191 GIFTS TO RELIGIOUS--IV. SOME PRACTICAL CASES--, Adam C. Ellis. S.J . 195 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- , 25. Place for Clergy at In~'estiture or Profession .208 " 26. Secret Vote in Council Meetings . 208 27. Extreme Unction for the Aged in "Danger of Death" . . . .208 28. Sister Renounces Right to Share in Father's Will . 209 29. Soliciting Votes Prohibited; Delegates Vote according t'o Own . Conscience . 210 30. Wills by Religious before and after the Code . 210 31. Absence from Public Recitation of Little Office .211 32.~Making the Sign of the Cross 4. . 211 33. Erlenmeyer Flasks as Cruets . . . 212 34. Genuflection after Receiving Holy Communion . . ." . . .212 ¯ THE LaSALLIAN FORMULA FOR A FRUITFUL APOSTOLATE--II.-- Brother Charles Henry, F.S.C . 213 'PENITENTIAL INSTRUMENTS" . . . . . - . 219 BOOK REVIEWS-- Come, Follow Mel; My God and My All .220 BOOK NOTICES . ' . 221 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, July, 1948. Volume VII, No. 4. Published bi-monthly; January, March, May, July, September, and November at the College Pri'ss, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka. Kansas, by St. Mary's College, St. Mary's, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matter January 15, 1942, aS the Post Office, Topeka, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Adam C.'E1iis, S.J., G. Augustine Ellard, S.J., Gerald Ke11y, Ed!torial Secretary: Alfred F. Schneider, S.J~ .Copyright, 1948, by Adam C. Ellis. Permission is hereby granted for quotations of reasonable length, provided due credi~ be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 2 d011ars a year. Printed in U. S. A. Before writing to us, please consult notice on Inside back, cover. "['he Presence of God C. A. Herbst, S.J. dr4-| N HIM~WE LIVE, and move, and are" ()~cts 17:28)? This is | ~the; classical e,x, pression in the New Testament of the presence of God. God s presence is brought incomparably closer'to us in the New Law through JeSus Christ, Our Lord. But this attribut~ is ~brought out strikingly in the Old Law, too. To the father of all believers and the head of the chosen people God said: "I am the Almighty God: walk.before me, and be perfect" (Gem 17:1). "I set the Lord always in my sight" sang the Psalmist (Ps. 15:8). and: "Whither "shall I .go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into ~heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art. present. If I take my wings early in the mornirig," and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: Even there also_shall thy hand Idad me: and thy right hand shall hold me. And I said: Per-haps darkness'shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures. But darkness shall "not be dark to thee, and night shall be light as the day: the darkness thereof, and the light~ thereof are alike to thee." (Ps. 138:7-12.) In ~he New Law, Our Lord expressed it perfectly, of course. "If any one love me. he will keep my word, and my Father will love him. and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him" (John !4:23_). "And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, nor know-eth him: but you shall know him: because he shall ab.ide with you, and shall be in you." (John 14:16-17:) St. Paul wrote to the Ephe-sians: o''One God and Father of a11, who is above all, and through all, .and in us all" (Eph. 4:6), and to the Corinthians: "Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (I Cot. 3:16) : "Know" you not. that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is'in you?" (I Cor. 6!19). One can merely mention "here .the inexpressibly wonderful presence of God in the Holy Eucharist and in our hearts in Holy Communion. God is present in three ways, says St. Thomas (Summa I, q. villi, a. 3)'.He is present by His kn. owledge. "Neither is .there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open to His eyes" 169 C: A. HERBST Review for Religiotts (Heb. 4:13). St. Augustin~ expands on this a little. "'He is to be " " 170 feared in public and in private. If you walk, He sees you. If yo.u go into the house, He sees you. If the light is burning, He sees you. If the light, is out, H~ sees you. Go into your room. He sees,,you. Withdraw into your own heart: H~ sees you. Fear Him: Him Whosd whole c.are it is that He keep His Eyes upon you. Fear Him and be pure. if you wish to sin, find a place whereHis Eyes are not upon yo,u and then do what you please." (Sermon 132.) This presence of God is most important and practical. That is why we find it emphasized for all Christians right in the beginning of the catechism. "God is,every-where. God sees us ~and watches over us. G6d knows all things, even our rhost secret thoughts, words and actions.': It is a simple truth, too. Cardinal Newman says: "It is my wish to take an ordinary .child, but still one who is s/fie frbm influences destructive of his re-hgious. instincts. Supposing he has offended his parents, he will all alone and without effort, as if it were the most natural of acts, place himself in the presence of God.~. We shall not be wrong in holding that this child has in his mind the image of an Invisible Being, who exercises-a partic.ular providence among us, who is present everywhere, who is heart-reading, heart-changing, ever-accessible; open- to impel~ra~ rion." (Grammar of Assent.) God is presen.t in all things by I/is power. All things are subject. ¯ to Him. He "works" in'all things, "reacheth from end to end mighti-ly, 'and ordereth" all 'things sweetly" (Wis. 8: 1), "upholding, all things by the Word of his power" (Heb. 1:3). St. Ignatius Loyola was deeply impressed by God at work in His'creatures. "Consider how God works and labors for me in all thingS'created on the face' of the earth--that is, behaves like one who labors -as in the hea~,ens, ele2 ments,'plants; fruits,~attle, etc., giving them beir~g, preserving tl~em, -giving them vegetation and sehsation, etc." (Contemplation for Gaining Love.) Without this presence of God we could not do any-. thing; He must concur with "us in every action. "He gives life to all our members by-His intimate presence, and so communicates life and strength to our faculties for their proper actions tfiat H~ walks with ° our feet, heaf~ with'our ears, sees with our eyes, and feels in our whol~'. body. Were He to withdraw, we could not act any, more; we should have no faculties or powers to act left." (Le Gaudier, De Perfectio.n~ Vitae Spi[itudlis, Pars V, Sectio viii, caput I.) How truly we say with I~aias: "Lord, thou hast wrought all our works for us" (Is. 26:1.2). ,lulg, 1948 THE 15RESENCE bF GOD By His essence also God is present in all things in thaLHe created them, gave them their ,very substance and,beihg. "I beseech thee, my son; look upon heaven and earth, andall thai isin them: and consider that God made them out of nothing, and'mankind also" (II Much. 7:28). '.'By him all thinigs consist'" (Col. 1:17). God is more present to usothan we are to ourselves. Lessius the theologian says: "God with all His goodness is in a way more .present to each thing than it is-present to. itself. For He is completely and intimately present to every single particle and indivisible point of the thing,~whereas the thing:itself~ is not completely present to" each single part,,of itself. Neither is one part intimately present to the other, nor is any part present tO the whole." (De Perfectionibus Moribusque Di~inis, Liber II, caput iii). God's presence shines forth from the works of His Handh. "I will behold thy heavens," the works of thy fingers: the moon arid the stars which thou,.hast fbunded. O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy, name in all the earth" (Ps. 8: 4, 10). "For the invisible things of him, from-the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and'divinity'' (Rom. 1:20). The seraphic St. Francis saw God in everything: the birds, the fishes, the Iambs,¯the trees,'the flowers, _fire, the wolf of Gubbio. "At eyery step he heard the thousand-fold Sursum Corda echoing from the works of creation, filling him with the knowledge, the praise, and the love of God" .(Felder, The ldealh o[ St. Francis o~ Assisi, 423). The preserice of God as presented by Sacred Scripture. the theo'- logians, and the saints is a great fact. It is a divine trhth. All solid devotion and genuine piet~r must be founded on'divine truth. But even a ~reat supernatural truth, a divine fact, will have no influence on spiritual living unless we put it to work in our lives. We must realize it, make it real for ourselves. The exercise of the presence ofo God is an aspect 6f recoll~ction.~" "By it we center our ,inner_ "actively.off God p~resent ~with us and in us throughout the day insofar as this ,is c?n_sonant,with the duties of our state in life. We must make our-selves consck~Us of G~d's presence if it is to help us grow in virtue. Wd must '°'wake up and live." We must recall the presence of God. "Sire must advert to it, think of it. We must cultivate this virtue by m~king acts so that it_may become a habit. At first the acts will be fear and sh6rt, as before mentafprayer, for instance. This is recommended in The Spiritual Exercises: "I will stand a step or two before the place where I am about to contemplate or meditate f_or~the Space of an 171 ~. A. HERBST Review for Religious~ Our Father, my mind raised or/high, considering how God'our'Lord sees me, and I will make an act of reverence, or humility" (Third Addition.). This sh6uld be done gently,,Without forcing the imagi-nation or straining the mirid. It is a restin9 in the presence of God. Gradually we can increase the number of times: before all prayer, when we change occupations, while moving down the stairs or through the hall,~and so on. A little ingenuity will find" or make many an occasion for rendering successful" this business of perfection ~s it does for making any business a success. The most common way, no doubt, and the simplest way to recall the presence of God is.by the use of ejaculat~ry prayers. Renewing one's good intentions is another fine means. Occasional short acts will gradually bedome more frequent and longer, and the habit will be formed. Then, since v~e,tr~asure God as oui greatest'good, our thoughts will lovingly turn to Him in those numerous free intervals throughout the day. "Where thy treasur~ is, there is thy heart also" (Matt. 6:21) St. Francis de Sales gives four ways of plating oneself in the presence of God. ~ The first consists in a lively and attentive apprehension'of the omnipresence 6f God. which means that God is in everyt~hing ai~d everywhere, and that there is not any place or thing in this world where he is not most assuredly present: so that, just as th: birds, wh:rever they. fly. always encounter the air. so. wherever we ~o, or wherever we are, we find God present. The second way of placing yourself in this holy present:e, is to think that not only is God in the place where you are. but that he is in, a very special manner in your heart and in the depth of your, spirit, which he quickens and animates with his divine presence, since he is there as the-heart of your heart, and the spirit 'of. yGur spirit. The third way is to consider our Saviour, who in his humanity looks from Heaven upon all'persons in the world, but particularly upon Christians who are his children, and more esRecially upon those who are in prayer, whose actions and be-l~ aviour he observe/, The fourth way consists in making use of the imagination alone, iepresenting te ourselves the Saviour in his sacred humanity, as though he were neat to us; just zs we are wont to represent our friends to ourselves. (Introduction to the Devout Life, II. 2.) The practice of the presence of God was a means to great sanc-tity for Brother Lawrence, a G I of seventeenth cen~tu~y France, who became a discalced Carmelite lay brother cook. The little book of his Conoersatt'ons and Letters is illuminating in this matter and has 'helped many. It may be well, therefore, to hear a few words from him. \ Thus I continued some years, app!ying my mind carefully the rest of the day, and even in the midst of my business, to the'Presence of~Gcrd, whom I considered 172 Jul~l, 1948 THE PRESENCE OF GOD always as wiih me, as in me. At length I came insensibly to do the same thing during my set time of praye~',' which caused in me great delight and consolation. This practice produced in me so high an esteem for God that faith alone was capable to satisfy me in that point. I havequitted all forms of devotion and set prayers but those to which my state obliges me. And I make it my only business to persevere in His holy Presence. wherein I keep myself by a simple attention and an absorbing passionate regard to God. which I may call an actual Presence of God: or. to speak better, a silent and seciet conversation of the soul with God. (Sixth Letter.) He is always near you and with you: leave Him nor alone. You think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you: why, then. must God be neglected? Do not. then, forget Him. but think of Him often, adore Him continually, live and die with Him; this is the glorious empl~oyment of a Christian (Eleventh Letter.) When one deeply-loves another, one longs for him, l~ngs to be "with him. One is happy to be in that presence, just to rest there, though no words are spoken. The lover wants to be with the beloved. This brings great joy. With God, this brings full contentment and peace. Brother Lawrence said: "I know not what I shall become: it seems to me that peace of soul and repose of spirit descend on me. even in sleep. To be without the sense of this peace would be affliction indeed: but with this calm in my soul even for purgatory I would console myself." (Seventh Litter.) Great happiness must come from the ~ertain knowledge that that God is present who loves us beyond measure, who is infinitely ricla so that He can bestow every blessing, infinitely good and willing to give us what is belt for us. This will afford much consolation in time of trial. Men may not know our trials and sorrows, or, if they do, do not understand and do not care. But the ever-present God knows with an infinite knowledge my most secret sufferings. He understands perfectly, living as He does in my very heart. "And He cares. He will sustain and comfort me. But God present with us is infinitely great and holy, too. We must regard Him with profound respect. This, added to great love, gives reverence, a virtue which flows naturally from a realization of the presence of God, a virtue which the world today so woefully lacks. It is that gift of the Holy Ghost called fear of the Lord, that (ear Which is the beginning of supernatural wisdom. In the spiritual life ;c is a tempering virtue and will not permit ~ny undue familiarity in the creature's love for its Creator. This Creator-creature relation-ship, the most fundamental of all religious relationships, must be carefully preserved. Reverence is the etiquette.of the heavenly court. We must follow its norms if we are to act properly in God's presence. It will appear in our exterior not only when we pray but in the 173 C. A. HERBST modesty of the eyes, our poise, gentle, gravity, .custody of~ all the senses, and general external deportment. When I come to realize that the God Who cleated me to'praise, reverence, and serve Him and thus to save my ioul is present with me and in me, I c:innot but feel a deep sense of responsibility. And He has mad~e all else for me, too. I am the king of ~reation. "What is there that I ought to do more tomy vineyard, that I have not done to~ it?" (Is. 5:4). One cannot be too careful to live up to His expecta, tions, one just dare not be wanting in fidelity. Noblesse oblioe. "Un, to whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and 'to whom they have committed much, of "him they will demand the mbre" (Luke~f2:48'). We certainl3~ must see how absolutely futile and stupid it is 'to act out of human respect when the dyes of God are Upon us. But to sin in His very presence, to violate the divine law in the very presence of God thr~eatening eternal death this is the height o~ ir~solence. Even the pure angels tremble in His sight. ,"Know, you not that you are the temple of God, and ~that the Spirit of God' dwelleth in you?' But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God 'is holy, which you ar. ." (I Cot. 3:16, 17.) - We might well pray here as Lessius does at the end of his treatise on the immensity of God. "Turn, I beseech Thee, my heart inward to Thee in the depths of my soul, that I may live with Thee, the noise of creatures far away and the tumult of importuning thoughts silenced. May I ever see Thee present, love Thee, venerate Thee, hear Thy Vgice, present to Thee the miseries of my exile and find con-solation in Thee. May forgetfulness.of Thy presence never overtake me, my Light, the Sweetness of my soul! May I never forget Thee; but'always, whithersoeve~ I may turn, may the eyes of my soul be fixed on Thee" (olo. cir., II, iv). Or more briefly with St. Augustine, "Most sweet God, this shall be my agreement with Thee: I shall completely die to myself that Thou alone mayest live in me. I shall be absolutely silent, that Thou mayest speak in me. I shall be per-fectly quiet, that Thou alone mayest work in me." 174 An Encyclical on the Lit:urgy J. Putz, S.J. [EDITORS' NOTE: This article is reprinted with permission from The ~Montblg (Vol. XII, pp. 81-97), Since the official English version of the encyclical Mediator Dei was not available at the time of writing, the author worked on the Latin text and ~he Italian version. The Latin text has no subtitles: thbse given in the-article aie-practically identical wih those added in the Italian version., Part II of the encyclical treats of the Eucharistic Cult. As it is the longest and-most important part, we keep it over for a second article.] 44~mHE liturgical movement will one day be recognized as one~ of ¯ | the most ch.aracteristic phenomena o~ modern Catholicism."1 It, was initiated a century ago by Dora Gu~ranger and has developed as part of the Catholic revival which started as a reaction against eighteenth-century rationalism. At the beginning of the present century it received a new and powerful impulse from the " famous Motu proprio of Pius X. It has: ifievitabIy produced some faddists and extremists who have at times hindered its progress and provoked opposition; but in spite of this it has undoubtedly achieved very desirable and much-needed results. Its influence on the Catholic mind and life is evident: the liturgy is~better understood and appre- ¯ tinted; it is celebrated with greater care and devotion: the sacraments . are better frequented: the laity, to a large extent, has been brought to take a more active part in the Mass and th~ prayer of the Church. and to understand better its own organic function within the Mys-tical Bod~ of Christ. During these last ye,ars, the intense fermentation of Catholic - thought and life; which has been 6he remarkable'effect of the Second ¯ World War in several European countries, has been manifesting itself also in the liturgical field. The fervent activity of theologians and pastors ma~y be expected to lead up to an important renewal of liturgi-cal life. Bu~ impatien~t reformers are calling for ~quick changes and sdmetimes are taking the law into tl~eir own hands. Fads and efaggerations have also become bolder. Noris there complete agree-ment on the line to be followedo Some conceive the liturgical revival as a return to the past, while others, more desirous of a really popu-lar liturgy, stress the need for further evolution. ' Pope Plus XII thought the time had come to make an official ~These are the opening .words of Dora O. Rousseau's Histoi~e da Mouveraent Liturgique, Paris, 1945. 175 J. PUTZ Ret~ieto for Religious ,statement on the principles that must govern the "liturgical renewal,'~ in order.that the liturgy might be (as it should be) not an occasion of strife but°a bond of union. On November 20, 1947, he issued ~ln encyclical "On the Sacred Liturgy," which begins with the words Mediator Dei et hominum. The headlines of some Catholic news-papers have characterized it as a "warning against liturgical e~rrors.': But it is immensely more than that. It is primarily positive and doctrinal--an exposition of the meaning and greatness of the liturgy, and an exhortation to a genuine liturgical spirit. The very first v;rords put the liturgy in its true context: it is a continuation of Christ's priesthood. As a doctrinal document Mediatbr Dei supplements the great encyclical On the Mystical Body, the doctrine of which pervades. every page of it. After having in the previous encyclical made Cath-olics aware of the wonderful nature of the Church, the Holy Father now wants to lead them to a more intense and intelligent participa-tion in the life of the Church, of which the liturgy is the most impor-tant expression. While reproving those who, "too.keen on novel-ties, stray from the path of sound doctrine and prudefice," the Pope" also expresses his sorrow because in "some places the study of the liturgy is too much neglected. Therefore, while restraining the imprfident, whose exaggerations can only "compromise a holy" cause," he wants also to rouse those who are indolent or fearful of any progress. He encourages legitimate p~rogress: indeed, as one commentator puts it, "movement" in the liturgical movement" will date from Mediator Dei.2 After an introduction which ~xplains the reasons that have induced the Holy Father to speak on this matter, the encyclical devel-ops its theme in four parts: (1) the nature of the liturgy in general; (2) the Eucharistic cuIt; (3) the Divine Office and the liturgical year;. (4) pastoral directions. PART I. THE NATURE AND EVOLUTION OF THE LITURGY I. The Priesthood of Christ Continued Man's fundamental duty is to acknowledge and worship the divine Majesty--a duty, primarily of each indNidual man, but also a collective duty of the human community. The perfect cult of God, of which the Old Testament was but a shadow, began with Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the New Testa-ment. His whole life on earth was a priestly life, spe~t in prayer 2Gerald Ellard, S.J., in America, Jan. 10, 1948, p. 408. 176 Ja[~/, 1948 AN ENCYCLICAL ON THE LITURGY" and s'acrifice, consummated on the Cr(~ss; in all His actions He had but" one end in view, the glory of the Father and the,ever-gr.eater .~anctification of men, by which men-in turn give God the glory due to Him. His priest}~ood is to continue: "The divine Redeemer wished thatthe priestly life begun~ by Him in His mortal body should continue throughout the centuries~iri His Mystical Body which is the Church. For this~ end He instituted a visible priesthood to offer everywhere the 'pure oblatiofi,' in order that all men, from.East and West[ freed from sin, might spontane-ously and willihgly ~erve God." The Church, then, continues 'the priesthood of Christ, especially in, the sacred liturgy. She has the~sa'me purpose and function as the Word'Incarnate. By her teaching and her government, by her sacri-fice and sacraments, by her prayers and her blood, she tends to make Christ grow in the souls of men, to build up here on earth that "holy temple" (Eph. 2: 19-22) in which the divine Majesty may receive a' cult Well-pleasing to Him. The liturgy "is the public .worship of the Church, the worship of the Whole Christ, Head and m(mbers. "In every liturgical action, together with the Church is present her divine Founder. Christ isopresent in the august Sacrifice of the altar, both in the person of the~,minister and especially under the Eucharistic Species." He is present in the sacraments by His powkr, which He infuses into them to make them instruments effective of sanctity. He is present, finally, in the praises and .supplications addressed to God, acording to His promise, 'W~ere two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them.' " The litu~rgical action began with the foundation bf the Church. Wherever there was a group of Christians, there "we find an altar on which 'the sacrifice is offered and round which evolve the other rites that sanctify men and enable them to give glory to God." Among these rites are, first of all, the sacraments; then hymns and psalms for the praise of God; shcred readings; and, finally, the homily by the 6ne who presides at the hssembly: ' As time went on, the cult evolved according to circumstances and the needs of the faithful; it was enriehed' wi~h new rites and formulas. "Thus the priesthood of Jesus Christ is ever active, since the sacred liturgy is nothi'ng bu~ the exercise of that priesthood." 2. Interior and Exterior Cult This section treats the most fundamental problem~of the liturgy, the relation and "tension" that exists between exterior and interior worship, between objective and subjective elements 0f'spirituality~ between: socihl and individual oreligion. The cult due to God is both interior and ixterior. Exterior wor-ship requires rio justification as~ it is natural to ~.man, neclssary for social ~worship, and apt,' to stimulate and intensify/ interior religion. .But the esse~tial_ elsrrient of worship is interior self-dedication, without, hrhich ':religion becomes a vain and empty fdrmalism." (cf. Mark 7: 6: Is. 29: 13). The Chdrch never'separates the two; she wants exterior observances to be the expression 'of a sincere heart ~triving after perfection in the service of God. Theoliturgy " has a special power Of its own to sanctify the. soul. The Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments are-efficacious primarily ex opere operato; while the prayers and ceremonies with which the Church has adorned the sacrifice and the sacraments, or the sacra- "mentals, and other rites instituted by the hierarchy, draw their efficacy chiefly° ex oper~e operamis Ecclesiae, "in so far as the Church is holy and acts always in close union with her Head." But this objective power of the liturgy can be exaggerated or misunderstood. Its relation to private prayer and personal effort must be clearly grasped. There are some who, partially inspired by .a legitimate reaction against prevalent individualism; would have us practice an exclusive liturgical or "objective" spirituality, concen-trating on the mystery of the Mystical Body and seeking only to unite ourselves to the liturgy in union with the community. The liturgy with its merging, as it were, of one's personal life in the life of the community is held to be all-sufficient. To it is opposed what is called '~subjective" or individual piety. Under this. depreciatory lab~el are put all religious p.ra~c~tices not strict~l.y liturgical,, as pgiva~te prayer, meditation, asceticism. These ','new ,theories,',' ihe encyclical says, are "false, insidious, and m0st~pernicious.'' Pius XII has ~repeatedly. condemned such° tendencies. He now proceeds to show at length the necessary ufiity ¯ of the two aspects,, objective and subjective, of the spiritual fife.'~ The liturgy requires personal effort and in turn stimulates, it; li~turgical piety,and,,personal piety must vivify one another. Christ's action, v.g., in the Eucharist, produces-its effect onls, with the free co-operation of His members; for "they :ire living members endowe~l with reason and will; they°must., consume the life-giving food, transform it into themselves, remove whatever might 178 ,/ul~/, 1948 AN ENCYCLI~AI:. ON THE LITURGY " . hinder its efficacy." Hence private prayer, meditation, and other 9ractic~es not strictly liturgical, though t1"iey.cahnot replace the Mass ~nd,the sacraments, are most praiseworthy and altogether necessar'¢ insofar_ as ~they aim at enlightening.the intellect, aroi~sing and strengthefiing thd, will, withdrawing the soul fr6mosin, and-turning it ,towards whole'-hearted'service of God--all this through 2esus Christ whose life and power are active in all His members. This personal-activity and:ascetical effort disp6se the faithful to participate more intensely and with greater fruit in the liturgy,--~the sacrifice, the sacraments, and other sacred rites: and the liturgy in turn will further increase tl~ir zest for prayer and Christian abnegation, for :efiergetic c011ab'6ration congre-: gations positively f~rbade their subjects, to make: a will. Those con-s,. t.itu~ions which received papal approval after 1901 usually contain 210. - ' dulg, 1948 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS a prescription of the Normae (Art. 120): "It is proper, 'however, that, before taking first, tempora~ry vows, each and every"Sistiff free!3r dispgse,,bly will bf all she actually possesses-or may', sub~.eql~ehtly p6ssess.:, °o This article did not absolutely order: the Sister t(~" make. a Will, but it c~rthinly' recomr~ended her°doihg so; and m mosUconL gr~gatiotis this'recommendation was carried~out~. ' ~'-:" ~ ~ ~ " ~ . If a Sister in a.¢ongregati0n had not rhade a will befok¢ tlqeCode, she is ri6t 6bilged~" tb' mal~e one now,~ though she may- d~ ]~ if she wishes. 'HoWever, if Shegdies intestate (withoht ~ will), wh~it~ver property she owns will go to'her r'e, lafi(,es according to tee civil law presc'riptions ~f the State in which she dies. If the Sister did make a will be'foree t~e Codei°sh~ may° not revise it after the Cowdeit h'o u~t t'h~e "pe ~rmission of the Holy See~; or, in, case of urgency when time does riot admit of such recourse, without the pdrmiSsioh of h~r higher superior; or, if that cannot be had, of "her local superior (cf. canon 583, 2°). Article 122 of the Plormae -of 1~901 con~ained'sin~ilar prc~isions regarding the changing°of the will .bf a religious in a congregation. " " : Our rulb prescribes ¢he recffaHbn of ¢he LiHle Office of ' he "Bless-ed Virgin on Sundays and holidays. Teaching cafechefical classes pre-venfs a Sis÷er from saying fhe~small hours on Sunday.mornlncj. Is she obliged fo reclfe a chaplef'df fhe Rosary as a subsfifufe for ÷his parr'of ¢he Office? The answer to this question depends hpon the ~wording of yot~r rul~'~ If°the obligatiozi is put upon the community ~s a Whoi¢; ~th~r~ the Sisters Who are unable to be present at the common recitation of the Little Office are 'not obliged~fo say it privately nor to substitute otherpray~rs in~its:place:,uhless "the--constitutions or the rule explicitly oblige them to do so. On the other hand, if the .obligation of the r~le is;pu.t on~ .the individual "Sist~er, then all are obliged'to sa~, the Little Office,-, either in common, if.that is the custom, or privately if Lhey~ are prevented~by their work from assisting at the common reci-ta. tion.~ They may not substitute other prayers for the Little Office unless the constitu~tions allow them to do so. ~Vhaf is the-proper° manner ~of maldng ,the sign of the cross, and how should the words be dlsffibuted? QuEsTIoNS AND .~NSWERS The Roman Missal (Ritus seroandus. III, 5) has the following prescriptions for the ~ign of the cross to be made by the celebrant at Mass: "When making the sign of the cross he always" puts his left hand below the breast: , . . Blessing himself~ he turns towards him-self the palm of the right hand, and with ~I1 its fingers joined.and exte~nded, he forms the sign of the cross from °the forehead fo the breast, and fron~ the left shoulder to the right." As to the distributlon 6f the words while making the sign of the Cross, there seems to be:no official prescription. Comn~entators on the rub~ics.~are ag,reed in pronouncing~'the word "Father" while t~)uching the forehead, the word "Son" while touching the br4ast, the word "Holy[' at the left shoulder, and the word "Ghost" at the right shoulder. They disagree as to when the word "Amen" is to be Said: while toudhJng the right shoulder a!ong with the word "Ghost"; or by itself after the sign of the Cross has been completed either while joining the hands or while placing them in any other position demanded by a subsequent action." One may follow either opinion. Can you suggest any special kind of cruet which delivers a steady flow without guggllng or splashing, and which makes it easy ~o pour the one ormore drops desired at the Offertory? Try Erlenrneger flasks, ]00 cc. or 125 cc. (about 30 cc. to the ounce). These flasks' are standard equipment~ in all chemistry laboratories., . They are made to deliver a steady stream without guggling. If only one drop is desired, the ,flow is easily' controlled~ ~4 In leaving the altar rall after receiving Holy Communion is it proper f,o, ge,nt~flecf or not? There, is n~thing prescribed regarding the manner of leaving the altar rail after receiving :Holy Communion.' One should follow~the custom of the diocese in which one resides. If there is no custom; it would seerfi advisable not to ~genuflect for the practical reason that usually it Causes confusion among the other Communicants, especially if they are numerous. There-is no disrespect shown to th4 Blessed Sacrament, for the commt~nicant himself is a tabernacle of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, which he has just received. 212 - The LaSallian Formula t:or a Fruit:t:ul Apost:olat:e--II. Brother Charles Henry, F.S.C. III. THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER EXERCISES THE APOSTOLATE WE MIGHT SUM UP the apostolate of the Christian teacher in the" following brief~tatement: to" give to the cl~ildren the spirit of Christianity, which is the spirit of Chris~. St. De La Salle says just that in so many~ words: "God sends the children to you that you may give them the spirit of Christianity." All ~he care of the Christian teacher should be devoted to this work. It is for this end that he is engaged in the apostolate of the Church. That the spirit of Christianity may reign in the lives of our pupils .we must bring them to l~now Our ,Lord Jesus Christ, the truths of His holy ,eligion, and the maxim~ He has left us in the Gospel. We shall accomplish this by our instruction, by our good example, and by our vigilance to keep from them all 'that might sully the purit~ of their souls. 1. The Apost.olate of Teachino =, ~ Since the spirit.of Christianity is the spirit of Christ, we cannot better impart it to our pupils than by presenting to them Him who is the embodiment of that spirit, and by teaching them the truths and the maxims of the Christian life taught by Jesus in the Gospel. Teaching Chr;st "First and foremost, our pupils should know Christ hi~fiself. Christ is the fbundation-stone of Christianity, the head of the body of Christendom. St. De La' Salle solemnly admonishes us "to instruct the children in the mysteries that ,lesus accomplished on earth; that is what St. Paul° calls "laying the foundation of the edifice of the Church.' " He likewise insists that God's choice of us for the apos~ tolate h:~s for end "to make 3esus Christ known and to announce Him. See that you make Him known to those whom you instruct." In one of the few lyrical passages in the writings of St. De La Salle, h~' says: "You are destined to beget 2esus Christ in the hearts of children, and to beget the children to 2esus Christ." ~This knowl- .~" edge must not be a merely historical survey but ""it s~hould lead' them 213 "BROTHER CHARLEs HENRY R~oieto for Religious to unite all their actions to ,those of Jesus Christ our Lord." So important is this-teachifig th=at tl~e Chri~kia~n teacher "must be tireless m announcing Jesus Christ and His maxims. ' " Maxims of the Gospel ' The saint ~rgds most earnestly that we teach these maxims and this fusion~of, the life and thought of Our'Lo[d with the life and thought of the child. No exhortatioh is more frequently reiterated than that of t'eachi_ng the maximi of the Gospel. In the~rule~of his institute, he makes it matter.of0obligation for the Brothers "to bring up the children in a tru~ly Christian spirit0accord_ing, to the rules and maxims .of the Gospel," making it, their "first and .principal care to teach t.heir~scholars the maxims and practices Our Lord has left us in .the~Holy Gospel." Time and again in his meditations he reminds us of this,,important obligation: "You are charged to teach the maxims of tl~e Holy Gospel; it is for that end that God sends the children to you: as a matter of state, you are obliged to teach-these maxims daily."~ .The Christian teacher should keep God in view, exhorting his pupils:~"as if God exhorted by l~im, since he is chosen by God to announce these'truths of the Gospel to young souls.'! "He .should look 6n himself as a visible guardian angel "to lead his pupils to the practice of the maxims of the Gospel, showing them the means pro-portionate to their age, so that being gradually accustomed to this ~ahner of acting in the]~ y6uth, they will be,able when older to practic~them~rom habit' and without difficulty:" The ~founder also points ou~ the,~naxim~ that'should especially be taughti hbrror' of th~ spirit Of 'the ~orld, happiness in persecutions, ~beafing of the-cross, spirit of poverty, not to seek justice after the manner of scribes and Pharisees, ~ , St. De La Salie recognized a dangerous tendency, that has had lamentab!~e results in religious education,-, viz., the;teaching of specu- !ati~r~e! re!igious .truth without making it concrete and practical for the life of the child. Therefore he warns the teacher: "It is not ~nbu, gh.to secure for the children the science of,Ch.ristianity and to. teach,them the mysterids and speculative truths; it is necessary in zd~i~ion ~to make them learn the maxims 9f, Christian riving, which zre fougd through.ou~ the. Holy Gospel. In, o~der.to lead, your pupils .to t~e,~ac.quisition of the spirit of Christianity you ,should teach the pract!ca~l t.r.uths o~ .~e. faith of ,Jesus~ Chris.t. and ~he, maxims ~of the Holy Go~speL.with ",at least as much care as you tea.ch the purely,, specu,o 21~4 LASALLIAN FORMULA FOR ~PO~TOLRTE lative truths. It is in the maxims of Our Lord that ~he Cld~ristian teacher will find the practicgl ~omplement'tb the speculative truths of the catechism, ind the life lessons that should be the outcome of religious truth well .explained and comprehended." Not tha~ the saint advocated the neglect bf the truths of 'faith. He frequentiy remi~ids us of~the importance of teaching the catechism and the sacred truths of the Creed. "If you wish your ministry to be as Useful tb the Church as it can be, you should teach your pupils the fufidamental truths of religion, following ther~ein the example of the apostles, which is that of Jesus Christ Himself.". ~ 'The Ho;nousness 'of Sin ~.An aspect of this practical teaching of the truths of faith is the saint's insistence on the duty of :the Christian teacher to inspire a horror of sin in his'pupils. It is a point of rule for his Brothers "to give the children a'greathorror for sin and for all that can make them losel purity/' "Consider. that ~the ~end of'the icomin~ of the Son of God into this world having been .the destruction of sin, that oul~ht also .to be the end of the institution of the Christian schools and con-sequentl~ r the first object .of your zeal." To be practical, he urges us especially to in'spire our pupils wit5 a horror'of evil i:ompany .that so, quickly and e~sily ~corrupts the best morals. He likewise urgds us to "inspire the pupils with~a horror for~th~ wisdom~of, the world~ which is,only a cloak for sin,. from which we cannot do too,much to preserve them." We must riot neglect to correct childrdn of their faults, for thisisa mbans of teaching them the.evil of sin. , .T~his0 then, is~,the first means,;of ~exerciiing .the apostleship that God~.and the Church confides~t0 us: to teach our pupils thd life les-sons taught by Christ's words and examples, to give thein a knowl', edge of both the sp, eculative and practical truths of Christ's. revela-tion, and to inspire them with a. horror for sin, which is diametri. cally opposed to Christ and the spirit of Christianity. But .in addi-tion to the teachifig of the spoken~word, there is also the teaching o,f e~xample and zealous but discreet vigilance. 2. The Apostolate of Good Example° If the example of the Christian teacher were to cry aloud that he is not himselt; a model of that which he teaches, no good can come of his'efforts. On the other hand, "what power and efficacy there is in example to convert souls and make them advance in perfection." Being called to labor for the salvation of souls the Christian teacher 215 BROTHER CHARLES HENRY " Revieto [or Religious .~sn ~ct begin by giving good example in order to gain them to God." In fact, he should be convinced that he is called to be a saint of uncommon sanctity since it is his mission, "not only by the words of salv.ation that he should daily address to his pupils but likewise by his good example, to'communicate sanctity." The whole~ burden of this thought the saint has summed up in one pointed, unequivocal. °~tatement: "You. can do nothing better in instructing your pupils than to edify them." 3. The Apostolate of Vigilance St. De La Salle addresses to the Christian teacher that solemn and terrifying warning of St. Paul: "You watch as having to render an account of their souls," The teacher labors as a.co-operator with Christ, -. tbe Good Shepherd, and like Christ he should-watch that none of the~sheep perish. He should examifie himself, asking,him-self. frequently: "Have I had such vigilance over tbeir conduct as to. prevent their doing the least wrong in my presence, andhave I fur-ni~ hed them with motives to avoid evil when they are far from my care?" The vigilance of St. Leo, a chief pastor of the Church, should inspire: the.Christian teacher, whose apostolate associates him with the pastors of the Church, to be watchful to prevent any evil from hindering the pupil's development in piety. It is because children are weak and lacking in understanding that God has appointed the "Christian teacher to be their protector, to watch over them lest any-thing tarnish their virtue, and to conduct them safely through the midst of all the dangers of the world. "Ask of God today the grace to be so vigilant as to take every means to prevent their falling into serious sin. Ask to be such guides that you will remove far from them all that can be an obstacle to the good of their" souls." IV. Tr~E SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER RENDERS HIS APOSTOLATE FRUITFUL The f6und(r of the Christian Schools would have the Christian ¯ teacher .to be keenly aware that only God can give ,the increase of grace and salvation. The teacher plants the good seed of word and example; God makes it fructify. But God demands that the seed be watered by the spiritual life of the teacher. St~ De La Salle insists, in season and out of season, on the vital importance of the spiritual life of the teacher that his apostolate may bear frui~ in souls. He espe: cially, emphasizes the . importance of prayer, mortification, detach-ment, and ~alth. 216 duly, 194 g LASAL~.IAN FORMULA FOR APOSTOLATE I. Pr,,a~er, especia[[~':Mental Pra~ter ' The saint devotes the meditations of the Rogation Days entirely to the importance of prayer, devoting that of Rogation Monday to -prayer for our pupils. The teacher should pray for the spiritual needs of his pupils that his instructions may bear fruit in them, :and, that they may be successful in the important affair of saving tl~ei~ imfi~ortal soul~: In the second point he urge.s us to have recourse to God to supply all those things which our human efforts cannot ach;.eve. But it is not only our direct prayers, for the students that are needed to make our apostolate bear fruit. It is our personal-prayer, our personal, daily converse with God. If the Christian teacher is to know how to lead his pupils to God he must first know God well himself. Th~s knowledge, of God is -gained b~y intimate contact with Him ir~ player. The obligations of his state "should engage him to be most assiduous in prayer that he may obtain from God the graces he needs." He will be faithful to sacred duties only in the measure that he is faithful to prayer. Since the daily work of the teacher becomes a continuous immolation and martyrdom, he must clothe himself with Christ for strength; and this is accomplished in mental prayer. In'prayer the teacher becomes a branch attached to Christ, the Vine, and draws from Him th~ means of producing fruit in his ministry among the pupils. Where else can the teacher obtain that uncommon holiness that he needs in order to sanctify his pupils, except in interior applicatio.n to prayer and fervor in his daily spiritual exercises? Ability in the art of speaking to God is'the secret of that eloquence that will gain souls for God. When the Christian teacher mounts daily to God by :men~al prayer, "he descends, equipped with what he should teach his pupils. It is in this holy exercise that he becomes skillful" in his~ apostolic work." '2. Mdrtification The link between prayer and mortification is indicated by St. De La Salle in the brief statement, "Frequently, prayer Withou't mortification is an illusion." He urges self-denial as a source of strength in prayer and as a means of attracting the divine benediction on the apostolic labors of the teacher. In St. John the Baptist, the Christian teacher will find.both a model and an incentive. "It was the example of his austere, retired life which gave him the power to -gain hearts and lead them to do penance for sin. You have the grace of 217 BROTHER CHARLES HENRY " Review for Religiou:s .being a successor in his ministry." The same is true of all the saints who have worked so successfully for the salvation of souls: "It is by theirs,. ~ mortified lives that the~; have produ~ce~ great fruito, in their min-istry." The great good that St. Basil was ~able to accomplish in the Church.Was due t6 his practice of solitude and fasting. ~'Nothing will aid you more, if you wish to do gre~t good to souls in the exer-cise of your ministry." "God gives us three means to prepare our-selves to teach our charges effectively. First we must study to have the knowledge requisite for the instructor of youth; .then we. must frequently give ourselves to prayer; thirdly, we'must practice mor-tification." 3. Detachment "If-you wish to be worthy to be employed in the salvation of Souls, be detached from all, and~the grace of God will be showered on you for yoursdf and for others. One has no idea how capable of doing good in the Church is he who is detached from all The two means most appropriate for doing good to souls are regularity of life' and detachment. Since the teacher is called to elevate children in piety, he ~hould live in complete detachment. This places him in a state to work usefully in his employ." The detachment inherent in poverty is e~pecially efficacious in making the Christian teacher suc-cessful in his aposto

Issue 7.6 of the Review for Religious, 1948. ; Review for ReHgio NOVEMBER 15, 1948 Assisting at Mass .'-. Cla'rence McAul;ffe ~Distractions in Mental Prayer . c.A. Herbsf On S÷ayin9 in Love . Richard Leo Heppler Loving the Neigi~bor . Gera~a. Ke'y Doc÷Hne of. St. John of he Cross" ¯ . J.E. Breun;g Book Reviews Communications . .Questions Answered Annual Index VOLUME VII ~ NUMBER .6 VOLFdMI] VlI NOVEMBER, 19478 NUMBER 6 CONTENTS PAP.AL DIRECTIVES FOR ASSISTING. AT MASS-- Clarence McAuliffe, S.,I . 281 DISTRACTIONS IN MENTAL ~RAYER--C. A. Herbst, S.,l. , 290 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 294 ON 8TAYING IN LOVE~Riehard Leo Heppler, O.F.M . 29~ ANEW EDITION OF NEWMAN . 298 C~N THE DUTY OF LOVING THE NEIGHBOR, ESPECIALLY ENEMIES--Gerald Kelly, S.J, 299 THE DOCTRINE OF ST. JO~-IN OF THE CROSS--J. E. Breunig, S'.3,. 313 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS~ ! 42. Use of Interest from Dowries and Legacies for Community Pur-posea . , ¯ ~ ." . 321 43. Common Life and Recreational Travel . . . ~ . 321 44. Retirement Age for Superiors~ . . ¯ 321 45. Ro~ary~Indulgences, Mysteries, and Literature . ". . . 322 COMMUNICATIONS . 327 BOOK REV'IEWS~ Exile Ends in Glory; Souls at Stake . , ¯ ¯ 324 Book NOTICES" ¯ . 326 A REPRINT ~ERIES---MAYBE! . ~ . 331 ANNU.AL INDEX ~ . ., . . 333 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, November. 1948~ Vet. VII, No. 6, Published bi-monthly; January, March. Mair, July, September, and November at the College Press, ~606 Harrison Street,-Topeka, Kansas, by St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as sec0rid class matte~ January ~1-5, 1942, at the Post Otiice, Topeka, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editoriai Board: Adam C. Ellis, S.J., G. Augustine Ellard, S.d., Gerald Kelly, S.J. Editorial Secretary; Alfred F. Schneider, S.,l. Copyright, 1948/by Adam C. Eliis. Permission is hereby granted for quotations of reasonable length, provided due credit be~ given "this review and the author. Subscriptiott price: 2 dollars .a year. Printed in U. S. A. Before wrlflncj tO us, please consult, notice on lee|de, beck cover. Papal Directives t:or Assisting al: Mass Clarence McAuliffe, S.2. ~| T IS, THEREFORE, Venerable Brethren, proper for all Cath-olics to realize that participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice is for them an urgent duty and a lofty dignity. This participa-tion is not achieved if their minds are torpid, .unconcerned, distracted and daydreaming. On the contrary, so, fervent and active should be their mental application that they will become, intimately united with their High Priest (Christ). Together with,Him and through Him they should offer the ,Mass, and along.with Him they should consecrate themselves (to God)." Th~se words were penned by our Holy Father, Plus XII, in his memorable dncyclical "Mediator Dei"' of November, 1947.~ They furnish a compendious sketch 6f the internal spirit which all Cath-olics, and especially religiofis and 15riests," should foster at every Mass. This inteinal spirit is etched";2~ith greater preCision-in 'otl~er sections bf the encyclical. Nor does ~the POntiff rest satisfied with an expla-nation of the internal spirit-'6nly. He also'becomes quite, detailed regard'ing various external ways of as?isting at Mass. It should prove 15fin~ficial~for the spiritual lives of reade?s of ~he i~EVlEW and of those with-whom they deal, to summarize and explain the,papal directives in this important matter. ¯ - ° It" should be ~noted first of all that, just as in all prayer, so at Mass, the internal spirit of those present is~vastly more important than the external manner of participation, The Holy Father ins_ists on' this principle _in various paragraphs of the encyclical. Indeed,, he . points out, as we 'shall indicate later, that the-external ways of par-ticipation may~ vary ~but that the internal spirit: should re.main con-stant. It is uniform; it applies to. all the particip~ants, t~o~ugh i~o will be realizeffdn°diverse degrees.according to the~graces~,kngw~ledge, _a.nd circumstances, of each individual. The same internal .spirit .s.bou_ld pervade the Low Mass as well as the High Mass: it shou~/~d be, the goal of the sinner as well as of the saint; it should be c.uJtiga~ted regardless of one's subjective moods. The~ external participation, whatever form it takes, has but one chief purpose-~-to foster_ the 281 CLARENCE MCAULIFFE Reoieto ¢or Religious proper internal dispositions of the participant. But what are these internal dispositions? After answering this .question in a gener~al way, the Holy Father particularizes. As ~egards' the general" answer, he says that participants in the Mass should endeavor to arouse in themselves the same internal spirit which animated Christ" Himself when He was immolated on Cal-vary. This idea is fundamental: and the Pontiff expressly declares it when he says that ~the' Mass "demands' of all Cl~istiahs ~that they imbue their souls with the same affections; insbfar as it lies in human power, that permeated the soul of the Divine Redeeme~ when He made the sacrifice of Himself." It Will not~.be difficult to understand the reason f6r this cardinal dire~tivi if~we recall two dogmatic principles about the Mass. First, the Mass is not-only a" memorial, but an actual unbloody repetition, bf Calvary. SeCond, the Savior, both bn Calvary and at each Mass, does not offer for Himself, but for us. He represents"the entire human family, and especially those who by baptism have become members of His Mystical Body. He acts for each one of.us; He is our substi-tute: and since at every Mass He re-enacts Calvary, He therefore expeits each one of us to strive for those internal dispositions which He Himself has. Just as each member 9f a graduat.lng class, is expected to possess th~ dispositions harbored and publicly expressed by its valedictorian, or as each member of a fraternal organization should,foster the sentiments publicly proclaimed by its pres, ident in the name of all, so should each Catholic at Mass strive to nurture the dispositions of~the~,Savio~r, who in the name,of all renews the offering of Calvary at the Holy Sacrifice. 'Descending to ~details, the~Holy Father .itemizes the basic ele-ments of this intelnal spirit. It should conform to the purposes of both Calvary ancl~ the Mass. Th~se are four in number, but pre-eminent among them is the spirit of adoration. It is of faith that the Ma~s is a genuine sacrifice. Ai such it can be offered to .God alone, and itsprincipal~function:is ~o rendersto God that supreme honor th~it is du~e exclusively td'Him. To q~uote the Holy Father: "From~His birth to His. death 3esus Christ wasqnflamed ,with zezl for the advancement of God's" glory : and fkom thd cross the immola-tion Of His blood ascended to heaven in an odor of sweetness." This spirit of adoration gripped the Savior's "human soul With acute poigna.ncy while his life blood slowly ebbed away on the cross. In the same spirit He, as the principal minister, offers Himself in the 282 ASSISTING AT.~LAss tiame of allsat every Mas~.~ It is the spirit 'which all participants in the'Miss shoiild sedulously cultivate. The Mass by its very nature an~l action exi)resses God's transcendent donlination over~ mankind and'~the utter subjection of mankind .to God. Hdn~e it poitulates from all a spirit of humble adoration2 . ~ -~ ¯ Ho~v~ver, three other element_s, to mention only'~the basic .ones. entered into the Savior's disposition at-the Crucifixion. Although theie three are implicitly contained in the spirit of adoration, it would be well for participants in the Mass to make them explicit, as the Holy F~ther observes in the encyclical. Perhaps the most important Of these is the spirit of thanksgiving. God has given us, 'both as individuals and as social beings, every single thing. Strive as we may,~ w~ can n~ver tl~ank Him ade-- quately. But with theoSon of God Himself repr~seniing ~us and ~icting~ in our name oh0 Calvary and at each Mass,wit isonow ~possible for us to 6fief a worthy thanksgiving. ;That i spirit of gratitude anl-ma~ e~l ourSa¢ior's~soul on Calvary~ is clear, as the Holy Fatl~er men-tion~ s'; fiom the~fact that ~Holy Scripture:says that He "gave thanks" at the~.prepai~tory sacrifice of ~the Last "Supper. Moreover, "He continuously~ gave thanks as He hung from the crbss/'' states the Pontiff. Since, therefore, we are expected'at~each ~Mass.to foster the dispositions of Christ Himself, we too should,cultivate a spirit of gratifude . Secondly, the Mass should evoke in each participant a spirit of expiation; of reparation for 6ne's own sins and ~for those of the entire human family. ' We know that our Sa,~ior died to redeem the human race, to ransom it from the bonds of original sin and also of actual sin, so that we cotild again achieve our supern.atural, destiny. According to the Holy Father it was .for,this reason ~that our Savior "wished to be immolated on the cross~ as 'a~ propitiation for our sins, and not only .for burs, but for those of ~he whole world.' " And the Pontiff continues: "Moreover, on our altars ~He. offers.Himself d~ily for our~ redemption.so that snatched_ from eternal ruin~ we~ may be numbered among the elect." It is evident, therefore, that Our Lord botkon Calvary and in each Muss.possesses a spirit of repara-tion for sin, and the same spirit ~should~ animate us at~the Holy Sacri-fice. We should be sorry for our own shortcomings and make atone-ment for the sins and crimes of humanity., Finally, our Savior on Calvary was permeated with a spirit of impetration. He'saw how mankind, by original sin: particularly, had ,283 CLARENCE I~CAULIFFE Review [or Religious squandered the'bountiful gifts oLGodoand, to. quote the' encyclical, "had reduced itself to a state of utter poverty and indigence.','~ Not only on the cross did He beseech His heavenly Father to relieve this miserable condition, but, to quote again, "He petitions, for.us 'in'the same etficacious way upon our holy altars." Hence it is fitting that we, too, for whom He supplicates, should foster a disposition of impetration at every Mass. Adoration, thanksgiving, .reparation, petition. We must steep ourselves in these four affections at Mass if we would put 9n '.'the same affections that permeated the soul of the Divine Redeemer on Calvary." But perhaps it would be well for us to become acquainted with a reason, drawn from the very nature of the Mass itself, why this fourfold disposition should be cultivated. We must remember that the Mass is not merely a social prayer, but a social prayer in action. Moreover, it is a unique social prayer in action. After all, when the celebrant sprinkles the congregation with holy water before High Mass or when the deacon silently incenses the entire congrega-tion at the offertory of High Mass, we have social prayer, in action. But the MasS,is a-unique prayer in action, because it is a, genuine sacriEce, the only one acceptable to God in the world today. If. we understand the basic notion underlying the concept of sac-rifice, it will be easy for us to see why it. postulates dispositions of adoration, gratitude, expiation, and petition. Every sacrifice is fundamentally the giving of a gift to God. This giving is not enough to constitute a sacrifice, but without it no true sacrifice could come into ,being. Bearing this in .mind, let us ask ourselves the meaning of presents or gifts when they are bestowed among men. We find ,that the giving of a gift to another is an action and that this "action has various but definite meanings, - whether expressed or not. By such gifts we sometimes manifest.our gratitude, as when a man leaves his money t6 a hospital that cared for him when he was indigent. At other times a gift. means "I am sorry,''~ as when a hus-band, after an unjustifiable outburst of anger, presents his wife with a box of candy. Sometimes a gift'ineans "'I want a favor," '_'I'm going to ask you for something shortly," as might be the~case when an employer bestows an unexpected bonus on-an'employee. Finally,oa gift may emphasize particularly our honor and affection-,for ~another, as when children buy their mother a new coat for Mother's Day. Honor, thanksgiving, reparation, impetration--these .meanings or, at least one of them, are the significance of every gift. The gift is a 284 No~emb~ec, 19'48 "ASSISTING AT MASS manner or expressing these, emotions By a deed. , The ~ift~ represent~ th~.persgff°wh'o gives,''~ By ~i,iihg of' his shbstahce, the dohor says it/ effect that be'wishes to give h~mself' to the~ecipient for one of .thd f0~ur ~urpos-es mentioned abd~ oi for all of' th'em together. '~'L~et us° apl~ly, this tb the Mass. -Th~ gift we therd offer.i.t0 God thr0tigh the priest is none other than oui Divi;ae Lord Himself. ~This is an articie of' faith. Alth6~gh the presentation of:this Gift to God is externalljr and officially made by th'e priest aldne, neverthel~ss the priest~acts both.tin'the name of Christ, the principal Gi~rer, and in°the hame of all the baptized, especially df those who are assisting ,~t the Massl Hence our divin~"Savior ;is ~!the°~ift Of all tb the Eternal Father. Onl~r the priest can make ~fie outwa~'d°'0ffering:which cdnstitutes the saciit~ce ;" but th~ priest mak~es, this ~offering :for ali the people! ~'ai~d each p~i~ticii~hnt af Mas~ Sh0uld,~th~eiefbre, inteinal.ly~ offer ~he~DiVind Gift in ti'~i0n £;ith the' priest. Arid each participant shOUld also rem~em-bet that ChriSf, trul~resent bn',the alta~ at the d6nsecration~ repre-sents himself arid eee~'y membe? of 'th~ Mysticat Body. ~ If, .then/we ~ilize tl-iat~at ex;ery M~ss. each ,baptized member of the congregation pr'e~ii~ti th~0ii~h~th~, priest' fiis~dwn ~ersoi~a! Gift to G0d~ it easy to understand why each one; "~hiSuld~-~put on~ thee~ affecti~ins ~f adbration,,thanksgivifig, .,rep'aration,o and~petition. ,,~hese are the .pi~rposes:of all I~ifts; and,at Mass all fouk purposes, are~al~w, ays" t6~be at'faified~ ~Gianted, tha~t, .the)~Church p'ros~ides ,'special !- Masses, of thanksgiving, o~p~tition, oor reparation.,, SuCh;, Ma~ses hierely niean that~on some particular occasion we~aie stressifig our~ spirit of~th~nks-giving or. expiatioh, or' impetration,' not that: we are, excludihg thi~ bther~ ends:~ ,If, ',then, ,ode0assists "at Mai~.~.with6ut realizin~o that he personally~thr6~igh~ fhe outward, actioix of, the priest, is truly; presenting his 6wnGift to God;'.,he~mi~ses.~.the~basic significance of the M~ss:,. He ~will ~0rbfit 'from it nevertheless; but,.th~ Mass by.its.~very, action', pos-tulates oUevery, participant an active, internal giving and,, conse'~ qhen~t[y~- ~the~ dispositions, of.~adoratibn,0, gratitude;~ repafatipn, o and petition whidi.dviiiy~ sincere giver possesses.~. If this Spirit°is missing, .we d6, not,'hear Mass intelligently--; .~We ~re,,like deaf men, attending an oratorical contest. Weisee, but we do, not understahd., But the Mass, since it is a true ,ga(rifice,: is not merely the, offerin~ of ¯a Gift.In every'genuine s~crifice, some~change must be Wr6ught in tht'~gift. " Hence ~th~ gift,~is~ not called Simply~ a ~" gi f,t~ "~but~.~a ".victim.'~' ¯ In sacrifi~es,!of, theo,Olit'L~aw~ this change or victimization wa§ accomplisheff by. the destruction,of the ~object offered. '~ .So too' off 285 CLARENCE MCAULIFFE Calvary. ou.r.Lord, was s.a_crifie,d; by, His,d.ea~h--the~ .separa.tio.n,of His b0dy,,and.human soul. ~. Since ,the Mass~ besides .bei~g-,a,,true,~ s~crifice is also a renewal .of~Calva.ry,:we,.m~st,fi~ad. in it, a death,or,,destrtic-tion of so_me kind . ~Since., it, is, of faith ;that, Chri~st cannot.die~,or suffer physically~ since His resurrection;~ His death. .at ~Ma.,ss .is, m~rely mystical,,or~ tepresen~atiye. 'T9 under~ga.nd .this, we need only r~fl~ect a moment on the:do.uble, consecrati.on.;~,~the essence ofo the Holy:Sa.cri; rice. Though:,Christ beco_m, es~:wholly, Rresent _undgr. ,, each spe.cies~ at each consecration,, nevertheless the .words uttered by ,the pries~t d~ not give this impression.-" Ou~wa.rdly, but only outwardly,.; they ,siggify a, separation of His,.hody'and blood,, i.e., death,~ since t.he pries.t first icnotne:syeaclr tahteens: tch.oen bsreecaradt _be~sy ,t hsae y,winign e, "o,,Tyh~i Ss iysm Mg~y :b~omdsy i:.'s:.~ t~age,dc haaf~telir~ ac eb"r ioeff My blood.". ,, Since separgtion of body., and blood spells, death for a man, the two .consecrations,. taken, at their face or oral ~va!ue~ provi~l~ us with,an outward appearance of the Savior~s~ death.~ ~ All .theor logians~and, indeed: reason itself teach that such a "picture"-of' de.ath is painted by:.he"words0 of consecration and,, ~most,~the01ogi.a.n.s ad ~mit thatthis "pjc.ture" of death is the only change or d~estru~ti~on ~equired to .make the. Ma.ss a genuine sacrifice. -~ . .: .~_ >,~.0. ,: ~, ~,, , But wh~° do we" introduce such ~a dogmatic-pplnt ifito aw article which~profksses'to explain ho~ ,we,ate 1~o assist at Masig Becauseits correct-, fifiderstanding clarifies "an .additibnal ~ind' ,vital; internal dis-position which the,Holy ~Fathe~-~wishes ~very Chtholic to,(ultivi~te" ,at th~';Holy Sitcrifice;o He says that participants, in~;the-:Mass0 ','should immolate themselves as, victims." In other? words:~the.~Mass be'its vdry /action demands 6f'~all-f~iesent:~i ,spirit" of" sdlf-ifiamolation,'~of self-surrender to,God:' Ac~ordifig tb~.the~PontiffLthis :means~.more p~i'rticulaily that. each l~'hrticiplint in the-Mass "should conseCrate~him'- sell to the attainmerit~ of Gbd'~ glory ,an'd ~hould earnestly ~deslfe to imitate closely. :3esus C.'hriSt through-~the~ efidurance, of poignant sufferings:" In shbrt, the Catholic :whb assist.~ ;at Mass' intelligently should' realize' ,tha't- the'. Holy- Sacrifice" by~ ,its "~acrificial, action means th~it~he is~to go :.'all'Loutv ff6i Godi.~b6th .b~,~ac~ively.~'~ngagifig in apostolic wbrks,and~'by,suffering all evils° ~atiently:. This is,self~ immdlatidn, ~elf.-surrehd~r td"God." -~ ~ ~ ~! :: ~ : "-. :~o ~. ".~' ::~ °' . L ~And tl~e'reason~ ":Becausez as,explained abgv,e,,Chri~t Our Loid, the:Gift w~ .offer ttirouigh thd priest.,at:'Ma~s, is: not m~etely, ao ~Gift; but a~Gift~wkapped in the cloak of dda~h;b~h~dou151e ' onsec.ration. ~He is ~a mystically, oi symbolically, or celareseftatively'~ilain Gift toGod. 286" ~l'o~ember~ ! 9.'I 8 ASSISTING AT MASS He stands for us, represents us, takes our place, not merely ~is a Gift, but as~ a.Gift crucified externally again.' "Henc~ the ver~; action bf ttie Mass at the Co~nsecration requires that'.,~ve pu, t on that inward spirit which our Substitute', outwardly slain again in an unblbody manner 15y the "sword" of the consecratory words, exhibits namely; the spirit~of self-oblation, of tofal colasecration ~o God. True enough, this spirit, as~' the Holy Father observes, should.pervade a Christian thrc~ughout his life. It is symbolized evdn at baptism by" which we . "areburied ~ogether with Christ" so that we are henceforth dead to sinful pleasures. But 'the Mass by its very nature exacts an?active renewal of.this spirit of self-destruction fr6m each participant. W_ith-out such a renewal we are not alert and intelligent participators;: we miss a cardinal point of the significance of the sacrifice. To adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition, therefore, should "be* added this spirit of sel'f-immolation: ~AII five of~ these dispo~sitions .~hould ~be aroused before the~ momdnt of Consecration arrives. Nor ~o01d we thii~k that we are hypocrites because lives do not~ actu'ally cortes/Send with 'the~com~lete consecration God*WhiCh the Mass expre~s~s~ for° u~ .¢vers; day. o The ;road to" "t3er-fection or to'complete ~urrender to God, is a~'.long roadL~ For most peop1~' itois meandering and rough. By sorh~ it is occasionally for~ sal~en~fo~ detours. But when we express'our totM~ dedication to~ God during MasS, we"are sincere2 We me,in thavunstinted dedication to God is the ideal which we truly yearh foi.~' We are no more hypo~ ~rites "in, inwardly.dxpressing this~tofal .devotibn ,to God than,_is the sinner who makes a fervent confession mar1~ed by genuine" soriow and a firm" resolve not to sin again, bat who, notwffh~tanding, siiis ahew through~ frailty'riot long after. ' '~ . " ~ ' A few more remarks about these five internal,°dispositions which the Pontiff teaches. 'We'sh6uld .remember that they admit of,almost infinit.e :degreds. " Not only wilP these, degrees vary in diffeient indb ¯ viduals, bu~ tl~ey will vary in, the same individual from one Mass to the 'next. ~Circumstances', both natural and supernatural'; e~plain this diversity. ~ But all five dispositions will-be ~almly, though earnestly and explicitly,~f0stered by ever~ Cathblic who really~under-stands the meafiing of the Mass. °~However, we must rdnfember, as the Holy Father cautions, that many Catholic'S, and some of best, are so circumscribed in their education that they cannot grasp the actual significance of thd Mass, which they nevertheless treasf~re highly. They know that Our Lord becomes truly present'on the 287 CLARENCE MCAULIFFE Review for Religious altar at the Consecration. This is about all that they do know about the Mass. They are pious, and they pray or try to pray during the Holy Sacrifice. Consequently they do possess, at least implicitly, sgme .of those internal dispositions which the Mass postulates, even though they do not connect, them directly with the sacrificial action. They profit, therefore, from the Mass; and if the flaw of not under-standing its true meaning proceeds merely from circumstances and not from any culpability, they may profit more than an erudite theo-logian. Despite this fact, it is most laudable, the Holy Father ~tates, to cultivate in oneself and to propagate to others the real signifi-cance of the Holy Sacrifice. Such. an apostolate will, generally speaking, make our people more alert and prayerful at Mass so that they will draw greater blessings from it. Such an apostolate will do much to banish daydreaming and those voluntary distractions which we have reason to believe lay hold on many of our people during the sacred mysteries. The same apostolate will increase attendance at Mass on week days. It will also prevent some Catholics from missing Mass on days of obligation, or from falling away altogether. We shall now treat briefly what the Holy Father has to say about the outward manner of participating in the Mass. Whatever external form 6ur assistance at Mass assumes, it has but one main function-- to excite the internal dispositions already discussed. The Holy Father expresses this truth several times in his encyclical. He says, for instance, in one passage, that the various ways of externally partici-pating in. the. Mass "have as their principal object to nourish and foster the piety of the faithful and their close ,union with Christ and with His visible minister; also to excite that internal spirit and those dispositions by which our minds should become like to the High Priest of the New Testament." Consequently, no one manner of externally assis.ting at Mass is to be rigidly insisted upon. This point is emphasized by the Holy Father. He .,himself offers several ways, which we shall specify,, in which one may laudably 'assist at Mass. He~ even gives reasons why no one method should be urged too insistently. He mentions, for example, that many Catholics cannot read even the vernacular and cannot, therefore, follow the Mass prayers. He declares tl~at others do not have the 'ability "to comprehend religious rites and liturgical formulas." 'Again, he states that "the temperaments, characters and minds of men are so varied and diverse that not all can be stirred and directed in the sdrne wa~t by prayers, songs and other sacred actions 288 November, 1948 ASSISTING AT MASS enacted in common." Moreover, he says that "different people have different needs for their iouls and different inclinations." In fact, the needs and :inclinatiohs of the :same individual vary from day to day. Hence .no 'one inflexible manner of hearing Mass should be imposed on all. Nevertheless,ceitain, outward ways of assisting at Mass are objectively preferable.to others, It is.noteworthy that the Pontiff m~ntions, in the first place the silent following of the Mass in the Roman Missal. He pralses~ those "who strive to place the Missal in the hands of the people so that, in union with the priest, they may pray in the same words and with the same sentiments of the Church." Secondly, he lauds those who are endeavoring to interest the people in the "Dialogue Mass." By "Dialogue Mass" the Pontiff gives no indication that he approves or even allows such a Mass when it involves the oral recitation of some liturgical prayers, such as the "Gloria" and the "Credo," simultaneously with the celebrant. The "Dialogue Mass" which the Holy Father sanctions is that" in which the people as a body, instead of the server alone, answer the prayers of the priest. As he puts it: "They respond tO the words ot the priest in dueorder"; or "They utter their prayers alternately with the priest." It is safe to say, therefore, that the "Dialogue Mass," so understood, has papal approval and even commendation. Thirdly, the Pontiff praises those who at Low Mass introduce the singing of those hymns "that are fitting for the various parts of the sacrifice." Fourthly, he approves those Low Masses in which the "Dialogue Mass," as explained previously, and the community singing of appropriate hymns are combined. Finally, at High Mass, he com-mends the community singing of the responses and of the liturgical chants, such as the "Credo." Th6se who promote all such practices are commended by the Holy Father.~ But to obviate the danger of rigid uniformity, he ¯ specifies other ways 'of assisting at Mass for the poorly instructed and also for those well-instructed Catholics who by reason of circum- 'stances or natural propensity do not wish or are unable to, follow the Missal or to engage in community prayer or singing. He states that such may during Mass "piously meditate on the mysteries of Jesus Christ." If they do not wish or are unable to do this, he recom-mends that "(hey perform other exercises of piety and say other prayers which, even though they differ from the sacred rites in their outward expression, nevertheless in their internal spirit conform to 289 C. A. HERBST Reoieto for Religious these rites." ' Such a general expression certalnly seems to. include at ¯ least the private recitation of the rosary during.Mass. ~,, Hence though certain-external .ways of hssisting,at Mass ar~; generally speaking, objectively preferable; nevertheless no one way is to be unflinchingly adhered to. The Mass postulates an internal spirit. ~The outward manner in which' that spirit is tO be obtained oi manifested is secondary and accidenfal. The Catholic. who at the Holy Sacrifice refines and develops his sentiments of adoration, gratitude, reparation, petition, and total dedkatibn to God is an active participant. The external way .which will help him best to develop those sentimentsis for him, at least on this particular occa-sion, the one that he should adopt. Dis!:rad:ions in Men!:al Prayer C, A. Herbst, S.J. y]HEN one prays vocally, the se,ntences or phrases or-even words W serve as strings by which one s thoughts are drawn along. Or we ,might say that they" are like pegs that hold our thoughts where they ought to be. In mental prayer, however, these aids to attention are wanting, and one's thoughts 'wander much more easily, So mental prayer may be said not to have as great moral unity as vocal prayer. This makes it more difficult to meditate than to pratt vocally. Distractions are thoughts during prayer which do not belong to prayer. Attention is the opposite: the~centering of,our thoughts during prayer on what belongs, to prayer. Attention', evidently, is essential to haental prayer. It is its substance. ~ In mental prayer we either think of the subject of meditation or wee do not. One cannot think of a thing andnot think of it at the same time. One thinks prayerfully on something, turns to something else, then after the interruption comes'back again to prayer. So there is a succession of prayerful acts and other acts. There is, of course~ nothing wrong with interrupting mental prayer. That is what we usually do when we say ejaculatory prayers. We pray for an instant and go right back to secular thoughts. This is not only all right but highly recommended by 290 November, 1948 DISTRACTIONS IN MEN'I~AI:, PRAYER h~ost ehlightened spiritual men. we should'.do this very,often, d~y," make a ~iabit, of it, _As Stiarez rather.~beculiarly p'ut's it, "ifiter-ruption~ s ~ard~'meritorious:''- ?~The~refore, - unless ~ ther~ :is,~ a -~special oblig~ition Of givifig to-mental prayer some ceitain.,defined, dontinuous time, no sin is cbmmittdd ifi this way, whether the ~urning,of:.the mind from.prayer td other ;thoughts is volunth~y or,.inv~olunthry, unless'~the interiuption~ is made through levity, and so unreas6nably and irreverently.:' ~' (Pesch, 'Prablectiones "Doqmaticae~ IX;~ n. 3~48.) Distrac[ions in~ mental prayer~ aie very, very common. One should not "get"discouraked on this accotiAt nor lose patience"with oneself. Evei~ holy men have them. If, ','misery loves company," we shall be consoled by what St. Augustine says in his commentary on Psalm 118: "One cries' out with ofie's whole heart when~one" thinks of nothing else. Such prayers are,.rare among the majority, frequent only with few. XVhether any are such even in the case of ~one single individual, I know not." Gerson gives many exhmples from among the Ancients to show the great difficulty of a complete ~rictory in ~this matter: Great exceptions like St. Aloysius, whos~ diitra~tions in ~half a year of prayer amounted only~to the Yspace;:of a ~Hail M~ry, ~tre shining examples to,be admired, but the~ arerarely imitable. (Cf. Zimmermann, Aszetik~: 383,'.384.), " ~'~ Involuntary distractions are not ~inful: They are~,rather'some-thing to be "suffered," to be borne with,' than s~mething we pbsi~ tively~do., ~"But to wanddr in mind Unintentionally does not deprive prayer of [all] its fruit. Hence Basil says: 'If you are so, truly Weakened by sin that you are unable':to pray attenti~iely, strive as much as you~can to cu~rb"~yourself; and God. will pardon you~ seeing that you are "unable to-stand in His presence in a becoming manner not~ through negligence but thrbugh frailty.'~" Bht attention is necessary for prayer'that its end be better ~ttained, and in Order that wl~at St. "Fhoma's Calls, the third fruit, of prayer, the immediate fi:uit attained her~ and now, spiritual refection of mind, be art/tined. (S. Th. 2-2, 83, 13.)- This spiritual iefection of mind is spiritual joy, pea~e of heart, cohsolation, joy in God, satisfaction, arid espe-cially the fostering of virtuous good will¯ Thereford, involuntary distractions ought by all, means ,to,be avoided. The}, should be forestalled, p~0vided against from afar~ sd. t6' speak.; iA ~firm determination at the beginning of prayer~mot to be distracted, and" perseverance~ in this intention, are both~morally and ps~,~hologicallyn'ecessary' for'this: morall~i, otherwise~ there may be 291 C. A. HERBST Review for Religious negligence~ or sloth; psychologi~ally, so that-the wilLmay be,buoyed up by the initial determinations. The preparatory ~acts so carefully recommended-by !St." Ignatius :in~ the: Addition~ at xhe end ~of the ,First Week of the Spiritual Exercises are.a great help, in, this matter. Then, where one notices that distractions are in the, mind, one must .turn again, to, prayer. ~ ,Remote prepara~tion is very important, too". m~ch .niore important, I am afraid, than most of, us realize in practice. This consists espe~cially 'in fostering a spirit of recollectiori during the' day; avbiding wordliness, and walking in the_presence of~ God., Some valuable~hints along this line are also given in the Additions: ~ ,f ,~ It-isr the common-teaching that deliberate distra'ctions in prayer are venially sinful when there is no go.od reason for them. ~ And this holds even for prayer that is not itself obligatory. The supposition in this case,is, of course, that one wishes, to remain in prayer and at the same time deliberately and without reason does 'not attend to God. Bwdoing this one seems to make light of Goi5 and thus~offendsagainst~ theft.reverence-required ~by the virtue.of religioff.,.~As, Suarez~explains it.:~:~'On the.one hand a man has-the intention, whi~h;he~ has not 1etracted, or did,not have a good reason for retracting, 0f,coritinuifig prayer;,,an.d ~to this end: rehaains'in .the'presence of~God by~;hi§ special intention in such,,a,pl~ice; iffsuch a manner, and,,.f0r, guch or ~o~16n~ a time;;~yet, on the other 15an_d~he: is negligent in aStending, or volun-tarily~ brings in, other,th0ughts foreign to that exercise,' And this we say,does,,not- happen without, sin, thou gh ~venial:" .: (Suarez;;De ;Or., 1.2; c.- 5,m. 1.8.) -o, ~ .:." ~ St.Basil's~explanation is,somewhat, similar: ,He says:2 "Wg must not ask, lazily; our mind,wandering here:and,there. ¯ If~ ao ma_n' :acts .thus,,~he will not only fail to get what-he asks ,,for but will even ~xasperate the L6rd more: For~ wheh a. man st.ands before a~prince and speaks, he :stands with much fear,,and certainly doesonot~ permit either_ ,the ~externab or ~ the,4nternal eye~ of. his~ :mind -tg~ ow, ander:, but remains attentive, lest perhaps-he come. to grieL :Howxmuch more ought~one to,stand before God with,fear and trembling, with his mind fixed~on Him alo~ne and intent on nothing els_e.". (P.atralo~ia Graeca, 31, 1333.) Holy'~nd learned, men through the ages have thought,,,thus, ~and good people consider as sinful distractions in prayer that are willful "and-unnecessary. ~.Since after mortal sin/the greatest evil-in the world is venial sin, and since willful distractions .are venial sins, we should ,by al! means try to eliminate them. Things like walking up and.down ?r looking 292 November, 1948 DISTRACTIONS IN MENTAL PRAYER out over the fields are not distractions at all. When there is sufficient r~ason for'admltting something distracting, it is not sinful. One may have to say a few words or answer the doorbell or light, the candles for Mass. Doing such things with'decorum is~all right. In general, one may do what is necessary pr very, convenient. In preparing for mental pra}'er one should work carefull~y so as to have ready material for meditation that will really hold the atten-. tion. Such preparation is not very difficult when made in private. One can then simply take a subject that fits, one's own present state and apply it as one knows. When the points are made in common ,,there is greater difficulty. The subject may not be at all pa~latable.and personal application may be practically impossib!e. _For such occa-sions one may well have stored up some .good meditations that are congenial. Perhaps even one could take a little time afterwards and prepare one. It has,often struck me that we are quite helpless and altogether wanting in resourcefulness in making our way through a period of mental pray~er when the matter on hand seems impossible or atten-tion has flown away, I see no reason why we cannot come to a gen-eral understanding with God for such contingencies. We might take some subject that always attracts us; the Holy Eucharist, for e,x~mp!e. An extended and affective preparation for Holy. Com-munion ought to be in place any morning. Or one might apply the Second Method of Prayer to the Common or Proper of the Mass. This, too, is quit~ in place, and easy. Analogous instances for each individual are almost innumerable. But they must be found and kept in readiness beforehand. A tired mind is helpless even to find them. Distractions in meditation usually come from incidents in daily life. We think of our work, of some problem child, a real or imagined injury rankles within us, we think of some recent joy. When a thing of this kind affects us greatly, it will come back to our attention again and again, although put aside many times. Why put it aside? In meditation we must pray mentally, but I know of no obligation that binds me 'to remain with a subject that simply will not hold my attention. Pray over the thing that is obtruding itself, that is forcing itself on your attention. It must be very out-standing in your life here and now or it would not come back so persistently. Pray over it. Pray over the distraction. Here again an understandifig with God to this effect is in ,place. We~c~ ,~ask Him to bless our work, to help us with the problem child, to bear the 293 C, A. HERBST ~ - injury patiently, with lov.e for Him, perhaps even with joy, and share ofir happiness. Making a virtue of necessity is ~not,alien to the spiritual life. ~' It sdems t0~ind that much " difficulty arises'in regard to mental prayer because we do no[take nature's lead. Itmight be a legitimate in~terpre[ation of the term 1supernatural life to say that~it is the life of grace~ built upon the foundation Of nature. There is probably hardly a saint living or .dead who does not or did not capitalize on personal circumstances and natural 'propensities in living his life of love with God. God's Providence has not ceased, arid the Holy Spirit makes use of a man's natural ~qualities and inclinations to advance hiin in tl~e 'spiritual life. Some find that thee beauty and vastness 6f ~iature° and the universe lead them upwards. Some cherish the 15resencd of God, others a sweet, gentle sorrow for sin, still others zeal for souls, and so on. Such things as these, too, might be the~ refuge of a ~wandering and tired mind during mental prayer. Ofie last refaark. A meditation on our every-day life might be very profitably made When we find ourselves suffering fr6m con-tinual distractions. A fifi~ novice master, a man of'great e~perience and deep spiritual insight, suggested that this even be deliberately chosen as a subject often: once a week, let us~ say, 'Lovingly and reverently in the prdsence of God we go through the d~y, beginning with the first waking thought, taking each action and exercise in ~;rder. R.eally, one can hardly do better. 'After all, all we' have-to offer God is bur life, our daily life. The~ chief purpose of'the n~ornifig meditation is to direct this life to God and to sanctify.it. To live ¯ today through with intense love is certainly the finest fruit of mental prayer. OUR "CONTRIBUTORS RICH/kRD LEO HEPPLER is chaplain at the 2uniorate and the Novitiate'of the Franciscan Brothers of Btookl~rn at Saiithtown Branch, New York. C. A. HERBST, GERALD KELLY, and CLARENCE MCAULIFFE are members of the faculty of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas: and J. E. BREUNIG is completing his theo-logical studies at the same institution. ~ 294 On St:aying in Love Richard Leo Heppler, O.F.M. ~"~N,.lUST HOW MA.NY points the modern worldly person and V, the Saint disagree it~would be almost impossible to calculate. But-surely~they would be at .variance in regard' to the meaning of at least one of our popular sayings: Andthe adage which provides the matter for difference of opinion is°the saying, °"Love ma~kes the world go 'round." Truly, it would be hard to find a ~more unscien'- tific little senterlce. It reveals a complete .disrespect: for the laws of nature: for attraction, movement, rotation, and, force. It shows a profound disregard for~ ,the. prindple of cause and effect. The man who coined that phrase might have been a~cavalier: it is imposs~ible to think of him as a devotee of the atom. Leaving this dis~u'ssioh aside for a moment, we would be quick to admit that° both the children of 'this world and. the saints.,agree that love certainly ~makes a human being go 'round. We would be hard put to explain some very strange ~onduct if we could not attribute it to love. When a, young man so far. forgets himself as to swing into the latest dance steps ,in the,pennsylvania. ,Station, the surprised bystanders, will indulgently nod their-heads and agree that he is in Iove. When the, young lady who sits next to you, ,on .the First Avenue"bus insists upon hummlng~-and .humming rather attractively--"Only Make.Believe," you excuse the distraction and gallantly conclude that she' is in love. When a tough-.looking truck driver gazes long and, ardently at, the, wedding rings in.: Findlay~- S~auss',, the, p~ss~rs-by diagnose the case immediately.:~And they do the same when they see a pair of very blue and ~¢ery feminine eyes frowningly appraise ~the pipes or belts in. Wanama.kers. But ~hen.~you,;se~ a pretty little high-school girl ?r .a bent.old man kneeling in'ardent prayer before the tabernacle, you can be quite certain that tl~e judgment of worldly ones will be far less indulgent. Instead of sayifig, "She is in love," or, "He. i.s in 10ve"~as indeed they r~ally are the,modern pagan, if such a one were present; wou.ld be more apt to remark, "She's just a kid. She'll be all right in a couple of years. We all do crazy things when we're young.'L Or, "He's in need of a good rest. Ever since, he lost his wife he's been acting odd." 295 RICHARD LEO HEPPLER Review for Religious So it starts to become obvious that the modern worldly person disagrees witl~ the saint on' the meaning of the saying "Love makes the world go 'round" because the former believes only in l~uman love, ahd he is ~interested only in ~t/~is world. Whereas the saint knows that human love is not the only, nor indeed the highest, love; .just as he believes that thi~ is not" the only, .nor indeed'th~ be~t, World, He knbws that there is a love unass~o~iated-With cupids and V'alentines which ~uni~es him not°fo~ human beings but to 'God Himself. He believes that ther~ exists a world where not television butthe ~beatific vision ~is the reward :of the:blessed. Hence the saint really ~ believes that 10ve mhk~s the world go 'round~ because God is love, and aroundHiin all things rotate: Once we understand the deeper spiritual truth behind the saying "Love m~kes 'th~ world' go 'round," we are well on our way to discovering" one c~f the great ~ecrets of tile ~saints. " Unlike the truly wordly person, the saints fell in love with God;zbut, unlike us, they resolutely insisted upon staying in love with Him. Falling in love is.not difficult for ~most of us, but staying in love calls for a stag-g~ ring amount of generosity arid sacrifice~ To fall in love with'~Jesus Christ is a very flattering experience; to stay in°love with Him is s6metimes' nothing short of martyrdom. H~ive'.you ever noticed howT, the determination to stay in love ~i~h" Jes~s" Christ is common tb all the s/tints; while calling for differeht reaction~ in each? The determination to stay in love with God mad St~ Paul'el0quenf while it caused St. Joseph to be silent: it impelled St. F~ancis to .preach ~tb the Si~Itan',of E~ypt and ~t. Peter Claver fo. minister ~o the" slaves; it inspired~St. Augu.~tine to take up hi~ ~en and' St. Dida~us t0~ take~ u13' hiss'shovel; it drove St. Fran~is"Xavier' to Indi~"aia-d it~ drove the Little iFlov>er to~.the cloister. '. ~ - ~ " . We religious conside~ OurselVes the .friends, follow_ers, ~and~lover~ ~f 6esus, Christ, and both .~h~ w6°rld and the Church,' recogniz~e us as such. Our vocation is ,.n~ot~ merely to fall in'love with Jesus Christ; it is to stay in love with Him. Andstaying inlove ~ith Jesus Christ entails much more than _saying, ".Lord, Lord." It ~meansl being faithful to'our pr.omises to :try to °become more and more Christlike; it means exerting a conscious effort to grow in holiness; it means the constant ~¢illingness to force ourselves tb do the will of God no matter how hard it may be. Staying in love with Jesus Christ means trying" to use each day November, 1948 ON STAYING IN LOVE of our spiritual lives'as if we re~illy ~were :in love. ,It includes sudh thinl~s as getting out of bed promptly: trying to make a~good, pdrsonal,"practical meditation: ~putting our hearts,and souls into our Mass and, Holy Cdmmuniofi; trying to banish distractionsfrom our prayeis; carr~;ing"out our appointed tasks well; making an~effort, to preserve thee spirit 6f-recollection by such means as ,ejacu!atory prayer: being cheerful: charitable, and "co~operative at/community recreation: observing the prescribed silence: a'nd 'so on., ,-It means that ,we sincer~l~r try to ,make 2esusrChrist the King and Centei~ of our lives by,livifig"ouk ever~y thohght, word, and deed. for Him. Staying in lo~re with°Jesus~ Christ means tr)~ingo to be ~ satisfied with our l~t whatever it alay be. A cheerful,'morik in. the/days of old used to add privately to his litan)~, "From dissatisfied brethren, deliver us O Lo~d." Only a few Of us might be,willing to spend' long dull hours studying Sanskrit,, but almost all_of us would prefer that to a half hour each day~ with ~perpetually dissatisfied religious. We expect tragic figures':t0 su!k~t.hrough our literature just.a.s we expect spoiled children to pout on our city streets, but it is a!ways disap-pbinting to find them in the convent or ~the,monastery. Perhaps~ Lhe dissatisfied religious, was once a lover 9f Jesus ~Christ and gave~ gre.at promise of. advancing in perfection. Maybe°she who now~. complains about the regular weekly appearance_s of~,the same dessert and the cheap material of her-new habit--maybe she as a novic~ once delighted .in giving~up ,her,~cake: and° ~may.be .she ~s~iled upon her mended habit as upon a regal gown.,,It is true thaLdufing.the passage of the years the glamor of the profession ceremony does wear off. The flowers and the music and the incense and the candlelight fade. But-we must not let the similarity between our profession and the Three Hours Agony fade. Of course, it is not always easy to be content with our lot. It is not always,easy to teach French when.we feel more inclined to decorate the chapel or to fill prescriptions' or to type reports. It ~s n~t easy, to be cohten.ted when ~we are placed under temperamental, suspicious, orodownright unfair;i~up~eriors. It is always easy~ to be contented when you'have to. live with ~a religious who considers himself a necessary and an it/fallible afldition .to ~our conscience. NO, it isn't always ea's~ to try ~o be.~atisfied with our lot; but staying in love with Jesus Christ requires that-,w¢ try to be satisfied for His sake. . Staying in love~with J~sus'Christ meam refusing to fall inlove with anyone or anything else.: In modern pagan Aaierica infidelity, 297 RICHARD LEO HEPPLER like co~kfails .Before diniaer~:is taken~ for granted: ,We°might be ihclined ~tb_censure rather ,segerely the~marital ad, vent,ures, of, our Holly.whorl actbrs and adtresses Without realizing that we, too can,be unfaithful.-sand we arL urifaithful-to Jesus,Christ~ to,sbme extent at least,Af we permit 0~r~'affe~tions t6 become,so strongly.-,attache~ to any ~erson or thing as to deprive ~ Him ~ of the fulldove we have promised: ~ We odce vowed that the" 0nly,tfiangles ia our lives would be~in our geometr~ classes." Hehc~:we cannbt afford to bec6me so inter~ite~ in an6~her person or in Chaucer or in the Rh factor or in a new'arrangement of Panis An~elicos or in the recipe: for baked Alaska or Charlie'McCarthy that we lose interest in' growing i~ holiness. If We seftle for~ h :divided service we are fair-weather- friends of 2esus, not lovers:~ :Then'religious life ~bddo~ds-moaotonous: then it is easy to criticize the c0~munity or the ~uperior; then fickleness and, shal-lowness tak~ theplace of faith a~d humility. Th~ ~esolhte~ religioui Who i~ determined to stay in love with 2esus,Christ,comes tff~arn that 16v~ does make the world go 'round. He Will ~a~ to' persist in tryin~ ~o live each:day of his spirithal life to thi best 0f his 'ability in'~r~of 0f"~is love for:JeSus",Christ. H~'~ill ha~e t6 try to b~' sati~fie'd :Gith his lbt sinc~ that i~wh~'deiu~,~wants. H'e: Will ende~v6r'~6 be;~ffii~hfhl to ~i~ love for 3eshs~:nd ~atter~ what S~dr~e that' dfit~ils:" Hd will not let routine ~hi11 his qove, riot sick~ ~dss enfdebl~ iL Uor~arthlg ~ttrac~ibn~ devitaliz~ it: nbi time:dimAt: Is~t any wonder t~?t---he-,can Under~tand: the~.rttue meaning :of ;fhe ~h~ih'g; '~d~ :~'~ke~the ~wbrld . Whoever. delights' ~E,gieat 'hteratu~e ~fll"~welcome" the; ne~ edition wor~; of. Jo~.-He~=tIewm~n, no~. Ieiag:~IuIlished: t~. kongmans }i~r~n, ind Company, ~e~ $otk.,~,Itti~ the purpose o~ this edmon "to. p~owde,~Ioth for the general reader and ~e stnI¢nt, the latest and Iest texts ,of those works which b~d fai~ t6 s(ind th~ otfe'stt~'me ,'"- as.'.w.e.l.l .a.s. .t.o".p.r.e.s.en.t. .a.n.ew~ ce"r"tain of'hii:W'6rks.which have primarily a,histofic~l interesti,'but which:mus~ be reador cohsu~ted_iLt~e ~ish~ to ~understand the mang~faceted mind of the author." Thiee volumes appeared in 1947 :. APOL~IA PRO VITA SUA (pp. xx~ti + 400), A GRA~R dF' Ass~' (pp. xxii' + "39~) ~ 13). ~ui" fh~ ifi ~ 1:948~ three~ vdlumes ~of' ESSAYS' AND ~SKETCHES (pp. x¢iii"+ 382; x~ + 368; xvi + 381) have been published. ~g,it~d~nt~ng ~e~eral . reader will find the introductions helpful to, a,,complete.,understanding of,the~ text. EaCh ¢olnme ~ pr6vlded with "an ifidel i:hd 'gs pri~ gt S~'.5"0. T~ do,plead set is to'~ohlist" of nineteen volumes. 298 . On the Du y: [?.ovln9 {:he , ble ghbor Especially ['N'~LA~ING'"t~ gefle~al prffep[ 'of ffatdnal chanty, "thee: [ log~ans ~sually call attentmn to the fact ,that thts duty includes = " ft :nlighb S)ff;"~'eve~ ~nemi~s; n~vertBel~is; ' b~caus~" Hi.self saw fit to voxce a sp~c,al precept regarding the love of ene-mies and because this duty has speciai g[~ulties, the m6ral theology usually.include an exphc~t t?eat~eht of ~h~.2dUty.of io¢ifig enemiesi' "~he~e~tre~fises £ontain much'that~is ~prac~icaF not only for tBe ordinary Cathohc'but also for rehg~ous. ~ge purpose f t~e present~ notes ~s" to outhne'tbe'commo~lg ac~e~ted teacBing on~ the duW of loving ones neighbor;-parucularly-one s~ enemies, and to comment more m detail-on points.that seem~ to .de of espmally prac-tical value to religious. "'~" ~.~ .:~,. ,:~,, ~ 2, !., THE ,GENE~L PRECEPT.OF CHARI~ : There ar~ many specifictd~ties of fzaternal .tharity:,, for,~example, ¯ al~sgiving,, fraternal correction, ~ the~'avoidance: eL scandal ~ ~nd :0f c0-operation~ini-another~s.sin, and t~e~love~of, enemies~': But;all these dUties~ar~ derived ,from the general .precept .of. fraternal charity, ~which ma~ be~bNeflF'st~ted as follbws: Bg~ diai~e ~receOt, ~ must 1oo~. all d~ ffei~hbori wit~ ,'t~e ;/6ve~ of cfiarif~ ; and, tfiis ~dut~, :ext~Ods~ to thougMs;, words; and deeds. 1 A .briefl explanation ofithis, genera[ law maycontain, a -number" of ~helpful, points ~and :will !eag~-;t~g gro¢~d for as,more~detiiled consideration of the-'command to.~love~9~g~ enemies;. :,~: .~;. ~ ~. ~,. : .~ " ., . ".~ ~ " ~hari~ i~ a~ spatial kind of love, a supernatural love which is d~)etted primaril7 to clod. BE 'charity we love GOd because, as ~e know H~m through faith, He is infinitely ~ort~y of love. Genuine chanty towards the neighbor is also a love for God because the neighbor, as known through faith, shares in d/sfincfi~l~ divine perfections, fo~ ex~p! , the divi~e-lffN of grace and the divine destiny of seeing God face to face. - ., ,, ,, -- Itfis important to note that fraternal .cha'ri~) rake's its ~otiv~'from .299 GERALD KELLY Review for Relioious faith; it sees the neighbor through the eyes of faith. Through faith we know ~hat ~the.'neighb0r igarticipates, Or is called to participate, in the divine life of grace; that he is destined for .the beatific vision; that Christ has identified Himsdf with the neighbor: that the exemplar of true fraternal charity is Christ Himself; that Christ has told us to love ou'r neighbor as He has loved us; that we are all united through Christ in God: and so forth. Because of the supernatural bond by which God unites men to Himself, we love one an6ther "~vith the same kind of love with which we lo~ve God--theological dharity. Fraternal ~harity, therefore, is immeasurably superioriv all merely natural love, even the noblest. I might mention here that there is no necessary conflict.between natural~love and charity. A man's good qualities can be recognized by reason, and he can be r~asonably and nobly loved for these. And such reasonabl.e love can easily be supernaturaliFed and ~ absorbed, so to speak, in the greater love of charity when we see the neighbo.r's lovable.qualities as reflections of the divin~ goodness . Who is my Neighbor? In answering the lawyei's question Witfi the parable of the Good Samaritan; Our Lord did-not wish tb say .that the priest and the levite who scorned th'e afflicted man were not really his.~neigh. bors; rather, He wished to"bring out graphically .the~fact that the orily ;one o who " really, acted:'like~ a neighbor .; was ,;the foreigner, the Samaritan', who b0i~nd up his,°wound~' ,and 'supplied his needs. Christiaxt otradi'tioti, v~hich i~" the best interpreter~of. Our.0Lord's w0ids, has~ ahbays underst6od the,word ','neighbor',': (in the'precept "Lov~ thy~neighb6r as thyself")'t0 mean' all~ men:, ~In fact,, the word includes'~ everyone" who has a. common destiny.~-with' us: ~ men on earth, the soul~ in purgatory, the blessed in heaven, and (in:some sense) even the angels. Among rational and intelligent creatures, only the damned are excluded from the notign of neighbor, because ~heirdamnation ha~ forever severdd t.h~ fie that bound' them~ to us. All others are~ bur neighbors a~nd are obje.cts for our charity.'Ho~wever, the commandment is usually:und~rsto0d to refer particularly to men on earth. ' Tho~t~fit, Word, and Deed The commandment of love includes internal and external acts, that is, "thoughts, words, and deeds. Arid like most commandments 300 November, 1948 ON LOVING THE NEIGHBOR it has its negati~,e and its affirmative 'aspects: that is.' it,forbids certain things, and ~it. commands certain things. It ~would be impossible to Live here anything approaching a complete enumeration of the~duties of charity, because .charity is a very geneial virtue.,which affects all our attitudes towards and dealings with our neighbor. I can give here,only~ a few general rules which may help individuals in estimating their own duties as regards fraternal charity.- A negatwe rule, that is, a formula expressing what we must not do, is best expid~sed in terms of the golden rule. "S~ich a formul~ would run somewhat as fdllows: Abstain from ~11 deliberate thoughts, worlds, and actions which you think you w~uld reasonabl~r resent if you were in'your, neighbor's place. -(For a more complete explanation~' of this rule with regard tb speech, see "Notes on Detrac-tion," in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, ~V, 380-'92.) -6n the affirmative side, the'kerr word i0r"°charity o'f"i thc~ught is "well-wishing." Charity is a love of benevolence, that is, of unselfish and disinterested well-wishing; hence, an internal act of fr~iternal chari~y i~ aii act of supernfiturfiI ~ell:v)isiai~ag. Such an ac~ can expressed in many g;ays: ~or example, by praying for th~ fieighbor's sa!vaSion; by rejoicing over his good f6rtun~, ~spec!ally growth.in virtue; by °so[rowing over his misfortune, especiall3i sin, and by making internal acts of reparation for the sins of o[hers; by desiring the true happiness of our neighbor; by being, prepared to relieve his needs for the love "of God; and so forth. Even. the natural compas-sion we are apt to feel for those who suffdi td~pof~l loss and"'mi~: fortune and the spontaneous joy that we feel ovdr the temporal for'turie of a frle.ndlmay bd implicitly inclfided in and supernatural-ized by charity, pr6,~ided the propersubor"d m" "atxon t~6 eternal,galues ~s not set aside. That we are°obliged to make such internal acts o~f'charity as I have just enumerated is the unhesitating teaching of Catholi~c the-ology( The Church l~as condemned the opinion that we can fulfill all our duties of charity by merely external acts. But how often mus~t we make such~ actsh To that question the best theologian cannot, give a definite answer.~ ~.AI1 _that can be said regarding the obligatipn is that such acts must be made occasionatl~l. However, though'~the obligation itself is vague as to frequency, theo-logians generally~ agree that it.is practically impossible for~one_who~is trying to lead a good Catholic life to fail in this duty. As for what 301: GERALD KELLY is advisable, all.theologians wguld surely"agree that frequent acts of o fraterrial chaHt3 should be highly recommended. .As a-matter of fact, ~the prayers that are universally recommended for daily r~cit~l contain at least two acts of fraternal charity: namely, the act of~Iove and the Our Father. Speaking of prayer for the neighbor, the question might be asked: must we pray for individual neighbors? The general la~¢ of Yharity does not. demand" this, although certain special relationships ,such as ties of blood may do so. The general law of ~chari~y is ~l~l!ed if We include all our. neighbors in our acts of love; or, to put the mat-ter in another way, it suffices if we exclude no one from those acts which, as mentioned above, must be made occasionally. Hence, a brief rule for satisfying the general precept to make~ i~nt~ernal~ acts Of fraternal charity is this: occasionally say the act of love and mean it, or say th~ Our F~ther now and then, and~excl~de no one from its petitions. s~rhat about words~and deeds that is, when are we obiiged to manifest our love for our. neighbor by speech and action? "['lie key word here is "need"; and a brief rule epito.mizing our duties to per-form external acts of charity may be stated thus: I am obliged to help my neighbor (corporally or spiritually) when he'really needs my help and when I can give tl~e help without a proportionate incon-venience to ,myself. It should be noted that this rule expresses only the Christian minimum, namely the duty under pain of sin of performing the works, of mercy. The Christian ideal, which was Christ's glory and which has ever been the Church's glory, goes much higher and helps the needy even to the point of utter selflessness and heroism. (Noth: As re~a~rds the external manifesthtion of. charity, theo-logians usually lay great stress on the necessity of showiii~g what they call "the common signs of good will." The explanation' of this matter is best reserved for the section of these r~otes d~aling with the love of enemies~) ,~, The Diolne Command The jottings contained in, the previous paragraphs explain the meaning and the extent of th~ gei~eral law of fraternal charity. ,To complete them we might ask and answer the question; "Why must we love one another?" ,The ~nswer is derived from both reason and faith. 302" November, 19~ 8 ON LOVING THE NEIGHBOR ',h'Reason~tells u~s that, even~iiGod' h~d~n0t ~aihed.man to :~ super.; natur~l', status, we, shotild have some obligation-to love one~, ari0ther-; for even in the natural order,'men~ would be unitdd by,'a common n~ture ,and. ,a common d~stiny. :,' Moreover, being, social ~by ,n~ature, they Would'have t6 live, and work, a~nd re'create together." ~Bec~use ~f these ~facts,,° th~ n~ttiral ihw itself, which, is perceived by reason, calls for some love: an'd~ finion, esp~cially for ~the wellLbein~-of hulnah hature: th~it il, that men may ~livd ~ogether ~ith that degree of hai~= m6ny which is really helpft;1; t-o "the attainment~ of their purpos~ on earth. . - AS a matter of fact, we do not live in a purely natural order: Through faith we know that God has givd~a u,~ ~ Share'in His own life (sanctifying grace) and the destiny of sharing in His'own~ hap-piness (the beatific vision)"~ We enjoy an entirely special union witli God in Christ; and the necessary preservative of this union~is charity. Scriptural texts on fraternal charity can be multiplied .almost without end. (Cf. for example, "The 'New Commandment' of Love," by Matthew Germing, S.J., in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, I, 327-37.) -Some of these texts are, it seems, merely counsels, but many of them evidently state a real precept to love the neighbor. Our Lord referred to fraternal Charity as the second grdat command-ment (Mt. 22:39); and St. John said, :'This commandment we have from God, that he who loves God must also love his ne.igh-~ bor" (I John 4:2I). As regards external charity in particular, the clas~sic ~exts are the account of the Last Judgment (cf. Mt. 25:42), in which Our Lord clearly indicates that the attainment of salvation will depend on helping the needy, and the strong words of St. John: "He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall' s~ut'~up his bowel.s from him: how cloth the charity of God abide in him?" ('I. John 3: 17-18). II.-THE LOVE OF ENEMIES That the love of enemies is included in the precept of chari~y and is in some sense a special sign of the true follower of Christ is indicated by Our Lord's words: "But I say to you, love your enemies: do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that persecute and calum-niate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon:the just and the unjust. For'~f you lord them that love 303 GERALD KELLY Revle~b for Religious you, what reward, shall you have? Do not even ~he publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do" you more? Do not also the heathens this." (TvIt. 5 : 44-47.) Many other texts of Scripture have a similar.meaning; even the Old Testament has some beautiful passages on the love of enemies and some moving examples of forgiveness. That forgiveness in par-ticular is enjoined on us is apparent from the Our Eather and from Our Lord's ans@er to Peter, which He illustrated with the story of the unforgiving servant and which He concluded, with the strong words, "So also shall my heavenly Father do to you [namely, deliver over to the torturers], if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts" (Mr. 18:35). This divine precept is clearl.y in accord with man's social nature. We are all prone to offend; and if it were permissible to nourish hatred and a spirit of revenge and to deny pardon, progressive_ social peace would be extremely difficult, even impossible. One needs.only to glance at history to see the disastrous effects that inevitably flow from hatred and revenge. Miscellaneous Observations Who is my enemy? In its primary meaning the term refers to anyone who has offended me, whether by causing me needless sot-row, or by insulting me, or by c~ausing me some harm such a~ a bodily injury, a loss of reputation, or property damage. In a wider sense, my enemy is anyone who dislikes me, or anyone whom I dis-like- or for whom I feel an aversion, "The principles of moral the-ology which will be explained in this section refer mainly to an enemy in the primary sense: but they also apply, and with even greater force, to an enemy in the secondary,meaniong of the ,word. We are not bound to love enemies because they are enemies but in spite of the fact that they are enemies. In Other words," enemies should be loved for the same reason that other neighbors must be loved, namely, because of the common ~ties, -natural and supernatural, that bind ,us together in God. Although thereis a special precept to love enemies, this does not normally oblige us to show them a special love: the precept simpl' insists that even enemies may not be excluded from the general duty of charity. Obviously, the precept of loving one's neighbor does no~ refer to a sensible love. Since "this kind of love is not under the free 304 Nouerober, 1948 ON LOVING THE NEIGHBOR: direction of the will, it is not even of obligation with. regard to God, parents, children, and so forth. The love prescribed is the super-natural love of internal and external benevolence. It is of partic.ular importance to keep this in mind when we are speaking of the love of enemies, because in this matter more than in most others the feelings are apt to cause trouble. Another observation of practical value: To love one's enemy is not the same as approving of his unlovable qualities. If an enemy sins, we may hate his sin and wish for his correction. If he has repulsive habits, we may, within the scope of well-ordered charity, take means to,.have him correct those habits. The precept of loving our enemies imposes upon us the same duties of thought, word, and action that were explained in the. notes dealing with the general precept. However, because of the special difficulties involved, moral treatises on the love of enemies usually lay stress on these three specific duties: (a) to put aside hatred and a desire for private and ill-ordered revenge; (b) to show the common signs of good will; (c~ .and to do what is required to bring about a reconciliation. Hatred and Revenge I have read many treatises on hatred: and my candid impression is that the more lengthy they are the more confusing they become. I- will content myself, 'therefore, with saying that a good practical definition of hatred is to wish one's neighbor an evil that is not duly subordinated to some good. It is certainly hatred, therefore, to wish an enemy spiritual harm: for example, that he will remain in sin, that he will lose his soul, and so forth; for such harm cannot be. properly subordinated to any good. Theoretically, it is not hatred to wish someone a temporal evil for his own good: for example, to wish him sickness or financial misfortune as a means of reforming him. But theologians wisely caution against fostering such thoughts, as they can readily be a form of self-deception when they concern those we dislike. Revenge. is punishment for an offense committed. Ordinarily speaking, revenge belongs to one in authority, and it is wrong for private individuals to take or to plan to take revenge. However, theologians reasonably consider that this rule admits of exceptions in minor matters: for example, a boy might justly punish another boy for insulting his sister. 305, GERALD KELLY' Revieu~ for Religious ~ : :Insofar as~,,punishment /nay be justly inflicted for offenses, it is permissible-to wi~h that such punishment be visited upon.an enemy. Btit~ dweiling on" sUChothoughts is dangerous; because it can easily develo15 an, unfgr~giving spirit, and e~en lead tb unreasonable desires of punishment. ,~ ~ ~: After suffering an offense, we usually feel '(all hot inside,",and our imaginations conjure up many evils that we should like to inflict or to have inflicted on our,offenders. In themselves,~ these thoughts are spontaneous and involuntary~ and are therefore isinless.~ They become sins' 6f hatred and revenge only when they ~are deliberate and' when they include the wishing of unjustifiable, evil to our enemy. HoweveL :the protracted' bro6ding over offenses or over the bad qualities of hn,~enefiay, even when no actual evil is desired; is a danger-. 6u's pastime. ~At, the very least, it disturbs digestion and of coarse,. it makes it all the more. difficult to fu!fi11 our external duties to our enemies. The Common Signs. A second duty that calls for particular consideration when ene-mies are concerned is that of showing "the common signs of good will." By these common signs are meant the little courtesies that are ordinarily shown toall men, or at~least to all o~ a certain!' group : for example, to return a greeting, to answer a question, to buy and 'sell' in a public store; to reply to'letters, to tip the hat to ladies, to show some sign~of respect to superiors, to help one who is in'need, and so ¯ forth. The idea ,here which seems so obvious that it is difficult ,to express in words--is that such courtesies are not normally reserved to one's intimate fiiends but are extended to our neighbors because they~ are fellow-citizens, fellow-students, fellow.workmen, and 'the like. Ih a word, these common signs are different from the kindnesses and attenti6ns that are nbrmally shown only to one's friends~: for example, to invit~ them to dinner, to have them as guests over the week'-end, to confide secrets, to carry on an intimate correspondence, to visit them when'i~he~r are ill, and So forth.: Tgese latter 'a~e ~lled' special °Signs of good will: precisely becaUSe they generally indicate some, relation'ship which i~ especialiy~ int!mate. . '~The' principle t6 be,kept in mind here is this:' weare'~0tdinarily" 0blig~d ~to Show' th~ e6mmish~i~ns of g6od~vcill"e~en'to our enemies;-; th~'speciifl s~gns~may generally be reserved f6r'friends. ~ In stating the rule I designedly used the words: ,"ordinarily'" and 306 November, 1948 ON LOVING THE NEIGHBOR "generally" because exceptional circumstances may demand that even the special signs be shown to one's enemy or may, 6n the other hand, warrant at least the temporary withholdiiag of the common signs. For example, to invite one to dinner is normally taken as a special sign of benevolence: yet if dohn gives a party for "all the members of his class," ,he is not at liberty tO exclude a classmate who is his enemy. He must, in this case, invite even the enemy, unless one of the excusing causes to be mentioned later is present. And the shme is to be said for Mary if she gives a dinner for "all the,girls at the office": and for a' religious who is~{n the habit of visiting "all who are in the infirmary." In such cases the special favors (inviting to dinner, visiting the sick) become to some extent common because they are extended to a certain group. If one's enemy belongs to this group, the common courtesy must be extended to him too unless special reasons, to be indicated later, excuse one from this obligation. On some occasions, therefore, we must extend special favors even to our enemies. This is an exception to the general rule. And the general rule that common signs must be shown the enemy also admits of,exceptions. However, it is one thing to state that this rule admits of exceptions;, it is quite another to formulate a reasonable policy that Will govern the exceptional cases. I will give here some examples of cases in which the denial of these signs is considered reasonable: and after studying these examples we may be able to formulate a general principle that,can be appii~d to all cases. The examples given here are culled from various manuals of moral theology. Everyone has a right, to protect himself against mistreatment by others. Hence, in the event that a fellow-religious is constantly indulging in a disagreeable form of teasing, ridicule, or rudeness, I may certainly defend myself by denying him ordinary courtesies until he mends his ways. ,For example, I might refuse to speak to him, or refuse to do a favor that I would ordinarily do for others, if such refusals were merely to show him that his conduct is painful and disagreeable and that I wish him to desist. Superiors have the power within reasonable limits to punish their subjects. It is generally considered as within their punitive power to temporarily" deny common courtesies to subjects who ,have given offense. ~Some authors tl~ink that in minor matters even equali may resort to this method of reasonably punishing another equal who has offended them., In other words, they consider that the' hurt feelings that might be induced by temporary coldness and aloofness 307 GERALD KELLY. Ret~ietv for Religious would be a ~just i~unishr~ent.for 'the offender-~and the tyi~e; of 15un-ishm~ nt that Would.be within the,, rights .of :private~individtials. Another reasonthat,"justifi~s a ~temporary exterior, coldness towards an offender"is the, well-founded hope ~that, such treatment will bringhim,to" a better frame of mind. 1 This is different from and in :a .higtier i~rder th~n me're °Jpunishment ~ven when'ijustl~ inflicted., , There ~is~ the, problem of embarrassment. ;For a ,short¢,time after ,a qilarreF people ,usuhlly, feel ~e±tremel~i embarrassed,~in, each other's ,pres.ence. I~Avoidance*0f this mutual embarrassment would be'a sufficie.ni [eason fbr temporarily keeping away from: an en'emy,, even though that:might mean" the omissions, of one of)the,Common signs, of, gobd will. For example, suppose that ifi a (ert'ain conih munity it is c'us'tomary for the "religio.us to take turns visiting the, sick during recreati6n." In this,case,'visiting the sick is a common sign'o~ good v~ill~ in,'that~, community_-~that 'is, ' a~" kindhess shown iridis.: criminately to, all, the members of.the community who are ill;~,~)But su~pl~ose" that two of the religious have recentl~r qu~reled,,~ and one then'i is n6w in the irifirmary and it is the other's turn to ~visit him. It might~be.th~t.consideration for the, sick would e~cuse the second religious from, making the visit. "Of course, the ideal thing Would be for both to forget it arid for the visit to take place just"as if there had been no quarrel; ,ne~,~rtheless, if the second religious honestly con, ~idered that the visit would be embarrassing and a source of annoy-° ance to,the sick, person,'he would be justified in o/hitting it. Some people say that;they avoid their, enemy and do not speak to him or show him other ,signs of benevolence because they fear that this,,will-lead' to afiother"quarrel, or that the enemy will ptit~, a sinister ihterpretation on 'their actions and use these as an occasion for~ offering fukther offensev'~Granted that the fear of these evils is, a well-founded one, this is certainly a sufficient reason for omitting the customary expressions of good:will. Of'course, such fearsare'~often groundless;~ but if one has really attempted to establish amicable relations.with another and has met only with~,coldness or sharpness, theie is tainly ~nb obligation'to continue tl~e fruitless endeavor.,.In shch a'case the ,fault is all, o/~ one side. ¯ . -" Unfortunaiely, even in religion there are sour-minded indi-viduals; who~refuse'to get alohg With others, who cause great pain" too fellow-religioug~who Wish 'to be courteous~ and,,~cho, egpecially in, a small 'house~, are ;veritable thorns in the side of, the community. How they ju~tifysuch conduct is somewhat of a mystery. ~ 308 November, 1948 ON LOVING THE' NEIgHBoR °" qn the case just considered the obsta~ie to fraternal ,hi~rmony was only one party. What of the case of two religions, members of thee same ;community, who, Stbongl~ dislike" each bther an'd "either impli~itly'fi~xplicitly agree to bav~ nothing to do with ehch oth~er? Are they justified by mutual agreement .in failing to show' to'~eacl'i other the common~,:courtefies~such as speaking to each other? To answer th~s' question, I must.sel~arate the points that are clear, fron~whi~t is'uhcl~ar. The following points are cl(ar: First, both beligi6"~s:aie '~ertai'fily obliged.~o abstain from what has previously be~n d~scribed as internal hatred. Sec~)ndly, each is'obliged~o be wiHin~ t0'~ extei~d f6 the %ther any spiritfial dr temp6ral ~Ip that" might l~e,0f c~blig~itibn according to the rules of well-,orderedcharity. Thirdly " and this is, i~'seems t6 me, all-importan( in community life both a÷e 6bilged to see that the communit~y d6~s no~ suffer because of their mutual e~strarigement policy. If they are members of a:small community it'i~'pr~adtlC~H~ im'posbible for them to cairy 'out their program without catising~'much embarrassment~ and inconveni-ence to the other members of the community. Finally, both are obliged to see that their mutual coldness "gives no scandal to externs. People naturally and" justifiably expect to see religious live together in harmony and, if they-no~ice a lack of harmony, their esteem of the religious life is considerabl.y lowered. Suppose that all the evils just mentioned ~ould be avoided, would the mutual estrangement policy still' ~be sinful? The answer is not clear to me. However, even if such a situation is not sinful, it is at most "tolerable" that is, it could be tolerated .as a means of avoiding greater evils that might, result from the mutual association of two ire'mature chabacters. That "the situatioh is not ideal, and that 'it is~ at variance with the spirit of Christ, seems, quite clear. Moreover,~"th~ anomaly of the"situation becomes even more glaring mwohse'ntc ohna.er m~ionngs icdoeurrste hsyo wto othftoesne bwuhsoimne tshse m~ ednis laikned. w'Tohmis esne eemxste.n tdo tbhe~ one case in which the. children of this world are wiser than the chil-dren of light; the former can do for mere worldly gain ~hat the latter will not do for the love of Christ. ~What has bee.n, said about mutual estrangement among religious is equally ,applicable to similar situations among families or among othe_r groups living ,in common. And it should be remembered~that the smaller the group and the more closely the lives touch one 309 GERALD KELLY Review for Religious another, the more dif[icult, it is to justify the mutual es.trangement policy. We are now in a position to sum up the doctrine concerning the duty~ of showing the common signs of benevolence.~ The ordinary rule is that these courtesies must be extended even to enemies because, being common signs, they simply express externally our recognition of a bond which unites the group and all the members of the group. In other words, they are extended to others as fellow-men, fellow-citizens, fellow-religious, and so forth. To omit such courtesies without~good reason is usually a manifestation of ill will, of a lack of forgiveness, and even a sign of contempt; and because of these things, the omission of the courtesies readily wounds the feelings of the enemy and is a source og scandal to others. However, t.hey may (and occasionally should) be omitted at least for a time, for some greater good .(such as the correction of an offender and the safe-guarding of public discipline oro private rights), and also to avoid some greater evil (such as renewed quarreling). Reconciliation The duties thus far considered refer to an enemy even in the wide sense: that is, to one who has given no offense, but who is disliked. The duty of reconciliation supposes that there has been a quarrel; hence the term "enemy" is here used in its strictest sense, namely, as one who has given offense. Each party to a quarrel is obliged to do his part to bring about a ~econciliation. The offender (that is, the one who started the quarrel) mu~t take the first step. As soon as h~ tan reasonably do so, he must in some appropriate way express that he is sorry and that he is willing to make amends. A formal apology is not always neces-sary; in fadt, it is frequently a source of embarrassment to both parties. It is often best to indicate in some indirect way that one i~ sorry. The offended party is obliged to accept the apology or its reasonable equivalent and to show that he has forgiven the offense and that~ he bears no ill will towards the offender. Such are the basic duties of offender and offended. The fol-lowing annotations may help to clarify them. Some people say, "I forgive, but I cannot forget." Perhaps they mean that they have been so deeply wounded that the thoughts of the dffense keep welling up in their mind and bring with them feelings of.rancor. As I have already pointed out, such thoughts are 31.0 November, 1948 ON LOVING THE NEIGHBOR" no indication Of ~in; and therefore the}" do not indicate a"lack Of forgiveness. However, sdr~etim'es this expression "I tannot forget" really m~an~ "I ~vill not forget," and it indicates that there is still some deliberate ill will towards the offender. Others say, "I don't wish i11. to my offender, but I certainly clri't wish him wel~?' ThiL df course, is nonsense; for the well-wishifig of trde~ch~rity is deliberate sup~erna~ural well-wishing, the oobject of'which is the true supernatural good of the neighbor. Such well-wislii'i~g is not"impossible' for anyone. "And any one who is unwilling to cultivate such good will.has not really forgiven his offender: Foi~giveness of an offense does not mean the waiving of the right to rep~irati0n for harm don~.' If an o~ffen~h has harmed n~y reputa-tioia° or caused me property loss, I ah~ not ~nforgiving merely because I insist that the harm to reputation or proRerty be repaired. Al~o, forgiveness is compatible withr insistence on a just punishment for an offense; for even God inflicts 'punishments after~ having forgiven an offense. However, when human beings insist on punishment after exiaressing forgiveness, theymust remember that they are not °God and that their motives migh~t be suspect. For instance, if a fellow-religious offends me and then sincerely expresses his sorrow, and I still insist on revealing the matter to, the superior so that my offender may be ~unished, it is quite likely that my forgiveness is not whole-hearted. The foregoing observations indicate, at least in a vague sort oL way, what forgiveness is not. But what is it? Real forgiveness seems, to reduce itself to this: a sincere wil.lingness to restore the bond that existed before the quarrel, insofar as that is reasonably possible. But what if the bond was an ~ntimate friendship? Moralists usually say that there is no strigt obligation for the offended party to re-admit his offender t6 such intimacy. They say that since intimate friend-ship is s.omething to which no one has a claim, the restoration of such friendship can hardly be urged as an obligation. The strittoobliga-, tion, therefore, is usually satisfied when the offender is given those' marks of charity that have previously been described as common. The statement that forgiveness does not demand the re-establish-ment of an i~itimate friendship can be misleading. It seems to me that each case must be judged according to its own circumstances; and certainly there are occasions when the refusal to re-establish an GERALD KELLY intimate friendship after one quarrel (and perhaps a trifling one) is unreasonable, as' well as un-Christlike. However, if even a trifling quarrel is sufficient to undermine the confidence of the offended party in his offending friend, perhaps it is just as well that the friendship cease. When should .the first step towards reconciliation be taken? Moralists wisely suggest that it is generally expecting too much of an offended person to ask him to be reconciled immediately after a quarrel. He is entitled to a "cooling off" period. Normally this need riot be long; but the offender is justified in postponing his expression of sorrow until what seems to be an opportune time. In many quarrels it is difficult to determine who was the first offender; both exploded more or less simt~Itaneously. Theologians solve this one by saying that the one who committed the more serious offense has the duty of taking the first step towards recon-ciliation. However, it must be admitted that this rule is also hard to apply~becau~e, at least in the eyes of the participants of thequarrel, the Other party seems generally the more guilty. As a matter of fact, daily experience sliows us that no sit of merely mechanical rules concerning the duties of offender and offended is perfectly s.atisfactory. The only really satisfactory solu-tion to the difficulties that follow upon quarrels is that each party should be willing to take the initiative in reconciliation. After all, most of the difficulty for both parties is embarrassment. Frequently both want to make up, yet each is afraid to take the first step; and unfortunateIy this mutual embarrassment can lead to long and pain-ful estrangements that could have been settled in a moment by a Christlike attitude and a sense of humor. And I believe we can conclude this article on the same note. In the body of the article, I have outlined the duties of loving the neighbor. It is well for everyone to know these and fulfill them. But it is also well to note that the~e state a minimum. The Chris-tian ideal, which is certainly the religious ideal, is to strive each day for perfect fulfilment of Our Lord's words: "Love one another as I have loved you." 312 The-Docl:rine ot: John oJ: :he Cross J. E. Breunig, S.J. ASHORT TIME after St. Teresa met the two men who .were to found the Order of Discalced Carmelites,,,~he descriptively announced to the nuns during recreation:Ihave found a monk and a half." The half-monk was John of the Cross, just five-feet- two in his sandals. On another occasion she wrote of him in a letter: "'El cbicO is small in stature but he is great in God's ~yes." The little Carmelite lived in Spain during the last half of the sixteenth century. In spite of his physical limitations he made a success of his life. He was canonized by Benedict XIII in 172'6 ~hd"twb cen~turi~s la~er in 1926 Plus XI declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church. By conferring her doctorate on St. John, all of whose works are on mystical theology, the Church not only shows her esteem for mystical studies and puts her stamp of approval on the saint's works, but also points to the cultivation of the supernatural as a remedy against excessive naturalism. The recent, doctor's cap makes John a saint of our own day, while the title, Doctor Of the Universal Church, seems to indicate that his doctrine is not just for his Carmelite breth-ren (and sisters) but for the world. To appreciate the elevation of mystical theology w.e might com-pare it with philosophy and dogmatic theology. With reason alone man can arrived at natural wisdom. With reason and faith he can advance worlds beyond to theological wisdom. With faith and the divine operations of God within the soul, man can attain mystical wisdom, a knowledge different in kind and immeasurably higher in degree. As Aristotle is surpassed by Aquinas, St, Thomas Aquinas in his writings is, in a way, eclipsed by. St. 2ohn 6f the Cross. We might pause here to recall that the mystical life is a super-natural state above the ordinary life of faith and below the beatific vision. Since mystery is inseparable from~'~the supernatural;~ the wonder is not that the mystical life is fraught with mystery. The wonder is rather that~the genius of John of the Cross is able to pene-trate into the deep things of God and trace for us the divine action in the generous soul almost from the time of the infusion of sanctifying 313 ¯ J. E. BREUNIG Reoieto for RUi~lions grace until it reaches~ the highest state possible to man, the trans- 'forming umon,,:a ~half-step from the beattfic umon. Two qualifications-psepared John for his delicate analysis and d~cription of"th~:div'i~e~perai'ions. He was a teacher and he was a m~ ystkc. As a teacher he possessed that mark of genius that Aristotle calls' thd "~iftg6f metaphor." In other words, he knew how to explain. There is hardly a page in his ~writings that is not illumined by. an~ apt ,dlustrat~on that ~bnngs,out. the heart of the. matter. As a mysti6he practiced and experienced what he taught. Enduring trials and humdlatmns, 2ofin lieed an~,intense life of prayer, self-denial, add hard work. In return, God raised him to higher states of prayer, where after more interior suffering he attained the highest union. 'He climbed every inch of the bare rock of Mt. Carmel before he wrote. He experienced the dark night of the soul and the living flame of love before he described-them. ~t is one thing to have a taste'for great literature, quite another to undhrstand what makes it great, and still a third to write great litera-ture. According to St. Teresa, there is a similar threefold gift in mysticism. To be raised to a higher form of prayeris'~0ne gift. To understand the delicate divine movements is another, while a third and greater gift is the ability to describe these states of soul. Like Teresa, St. :John of 'the "Cross possessed all three gifts in a high de~rde.~ Besides, he was able:to express his thought~ ,in'language tha~ does not blush when placed among the masterpieces of Spgin's Golden Age. " "John ~6f th~ Cros~ ~trace§~ the "cou~e of the' divin~-~3i~erations Within the soul, describing the growth of the marvelous friendship between the soul and God. He does this in four books which together equal less than a thousand pages. Briefly, the books treat of the summits of love and of, the' path that leads there. Two books, The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Nigl~t oF the Soul; point out the path. The other two, The Spiritual Canticle and The Livin9 Flame o~ Love, describe the summit. In reality, all four bobkd develop a single theme. The books that tell of the via ad, such as The ,Ascent, briefly but explicitly describe the summit, the terminus. On the other hand, The Livin~j Flame, while speaking, primarily of ¯ the~ terminus,-repeats the lessons of the via ad. John has ~/ single theme: complete union with God ,is the fruit of absolute renunciation of self. ~ "He that loses his life shall save it." In his own words: "I(i's irripossible, if the soul does as much as in it 314 November° 1948 THE DOCTRINE OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS . lies, that,God should fail to.perform His o~n part by communicating Himself to the soul. It is more impossible than that'the sun should fail to shine in a serene and uncloudeff sky: for as the sun when it rises in th~ morning will enteroyour house if you open the shutter, even so ;~ill God~ Who sleeps n6vin keeping Islael, still less slumbers, enter the soul that is empty and fill it with Divine blessings. God, like the sun, is above our souls and.ready to dommunicate Himsel~ to thdm." (E. A. Pee~s, The'Works of St. John of, the Cross, III, 185.7 'Generally; th~ highest point-in a region willq~ive the best view of the'.surroundings. Similarly, perhaps, we can obtain "the best view of the doctrine of St, John.if.we:see the summit of Mount Carmel before w'e look at the rocky road that' leads there. In other words, we will first look where 2ohn is leading before-0~ve see how he leads~ The final:goal which the Mys[ical Doctor bf the Church ~roposes is nothing less th~an ~ transforming uhion°of,the soul'with~God. As he himself salts:. '~if the soul. attain to ~he'~last~ ~tegree,"the 16ve of God~ will succeed in wounding the sdul even in its: remotest "and deepest centre that~is, in transfor'ming and enlightening'it as regards all its being and power affd virtue, such as it is capable' of receiving, until .it be brought into such a state that it appears to be God:" (Works, III, 124.) In a ~passage~ where we seem to catch the heart,beat of God John describes the same union more at length: "As each living crea- , ~ ture lives by its operation, the soul, having its operations ~n God, through the union'it has with God, lives the life of God, and thus ¯ its death has been changed into life. For.the understanding, which bdfore this union°understood in a fiatural way with the stren.gth and vigour of its natural~light, by means of the bodily senses, is now .movedand informed-by another and. a higher principle, that of the supernatu.ral light og God, and, the senses having l~een set aside, it has thus'been changed into the Divine, for through union~its under-standing and that 6f God are now both one. And the will which' b~fore loved with its natural affection, has now been Changed in~tb "the life of Divine love; for it loves after a lofty manner with~Divihe aff~ction~-~hd is moved b,y 'the powers'and str.ength of the Holy Spirit: in whom it now li~,es the life o~ love, since, through this union, its will and His will ~ire now only one." (Works, III, 1~5.7~8:) In this high state the soul becomes aware of it~'sharing in the divine nature, the shaii~ag that it first received at the infusion of sanctifying grace. -"The flame of love is the Spirit of 'its Spouse--~' that is; the Holy Spirit. And this flame the souI.feels within it, not only as a fire that has consumed and transformed it in sweet Io,ie, but also as a fire which burns within it and sends out flame, ,:i'nd ,that flame, eacbxime that it breaks into flame, bathes ,the soul: in glory-and refreshes it with tile temper of Divine life.". (Works,~III, 1190 It seems that mystics, in some way, experience, and verify the truths we learn,in dogma, and hold by faith. In the transforming union the soul sees" in God~ all the divine attributes. "WhenHe is united to ,the soul and He is then pleased to reveal knowledge to i~, it is able to see in Him all these' virtues and grandeurs distinctly---~namely, omnipotence; wisdom and goodness, mercy and soforth., each of these attributes is a"lamp~,which gives lightxo the soul and gives it also,the heat of 10re." (Ibid., 163.) Fur-ther, 7The soul is able to see how all creatures above and below, have their life and strength and,duration in Him. And this,is, thergreat delight.of xhis awakening: to know: creatures through,Godsend riot° God through creatures.'; (Ibid., 209.) St. John sumsul5 this state: '~The_unders~tanding of the soul is now: the .understanding~of God: and its will is the will of God; and its memory is the memory of God; and its delight is the delight of God; and the Substance °of the soul, although it is not the Substance of God is nevertheless united 'and "absorbed in Him and is thus God by. participation in God, which cq.m. e,s to, pass in this perfect state of the spiritual life, .although not so perfectly as in the next life." (Ibid., 159.) - , The union in.this sublime state is~ twofol~d:~ moral and, psycho-l? gical. The~oral union is the almost pe.rfect c~onformioty ofthe human will to the divine. The psycholgg!c~al ,Enion means that the ppwers of the soul, the mind and will, ~act.in.a specific.a!ly different, s.uperhuman manner. According to St. John~ they a~ct divinely. In spite of the closeness of the union:, the Carme[ite Doctor. is always, careful to note tha~ the human and, div~ine:art distinct. He tries to s.how this in tl~e following comp, atisp~:; "He. that.: ~s:" joined" " the Lord is made one spirit with Him;.even~.,asowh'en the light of.the star,or of th~ ~n~dle is joined an.~ united with, that~of:he sun, sootha_t that which shines is not the star or the candle but th_e sun: ~which, has absorbed the other lights in itsel'~" (Work~, .II., 308):~ We would expect the road to such a loftyheight to be steep and rocky. And it i~.We sav~ that in the very highest union there were still two separate principle.s, God and the soul. The same is true for tile journey to the oheigh~s. As on the summit, so in theoascent God's . 3~16 November, 1948 THE DOCTRINE OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS action predominates; but the soul must co-bperat¢ at every step. Pre-supposing this, we can say that John of the Cro~s proposes two means togrow, inGod: absolute mortification and the contemplation of the dark night of the soul. Doctor o/: Nothing The Carmelite Doctor insists on absolute mortification, a total war on self. "The soul must be stripped of all things created, and of its own actions and abilities namely, of its understariding, liking and feeling so that, when all that is unlike God and unconformed to Him is cast out, the soul may receive the likeness of God: and nothing will then remain in it that is not the will of God and it will be transformed in God" (Works, I, 80). The classic expression of John's extreme stand is contained in the following maxims from The Ascent of Moun.t Carmel in a passage which has com~ to be called "The Canticle of the Absolute." Strive always to choose, no'~ that which is easiest, but th,at.~hich is:most difficult; ~,~ . . Not that which gives mo~t pleasure, but rather that which gives least;, .,~ ~ N~t that, which is restful, but that which is wearisome; In "order, to, arrive at having pleasure in everything, Desire to have pleasure in nothing." In,order to arrive ~t possessing everything, Desire to possess nothing. In order to arrive at,knowing ,everything,- , Desire to,knowj nothing . There are three pages of insttuctiorts s~mil~t to these (Worlts~ I, 60-63). Is it surprising that many of his .fellow Spaniards called him Doctor de, la Nada, Docf0r of Nothing? Doctor o: the Dark Night John of the Cross is also called the Doctor iof the Dar~ Night. Unfqr.tgnat.ely,.this title gives the impression~ that his dQc~tti.ne is negative. Darkness and night are not attractive words.' On the other hand, the. title, is appropriate if we take it as representing,~is most distinctive contribution to my:stical theology, There have been other doctors of.nothing. In fact, weighty tomes on mortification .are stacked high. On the other side, volumes which relate the glories of the transforming union fill the cases. 317 J. E., BREUNIG . .7 t~eoieuJ, for R~ligious However,, the. shelf devoted to the'bi[ter affd painful, side df.themys-tical life is practically empty. " ' -~ ,~ :":°.~ ~: " ;~Jbhn Ventured into this ~'~icharted 'sea, this nwman s land: ~(Per~ haps, "No God's Land" might be a bett&'.description ofothis 15eri6d.) In this particular work are revealed in a .special manner the saint's rare talents: "the precisi0n'6f hi~ psycho10gical analysis, the revealing ¯ nature" of his" cdmp~irisons, the penetration Whdr'ewi~h Be can" recog-raze t'he, w~rk of ,divine .grace developing beneath, th'( mahtler0f. :th~ m6st ~v~ned experiences ~(Fath~f~Gabri~l',bf Saint Mary M.agd.afe~', St~"Jdl~onf. th"e C~ ro"~ss , 4 ",4).- '" °' ,~ '~' best~ treatment '6f~-the dar~ nig.h{'is 4i3und"in~hi~ bool{ 6~ th{:s~fne name. Tl% darl~ night" of the s6fil is" a'sta~ o~ irifus&l' templation, aohn calls it a da~k 'nig.tjt l~'ecause, 7~aiad6xit~lly,?th{' {~hscer~d~nee'of the' idfuse~dF light blinds the unde~standi'rig.~" :'The s6"ul is lik an oivl' ih sunlight.' 'Further, this state 'is painful' the understanding ,s msufficlently~&spo{ed to re&ire Such is the general idea. John distinguishes t~6~':0~i6ds~ 'th~ night ~f" the S~n~es~ followed by a. period of ¢on~ol~tidn', an~basis;~an~ the night of t~e spirit. According to the Mystical Doctor, the nigh~ of the senses-is commonly reached by most ~souls ~who~ g~Te, themselves generously to a life of-prayer. The n~ght of the which precedes the transforming, union, is reached by fe~.~ ~. ;~ The night of the senses is"primaiily a period ~faridit~'ind~ced, not by any carelessness, but by the direct, a~fion of God.~ ~hd~ the soul gives itself generously, to prayer, it ;frequenfly~experlences sen-sible consolation. Even after this consolation ceases,Athe soul~con-tinues .t6:meditate witfi a certain,success, : Then gradunlly theFsoul ho' lon(er finds any~sa~isfactionin meditatio~-but,~ on'the contrary, finds it strangely impossible ,t6 meditate, T~e soul iscpu~zled, anxious. Through no fault of its own, it seems abandoned by God. The soul might well ~dhsider ~tself m No G3~'s Land. St. John's ge~i~ r&ognized ~hi~ state '~and~ gave all ~future spiri~ffaP dire&3~ and theol3~iafis three s"~gn~s b'y which t~eyc"o u'l d r e'c o"gmze~ thd samd: '" Th~ fir~ sign-isgh (ertaifl ,~istast~, f~f G6d arid' for'creatures~as wd112: ~The a6ul find~ it~ di$cu1~to~ugyqtself:'~bdfit G~di~t~a~ th( same time .it has ~& t~ste "f6~'&reature~ d6~f6~s~' This si~n~d~stin'~ guisbe~ "divihe~ aridity''~ from aridit~ause~ bf-Unfaithfulhdis~ for the sdul d&S no~ desire to seek itl consolation in ordinary p1~asut~s. This is ~ cl~r sigfi;~for God does not ~rmit the s0ul'he is ieadihg tb 318 Noverabe~o 1948 THE DOCTRINE OF ST. JOHN OF'THE CROSS higher' prayer fo;be .drawn.-aside'by,any.thing l~ss than~Himself:. Its. The second sign~,Tthe anxiet~r about servifig God,,di~tin~uishes thi~ state from -liiKewarmness; ffor;, by thd very definition, the 16kewarm are not. particulfirlW concerned about affer¢en t service of God: Inability to meditate, th~ 'third sign, tends to increase; anff, it can be distinguished b~. that fa(t from an~ inability that mighf ~bd caused by ill health and the like. St. 2ohn accounts for this:strange inability, to meditate. ~ In this'~tate og "divine aridity" God no longe/ c6mmunicates Himself through 'the.channels of sense or in consecu-tive reflectiohs but in pure spirit;.ahd pure spirif by its very nature has~ nbthing to~do ~it~ the~c6m~ar~tively gross actiohs' of "the imagination,ahd r~asdn.~ 2ohn thfis,shows,us fhat God is very mucfi present iff What ~as considered a,]and without Grid. ¢ In his book, The ~pirit~al ~L[~ (6~4),~ Ta~q~erey gives an'~ comments 6n'St['~J~hn's'ad~i~e"f6i'~ ~6ul qfi th~ dark hight: . ~or if a ma~ while sit'tifnogr~,,'h "~'s "p'o~rt'r"ai t. .c.a.:n' n~ot ~be s,till but: mov~ about, ~he [painte~ will.never de~i~ his face; 'and "eveff the. work already doh'e';wiil'b~spoiled)~ 'Ifi the sam~ way when "the i~(eriorly'fests, ~very actioh and, ~ssion~'~o~ ~.xious c6nsid~ration at .that~time will distract and .~is~u~b it;'~ ~so who,'God ~ntg fO i~p~int H~s li~ness uthpeotrn s o¯u ~ls ;' a -ffd s~us~p .e.n.d.s. the acnwty of [heir¯ f~ulti~s, tfiey have b~t ¢t6~ ab~de '.i~d~d,.~nd~ ~thf6d~h'~.~hi~ peat~"the gpifit 0f lo~(~ will flare~,up "arid "burn more brightly ~thm them. :~Tfiis'sf~te~of~ repose ~is by ~a~ m~ns 6he of ina~ti0n: if.is rat~e~'~ different":~kind','of.occupanon," ":"" ~. .W.hi~fi excludes: ' "sloth"~ '" l~nguor~" ,T~e~ mus~ therefd~e:~l';flistractibns, ~hd i~'in'ofder't~ o so they mffst:r~turn tb cofi~deranofis, let t~em not hemtate; pro~ ~ided~ th~ ~cah acc6~plis~, this "Withofit violeft ffOrts." : ' . A~otding, t~ John/6~ ~fi~" Ct6~g.:ihe:~ight o~ th~ ~eh~e~ ~e~e~ail~ lasts'a long'ti~.'" It varies wit~eadH ~dul. ~'St~ T~r~sa i~ Sai~f6 beeh in the d~rk'night, of t~,soM 'e~h~h yiars:St-),Fr~hc~s fff Asiiii/ -two ~yefirs~:T ' h.~.s. .num- .b.e.r. .s.eemst ,t.o ,-include fi~tht~e .~ m "g"'ht'of t~e senses'and o~,the s itif~¢ ~"-.' ~"~; ' ~ " '~r~.The ~hi~ht~ of t~ Spirit 'ii a pfir~atory on earth. ~Agam~"there s~emsto b~'n6Gdd fdr th~ a~icted's0fil. ,Much ~f ~he pain ~esfilts from ~he ver~ li~t bf contemplation. The soul" becomes aware~of how absolutely traHscend~t God" i~. ~ ':Sdzed by a profouffd zation of qts e~tieme '~iritual~ b6v~ity, the' souF is aw~r~ '0f' impression of ~nsurmounta~le sadness, or even of a temptation ~to despair. How could' G6~ lov~ a creature so vile, so abject] Th'~ J. E. BREUNIG " : soul suffers indescribable, torture:-there are moments When its laments become~ real cries of.angu sh. (Gabriel;.op: ¯ - God'~ action ~it~ this time is~compared to fire." ~",Tl~e purgative and loving knowledge or Divine light acts' upon the soul, in the same way as fire acts upon a log of wood in order to transform° it into itself: for m~ter.iaF fire, first of all begins to dry it, ,by driving out the moisture and causing it to shed th~ whter it co'ntains. Then it 10egins to make it black, dark and-unsightly, and, astir dries it little by little, it brings out and drives aw~r all~the dark and, unsightly accidents~which are c6ntrary to the nature of fire; 'Finall)~, it begins to kiiadle it.externally afido'give~it heat ~ind" at last~transforins it into itself and makes it as beautiful as fire." (~Works, I, 429:) "Ought not Christ to have suffered?" St. 5ohn~explains that this intense suffering results entir.ely from love. God purifies the soul in order tot raise it to the closest union with' Himself . A glo-rious Easter morning follows the dark night of Good Friday., We see St. 2ohn is a ,Doctor of Nothing and a Doctor of. the Dark Night only because he isfundamentally the Doctor,of Divine Love. Again, we are.on the lofty sgmmit~,gf Carmel, for the state c~ the transformi~ng union follows on the dark night. As we .look back, we see that the road has been rugged. In fact, the sheer cliff 9f Car-me1 is humanly unassailable. However, we saw that when the soul strips itself of self, when the soul drags itself up by means 0f ordinary p.ray~er an~ selg-deniaI, the Divine :.Guide~ takes its hand and with. i.nfused prayer leads the~ soul throug.h the arid land of the night'of the senses, then through the pur~i,fying fires of the night 9f the spirit until .together the peaks of pe~rfect~0n and love are reached. We conclude with a passage~.of sunshine from the little Doctor of the Universal Church. "The Father of" Lights, whose arm is not shortene~dl.but stretched out.~idely, without res, pect of persons, where-e~ cer it finds rogm, likd~th,e r~ay of the s,u.n . . . is greatly pleased to share His delights with the children of ~e.n on earth~ - No, ,it is not to be held a thing incredible that in a soul already cleansed, tried in the ,fur~nace of tribulations, of labors, and of divers temptations, and ~ound faithful in love, there will be fulfilled here below those .words wher.eby the Son of God promised that if,any man love Him the Most Hgly Trinity would come and abide in him,: ~that is to say, divinely~.enlightening ~is .understanding in the .wisdom of the Son, ddighting.~his will in the Holy Spirit whilst the Father absorbs him mightil¢ in the abyss of His sweetness." (Gabriel, op. cit, 19.) 320 May a super,oress use fh~ int~rest~ 6f dowries-and-legacies belofig;~ng to the Sisters for commumty purposes o'r for educational projects? After the first profession, the d~wry is to be invested in a man-ner that is safe, lawful, and prqductive according to canon 549. The revenue coming from the invested dowry can be devoted to the sup-pbff of the community or to the education of the Sisters. The.Code does not liinit the use of the revenue. Strictly speaking, the dowry can be invested even before the profession of a Sister, but on!~l°with her consent. In this case the institute could also use the, r~venue for. the good of the community. T'hi~ Subject is treated thor0ughly bs; Schaefer, De Religiosis, n6: 229. F~ther Ellis has also treated the Canons on the dowry in Vol. III, pp, 224 ff. of this REVIEW. Legacies usually ~i~hei" cofistitute a Si, ster'soproperty or are added to it. The disposition of the revenu~ of-l~acies therefore, will be regulatedb~" canon' 569,~,§ § ,1 aiad 2.- The beneficiary of the revenue is-freely indicated'~by fla~,religious @ho makes the cession of her property, the appointment of an administrator, arid the'~assignment of ,the revenue. If" the' Sister l~efore her first profession, m~ke~ the institute~the beneficiary of the revenue, then. of course, ~uperiors may use,it for the good of the-institfite. Educational prbjects~would undoubtedly be included. Is the following case ;n conform;h/with common life? Sister J. ;s g;gen permisson to travel for recreational purposes~be~ause her relafive~ are supplying her the necessary funds. If in a given community lawful custom permits travel as a form of relaxation, permission for such trips should not be contingent upon the economic status of the relfitives of the religious wh6' ~sks for such a permission. Common life calls for equality in these iiaat-ters. While such a partial way of acting may contributd to the balancing of the budget, it also makes a mockery of common life. The Code ;n canon 504 prescribes the age of forty'for superiors gen- 32[ eral and the age of thirty for other major superiors. Is there an age at which su, per!ors mustretire from office? The Code makes no provision for a retirement age for superiors. The ills attendant upon age come to some sooner, to others later. Infirmity due to age willdoubt]es~ l~ompt~the true religious to resign fron~ airy office w'hicl~: J~e considers l~yond~,~his physic~ or'menta! capacity. Would you kindly enlighten us on the following polnt~s 'concerning ~h~ ~'~cltafibn if fh~ rosary? I.'To" gain the in_dulgences attached to the recitation of .the rosary, i-~ it~necessary to recite the Creed. the Our'lFather, and the fhr~ee Hail Ma~rys before'begignlng the five decades? 2~ Must the mystery be mentioned-before the recitation of each decade? " 3. If the rosary is recited twice (i.e. I0 decades) 9n agiven day, what mysteries are~to be meditated upon? ¯ . 4. Where can I find some information 9n~he~recitatlon of the rosary? ° 1. Th~ rosary in its strlct~st sense cbnsists of the Our Fatl~er and ten Hail Marys recited fifteen times, or five times if one is reciting only a third part of the rosary. The, Glory be to the Father etc., were added some, time after the rosary,had been in usal~e among the faith-ful. Hence, the recitation.of the Creed, the Our Father, and'the three Hail Mar~s are not necessary to gain the indulgences attached fo the recitation of the rosary. 2. There is no necessity to-. mention the mystery before each decade;" -~:. 3; If, for,,example, on a Sunday after Pentecost, two-thirds 6f the entire rosary (or ten decades) were recited, the sequence of the mysteries should be .followed so that the.glorious mysteries, should be recited last: The other five decades, whether commemorating the jo,yful or the sorrowful mysSeri.es, should precede"the glorious mys-te, rjes~ . 4. Among other sources of information on'the rosary, we recommend an article by Father Ellis, "Our Lady's Rosary,~' REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, V, 324. A Rosary Project, published by the Queen's Work, .likewise gives much valuable information concerning the recitatioa of~the rosary. 322 ommun ¢a ons Reveren'd Fathers." In the September REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, there is a communica~ t~on~ from "Old-fashioned'i' '~hat' should give us all 'thought ~r meditation. The only' s~tatement in the communication with which I take issue is the one that states that "worldliness is 'creeping~ .into the religious life." It ib not merely "creeping" in; it is already there, and there with a bang. Are. we goingl to treat it as we do, the weather? Every6ne talking about it; no one doing anything abouf it. Are there no courageous leaders in any of our communities? A good strong ~religious govern-ment could work wonders; one that is not afraid to act according to' its convictions. What will it profit to have a large progressive com-munity~ to have leaders in every field of activity, if the members are not attaining the purpose for which they 'entered religion--the glory of God, the salvation of their own souls. ' ~ Would it not be far better, regardless:of the nee~ for Sisters in our schools and hosl~it'~Is~" if we ~had still fewer but bette~r religious? What will it avail to have a' million worldly nuns, if by their very worldliness they are defeating the purpose for which the rel~igious life was established? ' If we can do nothing else, let us ~ray to the:Holy Spirit, that He may raise up some modern Teresas of Avila, who will have the courage to say to those who oppose them, as our Divine Lord said long ago to some of His followers, those who found His saying hard, "Will you also go away?" And we know that some did .go away and walked no more with Him. Would it not be better ~o have the faithful few really walking with Chroist, and working and .fighting for Him, than to have a million or more walking on the broad road that leads to dkstruction ?---A PROVINCIAL. Reverend Fathers: From my own ~ad experience, I know something about worldli-ness. It is a spirit opposed to the spirit of Christ. A religious "may become infected in various ways: by too great absorption in external occupations; by wasting time with seculars; by unnecessary corre-spondence; by uncalled for exemptions from Holy Rule; by morbid interest in secular reading and programs; by inordinate attachments 323 BOOK REVIEWS Review [or Religious to persons, places, and things. A worldly religious who loves and uses the world inordinately will find prete*l~S for shortening or missing her prayers and spiritual. exercises, and that without regret. She will find satisfactibn in the .company of seculars, seeking their applause and delighting in their flatteries. She may even sacrifice principles or points of. Holy Rule in order to curry the favor of the rich and influential for purposes of ~mbiti0n or worldly pleasures.She will find little or no time for spiritual reading, but claims she must read secular matter in order to keep abreast of the times. After listening to a conversation of a certain religious, an elderl7 gentleman remarked, "I didn't think that Sisters were so well-informed on such matters." A worldly religious does not enjoy the peace and contentment of convent life. The warnings of well-meaning companion ~ Sisters are ignored, and the corrections of kind and vigilant superiors are resented. She becomes disgusted and dissatisfied, and blames others for her" unhappiness. Can worldliness be cured? In my case, I was removed from the place to which I was so much attached. At the new mission, a reli-gious priest came to help out for some time. In confession he set me right in prayer. After a short but intensive prayer-fife, I fell in love witl'J God again; and then worldly attractions gave Way to the soul-satisfying joys of the spirit.TEACHING SISTER. Book Revie ,s EXILE ENDS IN ~LORY: The I.~e of ~ Tr~ppisfine. By Thomas Medon. Pp. '~i~ q-~'31 ~. The Bruce Publ~sh~ncj Company, Milw~aukee,:' 1948. $3.75. During her lifetime complete obscurity cloaked the activities of Mother Berchmans; and, but for her biographer, she would still be unkflowri save to the few Trappistine nuns~ who visit her grave in Hakodate, Japan, Put in a convent orphanage at three and a half years of age, she lived entirely apart from the world save for a year or two as a young woman after her graduation from. the orphanage school. Even within the convent her life was one without incident. 324 November, 1948 BOOK,REvIEWS Her entrance into the Trappistine convent at Laval, and ~her subse-quent journey to help the~st~ruggling foundation in Japan are_ the s01e "events" in her short life. 'She died"in 19,15 at 38.-years of age.° But lack of outward incident does nov leave her life story de~ioid of interest. From the record of her interior life drawn from her let~ ters and ~oersbnal papers,,and from the testimony of ~her, confessor- and religious acquaintances,~ it is clea~ that hers was~a life Of exalted sanc-tity:~ of sanctity, however, with nothing ~singular about it exter-nally. ,No ektraor'dinary phenomena nor dramatic suffering singled her out from her sisters in the convent. Her cross was her voluntary exile-from,her native Franceand the beloved convent at Laval. "She was to suffer," writes~,her biographer, "the ordinary, obscure, puri-fying trials of work and desolation and sickness which are the, com-mon lot of alFrelig~ous, more or less: but'~she was to suffer them with an extraordinary degree, of trust and loire and abandonment." ~ Thomas Merton, recognized poe~t hnd student of English litera-ture, brin~Os to the writing:of this biography no mean background no~ meager'talents. Himself~a,,~Trappist monk since 1941, he is prepared to "deal understandingly and sympathetically with his .subject. SOULS AT STAKE: "By Frar~cis J. Ripley and F. S. Mitchell. Pp. xl -k 198. Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., New York, 1948. Though written by a~i~t~fidh, layman whose paramount interest is the Legion of Ma~y, this bpgk~i.s not limited in its scope to that laudable form of the l~iy~postolate. It is a book about Catholic Action in general, ,~and the authors explicjtly:s~ate their, belief .tha.t the success ~ofiCatholic Action depends on a multiplic.ity of lay.organ_iza.~ tions,~ even though.the purposes ofs0me of these m.ay overlap. no space is devoted specifically to an exposition of the Legion of.Mar~y The first chapterqs a vivid portrayal of a 16art o~ the. meditation on the T.wo Standards. The devil~is surrounded by his represerita~- rives fr'om various mOdern~ countries, and he*tells.each °on~ what must be done in his country to further the satanic aims. 'The authors then give ~.a brief account of the political, social, educational, cultural;._and religious collapse of the present age. Part of the blame for these 'lamentable-modern conditions must be placed onthe apath~ of~ lay Th~ basic principl~s for any l~y organizatiofi of Cattiolic.Action 325~ BOOK N~TIeES Revieu3 [or Religious are °presented, and then expanded ,i~ siabsequent parts of the: book. The" ~uthots insist' 6n~ th( need~Of personal tontac~-to w~n They:issfie,~dive~se cautio~s. ~O~n~of these .has ~tO dd wit~, bver-idsistence ~n knowledge and orbed'purely natural endowments m the Ia¢, apostle.~ Another~ecti~s"themo~etn tendency to overemphasize " the sodaF apostolate. '~" YeUanotBer~caIis:; attention ~o, the failure~ of out Ca~h01ic schools to p~o'duce zealous,,gtaduates. These ate "presented objectively a~d charitably so that they elicit self-examinati6n, not resentment. The authors believe in ~he direct teligious~appto~.ch to non,Catholics, the ~a~e method that-~as used by the apostles themselves; ahd it is di~cult to.s~e how their argu-ments for such a direct approach can be refuted. In sucha book one wsuld expect marly exaggerations. Yet the 6ook in general is well-balanded. It is most regrettable, however, that the" ~titers ma~e t~e following assertion: "The universities founded by the Religious of the Catholic Church and supposed to be the centers of culture, are soaked t~roug~ a~d through with the false ~rindples of the new materialism . " The authors would be hard put to substantiate that statemenk. Aside from this and a few other exaggerations of lesser importance, the book stays on an even keel. Priests, Brothers, Sisters, and laymen will~pro~t from it. C. R. ~CA~L~S, S.3. BOOK NOTICES RELIGIbUS,'LIFE IN. CHRIST, by. Father° Theodosius Fdley, O.F.M.Cap.~ former provincial of his order and p~sent-~uperior Of the" Mt. Alverno Retreat House in Appleton, Wisconsin, contaifis thirteen coffferences for religious. These deal with some'of the funda-mentals of religious life, such as humility, worldliness,' suffering, tepidity, spiritual-childhood, simplicity,-and~ the obligatiori of striving for i~erfection. A chapter on self-deceit reveals the author's penetrating insight into the various ways that religious can fool them-selves. ~The 150ok is pradtical rather than inspirational. It makes frequent appeals t6Our Lord's own v~0rds and example. Itsstyle is simple, clear,-concise. Few ~ords are wasted. It is a book that can be used profitably "by? religious both ~for spiritual reading and.for points for meditation. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Com-pahy/. 1948. Pp. vii.+ 163. $2.50:)~ " ¯'326 November, 1948 BOOK NOTI¢~ ~Margaret, princess of Hungary, THE KING'S HOSTAGE, is offered to God before her birth-] She remains true to her dedication, though her parents, the king and queen, try to change her mind. The sweet enchantment of GOd's calling St. Margaret to His service is told for children by E. Virginia Newell in simple storybook fashion with I~he winning interest of a fairy tale. The illustrations are by Pauline Eppink. (St, Meinrad, Indiana: The Grail, 1948. Pp. 68. $1.50.) ABOUT JESUS, a child's life of Our. Lord by C, J. Woolen, relates the story of Christ's life and .gives explanations of Catholic doctrine and moral lessons as well. Though the style is simple enough for a child to understand, the book appears repelling to read --only six black and white illustrations help brighten up the solid print. (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Bookshop, 1947. Pp. 221. $2.25.) O'Brien Atkinson, in WHAT DO You TELL THEM? develops a sixty-four-word answer to the' questi0n: Whji are 9ou a Catholic? He also treats such timely and isolasteudbj e c "ts 'as the existence of God, mixed marriages, religious tolerance, good will, ~he school question. The talks, used in actual street preaching, show how non-Catholics can be answered respectfully, briefly, and somewhat satisfact.orily. (New York: Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1948." Pp. 168.) THE WAY TO GOD, by Father Winfrid Herbst, S,D,S., is intended to serve for practical meditations during retreat, for daily. meditations, or for spiritua! reading. In a general way the first half of the book follows the "first' week" of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius; the remainder treats of various subjects, for example, The Holy Eucharist, the Passion, Our Lady. The s, tyle is designedly simple, even colloquial~ There is often a lack of orderly development of the individual chapters, but each contains good material for reflec~ tion and meditation. The author makes liberal, use of stories to drive home his point, (St. Nazianz, Wisconsin: Salvatorian Seminar% Publishing Department, 1947. Pp. iv + 299. $2.75.) ART AND FAITH contains an exchange of letters between J~cques Maritain and Jean Cocteau. The letters deal with the nattire and meaning of poetry arid with the sociological and politic~il, significance of art itself. The book contains brilliant thoughts on poetry, friend-ship, and philosophy, and shrewd estimates of contemporary French artists and writers.to interest the student of modern French litefa- ,327 BOOK NOTICES ture. (New York: The~ Philosophical Library, $2.75.) Ret~ieto /'or Religious 1948. Pp. 138., A revised and corrected edition of the well-known book, IN CHRIST JESUS, by Raoul Plus, S.$., is now available. The book explains .,the doctrine of our incorporation in Christ and its practical bearing on everyday life. (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Bookshop, 1948. Pp. xiii -k 207. $2.50.) Father William L. Doty in CATECHETICAL STORIES FOR CHIL-DREN follows the characteristic division of the Catechism into creed, code, and cult. Through the medium of the story, of dialogue, and of daily down-to-earth incidents he breathes life into the dry skele-ton of the Catechism. Certainly here is a book that will appeal to the mind and heart of a child. Religion like a soul is put into the body of a child's day, naturally, as if it belonged there. Guides of the young t~achers, parents, preachers will find this sprightly book the magic key to the wonder-world of a child. (New York: ,loseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1948. Pp. xii q- 176.) T6 the average Catholic, David is the boy who slew the giant Goliath with his sling. Of David, shepherd and ruler, poet and musician, warrior and statesman, sinner and man of God, he knows very little. Mary Fabyan Windeatt in DAVID AND HIS SONGS high- . lights for us the f~scinating story of this second king of the Jews and ancestor of Christ. Cleverly she shows how the Psalms were born of incidents that arose in David's colorful life. They were the spon-taneous cry of his soul touched by life's sweetest joys and sharpest tragedies. In these lyrical songs, evoked by God's hand from the noblest chords of David's soul, we find reflected thedifferent moods that play upon the human soul. That is why the Psalms are such favorites in the Church's liturgy. For the uninitiated, youngsters particularly, ~he book will prove an open sesame to a rich new won-derland of personal, prayerful song. (St. Meinrad, Indiana: The Grail, 1948. Pp. 153. $2.00.) A hundred years ago a small group, pledged to the Thibd Order of St. Fr~incis, accompanied their pastor from Germany to Milwau-kee for the purpose of helping Bishop Martin J. Henni in his new diocese of Wisconsin. They located on land south of Milwaukee where the St. Francis seminary now stands. From this humble 328 November, i948 BOOK NOTICES beginning the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisl of Milwaukee devel-oped. A NEW AssIsI, by Sister M. Eunice Hanousek, is the story of a century's labors by these Sisters, and of their expansion into an important order of religious. Highly commendable is the fact that the author has incorporated the citation of her sources in her work, thus making it more valuable than the run of the mill jubilee publi-cations. 'If the good example set J is followed by other sisterhoods when they write similar histories, another step toward compiling an adequate Catholic history of the United States will have been accomplished. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1948. Pp. xiv + 231. $5.00.) WITH DYED GARMENTS, by a Sister of the Precious Blood, sketches the life of Mother Catherine Aurelie (Caouette). The book is a translation from the French A Canadian Mystic. The first part gives the story of the life of the~ Mother Foundress: the second part, an account of her virtues and of her reputation for sanctity. (Brook-lyn: The Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious'Blood, 1945. Pp. xif + 190. $2.50.) LIGHT OVER FATIMA, by Charles C. O'Connell, 'is a fictionalized account of the apparitions of Our Lady to the three children in 1917. A simple narrative of the events is itself so absorbing, that one won-ders why any fiction should be added. However, the book may help to introduce the message of Fatima to those people who never read anything more serious than.a novel, (Cork: The Mercier :Pres.s, 1947; and Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1948. Pp. 163. $2.50.) BROTHER TO BROTHER, by Henry Brenner, O.S.B., is an exhor-tation to fraternal charity. The book is directed especially to the laity and contains practical applications to everyday life~ (St. Mein-rad,. Indiana: The Grail, 1947. Pp. 92. $1.25.) THE COMMON PRIESTHOOD OF THE MEMBERS OF THE MYS~ TICAL BODY, by James Edward Rea, explains the Catholic doctrine of the common priesthood of the faithful. The book is divided into two parts: the first describes heretical concepts of the doctrine; the second traces the development of the true doctrine. As the author explains, he does not intend to throw new light on the ~ubject but hopes"to 329 BOOK NOTICES p'rep~re tile w~i'y for a mor~ frutiful cc~ntemplation of' the nature hnd ~ignificancd of the p~riestly dignity" of ali the' inert/bets ~6f the'one Priest:" The book was~originally published as a, docto/al dissertation by'~the Catholic University of Ain~ric~. '~ (Westminster, Maryland: The:NewmawBooksh0p, 1947. Pp. ~iii ~,~ The biography of ANNE DU RouSIER~translated from the French by L. Ke~ppe!,,,gives ftbrief but full vie~v of fhe ~_work accomplished and the successes achieved by one of the ear

Issue 11.4 of the Review for Religious, 1952. ; A.M.D. G~ Review for Religious JULY 15, 1952 Parallel Vocations . Nicholas H. Rieman Bibles . William M. Sfritch Unigeni÷us Dei Filius . Pope Plus x~ To a Master of Novices . Fra L. Ganganelli .Higher Education . Sister M. Bonaventure National Congress Questions and Answers Modesty Crusade Book Reviews VOLUME NUMBER REViI::W FOR RI::LIGIOUS VOLUME XI JULY, 1952 NUMBER CONTENTS PARALLEL VOCATIONS--Nicholas H. Rieman, S.J .1.69 BIBLES--William M. Stritch, S.J . 177 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 182 REPRINTS OF SPONSA CHRISTI . ¯ . 182 UNIGENITUS DEI FILIUS--Pope Plus XI . 183 BOOKS FOR.PRIESTS . 198 FOR ORGANISTS AND CHOIRMASTERS .1.98 LETTER TO A MASTER OF NOVICES--Fra Lorenzo Ganganelll 199 TEN-YEAR INDEX STILL AVAILABLE . 202 HIGHER EDUCATION AND "REAL RELIGION"-- Sister M. Bonaventure, O.S.F . 203 NATIONAL CONGRESS . 210 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- 19. Prescriptions for the Chapter of Faults . 211 20. Precedence in Receiving Communion . . ¯ .212 SHALL I START TO DRINK? . 213 BOOK REVIEWS~ The Morning Offering; What is the Index?; The Seminarian at His Prie-Dieu; The Carmelite Directory of the Spiritual Life .214 BOOK NOTICES . 217 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS . 221 PROMOTE THE MODESTY CRUSADE . 223 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, July, 1952. Vol. XI, 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, Kansas, 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: Jerome Breunig, S.J.; Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.: Adam C. Ellis, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.J. Copyright, 1952, by Adam C. Ellis, S.J. Permission is hereby granted for quota-tions of reasonable length, provided due credit be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U. S. A. Before writincj to us, please consult notice on Inside back cover. Parallel Voca!:ions Nicholas H. Rieman, S.3. ~yJE RELIGIOUS know the worth of our vocation. We rank it -W among~ur greatest blessin~gs. A precious gift in itself, it car-~ ries .with it numerouk other gifts, such as our. rpraye~-'and Mass, spiritual guidhnce', our companions," and our apostolic work'. We are glad we took the step knto religion, andewe miss no chance to draw others to religion too. .But perhaps we are not aware that our r~ligious vocation can be partly.sh'ared even with lay folks. A. molag the most effective ways we~h~ve of sha"ring our vocati6n ig encourag-. ing and conducting third 0rd~rs. confra:ernities, so'dalities and simi'- l'ar organizat!ons.~ The present article confines itself to. the parallel vocation as found in the Sodality'of Our Lads,. .' ¯ There is a special reason why tile possibilities of ~uch a Sqdality should be unfolded to religious.~ It is this: .while the director of-a Sodality must always beLa priest, yet"in a scho01or hospital the', actual l~andling of aSodality .is often left"to Brother Michael or to -Sister 3oan. Also, besides those who are moderators ofSodalities, many other religious superiors, principals, ¯floor. supervisors in.hos-pitals, teachers, nurses, he'ads of different ~ictivities--can help much. They.can lend interest and co0pfration to 'insure that the Sodality in their institutions be a true Sodality, and lay people bent on some-thing more than me.dioctity be drawn to its rankS. Many Feligious are, then, in a tposition to forward good Sodalities. By doing so;. they can share many of the benefits of a religious vocation with those who follow the la~; Sodal.ity vocation. - For m'embersbip in the Sodality is also a vocation. Our present Holy Fatber'has clearly in his Apostolic Constitution Bis Saecular~ placed the Sodality in the troop--sof Catboh"c ~-A "ctton. And Catholic Acti0n~-the words are thdse of Plus X'I is "a vocation strictly and properly so .called." ¯ It is not, of course? a religious vocation. Y,et if is ~ vocation, a way of life, a call to perfection.' The. S6d;ility is open only to those who are ready,.by Go'd's grace, to-adopt the'de2 .mandihg spiritual.and apostolic progr~am it involves. ' Btit'why is the Sodality such an ap't means for sh~iring With lay people something of our religious v6cation? 'F6r.the simple reason that the vocation, of a religious and that of a Sodalist are much alike. ¯ 1.69 NICHOLAS H. RIEMAN Review [or'Religiqus It is nottoo'mu~h t~ call them paraliel vocations, Only a~det~iled comparison will display how far-reaching this parallelism is. Of. course, only true Sodalitiei--those that follow the papal directives and the Sodality rules-~can prodiace this parallelism'and the result-' ant rich spiritual harvest. So, in pointing oot the resemblances.be-l~ ween t'he two vocations, I shall ~lso suggest how ~a Sodality must be co'nducted in order to secure these benefits. . What then. are some of the parallels between religious and So-dality life? First, becoming a Sodalist, like becoming a Franciscan or a.Sister of'Merry, is a lifetime,undertaking. Joining the So, dality is not like joining the staff of the school paper or the dramatic club. These latter are hobbies; the Sodality is a vocation, A Sodalist agrees to follow the Sodality way of life not just at school, but when on vacation, when working in a facto.ry or office, when married--in. short, for life. Pius XII. knows that very well: be never, says, "I wa~ a Sodalist, but always, '"I am a. Sodahst, although he took his act .of consecration and' entered the Sodality 56 years ago. More will b~ said later of the Sodality act of consecration. Here it isi'enough to.stress one thing. This consecration, and so the ac-ceptance of Sod, ality obligations that goes with it, is for life. True, a temporary act of consecration for 'a year can" be and sometimes is made in Junior Sodalities (those in grammar schools), since at that age level most of the candidates are sddom mature enough for a life-time dedication. But the ordinary act ofconsecration taken by teen-~ agers and adults is, as clearly, indicated in both its forms in the Sodality Rules, perpetual. The Sodality vocatioia, like a religious vocation, is perpetual. Besides being a. lifetime dedication, becoming a S6dalist is also, l'ike becoming a religious, a full-time occupation. One must be a Sodalist 24 hours a day. Just as being a Christian Brother .affects not only a. man's Mass and his meal-times, but his work and recrea-tion too, s6 being., a Sodalist doesn't mean only .attending meet.ings, saying one's rosary, 'and taking p~art in a cl0thes-for-I~or~a drive, 'Being a Sodalist must--and in a Sodality that follows the rules, does. --affect a boy's lock~r-room langu;ige, the kind of formal a girl wears to a prom, and every other action that fills the dajr of either of them. Tru.e, a Sodalist does not, as is generally true of religious, have his wgrk assigned by ~uperi0rs. 'Yet a Sodalist, just like any of us, has to show a good example and. beactively ap0s~olic every minute of his waking day. Nor is this an impossible ideal, a pipe. 170 dui~,1952 ~ARALLEL VOCATIONS dream. In Sodalities that follow Plus XII's stipulations and actually .require,observance of the. Sgdality rules, this is a normal result, re-alized, if not perfectly,. at least in large measure. The act of consecration to Our Lady which admits one tb the Sodality parallels very close.ly the vows of reli~ious orders. Even the .wgrding of the act of consecration in the St. Francis,de Sales fbrmula, ~clbsely resembles the vow formula of some religious. "It is not a vow, of. course, and so does not bind ur~der sin, but it is a solemn dedication. ~ And What doek the Sodalist promise? Pius XII gives us the'answer. "To apply oneself seriously to sanctity, each in his proper state: to dedicate .oneself, not in any manner whatsoever but 'with ardor, in ~the measure and manner compatible with each one,s social condition to the s'alvation and perfection of others: in a word[ to emplby oneself strenoously in the defense of the Church of Christ: such is the assignment of the Sodalist, freely, resolutely ac-cepted in theact of his con'secration." In short, he says, "conse-cration to the Mother of God in the Sodality is an entire gift of one-self throughout life and for all eternity." It is the solemn, acceptance of a way of life forall one's future vears. The act' of consecration is the cornerstone of the Sodality vocation, even though not absolutely required for valid reception. It should be for the incoming Sodalist a thing only a little less tremendous than. the taking of vows i's to .religious This act of consecration is often renewed by earnest So-dalistS, .just as rdligious often renew their vows, even though they are perpetual. The Sodality~onsecration is not specific~illy directed to vows' of r~overtv, cha'stity, and obedience, as are the.vows of religious. Still it implies that Sodalists practice these three virtues to a higher degree than ordinary Christi~ins. A special obedience to the hierarchy of the Church is requi.red by the Sodality's character as Catholic Action, and. was referred to by PiusXII as a prominent feature of Sodalities. A relative indifferdnce to material goods, is obviously necessary for the practice of a constant apostolate. Lastly, chastity--according to one's state, which doesn't necessarily mean celibacy--is naturally the ideal of one speci.all'y dedicated to.Mary. ¯ The Sodality, too, has its ~novitiate," call~d the probati6n. It is required of all candidates before admission. A religiolis,novitiate mus~ be a year lbng, and man~, orders and congregations require two years. How long is the Sodality probation? "Not less than two months" is required by.Sodality rules, but most effective Sodalitles ,171 NICHOLA~ H, RIEMAN " ~ x Revieu2 for'Reli~Tious rriake it.six months and quite a few of tlqem, especially thoke for hi~h" school students a.full ,year. The purpose of the Sodality p~b-bation is the same as that of a religious novitiate: tb acquaint, to test. t6 train. " " "It acquaints_ tl-i~'aspiraht with what the Sodality is.~ind how. it functions.'so that he can bi~tter "decide whether .hE wants to make-the" sacrifices inv~lved.It tests the candidate, and tries to find out whether~ he~ha~iwhat it takes.,to livEforevek the Sodality v~ay of life. It. trains him in" devotion to. Mary, in spiritual exercises ahd apostolic activi-ti~;: so that if- he ,is accepted, he ,will already-h'ave largely~, acquired the attitudes .and habits nee-ded to li,¢e and'act as/a Sodalist ghould. dust like.a, religlous novitiate. the Sodality 'probation is' heavily. weighted'on'the spiritual side. It stresses ingtructi'on, direction. 'and above, allT-prayer. ' " " '. ¯ -Like a religious.'order, or congregation. the S0dalit~ has its, rules. They.'are not-as demanding' as the rules of religious, btit tt~ey do clearly aim at a,high degree'of spirituality. They are all-in the pam-ph! et. Sodalit~l"Rule~. 'In his A1fostolic. Constitution of 1948 Pius XII.refers to them 25. times. It is clear that in. his mind an easy test of the calibre of"a Sodality.is whether it really keeps the rules. In a Sod~dity as."in religious orders the ~pirjt of the rules is always more important tha~ the letter, and'so Sodality rules w,hich refer only ,to procedure at, meetings and such topics should n'ot bd applied wood-enly . Yet the:rules embbdy the. spiril~ .of an organization, and if" th~yfallinto disregard and disuse, the rd'sult will be as disastrbus toa SQdality as: it would be to, a religigus'order.~ ¯ :-. In .its spiritual practices, and .to a. smaller exteni i~ its apostolic a.ctivity a °Sddality, clgsely parallels religious.c.ongreg~tions.- First, let.'us 'ma'ke a thorough survey of"it.s spiritual.exercises, for they are the dynamo on'wh.ich Sodality activities depend. Most .of these dai.ly duties are containe_d'in R.u:le 34 of the Sodality. This rule deserves to be quo,ted in full: ":Sodalist~ must be very careful, to p~actice'~hose exercises of piel~y which are most necess.a.ry for fervbl of life. Every morning.on ~i~jng,,let"them make 'the. acts of faith, hope, and'ch~r-ity; thank God our Lord for His.benefits:: offer Him their labors~ with the" intention of-gaining all",.the mdu.lgences~ they.can~.through-out that day;, and invoke 't~'e Blessed. Virgin'. by reciting thd Hail Mary three times. Le~t. tbem.':devote at least a quarter of an hour td mental prayer: be presenL if they can: a'~the adoiable Sacri}ice of,the Mass; and recite the most HolyoRosary, or some Office of Our'I2ady. 172 "dul~], 1952- PARALLEL VOCATIONS In the evening before retiring, let them carefully examine their con-science and make a fervent act of contrition, for the sins of-their whole life and especially for those committed on that day." The t~rst item mentioned on the day's spiritual schedule of a So-dalist is the prayers on rising:, faith, hope, love, thanksgiving, offering'of works, three Hail Marys. The aim of these brief vocal prayers is of.course to start the d~iy r.igbt, with and for God.They remind us at once of the "morning prayers~ . morning visit," or "first visit," of religious.They are a dedication of.the day to God. Next is mentioned daily mental prayer "at least a quarter of an hour:'" All religious institutes have, I believe, a half-hour of mental prayer, and some have more. The Sodality rule demanding daily mental prayer is as clear and unconditional as the rule of reli-gious c6n'gregations on. this point. The'only difference is in the length of time. The conclusion ought to be obvious. If a' religious-would not admit to vows a novice who did not regularly perform his meditation, why should we expect h S6dality to admit candi-dates who are not reasonably faithful in fulfilling this clear Sodality demand? Again, if novices need instruction in the bow-when-where- why of mental prayer to enable them to perform it profitably, won't Sodalists need the same? A Sodality in which the members are' faithful to their rule on mental prayer will be a Sodality that can move spiritual mountains, even if i~ has'only fifty members or even only ten. Further, says the rule, Sodalists must attend daily Ma~s "if they can." This practice, too. is modelled on that of religious. How-- ever,, for religious the "if they can" is gefierally an unneeded addi-tion: since their ~ommon life and work assignments are arranged so that it is a!ways possible for them to do so. Though daily Mass may sometimes be impossible for this or that Sodalist, such cases are rare. The trouble is that too often the '.'if they can" of the rule is taken to mean,"if th.ey choose': or'"if they do not find it incon-venient." But the John Carroll Univeisity Sodality, and marly another too, has sfiown that practically all Sodalists can atterld Mass seven days.a week if they want to. Daily Holy Cohamunion, of course, cannot be required of.Sodal-ists any more than it can of religious. But Sodalists in iheir Rule39, as all religious somewhere in their rules, are strongly urged to fre- ¯ quent and even daily Communion. Most Sodalities that observe the rules and require daily Mass find that all their members receive Corn- NICHOLAS H. RIEMAN . °. Reoie~o for ReligiO~s" .muni6n freq~uently, and the great majority of l~he.m~daily. Next the).Sodality rule requires daily, recitation of the rosary, or an Office of. Our La~y --- ~.g.; theOffice 6f the Ihamac~late .Concep-., tion. On day, s w.hen~the Sodality meets, such an Office, or part of it, is sometimes said or sung in common. ]3ut in their daily prac-tice, most Sodalists piefer the rosarY, and this .dail~ du.ty is o~ten perforrfied in"an ideal Way, with one's family. In religious orders and'congregation~, the daily rosary also forms, either by rule or by ¯ custom, part of th~ spiri(ual exercises, at least where the Office of Our Lady.is not required. Like most religious orders, the Sodality rules requir~.a daily ex-~¯ . amination of conscience at night. The reason is the same., We all know how a daily check on.our faults or virtues helps us to fiaake ,our following 0f Christ .a, practical thing, a love of deeds,and not. merely of imagination. The particular examen too, which focuses our attenti6n'or~ a "single virtue or fault, and in° which we religious find so much value, ought to be offerdd by us to Sodalists as well. A Sodalist, like a relig!ous,needs direction in this business;' of striving for p.erfection. Both need a ~piritual directo? to answer p.r~b~lems,.instruct, enc~ourgge. This i~ particul.arly trfie for the reli-gious nowce or the Sodality probationer, but it is true also for those who have already made their'lifetime consecration. S6dalists ought, to.~o to confession often; and to'get real spiritual direction from regular confessor. Rule 36 of the ~ddality is very clea~,on tl'Jis mat~ ter. .How, ever, although one's spiritual director is always a priest,~ still just as a novice-mistress can help her charges.greatly in their ori-entationto.~ eligious life, so fdr example in a girls' school, if'the So-dality moderator is a nun, she c~in on a more limited scale greatly "help her incoming Sodalists, ¯or those who are.already 'rnemb~rs, in their spiritual life.¯ Sodalis~s must make an annual retreat. Rule 9, which imposes" this i3b.ligat~on, does not set a specific l~ngtl~ of ti.me, b~t only says,¯ "There shall be a retreat every year for some days.-. " This rule does, however, str, ongly advise a clo~ed [etreat,° not fia~rely an ope,n retreat'in wl~ich the retreatants go home in the afterfioons. Also,-it cl,e.arly expects .tha~ the Sodali~(s' not only listen to t.alks, but perform meditations during the retreat~. For best rest.Its, too, the retreat h~uld, be fdr Sodalists only, just as theretreat a nun to be for nuns of her institute¯ only, not for a mixed gathering of nuns, priests, ' and .lay people. If such oa Sodality *r~treat is really im- 174- ¯ July, 19~2 -,~ PARALLEL VOCATIONS' possible, then even during the regular school or coll~ge retreat, Sodalists could make some speci~il m~ditations on their Sodality way of life,' and assign a special time for examen and for some spiritual readingdirected to" their own spiritual level. For~among Sodalists as ¯ -among re!igious the retre~it should be a powerhouse that makes its fotce'felt all through (he yea.r. It can do this best if it is adapted. to their'Sc~dality way of life., Closely" parallel in their spiritualduties a~d practices, the Sodal- .ity and.religious communities are para.llel, too,-though much less so,. .'in.their work, their apostolate. This is r;ot true of strict °contem-i~ lative orders engaging irf no outside activity, for while the prayer and penance and union with God of such contempla, tives'have an apostolic as well as a personal motive and .are in fact a tremenddus . apostolic weapon, yet they cannot, be called.external activity. 'But with religious communities engaging in external works, the Sodal, ity in its apostolate has certain likenesses. If'well understood, these, simi~ " larities will help us to cohceive,the Sodality more correctly; and mo~e.~ ¯ easily share with Sodalists our Own apostoli.c outlook, 'energy, and techniques. Apostolic work is, first of ,all, just as essential to the Sodality as to acfive:~eligious c~mmunities, and it is as deeply .rootedin pe"r-sonal sanctity. A teaching Brother who¯ recites~fill his pra~;e.rs me-ticulously but who is careless about preparing fo~ his classes is not' living.his rel~igious life f.ully.~ .Nor do~s a nursing ~ister have a-true view of he.r life.if she thifiks of holiness only as something personal,¯ and. does not see that.her.work demands sanctity, and depends 9n it. So .to_6 a Sodalist must see Sodality meetings and projects and his own day-to-d~iy contacts With his friends as part of his Sodality vo-. cation. He must clearly grasp, too, that ~11 Sodality action, since its aim is. to develop in men the grace-life, depends less on clever tech-niques. ~ban .on souls charged, with the grace of God. In the S0- dalit~ as in an active, religiohs ~c0mmunity, the spiritual and .the apostolic do not existside by side unrelated to each Other. The So~" dality does,riot have two goals; buta single goal; a spirit.ual- .apostolic goal. The.two facets, of that g0al are mutually dependent. One cannot exist without the other. Also, in the Sodality .as in religion, the apostolate is organized. 'Since the work of most S6dalists study and class, nursing,, office work, factory, work,, homemaking is riot, like the work ofia reli- ~ gious, °.directly. assigned by religious superiors, the activity-of the , 175 NICHOLAS .H. RIEMAN Reoiew ?or Religious S0dalists is both organized and individual. It .may be strictl~i or-ganized, that is, not only pl~nned in a meeting but carried out by a group. Such would be a weekly trip by S0dalists to theLittle Sis-ters of the Poor to help them care for their' charges. Sodality action may be planned together but cariied out individually, as in the con-tacting of busines~ firms to have them halt sexy advertisingor dis, play Christmas cribs. Or it may be completely indiv, idual, though inspired by Sodality ideals, as when a Sodalist persuades his or her non-Catholic roommate to go to Mass sometimes. Since we reli- -gious. even thdugh our work be hssigned, to some extent use these various apost'olic approaches ourselves, we can and should help So-d~ lli~ts with whom we deal to do the same. '"Among the primary ends of Sodalities." says Plus XI.I, "is to be reckoned every kind'bf apostolate. " " No form of apostolic ac-tion. therefore, is closed to the Sodality, and so the activities of a Sodality should be g~ired to.local needs. Such adaptation in the apostolate is a feature of not.a few religious orders and congrega-tions. We often kee the same order conducting schools on all levels, .foreign missions, hospitals, and sometimes, also parishesi Even if a congregation limits its work to education, its schools will not be car-bon copies.of, each other, but will be adapted somewhat to local con-ditions.'. The needs of each milieu are individual, and ju.st as our own apostolate ~as.religious is adapted to varying conditions, ~o we can show our Sodalists bow to do the same in their adtion for Christ. ¯ One thing more. It is almost to be expected of Sodalists that the choice of their future occupation b~ made due regard being had for their personal bent and quMifications on the basis of its al~ostolic Opportunities. One natural result of this is that'a vigorous.Sodality quickly becomes a rich source of vocations to priestly and religious life. But there are other implicatio~ns too. A Fuller-brush salesman can be an apostle, of course. But picture how much vaster are the apostolic p0ssibilities of a teaching position ' in a secular university, or of hel.ping to unionize the office-fforkers of America. . Certainly in a Sodality worthy of the name many of [he' membe.rs will choose their life's work from ~apostolic motivesl if we religious~ lay open to, ,them the potentialities. And we ought to. be adept at doing this, seeing that many of us chose our own life work .on that score. Enough has been said t6 show the fir-reaching similarity in various ways. ,between the religious life and the way of life of a true Sodalisf. The Sodality is not, of course, a religious order or con- 176 ¯ ¯ BIBLES' gregation, not even,'a~Third .Order, "among other reasons because.all Sodalities, except for the small minority in Jesuit, houses, are u£det i~piscopal direction. The Sodality has always tal~en care. to make this point clear.' Yet the Sodality does ~losely parallelreligious br-ders in their novitiate,and vov~s.and rules, in the spi~iti~al exercises they practice, and even in part in .their apostolate. These parallels are something we religious can. well ponder and utilize, for they have an important meaning for us. ~ They mean that we cannot expect Sodalities to be the kind of Catholic Action forces the Pope wishes them to be Unless we demand observance of Sodality .rules almost asreligious are expected to keep their rules. The~i mean that if we make our Sodalitie's,hll.that they should be, we can to ~.large degree and in a workable way shareeven with zealous laymen and laywomen, boys and girls, the multiple graces and advantages of our ownreligious vocation. Many of the same tools that we use to advance toward sanctity and to draw others to Christ can be used too by.our zealous lay people, ifwe con~luct Sodalities ascording to the mind of Pius XII,and en~ourage such lay people to membership in those Sodalities. By fostering viggrous So-dalities we can share with lay persons something, of the "pearl of great price" that is our religious vocation. For tb be a religious and to be a Sodalist are parallel vocations. Bibles William M. Stritch, S.J. THE following rare .and, curious editions of _the Bible, mainly non,Catholic, a~e famous either for so_me eccentricity of their ¯ translation or for some remarkable feattire o~ their publication. The Aitken Bible. The first whole English Bible printed in the United States,. by Robert Aitken;0Philadelphia, in 1782, and at l~i~' own expense. HeIost about $3000.00 on his ~renture, owing to the ,number of copies imported from England shortly afterwards. The title page, six by three and a half inches, bore the coat of arms of the State'of Pennsylvania, and says ~he project w~as appr'oved (bu~tnot sul~sidiz.ed)' and recommended by .the U. S. Congress assembled 177 WILLIAM M. STR[TCH .: ~ ~ RetJieto September 12, 1782. This edition" of 'the King James known.hlsQ as the "Bible of th~ Revolution," is more rare than even the Gutenberg Bible,notmore.than twenty-fiv~ copies .being known to exist. The~Library of. Congress copy Was acquired in 1891 for $650.00. The Breeches Bible. )klthough Wyclif in 1380, and Wm.Cax-ton in 1483,rendered the word translated "aprons" in Gen. 3:7, by the word "breeches." it ~emained for the .16th century Geneva Bibles to' be called ."Breeches-" Bible.' They were printed in England for only forty-one years, yet proved so ~p0pular .that even today those wl~o make no preterise to be Bible collectorslike t6. boast thaLthey, possess a "Breeches" Bible. The "Breeches"~ Bible of 1560 was the ¯ first Bible in English to be divided'into verses. The 1594e~lition is famous for havi.ng, the date "1495" on the New" T.es~am~nt title page~ ,The ~Bu~,Bible. An English,translation of th~ Bible printed,in 1551 ?by.John Daye; and so called from the rendering of the verse in Ps. 91:5, '.'Thou shall¯ not"nede' to be afrayde' f9~ eny bugges by nyghte~" A Copy of this Bible is, or was, until the outbreak0f'w~ir in 193.9, i~n .the library of the town'of Sc~uthampton, Ehglarid. : The Carey Bible. To Mathew Carey (1760-1839) of Phila-delphia gqes the ho.nor of publishing for'the first time {n the United States: . THE HOLY BIBLE Translated from lthe Latin ¯Vulgate ¯ Diligently compared ~vith the Hebrew, Greek. and other editions in divers languages., a.nd first published by The English College at Doway, anno 1609 Newly. revised and "c~rrected, acco'rding to ,¯ The Clementine Edition of the .Scriptur~es with annotations 'for elucidating The principal difficultie~ of Holy Writ , (Title page of Cafey',s B~ble, ~Ph~ilad~lpl~ia, .publishedDec. ¯ . The Caxto~ Memorial Bible. In 18~77.~ fou~ hundredy~ars after ,the introdu.ction of printing int6 England, one ht)ndredcbpies.of this Bibl~ were printed and bound in.twelve, hours to celebrate th~ occa-sion.' . ~ ~ The Ears-to-Ear. Bible. So named because of.a m~isprint in an editic~n of 1810~ inwhich Matt. ~3:13 reads, ~'wh6 hath ears to bar let him hear.r' ¯ Also has "good w6rks" for. "dehd'works" iri St. Paul's."Epist.le to.the Hebrews, 9: 1'~. 178 Jul~ ~ 195~ " BIBLE~ " "The Geneoa'Bible. '~ t~anslation printed in 1560. It was the work of E, nglish Protestant refugees living in Geneva, whence its name. - The Great Bibl-e." Being the Bible."in largest volume."' It pos" sessed a title page of elaborate design, in which Henry VIII ~w.as de-picted as.handing 'Zthe word of God" $0 Archbishop Cranmer and other clergy on his right Band, and to Cromwell and various lay-peers on hi~ left. Thi~" Bible is'also known as the "Chained Bible," due to the fact that s~x of ther~ were "upon divers pillars in .(St.:) P~ul'~ chi~rch, fi~ed unto the same with chaihs for all men to read in them that would." A copy. of. this Bible,,on'vellum, is now St. John's College, Cambridge, Er~gl~nd, containing the.statement at the end that it was.';fynished in. Apryll, anno 1539." " The Indian B~'ble. Tbi~ is the first Bible.printed .in what is now the U. S. A., by 3ohn. Eliot, the Apostle tO the North American In- ¯ dians. ¯.The first Indian translation of the Bible was iia th~ dialect of the-Naticks, a Massachusetts trib.e .of the' Algonkins,. and was made under the auspices Of tile Corporatior; fcff the. Propagation of ~,the Gospels among the Indi~ng~of Ne~ En.gland. .The Nev) Testa-ment appe.ai.ed.first in 1661, and two years aftei, the entire Bible. Some Of the Indian words used by Eliot are so" extremely long that Cotton Mather thought they :must hhve been stretching .themselves ever since the confusion of the tongues at Babel. A second revised edition, wasoprinted in .16~5, only" twelve copies of which are know~n to exist. A copy.of the edition Of 1663.:sold some years, agc~ for $2,900.00. The Jefferson Bible. "This is a compilation made l~y~ Thomas Jefferson during'his first term as pre~idknt of the U.S.A, ~nd c~nsists of passages from the Four G0sp~ls cut out and'pasted in a book ac-cc~ rding tO a scheme of his own. Jefferson began the work in 1804', In 1895 the federal gox;ernment purchased this curious book from-. the Jefferson~heirs, and the original is n~w in the Natiohal Museum in'Washin~t0n. The Fifty-Seventh Cbngress (.190.1-03) issued a limited edition of'the Jefferson Bible to its members. The" Leda Bible. An edition published in 1572 and so called becaiase the decoration to the'initial at the Epistle to the Hebrews is a startling and i~congrubtis woodcut of Jupiter visiting Leda in the guise of a swan. The Gutenberg Bible, In 1930, by speciai ac~ of ~ongr, ess, the Library of Congress. purchased the Vollbehr collectign of 3,000 in-o -. ~ 179 WILLI'AM M. STRITCH Revieto ~or. Religious cunabula which included 6he of the three known perfect copies on xiellum Of the Gutenber'g Bible. The price p~id for the colledtion was $1,500,000. .The Bible itself was not. pri~ed, separately, but Dr. ~ollbehr paid $250,000 for it, which was increased by interest charges and an export' tax to a total in excess of.'$350,000, the hBiigbhlee'sst ppurbicliec aetvioern .p iasi hdo f~o rk an opwrinn,t endo rb coaonk .i tT bh'ee deexfaicnti tdealyte a ossfe trhteed that it.was.printed by Johann Gutenberg at Mainz. A copy of this Bible in the National Library of Paris. contains two manuscript dates, August 15, 1456, and August 24, 1456. It is therefore ap-' parenf that the Bible was printed before August, 14.56. Bibliogra-phers agree that Mairiz was the city.whekein it was p~oduced. The name of Johann Gutenberg, universally acknowledged as the success-ful inventor of the process of printing from movable metal type, ap-pears nowhere in the Bible, but we do-kno~¢ from available and con-temporary evidence that he Was deeply interested in it, and for' that reason this Bible is c6mmonly referred to as the Gutenberg Bible. Printed in a large .gothic type, the edition contains 641 printed leaves. The two other perfect,vellum ~opies are owned by the Brit-" ishoMuseum in London and the National Library in Paris. No one knows how many capies of this Bible were originally printed, but at lea~t forty-five ~opies of this Bible. of which twelve are vellum copies, are extant today. The beautifully printed and well' preserved copy in the Library of Congress is appraised at $1,,000,000 and is known as "the choice~ book in Christendom,." The Leese~ Bible, Although parts of the Hebrew scriptures had been preyiously translated into English for Jewisl~ use, the first com-plete English Old Testament for that purpose was translated by Isaac Leeser and published in 1853. Leeser fOllowed the style of the' King James Versioh, but made so many changes in the text thai his work is essentially a.n independent translation. This monumental work held its place in English and American synagogues until it be-gan to .be replaced by. the Jewish version of 1917. ,The Murderers Bible. An edition of 1801 in which the mis-print murderers for murmurers makes Jude 16 read "These are tour- .deters, full of complaints,, walking according to their own desires." ¯ ThePtacemakers Bible. An editionof the Geneva Bible, 1562, so called from a ,printer's error in Matt. 5 :9 "Bles~ed are the place-makers (peacemakers) fo~ they shall be called the children of God." The Printers Bible. An edition of about 1702 which makes Da-i80 BIBLE~ vid pathetically complain that "prin~ers (princes) havepersecuted me" (Ps. 119:161)'. The Rebecca's Cdmels Bible. Printed ii~ 1823 in which Gem -24:61 tells us that "Rebecca .arose. and her camels." instead of "her damsels." The Standing-Fishes Bible.Bible printed in 1806 in which Ezek. 47:10 reads "but it shall come to pass.that fishes (instead of fishers), shall s~and upon it,'; , ~Tbe Smith'Bible: .Julia Evelina Smith (179~2-1886) of, Glas-tonbury, Conn., transla'ted the Bible into English from .Latin, Greek, and'Hebrew, ~ind h~s be~n the only woman to translate the Bible in any language. She started the project when she Wfi's 77 years of age and cgmpleted it when 84. Her translat,on of the Bible was published in Hartford, Conn., in 1876, arid at her'own~expense. The To-Remain Bible. Bible printed at Cambridge, England, in 1805. Gal. 4:29 read.s,. "Persecuted hini that was born after the ~pirit to remain., even' so it is now." The words "to remain" weie added in error by the compositor, the editor having answered a proof-reader's queryas to the comma after "spirit" with the penciled reply "to remain" in the margin. The Thumb "Bible~ An edition published in Aberdeen, Scot-land. in 1693. It measured one inch square and half an inch thick, and was calle~ "Verbum Sempiternum." A Mr. J. W. Bradley, Halifax, Nova Scotia, has what he bMieves is the world's smallest Bible. Measuring only-5/8 of an inch square with 500 thin pages. It was printed by the Oxford Un.iversity Press in 1859. ~ The Treade Bible. An edition of the Bible published in 1568, and so ~alled from its" rendering of J~r.' 8:22, "Is there no treacle (instead of "balm").in Gilead?" The Unrighteous Bible. An edition printed at Cambridge, Eng-land, in 1653, containing the printer's error, "know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit (for "shall not inherit")~ the Kingdom of ¯ God" (I Cor. 6:9). The same'edition, gave Rom. 6:13 as "n~ither yield ye your members as instruments of righteous unto sin," in place of "unrighteous." ." The Vinegar Bible. An edition printed at Oxford, E.ngland, in 17i7; in which the chapter heading of Luke 20 isgiven as~ "The Parable of the Vinegar/' instead of the "Vineyard;',' It was printed by J. Baskett; becauseof manyother errors it soon ca~e to be styled' WILLIAM M. STRITCH a basketful:of errors.". Copies of this edition are. very rare. Christ Chu.rch at Shrewsbury, New.dersey, is said to have one of the few° known copies i~n existence. "The Whom/Who "Bible. Both versions, Catholic and non- Catholic, admit that grammatical blundbr which for centuries bas rasped the nerves of sensitive purists, namely, . the questio~a of Our Lord, (Matt. 16:t3), "Whom do men say that .the Son of-man iS?" The revised (1881) American standard version and the Cath-olic Confraternity t)f Christian Doctrine version of 1941 rectify that error by making it "Who." In connection with the AmeriCan standard.version of 1881. it may be news to many of our readers to learn that the Chica9o Tribune published the whole version of the New Testamentdn a single special issue on May 22, 1881. The Woman's Bible. The idea appears to have been born in the mind of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. ¯ In a stout pamphlet, published in New York, 1897, the lady having appointed a tentative commit- .tee of twenty-three women, .instructed each member to purchase a Bible and go through it from Genesis .to Revelation, marking all' .the. passages, in which women were mentioned, these passages were then to. be cut out and pasted in a black book, and correct readings and " comments thereon written underneath. OUR CONTRIBUTORS SIST]~ M. BONAVENTURE, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania," Ohio, has been teaching graduate courses in Engl,ish at the Catholic University, Washing-ton, D.C.', for more, than a decade. NICH(~LAS H. RIEMAN, who has directed So-dalities as a Scholastic, is now' studying theQlogy at West Baden College, West Baden, Indiana. WILLIAM M. STRITCH writes from Campion High School, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. " ~ REPRINTS OF ~PONSA CHRISTI In May and July, 195 I, we p~inted the Apostblic Constitution, Sponsa Christi, and'the explanatory in'struction of the Sacred Congregation. of Religious. We now ha~e~some reprints of thi~ material that we can sell in sets' 6f ten and multiples of t.en., . The .price is one dollar for ten copies, and a dollar for each additional set, of ten. Please enclose payment with yohr order and address it to: REVIEW'FOR RELI- 61OUS, St.'. Mary's College,. St." Marys," Kansas: '." 1~2. Un ,"g e"n ,kDu si eFili us Pope Plus XI Apostolic Letter Addressed to the Suprem, e Heads of Religious Orders on the Care of Religious DisciplineI [.EDITOR'S NOTE: The ptirpose of this important document, in the wdrds of its author, Pope Pius XI, is: "to urge members of religious institutes, both those who are already priests and those who are candidates for the priesthood, to the study of the sacred learning, the absence of which would~ prevent them from performing with full competence the functions of their vocations." 'It is printed here at the request of a number of our subscribers. Though directed chiefly to religious clerics, the content, particularly the'sections indicating how sound theological learning can deepen the interior life, may also provide other religious with material for fruitful meditation. Sub-titles have been inserted.] BELOVED Sons: Health and Apostolic Benedictioia. The only-begotten Son of God, entering the world to re-deem mankind, was not content with imparting those sp[r.itual precepts the observance of which brings ~ill men to their:appointed .end. He ~eclared. also that those who wished to follow His foot-stbps more closely should embrace and practice~ the evangelical counsels. Whoever pledges himself by vow to observe these counsels strips himself not only of those encumbrances which retard our progress on the road to ordinary sanctity--riches, family cares, or immod-erate liberty in the.use of material things--but mox~es so directly and unreservedly towards a life of perfection as to seem almost to have attained'the haven of eternal salutation. ' ~. Wherefore from the earliest Christian era there have never been wanting souls who have harkened to the whisper of¯ God and, nobly and' generously denying themselves all things, have entered the way of perfection and indomitably persevered therein. Histor~ witnesses continuously to the sacred army of men and women who have con-secrated and pledged themselves to God in various religious Orders and congregations which, through the centuries, the Church has solemnly approved and ratified. ¯ N~r do these _religious communities bear the same unvarying spiritual character. The life of perfection, though in essence unchangeabie, inanifests itself in a variety of fruitful forms. In. 1AAS 16:133-48 (1924) ~ 183 POPE PIUS XI Review for 'Relioiofis separate and distinctive manners, with diversified exertions of charity and zeal'do the varidus orders Of religious S6uls, according to the ~pecial ways of theii'institutes, pursue th~ ~16ry of Gdd and the sal- . vati~n of their neighbor. . , From this wide diversity of. religious orders, as ~rom trees "of." manifold species in God's spiritual garden, springs a.gloriouslvariety of spiritual fruit unto the salutation of men. Such striking complex- " ity of fo~m with basic unity of design, such identity 'of aim v~ith precise distinction of spheres, presents a .spectacle of impressive and monumental ,beauty. It is a dispensation of Divine Providence that new needs of,the .times should call forth and nourish r~eligious congregations specially adapted to the meeting of these fresh exigencies. And so the Apostolid See. under whose standard religious orders pHr~arily serge, mindful of th~ blessings which at all times they have cbnferred upon. the Church and Upo, n civil society, h~as ever cherish[d these holy instkutes with peculiar solicitude and affectl0n. , The sti~reme pontiff has always rdserved tohimself the approvin~ and confirming their constitutions and statutes: he h~is in times of crisis tirel~ss'ly defended them from their' adversaiies: and'. when. occasion.so demanded, he has not been slow in rec~illing them-to their pristine.observanCe and to their original reverence for the glori-ous ideals 0f their respective rules. This great concern of the Church that religious men Should be pre-erfiinent in adherence to the holy laws of thei? order and that they should constantly increase in perfection, is manifested by the solemn decrees and exhortations of the Council of Trent. "Let all regulars, both men and'-women, mold and regulate their lives in keei~ing with.the iule fhey. profess; particularly let them faithfully -observe whatever pertains to the perfection of their professibn, the vows 0f poverty, chastity, and.obedience, and any others which may be peculiar to.their particular institute or ha~,e bearing ,on th~ ,ob-servance of common life, both in food and in clothing.''z ~ The Code of Canon Law, in its.preface to the section on regula-tions for religious men and women, b_r[efly describes and defines th~ religious life as'being ao"stable mode of. living in common by which ,the faithful, undertake, besides the ordinary precepts of the faith. ~he evangelicalcou~asels through the'instrumentality ~of the yows of obedience, chas~ity~, and poverty . . . and thus proceed in the way,of ZSess. XXV. c. I". De Reoul. i84 July, 1952 UNIGENITUS e~angdical perfection." Thi~ religious state, declares the Code dis-tirictlE, is: to be ."esteemed highly by all."3 Tb extent indeed of Our ~onfidence in the virtue ~f religiou's men, and in their helpful co-operation, We ha~e-already demon-strated in Our .encyclical letter Ubi Arcano, affectionately addressed tO the bishops of the Catholic world'. We ~said therein, that for,more. than one reason we relied ~r,eatly. on the regular clergy acthally:t.o apply the remedies We bad proposed to meet the many evils under which human society was laboring. ¯ Further, in Our former letter on the supervision of .clericfil studies, addressed to the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Studies in Seminaries and Universities, in the identical embrace of Our purpose and~in Our deep solicitude to proyide for the training of clerics called to the sacred ministry, We included_equ~liy as~well' member~ of religiou~ orders, since what we ¯therein observ.e.d and decr~ed affectedthem in great measure too. at least such as are destined, for. the priesthood. Nevertheless, We are urged, dearly beloved sons. ,by Our loving and vigilant concern for your goo.d, to address, you byspeCial letter and to present certain admonitions to you which if your spiJ:itual sons will but observein their conduct and intercourse.thei'r pro-- -cedure and the whole tenor of,their lives will undoubtedly be such as is impera(ively demanded of them by. the truly unique and ~sub- -lime voc~ition.¯really divine, which is theirs. Revet:ence for Fot~nder First of all. We exhort religious men to ~'egard the founder of ~their order.as the supreme example to befollowed. The "religious who so regards the father" and lawgiver of his institute, will .more certainly and more abundantly partic'ipate in the divine grace deriv, ing from a religious vocatiofi. It is-abundantly clear that those men of" pre-eminent sanctity, When they established their religious congregations, obeyed a divine impulse. As long, therefore, as the son reproduces in his life °the special mode of sahctity conceived by th~ father as the distinctive mark 8f the congregation, the son will not be recreant to the obliga-tion'assumed whefi he entered religioh. Wherefore let religious men. as devoted sons, dire~t their thought and care to defend, the honor of their founder and father both by obedience, to hi~ .pre.s~'riptions and admonitions, and by imb,fing 31C 487[ 488 POPE~ PlUS Reoiew [or Religious themselves with his spirit. Nor will they. fall from their estate as long as they walk in the footsteps of their founders: "And their-children for their .sakes remain forever. Would that religious would so loyally adber,e to the rules of their institute and so retain the manner, of life established, that ithey would show themselves ever.y day more worthy of the religious state. Such fidelity cannot fail to win for the manifold ministries which they exercise' at all times the powerful support of heavenly graces. In all our activities let us seek only the kingdom of God and His justice: and this should be the sole objective in those works which, beloved son~, are wont to occupy the efforts Of most of your spit, itual subjects: sacred missions, and, the. education of youth. As for " the,apost.olate,-.let them take care thai in their'foreign missions, as My predecessor wisely admonishes,s they do not employ ~he Gospel to further the interests of their country or to increase its ppwer. Let them r~ither !ook'only to the eternal salvation of the infidels, while at the same time. elevating their material standards of living to the extent that this may fo[ward their progress to eternal happiness. Those religious whose duty it is rightly to instruct and educate youth-must be especially careful lest, too much preoccupied with training theik students to excellence in fine arts, they so neglect the religious development of their minds and hearts that their students enter the world wellZinstructed indeed in letters, but totally ignorant of sacred, science. LWhoever lac,,ks this is deprived of themost precious and most beautiful of all adornments and. lives in the greatest empti-~ hess of soul: "All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God.''6 The Seraphic Doctor speaks appositely in this .regard: "This is the fruit of learning, that faith should be built up in all men, tha.t God should be honored, morals elevated, and those conso-lations derived which/pring from the union of the beloved with. her divine.SpouSe through supernatural dharity.''z I. BENEFITS OF SACRED LEARNING Since it is of the highest importance that this knowledge of sacred science should be held in the greatest esteem and deeply imbibed by the mihisters of the Church, the chief concern, of this Our exhorta-tion is tO urge members of. religious institutes, both those'who are 4Ecclesiasticus 44 : 1 "~ 5Epist." Apost. Maximum Iliad, November 30, 1919 6Wisdom 13:1 7De Reductione Atrium ad Theol., n. 26 186 Ju/g, 1952 UNIGENITU~' already" priests and those Who are candidates for the priesthood, to the study of the sacredlearning, the absence of which would pre-vent them. from performing with full competence the functions of their vocation. For those who have conseciated themselves to God the one, or certainly the chief, obligation is that of prayer and the contemplation or meditation on divine things. How can they rightly fulfill tlqis solemn duty without, a profound and intimate compre- _hension of ~h~ doctrine of faith?. The necessity of such study'We 'urge on those pa~iicul~rly who devo'te their lives to divine contem-plation in the cloister. Such souls ~rr indeed if they believe that after having previously, neglected or later discontinued their theological "studies, the$ can, though deprived of that copious kn.owledge 9f God and the mysteries of faith which is derived from the sacred sciences, readily move in a high spiritual plane and be'lifted up and borne. aloft to interior union with God. 'Help in Apostolate As to those who are engaged in teaching or preaching or in the cleansing of souls in the sacrameht of penance, or are sent on sacred missions or pursue tti~ir ministry in daily familiar intercourse with people, shall not .the vigor and efficacy, of these manifold activities be in exact' proportion to the high degree of erudition" with .which they are perfected, and adorned? The Holy Spirit, too, the Paraclete, by.the lips of His prophet, has proclaimed the priest's n~ed of a comprehensive and in~imatel knowledge of sacred science: "The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge.''s How can solid theological learning be lacking in the legate of the Lord of wisdom,9 that legate who is minister and doctor of the New ;F~stament, ~alt of the earth,~° and light.of the-world,n the legate .by whose tongue the Christian people recei;ce the words of eternal life? " Let those trembl~ for themselves, therefore, who approach the sacred ministry with minds ill-equipped with holy learning:. Not unscathed shall they stand in their lack of preparation, before Lord, who has spoken the awful threat: "Because thou hast rejected. kn6wledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of pi'iesthogd to Me.;'~2 Moreover,.if ever in the past it behooved the 8Malachias 2 : 7 9I Kings 2 : 3 l°Matthexv 5 : 1 3 ~20see 4 : 6 187. POPE PIUS XI - " ' \ Rebietu For Religious ¯ priest to be adorned with le.arning, much more so is thai .quahty required of hin~ in thes~igresent times when in,.all spheres of human activity learning arid science are valued at such high ,price and are so closely bound" therewith that men, even thuse who are less wise-- as.is almostalwi~ys the case boast that whatever they do, the3/do in [he hattie of science:. So. let us strive with intense earnestness that the Catbolic /aith be sustained b.y the support and protection of human learning of every kind. In the light which thislearning casts th~ beauty of revealed truth will .be Unfolded before ~he eyes of, all and tile falsity of the ¯ captious chaYges ~vhidh pseudo-science is wont .to heap up against the ¯ ~dogmas i~f faith will be exposed as. occasion may requite. ' For. as'Te~tulliamhas so beautifully written: our faith "anxious-ly desires one, thirig.only, that she benot condemned unheard.''u In the same connection, let .us not forget the "words of Jerome: "Piety Without culture profits itself alone, find, however much by personal merit it builds up Christ's church, it yet equally harms her by silence in the faceof her adversaries . ~. It is the priest's duty, to answer whenever ~he law is calleqdue isnti o.n. -, And so the priest, "both secular and regular, must. propagate Catholic doctrine as widely as possible, and illuminate and defend it. This,doctrine of the Church not only contains all that is needed to" refute and disprove any objections which may b.e ¯urged against it, but., ~rovided it be,clear_Iv, explained, cannot fail to draw~ souls to " itself, if only they" be free from p, rejudice. This truth'was not missed by the great doctors ~Sf,the so-called Middle Ages. Led by Thdmas Aquinfis and Bonaventure they exerted themselves to, drink as defiply as possible of the waters'of divine wisdom and go comm,unica,te their knowledge to others. ' - Help for Interior Life There is, beloved sons, the furthe~ advantage that the v~y effort of mind and talent and powers which you~ members will expend in the pursuit Of.}hese studies will effect that they will imbibe the reli-gio, us. spirit more deeply and-will fittingly sustainthe honor and digni.ty of the exalted state of life Which they have embraced. For h~e who ~nters upon the study of theology addresses himself to a weig,.hty task indeed; and one invoIving, intense labor and'heavyin,- convenience. It is a task admitting no slothfulness or laziness, which ~3Apol., I . l~Epist, ad Paul.in,. LIII- (al. CIII) , 188 July, 1952 . UNIGENITUS is the mother and mistress of many evils.15 But the earnest student, applying,himself wholeheartedly to this truly hard intellectual labo} acquires the habi~ not onlyofcirc~umspection in ju~gmeht and' delib-eration in act, but repres~ses also and 'dominafes more easily hi~ pas-sions wh'ich, .if allowed loose rein,' grow steadily Wors~ and hu}ry the s.oul tothe abyss of all vices. In this iegard Jerome writes: "Love the scienc~ of Holy Scrip'ture and y~u will. not love the vices of the flesh.':16 And again~: "The knowledge of the S~,riptur~s begets virgins. 17 But the religious man shouldbe urged to these studies by a fur-t- her motive the.re~li.zation of the gra~city .of the obligation, arising from his very vo~atioi~, of achieving a' perfect degree of virtue. It is clearly imt3ossible for anyone to progress efficaciously toward perfec-tion and to reach it safely without practicidg the interior life. But can this interior life be developed and strengthened by an.y more effectiv~ means than the study of-things divine? ~Persistent and daily meditation on those marvelous gifts of nature and of grace and on ~individual men will cohsecrate one's thbugh~ts and feelings, and lift them. up to heavenly things; .nay more, it fills men With the spirit of faith and unites them in closest intimacy, with God. For, who reproduces in himself more perfectly the image of Christ, 2esus than he who ass~rnilates to his v.ery.flesh and blood the dog,matic and moral truths of divine revelation.?. 'Most wisely,, then, did the founders" of religious °orders. fol-lowing the lead of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, ~ommend with more than ordinary earnestness to their sons the .study of the sacred sciences, o It has. bdsides, been proved by experience, beloved, sons, that those of your religious who most devotedly have'-applied their intellects to the study of the teachings of the faith, have as a rule been all the more successful in achieving a higher and more com-prehensive degree of sanctity; whil(on the contrary,.those who have neglected this sacred duty have often lfipsed into tepidi'ty and have sunk not infrequently into a condition of spiritual deterioration in- 'volving even the violati6n of their vowS. Wherefore, let all religious remember the words of Richard of St.Victor: "Would that each of us Would immerse himself in these studies all the day long until" the sun set, until the love of vain things graduallygrow weak. until the heat of concupiscence be extinguished and the Wisdom of~carnal pru- ¯ lSEcclesiasticus 3 3 : 2 9 ~6Epist. ad Rust. CXXV. (al. IV) ~TComm. ~fi Zach, ].II, c. l O 189 ¯ POPE PIUS XI : Revleu2 for Reliflious ~d~nce grow cold.''~s .We exhort religious men also to make their own .the prayer of St. Augustine: "May Thy Scriptures be mY ,chaste delight" may I not err in them, nor deceive because of them.''19 II. DIRECTIVES FOR TRAINING.OF CLERICS Since, then, the constant and attentive pursuit of sacred doctrine brings such rich emoli~ments tb religious men, it,is clear, beloved sons, how weighty, is your obligation to provide for your subjects every opportunity for theological study and' for continued contact, with theological science, at every subsequent stage of their religious life. We must realize, moreover, how much future, candidates for religion are benefited by a proper formation and training of their mind and will from their earliest years. In the first place, in these courupt times Christian education is sadly neglected, in the home ~nd the young, exposed to widely prevalent snares of evil, are deprived of , that solid religious instruction which alone has power to mold char-acter in conformity with the divine commandments or even with a .humanly decent.mod~ of life. It follows, therefore, that yqu can take no more advaptageous measure in this regard than the establish-ment of preparatory seminaries and c011~ges for yourig men who give some indication of possessing a religious vocation. We observe with deep satisfaction that in a goodly n, umber of places such insti'tutions are in fact being founded. In this matter, however, you are,to take to heart the admonition.addressed by Ou'r predeces~sor, 'Pius X, of 'holy memory, to the superiors of the Dominican Order. The Pontiff warne'd against admitting too readily, or ifi too great numbers youths whose aspirations after that hol'y manner c;f life are not certainly i~- spired from on high.-,° After having given long and prudent consid7 eration therefore to the selection of young men as candidates for the religious life, ~ou "will take great care that, along with instruction in piety suited to their years, those lower subjects be taught them which are usually taught in the q~mnasia,~'I so that'they do not enter the ¯ novitiate before they have finishe'd the humanities, unless indeed a sufficiently, sound reason advises otherwise in a particular instance. It is an obligation not only of charity but even of justice that you should display the utmost assiduity and diligence in this matter¯ of the education of your young candidates. If by reason of the small 18De ditT. sacrif. Abr. et Mariae, I 19Conf., lib. XI, c. 2, n. 5 20EpiSt. Cure Primum, ad Mag. Gem O.P., August 41 1913 ~1IC 589 190 dulg~ 1952 UNIGENI ,TUS: number of members in an institute, br for other reasons, a province¯ has insufficient facilities fo} imparting this education prescribed by canon law, let the young men be sent¯ to anothe~ province or to another seat of learning where they can be properly taught according to the directions of canon 587. Preparator~l Schools In i'he lower ~chools, however, let the injunction of canon 136~4 " be religiously followed: ':The most honored place in the curriculum is to .be awarded to religious instruction, diligently imparted in a manner suitable to the ability and age of each one." For this instruc-tion, furthermore, only those books are to be used which are approved by the ordinary. It is to be remarked incidentally ~hat even students of scholastic philosophy should not omit this study of Christian doc-trine. They will most profitably use that golden book, the Roman Catechism, a work in which one is at a loss which to admire more, the wealth of sound doctrine or the elegance bf the Latin style. If your clerics, from tbeir earliest youth, accustom themselves to draw their knowledge of sacred truth from that fount, they will not. 9nly come to theology better prepared, but also, .from familiarity with ¯ that "excellent book they will learn how to teach the peopl,e wisely and to combat with skill the lie~ which are wont to be chattered against revealed truth. , , Those iniunctions which, in Our Apostolic Letter Ot~ciorum Ornnium, We addressed to the diligent attention Of the Catholic bishops concerning study.of the Latin tongue, We urge and co.mmand youalso, beloved sons, to observe in your literary schools; for to you also pertains that law of the Code which, concerning students pre-paring for holy orders, says: "Let them be carefully taught languages~ particularly. Latin and their native tongue.''22 The high imp.ortance bt~ an accurate knowledge of Latin in your young religious is sug-gested by a multitude of reasons. Not only does the Church.employ that lang.uage as a servant and bond of unity; but we also iead the .Bible in Latin, we chant and offer the Holy Sacrifice in Latin, and we perform.in .that tongu~ nearly all ttie sficred rites. The Roman Pontiff, besides, addresses and teaches the Catholic world in' Latin, and the Roman Curia employs no other tongue in ,tra6sacti~g its business and in formulating decrees which apply to all the faitht~ul. He who is n~t well 'versed. iri Latin is much embarrassed in his ap- 2alC 1364, 2° 191 POPE PlUS XI Review for Relig~ous, proach to,~thos( rich v61ume~ of the Cht~rch's Fathers: and Doctors, many of whom used no' Other medium of expression in explaining '.and defending Christian.dbctrine. -Let it then.be your earnest aim that your clerics, destined for ".the .future ministry of the Church, shall attain a real:mastery of'and a very practica!.familiarity with that language. Novitiates " ¯ Their p~ri~paratory studies concluded, the students and all.c~andi-dates, whose determination to consecrate themsel~ces "to Godhas been proved and whose good character, more than mediocre mental gifts, spirit of piety; and integrity of morals have been established to the satisfaction of their dffectors, may be admitted to the novitiate. I~ th.e"'no~ritia~e, as in a sort of training ground, they shall, learn .by actual practice the principles and virtues of the religious life. How impc~rtant it is that.the souls:of the candidates should be " mos~ carefully trained during-this period of n6vitiate may be learned. not only from the testimony of masters of the religious life. but "most of all from experience. This latter teaches that no' one reaches and maintains'himself in a state of religiou~ perfecti0n~unless he has first laid in his soul the foundations ofall the virtues. Wherefore let the novices, eschewing all profane studies and othe~ attractions. concentrate entirely, under th'e guidance of their directors, 6n the exercises of theinterio.r life and the acquisition, of virtues, tfiose par-ticula. rly .which are most intimately connected and associated with the vqws Of religion poverty, obedience, and chastity. "Extremely helpful to this end will be the reading arid considera-tion of the Writings of St. Bernard, of ,the Seraphic Doctor Bona-ventuie, and of Alphonsus Rodrigud-z, as well as.~of those spiritual masters who are the special ornaments of each particular institute. Time has dot only failed to dim or lessen the, force and e~cacy of these teachers~ but has even heightened their Val~e in this our day. Nor should the novice ever forget that such as h~. is in the novitiate. so shall he be during the rest of his hfe: and after a tepid, or misspent noviceship the possibility of,supplying for what has been missed in the novitiate by renovation of spirit is usually~a forldrn and base-less hope. Philosophy and Theology . ~ Thereupon you shotild see to it, beloved sons, that your subjects. after.completing their noviceship, be ass!gne.d to houses distinguished 192 ,Iu!q. 1952 UNI~ENITU$ for ~obs~'r~ahce of your' holy ~ules. Tl~ese houses should offer also° facilines for the most profitable and exact course of philosophy and theology, made" in accordance, with definite and ordered procedure. Definite and or'tiered procedure, ~Ve said: that' is, not only should there be no promotion to a. higher grade without sufficient evidence of p~oficiency in the lower, but there must not even be any~¢u.rtail-ment or~omission of any part of.a course, nor any abbreviation of the t~ime t6 be devoted to a branch of study, as prescribed by the ,Code. Unwise, thereforev--to speak conservat.ively are those superiors who," pressed perhaps by time and necessity and desirous of availing themselves of their subjects' ministries as soon as possible, wish their subjects to receive their trai.ni~g for the priesthood by a sort .of accelerated method. Has not experience proved that those who h.av.e made their studies hurriedly and wittioiat thoroughness c~n scarcely .ever, if at' all, remedy this defect in their training, and that whatever little ,advantage may at timCs have been gained from this advanced reception of orders eventually fades away and vanishes, since these religious must of ne~cessity be less .apt for t~ ministry? Take care. moreover, lesf your youiag religious, .while studying philosqpfiy and theology, should grow yold in their struggle for virtue. On the con-" trary they should continue to a~rail themselves of the services of the most learned masters of the spiritual .life, so that finally, as behooves religious men, they shall display in themselves solid, learning joined to holiness of life.- And here We cha.rge you with special earnestness to exercise care in selecting eminen.tly suitable instructorsin the higher studies, mas-ters who~elife will be wo~rthy models for the imitation of all. Their proficiency, too, must be pre-eminent .in that subject which it is their office to teachl And~so, no one'should act either as.professor.,or instructor unless he has completed with merit the course of philos-ophy, theology, and allied branches, and has proved his possession of sufficient equipment and skill as a teacher. We .c.all your attentionfurthermore, to this injunctioh of the Code of Canon Law: "Provision must be made th'at there be separate masters for at least the following subjects: Sacred "Scripture, dogmatic theology, moral theology, and ecclesiastical history,"~ These m~is- "ters should spare no effof~ to'ffansform, th,eir sthdents into holy and tireless apostles of Ch. rist, equipped with those ornaments of learnirig 1,93 POPE P~usXI Reuieu~ for R~ligious and prtidence by" which they Will b~ abl4 not only"to instruct the simple and ignorant, but also to refute those, puffed up by what. is fallaciously called science. They will. be able likewise to preserve' all. from the contagion of error which, because it usually is presented so speciously and cunningly, is calculated to beget and inflict greater damage on souls. . But if happily, by God's grace, your subjects p.roceed wi'th gen-erous spirit in the straight paths of Christian learning and become greatly proficient therein, the labor which you best6w,-beloved sons, on this so salutary task will reward and rejoice .you with a most abundant fruit beyond .your. fondest expectations. ¯ Further, We exhort you to regard as holy and inviolable those words which, in accord with the spirit of canon law, We wrote in Our'apostolic letter on seminaries and the studies of clerics. Therein We urged that, in teaching the precepts of 15hilosophy and theology, masters should follow faitl~fully the scholastic methdd according tO the principles and doctrines of Aquinas. For who ~an deny that the scholastic discipline and the angelic wisdom of St. Thomas--that discipline and method praised so repeatedly and enthusiastically by Our predecessors--have a native efficacy both f6r tl'Je illustration of divin~-truth and for the marvelous refutation 6f the errors of every age? In the words of Our predecessor of immortal memory, Leo XIII, the Angelic Doctor "so abundantly rich in divine and huma.n science, so comparable to the very sun . has by his sole efforts brought it hbout that all the errors of past ages have been refuted by one man, and invincible alms have beeh supplied for the defeat of th.ose errors which will arise in endless succession through the ages.''2a Most a'ppositely contintJes the same Pontiff: '"Let those who Wish to be truly philosophers~and such must be the. especial desire of religious men--let those l~ay the first principles and foundations of their doc-trine in Thomas Aquinas.''25 How much it behooves your spiritual sons to hew close to the . general line of scholastic doctrine is abundantly evident. Perceiving the intimate relationship existing between philosophy and revelation, the Scholastics-d, eveloped and synthesized that wonderful mutual concordance, in such wise that philosophy and revelation afford each other light and the maximum of support." Nor can these two s.ci- 24En~ycl. Aeterni Patris 25Epist. Nbstra Erga, N6vember 25, 1898 194 ,Iulg, 1952 UNIGENITUS ences contradiqt each oth'er, as some madly assert, for both derive from God, the suprem'e and eternal truth; and while philosophy manifests the findings o'f reason, re~elation displays the firm data of faith. Indeed the two sciences are so mutually in harmony that each c.ompletes the other. Hence it follows that from an ignorafit and untrained philosopher a learned theologian can never be educed: and, contrariwise, he w~o is igno.r~ant of divine truth can never be a per-fect phil.osopher. In this regard St. Thomas says truly: "From the principles of faith .new knowledge is derived for the faithful, as from.the prin-ciples of natural reason new knowledge is derived for all; hence theology is a science." In other words, just as from reason, which is a participation in divine Wisdom, philosophy derives'the basic prin-ciples of nattiral cognition, and declares and ex.plains them, so from, the light of supernaturaI revelation,, which by its splendor" illumines and completes t, he intellect, theology borrows, develops, and explains the truths of faith. These two sciences are two rays f~om the same sun, two rivers from the same source, two edifices resting,on the same foundation. Of high dignity indeed is human science, provided it submits obediently to the truths of faith. If these truths are disregarded, human science must i,nevltably ~nd inexorably fall into numberless errors and deceits. But if, beloved sons, your subjects command the sum of human knowledge which they have beap'ed up for tbem~elg.qs to'act as handmaid and servant to that science which is divine; and if~ besides~ they glo,w with an arderit love and desire for revealed truth, they will be true men of God and will be .universally regarded as such; and'by word and example, they will.do much fo'r the peop!e ~of God. For, "'all Scripture is inspired by God"--or as the Angelic Doctor explains this passage( sacred doctrinal is perceived by the light .of divine revelation--"and useful for teaching, for reprovifig, for. correcting, for instructing in justice; that the man of God ma) be perfect, equipped for every good work.''26 Spirit of Faith .But in the ,case of young religious, the first {equirement is that 'their spirit of faith should be" nourished to vigor. Otherwise.they, shall to no avail engage themselves in this boundless field of divine and. human .knowledge: for, if the spirit of faitb is weak, the stu- 262 Timothy 3 : 16-17 ¯ PoPE PIU~ XI Review fbr Relipious dent,"like one. blind, cannot penetrat~e into the. profun, dities'.pf .super-na~ ural truths. Nor is itof less importance'that the religious shpuld albproach °his studies with a,pure intention. -"There are some Who wish to 2~arn,'~ warns St. Bernard, ".solely .in order to l(arn; and ~his is base curiosity . There are o~her~ who wish to learn in order to sell their knowledge, perhaps for money, perhaps for honors: and. this is ba~e t~affic. But there are also those who wi~h tO learn in order that'they themselves m~y.be buildedl and this, is prudence,''27 In their above-mentioned studies, therefore, your young religious should propose to. themselves this one aim: that they "please God and, . win for themselves "and for their r~eigbbor the. greatest, pbssible spir-itual emoluments. And in science disjoin, ed from virtue there is more of offense and danger than of true utility for those who b~come proud by reason of their learning lose the gift of faith and blindly plunge headlong t° their souls' destruction--your sons must with all .assiduity cultivate the virtue of humility,, necessary f0~ all indeed~ ' but especially to bestriven after by students: and ~they must plant it firmly.in their hearts mindful as they are that God alone is sub- ~tantial wisdom and whatever man possesses, no matter, how.pro-found, is .as nothing compared with the vast sum of learning of which he is ignorant. Beautifully to the point speaks St Augustine: '" 'Knowledge,' says the'Apostle, 'puffeth up.' What then? SbSuld you flee knowl-edge and ch6os~ to know nothing rather than to be puffed up? Why should I address you i~ it is better.to b'e ignorant than learned? Love knowledge', but prefer charity. Knowledge, if it, be alone. "puffeth up. But because charity~buildeth up, it permits no( knowl-edge to be puffed up. Knowledge puffeth, up therefore where cbarity-do~ s not build up; where charity bu!IdL yp, knowledge is made Your sons, therefore, if indeed'they pursue their' studies with: that spirit 0f~charity and devotion frbm which all other virtu'es have their Origin and b~ing, would be like a medicinal fragrance warding. off ,the fear" of corruption: and by. their gifts of doctrine will ~ c~r.tainly becbme all the more pleasing in God's sight'and all the more useful toHis Church. " ¯ III. DI~RECTIV~S FOR 'LAY RELIGIOUS~ it now remains for us to turn our thoughts to those" religious ~7In Cant. serrao XXXVI~, ~Sermb CCCLIV ad Cont., c. ~I _duly, 1957. . UNIGENITUS who,ltl~ough not called to.the dignityof the priesthood, have pro-nounced, the same vows, of r~l.igion as the priests, and are .not less obliged to God ahd bound by the duty of acquiring perfection. That they .also, though unversed in letters or the higher mental disciplines, may achieve the loftiest grades of sanctity i~ evident from',the fact. that many of them indeed have won by reason of the eminent holi-ness' of.their lives the loud.and, constant praise of the Catholic world, or have even been" inscr!bed.by the authority of the Roma~ Pontiffs in .the number of the saint~, to be regarded and invoked as patrons. and intercessors before God. These con~ersi, or lay,, religious, "who, because 6f their special status are free from those da'ngers which not infrequently :'fac~ the priest 15y reason of the very dignity of his office, enjQy substantially the same spiritual privileges and aids which religious institutes with mater~al:providence commonly share indiscrimina~tely .with itheir ~hildren. It .is just. thin, that the lay religious should value highly- ¯,the gift of their vocation, and return thanks to God for the gift. often renewing the determinatiQn which they made on the d~y'of ~:heir ~orofession. that they would live.according to the spirit of their reli- . gious bule to their last bre~ith of life. And here., beloved-sons, We cannot refrain from remindilag you how weighty is youy obligation to see to it thatthe !ay.religiotis, both" during the time of their probation and during the remainder of their -life, are adeqtiatels~.:supplied With those spiritual hell~whlch~th£y. so much need to make progress and to persevere. They are perhaps all the haore in need of these aids by.reaSon c;ftheir humble eondition.hnd hurfibl~ ministries. " ~Vherefor , .superiors, in selecting the.dwelling places and duties " of the la~y religious, should take careful account of the character of each and the possible weaknesses of each;.and if'sometimesthese spir-itual sons should show a decrease of ardor in the'performance of their 'obliga~tions.as religious, no paternal solicitude and effort should be sl~afed in recalling them g~ntly but firmly to holin.ess, of life: And particularly should superiors make it their constant concern either themselves to instruct the lay religious in the eternal and fun-damental truths ofthe faith, or to commit this.duty of instrtic~ion to ~competent priests. The knowledge and frequent meditation off these truths will be a powerful spur to th~ virtue of all, whether those whose,work is confined to the cloister or thos who live in tl~e world. The,above admonitions We wish to extend also to all ,congrega- 197 t .POPE PlUS XI tlons Of lay religious. For. t-he'members of these congregations there is indeed ~required .a fuller 2knowl~dg~ Of Chri_stian doctrine and an~ erudition beyond mediocrity, since theY are. frequently .engaged, according to their institute, in the instruction of boys and young men. Such are the thbughts, beloved sons~ which We desired from a heart filled with phternal~ love to address to you concerning the direc-tion of your curricula of study, as well as concerning some other matters of scarcely, lesg importance. These thoughts and injunctions, We.feel sure, you will follow with alacrity and devotion, both be-cause of your affection to'cards Us and because of your zeal for the advancement of your respective institutes. May Our words be fixed deep in the hearts of your novices and scholastics, and bring, by the intercession of your founders and fathers, an abundance of blessings and benefits. In conclusion, as an augury of grace and an evidence of Our. paternal love towffrd .yoursel;ces, beloxied sons,, and all tl-ie religious commit}ed to your charge~ We bestow upon eacl~ and all of you, with the deepgst affection, Our ApoStolic Benediction. '" Giveri at Rome, ih St~ ¯Peter's, the nineteenth day of March, on the Feast of. St. Joseph, spouse' of the Virgin .Mary Mother of God, in the year 1924, the third of of Our pohtificate. Pius PP.XI . BOOKS FOR PRIESTS Two re~ent books of help for priests are THE PEOPLE'S [SRIEST, by' John C, Heenan, and PRIESTLY BEATITUDES, by Max Kassiepe, O.M.[., translated by A. Simon, .O.M.I. Both authors, the former who is now Bishop of Leeds in England, and the latter, an experienced ,German missionary, chaplain, and superior, know what they are talking about. The Peotgle's Priest, written for diocesan priests by one of them, is full of-practical, common sense, pastoral guidance, that is inspired throughout by an enlightened appreciation of the beautiful relationship that exists between the good i~riest.and his peo~ple. (New. Y0rk: Shoed ~ Ward, 1952, Pp. xi q- 24'3. $2.75.) Priestly Beatitudes contains twenty-two sermons.for a priest's retreat. In general, the talks follow the usual development according-to The Soiritual Exercises of St. lynatius with the merit of a constant advertence and application to a priest's life. The ring of authenticity is unmist'akable. (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1952. ,Pp. v + 393.S5.00.) '. FOR oRGANISTS AND CHOIRMA~s'rERs Father \Vinfrid Herbs.t, S.D.S. has helpfully 'got,herod together in a convenient booklet answers to many questions that often confront church musicians. This pamphlet, lnformdtion /'or Organists and Cboirmdsters, can be obtained from the Salvatnrian Fathers,' St. Nazianz, Wisconsin. Let:i:er !:o a Mas!:er-ol: Novices. L. Ganganelli [ED1TOI~'S NOTE[ This letter is said to have'been written by Fra Lorenzo Ganga-nelli, who late.r .became Pope Clement XIV, to a ,Jesuit in England 4¢ho had been .a former student. We cannot guarantee the authorship, but-the content of the letter is of value to every one.] Reverend Father, The office that you discharge requires as much gentleness as firm-ness. You must bear in mind that although a religious should be .circumspect in his demeanor, yet you cannot expect the same gravity from a young man as from. his elders. Ttie special gift of a nbvice master ~ons]sts in bei'ng able to recogni.ze the source from which.his novices' shortcomings proceed, in order to humble them if they are due to pride, to stimulate them if they arise from indolence,, to mor-tify .them if they p.roceed from sensuality, to check them if they spring*from impatiense. You must see .that your.young men are always .occupied. Besides .fixing their minds and restraining their imaginations, emploYment brings out their talents. In the case of-some, these develop slowly, but with a little patience and insight it is not hard to tell whether the cloud will be pierced at length by the sunbeams.o~ is.doomed to remain dark forever. If you suffer yourself to be carried away by a zealthat is wanting in sweetness, .you-may someday or other dismiss those who" would have been th~ glory of your order. '.They who have most ability are often those who have the most impulsive dispositions, and if one is not,sufficiently master of himself, it may, happen that certain, little sallies of humor, which are nothing more than mere bits of levity, will ruin a young man forever, by causing him t'o be excluded from a state of life where he would have rendered important services to ~b~ Church. ~ Take special care not to observe the same method of direction for all. Onemay need a sharp rebuke, for another a mere glance is enough.Let your silence itself speak, and you will seldom be obliged to give a reprimand. The young almost always imagine that ;t is throtigh ill-humor or the desire to scold that they are constantly receiving admonitions, and often they are not mistaken. Watch carefully, bat without allowing it to be perceived, To betray an appearance of mistrust fosters a spirit of deceit and un- 199 L. GANGANELLI _r o R~view for R¢liqiot~s ~ruthfuln~s. A tone of friendship soothes a ~6vice's feelings, whilst an air ofseverity wounds and irritates him. Scarcely ever~allow a fault to pass unpunished when it goes directly against the religious s~irit, a~n~l give particular heed to whafever offends against, inorality, Purity belorigs to.all Christians. but it is required of priests and reli-gious abo~e all'. You must make a distinction between a fault cord-mitted on the sp.urt. of the moment and a habitual defect. Remember that true virtue is not harsh and that .a smiling countenance inspires~cgnfidence. A cold and severe exterior, ~Imost alx~ays re~els, because, it bears the appearance of pride. ~nusDt ob en owti speu sWh iptheirnf etchtei omne taosou rfeh ro.f f doirs mcreetni oanr.e Ontohte .r~wnigseel tsh, ea nydo u~nogu' will conceive an.aversion, for you. and will weary¯ of piety itself. It is: not the repetition of precepts wh!ch makes novices improve. One ¯ migh~ preach all day long without-accomplishing anything if-prin-ciples are,not inculcated. When the~mind is convinced by reasoning that tl~ere necessarily exists a God. and hence a religion, and that' the. only true one is that which we profess, it does not allow itself to be dhzzled by sophistry; if sin is committed, it is with the conscious-ness of doing wrong. Do~ away with the system of, spying, as a public nuisance. It accustoms people to play the part of hypocrites and false friends. Do not allow yourself to conceive a prejudice against anyone. It' is thr~ugh.such ,prejudices that the innocent are every day. persecuted, -whilst the guil.ty triumph. If something is reported~ to you about a third party; take care tc; inform yourself of the facts of the case. and never condemn anyone.without giving him an ,opportunity to clear himself. Do not chastise withoutprevious warning, unless there is ques-tion of an-offense that demands the immediate infliction of'suitable punishment. Be more indulgent towards ¯secret' faults, as they ,are ,not attended with scandal which is the grea~er evil. Follow the Ggs-pel rule in r~gard to g~ving charitable admonition ~o such as go astray. ",(Remember "seventy times seven" and the father "of the prodigal.) " Do not forager that the y6ung must hhve recreation, and that~the mind is as a soil,"which to yield, greater ,fruit has need of., rest. More-over, ~t is advisable that everything sh'ouldhavethe appearance of being done freely. Obedience becomes an intolerable yoke unless the-superior is careful to lighten its burden. 200 Julg, 19.52 MASTER OF, NOVICES Do not place iff the.hands ~)f your novices any of those apocry-' phal.books which St. Paul" calls old wives tales .--"ineptas autem et afliles fabulas devita." Faith is not supported by lying, and religion is truth itself. Vary the readings of your- young scholars, and for tear ofexciting or mis'directing their imagi.natio.ns, do not apply them exclusively to the contemplative styl~ of works.,¯ Besides, at an age s6.t~nde&the memory must have facts that it can-retain. Above a~ll preserve peace in the midst of your little flock', by endeavoring to lift up the souls entrusted to your care above all the little details of the life of the cloister which only too often degenerates into disputes, hatred, ~nd jeaiousy. Teach them to-be great in the smallest .things, and to impart a value to their:meanest duties by the manner in which they acquit tbemse|v~es.of them. Smother ambition; stir.up emula'tion. Otherwise you will train up proud men or boors. Instil] into your novices an espY'it de corps, but without anything exc.essive. ~ If one is not attached' to the insti-tute to which he belongs, he gra~lually grows weary of his state;" if one is so excessively, he thinks his order hecessary, despises all other religious" communities, and g6es so far as to canonizecertain ~buses t6 which he has become attached through routine or prejudice. Show yourself always even tempered. ¯There is nothing more .ridiculous thhn a man who is unlike himself. The young have a keim eye for deciphering a superior's character. - They are rarely mis-taken in the case of one who is odd or whimsical. It throws them ¯ otit in their calculations and Wins their esteem when they see a supe~ riot who pursues always the same even tenor, showing firmness on all occasions but without any sign¯of.ill-temper. ¯ Avoid familiarity: yet, be less the superior th~.n .the-bosom friend of those.who have been confided to you. Let tb~m find in you a fath'er, and let them understand that it is your grehtest pain to re-. prove them. Show no predilection except towards such as have more wisdom and piety, and let it be only in circumstances in which it may serve as a lesson for the indolent and flighty. Never employ artifice tO bring about the faults that you wish to discover. Such clever tricks" are not consistent With honesty. Let your ~unishmeffts~ be in pro-p~) rtion tO th~ gravity of the faults, and do not go.and make a crime out of certain light transgressions which imply neither malice nor disorder i~f the heart. .It is not by sho.uting that men are corrected. St. F~ancis de 201 L. GANGANELLI Sales used to say that he touched sinners more by professions of friends.hi~ for them than by scolding them. The language, of the Gospel is that of persuasion. Do not 'lead anyone by extraordinary paths and check those who would wish to follow them, unless there be evidence of a stiper-natural call; but these cases are so rare that they cannot serve as a 'law. The time for' mysticism and that sort of pure speculation is gone. It would be dangerous to rec'all it. ' Leave young men free to speak in your presence Without intimi-dating them. It is the way. to discover their interior. In a word, demean yourself as a kind father of a family who does. not wish to make his children either slaves or hypocrites .or dolts but subjects knowing how to render to God His due, to religion its rights, and to so'ciety what belongs to it. The first of all rules is to learn to l'ove the Lord, and to do nothing, that could displease Him. This is the one object of all religious institutions; for you know, Reverend Father, as well as I do, that our regulations would be often puerile, were they not meahs of leading us to God. Every founder has de- . vised such as he thought most suitable for his purpose. Beware of such pedantry as to po, se as one incapable of error and knowing everything. When I was teaching and ~som~thing was asked that I~ did not know, I admitted mY ignor~ance without make-shift of any kind before my pupils themselves, who only esteemed me the more for it. Young people like to ha'ce you put yourself on, a level with them. If I have drawn this paper out at length, it is because the life of a master of novices is a life of details. You might have addressed someone better qualified to speak on the points at issue, but it would have been hard for you t6 hit upon one who would have served you with greater interest. . FRA L. GANGANELLI Convent of the" Holy Apostles, Rbme (between 1760-1769) TEN-YEAR INDEXmSTILL AVAILABLE C0pies~ of the Ten Year Index of the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS '(1942-1951) are still available at one dollar per copy. Kindly enclose paym~ent with the order from: REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, St.Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. 202 bligher I::ducat:ion and \ "Real Religion" Sister M. Bofiaventure, O.S.F. ALTHOUGH formal higher education is a relatively recent fac-tor in the spiritual life of S!sters, when viewed in the light of the g~neral history of religious .orders,. yet its. impact has already been felt deeply' enough to draw comp.laint, comment, and serious study. Beginning with a consciousness of inadequate.returns f~om university w, ork, as attested by members of various religious communities, the reaction has grown at times to a serious conviction of over-emphasis on intellectual and professional training and a fore-boding tendency to generalize that American religious women of the mid-century 'are more widely instructed but less cultured, less dis-ciplined and balanced than the Sisters of a generation ago. Since th~ blame cannot be lald upon higher education in itself without destroy-ihg the intrinsic meaning o~ the term, we face the alternative that the fault must lie in the relation between the r~ligious and the experi-ences of higher educatior~. The error must be sought in the .formula used for integrating these experiences. For mdst religious, the initi~l mental attitude toward higher educatiori, the acceptance or the denial of its necessity, basically con-ditions all furtbe~ reactions. This facto~ of "necessity" should no longer be debatable: its validity has been pointed out repeated.ly in the authoritatiye language ot~ papal encyclicals and in the exhorta-tions of religious leaders. Yet restatement might be in order. Through the centuries of her existence Holy Mother Church has constantly defined and demonstrated that the scope of education is the whole aggregate of human life, physical and spiritual, intellec-. trial and moral, individual, domestic, and social. Irt his encyclical on Claristian education Plus XI reminds the world that such an edu- .cation can be imparted only by good. teachers thoroughly grounded in the matter they seek to teach, teachers who' have learried to under-stand and evaluate properly all the various aspects of human life-- religious, social, political, industrial, economic, and scientific--in their modern dynamic setting. ~ : Our present Pontiff, Pope Plus XII, has h~ightened this empha-sis. The encycl!cal "Humani Generis" not only stressed the prepara-' 203 SISTER M. BONAVENTURE ," ~ory n~ed ,of higher education but ~reeminence in intellectual le,adership Review foc Religious also sounded a clarion call to : "It is well kn,own how highly the Church re.gar,ds human reason . But reason can perfgrm its functions safely arid well only when properly tiaine~i, that is~ when imbued with that sound philosophy, which has .long been,,as it were, a patrimony . For' this philosophy safeguards the genuine validity of human knowledge . Let them (Catholic teachers) strive with every force and effort to further the progress of the sdences which they teach.let them enga'ge in most careful research.". (N.C.W.C. translatibn, p. 13:) The present picture.of Catholic ~ducation in America.is patent proof that religious are making great efforts tb ~realize the educational ideals of the Church. Today we face smaller, threat of the old accu-shtion that Catholic education is not Catholic enough. But the need to implement .fully our understanding of ed[~cation, to "fulfill the tdrm" remains, and this need is identified with the need for higher education. Translated into specific language, i~means the need for an understanding of present day problems of health, labor, govern-ment. and pehce: fdr contact With the realities which condition mod-ern life--pr.!ces, wages, taxes: for common grounds on which reli-" gi~)us can closely contact those whom they would educate: and, above all, for the ialibre of leadership that will focus attention on the potentialities of Catholic education. To meet this need religious communities must supply active members who are thoroughly famil-iar with the directives of the Holy See for a confused world: leaders who have mastered'bbth the theory and prac.tice of Catholic" action: teachers who can recognize ~ind champion truth wherever.it is found, nor confhse tolerance of persons with the tolerance of false principles: scholars who can chart the course of modern science and ,speak the language of .modern art. Higher learning, then. seen in its true nature and 'function. becomes a necemary .religious activity. Not ~gnly is it completely compatible with spiritual grdwth, but it should be a vital factor in such growth. Since God is Infinite Knowledgeand Wisdom, there is reverent,logic in the observation that "nature rightly developed is a condition for and a more fit subject, of elevatlon to the supernatural order and a more precious dedication to God." The lack of proper , adaptation to modern needs has been with justice analyzed as a cur-rent grieoance against religious.life and one cause of its depreciation today. In his allocution to. members of, the First Congress for Reli- 204 " gio~us. (1950),-Pope Pius XII has 'emphasized.repeatedly the vital ,.relation betw~en.religioi~s life and higher learning. As Father Letter has concisely summarized it, the Holy Father points to. per-sonal sanctity as the essential object of religibus vocation, but at the same time underlines the obligation which binds religious in regard to the means of sanctification the avocations of religious life. "In these avocations religious rna~/and muststrive to be as up~to-date a's any of their contemporaries. That way, we may add. the~ will help. to remove a pretext for d~p, reciatinreg h g "l o" u~s' life.". (.REVIEW FOR RELm~OUS, Jan., 1952.) A'sense of precaution alone, might well lead to the same'cohclu-sion. Religious educators concerns&with th~ complex problem of training-new meinbers have been. raising stron.g"voices .against the dangers with which inadequat~ preparation for work ~hreatens reli-gious vocation. We cannot pass over,lightly ~he wa~ning of Sister Madeleva, C.S.C.: "No.group can deteriorate more quickly or, more terribly ~han young girls~of the type that enter our novitiates today without proper and adequate intellectual, cultural'and spiritual chal-lenges;' (NCEA Bulletin. 1950 .255)'. ¯ Granting. then. the vital need of-higher ~d~cation in the active religious life. it is at once-apparent that the adjustment of conflicts , arising from this need rests .primarily with religious superiors and community directors. Such problems may arise in regard to safe-guarding ~egular community life and observance.of rule under aca-demic schedules; the selection of religious for higher~trMning, and most pertinently, in providing adeq~iate religious formation and con-tinued guidance~in: the integration of educational e.xperience. in the' past twenty years religious communities have evidenced a gro.wing awareness of such problems. Some of the solutions sug-gested and attempted have proved highly significant. There has been self-examination and frank admission o~ the stagnation in eduCa-tional woik, which results from community inbreeding. Complete reorganization of educational programs in many communities is demonstrating concretely tl~at adequate syn,thesis, of religious voca-, tion and avocation is possible. Such programs have been tested. analyzed, and evaluated at meetings of the National Catholic Edu-cational Association in recent years. Where attention is seribusly .focused on such synthesis, religious superiors find greatest opportun-iiy to bring ripened experience and intelligent zeal to the aid of the individual religious caught in men~al tensions. Neveriheless, the fact 205 ~ISTER M. BON,~VENTURE Reuiew /:or Religiou}~, remains th~;t it is on the plane of personal, interior integrati'on that the decisive conflicts of religious life are resolved.-No religious, whether in the" active.or in the contemplative life, can escape the basic problem of knowledge: bow to transmute knowledge into wisdom. To keep the balance! T, bat is the goal which spells personal sanctification. On the other hand, it is precisely¯ thee lack of balance that vitiates the relation between higher learning and. religious iife, building up the pressures and conflicts that draw condemnation. And since, for the active religious, contihued growth in knowledge and culture, is progress toward perfection in her state of life,. ~he problem' of proper balance is a perennial one, It faces the matur~ as well as the young religious. There is consensus in the observation that where ~ducational ex-periences are hot properly integrated ~by religious the resulting pres-sures may produce'three types of personality reaction: 1. Worldliness: Loss of spiritual¯ perspective. A shifting of ifocus from God to human activity. The ¯religious is nolonger'a Catholic educator but a mere devotee of science or of art. 2. Scrupulosity: A false dichotomy which constantly demands ¯ choice b~tween prayer and study as two independent activities. The religious finds her spiritual life increasingly cramped and is~ no longer ¯ able to find sahctifying unity in the labor of the laboratory or library and spiritual exercises. 3. Discontent: Unanalyzed pressures, which¯ are not always, the "divine restlessness" of St. Augustine, but which '.drive the religious to seek escape measures .in change of occupation or vocation. The adjustment necessary to prevent such reaction or to resolve" the conflict when it does .occur demands self-knowledge. And though it may seem anomalous, the need of s~If-knowledge may grow~ apace with.higher learning. For the religious with university¯ degrees may still be .the dangerous man of "one book," if the ~legrees. represent a knowl.edge of books alone. A clear knowledge of the im-mediategoal can be a dangerous pressure when not integrated with an equally clear grasp 0f the proper means for reaching the goal. And since we cannot discount ¯human inertia with its tendency to stop at ge, neral principles, instead of making concrete applications, there is reason to review some of the factors essential to adjustment 6r read-justment in religious life. Because the heart of the higher-education problem is conflict, the 'solution ~rests on a¯choice of method and of means. 206. July, 1952 HIGHER EDUCATION Method Conflict grows from disorder. Butorder is the recoghition of ~i definite hierarchy of succession among the parts of a rational entity,. It is established and maintained first, by a proper evaluation of each" part in t~rms of the. whole: then by a complete; integration of these parts-into an organic whole in which'each individual activity is sub-ordinated to the good of the whole organism. Neither the pursuit nor the. results of learning can be allowed a position of dominance. A mastery of s~abject matter must remain always a mastery, a iecoilected control which rules out avidity and passionate intens.ity and the vain, curious study that makes of learning the curiosiiates philosophantiun) denounced by St. Bonaventure. For.the Seraphic Doctor had learned from his master, St. Francis, that all science leads the mind from the consideration of' the creature to the contemplation of the Creator only when it is rightly pursued. Given their proper subsidiary evaluation, the learning activities ---courses and lectures, problems and examlnations--must be con-tinuously integrated into the brganic whole of the interior life. This can be accomplished only through the medium of love, the "unction" of St. Bonaventure. Interior inspiration, the fruit of daily medita-tion and mortification, must inform tile activities of the lecture hall and laboratory. If the arts';ind sciences, as we are told, are "'forever waiting the spiritualizing influence 6f revealed religion," surely the religious cannot forego this apostolate. Nor is it necessary to follow an~ complex formula in order to integrate, empirical knowledge, in-tellectual principles, religious intuition, and emotional response into a meaningful and orderly whole. The means are the staples of reli-gious life: faith, obedience, humility, and love. MeaDs Faith is the basis of integration. Of the religious, who makes learning a ladder of sanctity it may be said in the literal sense, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." We know the threefold object of faith: 1) to enlighten the mind with regard to God; 2) to show us the proper relation of creatures to God; 3) to'direct our'activity towards God. The.religious who ~'xercises dail3; the habit of faith hold~ the unfailing sblvent for every interior conflict. To the eye of faith every person, every situation, every idea is a transparency through which shines the Divine Countenance. Wi~h a living faith it is possible to hear the voice of the Eternal Lawgiver above every 207~ ~ISTER M. BONAVENTURE " Review for ~eligious lecture on history, economics, or politi~s and to read glimpses,of His beauty written large "6r small across the pages of ancient liteiature and modern letters. TO liveby ~faith is to see, ~albeit darkly~ not a threat but a divine wisdom and p!an behind academic sthedules,,and challenging assignments. It is. above all, to have an unfailing source of confidence and courage to face¯ any God-given task in the" knbwl-edge that'the power of heaven is ours. For in .the words of. our Holy Father "we are rich in supernatural assistance through the grace poured out in the floodtides of the' Sacraments and prayer.'.¯ Wh~t room is left for confliCt,in the mind of th~ religious who learns to find under the mate'rial "species" of 1.earn!ng experiences the sacra-mental "substance" of a spirit.ual reality which is a part of her com-plete consecration? No more time, no argu'ment is n.eede~ for the finding. -- Active faith provides the religious with a second 'effective means of integration, a means which is at the same time a gtiarantee against doubt and.mental c6nflict. This gi~aranteeis obedience,-the hinge of religious life,',formulated by the vow.of ~onsdcration and in its full implication t6uching every act of the human will. If the entrance of a religious into the field of higher e~ducation is dictated by vocational need, according to the judgment of superiors, rather than by a desire .for personal achievement, obedience provides firm ground on which every situation can be met with the peace which is the fruit of faith. But to prove the perfe, ct safeguard against con2 flict obedience mus~ rise above passive resignation. It must be the active, personal element ol~ our friendship with God, the beneoolentia of St. Thomas'i by which we will what comes to. us by God's order .because it is the expression ~f His love for us. Through faith, obedi-. ence reveals as the core of each new l~arning experience the recogni-ti6n of a .Divine Provideiice. ¯ The abiding habit of such active obedience, is the foundation of the perfect peace ,recognized by,Dhnte, the peace of a mind relaxed not on the defensive-=therefore, a permeable mind that. absorbs and retains ~ith ~least. effort. TOO frequently well-meanifig,but confused religious, who fear to launch out into the depths of faith and trust, block by feverish activity and fearful tension the very channels' through which God is expected toanswer their pleas for aid, t~eir imagination, memory, understanding'. The r~li~ious who desires in obedience "to be to God what a hand is to a man" will be cdntent to do what G6d indicates as reasonable in any situation, as best-she can, HIGHER I~DUCATION° then without qualm or conflict leave the results to Him, even when. these results affect entire communities. Faith does not' lessen daiiy, responsibilities nor dilute .them with nonchalant optimism. But it does enable the religious scholar to bear the burden lightly, with the detachment and'joy that are the marks of ~ will surrendered tO God. " Perhaps the most subtl~ and least, recognized source of tension f6r the religious .studen~ is personal susceptibility and its tenuous roots of pride. The ignorance of a child reaches out.foi knowledg~ with a'joyous freedom and pliancy. The adult mind can grasp truth safely and without pain qnly by the grace of,humility. ForAearning is~always a' "receiving," ari acknowledgement of need. The mind that is undonsciously'on the defensive against such acknowledgement to superiors.in~tructors, fellow ~tudents, even. to itself is under a psychological pressure that brakes every :lear~aing process. Not only does such pressure pre~clude an open-mind but, more seriously, it is incompatible with recollection and inspiration. " The religious who ~onsi~tently strives for complete ~ integration of all" her activities in the field of higher learning by seeing every ex-. perience with the eyes of faith, recognizing p.eacefully its seal of providential design and accepting it with a humble and open-heart, will find within herself what is at once the fruit and lthe only valid-test of such integration. That fruit is know, ledge transformed into wisdom by the alchemy of love--wisdom which makes love come .full circle iia contemplation. This is the wisdom which, whefi~ com-municated, iadiates, transforming love and is the truth.which makes. men free. " But unless recollection and devotion draw knowledge within .the circumference i3f a personality whos~ center is God, its widest reaches W,ill mdrely parch the soul, leaving 6nly a" hard glittering surface. What is worse, this arid desert of surface knowledge is the soil which ~ fraelasdei lcyo ;npsrcoidenuccee,s sac rhuopslte os,f rfaatlisoen daliiczhaotitoonmsi.e Os'na nthde m oethnetar lh caonndf,l tihctes-: religious who remember'with Maritan,. that "just as. everything which is in the Word is found-once more in tt'ie Sp!rit, .so must 'all that We know pass into our power of affection " by love,", will find .th.a.t. every facet of ~aature on which man may concentrate can be made to yield fuel for the inner life,of re!igious perfection. Only the flafiae thus fed-can dispel the darkness of the cold materialism which sur: rounds "us. Need we hesitate to conclude that prop(r evaluation of educa- 209 NATIONAl; C(~NGRESS Review t~or Religious tional goals and adequate spiritual integration of learning experiences cannot fail to eliminate th~ conflicts and tensions frequently.associ-ated with higher education for religious? Will it not de~pen appre-ciation ~ religious life and underline the tragedy of the loss of voca-tion? Religious thus educated do not merely know more ~hings, but thdy understand the vivifying unity underneath all things and in this understanding taste the peace and joy of "real religion." Such religious respond fully ~o the exhortation of the'Holy Father, which cannot be repeated too freque.ntly: "Be what you are. Let your'live~s bear witness to the reality of rtehheg "lo "u's state, Then' men,within and without the Church, will understand and esteem the state of ~erfection." Nal:ional Congress [EDITOR'S NOTE: Fa~'her Francis J. Connell. C.SS.I~., the executive chairman of the National Congress of Religious Men, kindly sent us the following communica-tion about the Congress to be held at Notre Dame University in August.] The First National Congress of Religious will be held at Notre Dame, Indiana, from August 9th to August 13th this year. Both religious men and women will be present, but 'will hold se)arate meeting~, except for a few meetings in common. It ik hoped that all orders and congregations now having a foundation in the' United States will be ~epresented. Housing facilities for about 1800 will'be available on the campus at Notre Dame University. It has been agreed by those in Charge of the Congress that 800 religious men and 1000 religious women will be invited. , O~ Saturday evening, August 9th, an address will be made.to the assembled religious by the Most Rev. John F. O'Hara, C.S.C., Arch-' bishop of Phila°delpbia. Solemn Benediction of the Mos~ Blessed Sacrament will theft be given, with Father Arcadio Larraona, cele-brant; Father Elio Gambari, S.M.M., deacon; Father Joseph Giam-pietro, S,.J., subdeacon. These of~cials.have been deputed by the Sacred Congregation of Religious to be present at ~he.Congress as re-presentatives .of the said. Congregation. On Sunday morhing the~e will be a Solemn Pontifical Mass after which His Excellency, A. G. 210 dul~l, 1952 ~ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Cicognani, Archbishop of Laodicea and "Apostolic Delegate t£ the United States, will ~ddress tbe oentire Congress. Undoubtedly .the main purpose of this Congress is to discuss p~obl.ems of. religious life' especially.pertaining to the present-day con-ditions in America. The Holy See isvitally interested in this sub-ject, and beyond doubt, many of the ideas which will be broached at this Congress will be brgugbt to the attention of the Roman au-thorities. The religious in Americi believe that it is possi,ble to main-tain a high standard ofreligious life in the United State~ i:lespite the materialistic and pleasure-loving tendencies of our country. With a view to attaining this objective, papers will be. read by representatives of the Congress on special subjects, e.g.,' stinlulation of vocations to the religious life in the United States; the obligation of superiors to fulfill their duties with p~oper regard for the innate love of indepen-dence of }:he American .people--in itself an admirable trait of charac-ter, and capable of being perfectly conformed to the higher.ideals of religious obedi(nce. Al~o, particular consideration will be given to the contemplative life, the sect~lar institutes, American religious of the Oriental Rites, and similar topics. The.dlosing ceremony" will be a Candlelight Procession to the Grotto of Our Lady at Notre Dame. It is very "evident that only a comparatively small proportion of "r~ligious in our dountry will be able to attend this gathering, but it is firmly boiled by'those in charge of the Congress that all will pray fervently that'God may bless this meeting with abundant fruits, and that Our Blessed Lady, on whose University grounds this first National Congress is being held, will obtain many graces for the par-ticipants and for all those whom they represent. ¯ .Questions and Akiswers 19 Please explain the prescriptions of the Church regarding the chap,fer of faults.in a religious community. " ' . : The chapter° of faults has beenpracticed 'for centuries in som~ form by'the older orders in the Church. As regards modern congre-gatipns, the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars had the following prescriptions in the Norrnae of 1901: . . 211 -- QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious 1), It is'not necessary, that a congregation, prescri,be the chapter of faults in its constitutions. This does not.meah, howe~rer, thatthe religious is fre~ not t6 attend, if the constitutio'~as'.do prescribe the chapter of faults. (Art. 167.) 2). If it is prescribed, it should not be held oftener than 6nce a wed(. nor less frequently than once a m6nth. (Art. 167.) 3) . The accusation of faults~ which a religious makes to his supe-rior in the .chapter ro6m should be limited to faults and violations Of the constitutions that are external. 4) After-each accusation the superior imposes a penhnce. Obvi- . ously there Should be some pr, oportion~between the fault and the penance, and prudence and discretion should temper the penance ac-cording to persons, and circumstances. (Art. 169.) This exercise of fiumility and penance can be the occasion for the practice of virtue and for stimulating religious to overcome external f~iults to which they are prone. It al~o affords the.opportunity of" repairing th~ scandal (disedifi~ation) given to fell6w r~ligious by the faults. "" In some institute~' custom permits the members of the comr~un-ity to accuse one another of faults that they"have observed. If this practice is not already p.rovided for in the constitutions or book of customs, it should not be introduced without permission. Finally~. the superior may take the occasion of the chapter of faults to admon-ish the.community regarding external faults that aremore-or less common. This method of pate.rnal correction is especia.lly efficacious at the time of the devotional renewal o-f vows. -~-20--- At our novltlatewe have professed, novices, and postulant 'Brothers. who assist at Mass; which is served by novices. And on ~erta;n feast days the Sisters participate. Please cj;ve the cc;rrect order. ;n which Holy Com-munion should be distributed. - The Roman Ritual (tit. IV cap. ~I)- telis us that the priest:dis-tributing Holy Communion should begin with the Mass servers, if the~i Wish to cc;mmunicht~. A decree.bf the Sacred Congregation-of Rites (N. 107~, 3uly 13, 1658) sta'ted that the Mass server was to receivd Holy Communion before the nuns and other persons present. A later decre~ (N. 4271, lj permitted a lab, man serving~Mass,. ,~'though he do not wear the clerical garb, to receive Holy Communion. within the sanctuary, at the plat~orin of the altar. As there was a" '2"12 ¯ " . ' . ~ul~, 195Z .QUE~TION~ AND ANSWERS difference of opinion" in the interpretation-of these prescript{ons, the. Sacred Congregation of Rites gave the following detailed' regulations in a decree dated January 30, 19F5 (AA$, VII 1915, 71-72) : "The term Mass server or server at the altar includes any cleric or layman who serves l~/Iass at the altar.and he is to be preferred to others in the distribution of Holy Communion with the.following precautions: clerics are to be preferred to alayman serving Mass, and. clerics in major orders are to be preferred to cl~rics in~ minor orders , who are serving Mass." Keeping these various presc,~iptions {n mind,- w~ may now answer our question as follows: The Mass server, whether cleric or.layman, recei~res Holy COmo reunion before others ~who may be present, unless some are clerics; all clerics receive Holy Communionbefore a Mass server who is a lay-man: if the server is a cleric, he should receive first in his lank of clerics, precedenc~ being given to clerics 6f higher rank. Lay religious, Brothers and non-cleric~il religious, that is,.r~ligious not yet tonsure.d though destined for the priesthood, as well as Brothers and Sis: ,ters, all.receive Holy Communion after the Mass server, l~e he a cleric or a layman. " Finally,. an exception is made at a NuptialMass, at which the bride and groom may be given Holy Communion before, the. Mas~ server. As to the order of precedence in receiving Holy Communion at the Communion rail 6n the par,t of non-clerical religious, there are no regu'lations. Hence local customs may be observed if the consti~ tutions do not prescribe the precedence. It may be well. to recall here that a reserved instruction by the Sacred Congregation of Religious, December 8, 1938, said there should be no "rigid and quasi-military order" in coming to the Communion rail. Many commentators on ¯ this instruction suggested that the order prevailing in numerous reli-giou~ communities of receiving Communion.in a definite order should be changed. For the text of the instruction se~ Father Bouscaren's Canon'Law .Digest, II, 208 ft. ; ~nd for an article on the instruction, as well as a digest of the text, see REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, III (1944), 252-70. SHALLI START TO DRINK? . . Shall 1 Start to Drink?, by 3ohn C. F6rd~ S:d., p~esents a clear discussion of ¯ the moral and ascetical aspects of total abstinence. A pamphlet; published by The Queen's Work, 31 15 South Grand Boulevard, St. Lohis 18, Missouri. .213 I THE MORNING OFFERINGs. By Thomas ML Moore, S.~. °Pp~ t69. .Ap0stl~shlp.o~f Prayer, New York, '1950. $3.00. 40,000,000 members of. the Apostleship of Prlayer" scattered throughout the world, priests; ~ligious, men and women and chil-dren of every race and clime, recite "The Morning Offering".~laily. This formidable army of prayer is sending up unceasin~ petition to the Throne of God tbrdughout thehours of the day and night that "through the [mmaculate Hdart, of Mary" He may.acdebt their "prayers. works, joys and ~suff_erings of the day for all the int,entions of the Sacred 'Heart. in union with' the Holy. SaCrifice. of the Mass throughout th'e world, in reoaration for sin. for the intentions of all the Associates. and in particular, for all the intehtions"of the Holy Father." ¯ The last half of Father Moore's book .is a detailed expl~natio, n 6f the mo~ning offering. The chapters o'n the Immaculate Heart.of Mary the Comfiaunion of" Reparation.and the /kpostleship of* Suffering d~serve special mention. . o The first half.of the book contains a simple, untechnical expla-nation of the fundamental notions of theology, which underlie the Morning Offerifig': -cre'ati0n, end of man, tlSe love~ of God and of the Sacred Heart for men as.shown in the.redemption, man's free co-opei'atiori in~he work of God. the nature and .efficacy O,f prayer. union with ~hrist, especially in the Eucharistic Saerifice. The history a'nd*development of the Apostleship of"Prayer as well as. itS adapta-tion to-modern times, especially through the S~cred Hear( Radio Pr?grgm, bring the book to a close. - " This bpok is ~arnestly recommended to all religious for their own personal use in order to get-acquainted wi'th the Apostleship,of Prayer if they,are not. members as ye~.and to help' the~rfi spread.the °Ap0stl~ship far an~l wide among the faithful who come under their ¯ influence.' "It i] v/ell suited.: fo~ spiritual reading, either .privately or .in' common.--ADnM C." ELLIS[ S.J. WHAT IS THE iNDEX? By Redmond A. Burki~, C.S.V. Pp. x -k" 130. Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1952. $2.75. . Thislohg needed book gives a brief but'solid expos.ition of the. origin, .nature, and extent of the laws of. the, Church re~arding censorship and~ p.~oh!bition of books. It is. directed not merely to theological students and the pra~.icin~ clergy, b~Jt primar!ly "to, the 214 . BOOK REVIEWS intellige~nt laity, whether Catholic or.no~-Catholic, and it attempts~ to discover th~ effects of e~clesiasti~al regulation~ with 'reference to, the entire world of literature. For this reason the termsare, as far as possible, nontecbnical.'~ After gi,ving the~ historical, background of the Church's .legisla-, tion in chapter.ond. [he author goes on to treat the foliowing sub-~ jects in subsequent chapters:, censorship of books in adyance of pub! lication:0condemfiation of ,publisl~ed books: general classes Of for5 bidden literature: methods of examining books by the Holy Office: I'ndex of forbidden, books: penalties for. violations of book regula-tions: permission to read forbidden books: and promotion of' - re~ding. Perhap.s the most valuable chapter in the book is that in which he treats general classes of forbidden lit~ratu're.' It is. in reality, commentary on canon 1399 of the'Code of Canon Law. Too many Catholics including some priests and religious, labor under the false impressio.~i that as long as a book,is not listed in the Index of For-. bidden Boobs it .may be read w. ith impunity. Most forbidden books are not listed in theIndex. ~Inste, ad. their are t~) be judged by. probi-bition-~ f different classes Of books as determined in canon. 1399. The author gives ~ brief, but satisfactory comm~n,t on each clas~ of books contained in this canon. Of special importance also is the chapter telling.how to bbtain permission to read forbidden books. This .will prove very.helpful for st~udents doing ~esea.rch work, as well as those in professional schools. - In an appendix the aUthor g~ves various listings of books ~n~the Index: 7We are deeply" indebted to him for l~a, ving given us'also Abbd Bethleem's valuable lists of selections of the work of F~ench authors which.may be :read,.in spite ot: the fact that the authors' works.are forbidden in ge'neral. A final app, endix on "The C;reat Book~ Program" completes the work. Af~er,.poi~ating out the,-valu'e of this praisewo'rthy project, the autho~ lis~s the booksbn the pro'gram which'may not be read with-out permission. This excellent book should, be~on thesheJv, es of every Catholic school !ibFfiry beginning with the high school, and on up to college and university lentil. Likewise, every religl6us community .engaged in teaching in secondary schools and co!leges should have a copy in the faculty library. Other religious engaged:in act.ire works will als0 find it useful. ADAM~C. ELLIs. S.O,. 215 BOOK R~VlEWS . . " ". Reoieto for Ret(gious " THE SEMINARIAN AT'HIS PRIE-DIEU. By'Robert.Nash; S.d. Pp. 312. The-Newman Press, We~fmlnster, Md., 1951. $3.50. This is a book of meditations for seminarians. Fr. Nash's thirty-eight meditations are aimed at hdping s~mingrians gr~ow into p, ray-erful priests who will be ready for the!r work in the p,resent world of social unrest, of threatening Communism, of secularism, and the rest. As in histwo previous companion works, The Nun at Her Prie-Dieu and The Priest at His Prie-Dieu, each meditation containsa prepara-tory prayer, the setting or cdmposition of place, the fruit desired, three or four points (each of which the author rightly suggests could serve for one or more meditations), a brief, summary of the points, and a tessera or catchword to be recalledduring the day. Particularly well done is the setting,, which can help a busy'stu-dent cast aside extraneous thoughts and.apply his mind more readily to .the subjec~ matter of the meditation. Though this book cannot remove all the thorns that beset the paths of mental przyer, s~mi-narians, t~erhaps more especially those fresh from the "world," will find in it plentiful material and a good method to follow in their meditation. It could also be u~ed profitably for spiritual reading. JOHN F. MOORE,. S.J. THE CARMELITE DIRECTORY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. Translated from ~the'Lafln. Pp. xxlv -F~ 575. The Carmelite Press,'.Chlcag.o, II1., 1951. For Carmelites themselves, for their followers, and for students of their spirituality, this directory will be an invaluable and almost inexhaustible gold mine of doctrine. It is official, being introduced and commended by a letter, of the Prior General. It dales not bear the name of any writer or corn'piler, but seems, to be put forth l~y the ~armelite Order itself. It is recent/ the Latin o6ginal being dated 1940. Its purpose is t~ complement 'and implement the Rule ~nd Constitutions. ~ The work consists bf four major parts. Parts one ~ind two, en-titled, respectively,. "Dogmatic Fundamentals of the Spiritual Life" and "Principlesof Religious Life," are of a general and Catholic, ha-. ture and prepare for what is specifically Carmelite. This is presented in tile latter tWO.l~art,s.Of these the third is headed "A Holy Heart~" and deals mostly "i¢ith the conquest of bad habits, the acc~uisition of ¯ the virtues, and the pursuit of perfection. The last part is devoted to ."The Contemplative Life." Some people no doubt will note with surprise how little space is. given.to the m3~stical phase of the spiritual ~ life. (pages 525-551)'. . , 216 July, 1952 . BOOK I~OTICES It is interes'ting to observe, in view of Wl~at certain welJ-known authors on prayer, for instance, Saudreau an~t Arintero, hold, that where "the higher degrees of mental prayer wl~ich can be attained by ordinary grace" are treated, we find the statement that "there are two higherdegrees x~hich today are usually called affective pra~,er and the prayer of simplicity or filso acquired contemplation" (p. 425). Toward'the end of the section on the gifts of the Holy¯ Spirit it is affirmed that persons who cultivate them carefully "may :lawfully expect to_be led day by day to greater perfection and to work great things for the glory of God and*His kingdom" (p. 299). No promise is made of mystical favors. The 'Prior General has a sentence in his letter that is enlightening about the spirit of Carmel: "In this book.will be found fully explained those key principles of Carmel: to give our whole selves to God--to stfi.ve for purity of conscience--to foster intimate union with God" (p. xxiii). Lastly, the delicate problem of the historical connectibns of the Order witch "our Holy Father Elias" is handled devoutly but-Cautiously. ~-~AUGUSTINE G. ELLARD, S.J. BOOK NOTICES Som~ years ago Father Henry Davis, S.J., rendered an invaluable ser'vice~to the English-speaking clhrgy, as well as to theology-minded laity, by publishing a 4-volume work on moral and pastoral the-ology. Before his death at the age of eighty-five, in January of this year, he had increased his measure of service by preparing a 1-volume SUMMARY OF MORAL AND PASTORAL THEOLOGY. The book covers the whole of moral theolpgy: principles: precepts, and sadraments; and it includes much sound pastoral advice. It is a very useful book for priests, libraries, and those 9fthe laity who wofild like t6 become. acquaifited with a standard manual of moral .tl~eology. One' caution might be added for the laity. The treatise on the Sixth Command-ment, since it follows the pattern of the theological textbook, con-tains certain technicalities that might be more confusing than help-ful. The laity'who "irish to read on this subject for their personal benefit would do better to use a book written expressly for them. (New York: Sheed ~3 Ward, 1952. Pp. xxxvi -b 486. .$5.00.), A decidedly readable explanation of the doctrine of the Mys~fical, Bddy of Christ is THE LIVING CHRIST, by John L. Murphy. The t .217 BOOK NOTICES - Revi~ for Religious explana~tion is based o~n Pius XII'~ encyclical." M~/st, ic[ Co?~oris. The author avoids the use of technical terms as much as possil~le and plains those that must be used. The style i~ marked by clarity, simplicity, "ahd. a certain down-to-ear~hnes~ that contributes con-creteness without losing digni

Issue 17.6 of the Review for Religious, 1958. ; A. M. D. G. Review Religious NOVEMBER 15, 1958 Plus Xll: St:at:es ot: Pert:ecfion . John Carroll I~ut:rell .! Current Spiritual Writing . Thomas G. O'Callaghan Preliminary t:o Adapt:at:ion . Sister Maria The General Chapt:er . Joseph F:. G~llen Book Reviews Questions and Answers Index t:or 1958 Roman Documents about: Mary and World Needs Catholic. Workers Spiritual Assistanc~ [or Soldiers VOLUME 17 NUMBER 6 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS VOLUME 17 NOVEMBER, 1958 NUMBER 6 .CONTENTS PIUS XII (1939-1958) AND THE STATES OF PERFECTION-- John Carroll Futrell, S.J . 321 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 325 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING-- Thomas G. O'Callaghan, S.J . 326 SUMMER-SESSION ANNOUNCEMENTS . 338 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION Sister Maria . 339 MEDICO-MORAL PROBLEMS . 350 SURVEY OF ROMAN DOCUMENTS~R. F. Smith, S.J . 351 THE GENERAL CHAPTER--Joseph F. Gallen, S.J . 358 BOOK REVIEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Editor: Bernard A. Hausmann, S.J. West Baden College West Baden Springs, Indiana . 370 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: 35. The Right to Refuse an Elective Office . 380 36. Limits of Extension of Hands at Mass . 381 37. Manner of Receiving Communion . 381 INDEX FOR VOLUME 17 . 382 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, November, 1958. Vol. 17, No. 6. Published bi-monthly by The Queen's Work, 3115 South Grand Blvd., St. Louis 18, Mo. Edited by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approval. Second class mail privilege authorized at St. Louis, Mo. Editorial Board: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.J.; R. F. Smith, S.J.; and Henry Willmering, S.J. Literary Editor: Robert F. Weiss, S.J. Copyright, 1958, by The Queen's Work. Subscription price in U.S.A. and Canada: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U.S.A. Please send all renewals and new subscriptions to: Review for Religious, 31|5 South Grand Boulevard. St. Louis 18o Missouri, Plus Xll (1939-1958) and t:he t:a!:es ot: Perl:ect:ion John Carroll Futrell, S,J. THE DEATH of Pope Pius XII was a great loss for the whole world and for men and women in every walk of life. Successor of St. Peter and hence divinely guided teacher of religious truths, he spoke out dearly on topical dog-matic and moral questior~s. "Pope of Peace," he appealed to people everywhere to practice the justice and self-control essential to the establishment of a harmonious world ordbr. To the faithful he was ever a father, the gentle Vicar of Christ who gave a radiant example of personal holiness and a true reflection of his divine Master. Nevertheless, perhaps it is the men and women dedicated to God in states of perfection who feel most indebted to this great pontiff and who most deeply mourn his passing. For he understood the special difficulties and problems of those endeavoring to carry out the duties oi: the states perfection in the modern world, and the acts of his pontificate are a lasting monument to this understanding. It is the purpose of this article to give a summary of the major contributions of this great pope to the welfare of the Church's states of perfection. Sacred Virginity To all the men and women who have embraced the evan-gelical counsels this Holy Father, who was called the Pastor /lngelicus, gave a new charter of praise and a ringing affirmation of their choice of vocation in his magnificent encyclical Sacra Virginitas, issued on March 25, 1954. Meeting current exag-gerated claims of the primacy of the married state, the Pope explained and lauded consecrated virginity freely elected for the love of Christ. Granting .that holiness can be attained without virginity, the Pontiff nevertheless showed the greater excellence of this state of exclusively divine love. He recalled to religious 321 JOHN CARROLL FUTRELL Review for Religious the necessary means and cautions to preserve chastity and recom-mended better presentation of the ideal of the celibate state to youth and greater support for it by Catholic parents so that vocations might flourish. Secular Institutes During the first decades of the twentieth century, fervent men and women in the world manifested a desire to lead lives of religious perfection while remaining in the world. Many of them took private vows to keep the evangelical counsels and dedicated themselves to apostolic activities within their secular environment. The canonical status of these men and women was obscure, and many tradition-minded ecclesiastics felt that they should be compelled to join approved associations of the faithful. In his apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia of February 2, 1947, Pope Pius XII gave these groups of men and women formal canonical recognition as secular insti-tutes and laid down laws to govern them. To facilitate the natural development of these institutes, the Holy Father left these laws in very 'broad outline. The members of secular institutes are not religious, as a general rule" have no com-munity life, take no public vows, and usually do not wear distinctive garb. But as the Pope made clear in a motu l~ro/~rio on March 12, 1948, and again in a talk to the International Congress on States of Religious Perfection on December 9, 1957, the secular institutes lack nothing of the elements con-stitutive of Christian perfection; they have their own nature and form, and their members need not join other associations of the faithful. The Training of Religious The late Holy Father, himself a man of extraordinary intellectual attainments and broad cultural and scientific inter-ests, was deeply convinced that religious priests and teaching sisters and brothers should receive an education which would fit them for the needs of the times. In his exhortation Menti nostrae of September 23, 1950, Pope Pius insisted upon the 322 November, 1958 Pius XII AND STATES OF PERFECTION importance of adequate seminary training and continual intel-lectual pursuits for the promotion of priestly sanctity. Six years later he fully developed this ideal of clerical training in the apostolic constitution Sedes Sapientiae, which laid down principles and statutes to govern the formation of religious candidates for the priesthood. The Pontiff insisted that the religious priest must be the perfect man in Christ Jesus, broadly cultured, intellectually the equal of men in ~he world, and equipped to refute modern errors and meet modern needs. Special note was taken of the necessity for a graduated train-ing in p.astoral technique which should culminate in a year's apprenticeship under experienced guides. In June of 1958 a Pontifical Institute of Pastoral Work was established in Rome to foster the pastoral development of priests, with courses aimed at practical work and at the preparation of seminary instructors. Nor was it only religious priests who were the object of Pius XII's concern. At the First International Conference of Teaching Sisters at Rome in. September, 1951, the Holy Father exhorted the sisters to prepare themselves well for the apostolate of education. The extent of the pontiff's solicitude for this preparation, especially for the teaching of Christian 'doctrine, was strikingly manifested on February 11, 1956, when he erected the pontifical institute Regina MunJi~ for the intellectual training of women in states of perfection. The Pope also recognized the importance of special training for mistresses of postulants, novices, and young religious; and by" a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious in March, 1957, he established the school Mater Dibi;~e G.i~ati~e at Rome to offer a three-year course in such training. Teaching brothers were greatly encouraged by an apos-tolic letter of March 31, 1954, wherein the Holy Father affirmed that the brothers are religious in. the full .sense of canon law, possessing a divine vocation approved and pro-tected by the Church to engage in the apostolate of education. 323 JOHN CARROLL FUTRELL Review for Religiot~s This includes a mandate to teach Christian doctrine within the limits prescribed by canon law. In July, 1957, a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious erected the pontifical institute JeSlCS ~Iagisler with a program of training to pro-mote the self-sanctification of the brothers and to better pre-pare them to lead their students to Christian truth and virtue. Contemplative Nuns Sponsa Christi, the apostolic constitution of November 21, 1950, on the vocation of contemplative nuns, marked a milestone in the understanding of the place of this high state of perfection in the modern world. The Pope laid down general statutes governing solemn vows, gave a preliminary clarification of major and minor papal cloister, and reaf~rmed the essentially monastic and autonomous character of the indi-vidual houses. Nonetheless, he strongly urged the organiza-tion of federations of monasteries for the fostering of religious spirit and the alleviation of economic problems and suggested limited apostolic activity even to strictly cloistered groups. Later, in March, 1956, the Pontiff promulgated definitive legislation regarding the cloister of nuns. One of the last acts of the life of Plus XII was a beautiful allocution to contemplative nuns delivered over the radio in July and August, 1958. The Pope urged the nuns to know and love their contemplative life. He exhorted superiors to plan carefully the formation of young religious in the contemplative life and warned that this formation must be adapted to modern girls. Finally he taught once again that certain types of apostolic activity such as the education of the young, retreats for women, and works of charity toward the sick and the poor are compatible with the essence of the contemplative life, provided the interior striving for union with God continues uninterrupted. New Things and Old Perhaps the most constant desire of Pope Plus XII for the states of perfection was that they would return to the fervent spirit of their founders and at the same time adapt 324" Novc~bcr, 1958 Pius XII AND STATES OF PERFECTION their customs and practices to contemporary ~circumstances. In allocutions and letters from 1939 to 1958 he stressed the need for this accommodation to modern needs and for the simultaneous deepening of the original spirit of each institute. Speaking to the First General Congress on States of Perfection, Decem-ber 8, 1950, he exhorted modern religious to imitate their founders in examining the beliefs, convictions, and conduct of their own contemporaries, adopting .those elements which are good and proper; and he warned that without this adaptation they would never be able to enlighten and guide the men of their own time. Speaking to the First International Congress of Teaching Sisters, September, 1951, and again to superiors general of institutes of religious women, September, 1952, Pope Pius specifically suggested accommodation of religious habits, manner of life, and asceticism to modern needs in order to stop the alarming decrease of vocations by removing the barriers set up by stubborn adherence to usages meaningful in another cultural situation but now empty formalism. Finally, in February of 1958 the Holy Father spoke to superiors gen-eral of religious orders and congregations of the ever-present necessity of drawing upon the spirit of the founders of each institute. Nov~? el ve/er~--this was his constant theme. Religi-ous must learn to live in their own world and in their own time with all the fervor of their founders. These, then, were the major contributions of Pope Pius XII to the states of perfection. He has left a rich legacy to the members of these states, and his memory will live on in their faithful following of his directives. OUR CONTRIBUTORS JOHN CARROLL FUTRELL is completing his theological studies at St. Mary's College, St. Marys,. Kansas. THOMAS G. O'CAL-LAGHAN is professor of ascetical and mystical theology at Weston College, Weston 93, Massachusetts. SISTER MARIA is a Sister of the Humility of Mary, whose teaching field is Spanish language and litera-ture. R. F. SMITH is a member of the faculty of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. JOSEPH F. GALLEN is professor of canon law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. 325 Current: Spiri!:ual Writing Thomas ~o. O'Callaghan, S.J. Charles de Foucauld CHARLES DE FOUCAULD (1858-1916) has certainly been one of the most impressive and striking figures the Church in the last half century. After a worldly life as a French army officer, he was converted to a sincere Christian life. Shortly i~fterwards he entered the Trappists. After seven years of a dedicated Trappist life, he felt himself called to a still more literal imitation of Jesus. Especially did he desire to live the. life of a poor workingman in imitation of our Lord's. hidder~ life at Nazareth. This led him ultimately to the desert, to the life of a poor priest, a wanderer, sharing the life of the poorest nomad tribes. But P~re de Foucauld was a wanderer burning with a love of Jesus whom he desired to bring to these people in a silent way, through his loving and kind friendship. Just as Christ Himself did during His hidden years .at Nazareth, P~re de Foucauld desired to preach the gospel in siler~ce, to reveal to others in a silent way something of Christ. Although he had hoped to found a religious congregation --he wrote two different Rules for one--before his plans could be fulfilled, he was murdered by Touaregs in the Hoggar desert. In fact, it was not until ten years after his death that his first disciples, attracted by the example of his totally evan-gelical life, began to gather. Since 1933 three different con-gregations have been founded--the Congregation of Little Brothers of Jesus and two congregations of sisters; and today these three count more than nine hundred religious. What is characteristic of the spirituality of P~re de Fou-cauld and his followers? This has been answered in a most 326 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING " interesting article by R. Voillaume, the Prior General ot~ the Little Brothers of Jesus.1 The Little Brothers of Jesus--the same is true of the Sisters--have three dominant characteristics. The first is their poverty. P~re de Foucauld could not, as he said, "conceive of loving Jesus without a constraining need of imitation or without, the sharing of each cross" (p.~ 29"2). He pictured Christ and the Holy Family as quite poor, working hard among the poor inhabitants of Nazareth. That was the life which he wanted, toil and poverty; he wanted to be socially a poor man and to be treated as such, and he did not want to .be given the social rank usually accorded to priests and religious. His love of Christ dictated "a need to imitate Jesus, to live as Jesus lived at Nazareth, sharing ~he life, the circumstances, the burden of the worker and the other poor" (p. 294). The second characteristic is adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In each fraternity there is a chapel, and usually at the end of each day the Blessed Sacrament is ex16osed for adoration. The Little Brothers offer "their lives of work and poverty every day, in order to save their brothers in union with Jesus' own offering in the Eucharist" (p. 294). Because their .chapels are so frequently situated in the midst of the masses of the p~ople, the brothers are able~to combine their contemplation with their "presence to men" (one of their favorite expressions). Could they not live this life of poverty and adoration in a monastery, as so many other religious do? No; P~re de Foucauld felt forced to go to the poor, to bring Christ to them, more through hisway of living than by preaching. This is their third characteristic: "a silent apostolate through their mere presence in a very simple, unobtrusive and fraternal kind of friendship, an apostlolate meant more particularly for the more abandoned strata of society" (p. 292). It means z"P~re de Foucauld and His Fraternities," Blackfriars, XXXIX (1958), 290-99. 327 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious making oneself a little brother to others, loving men for their own sake, as God would, and thus helping others to discover something of the love which Christ has for them. In this way they prepare hearts to receive the Gospel, or to under-stand it better. This article is most enlightening. Those who might desire a fuller account of the spirituality of the Little Brothers of Jesus will find it in Father Voillaume's very interesting and excellent book, Seeds of the Desert. Lourdes Since this is the centennial of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes, there have appeared during the year a few books and numerous articles on the young girl who was favored with those apparitions, St. Bernadette. Of all the articles on this charming young saint, certainly one of the most delightful was written bp Father James Brodrick, s.J., undoubtedly one of the most polished of modern hagi-ographers, z Bernadette, who was canonized twenty-five years ago, is rather an extraordinary saint, precisely because in so many ways she was so ordinary. Yet perhaps it is her very ordi-nariness which is her great charm. Apart from the apparitions themselves, her life was quite simple. She neither said nor wrote anything profound or sublime; she was not known for remarkable penances; she had not followers or disciples, nor was she marked by an outstanding zeal for souls; she really did nothing very uncommon. Yet she was truly a saint, pos-sessing, as Father Brodrick claims along with Dr. Rend Lau-rentin, a "sanctity free of accessories and reduced to its essence, the sanctity without human grandeur or accidental charms, which was that of the Holy Family at Nazareth" (p. 271). If one gazes through the spontaneous simplicity and un-starched charm of this young girl, the clear signs of heroic z"St. Bernadette," T/~e Mont/s, XIX (1958), 271-82. 328 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING virtue are clearly discernible. One of these signs_ was the constancy of her witness, her quiet tenacity in holding to the simple and unadorned truth in the face oi~ the ~l~reats and menaces, the coaxing and flattery, of both ecclesiastical and civil authorities. Even when she was threatened With prison by the commissioner of police, she gave simply and bravely her now famous answer: "So much the better. I shall be less expense to my father, and while I am in prison you will come and teach me the catechism." (p. 278) Regardless as to how people tried to cajole and inveigle her into telling the three secrets which .the Virgin had asked her to keep, she never weakened. This calm and quiet constancy of her wit-ness reveals the great strength of grace in her soul. Another clear indication of her heroic virtue was her humble thirst to be forgotten. She shunned attention, found the veneration shown her a bore. Although invited and en-couraged to attend, she even stayed away from the solemn consecration of the basilica at Lourdes in July, 1876, lest she be recognized and attract attention. So humble was her con-tinual way of acting that Father Herbert Thurston, S.J., surmised that one of her three secrets was "a pact with the Blessed Virgin never under any circumstances to try to draw to herself the attention of the world . . ." (p. 281) . Bernadette is truly a charming saint, and this article is a delightful portrait of her unself-conscious sanctity. The celebration of the centenary of the apparitions of the immaculate Virgin to Bernadette at Lourdes is an occasion for asking what role these, as well as other apparitions of our Lady, play in the life of the Church, and what attitude Cath-olics should have toward them. These important questions are answere.d very satisfactorily by Father DeLetter, S.J.3 The first~ thing which strikes one about the attitude of the Church towards these apparitions is her prudent caution; she avoids the extremes of either unenlightened enthusiasm "The Meaning of Lourdes," The Clergy MonHHy, XXII (1958), 3-16. 329 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious or skeptical scorn. She does 'not distrust God, but she knows very well from experience that man can be mistaken and that the devil can deceive even saintly men. Before she gives her approval to apparitions, therefore, she prudently demands a thorough and painstaking examination of the evidence. If, upon examination, she finds sufficient historical evidence for the authenticity of the apparitions, then she gives, her approval. But what does this approval mean? "Everything con-sidered, an ecclesiastical approval of a divine communication implies the three following statements: First, that it comprises nothing contrary to the faith or to morality. Secondly, that it may be made known in publications. Thirdly, that ~he faith-ful are given explicit permission to believe it with caution." (pp. 5-6) (It is a question here of human belief, not ot~ divine faith.) What role do these apparitions and the private revela-tions connected with them play in the life Of the Church? Father DeLetter, in answer to this question, states and develops the theology of these apparitions under five headings: 1) These apparitions are signs of the divine presence and action of Christ in the Church today. 2) These divine interventions have an apologetic value in both strengthening the faith of believers and inviting non-believers to accept the faith. 3) While not changing or increasing the deposit of faith, these divine interventions do have doctrinal significance. They are signs, drawing attention to some element of the Catholic faith which is an answer to the particular needs of the times, e.g. a call to prayer and penance. 4) Many of these apparitions of our Lady, such as Lourdes and Fatima, help to make us more aware during this Marian age of the role which the Blessed Mother plays in ~he economy of the Redemption. 5) "Lourdes in particular came as a heavenly confirmation of the definition of the Immaculate Conception . . ." (p. 9). This article, if carefully read, will be very profitable for all, since the place of apparitions in the life "of the Church 330 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING and the attitude which Catholics should have towaid them is often not well understood. Especially, however, will it be helpful to the extremists who are either overenthusiastic about apparitions or superiorly scornful of all that "mystical and pietistic nonsense." Liturgy and Scripture Father Balthazar Fischer, a professor of liturgy at Trier, Germany, and a member of the commission which drew up the German Ritual, delivered at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland, a lecture on Christian psalm-praying. The lecture was printed in The Furrow.4 What he primarily discussed was: first, a fundamental presupposition for praying the psalms in a Christian way, that is, how to give the psalms a Christological meaning; second, the four basic attitudes of soul one should have in praying, the psalms. Concerning the first point, he wrote: Th'ey [the people of the early Church and of the Middle Ages] had two ways of finding this Christological meaning in the Psalter. Sometimes .they saw Christ as the one who prayed the psalms, the Just One /~ar excellence: and so they joined Him in praying to the Father: Psalmus vox Ecclesiae cu'm Christo ad Patrem. This was the way that St. Augustine loved so much. The other way was not to look upon Christ as the one who prays the psalms but as the God of the psalms, and so address them directly to Him: Psalmus vox Ecclesiae ad Christum. This was the way which St. Benedict seems to have pre-ferred, and a way which was also known to St. Augustine and his predecessors in the Christian interpretation of the psalms as ~ar back as the second century. (p. 68) . If we use this double principle in praying the psalms, either praying them with Christ to the. Father, or, perhaps what is the simpler way, directing them to Christ, we will have the consoling experience of having the Psalter, as Newman said, "breathe Christ." The greater part of the article, however, is a development oi~ the four fundamental dispositions which are necessary for a fruitful praying of the psalms. The psalms must be sung 4"Praying the Psalms," IX (1958), 67-78. 331 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review for Religiot~s in a spirit of tranquillity, humility, childlikeness, and joyful-ness. "These four principles are valid for all praying; but they are valid in a special m~nner for him for whom the Psalter has become a Christian prayerbook" (p. 69). Those interested in the liturgy and Scripture will find some very interesting matter in an article by Paul Doncoeur, S.J., "Bible and Liturgy: Fruitful Tension.":' The liturgical and scriptural movements have both developed noticeably during the last few decades. Although in many ways they have developed independently, nevertheless, because each was correctly orientated from the beginning, they have converged. The liturgy has been most clearly enriched by scriptural studies; and it is becoming more and more evident that Scripture can receive new meaning from the liturgy. Each has helped and strengthened the other. Inversely, however, if the biblical movement should ever try to propose to the faithful subtle exegesis in place of the substantial word of God--which has happened to some degree in the past--then Scripture would never nourish the interior life as it should. But also, if the liturgy should ever be emptied of the substance of the Scriptures, then it would relapse into sentimental devotions. An important point for liturgists not to forget, says Father Doncoeur, quoting Louis Bouyer, is that " the first requirement for a liturgical movement that will lead to an authentic revival of the Church's true piety is never to bring liturgy back to the peopl~ with-out, at the same time, giving them greater access to the Bible" (p. 97). . . Father David M. Stanley, S.J., who teaches Sacred Scripture at Toronto and is one of the outstanding New Testament scholars in North America, has been, esp.ecially during the past year or two, a very frequent con'tributor to Worship. One of his recent ai'ticles was on the meaning of the wedding feast at Cana.~ :' Worshil~, XXXII (1958), 89-100. ~"Cana as Epiphany," XXXII {1958), 83-89. 332 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING The wedding feast ,at Cana was one of the three principal epiphanies of Christ. Our Lord's baptism was His epiphany as the Christ, the awaited Messias; the Magi story was His epiphany as universal King, even of the pagan nations; Cana was His epiphany as God's incarnate son on earth, and therefore as Mary's son. What role does Christ give to His Mother at Cana? Our Lord's reply ("What wouldst thou have me to do, woman? My hour has not yet come") to His Mother's request for help ("They have no wine") indicates something of the part which Mary is to play in the redemptive work of her son. The interpretation of our Lord's answer has always been difficult for those not familiar with the Semitic idiom. But, according to Father Stanley, what our Lord tells His Mother is that here and now ". He must act independently and without her help. However, when the 'hour' par excellence, the crisis upon Calvary, arrives, she will play her part . In that supreme moment, the Mother of Jesus will collaborate in the final struggle with Satan and share the victory over evil." {pp. 86-87) Our Lord, then, by His answer, predicted implicitly--as the article shows in greater detail--Mary's role as co-redemptrix and her future motherhood of all His disciples. ~ St. John of the Cross There appeared in a recent issue of Spiritual. Life an article outlining the spiritual teaching of St. John of the Cross.7 Among the points of St. John's doctrine which the author touched upon, there was one which usually is not sufficiently stressed: the Christocentric character of the saint's teachings. In the teaching of St. John of-the Cross, spiritual per-fection consists in the complete and perfect union of love between God and the soul, that is, in transforming union. It is to this perfect union that he is always directing a soul, and it is on .this union that his whole spiritual teaching con- 7 Paul of the Cross, OoC.D., "St. John of the Cross," IV (1958), 47-61. 333 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religioz~s verges. He calls this union spiritual marriage. But in this union who is the bridegroom to whom the soul is ,united? It is Christ. In the doctrine of St. John it is the Incarnate Word who is the spouse of.the soul. St. John's notion of perfection, therefore, has a Christocentric character. John here is speaking of Christ as .God, it is true; but it is still Christ. Christ as man, or the humanity of Christ, also has a very dear and definite place in the doctrine of the Carmelite saint. Briefly, the way to transforming union is by the perfect imita-tion of the humanity of Christ ,out ;of love for Christ. The perfect imitation of Christ as man, espedidlly Christ crucified, leads to perfect union with Christ as God. Even when St. John is directing souls into a prayer of obscure contemplation, he does not teach them to abandon the humanity cote Christ as they put aside their discursive meditation. Although it is true that the soul's gaze may be centered more .directly on Christ's di¢inity, it is still going out to the whole Christ, to the Incarnate Word. So also, when the contemplative soul is loving Christ, it is not the divinity alone which it loves, but the God-man, the Incarnate Word, the whole Christ. For St. John of the Cross, Christ truly holds a central place. He is the way according to His humanity, and the end in His divinity. For St. John, as we just mentioned, spiritual perfection consists in union with God. This union of the soul with God comes to pass, he says, ". . when the two wills--namely that of the soul and that of God--are conformed together in one, and there is naught in the one that is repugnant to the other.' '~ Can a total consecration to the Blessed Mother be har-monized with such a concept of the spiritual life? It certainly s .'Isrg'Zll" of llloltt~! (:~lrttlrl, II, ch. V, 3 (translated by" E. Allison Peers: West-minster: Newman,~1945, I, 80). 334 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING can, says Father William G. Most.'~ In explaining how this may be done, he suggests a point which is ~)ell worth consideration and reflection. The will of Mary is always in perfect unisor~ with the will of 'God. To conform one's will to the will of GOd then is objectively to conform it also to the will of the Blessed Mother. If one stressed more consciously this latter aspect, the Blessed Mother couli:l easily be given the all-pervasive role in the spiritual life which she deserves. One would then be able to live a life not only of conformity to the will of God, but also at the same time of conformity with the will of the Blessed Mother. New Date for the Last Supper The date of the Last Supper has always proposed a serious problem for Scripture scholars. The problem consists mainly in reconciling St. John's Gospel with the Synoptic evangelists. In their attempted solutions scholars have usually placed the Last Supper on Thursday. But this leaves some serious difficulties still unsolved. The most recent and satisfying solution to the problem has been that proposedby Miss A. Jaubert' of Paris. Accord-ing to her the Last Supper took place, not on Thursday, but on Tuesday. If this theory is accepted, then obbiously the chronology of the events of o'ur Lord's Passion will have to be revised. Miss Jaubert's theory, together with her revised chronology of the Passion, has been neatly summarized in a recent article by George W. MacRae, S.J.1° Beginning with the Saturday before Good Friday, this would be the order of the events of the Passion. Saturday: In the even~ing Jesus is anointed during supper at Lazarus' home in Bethany. Sunday: Christ makes His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. During the day Judas first approaches the chief priests about betraying our Lord. Later that day Christ returns to ~)"Consecration to Mary," S/,iritual~Life, IV (1958); 108-17. New Date for the Last Supper," /Imerican Ecclesiastical Re*sie~, CXXXVIII (1958), 294-302. 335 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious Bethany to pass the night there. Monday: Jesus leaves Bethany and curses the fig tree. Tuesday: In the morning, after spending another night outside the city, ~he apostles notice the withered fig tree as they pass by. Later they ask Christ where He wants to celebrate the passover, and in the evening the Last Supper takes place. Later that night, after the Agony in the Garden, Christ is arrested and is brought to the house of Annas for interrogation. While this question-ing is going on, out in the courtyard .of Annas the denials of Peter are taking place. Annas then sends Christ bound to Caipha_s and Christ spends the rest of the night there. Wednesday: At daybreak the elders, chief priests, and scribes gather for the first legal trial. After the trial, since the Jewish law forbade rendering the verdict the same day as the trial, Christ passes another night as captive. Thursday: In the morning Christ is condemned by the Sanhedrin. Then He is immediately brought to Pilate who questions Him. It is on this occasion that the chief priests refuse to enter Pilate's court lest they be defiled. Pilate sends Him to Herod, and Herod in turn sends Him back again. Thursday night Christ spends as a prisoner in Pilate's fortress. It is .during this night that the incident of the dream of Pilate's wife occurs. Friday: In the morning Christ appears again before Pilate. Then He is ~courged, condemned, led through the streets, and crucified. ". this chronology of our Lord's Passion appears to do far more justice to the series of events in the Passion itself than does a shorter period of time . There are still difficulties in understanding the Gospel accounts that it does not resolve. But so long as we regard it as a possible explana-tion, while awaiting further confirmation we may find it an aid to a clearer picture of the Passion of our Lord." (p. 302) Priestly Virtues What are the key qualities which Christ demands of His apostle-priests? The basic ones, says Father Spicq, O.P., draw- 336 November, 2958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING ing his answer from three major scriptural passages, are those of the three theological virtues.11 The fundamental virtue required of an apostle-priest is faith. For it is through faith that he will posses the truths of the kingdom which he must preach to the world; it is faith which brings him into contact with the mysteries of the divine life and the "unfathomable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8) of which he must be a witness. It is not that his faith is different from that of the faithful; but it must have the solidity of rock. It must give him those qualities of steadfastness and stability which are needed in a man who has been chosen to bear witness and to preach. His life must be rooted deeply in the solid truth of firm faith. In the mission given him by Christ, the priest knows that without Christ he can do nothing, but that with Christ he can do all things. In the Lord, then, he must hope.The Lord has spoken to him: ". take courage; I haveover-come the world" (John 16:33). So the priest must place his unshakable confidence and hope in the triumph won by Christ. To receive, however, from "Christ the strength and help which he needs, the priest must also pray. He is not exempted from prayer merely because he hopes in the Lord. Prayer is an integral part of his vocation. "A man of flesh and blood can do divine work only with this effective means [of prayer], by harnessing God's own power to the task" (p. 14). Prayer, therefore, must also be joined to firm hope, if the priest is to be a true apostole of Christ. In a priest's life, even more central than faith and hope, there must be love. The priest must surrender his whole heart to Christ, both to the person of Christ and the work I, "Priestly Virtues in the New Testament," Seril~t',*re, X (1958}, I0-16. The second installment of this article appears in the July issue, pp. 84-93; and in it Father Spicq treats of some of the other priestly vit:tues: compassion, fidelity, prudence, purity, etc. 337 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN ,9~ ~Chris.t, the ,salvation of souls. "The heart of the priest, l~cked in t, heo'embrace of Christ's love (2 Cor. 5:14), will therefore love souls as Christ loves them and because he loves them (John 15:12)" (p. 15). For a priest, however, this l~ve of souls will mean.the humble service of souls. Such was the life and love of Christi such must also be the life and love of the priest. SUMMER-SESSION ANNOUNCEMENTS For many years we have been publishing announcements of summer sessions. Our purpose in doing this is to help our readers to know where they may attend courses or institutes of special pertinence .to religious. Directors and deans of summer sessions who wish to avail themselves of this service should carefully observe the following points: 1} Only courses of special pertinence to religious should be listed. The 2le) nTghthe aonf nthoiusn pcaermagernatp shh oisu ilrdr eblee vliamnti,t epdr otov iad esdin igt lceo pnatraaingsra opnhl.y matters of special pertinence to religious. 3) The paragraph should be triple-spaced and prepared in such a manner that it can be sent to the printers without re-typing or editing. 4) There should be a reasonable minimum of capital letters, and no words should be typed entirely in capital letters. 5) The dates of the summer sessions or institutes should be clearly specified. 6} The best time for publishing these announcements is our March number. The deadline for this number is January 5. The next-best time is the May number. The deadline for this number is March 1. 7) The announcement should be addressed to our editorial office, g~vfEw FOR RI'HAGIOUS, St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. By way of postscript we should like to call attention to a note that we found it necessary, to publish in March, 1957. There we stated that most deans who had sent in announcements had either completely or partially ignored our specifications. One reason for this may be that the deans themselves (especially if they are not priests or religious) do not read this REv1~\v. We therefore urge that some member of the community show the summer-school dean this announcement; 338 Preliminary t:o Adap!:a!:ion DURING THE PAST decade religious have been urged to consider how their mode of life might be adapted to meet the specific needs of our times. Here in the United States various groups ha(,e been working to effect the adapta-tion and renovation of religious life which the Church has rec-ommended. The I~EvlI~\~ FOR I,tELIGIOUS, one of those deeply inter-ested in fostering needed changes, has, in many issues, made available to its readers papal and ecclesiastical statements about adaptation and renovation. "Roman Congregations and the Religious Life," a collection of statements of Roman congrega. tions, dignitaries, and officials of the Holy See, made by Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. (November 15, 1956, pp. 309-27)~. points to the need for studying the spirit and mind of the founders as a first step toward reform and intensification of religious life. Articles and commentaries in the I~EVIE\V have also indi-cated that religious orders ought to study their constitutions, directories, and traditions to determine what directives ,might be eliminated, modified, or changed in order to accomplish more fruitfully during this century the purpose or end of religious life. This article, which diaws heavily from the Acta 'of the Congress of the States of Perfection (Rome, 1950), makes the point that the study of th.e spirit of one's order is a neces-sary preliminary to. adaptation and renovation and suggests some techniques which might be used to arrive at a more exact understanding of this spirit and of the ways by which it can be produced in the members of a given order. 3~9 SISTER MARIA Review for Religious The revision of constitutions ordered by the Sacred Con-gregation of Religious in 1922 did not put an end to consti-tutional modifications. As the most Reverend Arcadio Lar-raona, C.M.F., indicated to the mothers general at a congress in Rome (REVIE\V FOR RELIGIOUS, November 15, 1954, p. 297), "Rome is ready to consider the advisability of [consti-tutional] changes on certain points, provided the individual communities show good reasons for the modification they wish to introduce." In regard to changes of custom, he counsels superiors never to fear to request change because such change might be considered disloyal to community traditions. Modifications of dress and of horarium, elimination of class distinctions within an order, these and other changes of custom and constitutions have been directly urged by the Pope as ways in which religious life can be adapted to better accom-modate those who enter religious life and those among and with whom the religious labor. These needed changes in non-essential elements must be made with care in order not to destroy that which makes an order a distinct entity: its spirit. The number of distinct orders, institutes, congregations, and other religious groups in existence today gives evidence of the variety of ways in which the Holy Spirit expresses Himself in different places and at different times according to the needs of the Church. Each order does have a characteristic spirit, peculiar to its work and its specific virtues. I. Van Houtryve, O.S.B., gives an example of this variety among religious orders with the following illustration of the different approaches orders make to asceticism: St. Benedict sees asceticism from the angle of humility; and he is, in the Church, the legislator of filial obedience; daughter of humility. St. Francis sees it all from. the point of view of poverty . St. Dominic borrows from monastic life fasts and abstinences, the hard bed and silence--but all these practices are seen as reparation, sus-tenance, and food for the contemplative life; and they are ordered to the apostolic life . Most modern congregations devoted to 340 November, 1958 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION action owe to St. Ignatius the spirit of their work--the interior strug-gle, sacrifice, and the need to give the apostolate its only possible solid base: abnegation and the carrying of the cross. (Acta. p. 463-64) Many similar contrasts of religious groups might be drawn in order to make evident the way in ~vhich one differs from another. Religious orders differ because their functions vary; their unique character stems in part from the particular work to which they are ordained: the divine liturgy, the spiritual works oi: mercy, or the corporal works of mercy. As St. Thomas explains (Summa, II,II, q. 188, a. 1), " . . . religious orders may be differentiated in two ways. l~irst, according to different things to which they may be directed . Secondly, there may be various religious orders according to t~e diversity of prac-tices. ." Even in religious groups dedicated to the same type of work, teaching, for example, one notes marked differences. One religious order may be distinguished from another not by its work but by the specific virtues which are characteristic of its approach to the religious ideal. This religious ideal is our Lord, but as there are hundreds of paintings of Christ--and each different because of the way in which the painter conceived his model--so there are countless ways of striving to imitate this ideal. In an article on the spiritual formation of the educators of religious, Graziano della Madre di Dio, O.C.D., stresses the dual nature of the individual order's approach to the religious ideal: In Jesus the great molders of souls who were the founders of religious orders and institutes found their ideal. How interesting it would be to point out in them, besides the generic element, the characteristics of the personal mode. St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Ignatius, St. John of the Cross, St. John Bosco, and many others had an educative-form of their own that was actualized in the highly differentiated formation of their first spiritual disciples. Consequently all educators of religious, studyirig the prototypes of their own religious family, besides the essential exemplary form of Jesus, ought to individuate and to bring out the specific char-acteristics with which every founder of an order or institute approved 341 SISTER MARIA Review for Religio,,s by the Church, and therefore willed by God, has made detailedly more refulgent, varied, and rich the archetype of the Master. (Rio vista de Vita Spirituale, January-March, 1954, p. 37) If there is variety in the work and in the virtues stressed by different orders, then there must also be variety of spirit or personality so that it can be asserted that each religious order has a distinctive spirit which is not the same as that of another order. This spirit--peculiar to a particular order--developed from the thought of the founder about the type of religious group needed to meet the demands of his place, time, and circum-stances. It is well to recall that he was inspired to provide for the needs of his own age, but not for the needs of all periods of history without some adaptation by his order as conditions changed. As Abbot Peter Bassett, O.S.B., explains, Every religious order worthy of this name is born of the coming together of a great religious genius and of a spiritual need of a given time . IThisl fundamental religious intention, valid, no doubt, for all time, found its spiritual efficacy only in incarnating itself in a religious form which responded perfectly to the spiritual needs of the age. And the secret of the continuance of these insti-tutions could not have been and will not be able to be in anything but a fidelity to the spirit which created them, joined to a constant care to remain in contact with the history of the Church among men. (Acta, pp. 128-29) It is fidelity to the spirit of one's order that one must strive to maintain when one attempts to follow papal and ecclesiastic directives to adapt rules and customs to twentieth-century life. One cannot be faithful to the spirit of one's order unless one knows with some degree of certainty what rules, what customs, what aspects of life in a particular order are essential to the development of that order's distinctive spirit. The purpose of this discussion is to focus a~tention on the need for seeking such knowledge about one's own constitutions and customs and to suggest some means of indicating a sturdy of the spirit of one's order. Thet:e is available in Spanish~ a worthwhile discussion of the fidelity which~ a religious superior owes to the founder, . to the 342 November, 1958 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION spirit of the Institute, and to tradition .(Semana de Oracidn y Estudio para Superioras Religiosas, Editorial Oculsa, Madrid, 1950, pp. 76-92). One of the points which Gregorio Mar-tinez de Antonana, C.M.F., the author, makes in his discussion of "The Superior and the Institute" is that superiors in newly formed congregations or institutes ought to consider carefully what it is that constitute~ the spirit of their own order so as not to stifl~ the development of this essential quality by seeking to cultivate the spirit of older orders along with or rather than their own. He urges superiors of these recent foundations to take special care to be docile to inspiration and not to make changes based on their own personal whims in matters and problems of government. Before one can determine what the spirit of one's order is, one must have a clear notion of what. is meant by the term spirit when it is used in reference to a religious order. In a paper given at a French congress for religious sisters, Victor de la Vierge, O.C.D., states that "spirit' is what characterizes and gives" the order its reason fo~ existence." (R~ligi0us. Sisters, Newman Press, pp. 253-54). He points out two aspects, the objective, which is "the divine inspiration the founder crys-tallized into rules which provide for the attainment of the end in view," and the subjective, which is "the Characteristic and un-changing way of thinking, understanding, and willing which tradition allows us to observe in an order as an institution and in the life and teaching of the members who have gon( before." Th~ rules are the first definite statement of the spirit. Living ac,c.ording to the rule produces the spirit. The spirit itself, like any entity, defies definition. One can state what causes th~ spirit to develop and what it in turn effects, but to say what spirit is in itself is difficult. For all practical purposes, one can identify it with the rules. To equip Oneself for more judicious adaptation, one must: search for that in the rule which fosters the development, of the spirit. At times one can observe rather tangibly the effects of the uniqtie spirit 343 Review for Religio.s of an order in the characteristic acts and virtues of individuals in whom the same spirit has been developed through a specific program of formation based on the thought of the founder. In adapting rules, directories, and customs, one must be careful not to destroy that which develops the spirit. As an aid to superiors and councils, Ricardo Lombardi, s.J., indicates a norm of action for adaptation: Let superiors therefore keep two objectives in mind. They must carefully preserve unchanged the essence of their institute, without which it cannot endure--at least as long as some useful reason for its endurance remains. But at the same time they ought to promote a reasonable evolt~tion in those things which do not pertain to the substance of the institute, and which, if stubbornly kept un-changed, will themselves lead to its death. Let us consider now what ard the essential things which can be enumerated in brief summary: 1.) the end or fundamental rea-son for the Institute, 2.) its peculiar spirit which has been praised by" the Church, 3.) all those things which are necessary for attaining the end or preserving the spirit. These features are to be maintained unaltered. Those things which were selected for some peculiar reason or for a certain time and circumstances as more suitable then to attain the end and promote the spirit, are to be subjected to continuous examination, and whenever a real necessity occurs, they can be changed. Indeed they are a means, not an end, and means are to be fitted to an end--certainly the end should not bend to the service of the means. (Acta. p. 117) Our times demand that religious have the courage to make changes in their mode of life. The Pope and the hier-archy have gradually initiated and effected great changes in the liturgy in order to facilitate twentieth-century man's ap-proach to the sacraments. The call for adaptation in religious life aims to enable the religious to achieve greater success in bringing Christ's message to the modern world. To adapt effectively one must know what one is adapting and why and how one is to do it. Adaptation requires knowledge of the unique personality of one's order. To arrive at a greater degree of self-knowledge, one studies what man is, what he can become, and how one man differs from another; and then one judiciously compares this knowl- 344 November, ~58 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATIOI~ edge with one's knowledge of self to determine what manner of man one is. In similar fashion those who wish to study the spirit of their order should delve into the historical devel-opment of religious life. To attain a better understanding of the ~'al".~otl ~t'~lre of their own order, they might consider the foundation and growth of various religious orders, the regula-tions the Church has made in regard to religious orders, and the development of the religious ideal up to the present time. Thus they will be able to discern how contemplative, active, and mixed religious orders fit into that "variety which surrounds the Queen." One might begin a review of the foundation and devel-opment of religious orders by examining the four rules, Bene-dict's, Augustine's, Basil's, and Anthony's. Of particular interest would be the one from which one's own rule has evolved. After having considered themeaning ofthe term spirit in its application to a religious order and afthearving surveyed the historical development of religious ordeirns general, one would be ready to proceed to the ktudy of thefoundation and development of one's own order. A study of the growth of one's order implies examination not only of the history of its schools, monasteries, .hospitals, and other ins.titutions; but more important still it implies consideration of the historical devel-opment of the founder's thought as it has been applied, modi-fied, and define'~ through the centuries by superiors, chapters, bishops, and thd Holy See, or even by members of the order who have studied and written about the founder, rule, consti-tutions, patrons, works, virtues, and achievements of the order. Many orders have writings by their founders which are similar to the Interior Spirit of the Religious of the Visitation (Newman Press, 1943). Having such a book at hand, the religious should .e.xamine it to ascertain what is essential and what is not. For exa-Kaple, the Religious of the Visitation might make a profitable study"by determining how they have applied 345 SISTER MARIA Review for Religio~ts and defined the thought of St. Francis de Sales and of' St. Jane Frances de Chantal through the centuries up to the present time. Janet Erskine Stuart has done such an analysis in her pamphlet The Society'-of the Sacred Heart. Her work exempli-fies a step in the historical development of the thought of the founders of her society. Today, perhaps, still another analysis might be made by her society. In such consideration of the historical development of the order and of the thought about the purpose and spirit of the order, what one is striving to learn is what is essential in the rule, in the customs, and in the formation and life of the given religious society. One wishes to discover what must be preserved when making recommended adaptations. .Painstaking research and thought are only preliminary steps. More is required than writing carefully docurrlented histories of the order. Study of the spirit of one's order should mean group discussion, perhaps .by the general chapter, per-haps by the newly appointed superiors, or by all superiors periodically. Such a study might even lead to inter-congre-gational discussi'on on points of rule and implementation of rule, especially bn matters that might concern several orders of similar work or characteristic virtues. The congresses and conferences (Vbcation Institute, Sister Formation gro~lp in th~ NCEA, the Sisters' Institute of Spir-ituality) i~Iready being held annually or moi'e frequently all show the value of inter-congregation discussion on specific topics of common interest. It might prove profitable, for example, for several congregatibns having St. Vincent de Paul as a patron or a founder to analyze together points from his writings that are a common source of inspiration. Perhaps orders dedicated to the Blessed Mother might consider how they each honor her in a particular way. Through such con-ferences of several or of many orders of similar work or ideal, 'it would seem that all might become more aware of how thi~y differ from and are similar to their fellow-congregations. Such 346 Novembe~', !9.58 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION conferences would be of ben.efit if nothing ,more were accom-plished than a renewal of the religious spirit, the renovation which is 'being urged. /,~l.GreaTr and more precise knowledge oi the distinct per-sona tty or one's order should enable the individual order to foster with greater skill, then, the growth of this characteristic spirit by careful adaptation, by renovation through the means peculiar to its own development, and by a program of :forma-tion which would have greater likelihood of achieving its goal because the educators of the young religious would be better informed as to the characteristics they were seeking to cultivate in their students. Over-preoccupation with the spirit of one's own order, however, or over-emphasis on the thought of one's founder can 'give rise to certain evils. Members of an order might de-velop the wrong kind of loyalty to the order and to the founder, They might adhere too closely to the letter of his thought, rather than to the spirit of it. They might even adhere to the thought of the founder when the Church clearly indicates another course of action. An order's growth can be stifled by the "party spirit" which develops by exclusive clinging to the ideal of one's order as if there were only that one approach to the religious ideal. Such procedure keeps the "spirit" locked up in an ivory tower and does not permit it to. profit from the energizing influences that honest contrast with the ideals of other religious orders might give. Such contrast would bring out ever more distinctly the personality peculiar ,to one's order rather than distort it. This undue clinging to one's specific way of life leads to the wrong type of loyalty to one's order. As A. Trape, O.E.A.A. points out: The common good to the love of which, we are dedicated by religious profession is not the good of a monastery or a given order . . but the good of the Body of Christ which is the Church . 347 SISTER MARIA Review for Religion,s Greater unity and cooperation is to be fostered among religious families . The love therefore of one's own religious house or province; since ik has as object a particular good, though one com-mon to many persons, can be immoderate and can stand in the way or retard the more universal affection which is owed to the order or congregation and in this way the strength and unity of an order or congregation can be weakened. In the same way, but indeed in a. stronger sense, love toward one's own order or con-gregation can foster a certain party spirit and detract from the charity by which we are ordered to love the universal Church. {Acta, pp. 248-49) Another aspect of this undue respect for one's own ideal is a narrow holding to the letter of the founder's thought. As Canon Leclerq remarks, "By this fidelity to the letter of the law religious end by doing the reverse of what their founders wish . The happy milan is to be found in great fidelity to the spirit in which the orders were founded, combined with considerable flexibility as regards material forms;, such flexibility will be the product of detachment." (Leclerq, The Religious Vo-cation, pp. 64-66) .~. By applying too rigidly every minor prescription of the constitutions, religious would run ashoal on those difficulties against which the Pope and theologians advise when they rec-ommend adaptation. Religious (particularly superiors, councils, and chapters) ought to develop a habit of standing back and determining the general' principle the founder was applying to his given time and circumstances and then launch bravely forth to apply the same principle to their own times and needs regard-less of whether such application means one more hour of sleep daily than the founder prescribed, an annual vacation, a rather complete change of h oraril~m, or the abandonment of the diet and clothing which the founder thought suited to his century and purpose. Archbishop T. D. Rbberts, S.J., states a truth that the religious of our times must master: " 'Reform' is not heresy even when it faces boldly up to the truth that Our Holy Mother Foundress was not given by God to speak the last word of wis- 348 November, lg58 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION dom for all times. Nobody ever was~-not even Our Holy Founder." (Black Popes, p. 40) A third evil to be guarded against in seeking to develop the spirit of one's order would be adherence to the founder's thought when the Church herself commends or even commands modification. Undoubtedly the prescription {after the pro-mulgation of the new Code of Canon Law) that all rules were to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation of Religious for re-examination brought changes in the rules of orders that had been living by those rules for centuries. Some of these modi-fications might not have seemed in line with the thought of the founder of the order, but it is to be remembered that the life of an order flows first from the Church to whom the founder and his followers turned for approval and recognition of what they believed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. "Our subjection to the Church ought to be so great and of such a kind that we take away nothing from her, and cer-tainly not the owed reverence with which we observe all the holy rules," s,ays Father Lombardi, S.J. For these things, indeed, are rules for us riot because they were written by a certain holy man (because no one can impose rules on us in virtue of the fact that he is holy}; they" have the force of juridical norms and impose an obligation because they derive their force from the approbation of ecclesiastical authority. To this au-thority, then, which is a fountainhead of our obligations and which remains a living thing (whereas the holy founders are dead) we surely owe greater reverence than to any internal constitutions of our institutes. To this authority we should subject ourselves wholly in all things which concern the vow and we should do this according to the same contract by which we subject ourselves to Jesus, king of all saints. And finally, it is from this authority that we ought to look for a renewal, with courageous spirit, of all things which are necessary, when internal power is not strong enough to prev~.il. (Acta, p. 122) When one initiates a study of the spirit of one's order, one ought not fear these evils which spring from a wrong emphasis on the spirit of one's order, The purpose for deter-mining what this spirit is is to facilitate adaptation to the needs of our time and our world conditions. Such adaptation, judi- 349 SISTER MARIA [~iously ran.de according to the mind of the Church, would tend to free the order of the very errors to which the wrong kind of preoccupation about the spirit might lead. There is, indeed, reason today for the study, review, analysis, clarification, and understanding of what is meant by the spirit of one's orde.r: The changes of this century require adaptation and renovation. Out of loyalty to their founders, religious must heed the advice of Arcadius Larraona, C.M.F.: By doing today what they I the .foundersJ would do in our place, what they would do if they were living in our own times, we shall continue their work. They live; they have a right to live in us; and we have the'sacred obligation to carry on their work and to live in their spirit. (Larraona, C.M.F., Religious Community Life in the United States. Proceedings of the Men's Section of the First Na-tional Congress of Religious in the United States, pp. 232-35) By the spirit an" order lives. By careful adaptation and fervent renovation according to the spirit of the o~der, religious groups will meet the needs of oiar times. Such adaptation and renovation can be initiated by thorough study of the distinctive spirit of one's own order. MEDICO-MORAL PROBLEMS The Catholic Hospital Association announces that the series of booklets entitled Medico-Moral Problems, by Gerald Kelly~ s.J., have been revised and are now available in a single volume. The revision entailed dropping obsolete matter (e.g., on the Eucharistic fast), bringing all medical facts and opinions up to date, adding chapters on recently discussed topics (e.g., the use of hypnotism as an anesthetic}, supplying a list of pertinent papal documents, and com-posing a comprehensive index. The new volume--also entitled Medico-Moral Problems--in-cludes most of the moral principles and practical problems with which members of the medical profession, especially those associated with Catholic hospitals, should be familiar. The price is three dollars per copy, with discounts for quantity orders. The book, as well as information about it, can be obtained from: The Catholic Hospital Association, 1438 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis 4, Missouri. 350 Survey Roman Documents R. F. Smith, S.J. [The following pages will give a summary of the documents which appeared in Acta Apostoiicae Sedis (AAS} during the months of June and July, 1958. Throughout the article all page references will be to the 1958 AAS (v. 50).] The Encyclical Meminisse luvat ON JULY 14, 1958 (AAS, pp. 449-59), the Holy Father issued the first encyclical that he has published during the current calendar year. Recalling that. it has always been his custom, as well as that of his predecesso~rs, to implore the help of the Virgin Mother of God at times when special dangers threaten the Christian people, His Holiness then pointe.d out that such a time or danger exists in the world today. For, as he remarked, we are living at a time when latent discord among the peoples o~ the earth holds the entire world in the grip of anxiety; and the tension is only increased by the fact that men have now discovered terrible weapons of destruction whicl~ can bring ruin not only to the vanquished but also to the conquerors and even to all of humanity. If, the Vicar of Christ continued, one searches the reasons for this state of affairs, it will be seen that the present situation exists because men have forgotten the authority of God and love for one another. These in turn .have been forgotten because men have ignored the Christian religion which alone teaches the fullness of truth, authentic justice, and divine love. Indeed in large sections of the world the Church is suffering cruel persecution. Bishops have been driven out, Catholic publications have been silenced, schools have been closed, mis-sionaries have been ~xpelled, and above all every attempt has been made to rupture the union of the local churches with the H01y See,0the source of all Catholic uni~y. 351 R. F. SMITH Rcvicw for Religioz~s ~. Just at$hle Pope added, Christians of apostolic times would join together in prayer for their brethren who were being per-secuted, so too today's Christians in Europe and the Far East who have so long endured persec.ution should not be deprived ,~,°f. the help and the prayers of their fellow Christians. Conse-quently the Holy Father asked that prior to the feast of the Assumption a novena be held during which all Catholics of the entire world should plead to God through the Blessed Virgin for the persecuted Christians of ,those regions. To these prayers Christians must also add a reform of life without which their words will never be pleasingto God. In this way, the Holyo Father concluded, Christians of today ivill once more manifest the truth of the words of the Letter to Diognetus: "Christians are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their true citizenship is in heaven. They obey the lairs which are promulgated, but by their way of life they surpass all such laws . " The Consistory of Cardinals In the issues of AAS considered in this survey may b~ found the proceedings (AAS, pp. 393-440) of tl~e first con-sistory of Cardinals held since May, 1954. The first session was a secret consistory held on June 9, 1958. At that session Cardi-nal Tisserant was made Camerario of the College of Cardinals, replacing Cardinal Ottaviani in that position. Two of the Car-dinals, Cardinal Mimmi and Cardinal Costantini, changed their eardinalatial churche~ in Rome. Afterwards the Holy Father published a list of all hierarchical appointments made since the last consistory; the appointments included 2 patriarchs, 123 arch-bishops, 635 bishops, 9 prelates nullius, and 1 abbot nullius. After the reading of these appointments and after His Holiness had confirmed the elections made by the synod of the Chaldean bishops as well as those made by the synod of the .Maronite bishops, the cardinals listened to a report from Cardinal Cicog-nani, Prefect of the Congregation of Rites, concerning the life and miracles of Blessed Charles of Setia and of Blessed ]uana 352 November, 1~58 ROMAN DOCUMENTS Joaquina de Vedruna de Mas. At the conclusion of the report each cardinal was asked to give his opinion on the possibility of canonizing the two blessed. The consistory closed after recently appointed archbishops had sul~mitted their petitions for the pallium. Immediately following the secret consistory, a public con-sistory was held on the same day; this session consisted in further consideration of the causes of the two blessed mentioned above. On June 16, 1958, a semipublic consistory was held. oHere the Holy Father asked the cardinals their considered opinion on the advisability of the canonization of the two blessed already men-tioned. Since all the cardinals favored the canonization of the two, the Pontiff closed the consistory by announcing his inten-tion of canonizing the two blessed on November 23, 1958. ¯ . Four Allocutions and a Message On April 28, 1958 (AAS, pp. 361-64), the Vicar of Christ delivered an allocution to the members of an Italian group interested in caring for orphaned children of the working class. After telling his listeners that the ideas of justice, of respect for each human, person, and of pity for the humble come from the gospel and not from the doctrines of materialism and individ-ualism, the Pope pointed out to his listeners that their work for orphans must be animated by an intense sentiment of charity, for orphans are in greater, need of the warmth of intimacy and goodness than they are of food and clothing; orphanages, he said, must be father, mother, brother, and sister to the orphan. The Pontiff concluded his talk by urging his listeners to continue their work, since already in the beginning of Christianity (James 1:27) it was noted that care for orphans is an important function of the Christian religion. On the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker,. May 1, 1958 (AAS, pp. 365-69), the Holy Father addressed an assembled group of 20,000 Italian workers. At the beginning of his allocution His Holiness thanked God for the happy changes 353 R. F, SMITH Review for Religion, s that have occurred in the world of labor during the last 100 years. A hundred years ago, he remarked, no one would have thought that there would exist in so many nations a working class equal in rights and dignity to the other classes of society. Similarly, too, a hundred years ago no one would have dreamed that one day troops of workers would be gatherdd around the Vicar of~ Christ to celebrate with him the day of labor in a Christian way. The Pope, went on to warn his listeners that whenever and wherever social reform has been attempted without Christ and against Christ, all the real rights and the true liberty of the worker have been lost; for solutions based on materialistic principles neglect that which is best and most important in the worker: his .soul and his eternal destiny. In the second part of his allocution Plus XII encouraged his listeners to continue their support of associations of Cath-o! jc workers, These associations in turn should provide the workers with everything that is necessary to perfect them as men, as workers, and as Christians. Moreover, such associa-tions of Catholic workers should assist their members in times of abnormal circumstances such as sickness. However, the Vicar of Christ concluded, the charity of such associations should not be restricted to their own members; rather it must extend to all men, especially to those other workers who, ~ssailed by a daily propaganda of hatred and violence, are exposed' ~to the danger of lo~sing their sense of human pity and their conception of the humlln race as one family. On May 16, 1958 (AAS, pp. 369-70), the Pope spoke tb the members of the NATO Defense College, expressing his regret ~it ~he stateof the world th~it forces them to teach alert-ness against attacks from other human beings and telling them to continues their work in the confident hope that the day will Come~ when protection and defense can be ensured with a m,mmum of force and~ when truth and justice are the guide p~bstg'-bf 'those who lead the peoples of the world. 35~4 November, 1958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS On May 21, I958 (AAS, pp. 370-73), the Holy Father addressed a group of Italian women engaged in giving spiritual assistance to the members of the armed forces of Italy. In the first part of his allocution, the Pontiff outlined the teaching of the Church with regard to war. The Church, he said, has never accepted the doctrine of those who maintain that power is the 0nly foundation of international relations. War, he said, is not the promoter of the highest masculine qualities nor is it the stimu-lator of fecund initiative, even if at times it is the occasion and catalyst for growth in science and technique. In short, war is not something that the Church regards as licit in every cir-cumstance. Nevertheless, the Church has never taught that war is always reprehensible, for under certain conditions a nation may justly take up arms to defend itself. The struggle between Cain and Abel, the Pontiff con-tinued, marked the beginning of the history of war. Since then the entire~history of mankind has been a history of wa'r, a history which culminates in the present time when war is a conflict between entire peoples and when every physical, mor~l, economic, and industrial force is utilized for the prosecution of war. It is for this reason, he added, that every nation today seeks an army proportioned to its needs, one that lacks nothing from the viewpoint of a strong, ready, and energetic defense of the country. The Pontiff Concluded this 'first'part of his allocution by telling his listeners that Italy too~has ~a right to such an army for defense, even though there is no doubt that Italy sincerely desires peace, In the second part of his .allocution the Pope gives his listeners warm encouragement.to continue their work of giving spiritual assistance to the members of the Italian armed forces, It is true, he admitted, that army life helps physical develop-ment and aids in self-assurance and mat~urity; nevertheless the life also presents many evils and moral dangers, which .may destroy in the soldier the divine life within him. ~Hence, he 355 R. F. SMITH Review for Religious added, one of the prime needs in the army is that of priests who have a profound knowledge of a soldier's life; accordingly chaplains for the armed forces should be chosen from among the best priests and then given every preparation that will train them for their work. In conclusion the Pontiff told his lis-teners that in their work they must take the place of mothers and sisters to the soldiers and pointed out to them the many opporunities they will have to save the faith of many of the soldiers as well as lead others of them into the Church. On June 10, 1958 (AAS, pp. 446-48), the Pontiff sent a written message to a Paris meeting of an international con-gress on family life. In the message he pointed out that a strong civic and social order must be based on a conception of marriage and of the family that is conformable to the order established by God. Consequently he urges the members of the congress to spare, no effort to achieve those conditions of a decent and happy family life in which the exigencies of morality are not sacrificed to the satisfaction of the individual. Other Documents By an Apostolic Constitution dated June 3, 1958 (AAS, pp. 460-64), the Holy Father announced the founding in Rome of a Pontifical Institute of Pastoral Work. The new institute, whose purpose it" is to foster the pastoral develop-ment of the diocesan and regular clergy, will be part of the Pontifical Lateran Institute and will provide two distinct courses of training. The first course, of one year duration, will be intended for the training of the ordinary priest in his future pastoral work; the second course will consist of a two-year program leading to a doctorate in sacred theology; this second course is intended for those who will be future teachers of pastoral theology. Statutes for the new institute are to be published later; the institute was placed by the Pontiff under the patronage of Our Lady, Queen of the .Apostles, and under 356 November, 1958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS that of two popes noted for their zeal tCor pastoral care: St. Gregory the Great and St. Pius X. In another apostolic constitution, this one dated June 10, 1957 (AAS, pp. 345-47), the Holy Father set up an Apostolic Exarchate in England and Wales for Ruthenians of the Byzantine rite living in England. Archbishop Godfrey of Westminster was made exarch of the group. On November 19, 1957 (AAS, pp. 386-88), the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved the introduction of the cause of the Servant of God, Mary Teresa Zonfrilli (1899-1934), professed member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mount Calvary. On January 7, 1958 (AAS, pp. 388-90), the same congregation gave its approval to the two miracles necessary for the canonization of Blessed Charles of Setia (1613-1670), lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor. On March 28, 1958 (AAS, pp. 486-87), the congre-gation issued the decree that the'canonization of Blessed Charles could be safely proceeded with; under the. same date (AAS, pp. 488-89), it issued a similar decree with regard to the canon-ization of Blessed Juana Joaquina de Vedrur~a de Mas (1783- 1854), widow and foundress of' the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. On November 21, 1957 (AAS, pp. 375-83), the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory issued legisl'ation which hence-forth will govern the Apostolate of the Sea; the group, first approved by Pius XI, was founded in Glasgow to work for the spiritual, moral, and social welfare of maritime personnel. On January 23, 1958 (AAS, pp. 480-83), the same congregation issued a decree establishing a military vicariate in the Dominican Republic. A later decree of the congregation dated February 11, 1958 (AAS, p. 483), appointed Archbishop Pittini as the military vicar of the republic. 357 The ener l Ch p!:er ,Joseph I=. G~llen, ~.d. QUESTIONS AND CASES are frequently received on the general chapter. A complete article on this matter would be of prohibitive length. It would also be excessively de-tailed and technical. We believe that the practical purpose of such an article will be better attained by presenting the matter under the form of questions and cases. The following ques-tions are the third and last part of a series. VII. Counting Ballots 33. There were twenty-nine valid votes on the first balloting for the election of our mother general. Sister A received an absolute majority of fifteen votes and was therefore elected. However, if she voted for herself, her vote was invalid (c. 170), she did not receive an absolute majority, and consequently was not elected. Should we have done any-thing to make sure that she had not voted for herself? An invalid vote does not of itself invalidate an election or a balloting. The invalid votes are simply not counted in any way. An invalid vote does invalidate the election if it is certain that the person would not have attained the required number of votes without the invalid vote (c. 167, § 2). The only invalidating effect that can cause a practical difficulty is a vote for oneself. This difficulty occurs, as in the present case, when the election was decided by only one vote. Some institutes demand that each elector place an identifying symbol, chosen by himself, on his ballot, e. g., a cross, star, name of saint, etc. Another form of the same type obliges the elector to write his own name on~ the ballot or voting ticket, seal it within a fold, place his symbol within another sealed fold, and write his vote within the last sealed, fold. If the present case occurs, the one elected is obliged to identify his vote to the president and tellers to determine whether he voted for himself. In a few institutes, ~a,n added vqte is required when the one elected is a member 358 THEGENERAL CHAPTER of the chapter. Thus Sister A would not have been elected in the present case unless she obtained sixteen votes. Outside of a most fare exception, none of these forms is in use in lay institutes. The elector writes only the name of the person he votes for on the ballot and folds it. Therefore, Sister A cannot be obliged to identify her vote in the present case. The constitutions do not impose this obligation, and she is presumed to have acted rightly, not evilly. The election is to be held as valid, unless it is not merely probable but certain that she voted for herself, e. g,, from her own voluntary declaration. If she actually gave her secret vote to herself, all of her acts as mother general will be certainly valid, since canon 209 supplies also dominative power in com-mon error. However, she is obliged to refuse the election or to petition its sanation secretly from the Holy See. Cf. De Carlo, Jus Religiosorum, n, 137; Parsons, Canonical Elections, 163; Beste, Introductio in Codicem, 214. 34. What is the meaning of our constitutionsl which say of all elections that in a tie on the last balloting "the senior by first profession is elected, but in a parity of profession, the senior by age"? For example, I, Brother A, took my vows first in our profession band, but the one who took his vows immediately after me, Brothe~- B, is four yearsl older than I. If the two of us were tied on a last balloting, which would be elected? Brother B wo'uld be elected. The pertinent words of canon 101, § I, 1°, on this case are: "if the president does not wish to break the tie by his vote, that one is elected who is senior by first profession or by age." The constitutions of lay institutes practically never give the president the right of break-ing the tie in an election. Therefore, with the exception of this clause, your constitutions are the same. as the canonical norm of canon 101, § 1, 1°; but the sense of this canon is the day of profession and the day of birth, not the hour, minute, or second of profession or birth. The p~oof is as follows. 1'. From the usage in other canons. Canon 635 staCes that religious transferring from one monastery ~to~ another df the 359 JOSEPH F. GAI~LEN Review for Religion, s same institute lose all rights of theformer monastery and assume the rights and obligations of the latter from the day of the transfer. Canon 640, § 2, declares that a secularized religious who is readmitted into religion, assumes his seniority from the day of his new profession. The Code Commission replied that the precedence of a suffragan bishop in a pro-vincial council was to be determined from the day of his proclamation or election (Bouscaren, Canon Law Digest, I, 88). 2. From the nature of the matter. This canon gives a universal norm that is to settle ip.~o ]:ac/o and immediately a tie on the last balloting. Therefore, it is a norm that is uni-versally applicable, readily knowable, and applicable absolutely, not conditionally, e. g., seniority by age considered objectively is to break the tie, notif it is known who is the senior by age. From the nature of the matter, age is to be taken as the day', not the hour,, minute, or second, of birth. How many" know the hour or minute of their birth? How often is the hour or minute of birth noted even in ecclesiastical or civil records? If this is true of age, it is to be affirmed also of first: profession, since the two are expressed in a parallel manner in the canon. The same argument is verified for first profession considered ir~ itself. It is at least ordinarily possible to determine the order of professions of the same day in the province or institute that has only one novitiate, even though I, with many others, do not recall whether I was third or eighth in taking my first vows. However, the norm is universally applicable. If two religious who are tied made their first profession on the same day and in ceremonies that began at the same hour, but one in New York and the other in California, how could there be certainty of the minute ~at which each profession began? Did each Mass begin on time? What was the relative rapidity of the priests in saying Mass? What was the length of each sermon? How many institutes keep a record of the hour, minute, and second of each profession? 360 November, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER 3. From the practice of the Holy See. In approving constitutions, the Sacred Congregation of Religious almost constantly words the canon: "if they made their first profession on the same day, the senior by age is elected." 4. From the. doctrine of authors. Practically no author has °adverted to the difficulty presented in this question, but the following at least implicitly affirm the solution given abovi~: Schaefer, De Religiosis, n. 258; Jone, Commentarium in Co-dicem Iuris Canonici, I, 114; Muzzarelli, De Congregationibus Iuris Dioecesani, 216, note 5 ; Parsons, Canonical Elections, 154; Bastien, Directoire Canonique, n. 48; Fanfani, De Religiosis, n. 366; Abbo-Hannan, The Sacred Canons, I, 156. The hour, minute, or second may be followed in other mat-ters for determining precedence; but in elections, except in the very few lay institutes that establish their own norm, the constitu-tions' are only stating canon 101, § 1, 1°, and must therefore be interpreted in the sense of this canonical norm. 35. What is the meaning Of this article of our ~constitutions on the elec. tion of the mother general: "If, when the ballots have been counted, it shall appear that-no-one of the sisters has received a majority of.the votes cast, they shall proceed to a second or third ballot; if then the required majority of votes should not yet have been obtained, a fourth ballot shall be taken in which only those two sisters have passive vote who on the third ballot had received the larger number of votes. If on the fourth ballot, an equal number of votes is given to both, the senior by profession or, if they are equal, the older in yeat~s shall be considered elected"? There is no doubt that the article is .obscure. An absolute majority is a number that in any way exceeds half the valid votes cast, even if by only a half vote, e. g., nine out of seventeen, ten out of eighteen. A relative majority is a number of votes for one person larger than for any of the others singly, although less than for all the others taken together, e. g., ii~ seventeen valid votes are cast and Sister' M. Agatha receives seven, Sister M. Bernice six, Sister M. Callista three, and Sister M. Damien one, Sister M. Agatha is elected on a balloting in 361 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious which a relative majority is decisive. Active voice is the right to vote in :a chapter; passive voice is the right to be elected ir~ a chapter. Passive "vote" in this article should be passive voice, and "senior by profession" should be "senior by first profes-sion." Therefore, the sense, of the article is that an absolute majority is required for an election on any of the .first. three ballotings. If an election has not resulted, a fourth and last balloting is to be held. 0nly the two sisters who had the highest number of votes in the third balloting can be voted for in this last balloting, i. e.,. they alone have passive voice. This article does not deprive these two sisters of active voice on the fourth balloting, as is now the universal p~actice of the Holy See in approving constitutions. Of the two, the sister who receives the larger number of votes on the fourth balloting is elected. If this balloting results in a tie, the sister who is senior by first professio~ is elected; if the two made their first profession on the same day, the senior by age is elected. 36. Our constitutions state of the elections of the general officials: if in neither the first ballot nor in the second ballot an absolute majority of votes is obtained, a relative majority will be di~cisive on the third ballot." Who is elected according to this norm when two or more are tied on the third ballot? The full canonical norm (c. 101, § !'~ l°)'is that the president of the election has the righ.t to decide the tie on the third balloting by his or her. vote; but, if he does not choose to do this, the tie is broken in a lay institute by seniority of first profession or by age. If your constitutions give the president this right in other elections, he has the same right here. If they do not, as is almost universally true in lay institutes, the president does not have this right; and the tie ig broken only by the day of first profession or the day of birth. 37. According to our constitutions, a tie on the fourth and last ballot-ing for the office of superior general is broken in this way: the older by first profession is elected superior general and in case the religious made their profession on the same day, the older in age is elected. The article for the elections of the general offcials states that a relative.majority is 362 November, 19~58 THE GENERAL CHAPTER sufficient on the third and last balloting but that, if there is a tie, the older in profession is elected. The latter article says nothing about age. Who is elected in the latter case when two or more religious are tied on the third balloting but all made their first profession on the same day? As in the preceding case, the second article has merely omitted part of the canonical norm. This is clear also from the fact that age is included in the first article. Therefore, the question of the tie is to be decided by the canonical norm of seniority by the day of birth. VIII. After the Election 38. The constitutions of our diocesan congregation of sisters say simply that the local ordinary has the right of confirming the election of the mother general. What is the meaning of this authority? In virtue of canon 506, § 4, the presiding local ordinary has the right of confirming the election of the mother general in diocesan congregations. Therefore, three things are required to complete the election in such a congregation, the required number of votes, acceptance, unless this is commanded by the constitutions, and the confirmation of the local ordinary. (a) Competent local ordinary. The right to confirm an election is the authority to ratify or rescind the election. Con-firmation appertains to the ordinary of the diocese in which the election is held, not to the ordinary of the motherhouse as such. The ordinary may delegate his power of confirming or rescinding the election, e. g., to the priest he has delegated to preside at the election. (b) Norm for giving ~:onfirmation. The general canon on elections, 177, § 2, enacts that the competent superior must give the confirmation if the election was legitimatdly performed and he judges the one elected qualified for the office, even if in his judgment this person is not the more or most qualified. However, canon 506, § 4, treats specifically of the right of the local ordinary to confirm or rescind the election of a mother general in diocesan congregations and describes this right as the 363 JOSEPH f. GALLEN Review for Religious authority to confirm or .rescind the. election according to his conscience," This last phrase has led many canonists to hold that the ordinary is given a wider power in this case than in the general canon, 177, § 2. In this opinion, the local ordinary may not licitly act on mere whim, human motives, or personal preferences, but only on reasons based on the common good of the congregation. This being"presupposed, he has the right of rescinding 'the election also if he judges that the more or most suitable person was not elected. Other canonists hold that the ordinary must conform to the general canon, 177, § 2, also in confirming the election of a mother general. The opinion grant-ing the ordinary the wider power is at least more probable, if not certain, from the clearly distinctive wording of canon 506, § 4. The right of confirmation and rescission is not a right of ap-pointing the mother general. If the ordinary refuses the con-firmation, the chapter proceeds to .a new election. (c) Confirmation of other elections. Canon law demands confirmation only for the election of the mother general of a diocesan congregation, not for that of any other religious superior or official. By the law of the constitutions, confirma-tion is required for the election of the superioress in some monasteries of nuns and usually the confirmation of the mother general wi~h the consent of her council is ne.cessary when the mother provincial and ihe provincial officials are elected in the provincial chapter. The competent superior for such a monas-tery is the local ordinary, if the monastery is subject to him, or the regular superior, if the monastery is subject to regulars. The confirmation in all such cases is to be given according to the general norm of canon 177, § 2. 39. The constitutions of our pontifical congregation give a form of words by which the local ordinary is said to confirm the election of the mother general. Is ~his in accord with canon law? The right of confirming an election is the authority to ratify or rescind it. In virtue of canon 506, § 4, the ordinary ot: the place of election has the right of confirming the election of 364 Novc~nbcr, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER the mother general in diocesan congregations only. Canon law does not require confirmation for the election of any other religious superior or official. It is true that confirmation can be demanded by the law of th~ particular constitutions, e. g., in the case of the election of the superioress in some monasteries of nuns. However, the Holy See does not grant the local ordinary the right of confirmation in approving the constitutions of pontifical congregations. Furthermore, the constitutions in question contain no article granting this extraordinary right to the local ordinary. Therefore, ~the word "confirm" in these constitutions is to be interpreted as a wide use for the accurate word "proclaim," i. e., when an election has resulted, the president of the chapter announces this fact and the name of the one elected (c. 174). Cases of such a wide use of "confirm" are found in other documents of the Holy See and in authors. Cf. Battandier, Guide Canonique, n. 382. 40. The president at the election of our mother general was a priest. delegated by the local ordinary. At the end of the first balloting, the president proclaimed the election, i. e., announced that an election had resulted, with the name of the one elected (c. 174). He did not an-nounce how many votes this sister had received, whether other sisters had received any votes, nor obviously the number of votes received by such other sisters. 1. Was this omission of the president contrary to canon law and thus illicit? 2. Was the election thereby invalid? This question has been proposed several times and has already been answered in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. On this occasion, we shall strive to be more complete, even though this implies a cumbersome burden of citations. There is no doubt whatever that the omission of the president was contrary to canon 171, § 2, and therefore objectively illicit. This canon commands that the names of all voted for and the number of votes each received must be announced in every balloting ("palamque faciant quot quisque retulerit"). The canon per-mits that the announcing be done in either of two ways, i. e., the vote on each.ballot, or voting ticket or slip, is announced to the capitulars or the names of all voted for and the total 365 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review ]or Religious received by each are announced only at the end of the balloting. It is much better and is the usual custom to announce the votes in both ways. The further question can be and is now again asked whether an election is invalid (1) if the numbe~ of votes received by the elected candidate is not published to the capitu-lars or (2) the number of votes received by the other candidates is not so published. Most authors do not even mention in-validity with regard to either case in their explanation of the pertinent canon, 171, § 2. Most also implicitly deny invalidity, because they list the causes of the invalidity of elections without including either of these cases. (Schaefer, De Religiosis, n. 527; De Carlo, Jus Religiosorum, n. 150; Vermeersch-Creusen, Epitome Iuris Canonici, I, n- 288; Fanfani, De Religiosis, n. 116; .Pruemmer, Manuale Iuris Canonici, q. 79; Bouscaren-Ellis, Canon Law, 127; Claeys Bouuaert-Simenon, Manuale Juris Can-onici, I, n. 331; Brys, Juris Canonici Compendium, I, 263; Sipos, Enchiridion Iuris Canonici, 129; Geser, Canon Law Governing Communities of Sisters, n. 341) Some deny or doubt the in-validity in these two cases. (Vermeersch-Creusen, 0p. cir., n. 293, 2; Jone, Commentarium in Codicem Iuris Canonici, I, 177; Ellis, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 8-1949-159-60) Therefore, there exists no common opinion of authors that invalidity is verified in either case. Furthermore, several of the authors who maintain invalidity express themselves so obscurely that it is difficult to understand what they mean by the publication they require for validity. Goyeneche, Quaestiones Canonicae, I, 50-51; Coronata, Institutiones Iuris Canonici, I, 278-79; Creusen, Religious Men and Women in the Code, n. 76; Parsons, Canoni-cal Elections, 151-52, 200; and Lewis, Chapters in Religious Institutes, 127, affirm invalidity at least with regard to the first case. Their first argument is that publication of the votes is an essential element of a canonical election. This argument is not certain, since it is admittedly difficult to ascertain what are the essential elements of an election in the code. The second argu- 366 November, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER ment is that the code is here merely reassuming the law before the ~code, which demanded publication for validity. This argument al~o is not certain. Canon 171, § 2, does not: state expressly that. publication of the votes is required for the validity of .a balloting. If the intention was to reassume the former law, i~ seems strange that an invalidating clause was not expressed in the canon, as it is in so many of tl~e other canons on elections, e. g.~ 162, §§ 3, 5; 165; 166; 167, § 2; 169; 170; 171, § 3; 172, §§ 2-3; 1.76, § 3; 181, § 2. There-fore, since there is a doubt of law about invalidity in both cases, all such elections are valid (c. 15). 41. The constitutions of our pontifical congregation contain the follow-ing ~rticle: "In the ordinary chapter, the mother general going out of office shall act as mother vicar until the elections have lawfully taken place." Isn't she out of office entirely as soon as the election of the new mother general is' completed and before the elections of the four councilors, the secretary general, and the bursar general? Yes. The wording of your constitutions follows the Normae of 1901, article 225. The sense, however, is that expressed in the question, i. e., the mother general loses all title to the office, also as mother vicar, on the completion of the election of the mother general. The election is completed in a pontifical congregation by the attaining of .the requisite number of votes and acceptance, or by the former alone if acceptance is imposed by the particular law of the institute, and in diocesan congregations ~ of women by the added ~equisite of the confirmation of the ordinary 'of the place of election (cc. 174-77; 506, § 4). This interpretation is otherwise evi-dent from your constitutions, since the newly elected mother general immediately assumes her office by presiding at the elections that follow and at the chapter of affairs. The retention and prolongation of the office under the title of vicar is to take care of the case of an election delayed beyond the expiration of the term of the present mother gen-eral and of a suspension of the chapter. This occurs when 367 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious the choice of the chapter is of one who cannot be elected but only postulated as mother general, i. e., because of a lack of the age, years of profession, or legitimacy required by canon 504, or an election beyond the number of terms permitted by the constitutions. The postulation for the last impediment in a diocesan institute is addressed to the ordinary of the place of election; but in all other cases, whether the institute is pon-tifical or diocesan, it must be made to the Holy See (c. 181, § 1). In a postulation for the office of mother general, the chapter is suspended until notification is received of the accep-tance or rejection of the postulation. A suspension can also occur in a diocesan institute of women when the confirmation of the local ordinary is delayed. It is better to word the con-stitutions that all elective officials retain their offices until the election to the same office is completed in the following chap-ter. Cf. Normae pro Constitutionibus Congregationum Iuris Dioe.cesani a S. C. de Propaganda Fide De.pendentium, aa. 142, 153. IX. Chapter of Affairs 42. The constitutions of our pontifical congregat.ion, of brothers state with regard to the chapter of affairs: "All these matters are decided by an absolute majority of secret votes." A secret vote takes more time, and I see no reason for secrecy in many of the matters that uniformly come before a chapter of affairs. The practice of the Holy See in approving constitutions demands secret voting in the chapter of affairs. This voting may be done by a method such as black ~ind white beans. It is admitted doctrine that the voting need not always be secret. If the matter is of little importance or the discussion has made it clear that there is little opposition, the voting may be public, e. g., by rising or raising the hand. A capitular may always request a secret vote on such a matter. If so, the superior general will put this question to a vote. If the absolute majority by a public vote, e. g., rising or raising the hand, favors a secret vote on the matter, this must be had; otherwise, the voting 368 Novcmber, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER will be public. A few pontifical constitutions ordain that the voting is always to be public, with the exception of the request for secrecy described above. It is difficult to see why a secret vote should be generally prescribed for the chapter of affairs. There is no general reason for secrecy in the matters listed in the practice of the Holy See as the more important affairs of this chapter. 43. What is the duration of the ordinances of a chapter of.affairs in lay institutes? In constitutions, the acts of the chapter of affairs are variously termed ordinances, enactments, regulations, decrees, and decisions. According to the practice of the Holy See, the ordinances of a chapter in lay institutes are temporary. The Normae of 1901 stated that the ordinances of the general chapter remained in force until the next chapter (a. 250). In its present practice, the Sacred Congregation of Religious states that these ordinances remain in force until the next general chapter, in which they may be confirmed, modified, or abrogated. The temporary character of the ordinances has therefore beeia imposed by the Holy See in the approval of constitutions; it does not certainly follow from the nature of such ordinances nor from canon 24. To avoid any difficulty, the superior general should propose a declaration that all the acts of past chapters are confirmed by the present chapter except insofar as they will be or have been modified or abrogated by this chapter. The temporary character of the ordinances does not demand an explicit confirmation for their continuance; an implicit or tacit confirmation suffices. If a previous general chapter has approved so important a measure as a directory, the sum of the dowry, or the extraordinary expenses for which local superiors must recur to higher superiors and the subsequent chapter omits all action on the matter, it is the implicit or tacit will of this chapter that such a measure is confirmed. Van Hove states this principle as follows: "Many ordinances enacted from dominative power continue to exist on the cessation from office 369 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious of the superior who established them, because they are implicitly renewed by his successor, who is presumed to intend that the customary order in a community continue to be observed until he changes it" (De Legibus Ecclesiasticis, I, n. 359, note 4; cf. Jone, C0mmentarium in Codicem Iuris Canonici, I, 46). Furthermore, from the practice of religious institutes, it is the presumption that all existing acts of previous chapters are implicitly or tacitly confirmed by a later chapter except those that it changes or abrogates. 44. Do monasteries of nuns have a chapter of affairs after the elections? A chapter ~f affairs is held more frequently and separately from elections in monasteries of nuns, since the chapter in such an institute has a vote in several matters that appertain solely to a higher superior and her council in a centralized institute. These matters vary in different constitutions, e. g., the alienation of property and the contracting of debts, admission of an aspirant into the enclosure, admission of a religious from another institute or monastery, admission to the novicesl~ip and pro-fessions, the declaration of fact fo~ an ~/~so faclo dismissal, the erection or suppression of a school, and other important matters of the monastery. A chapter of affairs is consequently held after the elections only if any such matters are to be discussed at the time. 45. Are higher superiors obliged to obey the enactments of the general chapter? Evidently. The general chapter is the supreme authority within the institute. Book Reviews [Material for this department should be sent to Book Review Editor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana.] MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS. By Sister M. Bertrand Degnan, R.S.M. Pp. 394. The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. 1957. $6.50. Sister M. Bertrand began collecting data fo~ Mercy unto Thou-sands in 1945. The years of study, labor, and research have pro- 370 November, 1958 BOOK REVIEWS duced a masterpiece. This book is at once very scholarly and very interesting. The life of Mother McAuley is so well told, in fact, that the vast amount of research into primary sources is almost forgotten till one begins to study the references. Such scholarship and appeal are two qualities often sought, but seldom so well achieved. As the author traces the life of Mother McAuley, the Divine Providence which guided her life b~comes more clearly delineated at each step of her career. At least in its major aspects, God's plan for Catherine McAuley was clear to her religious superiors, if not entirely clear to Catherine ~erself. That a religious order should be the logical consequence of the charitable work of Mercy House on Baggot. Street, Dublin, seemed to be clear to everyone but Cath-erine. And that the order, once founded, should spread so rapidly was hardly strange. In fact, given the time, place, and other cir-cumstances it would have been strange had the order not so developed. For Mother McAuley was dedicated above all to doing" God's work. Her surrender of all her time, wealth, and talents to God, made her a perfect instrument in His hands. So step by step He l.ed her to the accomplishment of a great work--the foundation and propagation of the Sisters of Mercy. The gifts and talents of Mother McAuley were rare. Sound-ness of practical judgment, ability in financial matters, intellectual acumen, grace of manner, and perseverance, to mention but a few of her qualities, marked Catherine McAuley as a woman destined for success. Many of these talents, of course, found their fulfillment and perfection in the supernatural order. For the charity, humility, and patience of this great woman were exercised to a degree seldom achieved in the life of a religious. But the outstanding natural gift of Mother McAuley was her exceptional charm. Her letters, poems, talks, and conversations portray an attractive person. Her ready wit must have supplied many pleasant hours for the sisters in the recreation room. For Mother McAuley's irrepressible optimism and humor always gave her a glimpse of the bright side of life even in her darkest moments. The tenderness and warmth with which she treated the other sisters manifested a woman with an extremely affectionate heart. But she could scold when the occasion demanded it. Her corrections, how-ever, were always temperate; and offense was never given. In sh, ort, this is the life of a very attractive and charming religious very attractively written. Mother McAuley could not be 371 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religio~cs better presented or represented than she has been in Mercy unto Thousands.--J. M. KUNTZ, S.J. PHILIPPINE DUCHESNE, Frontier Missionary of the Sacred Heart, 1769.1852. By Louise Callan, R.S.C.J. Pp. 805. The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. 1957. $8.00. This life is, as it should be, a monumental work; for it deals with an epic theme. Its story begins about the time of the fall of one nation and ends about the time of the rise of another with the life story of a heroine filling the interval. Mother Callan has laid Catholic readers under an undying obligation for her scholarly yet simple presentation of a heroic woman and dauntless religious facing the rigors of frontier life in the American midwest in the first half of the 19th century, with no other purpose than to make known the glory of the Heart of Jesus. The volume is largely made up of Philippine Duchesne's correspondence with her friend and religious superior, Mother Barat, with the members of her family, and with religious and ecclesiastics with whom her zeal brought her into contact. There is hardly a page in this large book without some extract from Philippine's correspondence. Mother Callan has woven this cor-respondence into her text to illustrate it and carry it forward, with the result that it is largely Philippine who tells her own story, and does so magnificently. The letters themselves are very interesting, but they are never introduced for themselves, and the reader is never aware that the story being told is arrested or delayed in its progress. Mother Duchesne was in fact no ordinary letter-writer, where she describes the angry moods of the Atlantic as she crosses it, the picturesque banks of the Mississippi as she ascends it, or the dirt and muck of a Missouri farmyard as she trudges through it. The pictures come alive and tell us as much of the writer as of the subject of her writing. One cannot help being deeply impressed by the dogged per-sistence in the face of difficulties, discouragement, and even of opposi-tion shown by Mother Duchesne in the pursuit of her purpose, the salvation of souls through devotion to Christ's own Heart. This she never lost sight of. Lack of means, lack of help, lack of interest on the part of others never deterred her. Poverty, frequently grinding, only opened up new resources of courage. Even failure could not stop her. In fact, her life seems to have been one succession of failures, from her first attempt at religious life which was cut short in her girl-hood by the French Revolution, down to her belated excursion to the 372 November, 1958 BOOK REVIEWS Potawatomi in her old age. She had come to teach the Indians the way to God, and the only Indians she met were converts of many years. She had come to a land where the language was other than her own, a language which baffled all her attempts to master it; and when she could not teach, she stitched and sewed and mended. One foundation after another was given up; and she moved from place to place, always beginning anew, until she came to spend her final and fail-ing years at St. Charles, on the banks of the Missouri, where she had begun her work--reluctantly, since she found no place awaiting her in St. Louis where she had hoped to be established. Behind this unalterable courage and determined will, there was a tender heart. One marvels at the strength of the affection she shows for those she loves, and she loved nearly all she met. Remark-ing on the lack of letters from France with news of her loved ones, she exclaims: "There is not a single religious from France in the community here. But we meet at the s~ime center--the Heart God . " She loves solitude, but there is a note of poignant loneli-ness in this cry from the heart. There was much she met in the pioneer society that repelled her. If we remember that she was of gentle birth, had known the refine-ment and culture of 18th century France, we can better understand the revulsions she must have felt for the coarseness she met with in the society of the frontier. In her letter to her cousin Josephine, she recalls: "Those happy evenings in Grandmother's house; the simple but charming dinners on Sunday--and those on Monday; the presents given out gradually to each of the younger children. All this comes to my mind. Those happy days in the big family were surely prefer-able to the prdud disdain, the indifference, the affected languor, by which people think they make themselves important and attractive. I continue to live in the same convent a peaceful retreat suited to my age and tastes. My thoughts are often with you and about you, for you are so dear to my heart." The proud disdain, the indifference, the affected languor--simple religious as she was, she was shrewd enough to penetrate the shallow shell of sophistication in the society about her and expose its essential pride. Philippine was no gloomy ascetic, although she was of a naturally seri6us disposition. "Yet she was," as Mother Jouve, a niece, testi-fied, "always joyous and animated at the community recreaSons or when religious came for little visits with her in her room." She had severe interior trials to undergo, but these she kept entirely to herself. She could spend long and happy hours before the Blessed Sacrament, 373 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious and she was never more pleased than when she was allowed to live in close proximity to the chapel. Her life had become completely and perfectly integrated in God, "because' she realized," as Mother Callan tells us, "with astonishing clarity that He is first, and also last~Alpha and Omega--and that between Him and all else in the universe, there is, there can be, no comparison." However else she failed, in this she succeeded supremely: she loved God with a consuhaing devotion and her neighbor with a tire-less affection.~WILLIAM J. YOUNG, S.J. THE TEMPTATIONS OF CHRIST. By Gerald Vann, O.P., and P. K. Meagher, O.P. Pp. 127. Sheed and Ward, New York 3. 1957. $2.75. The climate of modern opinion, abetted by the word of Freud and others, may well influence Christians to think that the devil's day is over. Fathers Vann and Meagher show conclusively that Satan's neatest trick is this widespread disbelief in him. Why was Christ tempted? The authors believe that Christ saw Satan for the shrewd opponent that he is and went forth eagerly to confront him, thus giving us an example of how to cope with tempta-tion and also exposing the devil's wiles at t~ieir roots. The book is a psychologico-ascetical study; reading it cannot fail to improve one's understanding of the un.derlying "predominant passions" which rise to the surface of everyday life in such myriad forms. The authors first point out that we should not expect to be free from temptations--such perfectionism is already unconscious pride. They then show how Satan waits his chance to attack us when we are weakest and where we are most vulnerable. It is a discerning person who does not allow himself to be so wasted away by fasts and penances that he falls easy prey to the schemes of the Prince of Darkness. Going through the three temptations individually, the authors show a deep knowledge of "what is in man" as they analyze the appeal of the °devil in each situation. Thus they take the temptation to turn stones into bread as an indication of the desire for that sense of security which an abundance of resources can provide, making it difficult even to wish to be poor in spirit. The "perils of the pinnacle" .is a temptation highlighting man's excess of trust in himself; it shows how many think they avoid "immorality" by skirting sexual sins only to be heedless of such things as calumny, cruelty, bitterness, and pride. 374 November, 1958 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS The third temptation brings into the open the thread underlying this entire episode in our Lord's life. Satan's implication is that God is a poor provider and that the devil himself will give us prosperity and glory. And that indeed is the case--unless one takes a long-range view' beyond the frontiers of the immediate here and now. The book is more than a description of a scene from the life of Christ; it is a profound introspective study of what lies behind much of man's action. As such it cannot fail to give better knowledge of oneself and of the ways of the devil.--R.~LeH J. IL~ST~A~, S.J. BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 400 North Broadway, Milwaukee 1, Wisconsin. Fathering-Forth. By John H. McGoey, S.F.M. A book by a priest for priests. In it Father McGoey evaluates what he has learned of the life of a priest both from personal experience and from observation. He has many a criticism to offer, but they are all of the constructive kind. Priests will find much matter for serious consideration in these pages. Pp. 188. $3.50. DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL, 50 St. Paul's Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston 30, Massachusetts. Glories and Virtues of Mary. By the Very Rev. J. Alberione, S.S.P., S.T.D. Translated by Hilda Calabro. The book is divided into three paits. The first deals with the glories of Mary; the second, with the virtues of Mary; and the third, with devotion to Mary. Each chapter concludes with some striking incident in the lives of great men and women illustrative of their deep devotion to the Mother of God. The book is well illustrated with full page reproductions of famous masterpieces. Pp. 251. Cloth $3.00. Paper $1.50. Mary, Mother and Model. Feasts of Mary. By the Very Rev. James Alberione, S.S.P., S.T.D. Translated by Hilda Calabro. The Roman Missal contains thirty-seven Masses in honor of our Lady. Not all of them are for the universal Church. Thirty of these feasts are considered in this volume and presented as meditations. At the end of each meditation there is a commentary on the cor-responding Mass of the Missal. The book is illustrated with full page reproductions of photographs of famous paintings or statues of our Lady. Pp. 237. Cloth $3.00. Paper $1.50. 375 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious Religious Life. Life of Courageous Souls. Extracts from Medi-tations and Conferences of the Very Rev. James Alberione, S.S.P., S.T.D., to the Religious of his Five Congregations. Compiled and translated from the Italian hy the Daughters of St. Paul. This is an excellent introduction to the religious life and a notable con-tribution to vocation literature. Pp. 107. Cloth $2.00. Paper $1.00. MESSRS. M. H. GILL & SON, 50 Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland. The Story of the Hospitallers of St. John of God. By Norbert McMahon, O.S.J.D. In the United States this order of brothers dedicated to serve the sick poor is little known. Yet they have a tradition and history of heroic achievements in many parts of the world which only God can reward. How many martyrs of charity have died in their ranks we shall know only on the last day. During the civil war in Spain, ninety-eight Hospitaller Brothers were brutally massacred by the Reds out of hatred for religion. Yet despite their heroic achievements, their history is one of great trials and much persecution. More than once the order was all but extinct, only to rise again more vigorous than before. Perhaps their greatest trial came from the Holy See itself. Four days after his election, Pope Clement VIII published a bull which took from the Hospitaller Brothers their status as a religious order. The brothers were de-prived of their three vows of religion. They were to serve the sick in the hospitals as lay nurses under obedience to the local bishop. But Divine Providence watched over them. Today, after four-hundred years of existence, they have 209 houses, almost all of them hospitals, and 2,464 religious. You will want to read all about these athletes of charity. Pp. 187. 16/-. Ideals to Live By. Some of the Principles Which Moulded St. Ignatius Loyola. By Robert Nash, S. J. This is the latest book from the prolific pen of Father Nash. He wrote it with lay Catholics chiefly in mind. It is about the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and makes suitable reading, either public or private, for times of retreat. Pp. 175. Paper 8/6. Cloth 12/6. B. HERDER BOOK COMPANY, 15-17 South Broadway, St. Louis 2, Missouri. The Three Degrees. A study of Christian Mysticism. By Conrad Pepler, O.P. A knowledge of mysticism can be very useful to all who lead an interior life. For the director of souls it is at times necessary. 376 November, 1958 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Father Pepler offers a brief but sound introduction to this most diffi-cult subject and does so in language which the modern reader can understand. Unless you are already an expert in mystical theology, you can learn much from this little book. Pp. 256. $3.50. Introduction to the Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Vol. II, Cosmology. By H. D. Gardeil, O.P. Translated by John A. Otto, Ph.D. This is the second volume of a four volume set. The purpose of this volume is "to give a true account of Aristotle's understanding.of the physical world, and mainly of its philosophical content, the abiding feature of his study." Pp. 218. $3.75. P. J. KENEDY & SONS, 12 Barclay Street,-New York 8, New York. Autobiography of St. Th~r~se of Lisieux. Translated by Ronald Knox. When L'Histoire d'une Ame first appeared, it had been edited to suit the canons of that day. The editing consisted in changing the chronological order, omitting about one fourth the whole, and making many changes in the text. All these edi-torial changes have now been eliminated, and we have the manu-script as it left the pen of the saint. It is this reconstructed manu-script that Father Knox has translated for English readers. In its light the heroic virtues of St. Th~rSse are more brightly illumined, and we get a better and a truer picture of the saint. Pp. 320. $4.50. THE MESSENGER PRESS, Carthagena, Ohio. Bought at a Great Price. Reflections on the Precious Blood. By Mother Mary Aloysi Kiener, S.N.D. If you are looking for a book of meditations to help you along the way of affective prayer, you would do well to examine Bought at a Great Price. There are thirty-two meditations, each divided into two parts. The average length of each meditation is eight pages. Pp. 271. $3.50. THE NEWMAN PRESS, Westminster, Maryland. A Manual for Novice Mistresses. Edited by Albert Pl~, O.P. Translated by Patrick Hepburne-Scott. This is volume nine in the "Religious Life Series." In content it is a selection of the more important papers read at a conference of French Dominican novice mistresses. The book dealg concisely with many of the major prob-lems which confront a mistress of noviceg in any order or congre-gati6n. Pp. 152. $3.25. The Christian Approach to the Bible. By Dom Celestine Char-lier. Translated from the French by Hubert J. Richardson and 377 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious Brendan Peters. 'Through the Bible God speaks to men on matters concerning man's salvation. It is therefore the most important book. Yet it is not an easy book to read. Fruitful reading pre-supposes certain intellectual, moral, and religious dispositions. These the author would help his readers to acquire. He does not write for experts but for the average Christian, who, no less than his learned brother, is to draw from the. Bible power to transform his life. Pp. 298. $4.00. Valiant Heralds of Truth. Pius XII and the Arts of Communi-cation. Compiled with a Commentary by Rev. Vincent A. Yzer-mans. The most authoritative source for a Catholic philosophy of the communication arts is our Holy Father, Pius XII. He has written and spoken on this subject frequently, and the compiler has gathered all these utterances between the covers of one volume. Pp. 201. $3.75. Christian Perfection and Married Life. By J. M. Perrin, O.P. Translated by P~ D. Gilbert. To show how perfection can be achieved in the married state is the purpose of the author. Marriage counselors, directors of Cana conferences, and priests engaged in the ministry will find here much valuable material. Pp. 92. $1.95. A Father Faber Heritage. Selections from the Writings of Rev. Frederick William Faber. Edited with an Introduction by Sister Mary Mercedes, S.N.D., de Namur. Father Faber of the Oratory was one of the outstanding spiritual writers of the nine-teenth century, and one who achieved a notable measure of well-deserved popularity. T

Issue 15.4 of the Review for Religious, 1956. ; A. M. D. G. Review for Religious JULY 15, 1956 To The Sons of Ignatius . Pope Plus XII For the Greater Glory of God . Henry Willmerlng Sisters' RetreatsmlV . Thomas Dubey The Occasional Confessor . Meurlce B, Welsh Mother Theodore Guerln . Sister Eugenla Thoughts on Transfers . Winfr~d Herbsf Book Reviews Questions and Answers Communicafions VOLUME XV No. 4 R V EW VOLUME XV FOR RELIGIOUS JULY, 1956 NUMBER 4 CONTENTS TO THE SONS OF IGNATIUS--Pope Pius XII . 169 SOME PAMPHLETS . : . 172 FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD--Henry Willmering, S.3. . 173 ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EUCHARIST . 176 PICTURE MEDITATIONS . 176 SISTERS' RETREATS--IV--Thomas Dubay, S.M . 177 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 184 THE OCCASIONAL CONFESSOR-~Maurice B. Walsh, S.3 . 185 VOCATIONAL FILMSTRIP . 188 MOTHER THEODORE GUERIN--Sister Eugenia . 189 PAMPHLETS . 201 THOUGHTS ON TRANSFERS---Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S . 202 COMMUNICATIONS . 206 BOOK REVIEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS-- Editor: Bernard A. Hausmann, S.J. West Baden College West Baden Springs, Indiana . 210 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- 24. Obligation for Postulants ~o Make General Confession . 2i9 25. Helpful Canon Law Books . 220 26. Putting Water in Finger Bowl Before Mass . 220 27. Too much Canon Law in Constitutions? . 220 28. Why Frequent Mass in Black Vestments . 221 29. Beginning Noviceship While Hospitalized . 222 SOME BOOKS RECEIVED . ¯ . 224 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, July, 1956. Vol. XV, 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, Kansas, 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: Augustine G. Ellard, S.3., Gerald Kelly, S.J., Henry Willmering, S.J. Literary Editor: Edwin F. Falteisek, S.J. Publishing rights reserved by REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. Permission is hereby granted for quotations of reasonable length, provided due credit be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U. S. A. Before writing o us, please consult notice on inside back cover. To the Sons d Igna!:ius Pope Pius XII [EDITORS; NOTE: We present here the text of the letter sent by the Holy Father to John Baptist Janssens, General of the Society of Jesus, on July 31, 1955. The footnote references have been omitted.] IT was a real joy for Us to hear that the Society of Jesus, which you, beloved son, have been governing for the past nine years, is about to celebrate with solemn festivities the memory of its holy founder on the fourth centenary of his death; to the end that all its m'embers may be aroused to a more ardent love of their beloved father and lawgiver, and a more perfect observance of his Institute. These centennial celebrations receive Our hearty approval and We join thereto Our prayers for their success, all the more willingly for the well-founded hope that rich benefits will flow from them not only to the sons of St, Ignatius but also to the souls of the faithful. For, just as by an" Apostol.ic Letter expressing Our affection on the occa-. sion of the fourth centenary of the founding of your Society, as a gesture of comfort to Ourselves as well as to you, "We reckoned up with gratitude those remarkable achievements which God in His providence had brought about in the course of the past four hundred years "through'the Society of old and today," so We take pleasure in recalling the same on this occasion as a precious pledge for the future. We are also happy to exhort you once more from the heart of a father to carry forward with untiring earnestness, especially in the spiritual sphere, all your activities, your ministries and everything by which you may give timely answers to the changing and ever-increas-ing needs of our own times. We have been informed that all your provinces throughout the world have with a will set themselves to celebrate this centenary year by devoting themselves with still greater zeal and fidelity to the Spi6tual Exercises of their father and founder and to spreading their use more Widely. In truth, St. Ignatius has left his sons no legacy more precious, more useful, more lasting than that golden book which,: from the time of Paul III, sovereign pontiffs and innumerable saints in the Church have frequently praised most highly. If there is truth in that which Father La Palma wrote, that the book of the Spiritual Exercises was the firstborn of St. Ignatius, the saintly author can be equally well said to have been the firstborn of those Exercises. They are what invigorated his soul with new life, guided his first steps in the way of perfection, increased his strength to enable him 169 POPE PIUS XII Review for Religions to choose the divine King wearied by toil, harassed by insults, sub-missive to torture and death in the service of His eternal Father, and to follow Him to the very summit of love, so that, ablaze with the fire of divine love, he ardently desired to bring not only himself, but the whole world, to the feet of Christ our Savior. Ignatius, who had tested the great force of these Exercises, on one occasion declared that in them was contained ".everything that is most excellent that I can think of, feel and comprehend in this life, to enable a man to make fruitful progress in his own soul, and be of benefit and a stimulus to others." So no one will be surprised that your saintly founder wished to be fully tested in these Exercises each one who desired in this Society "to fight God's battle under the banner of the Cross, and to serve solely our Lord and His Spouse, the Church, guided by the Roman Pontiff, Vicar of Christ on earth.'; He wished his sons to imbibe that spirit, which is the foundation of the Society, from the same source from which he had drunk his new life. This spirit is a mar-velous and holy ardor of mind, aroused by the grace of God work-ing in the Exercises, which would make them not only desirous, but prompt and eager, to devote themselves to God's glory, and for the sake of the same, to undertake exacting labors. Hence, forgetful of their own convenience, shunning leisure, devoted to the practice of prayer based on personal mortification, they would strive with all their might to attain the end proposed to them in the Society. Btit when Ignatius, authorized by Pope Paul III, Our predeces-sor of happy memory, later composed the Constitutions and gave them to his companions, his intention was not that rigid laws should replace the living and life-giving law of interior love. And after the Society was established, he did not lose sight of the meaning of that phrase, "to be at the special service of the Holy See" under the stand-ard of the Cross, that Cross to which Jesus Christ affixed the decree written against us, after He had wiped it out, so that all men might be freed from Satan's power and march in the light of faith and warmth of charity. The command given on Mr. Olivet sounded clearly in his ear: .',and you will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth." Later Augustine would write: "spread charity through the whole world, if youl want to love Christ because Christ's mem-bers are throughout the world." And Ignatius himself was destined to see over a thousand of his followers serving under the standard of the Cross in the distant lands of Europe, America, India, Ethiopia. This was the beginning of that apostolate which would call his sons 170 ~ 1956 TO THE SONS OF IGNATIUS to the vast field of the I~ord, some to the heathen missions, which the popes over the years would be entrusting to them to till with un-remitting labor, exact knowledge, 'even with their blood; others tO labor close to heads of state, or among those oppressed by slavery; still others to direct schools of youth or to occupy university chairs; still others to give the Spir.itual Exercises to every class of men, or to enrich and brighten the world of letters by their writings. It will be for the Constitutions to open the road by which the whole So-ciety and all its members, though dispersed throughout the worId yet united to each other and its head by the same love of the eternal King, might in the spirit of the Ignatian Institute attain that perfect manner, of life which is the chief fruit of the Exercises. Beloved son, who of the Society, in this fourth centenary year, will not listen .to that word, once Paul's now Ignatius': "Be con-tent, brethren, to follow my example and mark well those who live by the pattern we have given them." Through God's goodness, the Society never lacked saintly men, who, exactly obedient to the Exer-cises of Ignatius, kept that pattern unmarred, and drew energy and strength to live precisely according to the Constitutions, so as to re-produce in themselves more perfectly that patte,rn, and work more effectively for souls. Plus VII, of immortal memory, sought men of this stamp when he wished to equip Peter's storm-tossed bark with strong, expert oarsmen; Holy Mother Church in these troubled times asks the Society for helpers of the same mould. May today's sons of Ignatius, therefore, strive to follow in their footsteps. Under the standard of the Cross may they stand firm against all the at[acks of the princes of this world of darkness. Loving and ready obedience must be shown to superiors, especially the Supreme Pontiff; this is their most honorable badge. To worldly desires, love of poverty must be opposed; to empty pleasure a certain austerity of life and un-tiring labor; to the discords and. quarrels of the world, gentle and peace-bringing brotherly love, love for each other and for all men; to materialism that sincere and earnest faith which always acknowl-edges and reverences the presence of God in the universe. If all this comes to pass, Ignatius, though dead, will live on in his sons. As We write these lines, dear son, with all the love of a father's heart, Our thoughts turn to those fathers and brothers who have suffered or are actually suffering bitter exile and torture at the hands of their persecutors. Surely they are most worthy sons, echoing the most glorious traditions of the Society of Jesus. They are confessors of the Catholic faith,, who are aft" honor to their brethren as well as 171 PoPE PIUS XII an example. May God strengthen them; most willingly do We bless them. But it is to all the softs of Ignatius that We extend our lov-ing greetings, begging God that under the patronage of your founder, father, and lawmaker, protected by the ever Blessed Virgin Mary, they may day by day increase in virtue, thus moulded by divine grace into a strong instrument so that all things may be guided aright by the di~,ine hand, and happily contribute to the greater glory of God. In testimony of Our special benevolence towards the Society of Jesus, We lovingly bestow on you, dear son, and on all those re-ligious throughout the world entrusted to your charge, the Apostolic Blessing. SOME PAMPHLETS All That 1 Want. The story of John F. Logsdon. Edited by Paschal Boland, O.S.B. Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana. Pp. 107. 25c. In Silence Before God. Examination of Conscience. By M. M. Philipon, O.P. Translated by A. M. Crofts, O.P. The Newman PresL Westminster, Maryland. Pp. 46. 30c. Family Limitation. Modern Medical Observations on the use of the 'Safe Period.' By John Ryan, M.B., B.S., F.R.C.S., F.I.C.S. Foreword by .Alan Keenan, O.F.M. Sbeed and Ward, 840 Broadway, N. Y. 3. Pp. 36. (Price not given.) Sacramentals, Medals, and Scapulars. By Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. Society of St. Paul, 2187 Victory Blvd., Staten Island 14. Pp. 55. 35c. Your Child's Religious Liberty. By Virgil C. Blum, S.J. Catechetlcal Guild, Educational Society, St. Paul 2, Minnesota. Pp. 64. 15c. Mental Prayer. By Cyril Bernard, O.D.C. Clonmore and Reynolds, 29 Kildare St., Dublin, 1955. Pp. 48. 2/6d. The Canon of the Mass. By Dom Placid Murray, O.S.B. Part I deals with the history of the canon. Part II gives a new English translation. Here is new light on an old problem. Pp. 14. Fourpence. The Furrow, St. Patrick's College, May-nootb, Ireland. The following pamphlets are from the Queen's Work, 3115 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis 18, Mo., and are 10c each. How Brave Can You Be? By Bakewell Morrison. S.J. Pp. 31. Personality and Mental Health. By Hugh P. O'Neill, S.J. Pp. 27. These Lucky Catholics. By Daniel A. Lord. S.J. Pp. 40. Mary's Morning Minute. Compiled by Florence Wedge. Pp. 40. Mary Always Remembers You. By T. N. Jorgensen, S.J. Pp. 32. What a Sinyle Girl Can Do fdr Christ. By W. B. Faherty, S.J. Pp. 32. Which Rites Are Right? By Brother Aurelian Thomas, F.S.C. Pp. 29. The Tree of Life. Also, Seven Supernatural Powers. By Rev. Joseph A. Lauritis, C.S.Sp. Holy Ghost Fathers, 1615 Manchester Lane, N.W., Washington 11, D. C. Pp. 32. 10c each. Why a Priest Is Called Reverend Father." By Dora Rembert Sorg, O.S.B. Plo Decimo Press, Box 53, Baden Station, St. Louis 15, Mo. Pp. 22. 20c. 172 For Ehe reat:er lory ot: Henry Willm.ering, S.J. THIS well-known maxim of St. Ignatius Loyola ,aptly expresses his devotion to a great cause: the. spread.of God s kingdom on earth. We consider here how he came by it, lived by it, prayed for it, suffered and died for it; and how, realizing that he could not carry out God's work alone, he gathered disciples about him, who embraced the same cause: namely, to pray, labor, and suffer for this ideal, the promotion of God's greater glory. Inigo of Loyola lived in an era of conquest and discovery. The year of his birth, 1491, marked the conquest of Granada and the liberation of Spain from Moorish rule. In this conquest Inigo's father took a prominent part. The next year Columbus discovered a new world; and during Inigo's youth great national heroes, like De Soto, Cortez and Pizzaro, added many provinces to the Spanish empire. A brother, Hernandez, died in the conquest of Mexico; and two otherbrothers fell on Europe's battlefields. What wonder that the youngest son of Loyola should wish to distinguish himself in the service of his ~sovereign majesty and devote his talents to the promotion of the greater glory of Spain. In this ambitious career, God halted him after his first display of heroism. A far nobler course and loftier ideal was revealed to him. He was invited to enlist in the service of an eternal King. But the thought of transferring his allegiance frightened him at first; it seemed so fantastic to give up a promising career and disappoint all his friends. After a hard struggle, he yielded to divine grace, though the plan he bad for the future was still rather vague and imaginative. After making a pilgrimage to Palestine, he thought he might live as a hermit: pray, fast, and practice other austerities, as did the saints, in atonement for his past sinful life. Before God can use an instrument for His purpose, He must first temper it in the fire of suffering. The desire of doing and suffering great things for God is often "an illusion of self-love, and nothing so effectively blocks the designs of God as this human failing. Accord-ingly Inigo had to be purged of every vestige of self-complacency. After a brief period of peace of soul and heavenly consolations, he was continually troubled with harassing fears and scruples. He re-doubled his penances and prolonged the time of prayer and sought relief in works of mercy, but all in vain. Neither repeated confes-sions, nor the. advice of spiritual directors offered him the least con- 173 HENRY WILMERING Reoieto For Reliqious solatioh. It was only after his soul had been stirred to its very depths and he-had been led to the brink of despair that finally he regained his composure of soul; and then he had, as he said, "mar- ,,ellous illuminations and extraordinary spiritual consolations." He seemed io himself like a new man, "who had been awakened from a 'drugged sleep." Ever after he had a different outlook on life and cdncentrated all his efforts and care on promoting the greater glory of God. During this period he began to note down material for what was to become the book of the Spiritual Exercises. Briefly he set down in writing the truths upon which he had meditated, the ex-periences through which he passed; and, by combining them into a systematic course, he forged a weapon that would be serviceable, not merely to the soldier who first wielded it, but which would pass from one generation to the next as a trenchant "sword of the spirit, th'at is the word of God." ¯ We so often emphasize the infinity, knowledge, and providence of Gc;d. In the Spiritual Exercises we find another aspect of the divine nature made central: the will of God. St. Ignatius points out to us that God has a purpose, a plan, a will for each one of us. His Mm ih the Exercises is to make men realize this important truth and to bring them to that disposition in which they will say with our Lord: "I seek not my own will, but the will of Him that sent me." Because God is infinitely wise and good, His will represents the o. nly thing in life worth living and dying for. The man who seeks continually to know and do God's will lives for the greater glory of God. St. Ignatius made this the bed-rock principle on which he built up his own spiritual life. So firmly did he hold to it, that some years before his death he could say, that for thirty years'he had never put off anything which had been de-cided for God's greater glory. As a trained soldier, however, be wished to receive God's orders through a. captaih. The thoughtful perusal of the life of Christ dur-ing his convalescence had convinced him that Jesus Christ was the divinely appointed leader, whom all must follow. Since the prin-ciples taught by our Lord are the expression of His Father's will, and the example of Christ is the norm by which we may measure our conformity to it, the imitation Of Christ is the fulfillment of God's. will. The ideal is, that even when "the praise and glory of God would be equally served, I desire and choose poverty with'Christ poor, rather than riches, in order to imitate and be in reality more FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD like Christ our Lord; I choose'insults with Christ loaded with them, rather than honors; I desire to be accounted as worthless.and a fool for. Christ, rath'er than to be esteemed as wise and prudent in this world. So was Christ treated before me." Our divine'Lord had a mission entrusted to Him by His Father: to call all men to His standard and encourage them to embrace His principles. He trained apostles and sent them throughout the whole world to spread His doctrine among men. Similarly St. Ignatius gathered disciples," taught them the principl~s of Christ. through the Spiritual Exercises, and, when they were well trained, he sent them to every land to spread G0d's'kingdom and promote His greater glory by word and example. With a view to perpetuating this work, he organized his companions into a "company," and called it "the Company or Society of Jesus." That this new religious order should, meet with opposition and persecution was inevitable. It introduced many innovations in re-ligious discipline that were demanded by the spiritual labors it planned to carry on. In a period when drastic reforms were urgently called for amoog both clergy and laity in the Church and when heretics were preacl~ing their false proj6~ts of reform in almost every part of Europe, St. Ignatius and his companions set about effecting a true reform. By means of the Spiritual Exercises many prelates and priests were induced to seek not their own advantages in life but the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ. The preaching and teach-ing of Peter Faber, Peter Canisius, Claude LeJay, Alphonse Salmeron, and other Jesuits in countries infested with the new doctrine of the heretical reformers saved many districts for the Catholic faith and converted countless souls from heresy, Yet this activity caused them to be calumniated, persecuted, and drixien from place to place. Along with their Founder, they bore such ill treatment #ith admirable fortitude and patience. Once when St. Ignatius was asked what was the most certain road to perfection, he answered, "To endure many and grievous afflictions for the love of Christ." Once the Society was founded and bechosen to direct the same, Ignatius lived in Rome for the rest of his life. He took the deepest interest in all the labors carried on by his companions and invariably showed the affection of a devoted father to every member whom he admitted into his Society. He ardently longed to share their labors: and, even when broken with age and infirmity, he said that should the Holy Father order it, he would immediately set out for any part of the world to spread God's kingdom. He was asked one day which 175 HENRY WILMERING he would prefer: to die immediately with a guarantee of his salvation ' or to continue for some years more, with opportunities of helping souls but with no guarantee at the end. Knowing his burning zeal for God's gIory and his all-consuming zeal for souls, we are pre-pared to hear that he. declared for the second alternative. Now four hundred years have passed since his death. Ever since and in every land the sons of St. Ignatius in his spirit and according to his principles have labored for God's greater glory. He is ranked by the Church among the great founders of religious orders, Sts. Benedict, Francis of Assisi and Dominic; and rightly so. As a prac-tical organizer and great lover of Christ, he served his Leader and King with an un'divided heart and induced numberless souls to live, labor, suffer, and die for the greater glory of God. ST. IGNATIUS AND THE EUCHARIST Few people realize the tremendous efforts of St. Ignatius Loyola and his early followers in behalf of frequent Communion. A thorough study of their Eucharistic apostolate was published in 1944 by Father ,Justo Beguiriztain, 8.2., on the oc-casion of the Fourth National Eucharistic Congress of Buenos Aires. The Spanish original has recently been translated by 3bhn H. Collins, S.,I., and published in a very attractive form under the title The Eucharistic Apostolate of St. Igr~atius Loyola. It is an excellent souvenir of this Ignatian centenary. Price:' $I.00. Order from: Loyola House, 297 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 15, Mass. PICTURF.' MEDITATIONS Father Aloysius ,L Heeg, S,J., has prepared four charming booklets entitled Picture Meditations for the use of all who want to learn and practice a simple form of mental prayer. Each booklet contains seven meditations on the life of Christ, and each meditation is illustrated by a picture in full color. Not only are the booklets ideal for teaching youth the practike of mental prayer and, for helping the sick to pray~ but they should also be very useful for religious who find it hard to concentrate during the period of mental prayer. There are also two picture rolls. each containing 14 full-color enlargements (21x33 inches) o'f the pictures in the booklets. The price of the booklets is 10 cents each, 35 cents per set; special quan-tity prices. The price of each picture roll is $2.15 net. Order from: The Queen's Work, 3115 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis 18, Missouri. 176 Sist:ers' Retreats--IV Thomas Dubay, S.M. WrE leave now in this series of articles problems dealing with retreat approaches, techniques, and mechanics and enter the less tangible realm of understanding and aims. While less palpable, these latter are at least equally crucial if not more so. UNDERSTANDING OF RETREATANTS' NEEDS Judging from their conferences and meditations, do you think that retreat masters understand your rea! spiritual needs? __yes, very well __sometimes yes, sometimes no __no, not too well Further comment (space provided) With this question the sisters were invited on to thin ice, for it can be at times genuinely difficult to know if one is understood or not. However, even though certain knowledge may often be impos-sible on this point, opinion is not: and it is the latter that was sought. Of those answering the question 192 (27.8 %) thought that re-treat masters understand their needs very well; 466 (67.7%) be-lieved that some priests are successful on this score and some are not; and 31 (4.5 %) thought that retreat masters usually do not under-stand them. The overall picture is a trifle disconcerting, not chiefly because of those in the third category, but because of the high percentage of sisters in the second. Any physician likes to think that he under-stands the patient, and any retreat master hopes that he possesses at least a good general understanding of a majority of the sisters' needs. However, it seems questionable their a large number of retreat masters hold.the sisters' confidence on this point. That a considerable num-ber of priests do hold that confidence cannot be doubted, but none-theless we would like to think that all enjoyed it. But most clouds have a silver lining, and we need not look in vain for a cheering side to this problem. The sisters' readiness to understand the difficulties the retreat master faces and charitably to explain any lack of understanding on his part is encouraging. We think that this spirit of kindliness is evident in their further corn-ments: It is difficult for a priest not living your rule to understand your spiritual needs. He tries his best, but he sometimes draws on his knowledge of other communities. A friendly chat on various subjects with the superior before retreat might help. .17,7 THOMAS DUBAY Review [or Religious This is only natural. Religious life among women differs from that among men just ~as] the dispositions of men "and women differ. How can the retreat master understand unless the Holy Spirit enlightens? A sister can usually tell the first day whether such is the case. Some priests seem afraid to get down to particulars--everything is so general that it i~ va.gue. Those who are teachers themselves seem to understand our spir.itual needs as teach-ing religious better than those whose main work is giving retreats. Sometimes I'd like to interrupt and say something like, "Yes, I know, but I can't .do that: this is my problem, see?" But on the whole they are understanding. Very few retreat masters understand the life of a hospital sister. It is very hard to be united to our dear Lord, because everything is rush, rush in hospital work today. We are sometimes too tired to pray. A really good retreat master is rare! Most do not understand the psychology of women. They miss real evils in religious life and fail to get at real problems. They judge what needs to be talked about by confessional difficulties which their own talks have often inspired. Many times they hit the nail on the head. Too frequently a retreat master judges by his own life and community. The activ-ities of nuns and their life is very different. Amazingly well. Too much attention, I think, is given to the needs of the purgative way and too little of a challenge to advancing sanctity. Because they are busy we get their courses which aren't what we need when our physical and mental state is mighty weary. The master would needs be pretty good to know all the spiritual needs of nuns. mean real feminine needs for a virile spirituality. Most priests do a pretty good job. Sometimes I feel they're not too patient with our problems. Sometimes I don't think they understand all the interior struggles of women. Wo-men are not, unfortunately, as "'manly" as men are. They can be very petty. Depends on the individual. Then, too, it is hard to reach everyone from age 20-80, engaged in all kinds of work. If the retreat master wants to know, he might pass out questionnaires after the retreat. Most of the time. It would seem that the more fully they live their own religious life the better their grasp of the problems of others. They try to, I believe, so why not give them credit? If one comes along who's dull, I make my own retreat find a good spiritual book for in between and get my spiritual needs supplied there. God's grace helps. Essentially our needs are the same and it is up to the individual and grace poured in to put his words to work (application). I love retreats for that reason--the exercise of that part of soul and brain! 178 July, 1956 SISTERS".RETREATS--IV Too often they seem to"forget we have voluntarily chosen a life of striving for per-fection and are therefore not, interested in minimum standards. It might be well "for us to single out for explicit mention the precise problems that the sisters think cause or occasion a lack of understanding in the retreat master: 1. The psychological differences between men and women. 2. Differences in the religious life as lived by men and as lived by~ women with the consequent failure to see the real problems in the latter. 3. Differences in the religious life as lived by different communi-ties of women. 4. Problems connected with particular kinds of work in which the sisters engage, e.g., teaching and nursing. 5. Tendency to be vague due probably to a lack of application of principles to concrete cases. 6. The assumption that sisters are interested only in mediocre goodness. The last two observations lead us naturally to the next sections of this article. HEIGHTS OF HOLINESS Thus far in our study the reader may have noticed that one of the deepest and most frequently reoccurring undercurrents causing muddy retreat waters is the wide variety in personality, background, and gifts of grace found in the sisters making any retreat. Perhaps nowhere in our study is this undercurrent more in evidence than in the present question, dealing as it does with the heights of sanctity. What one religious considers the "heights" another may regard as a mere stepping stone. A goal that discourages one religious may serve merely to whet the spiritual appetite of another. And, to make the truth all the more difficult to discover, most of the sisters in registering their affirmative or negative views are talking about entirely different retreats and retreat masters. We might reasonably hope for more agreement if all had made the same retreats. At most, therefore, we can seek to bring common ideas into relief and through them work out retreat approaches that will serve to meet the spiritual aspirations of even greater numbers of religious. The question put to the sisters was worded as follows: Do you think that retreat masters ordinarily urge you sufficiently to the very heights of holiness? ~yes __no Further comment" 179 THOMAS DUBAY Reoieto [or Religious A majority of the respondents, 410 (63.1%), felt that their retreat masters usually did urge them sufficiently to the heights of sanctity. Many of these sisters pointed out the fact that some of their retreat masters did not so urge them to sanctity but that most of them did. A minority of 240 (36.9%) were of the opinion that ordinarily their retreat masters did not do enough urging to the heights of holiness. Again the importance of the word "ordinarily" in the question was brought out in that here also some sisters in-dicated that an occasional priest was an exception to their statement. The sisters' further comments cgnnot fail to throw light on the problem. Respondents voting "yes": The greater number of retreat masters were splendid spiritual men with a fund of understanding human nature. Much or almost all depends on the retreatant herself. I believe in climbing the heights of holiness: however, most of us keep firmly on "'terra /irma" and practice observance of the rule which eventually will help us to attain sanctity. In a general way they do. I think they ought to do more of it in the confessional. Ordinarily retreat masters have that ability. Sometimes it is the sister's fault. Either she gets a poor start because she is so tired or she is not well physically. And some-times she does not work hard enough. Retreat masters cannot do it all. What is sufficient for a group, many members of which need'practical advice, is not necessarily sufficient for every individual. This answer is relative. I think this is my own fault because I am not fully relaxed or able to concentrate. Our life is so full of activity. We go from one thing to another all in working to save souls, but I think we need to take more time out to consider our own heights of holiness. Yes, and it helps very much if they use the small everyday occurrences and show us how to use these as stepping stones. This, no matter how often it is repeated, never gets old. I just wait for a retreat to hear this again--to open my eyes again. At the close of every retreat I feel like a new person, ready to conquer the world for Christ. Retreat masters certainly encourage holiness. Yes. I have my troubles trying to reach the heights I've heard about. Nevertheless, it all serves to make me very thirsty anyway. Maybe some day--who knows? We have had very good retreat masters these.last years. I don't blame the retreat masters for my lack of spirituality. They most likely remember that there are weak and strong souls, and therefore most of them' stick to a happy medium. Otherwise the weak would end in dis-couragement. It is often the retreatants' fault if they do not cooperate in heeding the good ad-vice retreat masters present, that they do not advance in holiness. Again we do not reflect seriously enough on the many beautiful truths explained to us. We feel and 180 dul~ , 1956 SISTERS' RETREATS--IV depend [sic] too often that it is the retreat master's task, rather than ours, to make the retreat profitable for our spiritual welfare. Normally the idealtis well presented and one leaves the retreat aiming high. The trouble lies not with the retreat master, but with th'e individual in carrying out the good resolutions formulated. Respondents voting "no": Not in a definite and practical way. The human element too often is used as a modifier--and we use that very skillfully ourselves. No, but the one who pointed persistently to those heights has influenced my life more than any other. Very few point to supreme holiness as a possible achievement. I would say, out of the 14 retreats I have made, in only two of them did the retreat master approach this. Perhaps they wish to be too considerate of our feelings. So they highly praise the very least we do, and are inclined to consider it sufficient to discuss just average or ordinary goodness. No one can impart to others what he himself does not possess. Holiness cannot be found or imparted in eloquent terminology. Many do not cha!leng~ the sisters to strive for great holiness. What they say is good, but they do not go far enough. Even if one soul answered the call and rose to eminent sanctity, much (vould be accomplished. Too much emphasis on the trite. Some conferences taken from books. Sometimes A waste of time to listen. More help could be gleaned from reading a go~d spiritual book. Many seem, like all too many sisters, content with "getting by." I think each of us longs for sanctity or at least at times longs to be aroused to do so. This I think is the retreat master's grand opportunity. We all entered religion to become holy. The evidence here advanced certainly does not warrant any blanket conclusion or recommendation. Many retreat masters are manifestly doing a superb job of leading these spouses of Christ to sublime reaches of sanctity. Others might profitably examine both themselves and their message to see if they are teaching the complete and undiluted doctrine of the saints both by example (in-sofar as in them lies) and by word. All in all we may conclude that sisters do decidedly want to be urged to the heights, but in a way that (1) does not discourage the "weak," (2) spurs on the generous, (3) enlightens all, and (4) is practical and concrete. IMPLICATIONS OF SANCTITY Our last point above brings us to the next item of inquiry: in retreats is the perfection of holiness (attainable in this life) clearly 181 THOMAS DUBAY Reoieto for Religious explained both in what it is and in how it is to be reached? The question as put to the sisters was worded thus: Do they usually explain sufficiently what those heights really involve and how they are to be reached? ~.yes __no Further comment : Of those answering the question 339 (53.8%) replied in the affirmative and 291 (46.2%) in the negative. It is interesting to note that a considerable number of sisters shifted their yes vote in the previous question to a no in the present one. There were also some--much fewer in number--who did the opposite, i.e., who shifted their no vote to a yes. These split votes would seem to in-dicate that approximately one-half of the sisters questioned are dis-satisfied with some one or both aspects of the retreat master's treat-ment of this matter of perfection. On the other hand, of course, it also indicates that approximately one-half are satisfied with both aspects' and that more than half are content with at least one or other of them. The mere numerical compilation points to the fact that more of the sisters are satisfied with the amount of urging to sanctity than with the explanation of what sanctity is and bow it can prac-tically be attained. This conclusion is confirmed by the observations of the respondents who selected the negative answer. Sisters voting "yes" commented: Yes, but I don't think they make these heights sufficiently desirable. This could be explained really adequately only over a long period of time. I think they do so as well as time and circumstances allow. Yes, I suppose they do, but some retreat masters make it seem more real and actually possible of attainment than others. Perhaps I only say this because I'm a very young religious. In general, yes. Again, they can't reach everyone present. It's much like a classroom procedure--some can't absorb the rfiatter. They explain the heights of sanctity very thoroughly. The main thing is living our rule and vows to the utmost. Personally, I feel I am not ready for the heights. I must first get a footing on the road to holiness. Perhaps most of us feel the same way about it and "the retreat master must help us make the first steps rather than scale the heights. Yes, but the manner is often presented as being very difficult rather, than as something to be faced with joy and confidence. I have always found great satisfaction through the spiritual guidance of the retreat master. 182 dulg, 1956 SISTERS' RETREATS--.IV Some do. Others, it seems, get lost in lesser details. Let us have a clear-cut picture of ends. They aren't too great for us to try. It is wonderful to struggle after great prlzes--more wonderful than to win the lowest. Sisters registering negative views: Never have I heard a really good explanation of this sort in a general retreat medi-tation. I don't think so. It seems to me to be too idealistic and not practical enough. It gives the desire but often not the way . Perhaps I have stressed the practical too much, but young religious still have the ideals and theories in mind, but often lose the ideal in trying to apply it to daily life. This may be the opposite with older religious, I don't know. I think that a theme or subject of the entire retreat which is stressed in every conference will be long remembered by the sisters. Practical ex-amples from daily life and lives of the saints are also helpful. Many religious do not know the graces God has in store for those who give all. Nor do they know the sufferings involved. But if the door of God's grace were thrown wide .open before them, they would want the sufferings involved. I've made retreats already xvhere I went back to the notes of other retreats in order to get sufficient material for a meditation, or for motivation to greater sanctity. Do you think. Father, that enough retreat masters have a central idea or in simple words have some theme about which they weave their meditations? Many times one comes out with fragments rather than one piece from" which to take a slice during the year as the need presents itself. They often explain in very general terms, e.g., in regard to the degrees of humility. But really, you can't give what you haven't got; therefore, only holy priests can do this satisfactorily. Sometimes too much emphasis is placed on (mere) ascetic life. I have met sisters who recoil at the mere word of mysticism, which is no other thing than a very close union with God. We want that, but we don't know how to go about it. Mystical union is a free gift of God, but even that should be explained. It involves sacrifice and generosity, but I think that if we realize better the tremendous grace of union witb God, we will be more ready to immolate our petty likes and comforts. I hope it is not unfair to our retreat masters to give them such a negative rating. But I do not believe their training prepares them adequately to do a competent job in explaining these matters to sisters. They either evade the topic, or suggest it is not for "ordinary" people, or emotionalize, etc. All of which leaves one with a lurking suspicion--and perhaps we are speaking euphemistically--that all is not quite as rosy as he might hope. These questions dealing with being understood and with attaining sanctity are crucially important, and yet it appears that many sisters are not satisfied with the treatment they are receiv-ing in retreats. Allowance certainly must be made for the variables of back-ground and spiritual development often so intimately bound up with problems of this type. But yet there are too many negative 183 THOMAS DUBAY votes to allow for any great stress on so facile an explanation. Per-haps the praise and/or blame involved in the varying responses are to be borne to some considerable extent by the [ndio[dtml retreat master. If this diagnosis be correct, the remedy lies in no blanket recom-mendation, no handy adage that is cut for every case. Each ~etreat master should appoint himself a committee of one to discover by every possible means whether or not he--not retreat masters in gen-eral, but he in particular--understands the sisters, whether he urges them to sanctity sufficiently and explains it adequately. To make this discovery a careful analysis of each of the sisters' written comments would probably be of immense help. For ex-ample, on reading the statement of a hospital sister that retreat masters often fail to understand her problems, the master would do well to examine carefully just how much he knows about the prob-lems of nursing religious and how capably he handles them. Or on noticing that some sisters complain of being urged only to mediocre holiness, the retreat master should examine his own attitudes, medi-tations, and conferences to discover whether or not they escape the censure. We feel--and so do many of the sisters--that a good percentage of our retreat masters would come out of such a self examination with flying colors. Those who would issue forth with slightly droop-ing standards would have lost nothing, but rather they would have gained much for God, for themselves, and for consecrated souls. OUR CONTRIBUTORS HENRY WILLMERING, a member of the editorial board for REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, is a professor of Scripture at St. Mary's College, St. Marys' Kansas. THOMAS DUBAY teaches theology and homiletics at Marist College, Washington, D. C., the major seminary of the Marist Fathers' Washington Province. MAURICE WALSH, a professor of canon law at Westo~ College, Weston, Mass., is a mem-ber of the Fordham Mission Institute and has recently returned after several months spent as canonical consultant in the chancery of the newly erected diocese of Kingston, Jamaica. SISTER EUGENIA, editor of the Coleridge Concordance, is vice-presi-dent of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, and supervisor ,of the high schools of the Sisters of Providence. WINFRID HERBST is'spiritual father at the Divine Savior Seminary, Lanham, Maryland. 184 The Occasional Cont:essor Maurice B. V~ralsh, S.J. CANONICAL legislation on confessors for religious women seeks to combine two contrasting advantages--advantages which are not always easy to reconcile: a) The requirement of peculiar jurisdiction for the confessor seeks to assure continued and competent spiritual direction in the confessional for sisters. b) At the same time, proper liberty and peace of conscience is protected by provision for extraordinary, supplementary, special, and occasional confessors. Historically, ' it is the first point (a) which early received em-phasis, with a trend more and more in the direction of personal liberty (b). The trend towards greater freedom in the matter of confes-sion for religious women has continued even since the publication of the Code of Canon Law, especially in the interpretation of canon 522, which provides for the so-called "occasional confessor": "If, notwithstanding the prescriptions of canons 520 and 521, any re-ligious, for the peace of her conscience, has recourse to a confessor approved by the local ordinary to hear the confessions of women, this confession, whether made in a church or oratory, even a semi-public oratory, is valid and lawful, every contrary privilege being revoked; nor may the superioress prohibit it or make any enquiry concerning it, even indirectly;, and the religious are under no obliga-tion to inform the superioress on the matter." Since 1918, the interpretation o~ this canon has become gradu-ally more liberal in canonical works. Authentic interpretations of the canon have genera!ly resolved doubts in the direction favoring freedom of choice.1 The same trend towards freedom is seen in 1Thus," the confession is lawful and valid not only in a church or chapel but also in another place legitimately designated (Code Commission. November 24, 1920). Though the requirement of the proper place is for the validity of the con-. fession, "have recourse" in the canon does hot mean that the religious herself cannot summon the confessor (Code Commission. December 28, 1927). The permission of superiors is not required, but the canon gives no exception from domestic disci-pline or the rule, nor are superiors required to grant any such exception in order to provide the occasional confessor (Private Letter of the Secretary of the Congregation of Religious, December 1, 1921---reported in the Canon Law Digest). Further-more, the place "legitimately designated" wherein the confession may be heard law-fully and validly does not exclude a place designated for a particular instance or one legitimately selected by the confessor himself (Code Commission. February 12, 1935). 185 MAURICE B. WALSH Reoiet~ ~or Religious the De Religiosis section of the Code for the Oriental Church, pro-mulgated in 1952. In the canon which parallels canon 522 of the Latin Code, the lawful place is not required for the validit~l of the confession heard by the occasional confessor. (The Commission for the Interpretation of the Code declared on December 28, 1927, that the circumstance of lawful place was a condition of validity for Latins.) The new Oriental discipline does make the special juris-diction required less stringent: it may even foreshadow a similar relaxation for the Latin Church, if and when a new edition of the Latin Code is promulgated. While canonical commentaries on canon 522 published in the 1920's were inclined to stress the necessity of authorization'and the benefits of continuity in confessional direc-tion, those published in the 1940's and 1950's tend more to warn against the dangers of undue interference in the choice of a confessor. A good many periodical articles have been published on the occasional confessor, both scientific and popular; the majority seem to bare had as their purpose the warning of superiors to be liberal in making the use of the occasional confessor possible. In fact, the last canon of the Code itself, canon 2414, is a sort of Demosthenic whip which lashes the overstrict mother superior wh6 refuses to grant her subjects the liberty of confession which the law concedes them. Perhaps the canonists, too, have done more than their share of lashing at poor mother superior in this matter. But--if you. will let me mix my metaphors--there is another side of the coin, and a good many suffering mothers superior probably would like to see a canonist flip it in the other direction for a change. The Canon Law in this matter still aims at the double benefit-- continued and authorized (therefore, presumably competent) con-fessional direction as well as freedom of choice. Some mothers su-perior have mentioned to me real problems that have arisen because canonists may have overstressed the liberty of the sisters in the choice of the occasional confessor. Some sisters have not always been en-tirely reasonable in their requests (or demands), either to 1~ave the convent at odd times for confession or to bare a particular confessor summoned on the spot. Requests of this sort are not easy to refuse. True, superiors are not obliged to disrupt domestic discipline or even to grant any special permissions in order that a sister may have the opportunity of confessing "for peace of conscience" according to canon 522. Still, in the light of all that has been written on the dangers of obstructing freedom of conscience (and the dangers are real), many have been inclined to accede to all requests in this mat- 186 Sulg, 1956 THE OCCASIONAL CONFESSOR ter, even when the request may seem to be, and is, unreasonable. There is no denying the fact that this general inclination on the part of many superiors is a good result of the present widespread knowl-edge of canon 522. If there has to be an error, it is better that it be in this direction rather than in the opposite. These few com-ments do tend towards that "opposite," because I am a little unwill-ing (perhaps unreasonably) to admit the absolute necessity of error in either direction. Occasional use of the concession ofcanon 522 is certainly proper and may even be necessary for the peace of soul of an individual religious. It would be Polyannish to assert that every ordinary con-fessor of every convent is always fully competent as a confessor of religious. Aside from the Missions, more normally the ordinary confessor is not himself a religious; many zealous secular priests have become good confessors for religious, but certainly no priest miracu-lously acquires by the mere fact of episcopal appointment the pro-found knowledge of religious life desired in an ordinary confessor. Even if the ordinary confessor be a religious, his profession of the religious state does not make him automatically the best confessor for every confession of every religious in the community. Where the ordinary confessor is less competent, there is likeli-hood of more frequent occasion for the use of canon 522. But even in this case, the occasional confessor is to be used (as the name in-dicates) only on occasion. If the occasions become so frequent that the .occasional confessor, without any authorization of the bishop, becomes equivalently the ordinary confessor of the community or the special confessor of an individual sister, then at least the lawfulness of these confessions may be called in question. In these cases, the occasional confessor is assuming that continued or habitual direction which requires episcopal appointment. Similarly, if a sister con-stantly "shops around" so that she really has no regular confessor, she has simply dispensed herself from that continuity of confessional direction which has always been required and which still is required of religious. This does not mean that canon 522 is to be used "for peace of conscience" only in a crisis and for the solution of an acute spiritual need. It would be erroneous to suppose (as some seem to do) that the occasional confessor is provided only for the case where the sister might find it embarrassing or extremely difficult to confess a particular sin to a priest who knows her and all the members of the community. Some have the false impression that this canon is pro- 187 MAURICE B. ~v'ALSH vided only as a kind of emergency exit, as an absolutely last resort. The Church intends canon 522 as much more than an emergency exit. On occasion, occasionall~, any sister is justified in using it merely for greater devotion, as a mearis of getting out of the mechanical routine of weekly confessions; this use, too, is for bet "peace of conscience." I suppose one might say the canon may just as well be used for pre-serving the peace as for stopping the war. A sister does not need a serious problem of conscience in order legitimately to use canon 522 for the peace of her conscience. The misuse of the canon comes when a notable proportion of confessions are made to the occasional confessor or confessors. Ex-cessive demands for a special confessor or too frequent recourse to the occasional confessor may be a sign of spiritual pride. A sister can rather easily deceive herself into thinking she is something of a mystic, that her spiritual life should become a full-time job for the best spir-itual advisor available, that the best is not at all too good for her. She can exaggerate the need for peculiar competence in the task of guiding her spiritual destinies. Too much solicitude about the choice of her confessor is rather a sign of spiritual immaturity than of real growth in sanctity. Perhaps I might try to sum up all these observations in this way. Canon 522 helps keep the balance between the two desired ends of competent, continued confessional direction and of that liberty in the choice of a confessor which favors peace of conscience. Much has been written to combat the abuse whereby canon 522 is unduly re-stricted. Though the opposite viewpoint has been less stressed, the too-frequent use of canon 522 is also an abuse. Clearly the canon is.being misused when there results a lack of continuity in confes-sional direction or a continuity which is unauthorized by the bishop. VOCATION FILMSTRIP Behold the Handmaid of the Lord is an audio-visual, full-color filmstrip repre-sentation of a specific religious vocation. It comprises !06 frames, two 10-inch LP records, and a teacher's manual. Price: $18.75. Order from: Sisters of Christian Charity, Mallinckrodt Convent, Mendbam, New Jersey--or from: Sisters of Chris-tian Charity', Maria Immaculata Convent, \Vilmette, Illinois. 188 Mot:her Theodore Guerin Sister Eugenia Foundress of the Sisters of Providence ~ of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana IN the designs of providence times of great struggle and great need in the world bring to light great leaders. This is true riot less in the world of religion than it is in the political sphere. Such a woman, a leader of eminent character, is the subject of this sketch. Born in the little seaside town of fltables, on the northern coast of Brittany, on October 2, 1798, Anne-Th~r~se Gu~rin entered the world in the turbulent and unsettled period of the post-revolutionary days of the Directory. She was given as much education as was avail-able at that tim~ and was fortunate in having a cousin, a young dis-placed seminarian, to direct her study and reading during her adoles-cent years. Her family was a deeply pious one but tried by unusual misfortunes. Her father, an officer in Napoleon's navy, was attacked and killed by brigands on his way home on a furlough. One brother bad been burned to death in an accident just before the father's death; and these calamities so unnerved the sorely tried Madame Guerin, that Anne-Th~r~se, at fifteen years of age, had to take over the man-agement of the home and the care of the remaining two children. Anne-Th~r~se had a strong inclination to the Carmelites, but her home duties prevented any such step. For ten years more, she remained with her family; and, at twenty-five years of age, she en-tered the young Community of the Sisters of Providence at Ruill& sur-Loir. This community, established in 1806 by a fe~v pious women, h, ad, since 1811, taken on a recognized form. Under Mother Marie Madeleine du Rosc6at (1817-1822), and Mother Marie, her successor, the community began to increase. Founded by Pere Jean- Fraricois Dujari~, the cur~ of Ruill&sur-Loir, the little community was governed by this holy priest, conjointly with the Brothers of St. Joseph whom he had also founded. He administered the affairs of the communities thus allied and financed them from a common purse, but after 1827 the two communities were separated. Under the direction of Mother Marie, the Sisters of Providence carried on a fruitful apostolate. Some misunderstandings arose between sub-jects and superiors over the separation, and these were the cause of sorrow for those involved, and for those who were innocently drawn into them. In 1823, while Pere Dujari~ still was active in the affairs of the 189 SISTER EUGENIA Review for Religious sisters, Anne-Th~r~se Guerin entered Ruill~-sur-Loir. From the first her superior qualities of mind and heart were manifested. The bene-fits of her careful education, her good judgment, and maturity of mind soon inclined her superiors to regard Sister Theodore as a most promising subject. Even though ill-health, to which she was always subject, showed itself in her year of novitiate, nevertheless, she was admitted to profession and named as local superior of a large estab-lishment at Rennes. During her incumbency here, she demonstrated that the confidence reposed in her had been justified. She was suc-cessful, not only in reforming the school affd the children of a troublesome district, but her influence extended through the children to the homes. What had been a disorderly parish became a model and well-regulated region. From this large place, Sister Theodore was changed to a little country parish of Soulaines. Here she had the opportunity of study-ing medicine and ph.armacy under the local physician and later sup-plemented this instruction by courses under Dr. LeCacheur in Paris. Her work in the parish school drew the attention of the inspectors of the neighboring academy at Angers, and medallion decorations from the French Academy were conferred upon her publicly in the presence of the cur~ and the town authorities for the excellence of her methods in mathematics. In addition to her scholastic achievements, she had interested a local nobleman, M. de la Bertaudiere, in the ruinous condition of the church; and as a consequence, a handsome and costly edifice was erected. This phase of her missionary life in France was soon to come to an end. In 1839, Pete de la Hailandi~re, named auxiliary bishop with the right of succession to the See of Vincennes, learned in Paris of the death of the saintly Bishop Brute. Accordingly, the new pre-late was consecrated in Paris and began to gather together missionary sisters and priests for the Vincennes diocese. When his plans for a group of sisters from a community at Ribeauville were frustrated, the Bishop came to Mother Marie to ask for a group to make the foundation. Before going to America, he had been stationed at Rennes and knew the Sisters of Providence there. The thought of a foreign mission had never been entertained by the Sisters of Providence; but even so, Mother Marie proposed the mission to the voluntary action of the community. Sister Theodore did not volunteer, feeling that her poor health would be a disad-vantage to any new foundation. However, when Mother Marie represented to her that unless she would head the mission, it could 190 dulg, 1956 MOTHER THEODORE GUERIN not otherwise be made, Sister Theodore gave her consent; and im-mediate preparations for the departure were begun. Friends were kind and interested in helping them with the financial concerns of their trip, and very soon the foundress and her chosen five sisters ~vere prepared for their new venture. Much of the information concerning America that had reached France dealt with the lives of the missionaries among the Indians, and certainly the imaginative narratives of La Rochefoucauld clothed the United States in an aura of romance. The novels of J. Fenimore Cooper, and his "noble Indians" were widely known and had, in fact, contributed to the foundation of Sainte Marie, Illinois. But of the igrivations and the vast loneliness of the forests very little was stressed. The sisters, however, were little concerned with romance and adventure. They were going into the New World to save souls and to answer the plea that Bishop de la Hailandi~re had made for the pioneers who were venturing into the newly opened lands of the Midwest. They hoped to spread the Faith here and to keep up the good work begun in Indiana. The technical details of government and the relationship and de-pendence of the new foundation upon the French mother house were discussed by the two bishops, Bishop J. B. Bouvier of Le Mans and Bishop de la Hailandi~re of Vincennes. The discussed points were agreed upon in writing: Mother Theodore was to be foundress and remain superior general of the Indiana mother house and all subse-quently formed establishments until the two bishops should jointly decide upon a change of administration; the sisters from Ruill6 might return to Ruill~ if they became dissatisfied in America, but Ruill6 would not assume responsibility for the American subjects. That was to be Mother Theodore's work. Mother Theodore also interviewed a young girl, Irma Le Fer de la Motte, who had intended to go to Vincennes with the sisters from Ribeauville; but, since that plan had failed, she entered the novitiate at Ruill~ with the intention of joining Mother Theodore as soon as her novitiate year was completed. Delicate, frail, and "good for nothing except to pray," as Mother Marie declared, this young sister was to function as a cofounder with Mother Theodore when she came to Indiana the next year and by her firmness and loyalty put to shame many a stronger person. Finally the little expedition set out in July, 1840, on the mer-chant ship, the Cincinnati. A timely gift of 3000 francs from Countess de Marescot was a godsend to them as their finances were 191 SISTER EUGENIA Religious limited. The "fifty days of penance," as Mother Theodore called the voyage, certainly merited the name. Mother Theodore herself was prostrated with seasickness accompanied by an inflammatory fever and lay practically at death's door. The sisters themselves feared that she would die on the way. A goodly part of their money had been stolen by a passport agent: and their baggage would have gone also had it not been for the watchfulness of one of the French work-men who, although intending to go to Vincennes, later followed them to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. Afte~ the long trip, the sisters were welcomed by the Parmentier family in New York who sheltered them while they awaited news from the Bishop and funds for their trip to Indiana. They visited the publishing houses and gathered information regarding text-books, maps, charts, and school supplies. They were dismayed to learn that a group of American Sisters of Charity were already lo-cated in Vincennes and wondered why they were needed if the situ-ation had already been met. They were to learn that the Sisters of Charity were withdrawing from the field and merely awaiting the arrival of the French sisters. They learned also that the scope and requirements of education in America were much more extended than in France and that consequently more things must be taught. The insistence on music impressed them, as they were told it was an ab-solute necessity to any kind of school. ' One of their great sufferings was their ignorance of the language; and, without adequate ability to make'themselves understood, they had yet to travel fifteen hundred miles into the interior. A short stop in Philadelphia, where they awaited their official guide, made them acquainted with the Sisters of Charity. They visited St. ~Jo-seph's Orphan Asylum to see American methods in operation; and, finally, under the care of Reverend William Chartier, the Bishop's representative, they began their month-long journey westward by railroad, steamboat, stage, and canal. At various, stopping places they met the Sulpician Fathers at Saint Mary's Seminary, Baltimore; the ,Jesuit Fathers at Frederick, Maryland, where they then had their novitiate; and Mother Rose White, Mother Seton's successor, at the Academy of Sisters of Charity, since transferred to the Visi-tation sisters. Mother Rose gave them some disconcerting informa-tion: "Sciences hardly known in our French schools are needed here, but the indispensable thing in this country, even for the poor . . . is music." From Wheeling they boarded the emigrant steamboat for the 192 dulg, 1956 MOTHER THEODORE GUERIN four-day trip to Cincinnati, the most painful part of the journey due to the lack of privacy, the rude passengers, the primitive arrange-ment for sleeping--mats on the deck of the vessel--and the crowded quarters. A steamboat ride took them to Madison where the Bishop met and welcomed them and acquainted them with the name of their future location, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, near Terre Haute, not Vincennes as they had naturally expected. On to Evansville by boat, and from thence to Vincennes by stage over a corduroy road was sufficiently discouraging, but the appearance of the ramshackle churches, the ppor quarters of the.clergy, and the wild aspect of the scenery, combined to increase their anxiety about their future. The sisters had expected to be located in a center of population; all their previous experience and training had equipped them to meet the need of such places; but, abandoning themselves to providence, they accepted the change in plans, and consented to go on to "that dreaded Terre Haute." Even though she could see no way in which she could take care of her community and provide for it in a dense forest, nevertheless Mother Theodore acquiesced and set out for" the chosen place. The trip from Vincennes to Terre Haute was fraught with dangers and hazards. The banks of the Wabash bad been inundated by the heavy torrential rain that poured for thirty-six hours; the corduroy roads were unsafe, but the trip must be made. The travelers, leaving Vincennes at ten o'clock on the night of October 20, encoun-tered many mishaps. Their stage was overturned, and they were compelled to seek refuge in a nearby farmhouse. They resumed their way again in the early morning and reached Terre Haute by late afternoon, too late to cross by ferry the yet unbridged Wabash. On the morning of the twenty-second, they continued their journey by ferry and rough overland wagon until about six o'clock in the eve-ning of the same day, Father Buteux, their chaplain, who had ac-companied them, uttered the momentous words: "We have arrived." No human being was in sight. Through the deep forest the heavy-hearted sisters made their way to the small log chapel where they knelt and dedicated themselves anew to the work of the Indiana mis-sion. The poverty of this chapel touched Mother Theodore to tears at the sight of the Lord of Hosts dwelling in such solitude. "No tabernacle, no altar," she wrote, "nothing but three planks forty inches long, supported by stakes driven into the corners." The Blessed Sacrament was reserved in a smalI pyx kept in a covered custodfurn. They united their poverty to that of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, 193 SISTER. EUGENIA Review [or Religious knowing that they could never equal His sublime destitution. Mr. Thralls, the farmer, and his wife, had prepared supper for them in the adjoining frame house, and in his generosity, offered to share his house with them until theirs could be built. The house consisted of two rooms and a porch on the first floor and a loft where corn and provisions had beeen stored. Mr. Thralls gave them the use of one room downstairs and ball of the loft above. In this small space were accommodated the six French sisters and the four postu-lants who had been awaiting their coming. On the day after their arrival, the sisters assisted at Mass in the log chape! and received Holy Communion. The request that they might have daily Mass as often as it was possible was practically the only condition that Mother Theodore stated in accepting the Indiana assignment. During their first weeks they were fortunate in having Mass daily; but, since Father Buteux was a missionary priest as well as their chaplain, there were times in the future when this privilege was not possible. The quarters allotted the sisters were sadly inadequate for the group of ten persons who were trying to live the religious life and to prepare for professional work. Accordingly Mother Theodore puchased the whole house from Mr. Thralls for the sum of $'400 which she took from the little fund that Countess de Marescot had given her. The Thralls family moved farther west and gave the sisters full possession. Even at that; the severe winter brought them much discomfort. Snow and rain came in through the poorly roofed loft which they continued to use as a dormitory. The rooms below served by turns as kitchen, dining-room, community room, study room, and one of the rooms as infirmary when Sister Marie Xavier fell ill of a fever and could not be left in the loft. On November 1, their trunks arrived from New York in good condition. The contents were soon put in place: statues of our Lady and Saint Joseph on the flat top of the bureau and a crucifix suspended from the nail in the wall. Plates and tinware were stowed away in the rough pine cupboard. One chair apiece and an all-purpose table completed their furniture. Thin mattresses or pallets of straw placed on the floor of the loft served as beds. The impossibility of opening a school in this deserted spot seemed to Mother Theodore more evident day by day. The half-finished brick building which was to have been their convent still remained unfinished. Bishop de la Hailandi~re remained adamant, however, to any suggestion of finding another location; and time 194 dulg, 1956 MOTHER THEODORE GUERIN proved his attitude a wise one. The uncertain trends of population in Indiana could not be relied upon: the canal towns seemed to be the prosperous ones; yet later on they were to be reduced by the rail-ways to small hamlets, and the canals rendered obsolete. Above all, there remained the utterance of Bishop Brut~ when he renamed the Thralls Station Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: "Some day there will be sisters here. You will see what great good will come from this place." Work proceeded slowly on the brick building. Mother Theodore then decided to retain the old Thralls house as their convent and use the brick building as a school. She was anxious that the school, when opened, should be of superior grade; and, later on, when it was pos-sible to incorporate the Institute, she had it chartered (1846) as an institution for the higher education of women; and she and her suc-cessors were "empowerd to do all necessary for the promotion of artsand sciences." Thus did sbe found the first Catholic institution for the higher .edudation of women in the state of Indiana. Insecurity and anxiety were constantly with Mother Theodore for the first seven years of her stay in Indiana. She could not obtain the deed for the property even though it had been bought by money given expressly for the sisters and their foundation. They could not build in a place they did not own and from which they were likely to be dispossessed at any time. The privations of the first years were very great. The sisters had to help fell trees, sow the grain for the harvest, plant potatoes and fruit trees'. Food was cheap in the markets, but nothing is cheap if one does not have money. In order to maintain a boarding school, the sisters must provide food for their pupils: and they hoped and prayed for a good harvest. In July, 1841, the brick building was sufficiently prepared to open school; and on July 2, 1841, the first of their pupils arrived. As one of the novices was a good English teacher, classes were opened in English as well as French. Music and art were to develop rapidly as soon as a place could be provided for holding these classes. Illness, ever attending Mother Theodore, reduced her many times to a critical state; and it seemed only the prayers and sacrifices of the sisters could restore her. Mother Theodore's first care, sick or well, was the instruction of the sisters and their formation in the spiritual life. She met them daily at five o'clock in .the evening and explained the meaning and importance of the Rule, preparation for the sacraments, the meaning 195 SISTER EUGENIA Reoieu~ for Religious and obligations of the vows. At other times she gathered them around her to help them with teaching methods and to impart to them her own skill. The little community numbered at the end of the first six months, four professed, four novices (two of the French sisters were still novices), and eight postulants. Mother Theodore began to think that her work as Foundress was now finished and implored Mother Marie to send a more experienced and stronger person to take over the mission, meanwhile stating in detail her needs, her relations with the sisters, and her very precarious health, but also her resig-nation to whatever was decided. But little help came from France. The mother house there was engaged in building a larger house; and, with the usual economy of the French, the superior felt that all the funds should be in hand before the building was commenced. Ne-gotiations were also going forward for the final approbation of the rules; and; to this plan, the faraway foreign mission .was a dubious asset. In Indiana the violence of the Know Nothing Movement was beginning to gather strength; the financial panic of 1842 limited" credit greatly; and the final cross of the fire of 1842 reduded the sisters to the deepest destitution. The fire was thought to be of in-cendiary origin as its occurrence could not otherwise be explained. The granary, the stock of fruit gathered, the barn with the plows, farm implements, and wagons, all were lost in the great conflagration. Only the prayers of the sisters s~ved the convent from destruction. Very little help was at hand to assist them in this disaster. The sisters cut down trees, moved logs, labored .to put out the fire, and almost all of them suffered burns and injuries as a result. In addition to this, they were haunted by the fear of future fires, having in mind the burning of the Charlestown convent. But the sisters had to face the reality. They had no money, no friends, no food, no credit, nothing but their invincible confidence in the providence of God; and this trust, by the mercy of God, Was never to abandon them. Mother Theodore appealed to the Bishop for help and discussed with him the pla'n of going to France for aid. His Lordship gave them funds to tide them over their immediate difficulties and felt that the trip to France would be an excellent means of securing help. He also issued the-required letters of introduction and permission to solicit alms. Necessary delays set their departure date for May !, 1843. Mother Theodore took as her companion a young American novice, Sister Mary Cecilia, whom she wished to have .the advantage 196 dul~, 1956 MOTHER THEODORE GUERIN of seeing the French mother house and of studying music under pro-fessors during their stay. Last-minute preparations were made, and the journey was deemed more n, ecessary when letters from Mo'ther Marie regarding a proposed return of the French sisters and the formation of an entirely new com-munity under Father Buteux made known to them a situation they knew nothing about. The plan was unknown to Bishop de la Hailandi~re also, although his attitude toward Mother Theodore and the sisters became more hostile than before. To his demands that the community become a diocesan one, change its Rule and Constitu- ' tions to fit his ideas, the sisters had set up a firm opposition. To gather enlightenment as to the course to pursue was one of Mother Theodore's objectives in returning to France. The voyage was made, and the two petitioners arrived i}t France only to find that many of their friends had left Paris for the cooler mountain-country places. Their quest seemed disheartening at first, but through the help of Mssrs. Aubineau and Veuillot who pub-lished their story in L'Univers, M. Martin du Nord, through whom they secured an interview with Marie-Amelie, Queen of the French, and M. de Choiselat, treasurer of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith, they were able to secure permanent and steady contribu-tions of funds which came to them regularly for many years. The news from Indiana was very disquieting. The Bishop had called for an election of superior-general, even though Mother Theo-dore had been appointed as Foundress with an unlimited term of office. The results of the election confirmed Mother Theodore in 6ffice, ¯ but the effect of this exhibition of loyalty was hardship for the little band of sisters. Acting on Mother Marie's advice, Mother Theodore prepared.to return to America, much fortified by the help and advice she had received from Bishop Bouvier. Before leaving France she affiliated the community with the Association of Our Lady of Vic-tories in Paris. Mother Theodore had also secured three postulants to make the return voyage with her. Hastily, Mother arranged the necessary details for the work she had begun: Canon Lottin agreed to act as her treasurer, receiving the funds from the various persons collecting for Saint Mary-of-the-Woods and arranging for some of it to be placed on interest. Mother and her companions embarked at Havre on November 28, on an old sailing vessel, the Nashville, which hardly seemed sea-worthy to them. Their fears were well grounded, for the ship was almost split asunder by the violence of a storm which arose in mid- 197 SISTER EUGENIA Review for Religious ocean. Their rescue from shipwreck was nothing short of miracu-lous as their ship actually capsized, but by a contrary wind, which miraculously arose, the ship was righted. Mother Theodore felt that this was an answer to the fervent prayers of the sisters to St. Anne, the patron saint of Brittany and promised a chapel and an annua! procession in her honor if they reached port safely. Hardly had this danger been averted when another equally perilous threat-ened them. The captain, who had been overexerting himself in buf-feting the storm, was stricken with apoplexy and lay on the deck as if dying. Mother Theodore's knowledge of medicine stood them in good stead then; she saw that the captain should be bled; and, call-ing for some necessaries,, she performed the operation. The captain soon rallied and was able after a few hours to resume his post. Mother Theodore's nursing skill was also called upon to take care of a dying man whose wife had fled from his side at the sight of death. She also baptized a new-born infant who died shortly after. The anxiety and care pressing upon her spirit completely wore out Mother Theodore's strength: and,.when the ship finally reached New Orleans, she was taken very ill and had to remain for several months under the care of the Ursulines of New Orleans. The news she received from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods increased her alarm. She sent Sister Mary Cecilia on with some of the party and was finally able, some months afterwards, to make the neces-sary trip by way of Vincennes. Here she met with many misunder-standings on account of the money she collected and the money which was accumulating for her in France but, after a stormy and painful two days, was permitted to return to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. For three years more this situation continued with more or less feeling. In 1846, the sisters, postulants and workmen were prepar-ing to leave Saint Mary-of-the-Woods and take refuge in another diocese where they could follow their Rule in peace, when the news of Bishop de la Hailandi~re's resignation reached them and caused them to remain. Their credit at the local stores was established as soon as the word was given that the sisters were receiving steady help from France. They were able to provide the necessaries, not only of life, but of good instruction for their pupils. Their own personal poverty re-mained. Their clothes were mended and patched, and the furniture of the mother house remained the simplest possible. Straw ticks served as beds, but were placed on the floor. Until 1862, the novitiate possessed one good bed which was always given to the latest comer 198 July, 1956 MOTHER THEODORE GUERIN among the postulants. W6e to the unhappy one who was the first one of two to arrive on the same day! With the succession of Bishop Bazin, whose administration lasted but six months, and the long administration of Bishop de St. Palais, his successor, the troubles of the first seven years seemed to vanish, to be replaced by other minor cares. The deed to their property, se-cured at last, entitled the sisters to build and develop their institution and to lay the foundations of their future extension. At the time of Mother Theodore's death in 1856, the community was teaching in ten missions in addition to the Institute at, Saint Mary-of-the- Woods. The community had received a few subjects frorn France, some from Belgium, but the majority of the new candidates were from the United States. Calls came from all sides for the sisters to open new schools: but Mother Theodore, realizing that she must first instill the religious spirit into her incoming subjects, was slow to send them on a mission. She instructed them herself, and visited the missions diligently, braving the discomfort of the rough wagon, the canal boat, and the primitive railroad. She did not spare her-self in serving: but at last toward the end of 1855, she conceded that her strength was definitely broken. Poor as the community was in worldly goods, it did not lack all the spiritual blessings that Mother Theodore could obtain for it. The first Sodality of the Children of Mary was formed in 1854, but May devotions had been held every May beginning with 1841. The Bishop had given permission for midnight Mass which was celebrated with few interruptions year by year~ In 1843, permis-sion was given for the private celebration of Forty Hours Devotion before it was canonically erected in any diocese in the United States. The devotion was held on the three days preceding Lent, and was continued on that date thereafter with but one or two interruptions in the long survey of 113 years. In 1843, Mother Theodore had affiliated the community with the Association of Our Lady of Vic-tory in Paris, and through the Parmentier family had registered the sisters' names in the Confraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and later in that of the Sacred Heart of ~Jesus in the Frehch Church in New York. Little has been said here of the loyal service rendered to Mother Theodore and the community by the delicate little Sister St. Francis Xavier, once thought to be "good for nothing but to pray." Her courageous spirit belied her delicate frame, and her sure sense of jus-tice- was a strong support to the often-harassed Foundress. During 199 SISTER EU.GENIP, Review for Religious Mother Theodore's absence in France and the consequent troubles in Indiana, Sister St. Francis never failed in her appointed trust--that of keeping the community intact until Mother's return. Death was now to claim this valiant sister, and in ~lanuary, 1856, she went to her reward. In May of that same year, Mother Theodore succumbed at last to the long series of illnesses which had tried her ¯ strength. In her sixteen years in Indiana, Mother had finished the work given her to do: she had established a mother house, and had formed to the religious life sisters of such moral strength that they were able to continue her work, and to transmit to others the essen-tial spirit of the congregation. She had established an incorporated institution for the higher education of women which was later to be known internationally as Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Her work seemed to be completed. Tribute~ to her memory poured, in. The desuits Who had given the annual retreats to the community for many years held her in high esteem. Reverend dohn L. Gleizal, S.d., who had overheard her in-structions to the sisters, told them that their mother was a second Saint Teresa. Her acquaintance with ecclesiastics was very wide. Many of the bishops and priests laboring in the Middle West had come from the same land of Brittany. The first sixteen years of the existence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods coincided with the development of the Vincennes diocese, and Mother Theodore's Life, Journals and Letters, ¯ and other documents, are firsthand sources which supplement the ecclesiastical history of the times. Her full account of the first synod of Vincennes is the only cgmplete record of that part of the synod which was open to the public. In addition to their historical value, the above mentioned sources are human documents which tell the tale of Mother Theodore's patient suffering and heroic endurance. In 1907, her remains were'exhumed from the grave in the ceme-tery to be reinterred in the crypt of the newly dedicated Church of the Immaculate Conception. In the course of the exhumation it was discovered that her brain was ~intact and presented an appearance similar to that of the brain of a living person. This unusual happen-ing, coupled with the common belief and knowledge of the sisters that Mother Theodore's life was characterized by holiness, led to the introduction of her cause for beatification. The first process held at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods had, as witnesses, many who had known Mother Theodore, and. some who had been the recipients of favors through her intercession. Later it was found that similar 200 SISTER EUGENIA Review for Religiou~ processes must be conducted in France in order to cover Mother Theo-dore's early life, but the troubled condition of European affairs de-layed action in this regard. In 1954, Monsignor Emidio Federici was appointed postulator of the cause. Through his efforts an Italian translation of the biography of Mother Theodore was prepared, and together with the Positio, or pertinent data of the cause, was placed in the hands of the Cardinals and Prelates of the Rites for study. On December 6, this august assembly was addressed by Cardinal Piazza, Ponente of the cause, who read the Relatio and forcefully presented the cause to his colleagues. After the general discussion, the cardinals returned a favorable vote. On February 19, 1956, the Holy Father, after hearing the detailed account of the session from Cardinal Cicognani, chairman of the assembly, promptly granted his approbation for the introduction of the apostolic process. The cause is now entering upon the second stage of its advancement. The Life and Life-Work of Mother Theodore Guerin, by Sister Mary Theodosia, appeared in 1904; but it was necessarily incom- 'plete owing to the fact that it was not possible to use all the ma-terial in the archives. In 1937, Sister Mary Theodosia edited The Journals and Letters of Mother Theodore Guerin. During this same year a vast amount of material was sent to the community from the diocesan office at Alexandria, Louisiana, comprising letters from Mother Theodore and the early sisters to Bishop Martin, ordinary" of the diocese then known as Natchitoches and many letters from bishops and other ecclesiastics who had known the sisters. The con-tents of these letters cleared up many disputed points and vindicated the position Mother Theodore had taken. In 1948 appeared the first volume of the Historv of the Sisters of Providence in America. by Sister Mary Borromeo Brown, in which all available letters and archive material are incorporated. PAMPHLETS Titus Brandsma, Carmelite, Champion of the Catholic Press. By Rev. Aquinas Houle, O.Carm. Mary, 6415 Woodlawn Ave., Chicago 3 7, I11. Pp. 29. 10c. Holy Hour Pamphlets. The Sentinel Press, 194 East 76th Street, New York 21. N. Y. 10c. Faith. gcv. Gerald Dorais. S~S.S. Hope--Bv the Side of a Grave. Rev. Hector Lemieux, S.S.S. Fraternal Charity!. Rev. Gerald Dorais. S.S.S. Watch and Pray. Blessed Sacrament Fathers. Institution of the Hol~! Eucharist. Rev. Daniel Sullivan, S.S.S. Hol~t Hour Guide. Rev. Lionel Vashon. S,S.S. 15c. 201 Thought:s on Transfers \Vinfrid Herbst, S.D.S. A religious once wrote to his major superior: "If I may confide my innermost sentiments to you, here they are: I have a deep longing to go back to my borne country and labor there-- but not against the will of God." Another said that it was his wish to have no wish at all in this matter. What is to be said about those attitudes? No doubt the most perfect frame of mind is to wish that the most just, most high, and most amiable will of God be done in all things. The most difficult but most meritorious thing to do is silently to offer to the Savior the sacrifice of one's dearest wishes. A religious who does that has surely mounted high on the ladder of perfection. He has scaled heigh.ts that all should endeavor to reach. It is natural to have preferences, that is, to be drawn more to one person or place or thing than to another. But to cling to those preferences, to nurture them, and when occasion offers to give ex-pression to them with a view to influencing the superior and in order to obtain what would be most pleasing to us, is a sign of im-perfection. We ought to make ourselves indifferent in the Ignatian sense of the word. To make ourselves indifferent to all created things is to be on guard against our natural affections and exclude any one of them that is not ultimately reducible to God and subordinate to Him. It is to fight against our will when we find it bent on having something against the will of God. It is good to hear a religious say that be has no special preference for this or that study, that occupation, those surroundings, such and such a country or section of a country. But it makes a bad impres-sion when he nevertheless straightway, either directly or indirectly, lets it be known that he would like to do what be is doing and stay where be is and hopes that arrangements can be made to prevent a change. That is not the spirit of perfect obedience. "Behold in the days of your fast your own will is found," says Isaias (58:3) ; and we may add, behold in your obedience your own will is found. All religious know that there are some who are as eager to be transferred to some different place or country as others are to re-main where they are. Perhaps it might be a mooted question whether more would rather go or stay. We are not deciding that. What is of prime importance is that, whether they are transferred or whether 202 THOUGHTS ON TRANSFERS they have to hold down the same position in the same old place, they are content in doing the will of God. Religious also know that superiors are very considerate when it is a case of sending men to countries with bad climates, difficult languages, handicaps of all kinds, when the post will put a man's mettle to the test. They usu-ally ask for .volunteers, or at least ask those selected whether they have any solid objections or whether there is any impediment in the way, of which the superiors perhaps do not know. But they generally do not ask the subjects whether they have any special prefer-ence for the work, whether they feel attracted to it. If they do, it is merely a concession to human weakness. It should be each one's preference to have the example of the Divine Savior before his eyes. "In the head of the book it is written of me that I should do thy will, O God." "Not my will but thine be done." The transfer of religious from one house to another is a matter of special attention also on another score, one that vitally concerns the welfare of the whole order. It sometimes happens that superiors hesitate to transfer subjects, with resultant stagnation. Theoretically the superiors know that, if the constitutions of the respective order provide for it, and according to such provisions, any member may be transferred to any house of the province or order; but, when it comes to practice, they are often reluctant to transfer subjects unless there is a grave and manifest reason for doing so. They have the feel-ing that they must give the subject a reason why they are transferring him, because of the false notion that a transfer is a sort of a penalty. Were such an attitude of hesitancy or apology to prevail in a given province or order to the extent that it would become a sort of custom or a thing that is understood ("He couldn't get along there, so the major superior had to transfer him!"), it would be to the common detriment of the order; indeed, it is not too much to say that it would be the beginning of a gradual decline. Not to be transferred may never be the privilege of any individual .religious. Things would have come to a sorry pass when a remark like this could be made: "So, you transfer me; just transfer X and Y and you will see what happens." Of course, a transfer is not a casual matter. Each superior must give much prayerful thought to the matter, decide before the Lord where each one is needed or where he can best be used--and then act accordingly. It is simply taken for granted everywhere, particularly in the matter of transfers, that a religious must obey. Even the Holy See stresses this, as in the reply to an appeal made to the Sacred Con- 203 WINFRID HERBST Review fo~" Religious gregation for Religious. "He should submit to his superiors." ¯ Certainly, it is sometimes hard to obey. But Christ goes before us and we know the reward, as we read in that famous passage: "He humbled himself and became obedient to death; yes, to death on a cross. This is why God has exalted him and given him the name above all names" (Phil. 2:8, 10). Now, when a superior needs new men in his house, he has his own ideas of what they should be--ideas usually shared by all local superiors. These are some of the marks that should distinguish them: 1. They should be humble, unpretentious men who let them-selves be told a few things, who understandingly adapt themselves to their surroundings, who do not think that they know everything better but silently learn to weigh the pros and cons of things as they are. They are not men of whom the philosopher says, "'Statira sapit~nt, statiro sciunt omnia!'" It is hard to translate this, but the expression means something like "The. smart aleck knows it all and spouts high and far all that he thinks he knows!" Such characters can be extremely irri(ating. 2. They should be men who are not afraid of sacrifice, who are not afraid of a bit of rough going. The timorous, hesitant, weak-ling type who sees difficulties everywhere and hesitates to do and dare is as undesirable as the overbold and the conceited. In many ways the life of a religious is a life of real sacrifice, and pampered and spoiled individuals will hardly find conditions suitable to their liking in any house anywhere. Such, no matter where they are, will, to a greater or lesser extent, be a cross to themselves and to others. 3. They should be men who pitch right in to do the work .that is to be done, not the kind that give it a wide berth, always presup-posing that they ar~ fulfilling the superior's wishes and are not in-terfering in the affairs of others. Men who close their eyes to the work that is awaiting willing hands or, if they see it, unconcernedly pass by and let it be loaded onto others, are of no help to a house; on the contrary, the burden is doubly heavy when one sees that others who ought to help do not do so. "A brother who is helped by a brother is like a strong city," says Holy Writ; and only when all do their generous share is anything worthwhile accomplished. Indeed, such unified action is of the very essence of a community. Get a number of people together, and you have a group or a multi-tude or perhaps a mob but not yet a community. In order that they may be a community in the real sense of the word, they must work together, uniting their efforts for the attainment of a common goal. 204 July, 1956 THOUGHTS ON TRANSFERS If in one way or another a religious does not apply himself to the promotion of the common cause, he is not doing his bounded duty, no matter what other' qualifications he may have. 4. The men should be capable of doing the work for whicl~ they were assigned to the house. It stands to reason that that work differs greatly. One is the task of the teacher, another that of the spiritual director, the retreat master, the missionary, and so on down the line to the least (?) lay brother peeling potatoes in an isolated corner of'the kitchen. This means, too, that the men should as far as possible be specially trained and prepared for the work they are to do; for, as the expressive Latin phrase hasit, non omnia possumus omnes--we cannot all do everything. 5. The men should have a spirit of mortification. It is .prob-ably too much to .expect that they should be so advanced in the spiritual life as directly to long for and avidly seek the cross, that is, suffering and sacrifice, as did, for example, St. Andrew the Apostle, who greeted the cross on which be was to die with "O good cross, so long desired!" or St. Ignatius the Martyr, "I know what is good for me; I would be ground by the teeth of beasts that I may be found a pure bread!" or St. Teresa of Avila, "Either to suffer or to die!" or St. John of the Cross, "To suffer and to be despised for Thee!" Yes, it is too much to expect that of the men. Saints such as we have mentioned were rare blossoms in the garden of God; and, when we ordinary religious contemplate anything like that, we are heartily ashamed of our pitiable weakness. They were spiritual giants and followers in the truest sense of the word of the Savior who carried the cross and died upon it for us men and for our salvation. We are, generally speaking, merely delicate members of the Mystical Body of Christ. When it comes to the patient endurance of suffering for the love of God and to be mbre like Jesus, who died upon the cross, we really ought to strive after this ideal: to desire to be naturally very sensi-tive to suffering and at the same time to be placed in such circum-stances as will put our endurance to the test--and by the grace of God to come forth from the test triumphant. But this ideal postu-lates a degree of perfection which, alas! we generally do not possess. Since we are as a rule not so advanced in spirituality, are in fact the kind of men who have to reckon with marked weaknesses, we shall do well if from the start we learn to overcome ourselves in little things: to bear bodily discomforts (heat, cold, hunger, thirst, pains and aches and indispositions, misunderstandings, false imputations, 205 COMMUNICATIONS Review [or Religious or whatever it may be) and to harden ourselves at least to the ex-tent that we carry on in the patient endurance of what simply has to be borne. Eventually we may reach that degree of perfection in which we no longer feel very much. the disagreeable things of daily religious life. This may sound very much like advice unto imperfection! But no--there will still be a healthy spirit of mortification, considering the variety of circumstances in the various countries of the world and the different religious houses of the order. St. Paul says to Tim-othy, "Train yourself in piety." And with that as a foundation we might add: Train yourself also in self-denial and mortification, to bear heat and cold and hunger and thirst and labors out of love for God; otherwise you will be disappointed with yourself and will be a disappointment to others; otherwise you will experience as true of yourself the words of Solomon: "He that nourishes his servant delicately from his childhood, afterwards shall find him stubborn" (Prov. 29:21). This servant is your body. Unless it is kept down, hardened, it becomes more and more rebellious, querulous, demand-ing. It will be hard to meet all its demands, impossible to satisfy them fully. 6. In a word, they should be men who, if an assignment calls for it, can take whatever is demanded of them as regards climate, oc-cupation, primitive housing conditions, poor or distasteful food, and such like hurdles. With the Apostle Paul they should be able to say: "In whatever circumstances I am, I have learnt to be con-tent. I know how to live in privation, and I know how to live in abundance. I have been initiated into each and every condition: of satiety and of hunger, of abundance and of want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:11-13). Communica :ions Reverend Fathers: A rather peculiar situation presents itself annually in religious communities as a result of new assignments, wherein an individual suddenly finds himself a member of a new household. Ordinarily, the mere physical and exterior adjustments offer no special difficulty, but their psychological counterparts are quite another matter, and it may take months, perhaps years, before an individual religious finds himself completely "at home" in his new surroundings. In 206 dulg, 195 6 COMMUNICATIONS such circumstances we may be too prone to intimate that any diffi-culty encountered is solely on the side of the individual entering the community. This, it seems to me, is an over-simplification, because the community, the individual, or both together, may be at fault. Let us presume that the community is a normal one, composed of religious who, with high ideals of personal perfection and of their apostolate, are striving in a concrete manner to perfect themselves therein. Such a religious house presents a solid, integral supernatural organism with unity of pursuit and of purpose. However, one must ¯ remember that the individual members of which it is composed, though leading the supernatural life perhaps on a high level, remain human beings. As such they are not exempt from personal foibles, character weaknesses, prejudices, and in extreme instances, wild ec-centricities. Naturally these will present a more or less serious hurdle to the smooth psychological adjustment of the newcomer. Problems may arise variously, depending on the qualities of the particular in-dividual and also on those of the community into which he is en-tering. An awkward and at times almost impossible circumstance of ad-justment might exist in the setting of a community in which through many years changes have been few. Certain offices and privileges have been apportioned in the same way over a long period of time. Those holding positions of trust--spiritual, academic, or otherwise --have not only kept them, but hold to them tenaciously. A species of religious "aristocracy" has been built up which constitutes a "block" in the lives of others. This need not be a large group or clique; even a "two-some" that works behind scenes, or openly for that matter, may not only dominate but actually tyrannize an en-tire community. By their judgment is arbitrarily determined who is and who is not to be accepted. Anyone on whom they chance :o frown is regarded as of little consequence. A newcomer entering such a house is, in common parlance, automatically "in" or "out." If he meets favor with the "aristocracy" he is definitely "in," though from the standpoint of virtue, integrity of character, and personality, he may be far lower in any objective scale of values than his less favored companions. Contrariwise, if the individual be not favored by this "'upper stratum" he is automatically "out," and it may be for his whole religious life, though ~he possess personal qualities of a high caliber. This situation is understandably aggravated when the same su-periors remain in office over long periods of time, by means of a 207 COMMUNICATIONS Review /'or Religious circle of superiorships from one house to another of their order. No one with a different outlook; mentality, or background is ever allowed to rule; this makes for an unfortunate system of inbreeding detri-mental to any religious congregation. Things never change; the same abuses remain; nothing is ever done to break down the "block." On entering a community operating under such a regime, a religious may find himself through no fault of his own, ostracized, and relegated to the "out" members of the lower stratum. Though be possess su-perior qualities of intellect, heart, and will, he is never consulted, nor are matters ever discussed with him. Should obedience require that a religious remain in such an environment his only way to peace is within--in the living of an intense interior life. And, if he has been accustomed to find his spiritual sustenance in doctrine and in truth, not in pious emotionalism and sentimental devotions, he should, with God's grace, which may come down on him like an avalanche, be able to work out for himseif a reasonably happy life. But it will have to be led on an almost purely supernatural level, since for him, any compensation on the~-human level scarcely exists. This is his only solution, and one dare not say it is an unfortunate one. It may be a special dispensation of grace leading to a marvelous culmination of his whole spiritual life. On the other hand, there is the religious who, on receiving his transfer to a new house, is of the opinion that it is solely the re-sponsibility of its resident community to see to it that he is adjusted thereto happily. He may entirely overlook the fact that he too has a personal responsibility in the matter. Instead of assuming the at-titude of one who waits to receive everything from others, such an individual must go out of himself and become aware that he too has a contribution to make to the happiness and well-being of others. To state it bluntly, instead of "Here I am. What are you going to do or not do to make me happy?" let him reverse the pronouns and the emphasis to "What can I do to make others happy?" Such an attitude is intuitively perceived by the other religious, and he will be accepted automatically. Or, by way of a positive approach, a re-ligious may, on entering a new community, pause to make an honest personal evaluation: "Do I possess spiritual, intellectual, social gifts, perhaps, by way of the virtues of prudence, humility, compassion, for instance, by which I might enrich the hearts and minds of my fellow religious?" It may be some specific human gift of a charm of manner, or a social grace, which will not only endear him to others, but also enhance the cultural texture of his community. God 208 ,lul~l, 1956 COMMUNICATIONS may have placed him here precisely to share these gifts with this particular group of religious. Or it may be that some one person here, yet a stranger, has, in God's designs, need of him. This may be the most important reason why God sent him to this place. Not infrequently an individual has a fellow-religious approach him in later life and say, "The remark that you made on such and such an occasion has made all the difference in my life!" In any event, a whole-hearted bestowal of oneself will be irresistible and at once break down all defenses. Whereas should the newcomer begin by shutting himself up ~vithin himself, and present himself as a closed cosmos, he will never arrive at that true rapport which charity re-quires. It may also happen that a religious skilled in a certain field such as journalism, drama, music, or the like, is sent to a house in which there is another who, without his qualifications and benefit of de-gree has, over a period of years, adequately performed that service. Even before the newcomer arrives the individual whom he is obvi-ously not to assist but, in all likelihood, to replace, forgetting the vir-tues of his calling, looks forward to him as little less than an intruder, and strives to alienate the community against him. On the other hand, the newcomer may be a shade too conscious of his training and skills, assume a superior attitude, and act as if nothing of good had been done before. He proceeds to a complete turnover. Though this is likely an extreme case, it nevertheless can result in much unhappi-ness for both religious concerned. A heart-to-heart talk between the two might be indicated, the overtures being made by the newcomer. But only the spirit and charity of Christ in whose name they serve, can eliminate the unpleasantness of such a situation. A last emphasis, though by far not the least important, is the crucial role of a religious superior in such situations. He must be alert to the problem as it exists for both parties concerned. \Vith a deep human insight and true supernatural solicitude for all of his subjects, he will intervene and, having carefully determined on which side the blame chiefly rests, take immediate and if need be, stringent measures to remedy matters. If he be just, prudent, and God-fearing, showing no preferences, his attitude of mind will be at once apparent to both parties to the problem and they will be docile to his counsel. This may be difticult, but where prejudice is concerned, rooted as it is in the emotions, reason will not easily break through. Nor should he stoop to a solution of mere expediency. So too in the problem ¯ of community adjustmenL rather than circumvent it by expediency 209 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious the superior will act as a sort of referee between the members.' For the situation not only objectively, but most probably subjectively as well, is reciprocal. Finally, for religious of either sex who, because of their work and the structure of their communities are of necessity moved from place to place in the course of their lives, a reflection on Christ's, words, "i was a stranger and you took me not in," may prove highly pertinent. ,Also, "what you have done to these . . . you have done to me!" The truth of these words is so direct, so simple, that it is a marvel how we miss it! A noted master of the spiritual life once questioned. "Are we so busy being religious, that we fail to be Christians?" The answer to this question, as regards the newcomer in our midst, can be given a pointed application.--A SISTER. (Material for this department should be sent to Book Review Editor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana.) FATHER VINCENT McNABB, O.P. Por÷rolt of a Grea÷ Dominican. By Ferdinand Volenfine, O.P. Pp. 418. The Newman Press, West-minsCer, M~r~l~nd. I%~. $~.00. Father Valentine deserves the gratitude of all, both within and outside his Order, for the excellent book he has offered us. It is ex-cellent because it succeeds so well in achieving precisely that goal which Father Valentine clearly sets for himself. He does not intend to write a biography. But he wants to produce a "portrait of a great Dominican"--and he does. For here is the portrait of a "very great Dominican"--to borrow the appraisal of the present provincial, Father Carpenter. The book will inspire the diligent reader and make him grateful for this unveiling of the workings of grace in the impetuous, childlike soul of Father Vincent McNabb. As Father Valentine says, "the one and only person who could fittingly and adequately write the biography of any man would be his guardian angel." But xqithin the limits of human competence. Father Valentine has painted a masterful portrait of Father Vincent dynamically cooperating with the Holy Spirit working as the artiste merueilleux within his soul. The author achieves his goal by his very extended research. He seems to have tapped almost every conceivable channel which might 210 July/, 1956 BOOK REVIEWS carry some reflected image of Father McNabb's character. He uses many direct quotations, a large number of letters from Father Mc- Nabb, some of his articles, together with historical backgrounds, recollections by intimates, and even handwriting analyses. Added to this rich amassing of the facts on Father Vincent's life, the book is marked by a rather successful approach to that impossible ideal of perfect objectivity in interpreting facts. The author is careful to dis-tinguish between the particular theory of character development which he uses to explain Father McNabb's life and the facts themselves. Of these latter he records some that favor Father Vincent, but a good number that are not very flattering to him. The book is composed of four parts with appendices. The first part sketches more of the external historical picture of Father Mc- Nabb's life. It stresses the psychology of the growing youngster and his character formation, particularly under the influence of his mother. Part two shows us more fully the heart of Father McNabb. How the brethren viewed their fellow Dominican and superior, what he was in the e~'es of the people to whom he ministered so charitably, and what activities his own zeal, social ideas, and humiliations led him to are here presented to the reader. Part three lets that reader see Father McNabb through the eyes of those xvho either were near-est him, like his family, or were very apt to form just appraisals of the man, such as Hilaire Belloc and Gilbert K. Chesterton. The last part is a collection of Father McNabb's letters, covering a period of almost fifty years and giving many an insight into his character. This section also corroborates the author's sketching of the spiritual development that occurred in Father McNabb's life. The book makes interesting private reading. There are lines memorable for their local color or for the vividness with which they picture Father McNabb in one of his many moods. With careful screening of some of the more documentary parts, the book might make profitable refectory reading. One specially enriching section is entitled "Father Vincent's Reminiscenses of His Priestly Life." From it the reader possibly will gain his greatest appreciation of the stature and spirit of Father McNabb. As a substitute for the somewhat loose connection of the four parts and of their subdivisions, some readers might desire a more closely knit narrative which in a unified procedure would portray all the facets of the hero's character. But this would seem to be ask-ing for something that approaches a biography. Again some readers may not agree with the author's confidence or the method employed 211 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious when he analyzes the dominant factors forming Father Vincent's character. But the author himself is the first to admit that this is an optional part of his theory and not an essential in the foundation of the facts he has established. If you pick up the book, you will find that in Mmost every chap-ter you will be in violent disagreement with one of Father McNabb's views or practices and then suddenly be in love with him for some sacrifice or statement he makes; and yet through it all, you will be delighted and inspired by this unique character striving heroically for humility and obedience because of his deep love for Jesus, Mary, and Josepb.~FRANK M. OPPENHEIM, S.J. GOD AND HIS CREATION. Theology Library, Vol. II. Edi÷ed by A. M. Henry, O.P. Transla÷ed from fhe French by Charles Miltner, C.S.C. Pp. 511. Fides Publishers Association, Chicago. 1955. $6.50. The s~cond volume of the Theology Library, following the plan. of the Summa, treats of God and His creation. It is divided into three books: Book I, God Exists, has three chapters which con-sider the revelation about God, His existence and essence, and the Trinity. Book II, God Creates, presents, in five chapters, the doctrine of creation, of evil, of the angels, of the octave of creation, and of man. Book III, God Governs, studies the mystery of divine govern-ment, the angels and divine government, the two economies of divine government. The different chapters are all by different theologians. Certain features call for special praise. Before the treatment of each of the twelve general topics, we are given a r~sum~ of the scriptural basis for the truths involved. The very first chapter is an excellent ex-ample of this. It takes the reader through the whole of Scripture to showy him the growth in the idea of God, and to emphasize the tremendous deepening of the concept in the New Testament through the Incarnation of the Second Person. Father Paissac's development of the theology of God's attributes has many deep and helpful in-sights. One of the best is his close association of the notions of the good and the beautiful (pp. 62 and ~3). The idea of the beautiful helps very much to see the meaning of the truth that a thing is "good in itself." Another feature is the clear way in which each topic is approached so as to highlight the essentials of theological method. The second chapter furnishes an instance: first the question is stated, then the data of revelation are gathered as the answer to the question of fact (An est?), and finally the theological explanation is given (Quid est?). A word of criticism is, however, iri order here. In the 212 Julg, 1956 BOOK REVIEWS first volume Father Liege had made it clear that the starting point in any theological investigation must be the teaching of the magis-terium. As Pius XII insisted in the Encyclical Humani Generis this is the starting point even for the theologians. Yet, in the places where the data of revelation are gathered preparatory to theological elabor-ation, we find the order of the older manualists used: Scripture comes first, then the Fathers of the Church, then the documents of the magis-terium follow in their historical place. But it is imperative to show even in the scheme of presentation that the first of the theological loci is the teaching of the rnagisterium. A third feature is the con-sciousness of modern problems manifested in the treatment of each topic. Added to this is the presence at the end of each chapter of a few pages called reflections and perspectives in which topics for further study and for discussion are suggested. Finally, a short bibliography of easily available works in English is given after the reflections and perspectives. In the review of the first volume of the Theology Library doubt was voiced as to whether the work was adapted to those who had not had formal training in philosophy or theology. These doubts must be raised again. For the treatment of the matter is, in general, too compressed, and the style is full of technical terms or of allusions which only a person trained in philosophy would understand. The translation is very disappointing. Not that there are many inaccuracies. Rather it is the presence in the English of so many features that smack of the original French, features which make the reading unnecessarily difficult, confusing and exasperating, which leads to this criticism. For example: the plethora of nominative ab-solutes is retained; the inversions of French style remain; the use of the English it to refer to antecedents which the French clearly marks either by pronouns of different genders or by words with different suffixes retard the reader and often leave him undecided as to just what the antecedent is; the rather common use of the present tense in French in passages of somewhat animated narration is kept in the use of the English present.--JAMES J. DOYLE, S.J. PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY IN PRACTICE: By Willlbald Demal, O.S.B., D.D. Pp. 249. P. g. Kenedy and Sons, New York. 1955. $4.00. This is a difficult book to review, and not merely because its print is so fine. It is addressed to priests and "educators "to whom God has entrusted the task of pastoral care." (p. ix) This audience has a degree of competence and professional alertness. The author seems tO count heavily on the discriminating powers of his prospec- 213 BOOK REVIEWS Review for RMigious tive readers, for he says many things that are, at best, questionable. He is anxious to score a point, and to do it he will at times exag-gerate: or" use a universal negative, when he must know that an exception, will come readily to mind and so convict him of falsity. He is dogmatic on matters that are merely probable, and it is only the refusal of the informed reader to take him literally that saves some statements from being unorthodox. No clerical reader will get far into the book before turning to its beginning to find out if it has an imprimatur. And many, I think, will be surprised to find that it has. It must be said in justice that the text itself contains the cor-rective of, and antidote for, many of the extreme positions, which would, then, seem to be advanced for the sake of good, clean argu-ment. There is, of course, a danger that the unwary will carry away some false impressions. Before giving a critical analysis of a few of the author's tenets, let me indicate, with some passing observations, the range of topics one is asked to consider ~vhile reading this book. His remarks on the psychology of the sexes are penetrating, though one will not always agree with what he says. Assessing re-sponsibility for acts that are commonly considered grievously sinful is often beset with difficulties. Kindness and understanding, tact and charity are well insisted on as requisites for work in the confessional. When he tells us that the Holy Ghost is the real guide of souls and that God guides them through the priest as His instrument, he seems to contradict his position that the priest needs psychiatric lore. He seems to concede an overpowering influence to the unconscious and to be too ready to admit that men are "determined" and consequently are not free. He opposes coeducation because it tends to destroy the polarity of the sexes, but then goes on to say that both sexes benefit from mutual contact. Judgment weakens in old age, which, sur-prisingly, is characterized by good judgment (p. 124). He gives a good test to determine if our ruling passion is sensuality or pride (p. 126). The temperaments are well done and the reader will be sure to classify all his acquaintances--and perhaps himself-~ as choleric, sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic, or a mixture of them. A brief outline is given of the contributions of Kretschmer, Kiinkel, Freud, dung, and Spranger. It is a disappointment that the author makes no attempt to. digest this mass of theory and evaluate it, per-haps in terms of temperament. He has some rather penetrating re-marks on the scrupulous and some which will occasion debate. Should a priest discourage a psychopathetic person from marryin.g? 214 dulg, 1956 ¯ ¯ BOOK REVIEWS Few pe6ple are healthy and most people are in one way or another psychopathetic (pp. 210, 237). Let me now give .a few illustrations of the author's penchantto exaggeration. Conversion is well said to be "the triumph of divine grace over human nature with its inclination to sin." Teresa of Avila was converted at the age of 40, though she entered the convent at the age of 18. When conversion finally does occur, "it excludes the possibility of oscillations and relapses." (p. 7) This seems to be our idea of confirmation in grace. What of St. John Fisher's remark about the condemned criminal being led out to execution, "There but for the grace of God, go I"? "Man is incapable of true resignation to and union with God before 40." After that, presum-ably, he can be converted. Father Demal may quote mystics for his opinions, but he is out of touch with the battles human nature must wage to get into heaven, even after the age of forty and bulwarked with the best of resolutions. A conversion such as he envisages would spread endless sunshine over this de facto vale of tears. The author is little tolerant of "casuists who pass moral judg-ments on human acts by means of stop watch, yard-stick and scales." (p. 9) "It is impossible to formulate exact laws and directives which would clearly separate venial from grievous sins . . . the just de-cision will be made by God, not by moral theologians." (p. 118) Even St. Alphonsus comes in for some mild criticism, since he is said to have "underrated the importance of natural disposition for the preservation of chastity and overrated the importance of divine grace." (p. 181) In sober fact there are times when a prudent confessor is in doubt whether a sin is mortal or venial and this is the point Father Demal must be striving to make. He does not seriously mean that a con-fessor can never know that an infraction was mortal, for he tells us that when penitents come to confession "without any sincerely spiritual intention of amendment . . . the only course is the refusal of absolution." (p. 11) When an infraction is venial, one scarcely refuses absolution. If one searches diligently, he will find in Father Demal most of the accepted canons of the "moral theologians." In his final chapter the author notes that some priests are suc-cessful in their treatment of psychopathic persons and others are dismal failures, and offers this as the explanation: "Of first im-portance is the priest's knowledge of the various psychopatbies, their distinguishing symptoms and the indicated therapy." (p. 237) This is questionable. Were a priest to fancy himself as a psychiatrist, his 215 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review [or Religious thought would tend to be concentrated on the discovery and listing of symptoms rather than on a manifestation of genuine sympathy.

Issue 20.1 of the Review for Religious, 1961. ; Volume 20 1961 EDITORIAL O~FICE St. Mary's College St. Marys, Kansas BUSINESS OFFICE 428 E. Preston St. Baltimore 2, Maryland EDITOR R. F. Smith, S.J. ASSOCIATE EDITORS Augustine G. Ellard, S.J. Henry Willmering, S.J. ASSISTANT EDITORS John E. Becker, S.J. Emile G. McAnany, S.J. DEPARTMENTAL EDITORS Questions and Answers Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Woodstock College Woodstock, Maryland Book Reviews Earl A. Weis, S.J. West Baden College West Baden Springs, Indiana Published in January, March, May, July, September, Novem-ber on the fifteenth of the month. REVIEW FOR RELI-GIOUS is indexed in the CATHOLIC PERIODICAL IN-DEX. JOHN XXIII Devotion to the Precious Blood [The following is an English translation of the Latin text of the apostolic epistle Inde a prirais, which Pope John xxIiI issued on June 30, 1960, concerning the fosterihg 6f devotion to ~the Precious Blood of Christ. The original text oF the docu-ment is to be found in Acta Apostolicae Seitis, 52 (1960), 545-50.] From the first months of Our pontifical labors, it oc-curred to Us again and again--and our. solicitous~ and plain-spoken words have often been an indicatioh of Our future intentions--that when daily practices-of religious piety were to be discussed, We would invite the faithful to an ardent honoring of that reality which in a remark-able way manifests the mercy of God for the souls of men, for holy Church, and for the entire ~orld~. We would in- ' vite them, in other words, to a special veneration of the Precious Blood of Christ Jesus, our Redeemer and our Savior. ~' We Ourselves became accustomed to this devotion in the home in which We were raised. Even today it is with happiness that We recall that every day during the month of July Our parents used to recite at home the litanies of the Precious Blood. Following the apostolic exhortation, "Take heed"to yourselves and to the entire flock whereof the Holy Spirit has made you bishops for the ruling of the Church of God which he acquired by his own blood" (Acts 20:28), We have decided, venerable Brethren, that the principal and pressing duties of Our pastoral office demand that We first of all take care of sound doctrine and secondly that We provide for the right exercise and conduct of religious piety, both" in its public and its° private manifestations. For this reason it hag.seemed to Us opportune to exhort Our sons to consider the indissoluble bond which should link the two widely diffused devotions to the Holy Name of Jesus and to the Sacred Heart of Christ with the're-. ligious homage to be offered to the Precious Blood of the Incarnate Word which was poured forth "for man~ for a remission of sins" (see Mt 26:28). ÷ ÷ ÷ D~votion to Precious Blood VOLUME 20, 1961 4, 4, ]olm XXIH REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 4 Just as it is of the utmost importance that the liturgical action of the Church should be in full accord with the profession of the faith;since "the law of belief determines the law of prayer";1 and just as no forms of piety should be introduced which do not flow from the purest fonts of the truths of faith; so it is also right that the various types of devotions should agree among themselves. It is actually necessary that those forms of piety which are re-garded as the most important and which are more apt for the attainment of holiness should in no way disagree with or oppose each other. It is likewise necessary that the forms of piety which from the viewpoint of value and of use are of limited and minor importance should yield ground to those forms which contribute more to the ob-taining of the salvation that was accomplished by Him who is "the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a redemption for all" (1 Tim 2:5-6). If the faithful derive the driving forces of their personalities and the discipline of their lives from a correct faith and a sane piety, then they can be assured that they are thinking with the Church and that through their union of prayer and their charity they are clinging to that Christ Jesus who is the Founder and High Priest of the lofty religion which derives its name, dignity, and power from Him. Even if only a hasty glance be directed to the admirable new emphases that the Church has attained in the field and area of liturgical piety--and such emphases are in full accord with that salutary progress of the faith wards a fuller understanding of divine truth-~it becomes consolingly clear that in the last few centuries this Aposto-lic See has often and openly approved and recommended the three religious devotions We have already mentioned. Although these devotions had been introduced into the practice of Christian living by a number of the faithful during the Middle Ages and although they were after-wards propagated in various dioceses and in various re-ligious orders and congregations, yet it was necessary that the authority of the Chair of Peter should intervene in order that these practices might be declared to be in ac-cord with Catholic faith and that they might be extended to the universal Church. It will be sufficient to recall here that from the. sixteenth century Our predecessors had bestowed spiritual benefits on the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus which in the previous century St. Bernadine of Siena had untiringly propagated ~hroughout Italy. In honor of this Holy Name an Office and a Mass were first approved, then a litany.~ x See the encyclical Mediator Dei, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 39 (1947), 54. t See .4cta Sanctae Sedis, 18 (1886), 509. fewer were the benefits with which the P~oman Pon- :iffs promdted the devotion to the Sacrffd 'Heart of Jesus, devotion that was so greatly helped to its achievement its full and complete form and its universal propaga-aon by those matters whlcti~were~,made clear'to St. Mar-garet Mary Alacoque by Christ when He appeared to her showing her His Heart. With admirable unanimity the Roman Pontiffs have honored this religious practice not only by pointing out its power and its nature but also by declaring its legitimacy and by promoting its use through-out the entire world~a All this has been done in many public documents of the Church, the three most impor-tant of which are three encyclicals devoted' t6 this topic.4 As was only right, the consent and the approval of this Apostolic See were not lacking for the devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ, the remarkable promoter of which in the last century was St. Gaspar del Bufalo, priest of the Roman clergy. In this connection it will be remem-bered that at the command of Benedict XIV a Mass and an Office were composed in honor of the adorable Blood of the Divine Redeemer; Moveover, Plus IX, in order to fulfil a vow made to God at Gaeta, ordered this liturgical ¯ feast to be extended to the universal Church.5'Finally the Supreme Pontiff of happy memory, Pius XI, raised this feast to a double of the first class in order to per-petuate the memory of the jubilee which took place on the occasion of the nineteen hundredth anniversary of the' redemption of the human race. He did this because he was convinced that the increased solemnity of the feast would foster a deeper devotion to the~: Blood of the Re-deemer and that thereby more abundant effects of the same divine Blood would result for mankind. We were but~ following the example of Our predeces-sors when, in order that devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ, the immaculate Lamb, might grow an, d flourish, We approved its litanies as properly set forth by' the sacred .congregation8 and recommended to the entire Christian family the private and public recitation of the same by attaching to them special indulgences.7 Our de- 8 See the Of?ice o! the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Second Nocturn, Fifth Lesson. *The encyclical Annum sacrum in dcta Leonis, 19 (1899), 71 ft.; the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 20 (1928), 165 ft.; and the encyclical Haurietis aquas in Acta Aposto-licae Sedis, 48 (1956), 309 ft. ~See the decree Redempti sumus of August 10, 1849, in the Ar-chives of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, decrees for the years 1848--49, folio 209. e See Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 52 (1960), 412-13. ¢ Decree of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary of March 3, 1960, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 52 (1960), 420. 4. 4. 4- Devotion to the Precious Blood VOLUME 20, 1961 4. 4. John XXIII REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 6 cision in th~is matter, pertaining as it did to the solicitude for all the churches (see 1 (]or 11:28) which is proper to the .Supreme. Pontiff, was prompted by the hope that in these days of great and pressing spiritual needs the faith-ful might continue to increase their respect for those three forms of Christian piety which We previously praised and that they come to see them as possessing a perpetually salutary power of effectively promoting the spiritual life. Since the feast and month are now approaching which are dedicated to the Blood of Christ, the price of our re-demption and the pledge of a salvation and of a life that will never fail, the faithful should meditate on this Blood with renewed fervor and should partake of it by more frequent reception of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Il-luminated by the light which comes from the profitable admonitions of Sacred Scripture and from the precepts of the holy fathers and doctors of the Church, they should recall how abundant and limitless is the power of this truly Precious Blood, "one drop of which is able to wash the entire world from every sin," as holy Church sings t.hrough the lips of the Angelic Doctors and as was wisely confirmed by Our predecessor, Clement VI.0 The power then of the Blood of Christ, God and man, is infinite; infinite too is the love which moved our Re-deemer to pour it forth for us. This shedding of His Blood began .eight days after His birth when He was cir-cumcised. Later it was shed more copiously when being in agony in Gethsemani, He prayed the longer (see Lk 22:43), when He was scourged and crowned with thorns, when He climbed the hill of Calvary and was there affixed to the cross, and when at the end His side was opened by a great wound which was to be the sign of the divine Blood that flows out into the sacraments of the Church. All these events show that it is not only fitting but even highly necessary that all the hithful, reborn as they have been in the streams of this Blood, should adore it in a spirit of religious homage and should honor it with their love. It is most salutary and entirely fitting that the worship of adoration which is due to the chalice of the Blood of the new ~fid eternal testamefit, especially when it is ele-vated in the Eucharistic sacrifice for the worshipful gaze of the faithful, should be followed by the reception of that Blood. This is possible, because in the sacrament of the Eucharist the Blood of Christ is received since it~is joined by an indissoluble bond to His Body. Joined in mind with the priest, the faithful who attend" Mass can In the hymn ddoro te devote. See the bull Unigenitus Dei Filius of January 25, 1343, as cited in Denzinger-Rahner, n. 550. most properly repeat to themselves the words which the priest says at the time of his sacred Communion: "I will take the chalice of salvation and I will call upon the name of the Lord . The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ guard my soul unto life e~ei:nal, Ameh." There can be no doubt that in this way the faithful, whenever they wor-thily approach the sacred synaxis, will receive a more abundant, share of those fruits of the redemption, of the resurrection, and of eternal life which the Blood offered by Christ "throu.gh the Holy Spirit" (Heb~9:14)~acquired fbr all the family of mankind:Nourished by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and sharing in that divine power of His which has raised up in the Church numberless ranks of martyrs, the faithful will find it easier to bear ~the labors and troubles of everyday life; and should it be necessary for the sake of Christian virtue~and the kingdom of God, they will even sacrifice their lives, for they will be burning with that ardent love which caused St. John Chrysostom to exclaim in his writings: "Let us come back from the table as lions, breathing fire, terrible to the devil, realizing who our Head i~ and how great a love He has shown for us . This Blood ~hen it is worthily re-ceived, drives out the devils and _calls to our side the angels and even the Lord of the angels.~. This Blood when it was poured forth Washed the entire world . It is the price of the world; it is that b~ which Christ bought His Church . These thoughts will moderate our passions. How long will we cling to present things? How long will we refuse to be aroused? How~lo.ng will we take no care of our salvation? Let us reflec( what honors God has be-stowed on us;.a.n.d then letus give thanks and give back glory not only by our faith but also by our deeds.''x° It is to be hoped that those ~ho are honored by the name of Christian will frequently consider the fatherly exhortation of the first Supreme Pontiff when he wrote: "Spend the time of your sojourn here in reverence, in the realization that you were redeemed not by gold or silver., but by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Pet 1:17-19). May they also.listen closely to the Apostle of the Gentiles when he says: "You have been purchased at a great price. Glo-rify God then and carry Him in your body" (1 Cor 6:20). If all the faithful take these texts to heart, then their way of life by which they should be an example to others will become more noble and more fitting. Thus it will come about that the Church, strengthened by such virtue, will carry out its earthly task to the profit of the human race. Men, peoples, and nations will be joined by a close bond of brotherly love, if they will yield themselves to the move- See Homily 46 on the Gospel o] John in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 59, 260-61. + + + Devotion to the Precious Blood VOLUME 20, 1961 ments of the grace of that God who wishes all men to be ¯ saved (see 1 Tim 2:4), who has willed the redemption of them all in the Blood of His only begotten Son, and who hag called all of them to become members of the one Mystical Body whose Head is Christ. Civil society itself will thereby enjoy a serene peace; and human nature, which was created to the image and likeness of its Maker (see Gen 1:26), will become yet more worthy of God. It was to a consideration of this lofty dignity to which mankind has been divinely called that St. Paul exhorted those converted Jews who were too much attached to the institutions of the Old Testament even though the latter was but a dim figure and image of the New Testament: "You have come to Mount Sion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the companionship of many thousands of the angels, tb the comunity of the first-born who are now citizens of heaven, to God, the judge of all things, to the spirits of the just who have been made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to a sprinkling of blood that is far more eloquent than that of Abel" (Heb 12:22-24). We are certain, venerable Brethren, that Our fatherly exhortation, when communicated in the way you judge best to you.r people and your clergy, will be put into salu-tary and effective execution in a spirit of willing coopera-tion. Accordingly as a sign of heavenly gifts and as a pledge of Our special benevolence, We impart in full charity Our apostolic blessing to each and every one of you as well as to your flocks, especially to those who carry out Our desires with devoted alacrity. Given at Rome in St. Peter's, the thirtieth day of June, on the vigil of the Feast~ of the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1960, the second of Our pontificate. John XXIII REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS CHARLES A. SC.HLECK, C.S.C. The Sister in the Church When something good, nobie, and sublime is called into question or becomes obscure, it usually calls into existence an immense amount of thought,~reflection, and literature. Indeed, if we are to meet the demands of the situation fully and adequately, the whole matter of the entire reality must once more be subjected to a prolonged and meditative scrutiny. There is usually not so much a question of justifying its existence as there is of getting back to its roots, of elucidating and bringing into the light and clarity of the common vision the fundalnental and essential meaning of the institution in question. And this is especially true when this institution has been estab-lished by God or by His Church. What we feel in such a case is the need to see straight, or rather to see into the core and the heart of the reality itself. In the past such was true of several of the mysteries of divine revelation, the Incaination, fok example, the Trinity, grace, the divine motherhood. This calling of an institution into question together with" the consequent obscurity that almost destroys our appreciation of it has been common in our own day in the case of the Church herself, Mariology, the role of the laity in the Church, and Christian virginity or the religious sister in the Church. Consequently we witness today an outpouring of much labor, thought, and writing which, with more or less suc-cess, attempts in one way or another to penetrate into the divine reasons for the existence of such mysteries and their essential and basic meaning. And while each of these re-alities would certainly be a most interesting topic for our consideration, the one that is being singled out in the present .article is the institution of Christian virginity, or more precisely and exactly, the role of the religious sister in the Church. At the very outset we ought to note that one aspect of this vocation has rarely been called, into question or fallen into obscurity at least as far as the apostolic re- Thee Reverend Charles A. Schleck, C.S.C. teaches theology at Holy Cross College (seminary), 4001 Hare-wood Road N.E., Wash-ington 17, D.C. VOLUME 20~ 1961 9 ~. ~. sa,~, c.~.c. REVIE~ FOR RELIGIOUS lO ligious sister is concerned. And that is the utility, the contribution which such a vocation makes to one or other of the needs of our visible society. There are very few who would call into question the utility of the teaching, or of the care for the sick and the abandoned, or of the other spiritual and corporal works of mercy which form part and parcel of the various apostolates and missions entrusted to apostolic communities of religious women in the Church. In fact, the thought and the writing that has come forth in defense of the sister's vocation has tended to make this its principal and chief weapon. But when we come to another aspect of this vocation, one that touches the very soul of it and centers around the fundamental meaning of this vocation, then we find very few even among Catholics who understand what is perhaps the primary and basic mission of the sister in the Church. The proof of this, it seems, lies ih the fact that the question Ut quid perditio haec still remains in the minds of so many inside and outside the Church"To what avail is this loss of womanhood, this institution of virginity?" From the fact that this question mark still rematns and is even looming larger in certain areas of our country in spite of all the writing and speaking that has been done on the subject, we can conclude, without any kind iSf violence or exaggeration being done to the actual situation, that people by and large do not consider the collaboration in action with other institutions of so-ciety as a sufficient explanation of the vocation of the re-ligious sister. And that is a sobering thought; for these people are, perhaps, more right in their conviction or as-sumption than any of us ~ould be willing to admit. No, it is not the i'prose" of the sister's vocation that needs° clarification in the eyes of the world and in the minds of men, and perhaps even in tier own mind. It is rather the "poetry," so to speak, or the poetic symbolism of the life and mission of the sister in the Church that must be mole constantly and widely diffused both inside and ~outside the Church. For without that difftision we can not hqpe 'to make men see and love the vocation, the mission, or the role wl~ich God intends her to play in the Mystical Body Of the Church. We musi then ask ourselves the question: What is this "poetry" or this basic notion which lies at the very root of the sister's mission in the Chtirch? Only when we an-swer that question satisfactorily will we be able to di-minish and soften and, in the case of many, eliminate the objections which they raise against it. Only then can we hope to show those outside the Church and to very many inside, that the mission and the presence of the sister, far from being a block or an obstacle to the continuation of life, is itself a source of vitality and one of the most ex- cellent ins~truments by which the highest and most sub-lime form of life, if not perhaps begun, is nevertheless nourished, increased, protected, and safe-guarded, and most often formed and fashioned. The religious sister is ~v~fi tb the Church not:so much as a model or an image according to which other women must pattern their lives; neither is she given to the Church as a kind of living representation of the grace of the Christian life as it would .have been given Ito all. except by reason of some fault or' guilt on their part. No, she is given to the Church as a kind of sacrament,' a v,s~ble s~gn, a symbol of one, even of several mws,lble reahtles. To understand this assertion thoroughly, w,e need to re-call briefly the mysteries of the Trinity and of creation. In the first mystery, that of the Trinity, ~we know that God the Father communicates His own nature to God the Son, and these two persons~ commumcate this same nature to the Holy Spirit. Yet while all thre~ of these per-sons possess the one same divine nature, skill from our very limited vision this nature appears to take on differ-ent~ aspects when we consider one or other oflthese persons according to His distinctive properties or characteristics. We obtain a much clearer picture of the richness of each of the persons by linking up certain qualities or perfec-tions with which we are familiar, with one o~: other of the . divine persons. Thus itis by reason of the various kinds of processions which we find in this myster~ that we at- .~ tribute understanding to the Word of God Who proceeds by way of an operation of the divine intell~,ect; similarly we attribute love and affection to the Holy Spirit because He proceeds by way of an operation of theI divine will. In the second mystery, that of creation, God seems to have wished that His various perfections I~e manifested and shared in by many different creatures, each acc.ording to a very definite limitation, such that some would repre-sent Him more perfectly and more fully, than others. For only in this way could the fullness of His b~ing be made somewhat clear. When we focus our gaze on material creation, we see that only one creature came into being, made, as we are told, according to the lmage~ and likeness of God. Only one received a perfection or perfections which would enable it to know and to love ~;od, to share and participate in the most intimate opI e.rations of the Godhead. That creature was man. Or let ks say, it was human nature, possessed by two different~individuals who I reflect the riches of this nature in such d~ffe~ent ways that the fullness of the mystery of the human composite might stand'out the more clearly and might m,rror more per-fectly the riches of the Godhead. For we must not forget that man and woman also belong to those th.ings of which it was said by the Apostle: "From the foundations of the 4. ÷ ÷ The Sister in the Church VOLUME 20, 1961 II C. A. $chl~cl~, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS world, men have caught sight of His invisibl~ nature, his eternal power and his divinity as they are known through the things he has made" (Rom 1:20). In something of the way in which the divine nature was shared in by two person~ other than the Father, proceed-ing from Him and yet personally manifesting and empha-sizing different aspects (at least according to our imperfect vision), so too in the mystery of the human composite we see one nature shared in by two individuals who mani-fest in their whole make-up the distinct perfections of the rational creature. And just as the Word of God is the one to whom we attribute the intellectual operations of God while the Holy Spirit is the one to whom we apply the affective operations of God, so too (I do not mean to say that the parallel is entirely exact) man is the one in whom we see manifested more visibly the operations of the mind and the duties of the intellective side of our being, while woman is the one in whom we see manifested more visibly the operations of the will and the duties of the affective side of our being. Since all created beings are sent into the world as signs or "sacraments" in the broad sense of this word, and since man is an image of the Trinity, we might say that man and woman are visible signs and symbols of the intellec, tire and affective operations and perfections of God. Man is a sign or a "sacrament" more especially of God as truth, and woman is a sign or "sacrament" more especially of God as love. In a sense, then, we might say that man reflects more the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word, while woman is more the reflection of the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Now while it is true that the original plan of God was interfered with and that it was set right again only when the two persons proceeding from the Father were sent in mission to men, still it is precisely here--in relation to the fall and the two missions necessitated by it--that the "poetry" or the "sacramental" role and meaning of the religious sister begins to appear in all its dignity and sublimity. For when we consider the mystery of these two divine missions, we see that the Son of God was sent in mission to instruct men and to teach them the way of salvation. His function was to preach by word of mouth those mysteries and that knowledge of God which had been hidden from the foundation of the world. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, was sent in visible mission only very briefly and for a different purpose. For He was sent both as a sign and as a kind of mother-principle. He was sent as a sign of sanctification, a sign of what the interior renovation which takes place within the soul in the state of grace actually is. In fact, the very creatures under which He appeared manifested this role: the dove and the fire. The one, the dove, manifested the innocence of sanctity, its caution, its fruitfulness, and its silence; while the other, the fire, manifested love and the knowledge proper to love, the wisdom of the heart. Moreover, the Holy. Spirit was sent as a kind of.mothe~:prlnclple, a pi~i~i~i~ '~f re-birth, to mold the human race into a new creature. This was the work He was to continue in a silent and hidden manner by acting as the soul, the vitalizing force and power of the Church, giving birth and life to the family of God. While it is true, then, that in the mystery of the Trinity the Holy Spirit is in a sense passive, since He is the term of a divine procession but not a principle of any further divine procession, still He does not remain passive. Rather He becomes active, most active, together with the Father and the Son in the work of sanctification or of what we might call the Trinification of the members of the family of ~God. This role of the Holy Spirit has certain affinities with the role of woman. Although, of the two individuals pos-sessing human nature, she embodies the characteristics of receptivity, acceptance, and submission, this does not mean that she is inactive or merely passive. The case is far otherwise. She receives or accepts, but only to give flesh and-blood, so to speak, to what she receives, to clothe it with the more sublime qualities of human nature. By reason of her entire being--her body, her soul, her powers of understanding, her capacity for affection, her aptitudes, and her inexhaustible devotion--she is made to mother the human race, to know it in all of its depths and.heights, its crudities as well as in its sublime potentialities. Thus, she has been endowed by God with a maternal instinct to form someone for family life, whether it be for the human family or for the family of God. In fact, this func-tion is one that she is not free to side-step; she is not free to isolate herself or to make her life self-cente~ed. For she exists for humanity; she is at its very foundations, not so much to direct and govern it, but rather to give it birth and to direct its initial steps in the pursuit of the human race's common goal. Woman exists, moreover, as an inspiration for all to seek the things that are above; likewise she is a sign of what this higher life actually is. She was given to man as a~companion, a helpmate to enable him to attain the sub-lime end for which he had been destined. And when she realizes the potentiality that lies within herself, she acts as a focal point or as an exemplar for the human race. Hence in the present economy of our existence, the divine idea of a complete human nature as something that trans-cends all difference of sex is better translated by woman than by man,, not only because her beauty excels that of ÷ ÷ ÷ The S~ ~ the ~hurch VOLUME 20, 1961 ~. A. $cltleck, ~.~. . REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 14 man, but also and especially because she presents an idea that is remarkable for the contraries which it unites-- somewhat as the activity of the Holy Spirit is presented to us in the Sequence for Pel~tecost, something like the ac-tivity of grace itself. For feminine nature presents us with an idea that is simple, yet very profound. She appears as one in whom we find a mingling of grace and gravity, of a smiling yet deep seriousness, of enjoyment and sacrifice, of song and silence, of purity and fecundity. It is in Mary' that we find the most perfect realization of this womanly' perfection. How the rest of womankind has realized this ideal and performed her role can be very readily seen by scanning the pages of history,, both sacred and profane; She has often led man away from God--she has often performed the role of the first Eve; and yet she has often led man back to his God---she has performed the role of the second Eve. Her influence ~has accompanied man. to near perfection, and it has also plunged him into an abyss of hate and despair. In fact, we can say that the destiny of man in his relationship with God depends to a great extent upon the silent directive force and power of wo-man, befit good or evil. Whether it be for good or evil de-pends very much upon her veil of mystery, her unassum-ing surrender to goodness and her willingness to share her time and her qualities with man in a spiritual or in a physical sense. Without her cooperative participation, the totality of human existence would become distorted and sterile. For her role in human existence will always be that of a bride, of a woman moving within the realm of man, not rejecting her veil which is a sign of her ac-ceptance, of her l~at mihi, not struggling to attain that which is properly man's, but surrendering her whole be-ing in an effort to make her contribution to the end result which is the unity of the human race with God. Like the Holy Spirit with whom she has a certain af-finity, woman is not only passive or receptive. She is com-municative, in fact, essentially communicative; and .like the person of love whom she represents, she tends to be-come dit~usive, 'to create or to prepare [or the members of the human family the best that this family contains in the depths of its own being--life, freshness, the poetry of love, fidelity, service, and care. It is only when woman actually lives or incarnates in her own life these characteristic marks of the Holy Spirit that she arrives at the fulfillment of her mission in crea-tion. And it is only in and through her arrival there that she attains that vision proper to wisdom, one that reaches from end to end seeing all things and judging all things according t° their proper place in the divine plan. It is only in the measure that she fulfills her role that she will be enabled to see the needs of souls, the needs of the Mys- tical Christ, and the destinies of the humffnfamily. For in proportion as her affective nature becomes more and more purified, she Will become more and more like to the person of the' Holy SpiriLwho, is personal love in the mystery of the Trlmty; and she-will be g,ven~that gift which is part and parcel of her vocation--wigdom and the divine vision which this implies. For as h~r'affections become purified, she learns~o .center herself and her life in God who will constantly infuse intd her a deeper love which is perfected by one 'of~His most precigm Sifts w~sdom. Thus we can say that'only in proportion as there grows in the woman the untarnished innocen~e~0f Mary the girl, will there also' grow in her the. deep compas-sionate gentleness and wisdom and.vision of Mary the mother, enabling her like Mary to cover the world with a silent and still co-redemption. Consequently, we can say that ~oman's vocation and mission is to imitate and continue partially at least and in a visible way the mission of the Holy Ghost--to mother the human race inits relatidnship with God by showing men that God isoa God of lov~ and that it is man's duty to find God not go much by r~ducing Him to our level of thought and limitatiofis, 'but rather/by going out of ourselves and in the" darkness Of a deep faith ~and trust, loving beyond what we see. M6reover, she was meant to be a perpetual sign to man of what the soul in the state of grace is--the bride of the L6rd. If this is the fundamental role of woman by her very nature, we should exPect that any furthervocation which she might be called upon"by God td exercise in the divine plan would not depart from this. Rather we would expect it to call her to a more perfect fulfillment of this funda-mental and basic role or vocation; for grace, as we hav~ so often heard, builds upon nature. It should come-as no surprise, then, that w~ should conceive of the religious vocation which lies at the very basis of the sister's way of life as a dall or an invitation from God much more than as an arbitrary decision on the 15art of a woman to enter the religious life. It is;' we might say, a special glance 'or grace which God Himself directs towards certain souls whereby He lifts thein from the realm of His common love and elevates them t6 that of His special love. We can say that if a woman goes out of the world in attempting to realize a religious vocatibn, she does not do so arbi-trarily; she does so onl~ in :response to an invitation by which God addresses her by'her first name, going beyond the common love which He shows otherg'and embracing her with His ~pecial love. A sister gods out of the world (and ~this is implied in the religious life) only became she has been given an-other task by almighty God/For she is given- to the Church The~ Sister in the Church VOLUME 20; 1961 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 16 and to mankind, not so much as a type or figure as we mentioned above, but rather as a sign in much the same way as the Holy Spirit was given to the world in His visible manifestation as a sign. And because she is given to the Church as a sign, her whole life must be, as it were, a kind of graphic picture or parable. For in her there was meant ~o become lifelike and instantly visible what in all others is usually kept secret and hidden. In her what is innermost in the Church of God is turned outward; and the City of God, which lies so concealed in others, becomes the town which is set upon the mountain--visi-ble for all to see. I am speaking, of course, of the life of man with God. It is this role which the sister constantly plays in the Church; we see it in the habi~ she wears, in the houses she lives in, the bearing which marks her per-son, and in the very disposition of her life. Her mission and vocation in the Church was meant to publish this truth: that this woman belongs entirely to God, that she lives only for Him and only with Him. This is, it seems, what the vocation of the religious sister was meant by God to signify; and the external marks which set it off from all other vocations (something like the plate of pure gold worn by the high priest of the Old Tes~tament) indi-cate immediately that the one belonging to this yay of life is set apart for the Lord. God knew that by reason of the fall the observance of the first and greatest commandment--to love God with one's whole heart and soul--would be most difficult to keep. For the mind of man, wounded by original sin, would tend to look downward; his heart would tend to become immersed in the things of time even though he be ordered to an eternal destiny. The sublime idea of union with God would be recalled and brought to birth in him only through what he saw or only through what he would in some way sense. God knew that if know.ledge would be had only through the instrumentality of the senses, through contact with visible things such as the spoken or the written word, then love would be recalled to man and begotten in him only t~hrough what he would in some way sense, only through some visible instrument; and in this case the love that would be recalled and be-gotten in him would be a share and participation in God's own love itself. It was for this reason that God instituted Christian virginity, and the Church ~gave this institution a very definite form in the religious life; *for the sister was to be a sign or a "sacrament," that is, a visible sign of an in-visible reality. It was one of the best possible ways of realizing and of answering the cry of the psalmist, "We no longer see the signs," which you have placed before us, Lord. While a sister is a sign of many things---of the fact that God exists, of the fact that He can touch a soul in a most intimate way, of the fact that He can ask a soul, or rather demand of 'it as it were~ 'to live for Hi~n ~lone-- still the sister is above all according to the divine~plan a sign of a yet greater mystery, 'For her mlssxon was set up by God to signify that He is love, that He is one who loves and can be loved. She was meant to indicate perpetually, not so much in her own individual person as in the insti-tution which she incarnates, that man is called to experi-ence God's personal love, that a human soul is called to be the bride of the Lord. This explanation is not just ~ sentimental, metaphor; it is something, which fias been constantly re-echoed in the literature of the Church--in the figure of the Church herself as the ,immaculate spouse of Christ, in the person of the bride of the Canticle of Canticles, in the figure of the chosen people as the Jerusalem or Sion of the Old Testament, in the.figure of Mary, and in the figure of the New Jerusalem who is said by St. John in the Apocalypse to be sent down from heaven by God all clothed like a bride who has adorned herself in readiness to meet her husband (Apoc 21:2). It is in fact rather clearly indicated there that the new Jerusalem is a figure of the Church and of the individual members of this Church, each of whom is called to be the bride of the bridegroom who is the Lamb (Apoc 21:9). There is, we might say, a common desire in the Church to see this heavenly Jerusalem or to catch some glimpse here on earth of the soul that is ready to enter into glory or who already participates in vision. In the sister that desire was to be fulfilled. For while it is true that the re-ligious profession taken together with the reception of both man and woman is essentially the same, a represen-tation of an eschatological state, nevertheless it is only in the case of tlie sister, because she is a woman, that one of the principal effects--the closest possible union with God---is brought out most strikingly and unmistakably. The man's consecration to God is considered to be a kind of second baptism, a ceremony in which his death to the world and his resurrection unto God is signified. But in the case of the woman, the ceremonies taken in their en-tirety form a kind of marriage rit~, a marriage in which she unites herself to the God-man as His bride. Conse-quently only the sister is able to signify in her very being and. person the marriage of the Christian with God, be-cause only she cfin be by nature a bride. The veil and, in some cases, the ring that she receives at the time of her profession were meant to be a perpetual reminder both to herself and the world that there is another world of r.eality that lies far beyond the surface vision which takes up the thoughts and the attention of the majority of men. 4- + The Sister in the Church VOLUME 20, 1961 17 ÷ ÷ ~,. A. $chleck, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 18 The excellence of this marriage over that of the sacra-ment lies in the immediacy of the union with Christ the God-man as well as in the permanence of the bond that is established at that time. For we kno~ that in the re-ligious profession a woman unites herself' immediately to Christ, whereas in Christian marriage, She unites herself only. mediately to Him, through the intermediary of a human creature who represents Christ for her. The bond of the religious profession, moreover, is not dissolved at death; rather it is 'one that realizes its full meaning and significance not here on earth but only'in eternity since it is the reward of virgins alone tO follow, the Lamb whithersoever He goes in the everlasting hills. It is in this way that a sister is a visible and constant symbol to the world of the sublime privilege and destiny which rests upon all human souls--to be a bride in search of the bridegroom. Sublime though this role of the sister is, there is yet another one which is not merely attached to this destiny of being a bride of Christ, but is its natural outcome. We know that in and through human marriage the bride as-sumes the interests 'and the concerns of the ~bridegroom. Consequently, in the marriage signified by the'religious reception and profession of the sister, she assumes the in-terests and concerns of eternal love, of God who is infinite love. Thus her love is not only not annihilated by her profession, but it is given new life and becomes much more dynamic and extensive than that which is had be-tween two persons united to each other through Christian marriage. It is meant to assume the status arid proportions' of the love of the God-man Himself. If the bride reflects the interests and the concerns of the bridegroom, she does so in a very definite way in accordance with her own na-ture. Since this nature is feminine, she rel~resents God as love and she reflects the concern of God for souls in a ma-ternal way. in fact, we can say that the maternal office or role for which she is created is not only not annihilated in her profession but is brought to its highest and most perfect fulfillment because she exercises it over a greater number of souls and with respec~t to the highest life that can be given to a creature, a share in the life of God Him-self. This is as it should be. For a natural desire, one that is implanted in a creature by God Himself, must be capa-ble of being ftilfilled and must be fulfilled in some way or other if that creature is to realize its highest possible perfection. In calling the sister ~o her vocation, the highest voca-tion to which a woman could aspire in the Church, God will not--I think that "we can say can not---destroy this aspiration which lies deep in the very make-up of every woman. Rather He will bring it--He must bring it--pro- vided there is no'obstacle on her part--to its fullest and most perfect realization. To be pure and untouched~oand wholly consecrated to God and yet to have the heart and soul of.a mother is the unique wonder of Mary; and,it is also at the very heart and m);s'te~ 0f the sister's ,~6cation. It is a grace which is given to her initially in the grace of vocation itself, in much the same way as the fruit of the tree is given already in the very seed of the tree. And that grace will die or grow in the sister in the same measure or proportion as the grace of vocation dies or grows in her heart. It is of this also that a sister is a continuing sign or symbol to the world---that only a virgin motherhood is' compatible with~ a~_divine motherhood, that is, one that has as the whole purpose of its existence to lift up the souls of its children to :God, Just as Mary became filled with,grace and,superabundant 'in it, so to9 the sister is called to something similar--to be filled ~with grace but in such a way that she not only receives it but commtini-cates ,and diffuses it' to others as .a mother communicates and diffuses life to her children. Consequently, the.phrase which the Church in her liturgy.applies to Mary can also be applied in a certain sense to her: "And ~having the honor of virginity, you have also the joyof'motherhood," I think that it is true to say ,that only this understand-ing and presentation of the sister's, role in .the Church will make it more meaningful for her and restore it to its rightful place of: excellence~among the ways of life that lie"open to the faithful. For unless there is ~a deep faith and conviction in her marriage with Christ and in her spiritual motherhood, ~ the deeper motivating forces of, her vocation c~)uld easily remain somewhat obscured"and the consequent fruit of her apostolate diminished. And unless the missiofi' of the sister is presented to all the faithful during the years of their academic training and instruction,.espeCially in high schools and colleges, not by means of a ~¢il~d of "fly,by~nigh~" program but by one that openly juxtaposes it to marriage and presents it in all of its fullness, with its beauty, excellence, and joys, to-gether with its peculiar trials and difficulties, the question Ut quid perditio haec? spoken of above.will remain in the minds of a great many of the faithful and continue to ;. serve' as a parent,al objection to the very vocation itself: For all the attractiveness and beauty which this picture of the sister's mission in the Church might present, there° is one warning that might be voiced before c6ncluding, a-warning which becomes ever more necessary as the prog-ress of our technical civilization moves on with the.speed of an object drawn by the pull of gravity.And that is that 'the sister as well as the institution which she incar-nates must not fail to hold up the mystery of the cross-- in schools, in vocation literature, and above all in ,the The Sister in the C~hurch VOEUME 2~ 1961 19 4. + C. A. Schleck, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 20 actual living of the religious life itself. The presence of this sign of contradiction, its mystery, its sorrow and its joy, must always be the very basis of her way of life. For the essence of the religious life is "to go out from the world." Consequently, the religious sister is to bear in mind that here on earth she is called upon to fulfill the obligations of a bride and .a mother. The privileges and the rewards that shall be hers--that of "following the Lamb whithersoever He goes" and that of ~eeing "her sons coming from afar off and her daughters rising up at her side" (see Apoc 14:4; Is 60:3 ff.)--are reserved for eternity: These will be hers only if she has understood and accepted at the very outset of her religious life and has observed ever more faithfully during it the injunction of St. Ambrose: "The root and the flower of virginity is a crucified life.". It is this life, together with all that it implies in the case of the woman--silence and stillness and hiddenness especially--that is necessary not only for this vision to remain throughout her life but also for it to grow and to reach to new extensions and heights so that all the various lights and shadows of its beauty might appear in all their fullness, richness, and splendor. Such a vision of the "Word breathing forth love" as St. Thomas says (Summa tkeologiae, .1, 43, 5, ad 2), can be purchased only where there is lived and practiced prayer and disci-pline. These requirements have today made the vocation of the religious sister especially difficult. For the growing demands of her apostolate in the world along with the almost imperceptible infiltrations of elements foreign to her. vocation which such an apostolate often implies, could easily diminish and even destroy the possibility of retaining and developing this vision. If she remains faith-ful, however, to a constant and personal practice of these requirements, she will enable herself to fulfill her two-fold role, that of being a virgin in search of Christ and that of being a mother in whose conceptions no sin is passed on to the offspring, but only grace, only a share in the life of God Himself. Like freshly fallen snow on a mountain she will lift her gaze.only to God; and yet under the heat of the sun (which stands for the activity of'the Holy Spirit) she will melt and give life-giving water to those who dwell in the fields and valleys below. And he who drinks of this water shall never thirst, but it will become to him "a fountain of living water springing up unto life everlasting" (Jn 4:14). In conclusion we might sum up very briefly what we have attempted to give in these few pages. A religious sister leaves the world to become a sign or symbol, repre-senting God to men and men before God. For God loves humanity in her person, and in her person humanity gives its loving answer back to God. This, I think, is the mission given to the sister both by God and by the Church. When she returns to the world in the exercise of her apostolate, regardless of what this might be, she does so primarily as a sxgn, a symbol of the pasclial mysterxes, of tiuman na-ture's death to sin and resurrection unto God. In her case, this resurrection will be not so much unto light and knowledge as unto love. We know, that no apostolate, no vocation has any real meaning except in some relation to communication of life through light or through love. In the case of the religious sister it is in ke~eping with her very nature that the communication be more often predominantly through love; and even when it is through light, through the instruction of youth, it will be a spread-ing of vision in and through the warmth of love. Therein lies the "poetry" or the sacramental meaning and the divine design for the sister's mission, a mission whose fullness and richness and meaning must be made known to the world today; for it presents the solution to the needs of our day a constantly deeper interiorisation of doctrine and life, a flowering of the contemplative spirit, and an intense outpouring of charity and love. It is true that the world of today needs a rational theology; yet before it can become capable of this theology, it needs the vision which lies behind it, the vision wfiich made the very Summa of Aquinas seem like so much straw--the vision of eternal light that loves and is love. This role, this mission, this need for the presence of the sister in the Church has been very well indicated by a passage from one of the works of St. John of the Cross: 0 Lamps of fire, in whose resplendent light the deepest caverns where the senses meet,- erst steeped in dark-ness dire, Blaze with new glories bright, and to the lov'd one give both light and heat. Living Flame of Love, Stanza 3 This is the work of the Spirit and it is also the mission of the sister in the Church. And so in the end we come back to the beginning. The sister's apostolate or primary mission is very much like that of the Holy S15irit with whom she has a very definite affinity--to diffuse within the souls of men the gift of created love which is the com-mon bond uniting us with God and with each other in the friendship of divine charity or in the community of love which is the Church. If the sister fulfills tfi~t mission, on the day of her entrance into eternity she will merit to hear the words which the Prophet addressed to the new Jerusalem many centuries ago: "Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high, and behold the joy that comes to thee from thy God" (Bar 4:36; 5:5). 4- 4- The Sister in,- the Church VOLUME 20,, 1961 JEAN GALOT, S.J. Thanksgiving After Holy Communion, + ÷ + The Reverend Jean Galot, S.J. is Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Coll~ge Saint-Albert, Eegenhoven - Louvain, Belgium. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 22 In recent years it seems that some observers have no-ticed a decline in personal thanksgiving after Holy Com-munion. 1 The liturgical too;cement would seem to have led some of the faithful, including priests, to neglect any prayer which is not official, liturgical prayer, or prayer with a community flavor. On the other hand; the publi-cation b~y Father Karl Rahner of two articles on the theo-logical justification for thanksgivings gives us an oppor-tunity to reconsider this aspect of Holy Communion. We would like to do this not only from the standpoint Of prac-tice, but also doctrinally. Firstly, we shall ask what connection there is between thanksgiving and the Mass. In particular, is it correct to say that thanksgiving has only minor importance because Mass is it.self essentially a thanksgiving? Then we shall look at the reason usually given for making a thanksgiv-ing; namely, the continuation of the real presence of Christ in the communicant. But is this, in fact, the chief justification for the practice? Finally, there are some conclusions about the length of the thanksgiving and the manner of making it. Having a better understanding of Holy Communion and of its effects in us will lead us to see the attitude it requires of the communicant. By t~he end of this study it is hoped that the great im-portance of the matter in all religious formation will be ,apparent. This is the year of the Eucharistic Congress which has as its theme "Pro mundi vita" [For the life of the world], and it is also the fiftieth anniversary of St. Plus X's decree on the Communion of small children. It would be rewarding were the thoughts here outlined to contribute in any way to a fresh development Of Eucharis-, uc p~ety. . x This article originall~ appeared in Revue des Communautds Re. ligieuses, 32 (1960), 73-86. The translation is by Rev. D. Brigstocke, s.J. *"Danksagung nach der hl. Messe," Geist und Leben, 32 (1959), 180-89, 442-48. Thanksgiving Completes Our Participation in the Mass It is very t~ue that the whole Mass is a thanksgiving. The expression Eucharist~.makeS this clear. The word was applied by the primitive Church to the sacr~iment which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper; and the reason may be found in St. Luke and St, Paul: when He consecrated the bread, Christ "gave thanks" .(Lk 22:19; 1 Cot 11:24). It is the attitude which distinguished Christ at this capi-tal moment that has given its name~ to the sacrament. In memory of. Christ His '~disciples have likewise "given thanks" to God by repeating the gesture of consecration,3 ~How is this characteristic attitude to be interpreted? To give thanks is to thank God and to adopt the disposi-tions ofsomeone who has received everything from Him, and is glad to offer Him everything in return. At the moment of the Last Supper, Christ wished, to proclaim that He held everything from the: Father, hnd at,the same time He wanted to make a complete offering of Himself to the Father in a way .which would for ever perpetuate His oblation on Calvary. By this, thanksgiving, which is intended to be an act of total homage to the Father, the bread is blessed;~ it is consecrated because, being ,offered to God, henceforth it belongs to Him; it becomes the in-strument of divine blessings. The thanksgiving is an obla-tion, and the blessing of the bread is the sign of this obla-tion, its material symbol This is as much as to say that one must n6t have too restricted an idea of thanksgiving, confining it tO an outburst of gratitude alone. It signifies a return to God of what He has given to man. It is .a "Thank you" which is expressed by a profound offering of the self. If the Mass is to be called a thanksgiving, then it is within this very broad meaning of the word. Those who take part in the Mass have to acknowledge with. Christ that they h~ve received everything from the Father and that with Him they present to the Father all that has been bestowed upon them. They do this by uniting their offer-ing,' which should l~e as complete as possible, with that of the Savior, Does this mean to say that fervent.participation in,the Mass, with this attitude of thanksgiving, makes a thanks-giving after Holy Communion secondary or only slightly useful? We might notice that Father Rahner, while put-aFor the employment of the term Eucharist in the prim~itive Church an~d especially in St. Justin see P. Batiffol,'L'Eucharistie, la prdsence rdelle et la transsubstantiation, "l~tudes d'histoire et de th~o-logie positive," 2nd series; J.-A. ~Jungmann, Missarum Sollemnia, I, 45 ft. ~In St. Matthew (26:26) and St. Mark (14:,22) the equivalent of "having given thanks" is "havin~,g blessed." 4, Thankagiving Holy vo,.u~E ~o. ÷ ÷ ÷ ~ean Galot, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ting in the first place the thanksgiving constituted by the Mass itself, maintains that thanksgiving after Holy Com-munion means much and is truly recommendable. And if one thinks of the personal participation by the priest or the faithful in the Mass, with all that this sharing de-mands, it cannot be said that thanksgiving has only sec-ondary importance. For its role is to complete partici-pation in the Mass, and to ensure the full fruit of this participation. In fact, participation in the sacrifice of the Mass reaches its culmination in Communion. This is the sacrificial meal. Certainly the sacrifice has its value on its own. Once the Consecration has taken place the essence of the sacri-fice has been accomplished, with its worth ex opere operato applied to the intentions for which the Mass is celebrated. But in the sacramental order the personal participation by the priest or faithful in the sacrifice of Christ remains essentially insufficient so long as it has not ended in Communion. This remains true, however fer-vent the will to unite oneself with the Offering and the Consecration.5 The object of Holy Communion is the full association in the Savior's sacrifice of those who are present at the sacramental renewal of this sacrifice. It unites them to Christ's offering in virtue of an efficacity ex opere operato different from that of the Consecration, and which completes the latter by acting in each com-municant individually. This sacramental efficacity may be explained in other terms by saying that here it is no longer the member of the faithful who tries simply to unite himself to the sacrifice of Jesus, albeit his efforts are sustained by grace; it is Jesus Himself coming to unite the Christian to His sacrifice. He comes to incorporate the individual with His sacrifice, and He does so by a divine power enabling the fa!thful to offer that which human weakness would have precluded. This sacramental incor-poration in the sacrifice may be translated in terms of thanksgiving: by Holy Communion Christ comes to in-corporate the faithful into His own supreme thanksgiving --a thanksgiving repeated at each Mass and which in-cludes the offering of His death. Christ associates the Christian with Himself, placing him in this situation of giving thanks. The sacramental efficacity of this incorporation, while it proceeds essentially from the divine strength of Christ, depends also upon the dispositions of the faithful. As with the rest of the sacraments, the effect ex opere operato of Holy Communion does not dispense the faithful from cooperating with grace. Christ gives Himself with His 5 Cf, the Council of Trent (DB 944) encouraging the faithful to sacramental communion at each Mass they attend. omnipotence, but the soul still has to open itself to Him and welcome Him. This attitude of welcome, this opening of the self and subjective fervor will have an influence upoh the fruits of Communibn. Here it is that we discern':the'i~nportance 6f'indi~,idual thanksgiving after Holy Communion. The Christian really has to "receive, Christ in such a way as to allow Christ to incorporate Him fully into His own sacri,fice. In order to be able to receive Christ in this way, one has to pay attention to Him, try to show Him the sentiments of welcome that He deserves, .and make ohe's own the thanksgiving that Christ brings with Him. This can only be achieved in those moments~ of recollection When a cer-tain intimate dialogue occurs. The time of thanksgiving after Holy Communion is the moment when all that has happened at the altar enters deeply into the soul of the Christian in order to transform it. At this moment the communicant yields himself to that immense giving of thanks which was the theme of the Savior's sacrifice. He commits himself personally to this thanksgiving by allowing Christ to penetrate to his. fur-thest depths, and by devoting all his powers as a man, his ability to reflect and to will, to the work of extending the Savior's reach within him. Thus, thanksgiving after Holy Communion is not a simple movement of personal piety which just happens to be added to a liturgical action in itself fully sufficient. It~is not a complement, with value only secondary. It is the reception and welcome of the liturgical and sacramental action, a welcome without which this liturgical action could not produce in the com-municant that which one has a right to expect. True--the thanksgiving is individual. It has to be, because it signi-fies a personal welcome given to the coming of Christ, and it has all the more worth in proportion as the depths of the personality are engaged. But this individual com-plement is claimed by Holy Communion and therefore by the liturgical action of the community which is the Mass. Besides, while remaining an act of the individual, the thanksgiving allows the member of the faithful to rise to a higher le~,el of community charity. It does this pre-cisely because in Holy Communion the Christian wel-comes to himself the love of Christ. . There is, therefore, no reason for neglecting thanks-giving after Holy Communion, or for holding that it is an act of private piety which we may omit at will. On the contrary, it is the ordinary completion of 'the Mass. Its importan.ce is not less for not being found among the prayers that the priest recites officially. By its very essence the thanksgiving has to be something intimate,~ a reaching-out and utterance of the soul; and as such it gua,rantees the full effect of the Mass in each of the faithful. + Thanksgiving A.~e~ Holy Commumon VOLUME 20, 1961 ~e~ ~, sJ. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Thanksgiving and the Real Presence of Christ For some time after Communion the sacramental pres-ence o£ the bod~ o£ Christ remains in us.~ It is difficUlt to decide the exact duration o£ this presence, but it does not cease be£ore the dissolution o~ the species. Accord.oing to some medical opinion, a small host in a healthy stom-ach does not corrupt before haft an hour.7 On the other hand, it is even more 'important to notice that this bodily presence o~ Christ in the communicant is given essentially £or a spiritual action, and more speCially £or a spiritual presence o~ Christ in u~. For Christ comes to nourish us spiritually. Father Rahner has good reason £or insisting upon the spiritual pregen.ce o~ Christ that Holy Communion produces. Thinking o~ the Eucharist, St. Paul Spoke about "spirit-ual food" and "spiritual drink" (1 Cor 10:3-4). He un-derstood the efficacity o£ the Eucharist as being o£ the spiritual order because, to speak more precisely, this effi-cacity was due to the Holy Spirit: "in 6ne Spirit we have all been made to drink" (1 Cor 12:13). According to these views, it is not the Bgdy or the Blood of Christ, as such, in their simple material reality, which operates in the communicant, but the Holy Ghost whom they bear. St. Paul was ectioing Christ's teaching. In the l~romise o~ the sacrament a's St. John recounts it, the Master had under-lined the spiritual nature o~ the etticacity of the Eucharist: "Only the spirit gives li£e; the flesh :is of no avail" (Jn 6:63). By itseff the flesh would be powerless to exert any sanctifying activity; it is only through the Spir!t that it can act in this way. In order to better understand the connection which exists between the Eucharistic body and the Holy Ghost, we should recall that the Body present in the Eucharist is the glorifie.~d Body o[_.the Savior. It is His risen Body. It is true that th.is Body is giv~en to us in a ~sacrifice. But the sacrifice, While it renews the offering of Calvary, renews too the completion of this offering and' its acceptance by the Father: :that is to~ say, the glorification o~ Jesus. That is why the Mass omme'mbrates not only the Passion~ but . e Father Rahner has put £orward a new theory~ according to which 'the real presence would cease [xom the moment of communicating, because from that instant the species of bread can no longer be con-sidered as food, being .no longer eatable. According to him there would begat this moment the equivale.nt of corruption of sp.ecies'. In' principle, however, tradition considers that physical corruption of ~ ¯ the species must occur before the real presence ~ceases. One might!! also add that the species of bread do. continue to be a nourishment' I even ~fte'r actual manducation, and so they remain the sign 6f the I real presence. Therefore the presence of the Body of Christ certainly I persists after the ~ctual°moment of communicating. ~ C~. Cardinal Gasparri, Tract. canonicus de Sanctissima Eucha- I ristia, (1897), n. 1194~ also the Resurrection and Ascension. Without the Resur-rection and the Ascension the sacrifice would be neither perfect nor consummated. Therefore, at the moment-of consecration it is the risen Body of Christ that becbmes present on the altar, and\in,.Holy Commufii61i~,iit is this risen Body which the faithful receive. Now the charac-teristic feature of the glorified humahity of Christ is that of being filled with the Holy Spirit,.and of b.eing able to transmit and communicate thissame Spirit.,At the Resur-rection the Body of Christ was tr~a~stormed and spirit-ualized by the Spirit. So it is that St. Paul considers the risen Christ as He who possesses the Hgly Spirit, and who bestows Him for our sanctification,s "The last Adam was made into a quickening spirit" 0 Cor" 15:45). This Pauline teaching is based on the testimony of the Gospel itself, which shows us in the risen Chyist Him who says.to His apostles, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (Jn 20:22), and above fill Him who sends, the Ho.ly Spirit to all the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Lk .24;49; cf. Act The reception of the glorious flesh of Christ in the body of the communicant produces as a consequence a general pervasion by the Holy Spirit. Before all let us notice that the Holy Ghost does not veil the presence-of Chr!st, as though He were an intermediary acting as a screen. On the contrary, He causes the ~piritual diffusion of this p~es-ence; it is He who causes the action and love of the Savior to penetrate the soul. It is through Him that the presence of Christ gr6ws deeper and more intimate. It is this spiritual action of the bodily presence of the Savior in the communicant that demands the latter's cooperation if that action is to be exercised fully. It fol-lows that this spiritual action requires the most fervent thanksgiving possible. We are now in a position to define more exactly the role of thanksgiving. For our part, i.t is the welcome to the bodily presence of Jesus as a presence which acts in a spiritual manner and thus penetrates the soul. It is, be-sides, traditional to think of thanksgiving along these lines: the Christian who has just communicated addresses himself to Christ present in his heart, Christ who. has reached and penetrated into his very soul. The communi-cant desires to make some answer to this spiritual pres-ence. This concentration of attention upon the spiritual presence of Christ should not lead to the conclusion that the bodily presence is without importance. The spiritual presence is bound up with the bodily presence:. ,we have recalled that it is the glorious Body of Christ that is the s Cf. F. X. Durrwell, La Rdsurrection de ]dsus, myst~re de salut, (Paris: 1949), pp.,196-23. 4- 4- 4- Thanksgiving Alter ltoly Communion VOI~UME 20, :1961 ÷ ÷ ÷ lean Galot, SJ. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 28 bearer of the Spirit. In th6 rest of the Sacraments there is an action by the Holy Spirit, together with an infusion of grace; the Eucharist is the only sacrament wherein we receive not only grace, but the author of grace. In it we receive the spiritual presence of Jesus after a fashion that ig quite exceptional, arising from the fact that this pres-ence is the immediate result of the presence of His Body within us. It is this bodily presence which guarantees the spiritual presence at its highest pitch, together with spiritual nourishment, Thanksgiving after Holy Com-munion has as its object the spiritual assimilation of the presence of Christ. The Duration of Thanksgiving According to what principle should we determine the lengt.h of thanksgiving? Father Viller writes, "It is nor-mal for it to last as long as the Eucharistic presence of our Lord remains in us.''9 But it is quite legitimate to enquire with Father Rahner whether this criterion is fully justified. To begin with, certain inconveniences arise when we seek to measure the duration of the thanksgiving by the duration 'of Christ's bodily presence in the com-municant. If, as Cardinal Gasparri states on medical evi-dence, a small host remains in the stomach for not less than half an hour, and a large one for an hour, then this p~i~sistence of the species will in any case require a very long thanksgiving. Besides, were this criterion to be adopted, it would be for doctors and biologists to decide upon the length of the thanksgiving. In addition to this, such a criterion does not appear to be founded on the true nature of the thanksgiving. The proper object of the latter is not the reception of the Body of Christ in the stomach, but the reception of the total Christ by the soul. We are not dealing with an assimilation by the body of the Body of Christ, but with a reception and assimilation "of His spiritual presence. We have tried to stress that the bodily presence of Christ is designed to give us His spiri-trial presence more comp.letely and immediately. Since the role of the thanksgiving is to open the heart or the soul to this spiritual presence of the Savior, its duration should be measured by the amount of time nor-mally needed if such'a welcome is to occur. It should be long enough to allow the person of Christ to exercise His action in the soul of the communicant and to fill it with His life in the measure that He Himself wishes. What 'must take place is a penetration of our intelligence and will and sentiments by this presence, and there must also be a personal effort to achieve this intimate relationship with Christ. No absolute norm can be given for achieving Communion (pratique), in Dictionnaire de Spiritualitd, II, 1282. this, simply because one has to take into account the sub-jective dispositions of each individual. But in general spiritual writers think that about a quarter of an hour is good measure for most. This isJong enough to ach,,ieve the degree of recollection whi~li ig n~ssary if profound con, tact is to be made. with the person of the Savior, and if the depths of the soul are really to be opened to Him. Certainly it would be arbitrary to declare that the last prayers of the Mass are a sufficient thanksgiving after Holy Communion, and that once the litUrgical action has been completed there is no need to prolong the prayer which should act as an echo to the.sacrament just received. On the contrary, itmay be said in general that the mere fact of following the prayers 6f the priest up to the ending of Mass is not sufficient to afford Christ th~ intimate and personal welcome which His Eucharistic. presence asks of us. It is to be regretted that there are those.who syste, m~tically favor the departure of the faithful as~.soon as Mass h~s ended. If there are many lives in wl~ich frequent reception of Holy Communion fails to produce the fruit that might be expected, may this not be because the welcome offered tq the Eucharistic Christ is not fervent enough, and because the thanksgiving which should lie the surge of a° personal. love is too brief and superficial? It has already been no-ticed that sacramental efficacity ex opere operato requires man's cooperation if it is to have its full effect. Father Rahner writes that this efficacity eX opere ope-rato cannot be increased by the thanksgiving, and that it simply depends upon the disposition of the soul at the moment of Communion. He adds that if this disposition exists it will in fact be manifested by a meditative and recollected thanksgiving,xo But if it is true that strictly speaking the thanksgiving does not augment the efficacity ex opere operato, it does none the less allow th.is effic~city to be. exercised in the fullest measure desirable. It is not only at the precise moment of communicating that 'the bodily presence of Christ produces its spiritual action. This is continued later. It will be fully efficacious to the degree that the soul yields itself to it in thanksgiving, attempting to respond by faith and love. The length of the thanksgiving does influence the efficacity of the sacra-ment, seeing that normally a certain time is called for if a welcome is to be considered fervent. It is therefore un-derstandable that the Church should recommend a thanksgiving which goes on after the Mass has ended. In this connection it is worth citing from Mediator Dei. As this encyclical is expressly concerned with the liturgy, it ~o Rahner op. cir., pp. 186-87. ÷ + + Thanksgiving A~ter Holy o~munio~ VOLUME 20, 1961 29 ÷ ÷ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 30 is particularly noteworthy that it should stress the per-sonfil thanksgiv.ing d~manded by the liturgy. When the Mass, which is subject to special rules of the liturgy, is over, ~the person who has received Holy Communion is not thereby freed from his duty of thanksgiving; rather; it is most becoming that, when the' Mass is finished, the person who has received the Eucharist should recollect himseif, and in intimate union with the divine Master hold loving and fruitful converse with Him. Hence they have departed from the straight way of truth: who, adhering to the letter rather than the sense,~assert and teach that, when Mass has ended, no such thanksgiving should be added, not only because the Mass is itself a thanks-giving, 'but also because this pertains to a private and personal act of piety and not to thegood of the community. But, on the contrary, the very .nature of the sacrament de-mands that its reception should produce rich fruits of Christian sanctity. Admittedly~the congregation has been officially dis-missed, but each individual, Since he is united with Christ, should not interrupt the hymn of praise in his own soul, "al-ways returning thanks for all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father" (Eph 5: 20). The sacred liturgy of the Mass also exhorts us to do this when it bids us pray in these . words, "Grant, we beseech thee, that we may always continue to offer thanks" (Postcommunion, Sunday Within the Octave of Ascension) " .and may never cease from praising thee" (Postcommunion, First Sunday after Pentecost), Wherefore, if there i~"no time when we-must not offer God thanks, and if we must never cease from praising Him, who would dare to reprehend or find fault with the Church, because she advises her priests (canon 810) and faithful to converse with the divine Redeemer for at least a~ short while after Holy Communion, and inserts in her liturgical books, fitting, prayers, enriched with indulgences, by which the sacred mlmsters may make suitable preparati6n before Mass and Holy Communion or may return thanks afterwards? So far is the sacred liturgy from re-stricting the interior devotion of individual Christians, that it actfiaily fosters and promotes it so that they may be rendered like to Jesus Christ and through Him be brought to the heavenly Father; wherefore this same discipline of the liturgy demands that whoever has partaken of thd sacrifice of the altar should return fitting thanks to God. For it is the good pleasure of the di;gin~ Redeemer to hearken to us when we pray, to converse witfi us intimately and to offer us a refuge in His loVing Heart. Moreover, such personal colloquies are very necessary that we may all enjoy more fully, the supernatural treasures that are contained in the Eucharist and, according to our means, share them with others, so that Christ our Lord may exert the greatest possible influence ofi the' souls of all. Why then, Venerable Brethren, should we not approve of those who, when they receive Ho!y Communion,~ remain on in clbsest familiarity with' their divine Redeemer even after the congregation has been"officially dismissed, and that not only for~the consolation of conversing with Him, but also to render Him,due thanks and praise and especially to ask help to defend their souls against anything that may lessen the efficacy of the sacrament and to do everything in their power to cooperate with the action of Christ who is so intimately present. We exhort. them to do so in a special manner by carrying out their resolu-tions, by exercising the Christian virtues, as also by applying to their own necessities the riches they have received with royal liberality. The author of that golden book The Imitation of Christ certainly speaks in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the liturgy, when he gives the following advice to the person who approaches the altar, "Remain on in secret and take delight in your God; for He is yours whom the whole world cannot take away from you" (4 [12).Xffr," ~" ,~ The Manner o[ Making the Thanksgiving The very first principle is that of personal liberty. The same way cannot Be laid down for everyone, and there is no universal formula. Wffat is important above all is that in this meeting with Christ the soul should express itself personally. One cannot, then, lay it down as a hard and fast rule that the best way to make a thanksgiying is to follow the priest in the prayers he says towards the end of Mass. Besides, taken from the point of view of giving thanks, it must be admitted that in the Roi'han Rite these prayers are very brief and only slightly' d.eveloped. Cer-tainl); at Masses where the congregation sings or pub-licly recites the pray+rs, this activity will be shared by tl~0se who have communicated. They 16ave till later the completion of their thanksgiving in a thore personal man-ner. But where neither hymns nor'prayers are expected from the congregation, each communicant is free to fol-low his own taste. On the c;ther hand it is quite possible that an individual will need educating in the use Of thig liberty. An obvious example is that of children, and the same may be "true of a number of the'f~tithful. In orderto help their thanks-giving a prayer may be recited or an intention placed before them. Care should always be taken to introduce va,riety in order to avoid monotony and routine. But if there is great freedom in the loving converse that a thanks-giving should be, there are still certairi principles which should guide .the exercise of this liberty. We suggest, at any rate, two such principles. _Firstly, thanksgiving is the kind o.f prayer .which is par excellence directed towards the person of our Lord inti-mately present. Indeed, as we have noticed, the Eucharist is d!stinguished from the other sacraments by this gift of the personal presence of Christ. It follows that after Com-munion we should be concerned to develop all that brings our attention to bear upon the very person of the Savior. Before all else.~ this person claims our ad~oration. In renew-ing his faitfi'in the presence of God now bestowed upoh him so intimately, the communicant adores the Lord with his whole soul; and proclaims before the Infinite Being that he is a creature and utterly depend~nt. But as this in-finite being is now his guest, the com~nunicant tries to converse with Him familiarly. He c~mverses with Christ who is the identi(al'Christ of the Gospel, the Christ who The Cath~oiid Mind, 46 (June, 1948), 363--64. ÷ +- + Thanksgiving Alter Holy Communion VOLUME :~0, 1961 ÷ ÷ ÷ lean Galot, $.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 32 enjoyed being in the company of men. The thanksgiving is the privileged moment in this personal dialogue. On the other hand it is no less important to recall that the thanksgiving is indeed the prolongation of the Mass and its completion in the individual soul. In consequence .there should be an effort to develop the dispositions which unite the soul with those of Christ in His sacrifice. Be-fore we go on to mention these dispositions, a word should be said about the Mother of God. MaTy can bring great help to the soul in its effort to unite itself to Christ's sacri-fice, just as she aids in the effort towards union with 'His person. The Blessed Virgin remains the model of per-sonal welcome to the Savior's presence, as well as of an intimate sharing in the redemptive sacrifice. She has a mission to draw souls along this way. It will be particu-larly helpful to have recourse to her in order to ensure a genuinely fervent thanksgiving. Among the dispositions which associate us with Christ's sacrifice is gratitude, for it has given its name to the Eu-charist. We have to own that we owe all to God our Father, and we should thank Him accordingly. It is to Him that we owe in the first place the immense benefit of Com-munion itself, and the gift of the Savior's body. Then comes offering. Once we have owned that all is the Father's sift there is the wish to.°ffer Him all in re-turn. The total offering that Christ makes in the Mass entails a total offering by the communicant. Thus'Com-munion prepares the soul for the sacrifices of the day ahead those sacrifices 3vhich are the effective seal of what has been offered at Mass. If it is possible to foresee certain sacrifices, it may be desirable to offer them in advance during the thanksgiving; thus the Christian will be helped to accept them in the right spirit when they come, a spirit of intimate union with Christ and the love which was carried to love's extreme limit. Thanksgiving gives the soul the opportuniiyto adopt an ideal attitude of gener-osity Which it will ~try to maintain when the difficult mo-ments do in fact arise. We should also-mention confidence and joy. Christ present in the soul is the glorious Christ, and his sacrifice was consummated in the triumph of the Resurrection. The thanksgiving should strengthen confidence in the victory the Savior h~is won, both in Himself and in others, and in such a way that the communicant is able to face more firmly obstacles to his personaFreligious life and apostolate. There should also be a renewal of spiritual joy. Coming from Communion the Christian should have a heart filled with enthusiasm and be manifestly happy, for he has just welcomed the triumphant Christ. Neither should prayer of petition be forgotten. The sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated in order to spread divine graces more abundantly upon men. The communicant ought to unite himself with the salvific will of God which, in Christ, inspires sacrifice. With the Savior he should de-sire the expansion and progress of His Kingdom; he will become more and more one. w~th the intima~t,e~desires of Christ in proportion as he makes his own the great inten-tions of the Church and asks for their fulfillment. At the same time the communicant entrusts his own private in-tentions to Christ, intentions that represent his own share of responsibility in the advancement of the Kingdom. He will take advantage of the Savior's presence in order to express his desires and hopes and to obtain their satisfac-tion. Finally, among those dispositions which we may expect the thanksgiving to develop is fraternal charity, that love of one's neighbor of which Christ's sacrifice is the perfect and extreme form. Ever since St. Paul the Church has loqked upon Holy Communion as the most powerful sac-ramental bond linking Christians, the artificer par excel-lence of the unity of the Mystical Body. Thanksgiving should contribute to the flowering of charity, both of that direct charity which concerns the people with whom daily life brings, us into contact, as well as 6f that more ample charity which goes out to the furthermost confines of the whole Mystical Body, and which is marked by a special goodwill towards our separated brethren. Such, then, are the essential dispositions which thanks-giving should develop. One could add others, or further stress certain aspects of those which we have mentioned. With Father Rahner we say .that all that is really pious may find its place in the thanksgiving, all that touches the heart of the communicant, his cares and his intentions. For the point is that thanksgiving may be seen as a kind of r~sum~ of Christian piety, of which it is the richest and most complete moment. In thanksgiving participa-tion in the sacrifice of the Mass~ reaches its peak, just as does union with the Savior's person. All the diverse, inti-mate attitudes of a man before God may therefore here be manifested in the deepest and most concrete fashion, with a most sincere personal impulse. Thanksgiving A]t~r Holy ommunion VOLUME 20, .1961 I~MILE BERGH, S.J. The Communicant's Our Father ÷ ÷ + The Reverend ~mile Bergh, S.J. is editor of Revue des Commu-naut~ s Religieuses and Professor of Canon Law at Coll~ge Saint-Albert, Eegenhoven - Louvain, Belgium. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 34 The Lord's Prayer expresses perfectly the-dispositions which should be found in the Christian who participates integrally in the H01y Sacrifice by sacramental Com-munion. It is certainly proper to think that at the mo-ment when our Lord actualizes in us in a special way His work~of salvation, He teaches us by His Spirit the prayer of redeemed sons. Le~ us then respond to this grace. Father! We are to call You by this name because Your Son, present in us, communicates to us His" divine life. May His Spirit make us taste Your paternal love. Our Father! We all form but one body, we who h~ive partaken of the same bread. In Christ we encounter all of Your sons. We will be always more brotherly toward them. We pray to You especially for our brothers, sep- "arated Christians, that they may participate ih our Eu, charist in the only Church of Christ. Who art in heaven! We believe firml~ that we have re-ceived the bread come down from heaven. Grant, our Father, that we may live close to You in spirit in the so-ciety of~the angels and saintS. Hallowed be thy name! The Eucharistic offering gives You perfect glory. YoUr holiness, Your power, Your love, all Youi attributes proclaim themselves in this mystery. W~ Unite our adoration to the Holy, holy, holy of the angels. We render You all honor and glory through Your beloved Son. Thy Kingdom come! Grant that from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof all people will offer this purest sacrifice to You, so that the entire universe may submit to the sweet yoke of the Lord Jesus. May His reign of truth and of life, of holiness and grace, of justice, of love, and peace extend itself by means of the Eucharist to all nations. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven! To receive communion is to participate in the obedience of Your Son. In everything He has done that which was pleasing to You. We give ourselves over to His will as He has given himself over to Yours for us. Make us, by the Spirit of Jesus, faithful and loving, patient and resigned. So 'the world will believe that You are Love, and the fiat of ~he earth.will echo the Amen i~f heaven. ~ . ~ Give us thi~ day 9ur daily bread! After the gift ~which You have just given us, the bread of eternal-life, can we doubt for a moment your Providence and not wait to re-ceive from it all the help for which our misery has need? Give us each day the bread of heaven. Give it to us in our last hour. Give it to all suffering humanity, for it is the guarantee of eternal happiness. Forgive us our. trespasses! By the ~mystery of the Re-demption, ~,hic.h has just renewed itself.,~f~ "us, by the power of the Body~and the Blood of Jesus, our Savior, purify us of our faults; give us deep contrition for them, pen~etrated with love and~fihal confidence. .~ As we forgive those who trespass against us! On the altar as at Calvary You pardon Your enemies. You have desired that we should reconcile ourselves Witti one another be-fore presenting our offering. Teach~ us to imitate You~ mercy w.hmh ng~ther judges ngr condemns, but pardons without tiring. By the charity which we draw from the Heart of Your Son may we be everywhere and always artisans of peace and union. Lead us not into tempthtion! We-ha~e been made mem-bers of Your Divine Son. Do not l~t us profane His most holy Body. We ate threatened on eve~ sid6,.,f0'r w'e are feeble and inconstant, imprudent and (owardl~. Welean solely on His strength and His 'love. YoUr S6.n could not be very powerful, were He unable to support U.S from one day to the next. But deliver us from evil! For one who has understood what Communion i~, tl~ere is but one evil" on earth: to lose or allow to grow cold by s~in the friendship of God. Deliver us from sin and fronl everythin~g-which leads to sin. Deliver poor. sinners fr6m their slavery.~ Amen! It is Your love which, after halving invented the marvels of the Incarnation" and the Redemption,. has crowned their magnificence with the ~ystery of the Eu-charist. We believe in-and w~ will always believe even more in Your charity. The Communicant's Our Father VOLUME 20, 1961~ MICHAEL NOVAK Saint East and West ÷ ÷ ÷ Mr. Michael Novak, a well known writer on various subjects, is cur-rently studying for a graduate degree in ~unhiivleorssoitpyh.y at Harvard REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS In these days of the re-unifying of East and West, the great John Chrysostom stands as a long-ago figure to whom both sides already turn with reverence and love. The Bishop John (3't47-~07) won the hearts of his people so wholly by his gifts of spirit and of tongue that they could not refrain from calling him as by a proper name: John of the Mouth of Gold. The saint and bishop is a crucial figure for the understanding of the meaning of the East. For he was Bishop of Constantinople in the time in which it was beginning to exert its power as the new center of the East. At the time of Nicaea in Byzantium was still inconsiderable. To the cultured world, it meant little save as the recent choice of Con-stantine for his eastern headquaiters. To the Church, it was again inconsiderable, compared to the great sees of An tioch and Alexandria which, with Rome, formed the triangle of influence in the first three centuries of Chris-tianity. But by ~81, at the second ecumenical council, Constantinople had squared the triangle by becoming the third great patriarchate of the East, and had in fact shouldered out her Eastern rivals to take second rank to Rome alone. Rome and Constantinople: two instead of four. The Emperors, of course, both of East~ and West, would be sympathetic to such centralization.' Magistrates and bishops, these were the focal points of leadership among the people (not as in our own day, when com-munications leaders, unions,, vocal professional classes, and so on, offer other focal points of leadership). To have the bishops aligned with the magistrates was then the simple key to unity and civil peace. To have one 'bishop in authority in each half of the Empire was to limit to two the locks in which to turn the key. In ~98, when St. John was raised to the patriarchal throne of Constan-tinople, the system was beginning to manifest what would be its classic workings. John Chrysostom had been ordained a priest and had been preaching at Antioch for a dozen years when he was kidnapped and borne away to Constantinople. He was kidnapped, so that neither he nor the people could . successfully protest--there was vigor and imagination to actualize cabinet decisions in those old days. How did John react to the outrage? There was no escaping the sit-uation. For the glory of God he set his hand to" the task with courage, then with joy: ., ~.' ~" Cardinal Newman's famous essay gives us perhaps the best image of this man Chrysostom, for whom the Car-dinal felt one of the most intimate ties among all the men of history. Why was John a great orator? Because he spoke in the measures of Cicero? to the public weal like Demosthenes? mystically like the ardent Origen? as a witness of the faith like Athanasius? s~,eepingly and cre-atively like the grei~t~Augtistine? humanly and commonly upon the Bible like the Antiocheans among whom he was trained? No, says Newman, he won the greatest ac-colade of any human orator because of his closeness to his people's heart. He spoke for them, adapted all his talent and his heart to their needs and characters. ~They crowded one another to hear him. He defended them. He loved them. Against those who plotted against him, the high in Church and Empire, the people were his strength: not at all because he was a demagogue, but be-cause he was a shepherd who knew his Own, whose own knew him. His greatest characteristic, the secret inner x~ord of his life, Cardinal Newman conceives, was his "intimate ~ym-pathy and compassionateness for the whole world,~ not only in its strength but in its weaknesses." His singular mark is "the interest he takes in all things, not so far as God has made them all alike, but as he has made them different from each other., the discriminating affection-ateness with which he accepts everyone for what is per-sonal in him and ianlike others., his versatile recogni-tion of men, one by one, for the sake of that portion of good, be it more or less, of a lower,order or a higher~ which has severally been lodged in them., the kindly spirit and-the genial temper with which he looks round at all things which this wonderful world contains." Out of such love, Chrysostom could approach his peo-ple with balm and sweetness evefi when ~he chastised. He hated and feared only sin; he was willing to die over and over for his people; he told them that. His own life was active and abstemious to infective measure. He did chas-tise; he made enemies. Impulsive and courageous both, he was not cautious with that talent of his: he spoke. The people loved him mightily for his courage and his single-ness. "His friends loved him with a love stronger than death, and more burning than hell; and it was well to be so hated, if he was so belovedT' When Theophilus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, enviously contrived with the of-fended Empress Eudoxia to exile John in 403, the first ÷ ÷ ÷ Saint ot East and West VOLUME 20, 1961 4. + 4. Michael Novak REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 38 exile, John could not be cautious even while his fate hung in the balance. He preached with great fervor to his people: "Christ is with me; what then have I to fear? . Already you are even more earnest than before. And when tomorrow you go out singing the litanies I shall be with you, for where you are, there also am I, and where I am there are you. Though separated in space we shall ever be one in spirit, for we form one body and it cannot be separated from its head . I am ready to give my life ten thousand times over for you . You have watched many days and nothing has moved you from your pur-pose. You have not been weakened by threats or by long-drawn- out waiting--you have done what I have always been w~anting you to do: set earthly things at naught, turned your backs on this world, risen above the slavery of the body. That is my crown, my consolation, my anoint-ing, my token of immortalityl" 1 Thus was John's union with his peop!e. His affection-ate heart poured out toward each of them, and they re-sponded. By a ruse, at the time of his second exile, he called for his riding mule at one side of the cathedral, then slipped out the other, lest the gathering crowds riot against the Imperial troops who led him off: John always thought of the people. In exile, too, on the far eastern shores of the Empire "in the loneliest spot on earth," John thought of them. He wrote them hundreds of letters, asking of their health, consoling, chiding, directing, beg-ging money for new missionary needs which he had come upon in his travels. John's first trait was compassion. His second was sanguinity: never have I had it so good, he writes shortly after he had nearly died, this frail man in his sixties, in toilsome travel; the cool air, the leisure, the care heaped on me have refreshed me. "My health was never better." His third characteristic was courage and impetuositymtogether with his goodness, these brought him to his exile and his martyrdom. To understand the malice and passion that could have moved Christians to send so good a shepherd to exile and to death, we must reflect on many aspects of the Chris-tianity and of~ the world in John's time. The peoples around the blue Mediterranean were now Christians only three hundred years or, much more accurately, only for two or three generations. The perfection of holiness, the expression in manners and institutions of the love and justice of the Lord, had hardly had time to be explored even mentally, f.ar less sink deeply by habit into the tissue and fibre of society. Elementary passions were fierce. Ways and means were direct. Monks--those whom Christianity might be suppo.sed most thoroughly to have transformed 1 Donald Attwater, St. John Chrysostom: The Voice of Gold (Mil-waukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1939), p. 126. II were known in several places to have torn enemies limb from limb with bare hands; their riots at Alexandria were a terror. The soldiers guarding Chrysostom at Caesarea risked murder and enslavement at the hands of Isaurian barbarians rather than face the mob of monks "Who de-manded that Chrysostom leave the' city. As f6~ tl~*hier-archy, Chrysostom-said he feared nothing as he feared the Bishops. Treachery that led to flogging, tearing with hooks, burning with torches as happened to one of Chrysostom's deacons, a gentle youngster runs through the history of this time as bright scarlet and yellow thread. We must understand the wildness of the. times, and the fierceness of even tl~e next many. centuries, if we are to understand the play of human passion ;ind barbarity upon which Christianity is called to ~zork. Violeni" im-pulses, cruel machiriations, fierce self-int~rest, still rhn rampant in ourselves; but we must make an effort to re-call the times when society itself more directly expressed thes~ evil movements, less effectively neutralized and hid them. Civil magistrates and ecclesiastics may not in the main be hny holier now than heretofore, but political forms, canon law, the persistent suasion of civilized con-ventions prevent their being as violent in their evils as once upon a time save where the primitive passions arise again under the ifnpulse of marching boots and songs and shouts. ~3nce this backdrop of primitive violence is set, still another note in Chrysostom's situation must be recalled. It is this. The glory of European_ civilization was in the fourth century pivoted not yet on Europe proper but still on Alexandria and Antioch and old Byzantium. The East bore the glory of human history. Greek was the great language of the Empire. Christ had come in the East. Greek philosophy was reborn in Origen, Plotinus, Por-phyry. The great councils of the Church were Eastern councils. The Near East flourished with libraries, splen-did cities, the roads and methods taught and fostered by the earlier Romans. The deserts of Egypt and the fast-nesses of Cappadocia and Caesarea heard in th~ still crystal nights the prayers of Eastern monks. Augustine was only now bringing glory to the Latin tongue; Benedict was not yet shifting the pivot of spiritual energy from Egypt to Subiaco. Western Europe was only now b~ing conceived: the East would bring her forth. In the violence of local jealousies and entanglements with the state, Chrysostom, the light of the East, could appeal to Innocent of Rome. The Pope and he could find solace in one another's reverence and love. East and West were not yet fighting against themselves, as mother against her daughter, as land blessed by the presence Of Christ against land chosen as the humble seat of Christian leader-÷ ÷ ÷ Saint o] East and West VOLUME 20, 1q61 ÷ ÷ ÷ Michael Novai~ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 40 ship. Chrysostom appealed to Innocent; Innocent replied with love. But Innocent's powerlessness foreshadowed the doom that'was to come, as the torture and dispersal of his emissaries foreshadowed other injuries of each side upon the other in the centuries to come. These were still prom-ising times, at the end of the fourth century. Chrysostom's fame went around the world; Africa and Italy shared the suspense and pain of his exile, and waited upon his let.° ters. These were among the last generations of unity of sentiment between East and West. Like the mysterious column of flame that leapt up in the night from Chrys-ostom's pulpit and burnt his cathedral to the ground, as he took ship never to see Byzantium again, so the glory of the East was to feel the flame and fire of centuries of strife, long separation, and continued misunderstanding. Why was Chrysostom sent into exile? When he came to Constantinople as Patriarch, he had begun, as Donald Attwater says, to sweep the stairs from the top. He re-buked, encouraged, disciplined, set the example for his clergy. He spoke courageously against the rich, on behalf of the poor for justice' sake, on behalf of Christ for humility's and charity's sake. He rebuked vanities and thoughtless injustices. He spoke plainly to the Empress and her court. At a crucial moment he dared to speak impulsively of the vanity of wealthy women of the court, perhaps even deliberately to ring out adoxia (disreputa-ble) to suggest Eudoxia (the Empress). Theophilus of Alexandria had had little difficulty setting enemies in motion concertedly against him. Exiled once, brought back in glory shortly--in a harbor crowded as a city square, to shouts, to joy--he was soon exiled again, de-finitively. The reasons hardly mattered. Enemies he had. Richly slippered toes he had trampled on. The ardent affection of the people could not prevent the outcome. Why was Chrysostom sent into exile? It was not only for the reasons of state, the trumped-up charges, then the consequent intrigues, the pressures, the Imperial com-mands to make the charges stick. These were trivial, dispensable. If it had .not been these, it would have been others. Good men must be broken. This is the law of Christianity. Chrysostom understood it, explicitly. Chrysostom's great natural gift was his unequalled heart-enflaming tongue; by all the laws of Christianity, his tongue would have to be silenced. Chrysostom had to be sent into exile, to the 'farthest parts of the Empire, so that God's grace might work where he had worked be-fore, Silent now in tongue, his letters live for ages--letters exile forced on him. Chrysostom grasped the fact that the kingdom Christ came to bring has laws for its inner life which set history topsy-turvy. A historian seeing the incredible malice, jealously, and ferocity of religious leaders in these times might marvel, with contempt, that Christianity could achieve so little fruit, even~,among her own.W, i~.t~',hier-archy, favor, churches, energies,~Christianity seems to do so lattle, for all 1.ts lovely wor~ls, to give the race-new hfe. But Christianity is not hierarchy or social acceptability. It is not monasteries or many vocations or crowds in church. All these did not prevent, they caused, the tor-ture of Chrysostom to death. Christianity is sacrificial love. Christian life is sacrificed life. Hence persecutions must come. If they do not come from those outside Chris-tendom, they must come from the corruption or limita-tions in the organization itself. Indeed, saint will perse-cute saint°as St. Jerome and St. Epiphanius joined Chrysostom's enemies; as good Cardinal Manning and khe saintly Newman could hardly bear each other's com-pany without severe constraint. Sacrificial love is the in-ner life of the Church. All the turmoil at Constantinople --jealousy, scheming, lying, banishment, and torture for those who would not w6rship with the false successors-- all this was necessary to make the inner life of Constan-tinople's faithful fructify. Christianity simply cannot live without suffering. External standards and measurements have got, at times, to be set at odds. Only so can con-sciences be proved truly mature, strong, brave, bold, in the darkness of faith and selflessness. "There is no need to remind you, the teacher and shepherd of a great flock," wrote Pope Innocent to Chrysostom, "that everywhere and always good men are put to the test of meeting with injustice and evil . Rest securely then in your good conscience, honored brother, for that is the strength of all good men in the hour of~affliction." "Do not be scan-dalized," John wrote to Olympias, recalling the ~candal of the Incarnation and of all the Scriptures; "remember that things even more distressing happened in the days of the Apostles." Though disunity and injustice racked his see, though true Christians were driven from the churches while the cowardly or the vicious pretended to worship there, though he himself was driven ever further into exile, forced to travel and again to travel (an attempt by his enemies to murder him by physical exhaustion), still Chrysostom could die with his favorite phrase upon his golden lips: "Glory be to God. Amen." Chrysostom un-derstood Christian love. "Be true to yourself and no one can harm you," he wrote in a last short treatise which he sent Olympias. Conscience is the dwelling place of Chris-tianity, and sacrificial love is the life of conscience not duty, or conformity, or complacency, or obligation, or law. Purified will, enamored of persons, and a Person. Hierarchy, canon law, even the Holy Mass itself, the sacra-÷ ÷ ÷ Saint oI East and West VOLUME 20, 1961 41 ments these are but means. They are some of them in-dispensable means, to be sure, given by Christ. But the accent may as accurately be On means as on indispensable. The law is love. The Way is love. The fruit is love. And love means sooner or later darkness, trial, and suffering. If East and West are separate since the tiine of John, it is because all kinds of considerations have got the better of sacrificial love. Historically polemic has been preju-diced and fruitless, each side preferring personal empha-ses to self-sacrificial views of truth. Why do Roman Cath-olics in practice if not in theory, exaggerate the legalisms of the external Church out of all proportion to their Christ-given role? Because these aspects have been under severe attack for many centuries and, knowing their value, these people have not got accustomed to seeing their limitation they are means, not the goal. Why do Easterners resist the effort of unity? Because they do not wish to forfeit centuries of tradition by a too humiliating capi~tulation to Western points of view. There are count-less 6ther reasons: none of them are insuperable, save through lack of charity. The inner dynamism of Chris-tianity is toward unity. Disunity makes for inner anguish; quarrelling causes our intensest pain; selfishness and ac-cusation make witnesses "cry out to the Lord for mercy and for aid. Just so, the scandal of disunity is our trial and darkness. The inner life of the Church is Sacrificial love. That is why the first need of East and West, when we speak of unity, is to focus our eyes with mutual regard on men as lovable as St. John Chrysostom, pride of the East and of the universal Church. Our longing hhs got to be the same as his: to be consumed, like John of the Mouth of Gold, in thq paradoxical, interior ways of the Lord's love. Michael Nov~ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 42 R. F. SMITH, S. J. Documents The documents wh.ich appeared in, Acta Apostolicae Se, d~s I(AAS) during August and September, 1960, will be summarized in this article. Throughout the article all page references will be to the 1960 AAS (v. 52). New Breviary and Mass Rubrics By the apostolic letter motu propriO, Rubricarum in-structum, of July 25, 1960 (pp. 593-95), Pope John XXIII announced a new code of rubrics for the Roman Breviary arid Missal and decreed the revocation of all statutes, indults, and customs contrary to the new code. On the following day, July 26, 1960 (p. 596), the Sacred Congre-gation of Rites duly promulgated the new code of rubrics and directed that their observance be begun on January 1, 1961. The new code~ is a long document of one hundred and forty-four pages (pp. 597-740) and is divided into three parts which deal consecutively with general rubrics, rubrics of the Roman Breviary, hnd rubrics of the Roman Missal. "° General Rubrics Part One of the new code, entitled "General Rubrics," ¯ consists of nineteen chapters. The first of these chapters notes that the document is intended only for the Roman Rite. Chapter Two defines the mean.ing of liturgical days and rules that all such~days are now to be divided into first-, second-, third-, and fourth-class liturgical days. Chapter Three divides all Sundays into first- and sec-ond- class groups. First-class Sundays are the Sundays of Adveht, Lent, and Passiontide, Easter, Low Sunday, and Pentecost; all other Sundays are.second,class ones. First-class Sundays take precedence over all feasts with the ex, ception of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. A second-class Sunday outranks a second-class feast and, when it occurs on November 2, displaces All Souls' Day. However, first- and second-class feasts of our Lord, ~when 4. 4. Survey oy Roman Documents VOLUME'20, 1961 R. F. Smith, $. ]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS they occur on a second-class Sunday, take over the place as well as all the rights and privileges of the Sunday; in such cases accordingly no commemoration is made of the Sunday. Ferials, Vigils, Feasts Chapter Four defines ferials as days of the week other than Sundays and divides them into four classes. First-class ferials are Ash Wednesday and the ferial days of Holy Week; all these ferials take precedence over all feast days and admit no commemoration except a privi-leged one. Second-class ferials are the Advent ferials from December 17 to December 23 and the Ember Days of Advent, Lent, and September. These ferials outrank sec-ond- class feasts and must be commemorated when out-ranked. Third-class ferials are all the other ferials of Advent, Lent, and Passiontide. Third-class Lenten and Passiontide ferials outrank third-class feasts, but third-class Advent ferials yield to such feasts. All third-class ferials, however, must be commemorated when out-ranked. All other ferials of the year are fourth-class ones and receive no commemoration when outranked. Vigils are divided in Chapter Five into three classes. The two first-class vigils, those of Christmas and Pente-cost, take precedence over all feast days; and the Vigil of Christmas, when necessary, takes the place of the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Second-class vigils, those of the Ascen-sion, of the Assumption, of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and of Sts. Peter and Paul, outrank third- and fourth-class liturgical days; the only third-class vigil, that of St. Lawrence, is preferred tO fourth-class liturgical days. Both second- and third-class vigils, when impeded, are commemorated according to the rubrics governing such matters; these vigils, however, are omitted if they fall on a Sunday or a first-class feast or if their feast day is transferred or reduced to a commemoration. Chapter Six groups feast days into first-, second-, and third-clvss feasts. Only first-class°feasts have First Vespers; however, second-class feasts of our Lord have First Vespers whenever they replace a second-class Sunday. The rest of this chapter is concerned chiefly with those feasts which the law now requires to be inserted into particular cal-endars drawn up for the use of dioceses or of religious orders and congregations. Chapter Seven r~tains only three octaves, those of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. The octaves of Easter and Pentecost are first-class ones; that is, all the days of these octaves are first-class. The Christmas octave is a second-class one; the days within the octave are second-class, but its Octave Day is a first-class day. Chapter Eight lists the various seasons of the ecclesi- astical year, while Chapter Nine provides for the Saturday Office of our Lady. Chapter Ten considers the Major and Minor Litanies; it notes that, those bound to the Office no longer need to say th'e' ~itany of the Saints on the Rogation Days; it Mso giv~'sq6~al ordinaries ~he ~I56wer to transfer the Rogation Days from their usual place to three other successive days at a more appropriate time. Precedence of Liturgical Days Chapter Eleven gives a breakdown of the days of the ecclesiastical year into the four classes of liturgical days and gives the rank of precedence within each of the four classes. First-class liturgical days. include all first-class Sundays, feasts, ferials, and vigils as well as the days within the octaves of Easter and Pentecosti the Octave Day of Christmas, and All Souls' Day. Seqond,class litur-gidal days are all second-class Sundays, feasts, ferials, and vigils together with the days within the octave of Christ-mas. Third-class ferials and feasts and the one third-class vigil constitute third-class liturgical days, while fourth-class liturgical days include the Saturday Office of our Lady and fourth-class ferials. Chapter Twelve defines what is meant by the occur-rence ~of liturgical days, and the following chapter gives the rules to be followed when two or more liturgical days happen to fall on the same date. In such cases only first-class feasts may be transferred; all other feasts are either commemorated or completely omitted. Chapter Fourteen gives the procedure to be followed in the case of a per-petual occurrence of liturgical days. Chapter Fifteen reg-ulates the situation that arises when the Vespers of one liturgical day conflict with the First Vespers of the suc-ceeding day. If the days are of unequal rank, the Vespers of the higher day are to be said; but if the two days are eqtlal in rank, Second Vespers are to be said with a com-memoration of the other set of Vespers. Commemorations Chapter Sixteen divides all commemorations into priv-ileged and ordinary commemorations. Privileged com-memorations are made at Lauds and Vespers and in all Masses; ordinary commemorations on the other hand are made only at Lauds and in conventual and low Masses. Privileged commemorations are the commemorations to be made of a Sunday; of first-class liturgical days; of~ the days within the octave of Christmas; of the September Ember Days; of Advent, Lent, and Passi?ntide ferials; and of the Major Litanies (but at Mass or~ly). All other commemorations are ordinary. In Masses of first-class liturgical days and in sung non-conventual Masses, no commemoration~is to be made ex- 4. 4. 4- Survey Roman VOLUME 20, 1961 45 cept a privileged one. Second-class Sundays permit a commemoration of a second-class feast only; even this, however, is to be omitted if there is a privileged com-memoration. Other second-class liturgical days permit one commemoration, whether privileged or ordinary. Third-and fourth-class liturgical days permit only two commem-orations, Chapter Seventeen gives the conclusions to be used for the orations and commemorations of the Breviary and the Missal. Chapter Eighteen is concerned with the litur-gical colors; it gives episcopal conferences in mission" ter-ritories the power to change the liturgical colors when they are inappropriate for that particular region. Chapter Nineteen completes Part One of the document by its rubrics for Mass" and Office vestments; according to this chapter the folded chasuble and the broad stole are no longer to be used. 4- 4. ÷ R. F. Smith, S. ]. Breviary Rubrics Part Two of the new code of rubrics is entitled "Gen-eral Rubrics of the Roman Breviary." Chapter One of this part divides the recital of the Office into choral,~com-mort, and individual recital. Choral recital is that of a community obliged to choir by ecclesiastical law; common recital is that of a community (two or three persons are sufficient) not bound to choir. Chapter Two notes that the canonical hours are dis-tributed in a way intended to sanctify the natural day; nevertheless to satisfy the obligation of reciting the Of-rice it is sufficient if all the canonical hours are said in the twenty-four hour period allotted them. Matins (but not Lauds1) may be anticipated after two o'clock in the after-noon of the preceding day. In choral and common recital Lauds should be recited in the early morning and Ves-pers, even during Lent and Passiontide, in the afternoon. The same p.ractice is recommended for private recital. Compline is fittingly made the last prayer of the day, even though Matins of the following day have been antici-pated. When Compline is made the last prayer of the day m choral and common recital, the Pater noster is omitted, its place being taken by an examination of conscience ~of reasonable length; the Confiteor and the rest of Compline are then.recited. All of this is also recommended .for indi-vidual recital. Chapter Three then discusses the calendar to be followed by those bound to the Office. Chapter Four begins by listing three types of Matins. .The first type, consisting of three Nocturns, that is, nine Psalms and nine Lessons, is used on first- and second-class REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS lit is probable that in private recitation Lauds may still be 46 anticipated. feasts, on the lfist three days of Hply Week, on the Octave Day of Christmas, and on All Souls' Day. The second type consists of a single Nocturn of nine Psalms and three Lessons; it is Used on all Sundays except Easter and Pente-cost, on all ferials except the'q~t three days of Holy Week, on vigils, on third-class feasts; on'the days within the octave of Christmas, and at-the Saturday Office of our Lady. The [hird type of Mating, used only on Easter and Pentecost and throughout their octaves 'if composed of a single Nocturn of three P~Alms find three Lessons. The chapter continues by" considering th~ five kinds of Offices which are now ~6 b~ used in the recital of the Breviary. "I:l{e Sunday Officd i~xcluding th6 Office°for Easter, Pentecost, and the Sunday within the oc'tave of Christmas) is largely the same as formerlywith the excep-tion of Matins. At Matins are recited the nine Sunday Psalms, then the absolution Exaudi; the Blessings to be used are Ille nos, Divinum ~iuxilium, and Per 'evangelica dicta. The First Lesson is the same as the former First. Leg-son of the day's Scripture; the gecond~ Lesson is formed'by u~iting the former Second and Third Lessons of the Scripture; and the Third Lessoh ig the First Lesson of the Homily, that is, the former Seventh Lesson. The festive Office is used for all first-class feasts and is said in the same wgy as an~ Office of a double of the first clasg was formerly said. The semi-festive Office, used for second-class feagts, is said in the same°way that Offices of doubles of the sdcofid clasg'have been~recited since 1~55. The ordinary Office, that uged on third-class feasts and for the Satm'day Office of oui'Lady, is recited like the former simple Office except for s6me changes in the Les-sons. The First Lesson is the former First Lesson of the day's Scripture, the Second Lesson is formed by uniting the former Second and Third Lessons of the Scripture, and the Third Les~on is of'the feast. This Third Lesson is obtained by using the "contracted life of the saint_ in the former Office; or, failing that, by.~om.bining the Fourth~ Fifth, and Sixth I~ssons of the former'prope.r Office of the feast; br finally, if .t.~ae feast has no Proper, by using the former Fourth Lesson of the Common. The ferial Office, used on all fer'ials and vigils except the last three days o.f Holy"Week and the Vigil of Christmas, is like the former ferial Office with Lessons either of the H~omi!y or of t~e day's Scripture. The Dil~eren.t Parts o['~the .OOice ,, ,.+,. Chapter Five, which legislates for the various parts of the Office, makes several changes which "can be-noted here. All Hymns of the Office have only the conclusion given in the Breviary, all changes~ of the conclusion by reason of feast or season being now excluded. The com-plete Antiphon is always to be said in its entirety both ÷ Survey o~ ~ Roman Documents ;=VOLUME 20, 1961 ÷ ÷ R. F. Smith, S. ]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS d8 before and after the Psalms and Canticles of all the canonical hours. The Responsoria of Offices with three Nocturns are to be taken from the Proper or the Common as previously. In the.Sunday Office, however, the first Responsorium will be the one given after the former First Lesson; the second will'be that given after the former Third Scripture Lesson; and the third, when needed, will be the Responsorium formerly recited after the Third Lesson of the Homily. In ordinary Offices with Lessons taken from the day's Scripture, the first Responsorium will be that used after the former First Lesson, while the second will be that formerly used after the Third Scrip-ture Lesson. Ordinary Offices with proper Scripture Les-sons will use proper or o~dinary Responsoria in the° same order as given in the previous kind of ordinary Office. At Prime the Capitulum will always be Regi saecu-lorum and the Lectio Brevis is always to be the seasonal one. In private recital of the Office and when the Office is recited by those who are not deacons, the prayer or oration of the Office is to be preceded-by Domine, exaudi orationem meam with its response in place of Dominus vobiscum and its response. Preces feriales are to be said at Lauds and Vespers of the ferial Office on Wednesdays and Fridays of Advent, Lent, Passiontide, and the Sep-tember Ember Week. They are also to be said at Lauds on Ember Saturdays except on the Saturday within the octave of Pentecost. Chapter Six gives the directions for making the sign of the cross and for bodily posture during the choral and common recital of the Office. It is recommended that the regulations for the sign of the cross be followed also in individual recital.° Mass Rubrics Part Three of the new c~de of rubrics is called "General Rubrics of the Roman Missal." Chapter One gives some ¯ basic notions of the various kinds of Masses and notes that the phrase "private Mass'" should be avoided, since the Mass by its nature is always and everywhere an act of public worship. Chapter Two then considers the calendar to be followed in the celebration of Mass. Chapter Three siates that the conventual Mass, except on fourth-class ferials, must comform to the Office of the day and should be ff solemn Mass, or at least a high Mass. This chapter prohibits the chanting.of the Divine Office during the conventual Mass. Chapter Four is' con-cerned with Sunday and ferial.Masses, while Chapter Five discusses the Mass for feast days. This latter chapter al-lows a priest celebrating a non-conventual Mass to choose a proper Mass for a given feast from the section "for cer-tain places" rather than use a Mass formula from the Common. And in the case of non-conventual Masses, any of the Mass formulas in the correct category of the Com-mon may be used when there is no proper Mass for the feast. Votive Masses "' '" ~' Chapter Six, which deals with votive Masses, begins by general remarks on the subject. It permits all Masses of universal feasts of the Blessed Virgin to be used as votive Masses, excluding, however, Masses of the mysteries of hbr life with the exception of the Immaculate Concep-tion. Sequences are to be omitted in votive Masses and vestment colors should fit in with the votive Mass chosen. In the case of low, non-conventual votive Masses of the fourth class, however, the color of the Office of the day may be used; violet and black, however, are always to be used when demanded by the votive Mass chosen. The chapter then divides votive Masses into four classes. First-class votive Masses, which are those permitted on all litu

Issue 13.6 of the Review for Religious, 1954. ; Review for Religious NOVEMBER 15, 1954 Xaverian Pioneers . Brother Alois Address to Mothers General Arcadio Larraona ' Psychology .and Judging Others . Just November~r Always7 . Sister Mar~ Joseph N. Tylenda News and Views Book Reviews Communications Questions and Answers A Good Superior Index for 19S4 VOLUME XIII NUMBER 6 REVIEW FOR RELIGIO.US VOLUME XlII NOVEMBER, 1954 NUMBER CONTENTS XAVERIAN PIONEERS---Brother Alois, C.F.X .2.81 SOME SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS . 289 A GOOD SUPERIOR . 290 VOCATIONAL LITERATURE REQUESTED . 296 ADDRESS TO MOTHERS GENERAL-- Most Reverend Arcadlo Larraona, C.M.F. 297 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 305 FATHER LARRAONA'S ADDRESS. . 306 FAMILY DAY . 306 THAT 'JUDGING OTHERS' HABIT IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY~ister Mary, I.H.M .307 NEWS AND VIEWS-- American Founders' Series; Congress in Canada; Notre Dame, 1953 310 JUST NOVEMBER---OR ALWAYS?~oseph N. Tylenda, S.J. 311 COMMUNICATIONS . ~ . 315 BOOK REVIEWS-- The Promised Woman; Pio Nono; These Came Home; Mediaeval Mystical Tradition and Saint 3ohn of the Cross . 317 BOOK'. ANNOUNCEMENTS . 321 NOTICE FOR PUBLISHERS . 324 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- 31. Establishing Dowry after Solemn Profession . 325 32. Plenary Indulgence "in the form of a Jubilee" . . 325 33. Relatives on General Council . 326 34. Mistress of Novices as General Councilor ." . . . 327 35. Retaining Office because of New Constitutions . 327 36. Books on Obedience . 328 INDEX FOR 1954 . 332 REVIEW FOR R~LIGIOUS, November, 1954. Vol. XIIL No. 6. Published bi-monthly: January, March, May, Ju!y, September, and November at the College Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas, by St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, 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: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J., Adam C. Ellis, S.J. Gerald Kelly, S.J., Francis N. Korth, S.J. Copyright, 1954, by Adam C. Ellis, S.J. Permission is hereby granted for quota-tions of reasonable length, provided due cre~tit be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 3 dollars a year: 50 cents a copy. printed in U. S. A. Before writing to us, please consult notice on Inside beck cover. Xaverian Pioneers Brother A1ois, C.F.X. THE motto ,,o,f the Xaverian Brothers, Concordia res parvae crescunt--by harmony little things grow"--has been so perfectly fulfilled and demonstrated in [the history of the con-gregation that it is difficult to signal out o,ne Brother who was in any large way responsible for the growth ~f the order. It had no Saint Francis or Saint Bernard to attract !followers by the very force of his magnetic sanctity, no counterp.art of Mother Cabrini or Saint Teresa to solve financial difficultie~ with a holy wizardry and bring forth numerous foundations at ithe touch of his wand of faith. Theodore Ryken (Brother Francis Xavier), the founder of the institute, was indeed a man of gr~at holiness and of the deepest faith. To him alone must be the hqnor and glory for hav-ing conceived the idea of the Brotherhood land having brought it into actuality despite difficulties that wer~ unusually great even when compared with the hardships religio~,s founders have gener-ally met. But it cannot be said that he large!y influenced the growth of the congregation. In the plan of God tl~e very existence of the new foundation was insecure as long as Brother Francis Xavier ruled it and it became firmly established onl~r after BroW:her Vincent had succeeded him as superior general. The growth and spirit of the congregation can really be accredited only to a cooperative ef-fort. Down through the years and even n'ow it has been and is difficult to select many Xaverians who stan~d out from the others. Yet the body religious has achieved a certain prominence and has developed a particular spirit of~ Which it can be proud¯ Still it cannot be said that like a spiritual Topsy the Xaverian Brothers just grew. In this centennial year ih America the members of the congregation pay tribute not only to~ the group but also to some specific predecessors¯ And characterlstxcally most of the honor ~ . goes tO tWO heroic souls who were outstanding for neither their learning nor influence nor high positions no~ great achievements but only because they were holy, humble, obedi,ent, and loyal: Brother Francis Dondorf and Brother Stephen ~Sommer. To understand these men we must re)giew the not-too-well-known story of the foundation of the congregation. Theodore James Ryken was born in Elshout, North Brabant, 281 BROTHER ALOIS Review for Religious Holland, in 1797. Left an orphan at an early age he was brought up by a.pious uncle who instilled into theboy's character a great zeal for souls. He seems always to have been drawn to the work of Christian education, for he worked in his native land as a cate-chist and a lay.teacher in an orphanage. In 1828 Mr. Ryken entered th~ Trappist monastery at Stras-bourg, France, but in 1829 the monks there had to disband and abandon their monastery because of the anticlerical laws of the time. He did not choose to return to Holland for a long period, however, fo~ in 1831 he journeyed to America, planning to act as a lay cate-chist in this country. What he did during all of his three-year stay in the United States has not been completely established. We do know from extant letters that he spent at least three months work-ing with the renowned missionary Father Stephen Baden among the Potawatomi in the area around what is now South Bend. In private papers left by Brother Ignatius, th~ founder's first' disciple, we learn that Mr. Ryken supported himself at one time by work-ing as a porter on a lumber barge, carrying planks from dawn until dusk; at another time he sold oil as a street peddler in New York City. At still another time he served as an attendant on a bishop, probably Bishop Edward Fenwick of Cincinnati. In private papers that he left Brother Ignatius sums up this period thus: "Though his vicissitudes were many and great, he still took delight in structing those about him in the truths and practices of our Holy Religion whenever a favorable opportunity presented itself." The Founding Seeing the great need for Catholic teachers, Mr. Ryken con-ceived the idea of a brotherhood devoted to this work. He returned to Belgium and laid his plans before Bishop Boussen of Bruges. The latter favored the idea but seems to have required the founder to get the approval of the American bishops, because in 1837 Mr. Ryken again went to the United States for that purpose. In six months he had obtained letters of. approval from seven members of the American hierarchy and several prominent priests and he re-turned with these to Europe. He journeyed to Rome and from Pope Gregory XVI he obtained a blessing on his p~oposed foun-dation. He then went to Bruges, secured the necessary episcopal approval, and entered the novitiate of the Redemptor!sts at Saint Trond to prepare himself for his work. At the end of his probationary period the Redemptorists re- 282 November, 195~ XAVERIAN PIONEERS ported.favorably on Mr. Ryken's fitness, and on June 5, 1839, he established himself in a house on Ezel Street in Bruges and began to seek disciples. This date is celebrated as Fo'undation Day. But for a year Mr. Ryken was a founder without an order. Then on June 9, 1840, one, Anthony Melis, joined him and, as Brother Ig-natius, was always considered by the founder as his eldest son. But growth continued to be slow; in 1842 there were seven members, in 1846 only ten. In the original plan he drew for the foundation of the order, Mr. Ryken had innocently written: "Ten or twelve months after the foundation of the Congregation in Belgium, one of the Brothers is to proceed to America to prepare the house, buy ground and ar-range everything for the arrival of the first Brothers sent to Amer-ica . " Those "ten or twelve months" were actually to extend to fifteen years before the aim of the order could begin to be realized, but in the long meantime Ryken's faith, courage, and determination wavered not a bit. Brother Ignatius gives us a picture of the destitution the little group endured. "House furniture of any kind and the merest home comfortg were luxuries they enjoyed not. Even the very necessaries of life were sometimes wanting. The floor was for some time their only bed, old clothes their covering; an old deal box, their table; old bed-sheets, their curtains; and an empty, stove their winter's warmth." The founder made shoes to. obtain some income but for the most part they existed entirely on charity. They lived in an unpaid-for house hourly expecting eviction. The free school they opened in 1840 prospered but only added t.o the financial burden. Bitter criticism and strong opposition even from quarters where they had a right to expect encouragement added to the difficulties. Yet the band did grow. Another primary school was opened at Bruges and men were sent to a normal school at Saint Trond for professiohal training. In 1848 a school was opened in Bury, England, not to take the place of the American mission but be-cause Catholic education in England at that time was a true mis-sionary work and because the Brothers could improve their English there before being sent to America. In 1853 the Bishop of Louisville, Kentucky, Martin John Spalding, visited the Bishop of Bruges and through him met Brother Francis Xavier Ryken. Learning of his desire to send men to the United States, the Bishop contracted then and there for six 283 BROTHER ALOIS Reoieto [or Religious Brothers to teach in the parochial schools of Louisville. But when the Brothers reached Louisville they found that all their previous training in enduring hardships, and more, was needed to withstand the difficulties they encountered in the new country. Here they met a new kind of opposition, bigotry. Anti-Catholicism, instigated and spread by the "Know-nothings" and members of kindred organizations, was strong and active. In Louisville the fanatics who a year later, on August 5, 1855, were to instigate the terrible riots that resulted in the butchering of twenty-two Catholics and the burning of numerous Catholic homes, were thoroughly aroused by the coming to the city of these six mysterious-looking foreigners. Reports were circulated and even published in the news-papers that these men had come to train up an army to wage a bloody war on Protestants, that they had ammunition and arms stored in" their school. A thorough search of the place was demanded. After hiding their altar vessels in a cemetery, the Brothers dispersed. and lived a while with private families. Only after their school and living quarters were ransacked and the utter simplicity of their mode of life was proved to even the most fanatic opponent, could they reassemble. In contracting for the Brothers' services, Bishop Spalding had agreed to pay one hundred and thirty dollars a year for each Brother. This proved to be too little and it was impossible to get more; hence after four years the Brothers had to be recalled. But because funds were not available for passage for all and because--so tradi-tion goes--they were the most expendable, Brother Francis Don-doff and Brother Stephen Sommer were left in Louisville. Brother Francis That Brother Francis Dondorf was a Xaverian Brother was a miracle of grace--a flood of grace that attracted him to a very unat-tractive institute when he could have joined many more promising ones, and which maintained and developed that attraction when even the congregation itself misunderstood and rejected him. He was born in 1816 in Aix-la-Chapelle. His family was well off; his home and school training were good. At twenty-six he held a good position in the post office of his native city. But his heart was not at rest and he prayed for light to know what God had in store for him. Always most devoted to the Blessed Sacra-. ment, he was accustomed to make a visit when he passed a church. One day in 1842 on leaving the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle after 284 November, 1954 XAVERIAN PIONEERS one of these visits he struck up .a conversation with another man leaving at the same time. This was Brother Ignatius, Theodore Ryken'g first disciple, sent by him to Catholic- centers to seek re-cruits. As a result of this providential meeting, Francis Dondorf shortly after presented himself to the founder seeking admission to the new congregation. He was accepted and, following a pro-bationary period of a year and a half, received the habit on Easter of 1844. For two years Brother Francis attended the normal school at Saint Trond but was recalled then because of a shortage of teach-ers at Bruges. With Ryken and nine others he pronounced his temporary vows on October 22, 1846, but. when these vows ex-pired he was considered by the founder to be unsuitable for the life and told to leave the congregation. What later proved to be char-acteristic unobtrusiveness in community had been taken as morose-ness; what was only inexperience was judged to be lack of ability in the classroom. Grief-stricken, but with a wonderful courage and an unslackened devotion to and love for the congregatio.n, Fran-cis Dondorf returned home. Resolutely he enrolled at the normal school at Langenhorst in Rhenish Prussia to fit himself for his chosen and determined vocation. Two years later, without previous arrangement, he presented himself again to the founder for readmis-sion. He was accepted and pronounced his perpetual vows on De-cember 3, 1853. The next July he was chosen as one of the pioneer band emigrating to America. Brother Stephen Brother Stephen was born andreared in Attendorn, Westphalia. At fifteen he was apprenticed to a tailor and after four years took up that trade in Muenster. Attracted to youth work, even then, he formed a club for the young men of his area. He interested others in the work and they formed similar groups in other cities. Their achievements came to the attention of a priest, Father Adolph Kolp-ing, who offered to take over the direction of the work. The well-known and widespread Kolping Institute grew from this beginning. A chance reading of a newspaper story of the taking of vows by the founder of a new education society,in Bruges was the instru-ment of grace that awoke in Stephen Sommer a desire to make a like immolation of himself. He pondered the decision prayerfully for a year and at length applied for admission. He was accepted and arrived at Bruges on December 8, 1848, a very significant.date in view of his deep love of and abiding devotion to Our Blessed 285 BROTHER ALOIS Revleu~ for Religious Mother. He received the habit on April 2, 1850, and pronounced his vows on February 2, 18521 A man of great humility, Brother Stephen at first gave no ~n-. dication of the keen mind he possessed and was put to work as a tailor. The discoverer.of his intellectual ability--so the story goes-- was by one of those incidents that seem to be repeated in the histgry of every religious order. He was scrubbing a floor one day when two Brothers who were unable to solve a mathematical problem asked him jokingly whether he could help them. He arose from his knees, quickly and nonchalantly solved the problem, and returned to his menial work. When Brother Francis Xavier was informed of the incident, Brother Stephen was enrolled immediately at the normal school. In 1854 he was not chosen to accompany the band that set out for America but in 1856, when one of the original six died in Louisville, Brother Stephen was sent as a replacement. However, after Brother Stephen had left Bruges, the founder had written to Louisville recalling two of the men. The letter ar-rived before Brother Stephen and when he got there he found only three where he had expected five. Then, in 1858, because of the im-possibility of getting an increase in the annual, salary, two more Brothers were recalled. Brother Stephen and Brother Francis were assigned to Immaculate Conception school. They took up their abode in two small rooms at the rear of the classrooms and settled themselves to carry on in the face of any difficulties that could present themselves and for as long as obedience required them. For two years these valiant souls held the fort alone. Both humble, quiet, prayerful men, they must have been a pleasing sight in the eyes of heaven as they went through.their daily spiritual ex-ercises, did their househoId chores, cooked and ate their meager re-pasts, prepared their lessons and taught their classes. Heroically ig-noring every cause of discouragement; steadfastly resisting those who tried to persuade them to cast themselves off from the European foundation, which was precarious in itself and so very distant, and to join the priesthood or another band of Brothers; humbly living on the charity of a kind curate of the parish, they kept burning the flame of Xaverianism in America. In 1860 the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish visited Bruges to try to obtain an addition to the.community of two which was doing such fine work at his school. Brother Francis Xavier had by this time handed over the reins of government of the congrega- 286 No~embet', 1954 XAVER/)kN PIONEERS tion. By offering a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars a year instead of the one hundred and thirty, the priest won Brother Vin-cent's, promise of eight more Brothers; and soon these set out for the new land. It does not require much power of imagination to picture the joy of Brothers Francis and Stephen when they were again united with their Brothers in Christ. God was good, their faith had been justifie!! As His instruments they had labored as He saw fit, and great things could now come of His work. Of course a great new day did not dawn bright and clear at once. The Brothers still had to undergo numerous hardships. The ten of them, with several additions that came later, lived in ex-tremely cramped and poor quarters for four years. Knowing that financial conditions in Bruges were worse (in twenty years not a cent had been paid on the mother house), they made every sacrifice to save. Their usqal lunch was coffee and bread with molasses. They fasted on non-school days. Ultimately they were able to send to Brother Vincent the money needed to establish the congregation firml~ in its birthplace. On March 19, 1861, Michael Sullivan (later Brother 3oseph) entered the congregation as the first American postu-lant. 3ohn Quill (Brother 3ohn) entered before the year was over and others followed. Never startling, the growth nevertheless con-tinued steady. Brother Francis lived thirty-two years in religion; Brother Ste-phen sixty-six. They both had terms as novice master, but in those days that was hardly more than a side line. Brother Stephen, for instance, besides being novice master, was house tailor and a full-time teacher, too! They were both very successful teachers in class and in community. But it was their example as religious that, as far as we can judge, bad its greatest effect and for which they are held most in esteem in the congregation today. Closing Years Brother Francis was a stern character. One of the Brothers who taught with him as a young man tolff how, as they walked the half mile to school every morning, Brother Francis would ask him how he intended to teach his classes that day, would give him valu-able suggestions on the lessons, and supply him with anecdotes on 'the subjects involved. As a man of prayer and recollection he spoke only when good would be the result. In fact the Brother used to tell how a little, boy who had frequently seen them pass hollered one 287 BROTHER ALOIS Review for Religious day: "Look! that old man and his son never talk!" In class he was a model of efficient activity. Outside of class his only pleasure was in more work. On both Saturdays and Sun-days he gathered his boys for Mass just as he did on school days. The only difference was that Sodality and games rather than classes filled in the remaining time of the week-end days. He possessed a. good voice and delighted in teaching the boys hymns and songs, not.for the music's sake but because he loved the hymns and had a fund of songs that inculcated virtue and lauded goodness. Brother Francis, we are told, grew always in that love and de-votion to the Blessed Sacrament which we saw was the occasion of his first contact with a Xaverian Brother. In chapel he was an inspiration to all; after Holy Communion so rapt in love was he that he almost seemed to be in ecstacy. In. singing hymns the deep devotion of his soul was evident in his sincere voice, his intense expression, in the tears that frequently flowed down his cheeks. The Blessed Sacrament was the core of his existence, and the Brothers spoke often of how their own devotion to the Eucharist increased through just living with him. Like Brother Francis, Brother Stephen had a passion for work. A little man, weighing less than a hundred pounds, he nevertheless was always active. Even at the age of eighty-six he was the treasurer and bookkeeper for the large community in Louisville; he had charge of the bookstore of the high school and was tailor as well--"tailor" meaning not only that he repaired all the Brothers' clothing but made their habits too. This latter duty he had for fifty-one years in Louis-ville, Performing the tasks far into the night after a full day of teach-ing, paper-correcting, and lesson-planning. He was tenderly devoted to our Blessed Mother. One had only to see him recite her rosary or say her office to realize his heart was consumed with love for her. It is said that at the mention of her name such a look suffused his face that one would think he really saw her in glory. Brother Stephen possessed an excellent memory until the time of his death. He was extremely modest, refusing always to acknowl-edge he had done anything great in the obedience he had performed. Above all he was humble. Even as an old man past eighty, when-ever he thought he had been uncharitable to another he would kneel in the dining room before meals and publicly accuse himself and ask pardon of the one he thought he offended. Scrupulously conscious 288 No~ember, 1954 X&VERIAN PIONEERS of his vow of poverty, he opposed any innovation that smacked of luxury or worldliness. Even on his deathbed he was so distressed at the use of an electric fan which the Brothers rented to offset the terrible Louisville heat that it had to be sent back. He. objected, too, to a screenthey put in the window, fearing he would suffer in p,ur-gatory for the softness it indicated. He wanted to die as be had lived, a poor man of prayer. And so he did, breathing his last on September 19, 1911, revered by all as a saint. Brother Julian, the historian of the American Province of the Xaverian Brothers from whose work most of the information here is taken, fittingly sums ~ap the work of these two pioneers: "With the knowledge of saints, Brothers Francis and Stephen knew that God works silently and slowly: that perseverance in a cause, holy in itself, must bring success in time if faith but dominates the works. Today proclaims that they were right; and the present success and standing of the Community in AmeEca may be traced to these two holy men, who had naught but faith to sustain them, but hav-ing that had all that was necessary." (Men arid Deeds, by Brother Julian, C.F.X. [Macmillan, New York, 1930], p. 20.) SOME SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS Some twenty years have n.ow elapsed since Father T. L. Bouscaren, S.J., pub-lished the first volume of Canon Law Digest. The purpose of this work was t~ present the busy priest with all the official decisions on matters pertaining in some way to the canons in the Code of Canon Law and to present these in readable Eng-lish. The material was arranged in the order of the canons, and everything w~is carefully indexed and--wherever useful-~cross-indexed. After the publication of Volume I, supplements were published periodically: and finally, about ten years after the appearance of the first volume, the second ~,ol-ume was published. This second volume contained not only the material of the supplements but other new material as well. It is a pleasure for us to announce that Volume III of this interesting and valu-able collection of documents is now available. (Bruce: Milwaukee, 1954 Pp. xii+ 762. $11.) A special feature of this new volume is that it contains cumulatioo "indices, both chronological and general, of all three volumes. For religious, in par-ticular, we might note that the present volume contains the complete texts of the Allocution of Pope Plus XII on the religious life (Dec. 8, 1950), the quinquen-nial report, and the annual report. It also contains the text, without the foot-notes, of the Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi, together with the "General Statutes for Nuns" that were included in the papal document and the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Religious "for putting into practice the Constitu-tion Sponsa Christi.'" These are merely indications of the valuable material con-tained in the present volume of Canon Law Digest. (Continued on Page 306) 289. A ood perior ]N our March number (.pp. 61-62) we suggested that superiors and subjects pool their experiences regarding things that they had found to be of genuine help in the proper governing of a religious community. Response to this suggestion was very slow; and even up to this time we have hardly begun to get what we really wanted. Yet we have had some responses: one in the form of actual experiences, and two in the form of suggestions to print por-tions of notes that were found to be particularly helpful. We are publishing these now, with the hope of stimulating further re-sponses. A. Tributes of~ a diocesan communitg to a former superior general: Two years ago death claimed one of our sisters. She had been ~uperior general (for twelve years), mistress of novices, and a local' superior in our young diocesan community. We .asked our sisters to send us tributes to c6mpile a memory book, to be signed or not as preferred. ~ The traits that made this sister a successful superior, to judge by frequent mention in the tributes, were: Her kindness and under-standing, her personal interest in each individual, her respect for con-t~ dences, her punctuality and observance of rule, her sense of humor, her personal neatness. The following are some extracts from the sisters' tributes: "She was always keenly interested in every detail of the mis-sions, and she never forgot to ask about any of our dear ones at home who were iII or unfortunate. How she could remember about such details was amazing when one recalls how busy and overbur-dened with cares she was, and it shows the love and tenderness of her heart. "No matter how busy Mother was she wa~ always ready to listen to any 6f us--at any hour--when we approached her with problems and difficulties. Her words of comfort and encouragement have helped man~ a one over trying times. When an apology was made for taking up her time, she said, 'My time is for my sisters first of all.' " . . . "For various reasons Mother will ever be an inspiration, to me. Her great spirit of self-forgetfulness, her resignation and calm-ness in meeting with trials, and her great courage in facing diffi- 290 November, 1934 A GOOD SUPERIOR culties will be an incentive to all the sisters who wish to imitate her virtues ahd to some extent her great zeal for the honor and glory of God. "Her love and admiration for perfection in church music and singing will also be an inspiration to the sisters who appreciate the privilege and opportunity of practicing or teaching sacred music and liturgical chant. "Mother fully understood the meaning of the words, 'There is a time for work, and a time for play,' for she ever took a keen interest in the sisters' recreations, adding much to them herself. Indeed, her cheerfulness and hearty laughs would help make a sister forget her little trials and helped many a one to go back to her duties with new courage and vigdr." . . . "Nothing was too small for Mother's attention and consider-ation. When a sister had any kind of problem, she could feel that Mother would be sympathetic and would tell her candidly what she thought was best. She always showed the greatest prudence and discretion in each individual case and did not attempt to destroy what God and nature had begun, but tried to build upon it and perfect it." . . : "Mother was a shining example to us. In all her trials she set us an example to smile an'd be cheerful no matter what troubles we had. She practiced a holy resignation and child-like trust in God. It-was when the angel of death visited us and took from us one of our family that she showed her true spirit of charity and sympathy. In her conversation she would talk to you just the same as if they were her own." . . . "What I liked most in Mother was her interest in each siste) and her work. She was always ready and willing to listen to a tale of woe and sometimes made you laugh at. yourself. Her love for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was clearly shown in the manner in which she prayed; and to listen to her read the medi-tation aloud was a real incentive to devotion to all." . . . "Thoughtfulness is a virtue that everyone admires. I think Mother's life Was a shining example of thoughtfulness. She never forgot nor overlooked the simple, little things. She seemed to take a personal interest in even the unimportant things about the sisters' life. She always remembered to ask about loved ones who were. absent or ill. She never gave the impression of being too busy with more important things to bother with a.ny sister's small worries. 291 A GOOD SUPERIOR Rewiew [or Religious "Her meticulous observance of the rule was ever a source of' admiration to me, while her soul-searching gaze filled me with awe and reverence." . . . "Mother had a most profound respect, for the encyclicals of the Holy Father; and her thoughtful treatment of all employees estab-lished good customs in the community. A man who had ~vorked for her years ago made the following statement: 'When I began working for the sisters I came in a borrowed suit; Mother bought me a shirt to go on duty. She had confidence in.me; she taught me to have confidence in myself and made me feel that I could be a success in life if I really wanted to be. I hope I will always feel that she would be proud of me.' " B. From the notes of a priest, experienced as a superior and retreat-director: 1. Obedience:- Superiors interpret the will of God to their subjects: this is a fundamental tenet of the religious life. When speaking to subjects, therefore, we always insist on the necessity of both exterior and interior obedience. But when speaking to su-periors we must insist on this: "Since your subjects must see ir~ you the representative of God, see to it above all tbing~ that you do not make this unreasonably difficult. Your conduct should be always edifying and above reproach, and your orders should be such as you have prayerfully concluded to be the will of God, not an ill-considered whim of your own. Christ said to Pilate: 'Thou wouldst have no authority over me if it had not been given thee from above'--meaning: the authority you have is not to be used independently, at your good pleasure; but it is given to you by God as a sacred trust." 2. Primac~j of the spiritual:--The chief duty of the superior is, in and through his government, to maintain the spirit of the institute, the .faithful observance of the Rule, so that he can hand on to his successor a community which has suffered no diminution of the religious spirit as embodied in this particular institut6. For this reason the superior must know the Rule thoroughly, the written rules, their implications, the tradition of the community; consequently he should fre~quently meditate upon the RuJe in his' mental prayer, endeavor to pentrate the mind of.the founder, whom he should look upon as one inspired by God to lead souls to per-fection along this .particular path. This maintenance'of the religious spirit is particularly difficult 292 Nouember, 1954 A GOOD SUPERIOR in our times. A revolution is going on, not'only in politics, art, and industry, but aIso in the moral outlook of men. There is a revolt against tradition, against submission, a craving for ease and comfort, for independence in judgment. Parental authority is at a low ebb. Men are eager for news, for sights and sounds. Calm of spirit, control of the imagination are diffcult; worldliness is in the air we breathe. Hence mental prayer is extraordinarily diffcult. Self-denial, "a desire to have less rather than more," is ~qually difficult. Even if these thingsare acquired in the novitiate they are apt to be a mere veneer that does not wear well amid the worldli-ness of modern life. Yet it remains true that the two props upon which the spiritual, and therefore the religious, life ,rests are prayer (chiefly mental) and penance (self-denial). Without these there can be no religious spirit. Therefore in his government the superior must see to it above all things that the spiritual life is in a flourishing condition. The spiritual life is not self-sustaining. It is kept alive and vigorous' by the constant, faithful, .daily use of the means, which are the spiritual exerdses prescribed by rule and custom. Therefore, again, every superior, in the interests of his own government, and in the highest interest of the institute, must see to it as a sacred duty that each and every one ot: his subjects is given the full time each day to attend properly to his spiritual exer-cises. No superior may, in conscience, assign such an amount of work, or such hours to a member of the community that the orderly performance of the community spiritual exercises becomes habitually or even frequently impossible. The call to the religious life is a call to religious perfection, first and foremost, and only secondarily to perform a certain kind of work to which this community devotes itself. 3. Interest in ~lounger members:- The training of young re-ligious is not completed when they leave the novitiate. Their ear-liest years in the active labors of the community may make or mar their whole future career as religious. All too often they are left more or less to their own devices, just as long as they do their work well. A good superior should be per,sonally concerned in furthering the development of the religious spirit in these young religious. I. 4. Interest in lagt brothers and s~sters:- Also, of special con-cern to the superior should be the lay brothers or sisters, those who do the housework. They and their bard work are sometimes not 293 A GOOD SUPERIOR Reu2ieu2 For Religious sufficiently appreciated by others. The superior should, try to hav~ first-hand acquaintance, with their peculiar difficulties, "and should see to it that they baye sufficient time for their spiritual exercises, that they get their regular periods of recreation, that they get suf-ficient rest, and that their living and working quarters are ~ade attractive and hygienic. 5. Interest in the whole communit~!:- A superior should not be absent too frequently from the community, and never for long periods. His subjects should know that be is around, keenly" and intelligently interested in all the departments of the house, and, though never snooping, .yet has his eyes open to observe what is going on. The members of the community should know that at certain hours, at least, they can always find him in his room or office, where he is easily approached (without any red tape) and ready to discuss their problems with paternal interest. Very likely there will always be some (especiaIIy in a large com-munity) who find it hard to deal with the superior. He should not be surprised at this or take it amiss; let him r~ther with un-feigned and unfailing kindness try to gain the confidence of such persons. Above all, he should not be swayed by human feelings against them. They are very quick to observe this, and it will ruin his chances of doing them good. 6. Aooid undue influence and imprudent talk:--A superior should keep in mind that he has been appointed superior, and there-fore that he should govern the community, and not another. Hence, be should avoid beifig unduly influenced by anyone--e.g., a former superior, or a flatterer, or one who tries to patronize, or one who "hangs around" his room or office and would like to "discuss" higher superiors or the retiring superior and his regulations or the shortcomings of the other members of the community. Let the superior wisely suspect those who, whether consciously or uncon-sciously, are "feeling him out" and trying to gain influence over him. Let him be very discreet in what he says about others (never gossiping with busybodies, and being cautious and strictly factual in information passed on to other superiors) as be may be quite certain that what he has said will before long reach the ears of the persons spoke'n about. Subjects resent fiercely being thus "discussed" behind their backs by the superior, especially with persons who have no business whatever to be parties to such a discussion. 7. Not too long in office :--The principle, "Once a superior, 294 November, 1954 A GOOD. S.UPERIOR always a superior," is wholly wrong and where followed it does great harm to community life. Being moved around from one house to another as superior is a selfish proceeding, detrimental to the best interests o.f the institute. It forms a sort of nobility, a caste; it k.eeps down excellent talent for governing among the younger gen-eration; it makes subjects lose respe9t for superiors who all too plainly like their position of eminence and will probably manage never to return to the ranks. An unselfish, humble, spiritual-minded religious who has served at most twelve years in office will be eager to go back into the ranks and into active work. If he is too old to do active work, then he is also too old for the exercise of strong, efficient, sympathetic gov-ernment in this modern world of rapidly-changing ideas. ~ A good superior who has deeply at heart the welfare of his in-stitute should esteem it one of his chief privileges to develop govern-ing talent in such of his subjects as he observes give promise of becoming good superiors. ,By judiciously" trying out the younger members in positions of trust and .responsibility, be should pick out those that show good judgment, tact, and resourcefulness: give them helpful, constructive criticism and endeavor to make them solidly-spiritual religious, humble, prayerful, self-sacrificing, de-voted to regular observance. To have been instrumental in develop-ing two or three such sterling characters for posts of authority is perhaps the greatest single.contribution a good superior can make to the welfare of his institute. C. A section from a retreat to superiors. This material "is based upon notes taken during a retreat gfuen b~t a French Jesuit, Father Thibaut. The heading of this particular section is: "He knoa)s not boa) to gouern a)ho ttnoa)s not boa) to love.'" If one does not love he does not know bow to govern others. Our Lord is our model in this kind of love: 1) In dealing with His apostl'es He ~hows us His solicitude for their spiritual life: "Keep them from evil." 2) He defended them against the Pharisees. 3) His love for His ~postles was paternal. 4) He radiated peace. 5) He tried to bring borne to them His iove for them. 6) He corrected them, but was always kind to them. 7) His love was evident in the externals: He fed the apostles: He foresaw their needs in order to care for them. 295. GOOD SUPERIOR 8) He brought out the relationship between governing and love in His thrice-repeated question to St. Peter: "Lovest thou Me?" Our love of our subjects should be paternal-~but, of course, on a spibitual basis. It should not be based on services rendered, but on the fact that they are children of God, consecrated to Him. It should not be partial because of their attractiveness or even because of their cooperation. Then we must give ourselves to them unselfishly. This de-mands great self-sacrifice, dominated by a great love for God. Not a cold love, but also not effusive to such an extent that it would seem to call for sensible return. Our love should be universal. This calls for limitless patience. Our sanctification may lie along these lines. Pray and tr~r to imitate Our Lord's love for them. Look be-yo. nd their defects and see their good qualities and bring them out. Encouragement is more conducive to good than corrections. All this calls for a great ideal. The supernatural must always sustain the ideal and influence others too. More is expected of a superior. "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father." "My little children . . . " etc. Note the warmth in these words. Our duty "is to represent God to the community. Not even infidelity "on the part of the subject is to take that love away. Christ loved often in the face of disloyalty, e.g., Judas. Jesus gained the affection of all the eleven apostles despite their differences. A superior may have to show more love to one than another, e.g., when a subject is in sorrow, or depressed, or in case of death in a family. Do specia! things f~r subjects at such times. This is not contrary to universal love. VOCATIONAL LITERATURE REQUESTED Sisters who have vocational literature in the form of booklets, pamphlets, or leaflets are earnestly requested to send samples of their literature to: The Mother General, Presentation Convent, Clyde Road, Rawaldini, Pakistan. These mission- . ary sisters wish to prepare some literature of their own to try .to attract aspirant~ in their" missionary ~erritory, as well as in Europe. Their work is mainly teaching, with a limited amount of dispensary work and visitation i~a refugee camps. Thiey have a novitiate in Ireland; their missionary work at present is confined to Pakistan and Northern India. 296 Address !:o Mot:hers General Most Reverend Arcadio Larraona, C.M.F. [EDITORS' NOTE: This address was given' by Father Larraona at the conclusion of the meeting of mothers general in Rome, September, 1952. We are publishing it with the permission of Father Larraona. For further information about the ad-drdss and about the proceedings of the meeting, see page 306.] !,~is not without deep emotion that I address you this morning. behold in you the hundreds of thousands of consecrated souls for whom you are responsible before God. Your presence here shows that you feel the full force of this great responsibility. Never-theless the thought of it should not excludi deep and trustful feel-ings of confidence. In your administration strive to imitate those qualities which we find in God's administration of ,the world, if we may so speak, that is, the qualities of understanding, far-sightedness,. kindness, and patience. If you work in this spirit, then have con-fidence that God will work for you and in you. I. REVISION OF CONSTITUTIONS:' In 1922, the S. Congregation of Religious ordered all approved religious communities to send in their constitutions for revision and, if need be, correction in the light of the provisions of the recently published Code of Canon Law. But even after this general obliga-tory revision of some thirty years ago, the S. Congregation does not necessarily feel that all the details of all constitutions must remain forever unchanged. Rome is ready to consider the advisability of, changes on certain points, provided the individual communities show good reasons for the modifications they wish to introduce. Rome wants this" evolution to be without spurts,or shocks--a genuinely vital evolution, imitating the growth and development of a human being[ Hence, the usual procedure is to require that all proposed modifications be first submitted to a general chapter, and that the. changes be approved, not merely by an absolute majority, but even by the moral unanimity of the capitulants. In this connection, the following particular points might be mentioned: Custom-Books The custom-books of religious communities, sometimes called "directories," are not approved by the S. Congregation of Religious except in a negative sense. That is to say the S. Congregation'ex- 297" ARCADIO LARRAONA Reoiew for Religious fimines these books in order to make sure that they contain nothing theologically or canonically erroneous, but does not approve them in the strict sense of the term. In this, the custom-books differ from the constitutions. Notwithstanding all their good qualities, it.is undeniable that custom-books, because of their detailed regulating of many aspects of" daily life, can and do become oppressive, or at least embarrassing. There are superiors of all types and temperaments, and some of them are unduly'a'ttacbed to the letter of the prescription, without con-sidering the spirit, and without thinking sufficiently of the end ar which they aim, an end which frequently can be obtained through the use of different means. Superiors may therefore legitimately make known their wishes to the S. Congregation of Religious. They should not fear to request such changes on the grounds that they will be thought to be unfaith-ful to their community traditions. Change in itself is not heresy, but it goes without saying that no changes should be proposed merely because they fall in line with the caprices or personal likes of an in-dividual superior. All changes submitted to the S. Congregation must usually bare the morally unanimous approval of the general chapter. In case of urgent modifications, the S. Congregation will take action even between general chapters, but with the obligation to submit the matter to the next chapter. The Religious Habit The Holy See leaves to every individual community full freedom of action regarding all the details of its.specific habit. The S. Con-gregation is interested mainly in maintaining the peace of mind of all religious. Peace and charity are of much higher importance than the advantages to be gained through 'improvement in some detail of the habit. Rome's only question in such cases will be: "Are you all agreed?" The modifications will be approved, provided they are supported by the general chapter, and provided the minority, if there be one, is not unduly obstreperous in its opposition. If that should be so, Rome would counsel patient waiting. The Abolition of Class-Distinctions The same principles are followed when there is question of re-moving from the constitutions the articles which set up different classes among the religious of one same community. Peace is the paramount consideration. Rome will approve the elimination of 298 November, 1954 ADDRESS TO MOTHERS GENERAL class-distinction, but only on the three following conditions: (a) that the change insures absolute equality of rights and obligations; (b) that the superiors be fully empowered to appoint any religious to any office, due regard being given to the .individual capacities of each one and the needs of the community; (c) that all the religious, irrespective of the class to which they may have previously belonged, contribute their share of effort in providing for the common needs of the community. Saving these principles, the abolition of the dis-tinction between classes will be approved by Rome, but the S. Con-gregation. will never use any pressure in order to bring this about in any particular institute. II. SUBSTITUTION OF THE DIVINE OFFICE FOR THE LITTLE OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN: Through the constantly growing liturgical movement, there is an increasing tendency among religious communities of women to introduce the recitation of the Divine Office in the vernacular instead of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. Needless to say, the S. Congregation is favorable in principle to all proposals which' will insure a deeper and richer participation of religious in the sacred liturgy, since such participation brings them into more living contact with the Church. Nevertheless, all innovations must be worked out in a spirit of good balance and discretion. Again, nothing is com-parable to the advantages of peace in a community. The S. Congre-gation does not grant any general permission for substituting' the Divine Office in the vernacular for the Littie Office. Each individual institute must ask for it and submit its own particular reasons for so doing. Proponents of the change oftentimes forget that it is hardly possible that an entire community will react favorably to the innova-tion, and it is the responsibility of the S. Congregation of Religious to forestall discontent and opposition as far as possible. Consequently, the permission for the Divine Office in the vernacu-lar instead of the Little Office will be granted on request, with due regard to the following conditions: (1) that the reqfiest be sup-ported by morhlly unanimous agreement of the general chapter-- what causes trouble is not from God; (2) that the request be not in opposition with either the constitutions or the tradition of the community involved--sometimes the recitation of the Little Office is in conformity with a vow or promise made by the founder or foundresss; (3) that the apostolate of the sisters allow them time 299 ARCADIO LARRAONA Re~ieto [or Religiotts for the recitation of the Divine Office without unduly 6verloading their dhy. This does not mean that the S. Congregation always . drives with its brakes on--but everyone knows that it is dangerous to drive without brakes. III. THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF FORMATION: 1. Apostolic Schools Apostolic schools are of comparatively recent origin, the earliest of them dating from about the middle of the last century. They were first introduced in institutes of men: but they have now become increasingly common in reiigious communities of women. The Holy See has issued practically no legislation on the organization of such apostolic schools. The S. Congregation is patiently awaiting, the guidance of experience. These apostolic schools are not permitted by the S. Congregation for cloistered nuns or for religious whose lives closely approgimate to that of cloistered nuns. This is not a real law of the Holy See, but rather a guiding norm, based on Rome's desire to avoid any sem-blance of pressure ' when there is question of a vocation calling for such special qualities as those required by the contemplative life. The S. Congregation regards apostolic schools as internal schools of a religious community. This point is of canonical importance in determining the degree of freedom to be allowed the community in the organization and administration of these schools: (a) those which do not require any actual, signs of vocation to the religious life; (b) those which demand at least the seeds of vocation to the religious life; (c) those which require signs of a vocation to a speci-fic type of religious life. In any case, the organizati6n and rules of an apostolic school should not lose sight of the fact, that the girls in them are young. The atmosphere as far as possible should be that of a family. The apgstolic school should not be turned into a noviciate in miniature. There should be nothing to interfere with the full freedom' of the candidates in the final determination of their vocation. The pro-gram of studies should not be so highly specialized as to make ad-justment to a different type of life outside difficult. Teach the girls, first of all, to live good Christian lives. No asceticism at the expense of the moral law. Avoid whatever might even remotely result in deformation of the natural qualities and virtues of the candidates. 30O November, 1954 ADDRESS TO MOTHERS GENERAL 2. The Postulate The postulate is obligatory for all women religiousl It must last at least six months. If .the constitutions prescribe a postulate of one year, the six months' prolongation is still permissible. The maxi-mum length of the postulate in any community is eighteen months. Rome does not want the decision as to admission to be delayed too long, and this is why the time limit is imposed. 3. TOe Noviciate Rome will easily grant permission to have two years of noviciate instead of one, if the same conditions are complied with as those pre-viously mentioned in other connections. But if such permission is granted, the chan~e becomes obligatory and superiors have no faculty to dispense from any period of this two-year noviciate. It makes a bad impression on the S. Congregation when a community advances good and cogent reasons for two years in noviciate, and then almosf immediatHy begins to ask for dispensations from the change which the community itself requested'. The S. Cgngregation permit~ the employment of novices in works of the institute during the second year of noviciate. This was a courageous step, which at first seemed to some people to be in 9pen conflict with the fundamental spiritual purpose of the noviciate. The reason is that today no formation can.be regarded as complete with-out some concrete, contact with the apostolate. During such employ-ment the novice remains a novice. She must be given to understand that she is still on probation, even though she be outside the novici-ate. She should be under the supervision and guidance of an ex-perienced sister, since the superior of the house, unless it be a small house, will ordinarily be too absorbed with administrative details to give her tbeOtime and attention required by her special situation. Tbe use of novices during the second year must be motivate~t by the wel-fare of the novice, not by the needs of the community. During this period she is given a chance to prove bet qualities, and to learn un-der supervision how to use the apostolate as a means of personal sanctification. She should be protected and safeguarded without be-ing mollycoddled. Superiors should not forget that when young religious are taken from the hothouse atmosphere of the noviciate and sent out indiscriminatdly into houses where, so to speak, all the windows hnd doors are open, they cannot fail to catch cold. 4. The duniorate In the' noviciate the formation of the religious is begun. In the 301 ARCADIO LARRAONA Review For .Religious juniorate it is continued, though not with the detailed program of the noviciate year. The juniorate is an initiation into the apostolate, while the young nun still remains under the safeguarding influence of supervision and guidance. The juniorate is intended to forestall/ the catastrophes which have sometimes befallen young professed sis-ters who were sent into the active life without any transition period to prepare them for the special problems confronting them in that life. Sisters in the juniorate are in a kind of middle stage of forma-tion, in which they are not subjected to the restrictions of the novici-ate in all their rigor nor yet allowed all the freedom of perpetually-professed religious. At the same time they are provided with an op-portunity to integrate their technical training with the demands of their religious vocation. During the juniorate, whatever may be the special form it may take, the sisters should be under the close-range guidance of experi-enced and capable religious. Unless a house is specifically set up as juniorate, the superior will ordinarily not be in a position to carry out the functions of mistress of juniors. The duration of the juniorate will depend on its intensity, the duration increasing accord-ing as the juniorate is less intense. All communities could at least provide their temporarily-professed sisters with special courses and help during the summer vacation. There is no objection to the juniorate's lasting for the entire period of temporary profession. The ideal is a specifil house, for those communities which can provide one. The threefold aim of the juniorate is: formation, practice, pro-bation. IV. RELIGIOUS PROFESSION: The S. Congregation is ready to allow up to five years of tem-porary profession, ~vith the possibility of an extension of one year. No temporary profession can be extended beyond six years, according to the Code of Canon Law. The reason is that if a sister has not succeeded in satisfying her superiors as to her vocation during the period of postulate, noviciate, and six years of temporary vows, it is hardly probable that she will be able to pro.vide this satisfaction in an extended period of probation. Rome views with favor the so-called "third year of probation," which can be organized either immediately prior to perpetual pro-fession or at some later period after time spent in the apostolate. In whatever form it is organized, the third year of probation has in- 302 ADDRESS TO MOTHERS GENERAL calculable advantages. Nevertheless, although it is highly recom-mended, it is not in any way 'imposed by the S. Congregation. V. THE VOW OF POVERTY: I should like to have time to go over with you each of the vows of religion. Time does not permit, but I cannot resist the desire to say something to you about the vow of "poverty, which is the bul-wark and safeguard of the religious spirit. At the Congress at Notre Dame, after a splendid paper on poverty and the common life in present-day America, a sister asked whether custom could justify the keeping of personal gifts, etc. The speaker, a Dominican Father, replied immediately that neither custom nor any superior could legiti-mately give a permission which might run counter to the demands of the common life. No superior can allow what is against the spirit of poverty. It is important to cultivate disinterested motives for zeal in the apostolate. The ministry, in no matter what form it is ex-ercised, should be emptied completely of all concern over personal gain. It is a fact. of experience that zeal oftentimes diminishes in proportion as interest in personal aggrandizement increases. VI. GOVERNMENT : 1. Elections Sisters often fall into one or the other of two extremes in chap-ters: either they organize a real electoral campaign for or against a religious, or they go around in a state of unconcerned passivity. Canon Law forbids electioneering or anything approximating it. But good sense demands, especially in congregations with worldwide ex-pansion, that the electors take means to assure themselves of the qualities (health, virtue, experience, ete.) bf the candidates for the various offices. The line of demarcation between asking for infor-mation and organizing a campaign is not always too clear, but it can usually be made clear by the good sense and virtue of the religi-ous themselves. It should not be forgotten that a half-vote is sufficient to con-stitute the absolute majority (for instance, 17 votes out of 33 is an al~solute majority). It is not required that the majority be con- 'stituted by one vote more than half. 2. Re-elections Canon Law sets no limit to the' terms of major superiors but leaves this to the constitutions. The S. Congregation is not only ~ 303 ARCADIO LARRAONA Reoiew for Religious not favorable to election beyond the terms provided in the constitu-tions, but it is opposed to it on principle. Superiors and capitulants should remember that they, no less than their subjects, have in ob-ligation to observe the law of the Church. Perpetuation of indi-viduals in office tends to prevent the formation "of capable superiors or makes it necessary for them to be chosen from within a closed circle. Other things being equal, the S. Congregation definitively prefers the election of a new superior rather than the re-election of the one inoffice, when the term fixed by the constitutions l~as ex-pired. In case of a superior general, this re-election is called postulation, and requires a two-thirds majority of the chapter. Some constitu-tions forbid all postulation. The fact of having the two-thirds ma-jority must be accompanied with sufficiently serious reasons to influ-' ence the judgment of the S. Congregation. The reasons will be judged with severity, and the confirmation of re-election after the term fixed by. the constitutions will constitute a rare exception. 3. Admission to Profession The freedom to refrain from perpetual profession is mutual on the part of both the institute and the subject. The sister may leave, and the community may refuse to admit h~r to perpetual profession. Such refusal may not be motivated by ill health, unless there is proof that the illness was fraudulently concealed or d~ssimulated prior to first profession. It is not necessary that this deceit or dissimulation should have come from the religious herself. A religious suffering from some hereditary disease which has been concealed from her by her parents may be refused admission to profession on this score, even though the deceit did ndt come from herself. The language of the Code is purely impersonal. There are difficult cases of ineptitude coupled with ill health. If the ineptitude is in any way connected with the ill health, then the rule is the same as for a religious in poor health; she cannot be dismissed 6r refused admission to final vows. If it be simply inepti-tude for the works of the community, then the community enjoys perfect freedom, since the period 'of temporary profession was in-tended precisely to determine whether or not the subject is able to make a' contribution to the apostolate of the institute. 4. Exclaustration An indult of exclaustration suspends the canonical obligation of 304 November, 1954 ADDRESS TO MOTHERS GENERAL the common life for an individual religious.It entails dispensation from the points of rule incompatible with the new status of the re-ligious, forbids tier to wear the religious habit, and deprives her of active and passive voice for the period of her stay outside the com-munity. If there is no scandal, and especially when the reason un-derlying. the exclaustration is not one for which the religious is re-sponsible, 'Rome may, with the recommendation of the superior, permit the religious to retain the habit. The religious, however, has "no right to demand such peimission. Exclaustration is a favor, not a right, and the religious has the obligation, to return whenever the superiors so wish. Superiors cannot allow subjects to remain outside the com-munity, except for purposes, of study, for more than six months. This residence outside the community is not the equivalentof ex-claustration and thus does not entail a.ny o'f the restrictions men-tioned in the., preceding paragraph. Such residence is not favor~l. Any situation demanding the residence of a religious outside her ~ommunity for more than six months is, generally speaking, a dan-gerous situation. Exclaustration "ad nutum Sanctae Sedis"--at the good pleasure of the Holy See--is a measure adopted to cope With those situations in which a religious shows enough malice to be impossible to live with and yet not canonically sufficient to justify dismissal. Often-times these cases involve a eertain degree of mental weakness: un-balanced enough to be impossible, and not unbalanced enough to be locked up.' In such cases the S. Congregation orders exclaustration, with all the above-mentioned restrictions, and the exclaustration perdures as long as Rome so wishes. The institute is obliged to assist in the maintenance of the religious. The present practice of the S. Congregation demands, under pain of subsequent invalidity of the rescript, that all rescripts for dispen-sation from vows be definitely accepted or rejected within ten days of the date the subject is notified of the granting of the rescript. OUR CONTRIBUTORS BROTHER ALOIS is an instructor in religion and Spanish at Archbishop Stepinac High School, White Plains, New York. SISTER MARY is professor of psychology at Marygrove College, Detroit, Michigan. JOSEPH N. TYLENDA is making his philosophical ~tudi~s at the Jesuit House of Studies, Spring Hill Sta-tion, Mobile, Alabama. 305 SOMI~ SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS ¯SOME-SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS "_. (Continued from Page 289) One further observation about Canon Law Digest. Volume III includes docu-ments published up to December 31, 1952. Hereafter an annual supplement will. be issued in loose-leaf form. The supplement for 1953 is now in the press. An exceptionally useful book for all who catalogue Catholic books is An Al-ternative Classl/ication /:or Carbolic Books. This book, originally prepared by 3eann~tte Murphy Lynn, was first published in 1937. Previous to that, libraries with large collections of Catholic literature had to fit the. books into inadeq;u~a:te' classification schedules. An Alternatit~e Classitication offered a new and satisfa~t.~ry" way of cataloguing Catholic books that could be used with 'the Dewey Decimal or, especially, the Library of Congress classifications. A second, and revised, edition, of this valuable technical work has now been brought out by Father Gilbert C. Peter-son, SJ. A special feature of this new edition is the fact that the index, originally fifteen pages, is now forty-two pages. Also the list of religious orders and coiagre-gations is extensive; in the case of institutes of women, the date and place of founding is given, and, if they came to the United States from another country, the date of the first foundation in this country is given. The price of the book (cloth, 512 pages) is $10.00. It can be,obtained from the Catholic University of America Press, 620 Michigan Avenue, N.E., Washington 17, D.C. FATHER LARRAONA'S ADDRESS Fatfier Larraona's address to the mothers general is one of the clearest and most important statements of the mind of the Church concerning the government of re-ligious. In publishing it we have followed, ~ith some slight changes, the English version that appeared in Acta et Documenta Congressus lnternationalls Superiori.s-saturn Generalium (Rome, 1952). This publication of the Sacred Congregation of Religious is printed and distributed by the Pious Society of St. Paul. which has establishments in many countries. The volume contains the proceedings of the convention of the mothers general in five languages: Italian, French, English, Spanish, and German. In this country it can be obtained from the Society of St. Paul, 2187 Victory Blvd., Staten Island 14, N.Y. For a more complete understanding of the mind of the Church, one should also read three addresses of Pope Plus XII--to religious men (Dec. 8, 1950), to tezch-ingsisters (Sept. 13, 1951), and to the mothers general (Sept. 15, 1952). The last-mentioned address was published in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, XI (Nov. 1952), 305-308., We hope to publish the other papal addresses later. FAMILY DAY The Family Communion Crusade is again sponsoring an international Family Communion Day. The Feast of the Holy Family, ,lanuary 9, 1955, will be ob-served by hundreds of thousands of families in more than forty countries, with family group Communion and family consecration to the Holy Family. The aim this year is particularly to obtain prayers for the persecuted nations behind the Idgn Cuitain. Those who wish to join in promoting the Family Commimion Day can obtain further information, literature, etc., from: Family Communion Crusade, 10 Farm .View" Road, Port Washington, N.Y. 306. . That: ",Judging Ot:hers" Habit: In t:he Light: ot: Modern Psycholog Sister Mary, I.H.M. THE ideal of religious life suffers from many weaknesses in our | human nature, but it" probably suffers from none more than in the ever-present desire to judge the other person. Our Lord l~as warned us against l~his weakness with a threat--Judge not that ~,9u be no~ judged--and yet we persist in doing it. Sometimes it becomes so much a part of the daily fabric of life that we are no longer aware that we do jti~lge other people. Habits of judging are usually formed in childhood, long before what can really be called "social feeling" has debeloped. Only the most careful and spiritually enlightened training offsets the forma-tion of such habits--and even then probably only partially. With the dawn of conscience and still later in adolescence with the de-velopment of social insight and appreciation, charac(~r, training can do much to eradicate or, perhaps better, to supplant the "judging-others" habit. Su?ely, a realization of the doctrine of the Mystical Body and of Our Lord's own commandment which He has made the first law of living together, "that you lox~e one another as I have loved you," should sound the death-knell of unkind judgment for all Christians, and especially for r.eligious._ Yet, as we know so well, it does not. It has always seemed to me that in the pettiness of mind and interest in trivialities which follow the "judging-others" habit the devil gets in his most successful innings. How-ever, this is not the aspect of the problem I am interested in dis-cussing. This aspect is rather, what the "judging-habit" means psychologically. The understanding of. this will, I think, throw light on wbg Our Lord condemned it so rbundly and wb~t, also, He makes our judgment ofothers the norm 5ccording to which He will judge us. ¯ Modern psychiatry has a useful technique which it u~es. ih analysis. This te[chfiiqfie. is from Freud, incidentally, although" the mechanism.itself is part of even Aristotle's psychology. I refer to the mental-mechanism which w~e learned to call .association. in' psy-chology. Freud cMled his tech'nique "tYee association. His theory is that if a person allows his mind to wander freely it will con~i~ct 307 SISTER MARY Revietu for Religious up with past experiences which, though normally forgotten, are still much alive in the unconscious mind. Every religious knows this process well--it seems to be at its best durihg meditation. In setting forih his theory of analysis t'hrough free association Freud liked to start with the material of a dream. Psychiatrists today use many other types of material: daydreams, memories, emotionally toned experiences, etc., as starting points for analysis. Apparently what we start with is not too important. But all who use the tech-nique are agreed with Freud's basic principle: the person who makes the association is the person who is anal~tzed. In this connection, a story once told me by Dr. Thomas Verner Moore (now Dora Pablo Maria) will illustrate the principle. A young doctor, a fallen-away Catholic, read a paper analyzing Charles Darwin at a psychiatric meeting. The young man was well known to Father Moore as one who had repudiated all moral principles both in his professional practice and in his private life. Moreover, lie seemed to take a special delight, whenever Father Moore was present at any rate, in finding some way of ridiculing the Church and Cath-olic. beliefs. However, in his paper on Darwin he limited himself to the subject. He had taken passages from Darwin's writings and, using free association on these, bad built up an astounding picture ot: Darwin as a libertine and even a pervert. (The facts of Darwin's ¯ \ private life actually reveal him a~ a loving father and husband who devoted himself to his family through and outside of his scientific work.) Discussion was limited to remarks expressing surprise and even admiration of psychiatry's revelation of Darwin's inner soul, until the chairman called on Father Moore for his comment. He, too, expressed great surprise at the immorality attributed to Dar-win and then said: "But I must in defense of the absent Darwin call attention to the very important principle at the heart of all analysis by the method of free association which apparently Dr. X has overlooked. It is this: in an analysis the person to be analyzed must make the associations. Since in this analysis, Dr. X made all the associations, the analysis is, by definition, that of Dr. X rather than of Darwin." " Now in our judgments of one another we begin, at least usually, with some action, or look, or statement of our neighbor. Then, as we. say, we "interpret" it. Really this interpretation is.a free asso-ciation of its meaning to us. The material .for it is drawn from our own experiences, our own feelings, attitudes, and ideas, our own 308 November, 1954 JUDGII'~IG OTHERS unconscious mind. And so in the judgment, we have revealed no~ our neighbor but ourselves. The injunction of Our Lord then is intended to protect our neighbor--and He threatens that He will place the judgment back squarely upon our own shoulders. The psychiatrist would say today, "Justly so. For you have judged yourself." How much th~ little-heSS, the jealousy, the short-sightedness, the bitterness, the hostility of human nature can give vent to (and at the same time do the devil's work')" through this simple mechan-ism! It, as we said before, can become so easily a part of our every-day- way-of-doing things. We use it on equals; alas, we use it on superiors, our spiritual fathers or mothers in religious life; and--a ¯ greater alas (because of their greater grace of state), superiors use it on their subjects, their spiritual children. Snap judgments; judging a whole area of life and intention from a single fact or incident; setting in movement a whole set of causes which shape a life and its work for Christ on the personal interpretation of a word, an action, an idea, or even a fault, are ways in which the mechanism works practically. If this one principle of Our Lord's, together with the mechanism of free association whereby.we violate it with such blind security, could be understood, what a difference it could make in social living! The application of that commandment whereby all men are to know that we belong to Christ would be much easier ! Psychology would give us another helpful hint in this matter. Since, when I judge another (let us say Sister Y), I do not really judge Sister Y but rather myself, this judging-others habit becomes an open book in which I can read myself and know 'my weaknesses and strengths. Our Lord is good to let us have so simple a revela-tion' of self always handy. Used aright, that is on one's self instead of on one's neighbors, the motives and the matter for speeding along the road of virtue should be plentiful. Our Lord exhorts us in another place to "judge just judgments." A true'judgment requires not "free association" but objective.truth and sound reasoning on prir;ciples. This is probably why the Holy Spirit in Ecclesiasticus so definitely connects wisdom and justice: He that possesseth justice shall lay hold of her . . . with the bread of life and understanding she shall feed him and give him the water of wholesome Wisdom to drink. "Judging just judgments" will require: (1) that we use all natural sources of knowledge, (2) 309 NEWS. A.ND V~ IE.WS ., t.ha.t we discipline the tendency to use undisciplined association, imagining it to be understanding, and (3) that. we call upofi those g!fts of the Holy Spirit, which we all possess, supernatural knowledge, .u.nderstanding, and wisdom. So often these lie like great untapped r.e.serves of grace and power on the outskirts of an all too busy and natural life. Certainly the first step towards this final goal of "just judgment" is to master completely the "free association-- judging-~babit." News and Views American Founders' Series "Xaverian Pioneers," in our present number, is the first response to our suggestion for an American Founders' Series (cf. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, XIII- [March, 1954], 62). We should like to re-peat the suggestion that good biographies of American founders would make both interesting and profitable reading. But we must also repeat that what we want is the story of American founders: that is, religious who either founded an institute in the United States or Canada or extended an already-existing institute to these coun-tries. For instance, the Xaverian BrotBers were founded in Belgium, but stress is rightly laid in the present article on the brothers who pioneered the establishment of the congregation in this country. Of what should such biographies consist? To answer the ques-tion negatively, let us say that the objective of this series is not to have panegyrics or pious table reading. The biographies should be factual and should bring out the character of the founder and the spirit of the institute, as well as the purpose or purposes that the institute is supposed to serve in the mission of the Church. Length of biographies? For our purpose, about four or five thousand words would be ideal. Nevertheless, we do not wish to confine authors to such a strict limit; after all, the real limit of an article ought to be ~the space required in order to do justice to the subject. Hence, shorter biographies would be acceptable, and so would loffger ones--up to, perhaps, eight thousand words. It seems advisable, also, to repeat here some of our previous sug-gestions regarding the style of the manuscript. 1) Every manuscript should be neatly typed, at least double (Continued on Page 329)" 310 '.Just: November--or Always? Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J. DOWN through the centuries, the Church Militant has pr'ayed for the souls in purgatory; this is evident, above all, from' the history of the Mass. However, it is not our purpose here to discuss the historical aspect of the devotion, but rather to show that this devotion should be an. integral part of the life of every religious. All religious, by profession, strive not only for their own sal-vation and spiritual perfection, but also for that of their neigfibor~ Reality is such a mesh of complex intertwining threads, each strength-ening and supporting the other, that we cannot divorce striving for personal sanctification from working for that of our neighbor. It is not in the tradition of the saints that we should first become per-fect and then work for the neighbor; rather the two should normally proceed simultaneously. Here we wish to stress that it is by work-ing for the sanctification of all souls, not only of those on earth but also of those in purgatory, that we ourselves reach our perfection and attain our salvation. It is by giving that we receive; by leading others to sanctity we can help sanctify ourselves. The need to pray for the Church Militant and those still not members of the Mystical Body is quite apparimt, and no one ~vould deny it. Equally so, no one would deny that the ~ouls in purgatory have need of our prayers; but is the need of the latter as, apparent as that of the former? Because members of the Church Militant still run the risk of losing heaven, some may conclude that they need all our prayerful efforts. As for the members of the Church Suffering, they are assured of beatitude--they have only to wait for it. It would be idle to argue which group needs our prayers more, but we can at least point out that the members of the Church Militant can help themselves, whereas those of the Church Suffering are en-tirely dependent upon the prayers of the living. In this article, then, we are going to consider the reasons why prayer for the souls in pu.rgatory has a place in the spiritual life of a religious and, coupled with this, we shall examine the effects that such a practice has upon the spiritual life of the religious himself. ' Itcan be said that the suffering souls have a claim ~o Our prayers in their behalf. Some of them may found this claim on certain spe- 31i 'JOSEPH N. TYLENDA Review for Religious cial ties; others can appeal o61y to our charity. We are not bound by any special ties to pray for all the dead, but surely we do have such special ties to our dead relatives, fellow religious, extern friends, benefactors, students, and others; and as a consequence, we are under some sort of obligation to pray for souls, their appeal is directed rather to our ~pecifically, to our sense of pity. We offer for them out of mercy and fellow-feeling, whose image we recognize in them. them. As for the other general charity or, more prayers and good works or out of love of God Can gratitude oblige us to pray for the dead? If we are bound to show gratitude and give thanks to the living for their goodness to us, are we any less bound to be grateful to the dead for the good-ness they have shown us while living, and which we, in our pride and envy, have perhaps refused to recognize? The religious order or. congregation to which we belong is a human instrument, and its present progress and perfection is owing in great part to the dead of our order that have gone before us. We, their spiritual children, now enjoy the fruits, without ourselves hav-ing done the sowing. To give but one instance--and this of the more tangible sort--the charity shown to us by our benefactors was enkindled by those now dead; nit is because of them that the living still enjoy many favors first meant for them. Can it be denied, then, that we owe them gratitude, that our fellow religious who have al-ready gone from this life still retain a claim on our prayers? We, as members of a religious community, are supposed to help our fellow re-ligious work out their salvation. Can we say that our task is done when they have died--when as y~t we cannot be sure that their souls are enjoying the blessed vision of God? While alive they gave us generously of their love and friendship, their kindness and help; furthermore, we may reasonably presume that they prayed for us; for our sanctification, our pe.rseverance. Again, these breth-ren of ours were by the good example they set us often our incen-tives to love God and practice virtue; in fact, their very presence ~tcted as a continual reminder of God's goodness and love. Praying for them is now our only way of thanking them. And we do owe' them thanks. In the light of this it is easy to understand why re-ligious institutes require that all their members offer certain definite suffrages for those who have died. Another important reason why we owe certain particular souls prayerful remembiances is that these souls may now be suffering 312 Ploverober, 1954 JUST NOVEMBER-~OR ALWAYS? because of us. Certain actions. ~of ours, either before or after our entrance into religion, may have caused them,, when still alive, to offend the just God, and now in .purgatory they .are .suffering in atonement for those offenses. In such a case, can we derby that we are partially re]ponsible for their sufferings? Are 'we not bound to help such souls? Shouldn't we atone for those faults together? It may be that our parents themselves have already died; there is no question but that for them at least we shall pray much. They gave us our earthly life, our shelter, and our food--gratitude demands that we see to it that they now speedily attain to eternal life, sure refuge and refreshment in their heavenly home. All of us, too, have other relatives and friends for whom we wish to pray and ought to pray. Many there are, therefore, for whom we are obliged in gratitude to pray; ~nd every one of us will, no doubt, be able to think of still other groups or individuals for whom he has some obligation to pray. Besides our duty towards many Holy Souls by reason of these special ties, al! the souls in purgatory excite our charity. Charity is giving of self to others, not because we owe it to them, but simply because they are in need and we can alleviate that need. The Holy Souls cannot leave purgatory until they have been purified and made ready for the beatific vision. This can be effected only through their suffering, or through the prayers and sacrifices offered for them by the living. Not without reason are the Holy Souls often called the "Poor Souls," for they cannot merit anything for themselves. From this' point of view, they are utterly dependent upon the liv-ing. It is charity that incites us to do what we can to lessen their punishments by praying for them and suffering with them. Prayers for the dead are as alms to the poor. Of themselves the dead are helpless to hasten the end of their suffering; but through our passing charitable acts they can come more quickly to the treasure heaped up for them in heaven. The Holy Souls are our 'brethren in distress; we must not close our eyes to their misery. The pre-cept of lovi.ng one'~ neighbor applies to the dead as well as to those that are alive. The mandate is "Love thy neighbor," and, as we know, this is equivalent to "Do good to thy neighbor"; in the present case it means "Pray for thy neighbor," for prayer (with sacrifice) is now the only thing good for them. Charity is also, and primarily, the love of God; but assuredly, to pray for the dead is to love God, for has He Himself not said, "As long as you did it 313 JOSEPH N. TYLENDA ' Reoiew for "Reli~iou's for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for hae"? Even from these brief considerations we may come to realize that constant prayer for the Holy Souls has.a necessary place in the life of every religious. However, an obje(tion may be raised that "helping the souls out Of purgatory is a selfish and rather mer-cenarY affair, since we know that they will, both now and upofi their entry into. glory, pray in turn for us." But this objection is wholly unwarranted, for this interchange of prayers between the members of the communion of the saints is not self-seeking in any bad sense of the term;, rather it is a perfect friendship based on a community of grace and charity, and manifesting itself in an ex-change of precious gifts." For doing good there is always a reward; heaven itself is the great and final reward for all our good actions. Can we doubt, then, that there is a special reward for the religious who prays for the dead? There will, surely, be more joy for him hereafter, but is there no more immediate reward which he will receive even while still here below? We believe there is: we be~lieve, for our part, that it consists in an enlivened desire to go to God, a deepened u'ndersta~ad-ing and appreciation of those words of Saint Augustine: "Our hearts were made for Thee alone, O God, and they shall not rest until [hey rest in Thee." Another reward that should come with praying for the dead is a greater de.testation of sin, which, even when forgiven, may still deserve such punishment, and with it a clearer understanding of the sanctity of God, who may not be seen face to face by any soul not wholly pure. Finally, this devotion should inflame us with the desire to have as much as possiblg of our own "purgatory" here on earth so that after death, with little or no delay, we may enter into the joy of Our Lord. Nor is it presumption for a religious to have the desire to avoid purgatory, for it is not in God's primary providence that any soul should go there. Christ would have us be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, and the perfect will have no need of the cleansing fires of purgatory. We ought not close this article without recalling the means we have at hand for helping the Holy Souls. These are, to be sure, prayers and indulgences, "works of penance, and, above all, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with its unlimited graces. However, these means and their efficacy are so well known to all religious that we do not need to e~plain ther~ here. We conclude in the ~ords of Sacred Scripture that "it is a holy 314 Nou.ernber, 1954 COMMUNICA@IONS and a wholesome thgught to. pray :~or. ~he.de.ad:i' Eve, ry soul out. of purgatory', through:.gur pr~yers,means another saint in heaven~a deeply'consoling thoughl~. Ought we,' then," to remember the souls in. purgatory only at the very end of our almost endless li~t of in~ t~ntions and as a matter of mere routine, or should we not rather .make our petitions f0~ them an integral part of-our prayers for the salvation and sanctification of our neighbor? With all this in mind,. can we maintain that such a devotion ought to receive emphasis ~luring one month only? Can we so confine our charity and our love of God and neighbor? ommun{ca -{ons Reverend Fathers : I have just finished reading Ft. Aumann's excellent article on "Religious and Modern Needs" in the July issue. May I congratu-late him for it? ' Fr. Aumann's article answers a definite need for establishing the correct relationship between contemplation and action. Many of us are unfortunately so engrossed in teaching and the other works of the apostolate that we are fatigued and overworked and cannot give the needed efforts and time to the so necessary life of prayer and meditation. As'a result everything suffers thereby. Thus we cannot insist enough on personal sanctification as the end of religious life. However, I would like to call your attention to another as-pect of the problem which struck me in reading Ft. Aumann's article. Some religious, I am afraid, misunderstanding this primary aim of personal sanctification over the apostolate, go to the other extreme and risk believing themselves good religious if they are materially faithful to their spiritual exercises. In this regard a fellow priest of mine ironically d~fined the good religious as one "who is regularly on time for all his spiritual exercises, punctual at meal time and other community gatherings, and who obeys his superior." But, as my friend pointed out, such a religious may not have begun to under-stand the spirit 'of his vocation. Bishop Ancel, of Lyons, France, pointed out in a conference to religious that the prime purpose of any vocation is to. continue the task that Christ lived while on earth--thus the reason for the 31~5 COMMUNICATIONS oows. We are, in other words, to have at the root of our spiritual lives the building up of "the Mystical Body. We are to have in us "the sentiments that were in Christ Jesus," 'at St. Paul put it. We must eat, drink, and sleep in terms of the growth of the Whole Christ. We must make our own the words of Christ, "I am come tO cast a fire on earth and what will I but that it be enkindled.".Religious must make their own St. Gregory's warning, "Nec castitas ergo magna est sine bono opere, nec opus bonum est aliquod sine castitate." (Cf. the whole homily for Confessors; 3rd Noct.) The reason I am writing this letter is that I believe too many of us do not have the proper sense of responsibility for the Mystical Body of Christ. We are content to let the pope, bishops, and superiors.worry about that. And in the meantime we are not pool-ing our collective heads to anM~rze the current situation, the needs of the Church, whether or not we are getting anywhere with our efforts, etc. A typical example of what I mean is that although classroom teachers are working harder than ever nowadays to do their .work, the pupils seem to be groffcing in secularism, etc, Influ-ences outside the classroom seem often to be gaining the mastery of them. And we are producing practically no apostles from our schools. Thus, I think that something should be done to awaken per-sonal responsibility for the future of the Mystical Body. Each one of us should constantly be saying to himself as the late Cardinal Suhard did, "What can we do, what can we do?" Too many of us, misunderstanding what is meant by the primacy of personal sanctification, are content to do merely what we have been ap-pointed to do, forgetting that we are religious to be other Christs, to "restore all things in Him," and that we must do this. We must be the salt of the earth or we shall be trodden under fo6t. I almost forgot to mention the need of a proper understanding of the relationships between th'e spiritual life and action. All action must come from contemplation--the "contemplata tradere" of St. Dominic. The thing is that contemplation and the primacy of the personal sanctification element properly understood mean that prayer and the Mass must drive us to action, and thought, and a sense of responsibility for the Mystical Body; and that vice versa action must push us constantly to more prayer and contemplation. That has always been the rule of the saints--the more they did the more they prayed, and the more they prayed, the more they did.--A PRIEST. 316 THE PROMISED WOMAN--An Anthology of the Immaculate Concep-tion. Edited by Brother Stanley G. Mathews, S.M. Pp. 3lb. The Grail. St. Meinrad, Indian~. 19S4. $4.00. "From the beginning then and befbre all ages .God selected and set aside a mother for His Only-Begotten Son." As he penned these momentous words one hundred years ago, Pius IX began to list the arguments for Our Lady's Immaculate Conception in the long-awaited Bull Ineffabilis Deus. Not only was this solemn pronounce-ment at once the welcome climax to centuries of belief in the doc-trine and the complete,satisfaction of the ardent desires of the faith-ful and their pastors, but it proved to be the impetus for a new and brilliant age of Marian literature, inspired largely by this definition. In spite of the abundance of books about Mary in the past cen-tury, however, there has been a notable lack of English literature on the Immaculate Conception. The present outstanding work has been designed precisely to fill that need. Acquainted with the best in Mariology in his capacity as li-brarian at the remarkable Marian Library in, Dayton, Brother Mathews has selected thirty-four of the finest tributes to the Im-maculate Conception for his anthology. They are divided into five sections. The eight opening articles stress the dogmatic theology of the doctrine. We, ll-written and short enough for some stimulating per-iods of spiritual reading, they give a good cross-section of contem-porary and recent authors: Vassall-Phillips, Neubert, Sheen, Zundel, Giordani, Bourke, and Feckes. Father Connell gives a short sum-mary of the historical development of the dogma. Part two features six monographs on the inspiration and apostolic influence man has derived from the Immaculate Conception. Espe-cially interesting is Father Ralph J. Ohlman's article on the Im-maculate Conception in the history of the United States. How St.Epiphanius and Bossuet extolled Our Lady is shown in part three, as well as more recent writers like Gueranger, Knox and Leen. A valuable section, part four, gives the answers of Newman, ¯ Ullathorne, Gibbons, and others to Protestant misconceptions about 317 BOOK REVIEWS Revieu; for Religious the Immaculate Conception. ¯ ~ In the final division are included0 six important papal documents from Sixtus IV (in 1476) to Plus XII, as well as two significant Pastoral Letters from the Councils of Baltimore. The scope and worth of this volume can be seen at a glanc'e. Brother Mathews is to be commended for his short introduction to each article--pithy enough not t6 be passed over unread, and yet entirely adequate. His apt section titles, too, are cleverly chosen from among the praises of the Blessed Virgin. It would have been of advantage to the reader to indicate more precisely in the table of contents the type of material in each of the six sections. The index, too, especiaIIy in an anthoIogy which will be used for ready reference, could have been much more complete. A bibliogral~hy of the better works on the Immaculate Conception in French, German, Spanish, and Italian would be of value to the scholarly reader. A final note on typography: Though the type-face for the text is well chosen, the indented quotations would look better in a smalIer case (perhaps itaIicized) than that used. --T. ~,V. "~/'ALTERS, S.J. PIO NONO. A Study in European Politics and Rellcjion in the Nine-teenth Century. By E. E. Y. Hales. Pp. 3S2. P. J. Kenedy and Sons. 1954. $4.00. The scope of this eminently readable account of the ItaIian Risorgimento is indicated in the volume's sub-title: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century. The argument the author proposes is that prince and pope in the mind of Plus were not distinct entities. As did his opponents, Mazzini, Cavour, Napolean III, and Bismarck, so too did Pio Nono con-ceive of a close interdependence of politics and religion. Hence his intransigent attitude toward "a free church in a free.state." Mr. Hales has not written "spiritual reading" for his English readers. He is concerned to present "the other side" to his. com-patriots whose views of Pio Nono have been slanted by Dr. Tre-velyan, and who, thanks to Lord Acton and The "-Ffmes. have al-ways looked on the Vatican Council with horror, and its offspring, papal infallibility, with contempt. Gladstone's letters on the Nea-politan prisons and'Palmerston's unabashed references to the Papal Government as the "worst of governments" fanned tempers already b, oiling over the restoration of the English hierarchy in 1850. The author's point is well made: "Has sufficient allowance for English 318 Nooember, 19.54 BOOK REVIEWS' enthusiasm for the risorgimento ever been madein disciassiohs bf.tlse' reactions in this country to the P@e'sSyilabus of Errors. in 1864. or his proclamation of the Dogma of Infallibility in' 18707" Considering the readers Mr. Hales bad in mind, we are npt sur-prised to find some elab6ration of the definition of the Imrfiactilate Conception--the only spiritual accomplishment of Pio Nono treated iridependently of political repercussions. Since the book bears the imprimatur of the Archbishop of New York, the theologian will find nothing censurable here, although he may wince at the,. author's ~eflection that it was. unfortunate that Plus "thre~ his personal 15restige into the scale" at the delicate weighing of papal infallibility. The select bibliography has additional value in that the author has noted the bias of the various authors. --THOMAS N. MuNsON, S.J. THESE CAME HOME. Compiled and edited by Gilbert L. Oddo, Ph.D. The Bruce Publishing Co. Milwaukee. 19S4. Pp. 179. $3.00. The drama of life is played in the concrete struggles of the in-dividual person with the problems which are uniquely his; and the greatest act of this drama is his wrestling with God. Though our faith teaches us that God acts out His part by pouring His grace into the soul, not in many places do we see this grace visibly operating. The fight against sin, which is certainly a work of grace, is not an experience many care to expose to the public. The qdyssey of a convert, however, provides matter which few are ashamed to tell about and is an excellent manifestation of the work of grace. Fifteen university graduate converts narrate their stories in These Came Home, presenting a persistent search for truth away from the shallow and illogical eclecticism in which they were raised. The discovery of a personal .God, the realization that there could be only one true Church established by Christ, the unmasking of the falsehoods and misrepresentations which surrounded their young minds about the Catholic Church, the realization of Our Lord's presence in the Blessed Sacrament are some of the stages on their way home. Some were Protestant ministers and had to abandon their professions; others net obstacles in their families and friends; but all of them endured the mental anguish of realizing that their lives were empty because they had not properly found God. The reader of this book will better appreciate his own faith and under-stand those who do not shar~ it.:~ALBERT J. SMITH, S.J. 319 BOOK REVIEWS MEDIAEVAL MYSTICAL TRADITION AND SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS. By aBenedic÷ine Of S÷anbrook Abbey. Pp. 161. The New-man Press, Westminster, Maryland. 19S4. $2.75. The author of this l~ook, by defining its scope with precision, has lightened the reviewer's pains. It is a historical study of medieval and sixteenth-century spirituality, culminating in that of the Mysti-cal Doctor, St. John of the Cross. After.h valuable sketch of the early Spanish period, successive chapters present Hugl~ and Richard of St. Victor, St. Bonaventure and his school, the German and Fle-mish mystics. The last chapter, "Spain Again, and Saint John of the Cross," brings the investigation to its goal. Within these bounds, the essayist has traced the theme of mysti-cal prayer. SlOe has read her sources with attentive care, and aligns their'yield with a steady eye to the main object. There is no over-load of learning, no pretentiousness whatever yet anyone, who has handled the tools of literary research will hold this specimen in high respect. The theory of the life of prayer, followed by the author, falls within a general scheme now widely accepted. The indispensable role of asceticism is pr~supposed.~ Vocal prayer, including petition, is taken for gbanted. To liturgical prayer is reserved its unique precedence. The writer's subject is mental prayer, and especially contemplation, acquired and infused. Acquired contemplation is the prayer of simple regard, and may be attained in some degree by a good will with the aid of ordinary grace. The inf.used forms of contemplation depend on God; they may be holily desired, but not counted on, in this world. Purgation, an essential process in the discipline of the senses and of the mind at every stage of pra~er~ takes a higher and severer form, if one is raised to the life of in-fused cgntemplation. What this historical essay has chiefly done for the present reader is tw6fold. It elucidates persuasively the unity of the mystical ex- ¯ perience (to adapt Gilson's phrase) in the Christian tradition, and the continuity, under a bewildering diversity of description, of the teaching of the mystics. Against this background, it sets the doc-trine of St. John of the .Cross in its proper focus as our Summa of mystical theology. In particular, it is he, as the author points out, who has studied with care the nature of acquired contemplation and of the approaches to mystical prayer, as distinguished from the great gift itself. 320 November, 1954 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS The Benedictines of Stanbrook are accustomed to give us works of solid worth. The present small volume is an honor to-their tradition.---EDGAR R. SMOTHERS, S.J. BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS BRUCE PUBLISHING CO., 400 N. Broadway, Milwaukee I, Wis. A Man Born Again. St. Thomas More. By John E. Beahn. Once you begin to read this book, you will find it diffic.ult to lay it aside. It is a fictionalized biography written in the first person: Pp. 208. $3.00. CAPUCHIN FATHERS, 220 37th St., Pittsburgh 1, Penna. The Lagbrother According to the Heart of St. Francis. The Lagbrother Manual. Both books are by Clarence Tscbip-pert, O.F.M.Cap. The first is a translation.and the second an adap-tation from the German, In the German original they have been popular for many years among German-speaking Capuchins and have led many a Capuchin brother along the ways of perfection. The first book is a brief treatise on perfection from the practical point of view. Much of the doctrine is embodied in prayers. The second book is a vade mecum for the brothers. It takes a brother through all the actions of the day. It contains both,instruction and prayers. Both books may well serve as models as to what can be done to h~lp lay brothers in their difficult vocatibn. God's honor and glory would be increased if every brother of whatever order or congregation had similar aids to lead him to perfection. THE GRAIL. St. Meinrad, Indiana. The Jogs, Sorrows, and Glories of the RosarV. By Raphael Grashoff, C.P. This is a small book. It measures only three and a half by five and a quarter inches. In mandscript form it was used for public reading during laymen's week end retreats at Holy Cross Passionist Monastery in Cincinnati. Its purpose is to help indi-viduals to say the rosary as our Lady wants them to say it. Each of the fifteen chapters is preceded by a full page pen-and-ink draw-ing depicting one of the mysteries of the rosary. The excellent drawings are by Sister Augusta Zimmer, S.C. Pp. 173. $1.00. School Teacher and Saint. A Biography of ~Saint Lucy Filippini, By Pascal P. Parente, S.T.D., Ph.D. The foundress of the Re-ligious Teachers Filippini died on March 25th, 1732. It was°not until June 22, 1930, that she was canonized: It was 1910 before 321 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS" Reoieto "[or ~ R~ligioug. ttie'first five Religious Teachers Filippini opened their first gchooI in the United States i~t Trenton, New Jersey. It is not remarkable, therefore, that she is little known in this country. The present volume, the first biography in English, should do much to bring her the honor and reco.gnition she so richly deserves. The book is generously illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Paul Grout. Pp. 170. $3.00. Teen-Agers' Saint. St. Maria Goretti. By Mgr. James Morelli. Edited by William Peil. The book gives a brief account of the life, martyrdom, and triumph of this "Saint Agnes of the Twen-tieth Century." The illustrations by Gertrud Januszweski add con-siderably to the attractiveness of the book. The work should prove quite appealing to teen-agers, especiall~ grade-school and early-high-school students. Pp. 84. $2.00. B. HERDER BOOK CO., 15 South Broadway, St. Louis 2, Mo. The LitanF o[ Loreto. By Richard KIaver, O.S.C. That the Litany of Loreto is beautiful, and is really a poem in blank verse, all users of this litany will admit. Many, however, may not realize that it is an epitome of MarioIogy. Father Kla~ier proves this point in l~is commentary on the Litany, for to explain the various invo-cations he draws on the whole of Marian theology. The book should contribute much to make the recitation of the Litany more meaningful. Pp. 227. $3.75. Catholic Liturg~t-~Its Fundamental Principles. By the Very Rev. Gaspar Lefebvre,O.S.B. Translated by a Benedictine of Stan-brook. Here is an old classic in a new revised edition, the third in English. It should be on the shelves of the library of every religious community. Pp. 300. $3.50. The Rosary1 in Action. By John S. Johnson. A layman who knows from experience the difficulties that laymen have in the reci-tation of the rosary, soIves those difficulties. There are sections on the history of the rosary and on mental prayer. A very useful book. Pp. 271. $1.75. Neu~ Testament Stories. By Rev. C. C. Marfindale, S. J, It is a child's l{fe of Christ. All who have the care of children will wel-come this well-written book. Pp. 140. $2.25. P. J. KENNEDY AND SONS, 12 Barclay St., New York 8, N. Y. "Marg's Part in Our Redemption. By Msgr. Canon George D. Smith, D.D., Ph.D. This is a revised edition of a book which first 322 November, 1954 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS appeared in 1937. Its author is an eminent professor and theologian, who, in this instance, writes not for theologians but for the faithful: Thi~ Rev. Wm. G. Most characterizes the book as one "that co-or-dinates and integrates the dogmatic truths behind devotion to Mary with a solid, unsentimental, and balanced application of these truths to the life of the soul." Pp. 191. $3.00. 'THE LITURGICAL CONFERENCE. Elsberry, Mo. Proceedings of the National Liturgical Conference, 1953. Th£ celebration of a National Liturgical Week, each year in a different place, is one of the most effective means employed by the Liturgical Conference to make both clergy and laity liturgical minded and so to promote a deeper and more solid piety. The present volume re2 ports the National Liturgical Week at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its central theme was St. Pius X and Sqcial Worship. It contains not only the papers read at the conference but a stenographic report of the discussions whidh followed. Rea~ing the volume one can catch. the enthusiasm which prevailed at the meetings. Pp. 199. $2.00. THE NEWMAN PRESS. Westminster, Maryland. Talks to Teen-Agers. By F. H. Drinkwater. The book is not for teen-agers but for those who are responsible for their spiritual and gemporal welfare. It consists of outlines arranged topically, and should prove very helpful as a rich source of material for talks and discussions. Pp. 110. $2.00. " All Things ir~ Christ. Encyclicals and Selected Documents of St. Plus X. Edited by Vincent A. Yzermans. Thirteen encyclicals and ten other documents are presented in this volume. Each docu-ment is prefaced by an explanatory note which gives the theme ~f the document and its setting: it is followed by a list of pertinent references. Pp. 275. $4.00. J. S. PALUCH CO., INC., 2712 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago 14, Illinois. The Imitation of Christ. The translation' is new and into mod-ern English. The cover is a reproductic;n in color of a portrait painting of Christ by Jerome Gibbons. This is a Lumen book. Pp. 173: $0.50. THE SCAPULAR PRESS, 339 E. 28th St., New York 16, N. Y. Union With Our Lad~ . By Ven. Marie Petyt of St. Teresa. Translated by Rev. Thomas E. McGinnis, O.Carm., S.T.L. That Our Lady has a part to play in the salvation and sanctification of 323 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS each individual soul is a truth all religious accept. Some may not be aware how large that part is. The present volume of excerpts of the letters of the Ven. Marie petyt show how very large that part was for her., They show too how a religious may grow in devotion to Our,Lady and so make greater progress toward perfection. The . letters are followed by an excellent one-page outline of the Marian doctrine of Mary Petyt and her spiritual director Fr. Michael of St. Augustine. Twelve one-page meditations on the Blessed Virgin conclude the volume. Pp. 75. Paper $I.00. TEMPLEGATE, Springfield, Illinois. Guide to the Bible. By the monks of Maredsous. Translated from the French by Gerda R. Blumenthal. To read the Bible, par-ticularl~ r the Old Testament, without guidance almost inevitably means to miss the meaning intended by God its author. All that an intelligent reader must know about the Bible will be found in this volume of less than a hundred pages. It should do much to promote the reading of the Sacred Scriptures. Pp. 92. $0.85. All My Life Love. A commentary on St. Th~r~se's poem Vfvre d'Arnour. By Michael Day, Cong. Orat. The translation of the poem is by Ronald Knox. In the poem we 'have a treatise on the love of God as conceived by a saint and poet. Each stanza of the poem, together with the commentary that follows it, can very profitably be used as subject matter for meditation. Pp. 56. $1.25. NOTICE FOR PUBLISHERS Our Book Re~,iew .Editor is Father Bernard A. Hausmann, S.J., of West Baden College. Publishers fire requested to send all books intended.for review in this periodical to: Book Review Editor, Review for Religious, West Baden College, West Baden Sprlncjs, Indiana. 324 Questions and Answers m3 I~ A slsterwith solemn vows in a contemplative order was received without a dowry. It is not clear whether this dispensation was to be con-ditional at that time. The sister wishes now to establish a dowry. Will she need the perm[sslon of the Holy See, or will the superlor's permis-sion suffice? By. taking solemn vows sister gave up her right to ownership of temporal things, hence also the right to acquire anything in the future by way of inheritance, legacy or gift for herself. Here is what canon 582 of the code has to say on the subject: "After solemn profession, likewise without prejudice to any special indults of the Apostolic See, all the property which comes in whatever manner to a regular [that is, to one who takes vows in an order, can. 488, 7°]: "1 ° In an order capable of ow.nership, goes to the order, prov-ince, or house, according to the constitutions; "2° In an order incapable of ownership, it becomes the property of the Holy See." Sister, therefore, must turn over to her monastery whatever money or other temporal goods may come to her from any source whatsoever after she has made her solemn profession. Superiors will then have a free disposition of this money or other goods, since it " now belongs to the monastery. In case the monastery is incapable of ownership, superiors may ask the Holy See for permission to put aside that amount of money required for a dowry by the constitu-tions, and use it for that purpose. According to our constitutions a novice who becoms gravely ill may be admitted to profession . . . and a plenary indulgence in the form of a jubilee is also granted to her mercifully in the Lord. What is % plenary indulgence in the form of a jubilee?" As far back as 1570, Pope Saint Pius V, a member of the Order of Preachers, allowed any novice of the second order of Dominican nuns who was in danger of death to make her religious profession. In the course of time this privilege was extended to other second orders. 325 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Reoiew [or Religious In 1912 (September 3) Pope Saint Plus X extended this privi-lege to all novices of. every religious order.or congregation or society, and his grant was published in. a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, dated September 10, 1912 (AAS. IV, [1912], 589- 590) which laid down detailed regulations regarding this profession of a novice at the hour of death (see REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, I, [March, 1942], 117-122). In this decree, under number 4, occur the words: "to him is granted mercifully in the Lord a plenary in-dulgence and remission of all his sins in the form of a jubilee." This phrase, "in the form of a jubilee," adds nothing to the plenary in-dulgence granted but is merely gn honorary title, so to speak, which indicates the generosity of the Roman Pohtiff in granting this extra-ordinary indulgence (se~ de Angelis: De Indulgentiis, ed. 2, Rome, 1950, p. 128 n. 176). m33m Our constitutions state: "two members of the same family, for ex-ample, two sisters, two cousins, or an aunt and a niece, may not at the same time be members of the general council." Now the father of our. newly elected mother general is a first cousin of the father of the sister elected to be the fourth general councllor. May this sister act validly and licitly as a member of the general council together with our recently elected mother general? Canori 19 of the Code.of Canon Law tells us that laws which restrict the free exercise of rights are to be interpreted strictly, that is: "the words are taken in their proper meaning, but in a narrower sense than must necessarily be attached to them; an interpretation is broad when the proper meaning of words is retained, but it is taken in a wider sense than the word bears at all times." (Lydon, Read~l Answers in Canon Law, ed. 3, 1948, p. 336.) Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1950, ~lefines "cousin" as: "2. Specif: a son or daughter of one's uncle or aunt; also, a relative descended the same number of steps by a different line from a common ancestor." The first definition is the strict interpretation according to cXnon law, the second a broad interpretation. Ordinarily the term cousin is understood of persons called first cousins. Since the fathers of the recently eldcted mother general and of the newly-elected fourth councilor are first cousins, these religious are really second cousins, and hence do.not come within the strict canonical interpretation of the term "two cousins," as used in ithe 326 Nouember, 1954 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS constitutions, referred to ifi the question. Hence both sisters may continue in office as members of the general council. We should add that our interpretation is based on the assumption that the examples given in the constitutions limit the meaning of "two members 6f the same f~imily." This interpretation seems reasonable to us. We are a diocesan institute. Our constitutions read as follows: (I} "The sisters elected to the general chapter shall remain, everyone in her own office, up to the ne~t chapter. No one can be deposed,, unless for a grave cause and by the general council alone." (2) "The mistress of novices shall be appointed by the superior general and her council." The general chapter is not a month old, whe~ the second councilor is appointed to the position of mistress of novices. May she be a meml~er of the general council and mistress of novices at the same time? No pro= vision ~s made in our constitutions for an event of this kind. The Normae of 1901, in. article 300, forbade the mistress of novices to hold any other office which might impede the care and direction of the novices and explicitly mentioned the office of general councilor. This article has been written into many constitutions and must be observed in 'such cases. The Code of Canon Law merely laid down a general norm in canon 559, § 3, which says: "Both [the master of novices and his assistant] should be free }rom all other occupations which could hinder them in the care and gov-ernment of the novices." The Code does not determine in par-ticular whicfi offices are incompatible; this judgment is left to the constitutions and to the prudent judgment of superiors. Now since your constitutions have no such prohibition, superiors may determine that the office of mistress of novices is not incompatible with that of general councilor. In that case the second councilor remains a member of the general council and also assumes the office of mistress of novices. --35-- Until recently our congregation has been merely diocesan. Our con-stitutlons permitted the mother gqneral to be elected to two terms of six years each, but not to a third immediate term. Recently we have re-. ceived the Decree of Praise from the Holy See and are now a pontifical congregation. Our new constitutions, like the old, permit a sister to hold two consecutive terms of six years each as mother general, but not a third immediate term. We are to have a general chapter in January, and our 327 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Replete for Religious present mother general will have completed twelve consecutive years in office by that time. Some sisters contend that under the new con!stltu-t[ ons she will be eligible for immediate re-dection for two more terms of six years each without any special permNslon from the Holy See. Is this correct? Father Frederic Muzzarelli, S.S.P. in his book De Congregation-ibus Iuris Dioecesani, published in Rome in 1943, holds this opinion, and Father Gallen referred to this interpretation, apparently with ap-proval (REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS XII [September, 1953], 255). Father Muzzarelli gives the following reason for his opinion: "The time spent in office under the former constitutions is not to be com-puted, since these have nol/¢ lost all force." It seems to us that this in-terpretation is contrary at least to the spirit of the Letter of the Sacred Congregation of Religious dated March 9, 1920 (see Canon Law Digest, I, 276-277, for English text), and sent to all the local ordinaries of the world. The Letter stresses the years spent in of-rice, regardless c;fthe manner of obtaining .it. This likewise seems to be meaning of canon 505 which states that "higher superiors shall be temporary." Father Muzzarelli interprets "temporary" as "not perpetual" but the Letter seems to make it very clear that "tem-porary" is to be taken in the ordinary sense of the term. Twenty-four consecutive years of office certainly seems to us longer than the ordinary meaning of tempora[y. Our interpretation of the canon is confirmed by a recent state-ment of Father Anastasius Gutierrez, C.M.F., an official of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, who published a series of articles regarding the present practiceof the Sacred Congregation in Com-mentarium pro Religiosis during 1953 and is continuing the same during 1954. Here is his statement: "No matter how the mother general may have been promoted to or continued in office (by nom-ination, election, or confirmation), once twelve years of continuous regime have elapsed, she is no longer canonically eligible; she may be postulated, but cannot be re-elected" (page 90)." --36-- . Could you please give us a list of books that treat of obedience? Among rather recently-published books are the following. Valen-tine, O.P., Religious Obedience: A Practical Exposition for Sisters, (London, 1950; also, the Newman Press, Westminster, Md.). Polit, S.J., Perfect. Obedience: A Commentary on the Letter on 328 November, 1594 NEWS .AND VIEWS Obedience, translation by William Young, S.J. (Newman Press, Westminster, Md., 1947) PI~, O.P. (editor), Obedience--Volume III of series on religious .lii:e (Newman Press, Westminster, Md., 1953). Some rather recent books that contain extensive treatment of the subject are the following. Fennelly, C.S.Sp., Follow Me (Burns ~ Oates, London, 1943) ; see Part III, pp. 123-203.Msgr. Gay, Re-ligious Life and the Vows (Newman Press, 1942--reprint of an old book) ; see Part III, pp. 167-264. Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Catechism of Religious Profession (Metuchen, N.J., 1943--new edi-tion in press) ; see Section IV, pp. 159-201. Brothers of ~he Chris-tian Schools, Short Treatise on the Religious State, (Paris, 1950) ; see Chapter VIII, pp. 270-324. And, finally, see the first volume of "the series on the religious life, Religious Sisters (Newman Press, 1950): "The Vow of Obedience," by Marie-Joseph Nicolas, O.P.; and "The Adaptation of Religious Obedience," by Reginald Go-mez, O.P. In listing these, various treatises on obedience we do not neces-sarily recommend them because we have not read all of them suffi-ciently for that. Also, we list these because .we happen to have them at hand. Readers may know other treatises, and their suggestions would be welcomed. NEWS AND VIEWS (Continued from Page 310) spaced (triple is even better), with at least an inch of margin on each side of the page. It is difficult to make editorial notations on a crowded page. 2) Onion-skin paper should not be used. It is frustrating to try to make editorial notations on such paper. 3) For practical purposes, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS follows what might be called the "old-fashioned" method of printing quo-tations: that is, we print them just like the rest of the article, except for the fact that they are in quotation marks. This same system should be followed in manuscripts. 4) The use of capital letters should be very reserved. Congress in Canada Our May number (pp. 138-40) contained a great deal of pre-liminary information concerning the national congress of religious institutes to be held" in Montreal, July 26-30. The Acta of the 329 NEWS AND VIEWS Review" for Religious congress will be published: but~-we do not know the precise date of publication. In the meantime, pending the publication of th~ Acta, our readers will no doubt be interested in the following in-formation, which we have received through the kir~dness of Father Edward Sheridan, S.J., one of the Associate Secretaries of the con-gress and First Vice-President of the executive council of religious men. Interesting statistics include the following: At the inaugural general session were three cardinals and some twenty bishops. Also present at the congress were four abbots. In approximate figures, the delegates, representing some 200 religious institutes, with a total of 60,'000 members, were distributed thus: 400, representing 12,500 French-speaking religious men (of whom about 6,000 are teaching brothers); 150, representing 2,500 English-speaking religious men; 600, representing 37,000 French-speaking religious women; 250, representing 8,000 English-speaking religious women. Included among the delegates were 259 major superiors. At the inaugural general assembly Cardinals MacGuigan, of Toronto, and L~ger, of Moni~real, stressed adaptation and moderni-zation in habit and custom book. These points were also much stressed in the sessions of religious women. One fruit of the congress was the establishment of a Canadian Religious Conference--a permanent conference of all major religiou~ superiors resident in Canada, with a permanent secretariate to be established in Ottawa. This was. in resptonse to the express wish of the Sacred Congregation of Religious. Very Reverend Girard- Marie Par~, O.P., was elected the first president of this conference. The closing exercise of the congress was a torch-light procession and outdoor evening Mass, at the famous St. Joseph's Shrine. The Apostolic Delegate, the Most Reverend Giovanni Panico, was the celebrant. The physical plant was ideal for the meetings. This included St. Laurent College, conducted by the French Canadian Holy Cross Fathers; and St. Laurent Convent, of the Holy Cross Sisters--the two together constituting some five solid city blocks of religious and educational buildings, with fine grounds. The Holy Cross Fathers and Sisters were indefatigable in doing everything possible to make the congr.ess a success. The modus agendi of the sectional meetings--which especially impressed Cardinal Valeri, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Religious and President of the congres.s--was planned and executed 330 Nooernber, 1594 NEWS AND VIEWS x~ith remarkable ingenuity and efficiency. Before the congress, four books (one for each of the four sections) were printed. These books contained general information, outlines (some rather com-plete) of each of the papers to be given at the sectional meetings, topics for discussion and study, and the full text of the address given by Pope Plus XII to the congress of religious in Rome, December 8, 1950. Every delegate was provided with one of these books. Each of the sections had its own general session in the morning, at which four twenty-minute papers were read Jan the subjects indicated. Then each section broke up into study committees, of from twelve to twenty members, each committee discussing one of the papers read for a period of one hour. After lunch, the committees met again for an hour's discussion, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. From 3:00 to 3:30 the speaker of the fiaorning conferred with the presidents and sec-retaries of the committee

Issue 11.5 of the Review for Religious, 1952. ; A. M. D.G. ' ' Review for Religious SEPTEMBER i5, 1952 Congress of Religious . The Editors Towards Continual Prayer . Pa.I DeJaegher Cases o~ Illegitimacy . Joseph F. Gallen ' "~ . Pius XII and Our Lady . JohnA. Hardon "Meaning" of A.M.D.G . Walter ~J. Ong Q, uesfions and Answers Book No÷ices VOLUME XI NUMBER 5 REVIEW FOR. RELIGIOUS VOLUME XI SEPTEMBER, 1952 NUMBER 5 CONTENTS CONGRESS OF RELIGIOUS~The Editors . 225 TOWARDS CONTINUAL PRAYER--Paul De Jaegher, S.J . 231 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . ¯ . 241 PRACTICAL AND PASTORAL C/(SES ON ILLEGITIMACY~ Joseph F. Gallen, S.J . " . 242 COMMUNION CARD FOR HOSPITALS . 248 COMPLETE TEXT OF SPONSA CHRIST1 IN ENGLISH . 248 LEGISLATION OF SPON,$A CHRI,~TI . 248 POPE PIUS XII AND OUR LADY---3ohn A. Hardon. S.J . 249 "A.M.D.G.": DEDICATION OR DIRECTIVE~Waher J. Ong, S.J. 257 TEN-YEAR INDEX--LIMITED SUPPLY . 264 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSm 21. Moral Obligation of Voting . 265 22. Boundary of Novitiate . 269 23. On Reading Rodriguez . 269 24. Change in the Habit . 270. 25. Applying Indulgences to Souls in Purgatory . 270 26. Honoring'Bequests for Masses . . . '. . 270 27. Unrealizable Desires for Sanctification . 271 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS . 272 BOOK NOTICES . 274 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, September, 1952. Vol. XL No. 4. Published bi-monthly: January, March, May, July, September, and November at the Colleg.e Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas, by Sty Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matteb ,January 15, 1942, at the Post Office, Topeka, Kansas, under the a~t of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Jerome Breunig, S.J.; Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.; Adam C. Ellis, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.3.; Francis N. Korth, S.3. Copyright, 1952, by Adam C. Ellis, S.J. Permission is hereby granted for quota- ~ions of reasonable le.ngth; provided due credit be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U. S. A. Before writing to us, please consult notice on inside back cover. Congress ot: Religious The Editors ~"HE first National Congress of Religious of'the United States w.as .| held at "th~ University of Notre Dame, August 9 to 12, 1952. Three members of our editorial staff attended as delegates. At the various sessions we tried to note points that would be bf special interest to our readers: and, since it was impossible for us tobe per-sonally present at ail the different sectional, meetings, we asked many friends t~ make similar n6tes. ,The present report is made up from these notes "jottings" might be a better word. .Regarding our report, let us make two observations. First, it is not intended to be a complete a&ount of the Congress. Official Proceedings of the Congress will be published soon and will give this complete accountl ' Secondly, even as an incomplete account, our re-port is not adequate; it represents merely what a comparatively tiny number of de'legates considered point.s of spedal interest. It would .help us greatly if other delegates who read this rePort would Suppl~- ¯ ment (or~ correct, if need be) this material by sending us communi-cations containing their own impressions: And it would also ,help if any r.eaders, whether delegates or not, w, ould send their observations on the points recorded her~. This "request for commtinications r~eeds emp,hasis. The Congress opened up for discussion many vital points concerning our religious life; but because of lack of time it could do,no more than start the discussion. Readers' of this Review would do a great service to the ~ellgious life in this country if they would continue this discussion. by the frank and constructive expression of theii own observations-on these ~;ital points. Purposes of Congress " The Congress was summonedby the Sacred Congre~gfition of Religious, as a mean~ of intensifying and. strengthe.ning the religious life in the United States, of givii~g religious of all institutes an op-portunity to exchange ideas and particularly to discuss the problems ~ertaining to the adjustment of the religious life to ~onditions, pie- ¯ vailing in our land without compromising the principles on which the religious life is based. We believe that the. first purpose of.the Cbngress the intensi- ' ,225 THE EDITOP~ Review f6r, Retigious lying ~nd strengtt~ening of. our own. r~eligious life--~as. easily .the central point of the meetings andthat' ~ good start was m~de towards its accomplishment.~ C~rtainly all of us were~ inspire~d with-the de'sire of becoming better religious arid of making our" institutes more.effec-tive means in the great work of the Church. As c~n'e Sisterwho helped us p~epare?these notes put it:. "Probabl~ among the fi, nest outcomes of the First National .Congress of Religio,us of the Ufiited States will be a'faller.realization'on the.part ofeach community, whether large or ~all, of iis.actual, p~iticipation and impqrtance.in i~he Mystical -Body. of ~hrist; a deeper feeling of p~rspnal love for our Holy Father' and an appreciation Of his interest in our spiritual and temporal well- .,being; an~under.standila~g of the ,eagerness,. of the members 6f the Sacred Congregation of Religiou~ to serve our need~s and tO assist us to b~come holy, saintly' religious; and finally, a cloker bond among th( religious communities'of the United States, with e~ich ~roup cor~: scious of its imp6rtance to the good of the whole 'and, ready to assist in furthering the 'apostolic endeavors of every, other institute:" ¯ The other purposeF-~-the ekchange of ideas and the consideration of nece~sary adjustment~--also received their due attention" at both the scheduled sessiofis and the informal meetings of smaller groupL The on.e flaw in the plaorfing of the Congress, if there was 0ily fl~w,. was that there were so many.papers that the.re was not sufficient time for discussion°fr0m the floi3r. Nevertheless, a fine beginning was made, and w,e hope that what was begun at Notre Dame can be car- ¯ tied on much further in' the discussi6ns in this R~view and in smaller meetings that can be arranged from time ~o time. . Organization .The Sacred Congregation of." Rhligioussent. f~ur representatives to theCongress: .The Most Reverend Atcadio LarraonL C.MIF., Secretary of the Congregation: the Very Reverend Giuseppe\Gi.am- ~pietro, S.J., the assistant to Father Larraona i~ the organization of regional "meetings of religious; the .Very Reverend Elio Gambari, S.M.M'., .whose specihl duty is-to handlethe affairs of refigious :in the United States; and the ~i~y Re;gerend Edward 'L. Heston, C.S.C:, the Secretary G~ner~l for, the Congress in the United States. ¯ The Congress was divided into two sections, for religious n~dn and religious women respective.ly. The Very-P(everend John ~J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., who was President of the University of Notre .Dame atthe time the C6ngress was.plhnned, wasHonora.ry~Chair- 226 ~September, 1952 , (~ONGRESS OF RELI,.GIOUS manfor both groups. Executiye Chairman for Religious Men was. the "Very Reverend FranCis J.Connell, C.SS.R.; and for Religious W~men, the_Reverend Mother Mary. Gerald Barry,. O.P., the Supe-rior, General 6f the.Domlnican Sisters of Adrian; Michigan. Co- - ordinato.r of the. Congress'was the Re~'e~end Alfred F: .Mendez. C.S.C. The work done by Fathers Connell and Mendez and Mother " Mary Geriild in preparing for th~ Congress "was little shdrt of miraculous. They had only al~out three months tb make their pre-parati6ns, yet every detail, both Of the preparations and Of the'actual carrying out of the"Congre.ss,: was S~l~erbfy:planned and executed. As one small sample.migh~ l~e instanced the plans for daily Masses: there, were seven hur~dred Masses.each day; yet there was not the 'slightest -c~nfusion or difficulty in getting, iri ~he Masses. ~ ¯ Other members of the Committee for the sectlon of Rehgmus ¯Men were: theVery Rev~:end Godf.rey Diekmann, O.S.B.; the Very Reverend Philip F. Mulhern, O.P.: the,.Very Reverend'Thomas .~. Plas'smann, O.F.M.: the Ve~y Reverend Adam C. Ellis, "S.J.: the Very Reverend Basil Frison, C.M.F.; Venerable Brother Alexis Vic-.- tor, F.S~C.; Venerable Brother Ephrern O'Dwyer, C.S.C.; Vener-able Brother William, ~.F.X. O~her members of the committee .for Religious Women were: the Re~,erend .Mother M. Catherine Sullivan, D.C.: the Reverend'. Mother-M. Rose Elizabeth, C.S.C." the Reverend Mother M. li~n, C.S.J.; the Reverend 'Mother M. Joan 0t: Arc Cronin, O.S.U. the Reverend. Mot'her Mari~Helene,. S.P.: and Sister M. Madeleva.;" Spiritual Ideals In one wa.y'or anothe'r many. of the discussions at the C~ngr~ss centered on the clarification of the spiritual ideals common to reli-gious. ins~itfltes and on the .means. of¯ attaining these ideals., Particu-larly stressed was.~he fact that religious.need a deep pers'orial devo~ tion to Christ. Basic to such a devotion is the knowledge of.Christ; iand the young r~llg~ous must be.helped ~o get th~s knowledge, partly through Well-planned reading, and~mostly through prayer--for it is ~i knowledge.of the heart, and it is given by the Holy Ghost to ~hose " who humbly and perse~'erifigly seek it. ¯The fervent-reception of. Holy Communion-is a great help to.the atta!ning of this interior -knowledge and devotion. Incidentally, in. the men:s discussion 6f this tiepin, it was poin~e~, out that here, as i~ Other aspec~so,of their religious training, youri~ religious are inspired.by the goqd example ¯ 227 THE EDITOR,S " Review/:or Religigus of thei~ elders-and are proportib.nate!y harmed by thelack of such example. Several discussions also emphasized the need of a sense of per, sor~al responsibility. For. instance, one danger oK the religious life, with its many exercises in common, is .what migl~t be called "~herd-spirituality": one goes to the exercise automatically and takes.part with a sort, of detached numbness, ,as though ¯partially anesthetized. The chief wa~ to counteract this is the constant striving on the part of the individual to make the exercls~ personal. Also, some religious who lead an active aposl~olate, especially in small houses, .are fre-quently unable to have common exercises. They can lose the rell-gious spirit completely Unless through their own personal efforts they try to form a plan for making their various spiritual exercises in private. " The same idea of personal responsibility, under the formality of per_sonal initiative, was prominent in the men's discussion of religious obedience. It was pointed out,that apostolic initiative is n6t stifled by obedience, though it must often be controlled for the common good, as well as for the good of the individual. The rel, igious who always waits to be told what to do. is by no. means the model of perfect obedience, and the superior who requires this of his subjects is by no,means the perf.ect superior. , In a paper t, bat all will read With interest and profit, the Very Reverend Giles Staab, O.F.M.C~'p., reduced the moral qualifications of candida.tes to the religious life to the)four virtues of generosity, docility, prudence,~and loyalty. The generous candidate will¯have the r~quisite piety, the fight intention,' the chastity, and the zeal. The docile candidate will be obedient and thus further the Work of the i.nstitute. The prudent candidate will have good jiadgment and emotional control. And ~he candidat~ imbued with a spirit Of loya[t~t.will, be ready to subordinate his own interests to thqse of the community and will, as a natural consequence, b~e a, gobd communi@ man: a religious withsocial 'balanch, cgurtesy, and considerateness." Conte~ptative Life The .Right Reverend Abbot M. James Fox, O.C.S.O., gave' an interesting and informative talk about the contemplative life in gen-eral and the Trappists' life inparticular. He said that there is.a great hunger for thec0ntemplative life in modern America, . and he illustrated this statement.by quotin~ excerpts from man'y letters'that h'e has received from applicants to the' Trappi~ts. The Trappists,., 228 " ' v Sep~ei'hber~ 1952.- " CONGRESS OF RELIGIOUS he said, have about ~700' novices in their varigus" houses ~throu.ghmit the world';" ,approximately half:of these novices ,are, in the' United State~.'In less than ten years the" Trappist monasteries in 'this country have increased from three' to ten.," °, "'- .~, Why the attraction to "contemplative orders?.+. At one of Sisters' sessions it was suggested that yout.h are attracted to the co.n= templative life because they,feel that in this life they can

Issue 16.6 of the Review for Religious, 1957. ; A. M. D. G. Review for Religious NOVEMBER 15, 1957 Current Spiritual Writing . Thomas G. O'Callaghan The Intellectual Life of Religious Sister Emily Joseph Survey of Roman Documents . R. I:. Smith Persevering in Prayer . Mother Marie Vandenbergh Book Reviews Communications Questions and Answers I:::or Your Information Index for 1957 VOLUME 16 NUMBER 6 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS \7o~,~.~E 16 NOVEMBER, 1957 NUMBER CONTENTS FOR YOUR INFORMATION . SOME BOOKS RECEIVED . OUR CONTRIBUTORS . CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING-- Thomas G. O'Callaghan, S.J . THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE RELIGIOUS: PRACTICAL ASPECTS--Sister Emily Joseph, c.s.J . FATHER GALLEN'S ABSENCE . BOUSCAREN-ELLIS . COMMUNICATIONS . SURVEY OF ROMAN DOCUMENTS--R. F. Smith, S.J . PERSEVERING IN PRAYER-- Mother Marie Vandenbergh, R.C . BOOK REVIEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Editor: Bernard A. Hausmann, S.J. West Baden College West Baden Springs, Indiana . QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: 34. Simplification of the Habit . 35. Bibliography on Renovation and Adaptation . 36. Minimizing the Religious Exercises . 37. Anticipation of Perpetual Profession Not Permitted . 38. Using Personal Gifts for Masses . 39. Reciting the Formula of the Vows Collectively . INDEX FOR VOLUME 16 . 321 ¯323 323 324 337 341 341 342 343 350 366 375 377 378 379 ¯ 380 380 381 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, November, 1957. Vol. 16, No. 6. Published bi-monthly by The Queen's Work, 3115 South Grand Blvd., St. Louis 18, Mo. Edited by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approval. Second class mail privilege authorized at St. Louis, Mo. Editorial Board: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.J., Henry Willmering, S.J. Literary Editor: Robert F. Weiss, S.J. Copyright, 1957, by The Queen's Work. Subscription price in U.S.A. and Canada: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U.S.A. Please send all renewals and new subscriptions to: Review for Religious, 3115 South Grand Boulevard. St. Louis 18o Missouri. I:or Your Inl:ormat:ion Regarding Summer Sessions For many years we have been publishing announcements of sum-mer sessions. Our purpose in doing this is to help our readers to know where they may attend courses or institutes of special per-tinence to religious. Directors and deans of summer sessions who wish to avail themselves of this service should carefully observe the following points: 1) Only courses of special pertinence to religious should be listed. 2) The announcement should be limited to a single paragraph. The length of this paragraph is irrelevant, provided it contains only matters of special pertinence to religious. 3) The paragraph should be triple-spaced and prepared in such a manner that it can be sent to the printer without re-typing or editing. 4) There should be a reasonable minimum of capital letters, and no words should be typed entirely in capital letters. 5) The dates of the summer sessions or institutes should be clearly specified. 6) The best time for publishing these announcements is our March number. The deadline for this number is January 5. The next best time is the May number. The deadline for this number is March I. Plus XII on Self-love We receive many articles that refer to self-love as something opposed to love of God and love of neighbor, as something that must be stifled at all costs. No doubt, similar statements can be found in the writings of saints and in classical spiritual books. The basic mistake in such writings seems to be an unjustifiable identifica-tion of self-love with selfishness, or inordinate self-love. According to sound theology, self-love itself is good and a matter of divine precept. This was emphatically taught by Pope Plus XII in his address to psychotherapists (April 13, 1953), when he said: "From certain psychological explanations, the thesis is formulated that the unconditional extroversion of the ego constitutes the funda-mental law of congenital altruism and of its dynamic tendencies. This 321 FOR YOUR INFORMATION Review for Religious is a logical, psychological, and ethical error. There exists in fact a defense, an esteem, a love, and a service of one's personal self which is not only justified but demanded by psychology and morality. Nature makes this plain, and it is also a lesson of the Christian Faith. Our Lord taught, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Christ, then, proposes as the rule of love of neighbor, charity towards onself, not the contrary." The Religious Habit In our January number (pp. 3-9), we published an article by Father Lee Teufel, S.J., which gave the results of a questionnaire on adapting the religious garb of sisters. Our May number (pp. 176-79) contained a lengthy communication from a sister, who criticized the attitude of those religious who had answered Father Teufel's ques-tionnaire. This sister also expressed the fear that seculars who read this article would be shocked. We have received four more communications on the same topic. All these communications are from sisters. Two defend Father Teufel and those who answered his questionnaire; and two defend the view expressed in the May communication. We should like to publish ali these letters, but we cannot do so for two reasons: (1) the communications are too long; and (2) the letters on both sides manifest too many misunderstandings of others' views and actions. Unless all write about the same thing, and do so briefly, there seems to be little use in continuing the discussion. Although we cannot publish the communications themselves, we believe we should mention, and comment on, some of the points brought out in them. One sister, for instance, protests that we showed poor taste in publishing Father Teufel's article--in fact, she thinks the Communists should feel happy about it. We leave it to others to judge our taste. It seems appropriate, however, to call attention to the fact that one of our purposes in founding this magazine was to have a medium through which religious could discuss their common problems. And since the change of garb advocated by the Holy See has many aspects that are common to numerous religious in-stitutes, we think this an appropriate topic for discussion in our pages and that those who take part in such a discussion are not showing any disloyalty to their own institutes. Perhaps the basic difficulty is really expressed in the other letter against Father Teufel's article, as well as in the communication 322 November, 1957 FOR YOUR INFORMATION published in May: namely, the fear that public discussion of this topic will disedify seculars. On this point, we should like to inform our readers that we try to limit the circulation of this periodical to religious and diocesan priests. We do not encourage other sub-scriptions, and we have very few of them. It is true that in some institutions the REVIEW is placed in the library where it is available to students and others. We are not responsible for this custom, and we should like to have it changed. SOME BOOKS RECEIVED [Only books sent directly to the Book Review Editor, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana, are included in our Reviews and Announcements. The following books were sent to St. Marys.] Lutero en EspaF~a yen la Am6~rica espahola. By Ricardo V. Feliu. Protestant Founders, 15 Whitehall Street, New York 4, New York. 90 pesetas (paper cover). Priestly and Religious Formation. By Edmund T. Dunne, C.SS.R. Clonmore and Reynolds Ltd., 29 Kildare Street, Dublin. 18/-. The Art of Teaching Christian Doctrine. By Johannes Hofinger, S.J. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana. $3.50. Ontologia. By Salvator Cuesta, S.J. Sal Terrae, Santander, Spain. 60 pesetas (paper cover~. People's Participation and Holy Week. Seventeenth North Ameri-can Liturgical Week, London, Canada, 1956. The Liturgical Confer-ence, Elsberry, Missouri. $2.08 (paper cover). The Image of God in Man According to Cyril of Alexandria. By Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. The Catholic University of America Press, 620 Michigan Avenue, N.E., Washington 17, D. C. $3.00 (paper cover). Praelectiones theologicoomorales Comillenses. Tomus IV. Trac-tatus de conscientia morali. Pars altera. Theoria de conscientia morali reflexa. By Lucius Rodrigo, S.a!. Sal Terrae, Santander, Spain. L'Apostolat. Probl~mes de la Religieuse d'aujourd'hui. Les edi-tions du cerf, 29, Bld de Latour-Maubourg, Paris. Memento canonique sur le noviciat et al profession religieuse. By Dom Pierre Minard, O.S.B. Editions Fides, 25 est, rue Saint-Jacques, Montreal 1, Canada. $2.60 (paper cover). OUR CONTRIBUTORS THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN is professor of ascetical and mystical theology at Weston College, Weston 93, Massachusetts. SISTER EMILY JOSEPH is head of the classics department at the College of St. Rose, Albany 3, New York. R.F. SMITH is a member of the faculty of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. MOTHER MARIE VANDENBERGH is guest mistress at the Cenacle Retreat House, Route 1, Box 97-A, Rosharon, Texas. 323 Current Spiritual Writ:ing Thomas ~. O'Calhgh~n~ S.J. Sacred Heart ON THE OCCASION of the first centenary of the extension to the universal Church of the feast of the Sacred Heart, Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical letter Haurietis aquas. The subject matter of this encyclical is devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, its scriptural and traditional foundation, its true meaning and place in the Church. The Holy Father assured us that this devotion is not only the most complete profession of the Chris-tian religion, but that it is also of obligation for all the faithful. Because of this importance of the devotion to the Heart of the Incarnate Word, there is a real need for a clear understanding of its true meaning. To read, reread, and study carefully Haurietis aquas itself is of primary importance. It might be mentioned here that in re.ading it one of the points to be observed is the constant emphasis which the Holy Father places on the triple love which the Incarnate Word has for each of us. He loves us with a divine love, with a human spiritual love, and also--perhaps this has never been stressed so much before-- with a human sensible love. The adorable Heart of Christ is the symbol of this triple love. As a help to the study of this encyclical some of the follow-ing articles, which comment on Haurietis aquas, could be read: M. J. Donnelly, s.J., "Haurietis aquas and Devotion to the Sacred Heart," Theological Studies, XVIII ( 1957), 17-40; P. J. Hamell, "Devotion to the Sacred Heart: Encyclical Haurietis Aquas," The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, LXXXVI (1956), 217- 241; G. Dupont, S.J., "Pius XII on the Cult of the Sacred Heart," The Clergy Monthly, XX (1956), 248-260, and also "The Cult of the Sacred Heart," The Clergy Monthly, XXI (1957), 161-171; C. K. Riepe, "Some Thoughts on Devotion to the Sacred Heart," Worship, XXXI (1957), 328-333; F. 324 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING Courtney, S.J., "Devotion to the Sacred Heart," The Clergy Review, XLII (1957), 332-342. The best and most scholarly of these articles is that of Father Donnelly. Two quotations from his article might be of interest. First, his statement of the purpose of the encyclical: "To elucidate the soul's journey back to God through the Sacred Heart, the heart of flesh, symbol of Christ's human (sensible and spiritual) love and of His divine love, and to show that such a path to God is deeply rooted in Scripture, tradition, and the liturgy of the Church--this is the purpose of the encyclical letter Haurietis aquas" (p. 39). The other quotation which we would like to cite from Father Donnelly is a commentary which he makes upon the following words of Haurietis aquas: Therefore the Heart of our Savior in a way expresses the image of the Divine Person of the Word and His two-fold nature, human and divine. In it we can contemplate not only the symbol, but also, as it were, the sum of the whole mystery of our redemption. When we adore the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, we adore in it and through it both the uncreated love of the Divine Word and His human love and other affections and virtues, because both loves moved our. Redeemer to sacrifice Himself for us and for the whole Church, His Spouse (N.C.W.C. translation). Commenting on this passage, Father Donnelly writes: . . this passage sets forth the whole theology of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, because any reader will at once see therein the following teaching. (1) There is question of the physical heart of the Savior. (2} This heart is in a certain sense an image of the Person of the Word and also of His twofold nature, human and divine. (3) We can see in this physical heart, not only a symbol, but, as it were, the epitome of the whole mystery of our Redemption. (4) We adore this physical heart. (5} In the very act of adoring the physical heart, we adore in and through this same physical heart (a) the uncreated love of the divine Word, (b) His human love (sensible and spiritual), and (c) all the other affections and virtues which the Incarnate Word possesses. (6) The reason for this is that His divine and human love alike moved Him to sacrifice Himself for us and the universal Church, His Spouse, that we might be redeemed from our sins. In the light of this passage, it is clear why the Holy Father calls the devotion the most perfect profession of the Christian religion (pp. 30-31). 325 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review fo~ Religious The Saints Gregory tells us in his Book of Dialogues that a certain nun, on going into .the garden, saw a head of lettuce and desired it; and, forgetting to make the sign of the cross over it she greedily bit into it; but forthwith she fell to the ground possessed by a devil. When the blessed Equitius came to exorcize her, the devil began to cry out, saying, "What did I do? What did I do? I was just sitting here on the lettuce, and she came and bit me!''1 This is one of those humorous anecdotes which during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance delighted the readers of the Golden Legend. This book is a collection of saints' lives, compiled during the latter half of the thirteenth century by the learned and saintly Dominican, Jacobus de Voragine. In the article from which we have cited the anecdote above--an article which makes for pleasant reading--William F. Manning points out that the distinguished Dominican hagiographer was not a simple and gullible soul. He was well aware that these accounts of the saints were a blend of fact, fiction, and humor. What Jacobus de Voragine was primarily concerned with was not the historical truth of these stories; he was much more interested in using them as examples--they were known as exempla during the Middle Ages--to illustrate pleasantly some moral or spiritual principle. His goal was not objective history, but to foster among the faithful a fervent love of, and devotion to, the saints and God. Considering the extraordinary influence which the Golden Legend has had in the history of spirituality, his work was a complete success. But books like the Golden Legend make the life of a modern hagiographer a very troubled one. In addition to the ordinary difficulties which any historian or biographer meets, the hagiographer has a few special ones of his own. These are discussed by Lancelot C. Sheppard in "Some Problems of a Hagiographer.'' If the biography of a saint is to be a true 1This quotation from the Golden Legend is cited by William F. Manning, "Humor in the Golden Legend," Cross and Cro,wn, IX (1957), 168. 2 The Li/e of the 8pirit, XI, 454-461. 326 November, 1957 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING and living portrait, the first problem of a hagiographer is to remember that he is "dealing with a man or woman in the world" (p. 456), and thus he has to pay attention to the ordin-ary things of everyday life. Otherwise he will be presenting "an unnatural wooden figure of his saint . . . no example or help to the ordinary reader, but . . . a hindrance to the develop-ment of the Christian life in the souls of many" (p. 457). Another problem is that which is occasioned by the miracu-lous events which at times take place in the lives of the saints. If something miraculous occurs in the life of a saint, it should be historically verified, and then it should be treated as a miracle, and not as a normal and everyday occurrence. Closely allied to the question of miracles is that of those other extraordinary phenomena--stigmata, etc.--which sometimes occur. Since some of these phenomena can be explained at times by natural causes, a hagiographer should be very hesitant in assigning to them a divine cause. Some of these observations of Sheppard are very just, but I am sure that he would readily admit that these prob-lems are much more easily mentioned than solved. In the same issue of The Life of the Spirit there is an interesting article by Donald Attwater on the martyrs of the early Church.3 In the Christian Church the cultus of the saints began with the veneration of these early martyrs. In fact, one of the first definitions of sanctity was based on the idea of martyrdom: the perfect imitation of Christ even to the sacrifice of one's life; or, as Attwater says, a man is "never so Christlike as when he wil!ingly goes to death for his Saviour . . ." (p. 441). This article is a series of short sketches of some of the early saints and martyrs--th'ose who suffered in the early persecutions, up to 313, and whose accounts are based on reliable documenta-tion: Ignatius ot: Antioch, Polycarp, Justin, Blandina, Cyprian, Perpetua, Felicity, etc. Although these sketches are most brief, "They are enough to show these martyrs as men and women, "The Early Martyrs," pp. 441-454. 327 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious not as puppets . . ." (p. 451). Indeed, they were men and women whose lives were centered, in a simple yet firm way, or~ God and Jesus Christ. They were ~fully conscious of being ~a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a consecrated nation,' a society of which, in the words of St. Augustine, ~the king is Truth, the law is love and the duration is Eternity' " (p. 453). Why did Bruno of Hartenfaust leave the world and found the Carthusians? It was once piously believed that his decision, was occasioned by an event which took place during the funeral of a certain Canon Docr~s in Paris. The canon's only known failing was a worldly desire for literary fame, and yet he seems to have been damned for it. According to the legend, three times during the funeral the canon raised himself up; first, to announce that he had been accused; then, judged; and, finally, that he had been condemned to eternal damnation. Supposedly witnessing this, Bruno decided that the world was no place for him; so off: to the deserts of the Grande Chartreuse. All this is pious legend. The real reason and motive why Bruno sought the hidden life of solitude and rooted his order in contempt of the world is explained in a fine article by Dr. Borisz de Balla, a former Hungarian diplomat and at present an associate professor of history at Le Moyne College) Since the spirit of silent solitude with which the Carthusians have moved through the last nine centuries has kept them well hidden, an article such as this is most welcome. For in it Dr. de Balla uncovers the historical and psychological background of Bruno's vocation and clarifies the Carthusians' contempt for the world, which is merely a negative way of expressing their fervent love of God. The life of St. Thomas Aquinas was dedicated in an extra-ordinary degree to intellectual work. Since this was a most substantial part of his life, it must have been very closely linked with his sanctity. What was the connection between these two? In 4'~Contempt of the World," Cross and Crop, n, IX (1957), I1-23. 328 November, 1957 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING a very penetrating article Father Thomas Deman, O.P., shows how closely St. Thomas's knowledge was tied to his sanctity.~ The connection between the Angelic Doctor's knowledge and sanctity is not merely that he studied with a pure intention, nor merely that his intellectual activity demanded great abnega-tion. These things manifest more the link between effort and sanctity rather than between knowledge and sanctity. The far more interesting problem is in establishing the relation between these latter two, for in the connection of these two, according to Father Deman, "lies the ultimate secret of St. Thomas' sanctity" (p. 404). To summarize Father Deman's solution to this prob-lem would be to do it an injustice; but to recommend the study of it, especially to seminarians and theologians, would be far from unjust. F~nelon, onetime archbishop of Cambrai, although not a saint, was certainly an outstanding personality. Derek Stanford gives us in a two-part article a general overall view of his life, doctrine, writing, and great appeal.6 Even those who met him through his written word were charmed by him. " 'If F~nelon were alive today you would be a Catholic,' Bernadin de St. Pierre once wagered Rousseau. 'Oh, if F~nelon were alive,' Rousseau replied,, his eyes moist with tears, 'I should try to become his lackey in order to deserve to be his valet' " (p. 15). Perhaps the part of F~nelon's life which was most im-portant in the history of spirituality, and best known for that reason, is his rather bitter dispute with Bossuet, his former friend and bishop of Meaux, over the quietistic doctrine of Mme. Guyon. This was settled only by a papal brief from Pope Innocent XII condemning twenty-three propositions taken from Fenelon's Maxims of the Saints. To this condemnation he com-pletely and humbly submitted. Stanford's articles are a fine summary of the life of this man who was a cultured scholar, distinguished prelate, and grand seigneur. 5"'Knowledge and Holiness and St. Thomas Aquinas," The Life of the Spirit, XI, 394-406. 6"A Word for F~nelon," The Cler#y Relieve, XLII (1957), 14-25, 76-84. 329 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious Sin One of the basic needs in the spiritual life is to acquire a sincere detestation of sin, a real hatred of the evil which sin is. But what is sin? The Catholic faith has always considered sin as an offense against God. But what does it mean to offend God? Obviously sin cannot harm God himself; it cannot touch God or injure Him. The harm which is done by sin is done to man, not to God. Yet, how is this an offense against God? Father DeLetter, s.J., suggests a solution to this problem, a solution which in its full explanation depends upon the philo-sophical doctrine of relation.~ He writes: ¯ . . the sinner . . . by rejecting God's love, rejects the gift of that love, sanctifying grace. Accordingly, in this case, because of the relative character of grace . . . it is easy to see how the "malum hominis," loss of sanctifying grace, is at once "malum Dei," offence against God . The wilful destruction on the part of man of God's gift of grace is an offence against God . . . because grace is a relation to God, unites man to God; and so by refusing or rejecting grace man refuses or rejects God, to whom grace orientates and unites him (p. 338). It is basically this same problem which Father Lyonnet, S.J., tries to solve by studying the nature of sin in the Old Testament) Judging from the words used in the Old Testa-ment to designate sin, sin is not only an evil of man, malum horninis, but also malum Dei, insofar as it is against God, in opposition to God. "The sinner despises and contemns the commands of God, and therefore in some true sense God Him-self" (p. 78; translation ours). But going beyond the words used to designate sin and con-sidering sin in the whole context of the Old Testament, Father Lyonnet points out various ways of looking at sin as an offense against God. Sin offends God insofar as it harms man whom God loves and desires to protect as His very own. Sin is also 7"Offense against God," The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, LXXXVII (1957), 329-342. S"De natura peccati quid doceat V. T.," l~erburn Dornini, XXXV (1957), 75-88. 330 November, 1957 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING described as an offense against God insofar as it breaks the bond of conjugal love between God and His people, His beloved spouse. Thus sin is likened to adultery, God being the offended spouse. (Based upon this idea, God is portrayed in the Old Testament as a husband who cannot live without his beloved spouse; and, even though she is unfaithful, he pursues her with his merciful and forgiving love until she returns to him.) But in any understanding of sin the divine transcendence must always be preserved; sin never takes from God anything divine. But it does snatch away from Him man, whom God loves as the very apple of His eye. The Liturgy Those who are actively engaged in pastoral work in a parish will find food for serious reflection in an article written by Father Josef Jungmann, s.J., one of the world's most outstanding schol-ars of the liturgy.'~ The main theme of his article may be stated in his own words: "In the concrete community of the Church, which normally appears in the form of the parish, the liturgy does not represent merely one set of tasks, however holy, among many others. The Sunday and holy day Eucharist constitutes nothing less than the goal and ultimate meaning of all pastoral work here on earth" (p. 67). There is a fine article in The Life of the Spirit on the active participation of the faithful in the sacrifice of the Mass.1° The primary purpose of the article is to explain why the people should be active at Mass. The answer to this is based upon the proper understanding of the nature of the Mass and the nature of the Christian people. The nature of the Mass is that, being the principal act of the Mystical Body, it is a social, community act, in which all the faithful have their part. As regards the Christian people, by baptism they were made members of the Mystical Body of Christ the Priest; and by the character im- '°"The Liturgy and the Parish," l#ors/~ila, XXXI (1957), 62-67. 10j. D. Crichton, "The Mass and the People," The Life of t/~e 8~irit, XI, 548-560. 331 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review for Religiou.~ printed on their soul at baptism they share in the priesthood of their Head. These ideas are developed in the first part of this article, while a second part suggests ways of educating the faith-ful to take an active part in both the dialogue and high Mass. When Christ at the Last Supper said, ~This is My blood of the new covenant, which is being shed for many," what would the apostles understand by the words blood of the new covenant? Father Siegman, C.PP.S., the editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, discusses this question and in so doing offers a few points which might be helpful in understanding better the Sacrifice of the Mass.11 He shows that the words blood of the covenant, spoken by our Lord at the Last Supper, ~'must have suggested to the Apostles the sacrificial character of the rite that Jesus was performing. Blood that was shed had to be offered to God in sacrifice, as acknowledgment of His absolute dominion" (pp. 171-172), and also as an atonement for sin. Further, the apostles must have understood that the covenant, the pact be-tween God and His people, was now fulfilled. ~What Jahweh had done on Mt. Sinai was a beginning, a first aspect of the perfect covenant-act to be realized in the future" (p. 172), when this covenant would be ratified not by '~the blood of goats and calves," but by the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:12). Finally, this fulfilled covenant would have meant "community of life"(p. 172), Christ the victim sharing His life with His apostles. A few months ago there was published in Worship the translation of an address which Father Athanasius Miller, O.S.B., secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, gave last De-cember at the Biblical Institute in Rome.l~ His concern in the paper was to discuss the problem "whether or not a harmony can be established between the psalms on the one hand, and a Christian prayer and a Christian devotion to the psalms on the other" (p. 334). Since the book of the Psalms is pre-Christian, H"The Blood of the Covenant," 7"he American Ecclesiastical Re,view, CXXXVI (1957), 167-174. 1'-, "The Psalms from a Christian Viewpoint," l'Forship, XXXI (1957), 334-345. 332 November, 1957 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING many priests or religious, whether in reading the Office or in using the Psalter for private prayer, have difficulty in giving the psalms a Christian character and interpretation. Their devotion suffers in attempting to make an Old Law prayerbook into a Christian prayerbook. Father Miller's answer to this problem may be summed up in his own words: Thus the psalter is for the Church of the martyrs a Christ-book. Its songs center around the Kyrios raised on the cross, whether she speaks of Him, or to Him, or He Himself speaks to the Father: "The psalm is a voice speaking of Christ; the psalm is the voice of the Church speaking to Christ; the psalm is the voice of Christ speaking to the Father." It was left to the ingenious hand of Augustine later to combine all these aspects into one: "The psalm is the voice of the whole Christ, Head and body": Psalmus vox totius Christi, capitis et corl~oris (p. 340). In an address, given May 1, 1955, to members of the Chris-tian Association of Italian Workers, the Holy Father instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and he assigned it to the first day of May. This new feast took the place of the Solemnity of St. Joseph. In this exchange, however, nothing was really lost; in fact, much was gained. In order to show this, Father Francis J. Filas, S.J., an authority on the theology of St. Joseph, examines and comments very simply and intelligently on the text of the Mass and Office of the new feast.1:~ Of particular interest are the few remarks which he makes about "father Joseph" (p. 296). This com-mentary on the Mass and Office of St. Joseph could be used ior "points" for prayer by those who desire to "Go to Joseph." "In the providence of God, for the greater glory of God, to know Jesus and Mary better and to imitate St. Joseph more closely, may this new feast of St. Joseph the Worker be a promise of even greater liturgical honors to come" (p. 303). 13,'The Mass and Office of St. Joseph the Worker," The /lmerican Ecclesi-astical Re~ie~, CXXXVI, (1957), 289-303. 333 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review fo~ Religious Priestly and Religious Vocation What is a vocation? How do I know if I have a vocation? The answer to these questions is given by Father Columba Ryan, O.P., in three helpful articles.14 A good part of the matter of these articles is a commentary on the important apostolic con-stitution Sedes Sap¯len¯tla15e. The Holy Father had written in this document: ". the divine vocation . . . consists of two essential elements, one divine and the other ecclesiastical." Father Ryan uses these words of the Pope both as a point of departure and also as a suggested division of the matter of his articles. The first article considers the divine element, the divine call, but looked at from the side of God, as God's signified will. The second article examines this same divine call, but insofar as it is a grace received in a man's soul. The final article treats the ecclesiastical element of a divine vocation, the ecclesiastical call, and that which is closely associated with it, the necessary qualities which ought to be found in the aspirant. In regard to the first element of a divine vocation, the invitation of the soul by God, this is so necessary that without it the foundation of the whole structure will be lacking. Whether it be a call to the priestly life, or the religious life, or both combined, the initiative must come from God; without it there is no vocation. Because of this Father Ryan reiterates and comments upon the strong warning of the Holy Father about forcing or alluring or admitting to the religious or priestly life those who do not show the true signs of a divine vocation. But if these signs are clear, if God's loving will for a man is that he be a priest or a religious, there arises a problem: What is the obligation of following this signified will of God? There is some obligation, says Father Ryan, but this obligation falls not so much upon the acceptance or rejection ot? the voca- 14Vocations and Their Recognition," The Life of the Spirit, XI, 217-223, 258-263, 517-527. 15 The English translation of this document may be found in gEVlEW FOg LIGIOUS, March, 1957, 88-101. 334 November, 1957 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING tion as "upon the deliberations preceding . . . [the] decision . . an obligation in the line of the virtue of prudence" (p. 223). Let us observe that one should be careful about insisting upon this obligation with the young, since they could easily confuse what is of counsel and what is of obligation in this matter. In the second article Father Ryan takes up the problem of how we may know whether there is present in the soul the grace of a vocation. The most we can do is to "detect it by signs of its presence, by the outward effects which it produces" (p. 259). The signs which he indicates are: a conscious and felt attraction to religious or priestly life; an obscure drawing towards it, perhaps with a sense of duty attached, but without attraction; such a drawing, accompanied by positive repug-nance for the life in question; a calculation, from the recognition that a man may have from his whole providential setting, that he ought to follow such and such a life; the sense of the emptiness for him of any other life (p. 259). These signs are not a proof of a vocation; in fact, they are often counterfeited. Many of the observations which the author makes about these signs, their counterfeits, and the faulty motives behind the latter, are well worth careful study by those who are engaged in the work of vocational directing. Besides the divine call there must also be, in order to have a divine vocation, the ecclesiastical call, that is, being called by lawful ministers of the Church. No person with a genuinely divine vocation can fail to be received by legitimate superiors. This does not mean that every first refusal of ecclesiastical superiors proves the lack of a true vocation. But it does mean that against the refusal of a superior there can be "no ultimate appeal to some subjectively experienced call of God as a con-clusive proof" (p. 519) of a divine vocation. An ecclesiastical superior must determine whether a can-didate possesses the necessary qualities. What are these? Father Ryan classifies them under three headings: "first, qualities of health, physical and mental; secondly, general character and dis- 335 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN position; thirdly, talents appropriate to the special vocation undertaken" (p. 521). In commenting upon these Father Ryan makes some very solid observations about emotional maturity, general strength of character, intelligence, docility, and affability. These articles will well repay careful study. The question of fostering vocations, a very important ques-tion these days because of the growing need of priests and religious, is discussed by Father Baier.1' In the fostering of vocations, one point which is to be carefully noted is that which Pope Pius XI mentioned in Ad Catholici Sacerdotii. In the ordinary course of divine providence, he remarked in this encyclical, the %rst and most natural place" where the God-sown seeds of vocation "grow and bloom remains always the truly and deeply Christian family." Another point which Father Baier mentions is that young Catholics do not understand the real meaning and excellence of the religious life. Too much attention is given to the "externals." '~If we want more vocations, we must tell young people about the 'inside' story of God's call. Only the inner meaning and the full significance of a vocation can inspire the qualities of enthusiasm, self-sacrifice and heroism for Christ" (p. 3:23). l°"Toward More Vocations," The llomiletic and Pastoral Revie.w, LVII (1957), 320-324. 336 The Int:elled:ual Li e ot: t:he Religious: Prad:ical Aspect:s Sister Emily Joseph, C.S.J. THAT THIS ARTICLE may have a practical aspect in substance as well as in name, I have presumed to borrow heavily from a source that has directed the intellectual progress of many scholars. The advice here presented comes from a man who was the outstanding humanist of his day; a man of letters as well as of action who figured prominently in the political, ecclesiastical, and diplomatic affairs of his times; a man whose profound learning, both religious and secular, lent a brilliance and charm to his spoken and written word. This man was the twelfth-century scholar, John of Salisbury, secretary of St. Thomas of Canterbury, author, poet, ecclesiastic, diplomat, and an intellectual of the first order. Among John's writings we find an account of certain at-titudes prevalent in the educational circles of his day--a day which, we note with a smile, John calls these "modern times." He deplores the tendency to specialization, the immoderate tribute paid to cleverness, and the influence of a segment of educators who would over-emphasize the "practical" at the expense of the humanistic studies. Then, paying tribute to his revered old teacher, Bernard of Chartres, John quotes the pair of fluid Latin hexameters in which Bernard neatly packaged his recom-mendations for scholars-to-be. John himself called these the "Six Keys to True Learning." As a practical aspect of the intellectual life of the religious, I give you John's six keys) First: mens humilis--a humble mind. Recently I came upon this definition of humility in an article entitled "Vocation of the Intellectual; Its Requisites and Rewards.''~' "Humility is a per- 1 All references to John of Salisbury are from his Policraticus, VII, 13 (ed. C. J. Webb). Z Whalen, Reverend John P., "Vocation of the Intellectual; Its Requisites and Rewards," The Catholic Educational Re~ie~, LII (Dec. 1954), 597-601. 337 SISTER EMILY JOSEPH Review for Religious sonal evaluation without personal interest . It is observing ourselves as part of the creation of God with an unjaundiced eye, neither allowing our egoism to exaggerate our vision nor our insecurity to underestimate it." Such an attitude is funda-mental, not only for the acquisition of the moral virtues but for the intellectual ones as well. It is the guarantee of an objective approach to the search for knowledge; it precludes an interpreta-tion of research findings which accords with one'~ own prejudices or inclinations rather than with the objective evidence. Above all, it is a safeguard against one of the most pernicious spiritual ills to which man is subject--intellectual pride. The second key: studium quaerendi--the eager, questing spirit. The phrase carries a twofold implication: first, a steady, zealous, self-sacrificing devotion to the research entailed by scho-larship; secondly, it betokens the inquiring outlook which is the hallmark of a scholar. It implies, too, the proper attitude toward the intellectual life. With regret, we acknowledge that this attitude, latent in everyone who has consecrated his or her life to incarnate Wisdom, fails, in many cases, to develop and in-fluence the religious. Some hold intellectual efforts and attain-ments suspect. By their attitude of aloofness they try to cloak their own apathy where research is concerned. Others contend that the present need of the Church calls for concentration on a vigorous social apostolate. Still others avow their respect for intellectual activity but modestly place themselves outside its periphery. That all might acquire a correct attitude toward the importance, both for time and eternity, of personal intellectual growth we would strongly recommend two classic works: Cardinal Newman's Idea of a University and Cardinal Suhard's peerless pastoral letter, Groi~lh or Decline? The third key which John recommends is vita quieta--a life of tranquillity. John's own life as a scholar was interrupted by ecclesiastical responsibilities which plunged him into incessant activity. He crossed the continent of Europe ten t:.mes on diplo-matic missions and such extensive traveling in the twelfth century 338 November, ~957 THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF RELIGIOUS was only at the cost of much time and considerable inconvenience. Such a life is not compatible with the atmosphere that the scholar needs. His must be a well-ordered life---a life of dedication to intellectual pursuits. His energies must be concentrated upon this one end, not dissipated upon a multiplicity of activities, how-ever worthy each in itself may be. From his life all non-essentials must be (often painfully) pruned. One in whom secular tastes and worldly attitudes develop and foster a craving for recreation, for indulgence in entertainment provided by radio, television, or light reading, for needless travel and social contacts will find neither the inclination nor the time for intellectual growth. In a recent article in the NGEH Bulletin, Father Gustave Weigel, s.J., underlines the special responsibility of the college faculty, which he calls the "soul of the collegiate community," to foster the intellectual life. Exploring the meaning of the term, "intellectual life," Father Weigel contends that it is a life of contemplation. "The true intellectual," he says, "always seeks for essences and essences are not obvious . Hence the practi-tioner of the intellectual life is a contemplative." He maintains that "the intellectual life is the very essence of the college" and that contemplation is the essence of the intellectual life; and he intimates that there are dangerous attitudes, social and economic forces, that make incursions upon and destroy the vita quieta that is a sine qua non of scholarly pursuits? Closely allied to this third key is the fourth--scrutinium taciturn--a study room where silence reigns. Just as the silence of the chapel is most conducive to contempletion of God and His attributes, so for the scholar's contemplation there must be freedom from distractions, prolonged periods for undisturbed thinking. Here is a problem which superiors should acknowledge and try to solve. The religious whose teaching assignments, ex-tracurricular responsibilities, and community obligations exhaust 3 Weigel, Gustave, S.J., "Enriching the Intellectual Life of the Catholic Col-lege," NCE/I Bulletin, LII (May 1956), 7-21. 339 SISTER EMILY JOSEPH Review for Religious his or her physical powers and necessitate constant contact with students, institutional personnel, and externs cannot be expected to develop the intellectual life, regardless of personal inclination and intellectual endowment. Paupertas--poverty--is the fifth key in John's list. Our vocation, then, in which we are privileged to bind ourselves by vow to a life of poverty, ought to insure us this key without further worry. But does it? In the pursuit of higher education what is the end in view for the majority of religious who flock in such numbers to the universities? Is their goal those spiritual entities, knowledge and truth, toward which, like a shining beacon, they are willing to press on resolutely in spite of summer heat and winter snow, demanding professors and elusive research articles, frustrating language barriers and disappointing lab ex-periments? Or does a motive which is, at least in part, pragmatic and materialistic, namely, the determination to acquire a degree and thus satisfy certain educational standards and demands, com-mit them to a temporary and half-hearted educational episode which they dispatch with a minimum of research and a maximum of compensating recreation? All will acknowledge that the poverty of a monk or nun differs from the poverty of a derelict in the slums. How does the poverty of a scholar differ from the poverty of a religious? Or does it? Was John of Salisbury implying that this fifth key imposes upon the scholar a form of discipline and a degree of detachment that is unique and un-paralleled, which demands renunciations over and above those required by the vow of poverty? The last of John's six keys s~iows his penetrating wisdom: terra aliena. We might presume to interpret it rather freely to mean: ~Get away from home base." One of the most practical aspects of this question of intellectual growth is that of time. It is one of the limitations imposed upon us by our mortal state. Certain legitimate demands upon our time are inextricably associated with our observance of community life. Charity obliges even where temporary dispensations exempt. Religious 340 November, 1957 THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF RELIGIOUS superiors, then, should take this into consideration and, to the extent possible, assign students to graduate studies in universities where they will reside away from home. Financial and other practical considerations may render this difficult. Still, anyone who has attempted scholarly study or writing will insist that this sixth key is oi~ prime importance. These, then, are the six golden keys which John of Salis-bury left us nearly eight hundred years ago. I repeat them, as they are found in the seventh chapter of his work entitled Policraticus." ~Iens kurnilis, studiurn quaerendi, ~dta quieta, Scrutiniurn taciturn, paupertas, terra aliena. I rather suspect that, were John listening to me, he would repeat what he said, referring to Bernard's hexameters: "Though I am not taken by the smoothness of the meter, I approve the sense and I believe it should be faithfully impressed on the minds of those seeking true learning." FATHER GALLEN~S ABSENCE Father Gallen, who answers questions for the REVIEW, has been in Europe for several months; and we are not sure when he will return. This is the reason why answers to questions have been delayed. Since we have no other canonist on our staff, we suggest that those who have canonical problems requiring prompt answers send their questions to a canonist of their own diocese. BOUSCAREN-ELLIS It is a little more than ten years since Fathers T. Lincoln Bous-caren, S.J., and Adam C. Ellis, S.J., first published their Canon Law: A Text and Commentary. The third edition completely revised is now available. This edition incorporates papal decrees and decisions issued since 1951 and adds current literature to the bibliography fol-lowing each chapter. It includes new material on the alienation of property and on secular institutes. Father Ellis, it will be remembered, was one of the founders of REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS and was one of the active members of the editorial board until very recently. The book is published by the Bruce Publishing Company, 400 North Broadway, Milwaukee 1, Wisconsin. 980 pages. $10.50. 341 Com rnun icat:ions On Delayed Vocations Reverend Fathers: In accordance with the announcement in the May number of gEWEW FOg RELIGIOUS (p. 154), we are happy to send you the fol-lowing information. We are Dominican Sisters established for foreign mission work and for social and catechetical work in the United States. We are at present approved as a Pious Union by Cardinal Stritch. Our habit is the regular Dominican habit. We accept candidates between the ages of 20 and 40. We do accept widows or previously married women whose marriage was annulled or invalid, if they give signs of a true vocation. Mother M. Agatha, O.P. Missionary Servants of St. Dominic Rosary Mission House 656 West 44th Street Chicago 9, Illinois Reverend Fathers: In response to your note on Delayed Vocations, we wish to say that we would consider accepting the classes of persons mentioned in the announcement. Ours is a cloistered order. We have perpetual adoration. We accept candidates up to the age of 35, and even a little older if their health is good. If the spiritual directors who seek this information have possible candidates on the waiting list we would be glad to make their acquaintance. Mother Mary Edwina Franciscan Nuns of the Most Blessed Sacrament 2311 Timlin Hill Portsmouth, Ohio [EDITORS' NOTE: Regarding communications on the religious habit please see page 322.] 342 Survey.of Roman Document:s R. F. Smit:h, S.J. THE DOCUMENTS which appeared in the ~lcta ~lpos-tolicae Sedis (AAS) from June 1, 1957, to August 15, 1957, will be the subject matter of the present article. Page references to AAS in the course of the survey will accordingly refer to the 1957 AAS (volume 49). The Saints On May 16, 1957 (AAS, pp. 321-31), two days after the Pope had received in audience the recently liberated Car-dinal Wyszynski, His Holiness issued the encyclical, Invicti athletae Christi, in commemoration of the three hundreth anniversary of the death of the Polish martyr, St. Andrew Bobola. In the first section of the encyclical, Pius XII briefly sketches the life of the martyr. Born in 1591, Andrew entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 19. The future saint gave himself wholeheartedly to the conquest of Christian perfection, seeking only the glory of God. After his ordination to the priesthood, his life was devoted to the faith he professed. It was this love of his faith that led him to work in the eastern marches of his country where dissident churches strove to separate the faithful from the unity of the true Church. When the Cossack persecution of the Church broke out, it was this same love of the faith that prompted him to do everything in his power to keep Catholics from denying their faith and to reconcile those who under pressure of the persecutors had deserted their faith. It was, finally, the ~ame love of the faith that enkindled in him the courage to endure the fright-ful martyrdom which the Cossacks inflicted on him on the feast of the Ascension, May 16, 1657. In the second part of the encyclical, the Vicar of Christ urges the faithful to imitate in their own lives the faith and 343 R. F. SMITH Review for Religiou~ courage of Bobola. The need for similar faith, he notes, is especially great today, for materialism continues to grow and to seduce men by the mirage of an earthly happiness without God. No less necessary today is the courage of St. Andrew. Every Christian life must have something of the martyr in it; for a Christian gives testimony to his faith not only by shedding his blood for it, but also by a constant war against sin and by a complete consecration of himself and all he has to Him who is his Creator and Redeemer and who someday will be his eternal joy. The Holy Father concludes the encyclical with a special plea to the Polish nation that they of all men may imitate the faith and courage of their sainted compatriot so that Poland, today as yesterday, may be a rampart of Christianity. Three documents concern Mother Mary of Providence (1825-71), foundress of the Helpers of the Holy Souls. The first of these was a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites which was dated April 21, 1957 (AAS, pp. 374-76), and which stated that the beatification of the Venerable Servant of God could safely be proceeded with. On May 26, 1957 (AAS, pp. 339-44), Pius XII proclaimed her beatification and the day after (AAS, pp. 361-64) addressed a group of the Helpers of the Holy Souls who had come to Rome for the beatification of their foundress. In his allocution to them the Pontiff stressed the Blessed's devotion to Providence which led her to repay Provi-dence by rescuing souls from purgatory and by devoting herself to an active and universa! apostolate. The last document concerning the saints is a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, issued on April 9, 1957 (AAS, pp. 424-25}, and ordering that henceforth a determined part of the consultors of the congregation shall have consultative vote with regard to the official scrutiny of the writings of persons whose causes of beatification are introduced. The Eucharist Three documents of the period surveyed are concerned with the Eucharist. On May 19, 1957 (AAS, pp. 364-68), His 344 November', 1957 ROMAN DOCUMENTS Holiness broadcast a message to the Eucharistic Congress of Spain, which was being held at Granada, telling the faithful assembled there that in the Eucharist is to be found the same Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life for all men. He also reminded them that in the Eucharist there is the highest manifestation of that greatest of all truths: God is love. On May 23, 1957 (AAS, p. 370), the Holy Office an-swered the following question with regard to the concelebration of Mass: Do several priests validly concelebrate Mass if only one of them utters the words "This is My Body" and "This is My Blood" over the bread and wine, while the rest do not pronounce the words, but, with the knowledge and the consent of the aforesaid celebrant, have and manifest the intention of making their own the words and actions of the same celebrant? The Holy Office answered the question in the negative, since, as it said, by the institution of Christ only he validly celebrates who pronounces the consecrating words. The Sacred Congregation of Rites issued a decree on June 1, 1957 (AAS, pp. 425-26), dealing with the tabernacle and the manner of conserving the Holy Eucharist. The decree states that the pertinent norms of canon law (canons 1268-69) should be carefully observed. Moreover, the tabernacle is to be so fixed to the altar that it is irremovable. Ordinarily the taber-nacles should be affixed to the main altar, unless in certain cir-cumstances the veneration of the Eucharist can be provided for better elsewhere. Such circumstances are ordinarily found in cathedral, collegiate, and conventual churches where choir func-tions are exercised. Similar extraordinary circumstances can sometimes be found, the decree continues, in larger devotional centers where, because of popular devotion to some venerated object, the veneration due the Blessed Sacrament might be over-shadowed. The decree goes on to state that Mass should be habitually celebrated at the altar where the Blessed Sacrament is kept; and, 345 R. F. SMITH Review .for Religious in churches where there is only one altar, this should not be so constructed that the priest celebrates Mass facing the people, for in the middle of such an altar there should be placed a tabernacle for keeping the Blessed Sacrament. The tabernacle should be strong and secure so that all danger of profanation is avoided. When the Blessed Sacrament is in it, the tabernacle should be covered with a veil and a light should always burn in front of it. The tabernacle should con-form to the style of the altar and the church and should not differ too much from the style of tabernacles already in use. The tabernacle should represent a true dwelling-place of God with men and should not be adorned with unusual or misleading symbols. Finally, the Sacred Congregation notes that tabernacles that are off and apart from altars are strictly forbidden. More-over, with regard to the way of keeping the Blessed Sacrament or with regard to the form of the tabernacle, there is no presump-tion in favor of contrary customs, unless the custom is centenary or immemorial. Social Questions Speaking on May 3, 1957 (AAS, pp. 351-55), to a group of Belgians, the Holy Father underlined the necessity of better housing for a large number of people. Ten to twenty per cent of the total population of European countries, he pointed out, live in subhuman circumstances where they can not live a decent and truly human life. Such circumstances not only weaken health and physical stamina but also induce extensive moral damage: immorality; juvenile delinquency; loss of the desire to work; and revolt against the society that allows such subhuman conditions to exist. On May 26, 1957 (AAS, pp. 403-14), the Vicar of Christ addressed a group of Italian Catholic lawyers on the right way of giving assistance to those in prison. The Holy Father began his allocution by studying the presuppositions of all effec- 346 November, 1957 ROMAN DOCUMENTS tive aid to prisoners. The first of these presuppositions is con-. cerned with the relationship that exists between the punishment and the crime committed. Only the conviction that the prisoner is culpable can furnish a sure basis for all consequent aid. It must be remembered, the Holy Father stated, that even in con-crete situations the great majority of men have the possibility of regulating their personal conduct and hence of contracting obli-gations and responsibilities. This is the reason why morality and law are correct when they assert that in a given case cessation of free will must be proved, not the presence of free will. The second presupposition to be borne in mind when work-ing for prisoners is concerned with the suffering that is necessarily included in the punishment. A prisoner, the Pontiff remarked, is not comparable to a sick person; since the latter has no obliga-tion to suffer, it is right to seek to lighten his sufferings as much as possible. The prisoner, however, deserves to suffer, hence the removal of all suffering cannot be desired in the case of prisoners. The third and final presupposition to be considered cen-ters around the meaning and purpose of the punishment that has been inflicted on the prisoner. Since human punishment should in its own way imitate divine punishment, the Holy Father turned to a consideration of the meaning and purpose of the punish-ments inflicted by God on sin. The primary and essential pur-pose of divine punishment, he observed, is the reestablishment of the order of things violated by sin. By sin, man prefers him-self to God; by imposing suffering on the sinner, God constrains him to submit himself to the divine will and hence to restore the order he has previously violated. This, however, is not the sole purpose of divine punishment as far as this world is concerned. Often the punishments willed by God in this life are rather medic-inal than vindictive. They are meant to reeducate the sinner, to lead him to repentance, and to turn him toward goodness and justice. All these aims of divine punishment should be striven for also by human punishment. 347 R. F. SMITH Review .for Religious His Holiness then took up the manner in which prisoners can best be aided. The first aid to be given to prisoners is to know them thoroughly: their origin, their formation, their life up to the present time. Secondly, one should attempt to con-vince them that through their detention they can efface the errors of their past and remake their lives. Finally, one must love the prisoner. It is not sufficient to approach him with correct ideas and notions; along with this must go a love that is as comprehensive and devoted as is maternal love. In conclu-sion the Holy Father advises his listeners to look on prisoners as God looks upon them: in a spirit of justice tempered with mercy. Miscellaneous Matters On June 2, 1957 (AAS, pp. 433-603), Pius XII issued the Motu Proprio Cleri sanctita¢i, promulgating a new section of the projected Code of Canon Law for the Oriental Churches. This new section contains 558 canons and corresponds roughly to the second book of the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church. The section deals successively with the following points: the oriental rites; physical and moral persons; clerics in general; clerics in particular from patriarchs to assistant and substitute pastors; the laity. The prescriptions of these new canons will go into effect March 25, 1958. On May t9, 1957 (AAS, pp. 414-17), the Roman Pontiff delivered a radio message to the Third Portuguese Congress of the Apostleship of Prayer held at Braga. In the message the Pope expressed his great desire to see the Apostleship of Prayer propagated among all catagories of persons in the Church. The principal part of his message, however, is concerned with what he called the proper essence and the secret of the immense effectiveness of the Apostleship of Prayer. This is nothing else than the practice of the morning offering of all one's actions and sufferings of the coming day for the intentions of the Sacred Heart and of the Roman Pontiff. This practice, the Holy Father 348 Nove~ber, 1957 ROMAN DOCUMENTS noted, is an elementary and simple one, but when motivated by a conscientious desire to live it out completely, it can revolution-ize a life. On May 20, 1957 (AAS, pp. 355-61), the Holy Father gave an inaugural address for the week of astronomical studies held under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The body of the address is devoted to a summary of recent findings with regard to the nature of the stars, in the course of which the Holy Father accepts five billion years as a reason-able estimate of the age of the universe. At the end of the allocution the Pope remarked that that man is fortunate who can read in the stars the message they carry, inviting man to rise to the knowledge of Him who gives truth and life and who estab-lishes His dwelling in the hearts of those who adore and love Him. On May 10, 1957 (AAS, pp. 427-29), the Sacred Peni-tentiary published the text of two prayers composed by His Holiness. The first is a prayer to our Lady of Lourdes; an indulgence of three years can be gained by the faithful each time they recite the prayer with contrite heart. The second prayer is a prayer to be recited by physicians; physicians can gain an indulgence of three years whenever they say the prayer with contrite heart. On June 4, 1957 (AAS, p. 429), the Sacred Penitentiary announced that a plenary indulgence could be gained in connec-tion with the practice of the twelve Sundays in honor of the infancy of our Lord. The conditions for the indulgence are the following: prayers and pious meditations in honor of the mysteries of Christ's infancy on twelve consecutive Sundays of one's own choosing; confession; Communion; visit to a church or public oratory with prayers there for the intention of the Holy Father. 349 Persevering in Prayer Mot:her Marie Vandenbergh, R.C. I. Introduction CONCERNING IGNATIAN spirituality less has been writ-ten perhaps than about some other schools of perfection; nevertheless, there are enough articles and books extant on the subject to make one pause before adding to their number. Especially if one's years in religion are not many, will the query arise, "What do you have to contribute?" The answer is, "Not very much." The best to be hoped for is that being relatively lately come to the field of interior combat might lend freshness to one's point of view. The re-cently won scars of battle might generate a more sympathetic and generally helpful approach to the problems confronting beginners about to enter the lists. There are, conceivably, certain advantages that derive from having traveled far enough along the road of the interior life to get some perspective, but not so far as to have forgotten what it felt like to be just start-ing out. Furthermore, and more importantly as a credential, the Cenacle, keynoted by its motto, "Perseverantes in oratione," has, throughout its brief history of less than two hundred years, upheld in its constitutions an ideal of high spiritual excellence. However large the discrepancy between these ideals of the con-gregation and one's personal attainments, it is surely nonetheless permissible to set forth this heritage and let it speak for itself, at least in regard to one or two problems of beginners in prayer. The Cenacle Religious have an Ignatian Rule and are devoted to the work of providing retreats for laywomen and teaching Christian doctrine. It is not, then, surprising that St. Ignatius's book, The Spiritual Exercises, figures largely in our novitiate training, as well as all through our religious life. 350 PERSEVERING IN PRAYER We are told early in our formation that a Cenacle Religious must learn to love "the solitude of the heart" and "live in prayer as in her proper element." As means toward this spiritual growth, we are given, to quote a superior general, both "meth-ods" and "liberty." The "liberty" is that inspired by the Holy Spirit; the "methods" are those suggested by St. Ignatius--his "Spiritual Exercises." If his directives applying to the special circumstances of retreat time are set aside, there remains a remarkable body of instruction for those who wish to learn the science of the saints and for those who are constituted their guides. In this article we shall prescind entirely from the retreat relationship and, using the Exercises as a manual of spirituality, concentrate on the part methodical meditation is meant to play in our spiritual lives. II. Pro's and Con's The ultimate purpose of any sort of meditation, formal or informal, is to bring a soul to give itself to God by a process of instruction, reasoning, and resolution resulting in the formation of religious convictions and in great purity of life. Training in the use of formal meditation methods often starts with ready-made outlines, developing into personally prepared meditation outlines. This has two principal advantages. First, it prevents waste of time and energy to have something definite in mind to do when you go to your meditation. Second, as a result of the first, it helps develop the habit of prayer. Unless a girl has been living a modified rule of life in the world, the likelihood is that she has been praying "when she felt like it." Entering religious life she must learn to pray at a set time--whether she feels like it or not. A knowledge of prayer technique, i.e., an outlined meditation, will help her get started on days when she doesn't feel like it. It will keep her busy and trying to pray at times when prayer is more or less distasteful. Furthermore, fidelity to the attempt to "contact God," espe-cially when sensible consolation dries up, is a sine qua non 351 MOTHER MARIE VANDENBERGH Re~iew for Religious of real progress. This fidelity is a fruit of habitual use of a method. St. Teresa of Avila :lays down two rules for the would-be saint: refuse God nothing and never abandon the practice of prayer. Use of meditation methods can keep a soul from idleness in prayer time and prevent its giving up from sheer boredom with itself in time of dryness. There are, however, dangers to be avoided in the use of a method: strain and slavish fidelity to mechanics. While bridging the gap between the free and easy ~pray when you please" of life in the world and the regular, disciplined ~pray when you ought" of religious life, it is of paramount importance to avoid undue strain. The spontaneity of the soul's response to God must be safeguarded. It is that element of sweet familiarity with God which, as far as God's grace allows, makes of prayer the personal relationship it is meant to be. Undue efforts such as straining for ~success" in meditation, in-sistence on completion of the full meditation outline, or self-induced fixation of the imagination are sure to result in a ~broken head." Some such form of tension becomes a danger wherever emphasis on high ideals is combined with strict discipline. Ex-aggerated fidelity is one of the occupational hazards of religious life. Especially in the atmosphere of a novitiate, a spirit of holy emulation can make it contagious. To such an extent is this true that over-eagerness can be suspected of spoiling more voca-tions than laxity; for tension, though combined with all the good will in the world, has a paralyzing effect. In certain cases it persists as a chronic ailment through the early years of professed life, sooner or later, let us hope, to be outgrown. In extreme cases, however, the victim may be spiritually crippled for life. The cause of the difficulty does not lie, needless to say, in the traditional methods of prayer. The trouble arises when, instead of the neophyte's mastering the method, the method masters the neophyte. What was intended as a help toward union 352 November, 1957 PERSEVERING IN PRAYER with God becomes an end instead of a means and acts as a hindrance to that very union. The exasperating part of it is that often the victim of this malady, if questioned, would reply glibly that, of course, a method is a means, not an end in itself--and then go right on clinging inordinately to his little shell of prayer technique. In his mind, though he does not realize it, prayer formality has become an indispensible means to union with God; whereas authors and advocates of prepared methods intend them to be used tantum-quantum, just insofar as they help to attain this union. An inexperienced soul can become more attached to its method than to its God. It makes him feel so secure. If ever doubts as to his fidelity to prayer arise, he has only to point to his daily "two preludes, three points, and a colloquy." There, he feels, is concrete evidence that he has not been wasting his prayer time. He does not realize until much later, perhaps, that he has been slowly strangling his spiritual life. Retreat masters have dealt with this difficulty, books have been written about it; but still it can happen that a suffering soul will not recognize itself to be a victim of prayer-tension until the sterility of its meditation and its self-imposed rigidity threaten to kill its religious life entirely. Sheer starvation of soul is its inevitable result. In order to forestall this turn of events if possible, those in charge of the spiritual formation of young people exercise a great deal of vigilance. "I watched my young men like a hawk," said one novice master, "to detect signs of strain." As soon as they began to pray spontaneously and to speak familiarly with God, they were instructed to leave their prepared meditation outline for as long as they could pray without reference to it. "Be relaxed in the presence of God," was the advice they were given. There is a possible hazard, too, for people with a studious turn of mind. They, more easily than others, can be tempted to make a purely mental exercise of their meditation and never 353 MOTHER MARIE VANDENBERGH Review for Religious really pray. There is no real "contact" with God at all. This makes of meditation nothing but a sterile academic study instead of an affair of the heart that leads them to fall in love with their Lord Christ. III. Liberty of Spirit Besides these rather obvious dangers to be avoided in the use of meditation methods, there is a further point it might be well to discuss here. The principal charge leveled against tech-niques of prayer is that slavish fidelity to "two preludes, three points, and a colloquy" hinders a soul's progress toward God in the more simplified forms of prayer. The Spiritual ercises of St. Ignatius are often called upon to bear the brunt of such criticism. For some reason it has been difficult to convince the praying public that to advocate methods of prayer is not the same as to advocate slavish fidelity to them. St. Ignatius of Loyola, himself a contemplative and even a mystic, could hardly have recommended a spirituality which excluded such graces a priori. Anyone thoroughly grounded in Ignatian spirituality knows well enough that there is in it wide margin for originality and freedom. In the beginning of the life of prayer, however, the method is more in evidence than the freedom. The same is true of playing the piano. You learn the scales before you improvise. Benson, in his The Friendship o.f Christ, and Boylan, in This Tremendous Lover, point out that one's prayer life develops along the same lines as human friendship. In the early stages of mere "bowing acquaintance," formalities and conven-tional conversation topics like politics and the weather make up the larger part of the relationship. As the acquaintance deepens, there is growing mutual self-revelation, a sharing of tastes, of personal history, of hopes and fears. There is mutual interest in and support of one another's projects and plans. Should friend-ship ripen to the point of falling in love, the amount of con-versation is reduced to a minimum, and the silent language of 354 November, 1957 PERSEVERING IN PRAYER love takes its place. There is a ~honeymoon" stage, followed by inevitable trials and tests which strengthen and mature the soul. The maturing of married love has frequently been de-scribed as a process of transition from eros to agape, from selfish to unselfish love. A similar process goes on in the prayer life. Eventually prayer comes to the point where it lives by a continuous, silent sacrifice of self for the sake of the Beloved. Such prayer is a life of love and is consonant with a great deal of suffering and self-forgetfulness. Married couples who have lived and loved together for many years have no great need of words; they are content to share each other's silent company. Even so does the soul's happiness come to consist of being silent together with God. In human love this silent togetherness can be such a dear and deep and precious thing that when one partner dies, the other does not linger on much longer. The whole reason for living has disappeared. So in prayer one's whole self can come to be lost in God who is one's only reason for living, moving, being. IV. Variety of Method Although all comparisons limp, at least it should be obvious that in our friendship with the most wonderful Person in the universe we should expect growth and development and change. The purpose of the variety of methods provided by St. Ignatius is to allow for this most desirable adaptability to the attractions of grace. Furthermore, the key to this adaptation is St. Ignatius's direction, "In that point in which I find what I desire, there I will rest, without being anxious to proceed . . . until I have satisfied myself" (Addition IV). This varying of meditation methods to suit one's need of the moment is sometimes a matter wherein a well-meaning young person is too timid. Wisely reluctant to trust her own instincts unless they receive the approval of authority, a beginner must still remember that obedience is controlled initiative. With cer-tain personalities the emphasis must be on the control; with 355 MOTHER ~ARIE VANDENBERGH .Review for Religious others, on the initiative. During the years of religious formation especially, there should be the control of reporting to the novice mistress or superior on how one's time of prayer was spent-- this at intervals of at least two weeks--together with submission to her judgment as to one's success or failure. However, the temptation to cling to a method already approved simply for fear that any other will not receive a similar approval is a kind of human respect. Reduced to its ultimate form, this is hoping to please men at the price of failing to please God. God looks for our initiatives; indeed, if they are good, it is He who inspires them. The novice will do well to remember that she is being led by the hand in order to learn to travel the road alone. Over-dependence on the novice mistress is at least equally as bad as failure to have sufficient recourse to her guidance. Like a good physician, the novice mistress aims at making her ministrations unnecessary. Second year novices, other things being equal, should expect to need less counseling than in their first year, etc. It should not take long for a reasonably intelligent person to acquire enough facility in the use of prayer techniques to begin a little experimentation in method variations. The more personal and familiar our prayer becomes, the better it accomplishes its purpose of uniting us to our Lord and transforming us into His likeness. Of course, if we fall as it were naturally into one or other method, there is no great need to force ourselves to vary our approach--except occasionally to counteract monotony, weariness, boredom; in general, to avoid getting into an unthinking rut. Some people more easily think their way to God, and their meditations reflect this trait. Others lead with their heart. Some can study our Lord in the gospel text with a ready, but quiet, imagination. Some whose imagination tends to run riot, stirring up over-strong emotions, pray best by a loving attention to the presence of God--a simple, peaceful, wordless gaze of the soul focused upon its invisible Guest. 356 Novembe~, 1957 PERSEYERING IN PRAYER Sometimes our prayer is a kind of seeking, searching, asking, wanting. It is a quest for God, a thirst for God, a need for more and more of Him and His love and peace. This is another form of wordless prayer. We may come away from it with no specific resolution, with just an increased consciousness of our need for God, God alone, God first and foremost. It would still be a very good prayer. Some are able to speak familiarly with God, telling Him all the events and hopes and needs of their daily life. So long as there are moments of pause when we can listen to Him, this is a very helpful prayer. It should, however, be a conversation, not a monologue. Too many words can be a barricade between the soul and God. In our daily mental prayer one of these methods may pre-dominate or we may use a combination. On certain days, at certain times in our lives, our prayer methods will almost auto-matically take on certain changes of pattern, simply from neces-sity. As Father R. H. J. Steuart liked to say, the level of our prayer is the level of our lives. Chameleon-like, our prayer adapts to our presefit state of soul, of emotion, or of physical well-being. A real effort to pray when we are in a state of high excitement or deep depression will have a tranquilizing, stabilizing effect. When we are very tired, just to remain numbly in the presence of God is an appropriate prayer. Just to be with Him suffices for us then. The very sick can sometimes unite themselves to God only by the loving contemplation of a crucifix; sometimes even that is beyond them. A weak grip on a crucifix or rosary can symbolize their intention to pray, becoming an outward sign of the inward turning heavenward. When a person is in a state of dryness, interior trial, or is interiorly agitated by a difficulty from without, his prayer is a prayer of spiritual pain. The soul suffers; suffers, it may be, with little hope of respite, with no alleviating sense of vitality as sometimes accompanies a beginner's cross. Father Caussade 357 MOTHER MARIE VANDENBERGH Review for Religious considers it a great grace thus to "suffer weakly," unable to find satisfaction in the thought that one is bearing up nobly under one's cross. This state of pure suffering is extremely pleasing to God and highly profitable to the soul. A person's prayer in this state may be a continual interior Miserere, springing from a great sense of unworthiness and guilt, and in spite of having no specific blemish of conscience to which it may be attributed. Later on, depending upon the degree of purification already accomplished by this state, one's prayer may be an inner attitude of oblation, willingly offering one's suffering self in sacrifice to God. "Take, O Lord, and receive all that I am and all that I have." Lastly, when the purgation of suffering has nearly run its course, an attitude of adoration, of God-regarding prostration of soul, may begin to predominate. These are all methods of prayer which, explicitly or im-plicity, can be found in St. Ignatius's book, The F~xercises. In his very first annotation St. Ignatius gives the title of "spiritual exercises" to "all methods of preparing and disposing the soul ¯ . . to seek and to find the divine will," adding a little later on that "in these spiritual exercises it is more fitting and much better, in seeking the divine will, that the Creator and Lord Himself should communicate Himself to the devout soul . . ." (Annota-tion XV). As Father Peeters has pointed out, "The Exercises in their entirety are presented to us as a means of entering into con-tact with God." V. Discursive Prayer a Preparation for Contemplation Used properly and suitably adapted to the individual, these techniques of prayer are calculated to leave the door open for the divine initiatives by which God leads a soul through darkness into light. Fruitful meditations result in a generosity and purity of soul which dispose a person, insofar as it depends on him, to receive the graces of infused contemplation. In this "gift of prayer," as it is sometimes called, God's action, though imper-ceptible in itself, is powerful in its effects and may temporarily 358 November, 1957 PERSE~CERING IN PRAYER put an end to our ability to meditate discursively. The soul is reduced to a state which seems to be one of comparative inaction, weakness, and passivity. This is because God is taking the lead and the soul is willingly following Him. St. John of the Cross gives three signs by which the director may recognize the beginnings of passive union: impossibility of meditation, painful anxiety as to fervor, and dryness, wi~out consolation in God or in creatures. A soul accustomed to discursive prayer finds a most dis-concerting adaptation necessary when it arrives at the threshold of contemplative prayer. The main reason for the element of surprise is that we cannot possibly imagine ahead of time what the direct action of God will be like or what precise form the purification will take. Secondly, it is a fairly common, though unwarranted, assumption that the habit of prayer increases ac-cording to the familiar pattern of a purely natural habit. But there is this remarkable difference between the habit of prayer and, say, the habit of playing the piano. In the latter case, repetition breeds facility, the habit increasing in kind; whereas the unpredictable element of the supernatural in the habit of prayer allows for an otherwise unaccountable psychological phenomenon. Dom Chapman in one of his letters puts it most clearly: "Progress in prayer is not (1) from troublesome discursive meditation to easy contemplation of a beautiful thought; and from weak affections to fervent and strong affections, but (2) from easy discursive meditations to the impossibility of medi-tating at all (except by ceasing to pray), and from easily warmed affections to no affections at all--to aridity, that is, and to 'night.'" The paradoxical fact about meditation is that we expect it to become easier and easier~'and instead it becomes harder and harder, then "nauseous or impossible." Dom Chapman says in another letter, "Meditation is usually necessary in order to induce souls to love God and to give them-selves to Him. But at that point--when it begins to be reached 359 MOTHER MARIE VANDENBERGH Review for Religious --the power of meditation usually stops and something better begins." It is not our purpose here to analyze the ~something better," but to indicate the point at which there must be a radical change in our technique of prayer. That St. Ignatius envisaged the possiblity of such a transi-tion is evident in his F~xerc[s~s, pronouncedly in the contrast between Annotations IX and X. He presupposes knowledge of the different phases of prayer in his instructions to the director, though he includes nothing specific in regard to passive prayer in his instructions for the retreatant. The reason for this is primarily historical, for the Jesuit founder had been called up before the Spanish inquisitors two and three times to have his writings examined for teaching a false mysticism. In such cir-cumstances it was better not to put everything he knew into print. Secondarily, there is a reason for his reticence that to some extent still applies. This is simply that it is almighty God who decides when and if a soul is to enter upon the way of contempla-tion, and it is the director who decides whether or not this has actually been the case. St. Ignatius allows for the possibility of a soul's discontinuing discursive prayer in his instruction that it rests where it finds satisfaction. He expects the director to do the further instruction when the need arises. Naturally, a soul is not incapable of recognizing in itself the symptoms mentioned by St. John of the Cross. But no man is a good judge in his own case, and far too often wishful thinkers in the spiritual life have attributed to almighty God phenomena that were actually the natural products of their own faculties and pas-sions, the result, say, of insomnia or indigestion, or in some cases the work of the devil. Hence the need for solid guidance. In the text of the F~xercises, St. Ignatius divides the retreat into four ~weeks" which correspond roughly to the purgative (first week), illuminative (second and third weeks), and unitive (fourth week) ways so often mentioned by spiritual writers. He 360 November, 1957 PERSEYERING IN PRAYER makes a noteworthy distinction between the treatment to be ac-corded souls suited only for the meditations on the purpose of life, on sin, and on repentance customary in the first "week" and the treatment of souls capable of the greater service of God asked of them in the ensuing "weeks." He has two sets of "Rules for the Discernment of Spirits," applying to the age-old principles whereby the director decides if a soul is being influenced by the good or the evil spirit or by its own self. The rules for souls of the first-week category are rules for beginners in the spiritual life, i.e., either souls struggling to break with habits of mortal sin or innocent souls just learn-ing how to meditate. (Discursive meditation is good for both alike.) The rules for the second week are for the more pro-ficient. Their application extends indefinitely onward into the heights of union with God. This marked difference between the advice St. Ignatius would give beginners and the advice suitable to the more advanced shows plainly that the author of the Exercises took it for granted that the time would come when a radical change would take place in the soul's activity. In other words, he allows for the fact that discursive meditation in many cases develops into something very different, while taking into con-sideration the instances where it does not. "If Ithe retreatant] be a person who has been little versed in spiritual matters and . . if he betrays impediments to making further progress in the service of God our Lord . . . , then let not the person giving the Exercises converse with him upon the rules of the second week for discerning various spirits, because in the pro-portion that those of the first week will benefit him, those of the second will do him harm, because they contain matter too subtle and too high for him to understand" (Annotation IX). St. Ignatius never intended his methods to be set above the valid inspirations of grace, though some of his devotees have at times given that impression. His admonition, "It is 361 MOTHF~R MARIE VANDENBERGH Review for Religious not to know much, but to savor the matter interiorly that fills and satisfies the soul," certainly shows that he meant meditation to be used in such a manner as to pave the way for the simpli-fying process God so often undertakes in the prayer of the generous. A person who remembers this advice will find Igna-tian spirituality an excellent preparation for "the gift of prayer." By way of further example we might point out that a soul formed by the asceticism of St. Ignatius is told, when prayer is dry and disgusting, to prolong it somewhat beyond the usual space of time; when prayer is sweet and easy, to resist the temptation to linger longer. This discipline breeds the detach-ment from even spiritual delights and the perseverance through times of desolate prayer that are the necessary preparation for higher gifts of God. This teaching trains a soul not to give up when ~he going gets tough and, contrariwise, not to make sweetness or facility the criterion of its success in prayer, safely guiding it between the Scylla and Charybdis of its spiritual Odyssey. VI. Adapting the Exercises to the More Proficient Throughout the Exercises there is a noticeable progres-sion of thought, an ascending scale of higher and higher moti-vation, designed to overtake a soul at whatever point it has reached in its journey toward God and guide it further, as far as the grace of God permits. St. Ignatius, though unwilling to speak to beginners about the conduct of the more advanced, did not believe that an earnest soul who has made some progress should be allowed to think that there is no other sort of prayer possible except discursive meditation for "ordinary" Christians and mystical phe-nomena for the saints. This is a common misconception castigated by Father M. Eugene Boylan, O.C.S.C., in his practical little vol-ume, Difficulties in ~ental Prayer. Although St. Ignatius in Annotation XI exhorts the retreatant "so to toil in the first week as if he did not hope to obtain anything in the second," 362 November, 1957 PERSEVER,ING IN PRAYER he does not intend this to mean that a soul should be kept in ignorance of the fact that there is something further to attain, especially if he is generous in striving to correct his defects and to remove the obstacles to his further progress. The sign St. Ignatius gives as an indication to the director that it is safe to instruct a soul in the ways of more advanced spirituality is the discovery that the soul ~is assaulted and tempted under the semblance of good," because this is characteristic of a per-son who ~is exercising himself in the illuminative way" (Anno-tation X). Sometimes in the providence of God it is not very long before the neophyte needs to know what lies ahead for him. When a soul, then, has reached the degree of purity of life where its temptations are not of a ~gross and sensual nature," or when discursive meditation is ceasing for some legitimate reason to be profitable, it is time for him to learn what the future may hold in store. Then, if his prayer begins to dry up, there will be less danger that he will do himself harm by violent efforts to ~pray as I used to," not realizing that there can come a time when a person who says, ~I can no longer meditate," must learn to pray another way. What is the part to be played by methodical meditation during the confusing transition period when the soul is not as yet accustomed to its new role as patient rather than agent? Dom Chapman's advice at this point was always, ~Pray as you can and don't try to pray as you can't,t'' With some persons, the transition between discursive prayer and passive prayer is' abrupt. With others it is gradual, periods of passivity being interspersed with times when meditation is possible to some degree. There is likely to be danger of illusion in refusing to meditate when it becomes possible, even as there is danger in making violent efforts to meditate when it is not possible. Here one's early training in outlined meditation becomes very useful, for the safe course seems to be to make an initial try at medi-tation when beginning the time of prayer, but to rest content if the trial proves a failure. The habit of turning to a preo 363 MOTHER MARIE VANDENBERGH Review for Religious pared outline is a safeguard, in spite of the fact that more and more the method of "doing something" must be replaced by a method of ~doing nothing," of learning to take one's cues from God, God working within the sanctuary of the soul. Sometimes a soul finds it helpful to pray, as it were, by means of an attitude of soul, of humility, supplication, and self-oblation. For such a soul has received ~the call of the King," inviting those who wish to distinguish themselves ir~ God's service to follow their Lord in poverty and suffering. If a person cannot make the offering of himself and all he posses-ses to serve the kingdom of Christ, he obviously has neither the grace nor the capacity for the sacrifices necessary for further progress in the prayer life. If he has made the offering, he must be prepared to fulfill it literally; for, stripped of even the spiritual armor in which he trusted, he will suffer unbearably in the experience of his poverty in the sight of God. This, however, is the way God must treat a soul in order to make it pliant in His hands. When a person has learned how to remain tranquil under the direct action of God, he has learned how to pull in the oars of meditation-technique and let ,:he breath of the Spirit fill his sails. He has learned how to launch out into the deep. Let it be noted, though, that, if the soul may ~pull in the oars," it does not throw them away. As Father 1~. H. J. Steuart put it, "You don't tear down the staircase just because you have arrived at the top." Father Boylan makes the sage re-mark that we must have "the humility" to return to discursive prayer when the facility for it is restored. In many an instance the course grace takes after passive stages have done their work is to restore the discursive ability in combination with the infused contemplation that is the fruit of the purification the soul has undergone. It would be a tempting digression to go more into detail in regard to the rules for discerning spirits, but that would be beyond the scope of this article which set out to be no 364 November, 1957 PERSEVERING IN PRAYER more than a general survey. The point we have tried to em-phasize is that in the text of the Exercises can be found the evidence that St. Ignatius, though he teaches methodical prayer, by no means intended to limit souls to it if they were drawn by God to something simpler. He definitely planned the F~xercises to prepare and dispose a soul to find more quickly the will of God in its own regard--and devotion to the will of God is one of the marks of a contemplative soul. There are references in rules 2 and 8 of the second week to "consolation without any preceding cause" as being the work of God par excellence in the soul. There follow warn-ings against pseudo-consolation inspired by the devil and the illusions of auto-suggestion apt to follow upon actual and God-sent "consolation." These show how familiar St. Ignatius was--and how familiar he expected the director to be--with the hazards attendant upon even the most legitimate graces of infused prayer. Without doubt, Ignatian spirituality, rightly understood, is designed to prepare a soul for God's direct action, protect it during the dangers of the transition period, and safeguard it from illusion when it has accustomed itself to surrender to the will of God. Mother Marie Aimee Lautier, superior general of the Cenacle for nearly fifty years, stressed the function of prayer in our "mixed" vocation as "contemplative in action." "Masters of the spiritual life," she wrote, "teach that the soul called to perfection, after being exercised in the exterior practice of charity, is drawn by the contemplation of divine things to an interior conversion and purification, so that being wholly en-kindled and burning with divine love, it is impelled anew by the strength of this love towards creatures in order to give them of its fullness: 'The love of Christ impels us' (II Cor. 5:14). "Its charity, then, is quite different from what it was at the beginning; and its zeal which at first was the auxiliary of natural activity now becomes the disinterested fruit of love." 365 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious This same holy religious exhorted her daughters, "Ask for this precious gift [of prayer]; we must prepare ourselves to receive it, and we must await it with confidence. It is the gift par excellence of our vocation." Of course, the Cenacle tlas no monopoly on it. We are grateful, though, to have the strong guidance of St. Ignatius to help us achieve our goal. Book Reviews [Material for this department should be sent to Book Review Editor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana.] THE FIRST JESUIT, ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA. By Mary Purcell. Pp. 417. The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. 1957. 5.oo. In her preface to this delightful life of St. Ignatius, Miss Purcell says that if he were better known, he would be better loved and oftener invoked. Her own efforts are no small contribution to this happy con-summation. Too often St. Ignatius has been presented to us in the guise of what Father La Farge, in his forward, calls "a glorified efficiency expert," with the result that the lovable qualities of the saint are frequently overlooked, thus leaving him in these later days a figure more feared and admired than loved. "It is interesting to note," writes Miss Purcell, "how many people in so many different walks of life 'become fond of Inigo.' He seems to have had an easy and spontaneous manner, a nature that led him to make friends quickly. In the places where he lived, people soon got to know of him . He had an extraordinary flair for knowing exactly which ap-proach would win the heart of the particular individual or group he was contacting at any given time. And 'When he gazed at one,' writes a contemporary, 'while his conversation was benign, his eyes seemed to pierce the heart, to see all; conversing with him only once, you felt that he knew you through and through.' " It would seem that the reaction has well begun; and future biographers, taking their cue from writers like PSre Dudon, Father Brodrick, and Miss Purcell, will in the future give us an Ignatius 366 November, 1957 BOOK REVIEWS who, besides being a founder and a general, is also a fellow-pilgrim and a father. A preliminary glance at the bibliography might suggest that Miss Purcell has undertaken to write something more than a merely popular life of St. Ignatius, and the reader will not have gone very far before he realizes that there is a great deal of scholarship to it; and once he gets himself tangled up in the notes at the end of the volume, he won't have any doubt about it. Miss Purcell has gone to original sources, some of which may have been within easy reach, like the seventy-seven volumes of the ~lonumenta llistorica Societatis Jesu. But others must have been farther removed, like the diaries of the pilgrims who accompanied Inigo on his pilgrimage to Jeru-salem or about his time made pilgrimages of their own. There is a very thorough treatment of the Irish mission of Fathers Broet and Salmeron, but this reviewer feels that Miss Purcell is too sweeping when she calls it the only complete failure in the life of Ignatius. After all, they were not missionaries bent on the conversion of a pagan land. They were papal nuncios. They came, they saw, they returned. Uoila! Since they were papal nuncios, we might have wished that their visitation had been carried on with a little more leisure and something of the ceremonial becoming their exalted rank. But they knew they were putting their heads into the lion's mouth, even if St. Ignatius thought that Ireland was another Guipuzcoa when in fact it was what we should call today hardly more than a satellite state. The very fact that they survived, surveyed conditions, and escaped with their lives to make their report is by itself a considerable achievement and deserves to be regarded as some measure of success. Some readers will be very sceptical about accepting one or other of Miss Purcell's conclusions, for instance, that Inigo was "barely five feet tall" and that he was "red-headed." Consulting the sources given I can find none that warrants such a conclusion. He is described as being of "medium height" or "a little below medium." Barely five feet would place him in the under-sized class completely. One wonders how a man of such small proportions (even remember-ing Napoleon) could hope for any notable success in the use of arms on battlefield or jousting court, or expect to play Amadis to any Oriana. Yet we know that Inigo, the caballero, made no bones about aiming at glorious successes in both instances. 367 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious There is a text in the Monumenta which refers to the caput aereum, and although the term occurs twice in the same paragraph, the editors of the hlonumenta seem to be convinced that aereunt should be cor-rected to cereum, since it evidently refers to the wax effigy which was taken from the death-mask. His complexion seems to have been what we should today call blond verging on ruddy. Juan Pascual, who described him as he remembered meeting him on his way down from Montserrat, wrote of him as being "'no molt alt, pero blanc j ros, j de molt bona cara" (p. 83), which is the Catalan for "medium height, fair complexion, and handsome." Occasionally Miss Purcell is a bit unguarded and leaves herself open to misinterpretation, as when she says: "One cannot think of Ignatius of Loyola limping a little at times as he trudges from Rome out to Monte Cassino to give the Exercises to Dr. Ortiz and back again to see how Cardinal Contarini is faring in his contemplations, without recalling a veritable litany of great names . " The reader is not always ready to interpose a month or more between these two excursions; and, while Miss Purcell of course knows better, this sentence can easily give the the untraveled reader the impression that Monte Cassino is one of the outlying hills of Rome and that St. Ignatius was giving the Exercises simultaneously, but separately, to these two veritably great men, Pedro Ortiz and Cardinal Contarini. We do know that once he had three exercitants in retreat simul-taneously in different parts of Rome, a task which obliged him daily to trudge practically the periphery of the city, "limping a little," not only at times, but every step of the way. Limitations of space may be responsible for other false impres-sions as that in St. Ignatius's dealing with Father Simon Rodrigues, whom he did not threaten with "excommunication," or even dismissal, although he was fully prepared to proceed to this latter extreme if Rodrigues persisted in his refusal to leave Portugal and come to Rome, as his Father General had begged him to do in letter after letter. But, then, Miss Purcell did not write this book for specialists. She has given us a delightful picture of St. Ignatius, but an in-complete one. In fact, who would ever think of making it complete? For what she has given us we should be deeply grateful. The points here adversely touched upon are minor indeed and do not in the least impair the picture that is actually presented. The reader is 368 November, 1957 ~OOK REVIEWS given a fair and unbroken page to examine, typographically speaking; but he pays for this satisfaction in the added labor of tracking down references. But Miss Purcell's publisher is to blame for that; and, after all, it is for the most part only rugged reviewers or determined researchers who will have to bear that burden. Their growling should not be taken as an attempt to bite.--WH,LI,.\.x~ J. Youxc,, S.J. A WOMAN OF UNITY. By Sister Mary Celine, S.A. Pp 357. Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, Graymoor, Garrison, New York. 1956. $4.50. A Woman of Unity tells the story of Mother Lurana of Gray-moor. The career of this "remarkable woman" is traced through her childhood, her searchings as a young woman for a life of perfect poverty in Anglican communities, her founding of Graymoor with Father Paul Francis, her reception into the Church with her com-munity in 1909, and her direction of the Society of the Atonement in her mature years. Mother Lurana is an inspiring personality; and in these days, when church unity is talked of more seriously than at any time since the Protestant Revolt, her life and vocation are of especial significance. It is most interesting to read of the humble beginnings of the Chair of Unity Octave at Graymoor during Mother Lurana's Anglican days and also to know of her dissatisfaction even then with the Anglican position on the unity and leadership of the Church: "In legislative bodies not so much as a committee of three can discharge its functions, unless one of the three presides in the chair of unity. It is a futile dream to contemplate a united Church on earth without a visible head. If every parish must have its rector, and every diocese its bishop, and every province its archbishop, how could the whole Catholic Church throughout the world exist as one fold without having one supreme or chief shepherd over all?" Mother Lurana conceived her life's task and the task of her society to be that of "repairer of the breach," to use one of her favorite ways of expressing her vocation to work for church unity. Sister Mary Celine, a member of Mother Lurana's community who knew her personally, has faithfully reconstructed her story from letters, official documents, and personal recollections. The biography proceeds in clear and chronogical sequences, and Mother Lurana is given ample opportunity to speak for herself in letters and exhorta-tations to the community. Sister Mary Celine brings the reader into the Graymoor community to share the joys and sorrows of the mother 369 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious foundress and the pioneer nuns. The book, however, has a tone reminiscent of the sweet and moralizing hagiography popular in an earlier day, a tone to this reviewer somewhat distasteful, and abounds in phrases and reflections which seem a little worn. On the other hand, even though in the pages of A Woman of Unity Mother Lurana loses a trifle of the vibrant humanity which must have been hers, she clearly has aroused in her biographer and all her religious daughters an admiration which is at once warm and contagious. As a matter of fact, it is difficult to see how anyone who knew her could help but admire the courage and spirit of this woman who braved all in order to lead others to the Chair of Unity. --JOHN W. O'~IALLEY, THE WORD OF SALVATION. Translation and Explanation of I. The Gospel According to St. Matthew by Alfred Durand, S.J., and II. The Gospel According to St. Mark by Joseph Huby, S.J. Translated into English by John J. Heenan, S.J. Pp. 937. The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee 1, Wis. consin. 1957. $12.50. A translation of the famous Verbum Salutis series has been long overdue. Father Heenan is to be congratulated for making two of the volumes of this popular commentary available to English-speak-ing Catholics. The English version of both text and commentary is fortunately unabridged, and the translator has thoughtfully added a handy index for each Gospel. Father Heenan has preferred to reproduce the text of the Gospels with an eye to the French rather than to follow strictly any one of the standard English versions. But the words of the Gospel flow at least as smoothly as they do in the Confra-ternity edition, and to many they will have a more familiar ring. Some may be disconcerted by the alternation of you and thou in the text. However, the former is used consistently for the plural; and it seems that Father Heenan wisely opted for accuracy in this instance as in all other respects, since the main feature of the book is the commentary which closely follows the translation of the gospel text. The style of the English commentary follows the French quite well: simple, direct, concise, with occasional fluent passages. As for content, technical discussions are limited to a bit more than the minimum 370 November, 1957 ]lOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS claimed by the authors, but will prove to be of interest even to the layman in biblical studies. It should be noted that these few learned asides are written in non-technical language and can easily be handled by the average intelligent reader. They serve, too, to undergird what might otherwise be considered a pious commentary with little basis in historical fact. One cannot ignore history if one seeks a fuller understanding of the words of Christ. The Savior became incarnate for all men, but taught and toiled primarily for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. It was in their language, thought-patterns, and history that He voiced the Word of Salvation. This volume will go far to re-create for the preacher, student, and religious the atmosphere of the Gospel and its interpretation throughout the course of Christian tradition. It will be quite help-ful to those who prefer spiritual reading and meditation material which is more directly in touch with the words of the Gospel than is usually the case in a "life of Christ." The text and commentary are neatly divided into sections averaging about six pages of com-mentary for every five of ten verses of text. The apologetic value of the work should not be overlooked by teachers of high school and college. Father Smith Instructs Jackson, for all its merits, is often completely unacceptable to the college student or to the prospective convert whose chief difficulties lie in understanding the paradoxical words of Christ Himself. In this connection, Sodality study clubs (at least on the high school senior level) might use the Word of Salva-tion with much profit. May this excellent work see even more editions than its French original. It is to be hoped that the companion volume (Luke and John) will appear shortly.--CH.~RI, ES H. (~J~L~X', S.J. 8OOK ANNOUNCI:MI:NT$ THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 400 North Broadway, Milwaukee 1, Wisconsin. De Ordine. Tom. I. De Institutione. By Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Priests and seminarians will certainly want to read this monumental Latin work on the sacrament of orders. This first volume of more than a thousand large, closely printed pages begins with an eighty-two page introduction to the whole treatise which is to consist of seven chapters. The introduction is followed by the first chapter 371 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious which takes up all the remaining pages. This chapter is divided into three articles: the first on the existence of orders; the second on the sacramental nature of orders; and the last on the three grades of orders. There are exceptionally complete bibliographies and indices. The work gives promise in this first volume of being even more exhaustive than the author's justly renowned work on the sacrament of penance. Pp. 962 ~- 41. $19.00. Canon Law Digest. Annual Supplement Through 1956. By Lincoln T. Bouscaran, S.J., and James I. O'Connor, S.J. $1.75. CARMELITE SISTERS, Santa Teresita Hospital, Duarte, Calif. The Doctor's Widow. By William M. Queen. This is the first biography of Mother Maria Luisa Josefa of the Most Blessed Sacra-ment, foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Sisters of the Third Order. This congregation was born at the turn of the century and has two provinces, one in Mexico, the land of its birth, the other in California. Its expansion to California was one of God's ways of drawing good out of the evil of the persecution of the Church in Mexico. This inspiring book will be of interest to both religious and lay women since Mother Josefa was an exemplary wife before she became a religious. Pp 127. Cloth $1.00. The Soul's Elevation, by a Discalced Carmelite Father, a master of novices, is a meditation book for religious. In the introduction we find an explanation of meditation in which the author outlines both the Ignatian and the Sulpician methods. There is also a brief outline of prayer in general. In Part I there are eight meditations on the four last things. Part II contains nine meditations on the gifts of God to man. Part III devotes eight meditations to the Passion of our Lord. Part IV consists of three considerations on Holy Communion. There is also an appendix which contains "Mirror of the Good Religious" and meditations for the day of investiture, of first vows, of final vows, and of jubilee. Pp. 94. Paper $1.00. GRAIL PUBLICATIONS, St. Meinrad,Indiana. Follow Christ. No 18. This largepamphlet on vocation to the priesthood and the religious life, profusely illustrated with excellent photographs, deserves wide distribution. In it the questions which eighth grade boys and girls of today are actually asking about the important topic of vocation are answered by experts. It 372 November, 1957 [~OOK ANNOUNCEMENTS contains much information about seminaries and many religious orders and congregations for both men and women. Pp. 134. $0.75. SHEED AND WARD, 840 Broadway, New York 3, New York. Terrible Farmer Timson and Other Stories. By Caryll House-lander. Pictures by Renee George. Here are twelve stories for children which first appeared in The Children's Messenger of Lon-don, England. Children will be pleased with them and learn 'some very profitable truths without pain or effort. Pp. 152. $2.50. Soeur Angele and the Bell Ringer's Niece. By Henri Catalan. This is the third detective story by the author in which a Sister of Charity appears in the role of detective, and she does so without derogating in any way from her role as religious. The setting and characters are typically French. Pp. 179. $2.50. SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS, Mount Alvernia, Pittsburgh 9, Penn-sylvania. As a Living Oak. Biography of Mother Baptista Etzel, O.S.F. By Sister Mary Aurelia Arenth, O.S.F. There should be more, many more biographies of the men and women who have rendered out-standing service to God and religion. Such biographies would extend the sphere of influence for good which they exercised while living to the men and women of ~he present generation. We have the material; what seems to be lacking are authors to put it to good use. Hence we welcome the present biography with a great deal of satisfaction. It is the biography of Mother Baptista who was one of the pioneers of the Franciscan Sisters in Pennsylvania, and their third mother superior. That so many of the hardships of the pioneer days are now a matter of history for this congregation and that their sphere of influence has been so greatly enlarged is due very largely to her courage, vision, and fortitude. May this biography inspire many more souls to follow where she led; may it also inspire authors to gather material from the same fertile field, the pioneer religious in the United States. Pp. 133. $3.00. SISTERS OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN, St. Scholastica's, Glebe Point, Australia. The Wheeling Years. The Sisters of the Good Samaritan. 1857. 1957. Faith and reason prove the providence of God for His crea-tion. History illustrates it for the discerning reader. In The Wheel- 373 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS ing Years we have such an illustration. The book, made more graphic with drawings and many photographs, recounts the story of the foundation in Sydney, Australia, of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan just one hundred years ago. It tells the story of the first difficult years and their subsequent growth. Houses of the congregation are now found in the whole length and breadth of the island continent. This new congregation adapted the rule of St. Benedict to the needs and requirements of life on a continent at that time rapidly growing to the stature of a new nation. In this centenary publication we also find an account of their spirit, the training imparted to their members, and the work that they do for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Despite the many demands made on them at home, they have not been deaf to the call of the missions and have two foundations in Japan. We join with these sisters in thanking God for the innumerable graces of the past one hundred years. SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL, 2187 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island 14, New York. Holy Mass and Life. By Aloysius Biskupek, S.V.D. "The more the significance of the Mass is understood, and the more its power is used for the realization of the ideal Christian living, the more holiness there will be among the faithful." With these words the author sums up his book in the final chapter titled Conclusion. To offer adequate means to the faithful to attain this end was the motive which guided his pen. His explanations are clear, his exhortations persuasive, and his meditations on the unchanging prayers of the Mass even priests who have said Mass for many years would find helpful. There are twenty-three full page photographs of a priest at various parts of the Mass. Pp. 189. $2.50. 374 ( uestdons and Answers [The following answers are given by Father Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., professor of canon law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland.] Why has the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS emphasized so frequently the simplification of the habit of religious women? The articles and statements in the R.EVIEW have been mere ex-planations of the principles of Plus XII and the Roman congregations. They have been relatively conservative, as may be seen from some of the following quotations. "The first is that of particular observances. Each of these, even the most material, should bear at least indirectly on the sanctification of the religious. We find a characteristic example in the habit. It is certain that in itself, especially as regards form or color, it contributes very little to the perfection of charity. Nevertheless, it places the re: ligious in a state of separation which is visible to the world and sym-bolizes and favors that interior separation which is the first step of the soul in search of God" (Dora Basset, O.S.B., Religious Sisters. 87). "When the different religious habits were adopted by the founders, they resembled the dress of the poor people of the period. Today a habit is required that helps the body, not one that embarrasses it; it should be practical, simple. A long habit and a simple veil are always graceful and becoming. They offer many practical advantages and are in perfect keeping with modesty and with religious consecration. In order that in our day the religious habit may keep its aesthetic appeal and its character of poverty together with its attractive symbolism of consecration, it would suffice to simplify it. It would thus become more practical, fewer pleats, narrower sleeves, less pretentious coifs and cornettes" (Reverend Victor de la Vierge, O.C.D., ibid., 272-73). "The choice of religious habits for each order was not necessarily motivated by rules of hygiene but frequently by contemporary usage and certain principles of mortification and decency. In recent years a number of religious habits have undergone simplification and a wholesome process of alleviation. Still, it must be recognized that many remain far from healthy either on account of weight (some 375 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religion, s weigh as much as fifteen pounds), or of difficulty of washing, or of headdresses and winged coifs worn tightly around the head and fore-head" (Sister Germaine Marie, Ckastity, 252). "It is simply not permissible that religious should pay more for their clothing than people of the world. There are habits that have become simply impossible with regard to both health and work, and some have become ridiculous and endanger the acceptance of a voca-tion" lMost Reverend A. Ancel, deta et Documenta (~'on.qressus (;en-eralis de Statibus Perfectionis, I, 381). '~In general, the people approve simplicity and practicality. In those consecrated to God, they desire a habit that is serious, but not eccentric, clean but not ostentatious. Therefore they cannot compre-hend today some religious habits, for example, of some sisters. The eccentricity and at times the awkwardness of their headdress is really incomprehensible. One cannot grasp the purpose of those yards of material in folds and pleats, of the starched cloth that makes the imprisoned face look like a mask, of an obstructive and ridiculous headcovering" (Reverend G. Amorth, S.S.P., ibid., I, 308-09). "Dear Father, many, very many of us are one hundred per cent in agreement with you. Please keep pushing, pushing, pushing and talking, talking, talking until results are obtained. It isn't our fault that we must wear the ridiculously conspicuous and unsuitable out-tits we do. We would be eternally grateful to you if you could do anything to hasten our release from these swaddling bands, this en-casement of the face, the starch, ruffles, pleats, quantity of cloth, number of articles of clothing, the many pins which relentlessly stick our fingers and neck, the dangling, rustling rosary which catches into everything, gets caught in train and bus seats, and is forever break-ing into a dozen pieces and constantly in the repair shop. The Blessed Mother did not make herself conspicuous by adopting a singular mode of dress; she conformed to the style of her day. Religious men when working wear suitable clothes, and neither do they have their heads all bundled up. Give me a habit which is extremely simple, suitable in color and for work, and something that can be thrown into a wash-ing machine and washed at least once a week the way common sense and decency demand. Deliver me from this intricate and unwieldy headdress whose weight and pressure cause so many headaches, eye troubles, sinus troubles, and many nervous troubles as well as adverse comments" (,1 communication from a sister on the missions). 376 Nove~nber, 1957 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 35- Will you please give a bibliography on renovation and adaptation? The primary sources are the statements of Pope Pius XII and the Roman congregations. These were given in the REV[E\V FOR RF.LI(;IOUS, 14-1955-3-11; 85-92; 123-38; 15-1956-309-27. The acts and documents of the first general congress on the states of perfection, held in Rome in 1950, are next in importance. They have been published in four volumes by the Edizioni Paoline under the title of Acta et Documenta Congressus Generalis de Statibus Per-fectionis. Many of the articles of these volumes are in Latin, French, Italian, other modern languages, but very few in English. The next place must be given to other Roman meetings, which can be found in the following works: Acta et Documenta Congressus Internationalis Superiorissarum Generalium; Atti e Documenti del Primo Convegno Internazionale delle Religiose Educatrici; Atti e Documenti del Primo Convegno delle Religiose Rieducatrici, all pub-lished by Edizioni Paoline. In the fourth place are the acts and documents of the various na-tional congresses, e. g., that held for the United States at the University of Notre Dame and published by the Paulist Press in separate volumes for the sisters' and men's sections under the title, Religious Community Life in the United States. The English congress has been published by the Salesian Press under the title, Religious Life Today. In the order of practicality, the next place must be given to the Religious Life Series. These are translations from the French published by the Newman Press and Blackfriars. The volumes that have been translated and published are Religious Sisters, Vocation, Poverty, Chas-tity, Obedience, Doctrinal Instruction of Religious Sisters, and The Direction of Nuns. The volume on common life, La Vie Commune, published in French by Les Editions du Cerf, has not as yet been translated. Again in the order of practicality, the next place is given to Eng-lish works and articles, e. g., The Mind of the Church in the Forma-tion of Sisters, published by Fordham University Press; the Sister Formation Bulletin, published at Marycrest College, Davenport, Iowa; and articles in the l~EVl~.W FOR REL[C, mUS, e. g., 8-1949-86-96; 9-1950- 131-39; 10-1951-75-81; 12-1953-252-72;12-1953-285-90; 12-1953-291-304; 13-1954-13-27; 13-1954-87-92; 13-1954-125-37; 13-1954-169-78; 14-1955- 205-15; 14-1955-293-318; 16-1957-3-9. 377 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious A really great source in quantity and quality of thoughts on reno-vation and adaptation will be found in the French periodical, La Vie Spirituelle and its Supplement, from 1946. Many modern spiritual books, especially in French, are affected by the movement and contribute to it. Our work the essentials, included, why the customary is a prayer. Therefore, why not get along with just Mass and Holy Communion? If meditation must be not make a good fifteen-minute meditation rather than one of a half hour? Work is not infallibly nor by any means always a prayer, and it is rarely a prayer in those who do not give sufficient time to formal prayer. The regime of prayer you favor is that of a devout person of the world, not of a religious who professes to be striving for sanctity. The prayer in the religious life must be of a duration and quality sufficient and capable of inspiring and developing a really saintly life. Some words of Plus XII can also be pondered. "However, We cannot refrain from giving utterance to Our solici-tude and anxiety for those who, because of the special circumstances of the times, have lost themselves so completely in a maze of external activities that they have forgotten the first duty of priests, namely, that of securing their own personal sanctification. We have already publicly proclaimed that those so rash as to hold that salvation can be brougl'~t to men by what has been aptly termed the 'heresy of activity' are to be brought back to the right path. We refer to that kind of activity which is not based on divine grace and does not make constant use of the aids provided by Jesus Christ for the attainment of holiness." "With the growth of devotion to exterior works therefore, let there shine forth a corresponding increase in faith, in the life of prayer, in zealous consecration of self and talents to God, in spotless purity of conscience, in obedience, in patient endurance of hardship, and in active charity tirelessly expended for God and one's neighbor. The Church insistently demands of you that your external wor

Issue 10.3 of the Review for Religious, 1951. ; Blesssed Claude Colombiere and Devotion !:he Sacre bleart: C. A. Herbst, S.d. 44~rHIS is he whom. I send thee." Margaret Mary heard these | words interiorly as she sat listening to the first instruction Father Claude de la Colombi~re gave the Visitandine com-munity at Paray-le-Monial towards the end of February, 1675. Here was the fulfillment of a promise. Our Lord had appeared many times, asking her to promote devotion to His Sacred Heart. Over-whelmed at the thought, "My sovereign Master had promised me shortly after I had consecrated myself to Him that He would send: me one of His servants, to whom He wished me to make known'. according to the knowledge He would give me thereof, all the treas-ures and secrets of His Sacred Heart which He had confided to.me. H~ added that He sent him to reassure me with regard to my interior way, and that He would impart to him signal graces from His Sacred Heart, showering them abundantly over our interviews." (Autobiography of St. Margaret Mary, .Visitation Library, 1930. No. 80.) That the Sacred Heart, the heart of Margaret Mary, and the heart of the young Jesuit should be united in love, Our Lord. showed the Saint in a vision. "As I went up to receive Him in Holy Com-munion, He showed His Sacred Heart as a burning furnace, and two 6ther hearts were on the point of uniting themselves to It, and of being absorbed therein. At the same time He said to me: 'It is thus My pure love unites these three hearts for ever.' He afterwards gave me to understand that this union was all for the glory of Hi,s Sacred Heart, the"treasures of Which He wished me to reveal to him that he might spread them abroad, and make known to others their value and utility. To this end He wished we should be brother and sister, sharing equally these spiritual treasures." (Ibid., No. 82.) The Extraordinary Confessor "'So it was according to a very special providence of God that Father Colombi~re was appointed superior of the small Jesuit com-munity in Paray ~arly in 1675. Our Lord wanted him to bethe sympathetic, enlightened, and fearless director of Margaret Mary and 1'13 C. A. HERBST Review for Religious the first public promoter of devotion to His Sacred Heart. Named extraordinary confessor to the convent, he came on the Lenten Ember Days towards the beginn{ng of March, .1675. Margaret Mary herself relatds what took place on that occasion. "Although .we had never either seen or spoken with each other, the Reverend Father kept me a very long time and spoke with me as though he understood what was passing within me. But I would not in any way ope, n my heart to him just then, and, seeing that I wished to withdraw for fear of. inconveniencing the community, he asked me if I would allow him to come and speak with me again in tl~is same place~ But in my natural timidity which shrank from all such communications, I re- .plied that, not being~ at my own disposal, I would dO whatever obedience ordered me. I'then withdrew having remained with him about an hour and a half." (Ibid., No. 80.) She was still timid, uncertain, afraid. But shortly after, her superior, M~re de Saumaise, "having had him return, ordered our virtuous sister to talk to him, in order to reassure herself as to what was taking place in her" (Gauthey, Vie et Oeuores, ~i, 133). Mar-garet Mary continues: "Before long he again returned, and although I kn~w it to be the Will of God that I should speak with him,, I nevertheless felt an extreme repugnance to be oblig(d.to do so. I'told him so at once. He replied that"he was very pleased to have given me an opportunity of making a sacrifice to God. Then, without trouble~or method, I opened my heart and made known to him my inmost soul, both the good and bad; ,whereupon he greatly consoled me, ~issuring me that there was nothing to fear in, the guidafice~of that Spirit, since It did not withdraw me from obedience; that I ought to follow Its movements, abandoning to It my whole being, sacrificing arid :imhaol~i~ myself according to Its good pleasure . Having mentioned some of the more special favors and .expressions of love which I received from this Beloved of my soul, arid which I refrain from describing here, he said that ~n all ~his, I had great cause to humble .myself and to admire the mercy of God in my regard." (Autobio~rapby~ No. 81.) First Dis'closure This was the first time she had ever told anyone of the revela-tions of the Sacred Heart to her. "I assure you," .she wrote later, "that it was to this good Father that I made the first disclosure. My sovereigri Master ordered m~ to do so. He showered on him on this 114 ' Mag, 1951 BLESSED CLAUDE COLOMBII~RE occasion more graces than He had ever given him before." (Vie et Oeuvres, II, 543.) ~ But humiliations came, too. "The Reverend Father himself had much to suffer on my account. For it was said that I wanted to deceive him and mislead him by my illusions, as I had done others. He was, however, in no way troubled by what was said. but con-tinued none the less to help me, not Only during the short time he remained in this town, but always. Many a time I have been sur-prised that he did not abandon me as others had done, for the way in which I acted towards him v~ould have repulsed any other." (Autobiography, No. 81.) Here indeed was put to the test the promise ~he had made to God of never doing or omitting through human respect anything that he thought to be' for the glory of God. Behold This Heart In June, 1675. during the octave of Corpt~s Christi, Our Lord made the last great revelation of His Sacred Heart to Margaret Mary. "Behold this Heart, Which has loved men so much. that It has spared nothing, even to exhhusting and consuming Itself, in 6rder to testify to ~hem Its love: and in return I receive from the greater ~number nothing but i.ngrati~ude by reason of their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt which they show Me in this Sacrament of Love. But yghat I feel-the mo~t keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me that treat Me thus. Therefore, I ask of thee that the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special Feast to honour My Heart, by communikating on that day and making reparation to It by a solemn act, in order to make amends for the indignities which It has received during thb tim~, It has been e~posed on the altars. I promise thee that My Heart shall expand Itself to shed in abundance the influence of Its divine love upon those who Shall thus honour It, and cause It to be honoured." (Autobiography, No. 92.) Here was a clear statement, a bitter complaint, a definite and manifold request,-and a rich promise., And yet, what could a poor timid young nun in the cloister do about it? "'And when I replied that I knew not bow to accomplish what He bad so long desired of me, He told me to address, myself to His servant, .Wh, om He had sent me for the accomplishment of this design. Having done this, he (Father de la Colombi~re)~ ordered me to commit to writing all that I had .made known to him concerning "the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as several other thing,s.~whicb referred to It for the greater glory C. A. HERBST Review for Religious of God. This Was a cause of great ~omfor~ to me, as this holy man not only taught me how to correspond to His designs, but also reas-sured me in the great fear I had of being deceived which was a con-stant trouble to me."' (Ibid., No. 92.) The Guide for Falterin~l Steps So Father Colombi~re was ~be answer. He would guide her fab tering steps.and encourage her. T, he Life by' her contemporaries ex-pands the" narrative. "Address yourself to My servant, Father de la Colombi~re, Jesuit, and tell him for Me that he should do all in his power to establish this devotion and give this pleasure to My divine Heart. Let him not be discouraged by the difficulties he will en-counter, for they will not be wanting. But he should know that he is all-powerful who, putting off confidence in self, trusts i,mplicitly in Me." (Vie et Oeuvres, I, 138, 13.9.) It takes great courage and great spiritual insight to guide a mystic soul, especially when a riew devotion is to be introduced into the world through this soul. But "Father de la Colombi~re was a man of fine discernment. 'He was riot a man to g!ve credence to anything easily. But he had too striking proofs of the solid virtue of the per-son who was speaking to him to have the slightest fear of delusion in this matter. He accordingly took' up at once the ministry whikh God had just committed to him. In order to acquit himself of it effectively and perfectly, be decided to begin with himself. He ac-cordingly consecrated himself (together with Margaret Mary and only~ a few days aft+r the great apparition) completely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He offered It everything in himself he thought capable of honoring an'd pleasing It. The extraordinary graces Which he received from this practice soon confirmed him in the esteem which he already bad of tbeimp6rtance and solidity of this devotion." (Ibid.) These Three Hearts Thus it was that "My pure love t~nites these three hearts for ever." M~rgaret Mary and Father Colombi~re bad truly become "brother and sister, sharing equally these spiritual treasures." But he must spread tl~e fire, too, as much as his little world and the 'short time allowed. "Though. he remained but a short time in the town, he never ceased inculcating this devotion in all his spiritual daugh-ters. He had them receive holy Communion in honor of the Sacred Heart on the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christ." (Ibid., 116 Ma~l, 1951 BLESSED CLAUDE COLOMBII~RE 138, 139.) His apostola~te would become more extensive in another land. Late in the summer of 1676 Father Colombi~re was sent by his sunperiors to England to be confessor to th.e eighteen-year-old Mary of Modena, Duchess of York. He 'left Paray towards the latter part of September. Naturally, Margaret Mary.could not but have a sense of foreboding and feel the loss-of him very much, but Christ's "my grace is sufficient for thee" of another day brought her the same courage and strength it did St. Paul. "I received this blow with perfe.ct submission-to the Will of God, Who had allowed him to be of such use to me during the short time he had been here. When I ventured afterwards to reflect upon my loss, my Divine Master forth-with reproved me, saying: 'What! am I not sufficient for thee, I Who am thy beginning ~and thy last end?' This sufficed to make me abandon all to Him, for I was convined that He would not fail to provide me with'everything that was necessary." (Autobiographg, No. 93.) A Threefold Warning Before leaving Paray, a note from her was handed Father Co-" lombi~re. It contained a three-fold warning from heaven for him who was truly going to be a sheep among wolves. "1. Father de la Colombi~re's talent is to lead souls to God; therefore the devils-will do all in their power against him. He will meet with trouble,~ even from persons consecrated to God, who will not approve of what he says in his sermons t"o convert them; but in these crosses the goodness of God will be his support, so .long as he continu,es to trust in Him. 2. He must have a compassionate gentleness for si~nners, and only use severe measures when especially inspired by God to do so. 3. Let him be particularly careful not to separate good,from its source. ~This sentence is shortl but contains much which God will enable him to understand according to the diligence with 'which he applies himself to find its meaning." (Sister Mary Philip,,A Jesuit at the English Court, 115.) J , He accepted this note a~ a message from heaven. Although contained almost as many mysteries as it did words," he would be shown in his London retreat during the second half of January, 1677, its immediate and immensely~practical and detailed usefulness. "Truly," he ~wrote February 7, 1677, "Our Lord left nothing more to be said. There was (in that note) saving advic@ against all the evils that could befall me" (Vie et Oeuvres, I, 142). "These were " 1 17 C. A. HERBSr Review ior Religious counsels to fit p~sent circumstances and°'remedies against thoughts and plans that were troubling me and that were Very much opposed to those of God" (Ibid.). And later: "That helped very much to steady me. For I was tempted to abandon everything for fear of an outburst which might give scandal and wound charity" (Ibid.; 143). "The'note from Sister Alacoque strengthens me very much and gives me reassurance in a thousand doubts which come to me every~day" (Ibid., 144). It is x;ery clear that a few enlightened,words from Margaret Mary were helping her director to make his soul ready to be a great apostle of the Sacred Heart. Colorobi~re's Consecration By the time his retreat of 1677 ended, Father Colombibre was prepared to give himself over' fully and solemnly to the Sacred Heart. Six months before at Paray he had consecrated himself in a simple way to that Heart.' Since then, much light and. many graces had come to him. Under the influence of these he had slowly and care-fully, determined that, from now,on~ his life would be c6mplet'ely "dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. "This offering is made' in order to honour that Divine Heart, 'the seat of all virtues, the source¯ ¯ of all blessings, and the refuge of all holy souls . In reparation 'f~r so many outrages and for such cruel ingratitude, most adorable and amiable Heart of Jesus, and to avoid as far as I can such a mis-fortune, I offer .to Thee my heart, with all its movements. I give myself entirely to Thee, and henceforth I protest most sincerely that I desire to forget myself and all that. relates to me, in order to remove any obstacle which might impede an entrance into this Divine Heart, which Thou hast the goodness to open to me, and into which I hope: to enter, to live. and die there with Thy most faithful servants, penetrated and inflamed with Thy~love. I offer to this H~art all the 'merit and all the satisfaction of all the Masses, pkayers, acts of mortification, religious practices, acts of zeal, of humility, of obedience, and of all the other virtues which I shall practise until the. last moment of my life. I do so not only to honour the Heart'of Jesus and its admirable dispositions, but I also humbly beg Him to accept the entire oblation which I make to Him, to dispose of it ,in the manner which shall please Him, and in favour of whom pleases . " (A Jesuit of the E.nglish Court; 125, 1"26.) His offering and his retreat end with a prayer to the Sacred Heart. "Sacred Heart of Jesus, teach me perfect forgetfulness of self, since 118 M a~ , 1951 BLESSED CLAUDE COLOMBII~RE , this is~the only way one can enter into Thee. Since everyth!ng.I shall do in the future will be Thine. grant that I may do nothing unworthy of Thee. Teach me what I'must do to obtain pule love for Thee. that pure love for which Thou ha~t inspired the desire in me. I feel within me a great desire of pleasing Thee and an even greater powerlessness of doing so without very special light and help. These I can obtain only from Thee. Do all Thy will in me. 0 Lord. I well know that I oppose,It, but I'earnestl~ desire not to do so. "Thou must do everything, divine Heart of Jesus. and oTbou alone shalt have all the glory of my sanctification if I-become holy. That appears to me as clear as day. All this will. bring gr~at glory to Thee, and it is for that alone that I desire to be perfect.Amen." (A. Haman, Histoire de la D~votion au Sacr~ Coeur, III. 296) The apostle was now immolated to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The apostle at once set to work. He wrote from London soon after: "I knew that God wanted me to serve Him by obtaining the accomplisbment of His designs with regard to the devotion which He has revealed to a person He communicates with very intimately. For this it has pleased Him to make use of my weakness. I have alreadY, inspired many people in England with it. I have also written of it to France and asked one of my friends to spread it in the place where he is. This devotion will be very useful there, and the great number of chosen souls in this community leads me to think that its practke in that fervent house will be very pleasing to God." (Georges Guit-ton, Le Bienbeureux Claude La Co[ombi~re, 444.) First Sermon on Sacred Heart March 24, 1677, the third Wednesday of. Lent and th%~ve, of the feast of the Annunciation, Father Colombi~re thought the hour bad come for him to speak publicly of devotion to the Sacre, d Heart, In his sermon, On .the Patience of Jesus'Suffering, he invited his hearers in St. James palace: "Let.us enter into the Heart of the Son of God and see what are Its sentiments with regard to His enemies. .They are sentiments of indescribable sweetness. Note their various degrees and effects. All He suffers from His persecutors does not pre-vent Him from excusing them. He knows they are acting through ignorance, and no matter how great .their envy, human respect, self interest, barred, pride, injustice, and the intensity of their wrath, this Heart, full of goodness, is eager rather to excuse and diminish the 'gravity oftheir sin than to make them more guilty . .~. Jesus.not 119 C. A. HERBST Reuieto for Religious only excuses His executioners. He is moved with deep compassion for them. He bewails their blindness and the evils they are drawing on themselves. - He says in His Hearti 'If thou didst but. know in this thy day the things that are to thy peace.' He knows that the evils that befall Him are scarcely evils'at all compared with theirs. 'Weep not over Me ' Jesus is moved with love for His enemies. , He feels a real and efficacious compassion for them. He prays for them, He suffers for them, He suffers for them with tenderness. He wishes to save them, and He does so. His prayer, is not in vain. These same souls are the ones converted by the sermon of St. Peter . Let the Heart of Jesus be our teacher, our school. Let us make our abode in this Heart during this Lent. Let us study Its every movement and endeavor to conform ours to them. Yes, divine Jesus, i want to live in this Heart. I want to pour all my bitterness into It. TlSere it will be consumed. I do not fear that impatience will attack me in this place Of refuge. There in perfect security I shall exercise myself in.silence, in resignation to the divine will, in invin-cible constancy. Every day I shall offer prayers of thanksgiving for the crosses Thou sendest me and ask Thee to give grace to those who persecute me . " (Oeuvres du R. P. Claude de la Cotombi~re, VI, '249-251.) ~ This was the first sermon ever preached on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form. It is remarkable how it re-echoes the virtues expressly mentioned by Our Lord as characteristic of His Heart the one and only time He expressly mentions that Heart in the gospels: "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt. I 1:29). Around this same theme and these same sweet and consolii~g words ~3f Christ the Church has built one of h~r most. poPular and' practical p~rayers to th,e SaCred Heart: "Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make my heart like unto Thine." English Queen's Request 4. Father Colombi~re remained two years in London. There he continued, in public and in private, to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart. The prime object of his zeal naturally would be his spiritual child, Mary, Duchess of York, later (1.685-1688) Queen ¯ of England as wife of James II. She was the first royal conquest for the devotion. Exiled after 1688 and living in France, ~he was the first royal personage to petition the Holy Father for the establish-ment of a solemn feast in honor of the Sacred Heart.of Jesus, for 1~20 May, 1951 BLESSED CLAUDE COLOMBII~RE which Our Lord Himself had:asked. A feast'in honor of the Sacred Heart was not granted because of the many difficulties of the times, but on March 30, 1697 "the Sacred Congregation of Rites, in response to the~urgent request of Her Most Serene Maiesty, Mary, Queen of England, has graciously grar~ted the Nuns of the ~Visitation of the Most Blessed ,Virgin of St. Francis de Sales that in their churches each. year on the Friday following the octave of Corpus Christi not only priests attached to their churches but others also coming there on this day may celebrate the Mass of the Five Wounds of Jesus Christ." His Holiness, Innocent XII, approved.this decree April 3, 1697. ( Histoire de la D~votion art Sacr~ Coeur, III, 375.) Not until 1765 was a Mass of the Sacred Heart approved. In 1856 it was extended to'the whole Church and in 1929 raised to the rank - of a feast of the first class. Accused in England of taking part in a conspiracy, the queen's chaplain was arrested and imprisoned about the middle of November, 1678, and "exiled" to France. Ill and very weak from tuberculosis and imprisonment he passed through FranCe in slow stages, arriving in Dijon about the end of January. There his old friend from Paray, M~re de Saumaise, was mistress of the Visitandine novices. He bad to address them, of course. One of them, Sister Jeanne- Madeleine Joly, wbuld one day compose the first collection of prac-tices of piety in honor of the Sacred Heart and make one .of the first images of It. He told ~this Sister: "Anyone striving to spread this devotion will do a wonderful work for the glory of God." Sojourn at Paray Early in January, 1679, he had order0d Margaret Mary by letter to make to the Sacred Heart "a testament or donation without re-serve, in writing, of all that she could do or suffer, of all the prayers and spiritual goods anyone should offer for her during her life and after her ,death" (Vie et Oettt;res, I, 172). Father Colombi~re himsclf was to sign this if her superior refused. Towards the end Of Febru-ary he appeared in Paray in person, and spent ten' happy and fruit-ful days there, reassuring Margaret Mary and her new superior, M~re Greyfi~, with regard to the revelations of the Sac~ed Heart. When he arrived at Lyons March 23, he wrote "Our Lord taught me some days ago to make Him a sacrifice even greater still: to be de-termined to do nothing at all, if that be His will." While. taking his native air in the country at Saint-Symphorien ,121 C;. A. HERBST Review/:or Religious he wrote, as June 1, I679, feast of ~Corpus Christi, approached, to the superioress of the Visitation at.CharoHes: "I am writing you today only to urge you to have your whole commuhity~ make a special Communion, the day after the octave of Corpus Christi, not for my intention, but to make reparation, as far as lies in your power, for all the irreverences committed a.gainst Jesus Christ d_uring the whole octave He is exposed on our altars throughout the Chris-tian world. I assure you that this manifestation of love will draw down great blessings upon you. I advise you to continue this prac-tice all your life." (Le Bienheureux Claude La Colombi&e. 624.) He had hardly returned to Lyons at the end of May when he wrote his sister Elizabeth: "This practice was recommended to me by a persom of extraordinary piety. She assured me that all,those who ,gave Our Lord this mark of love would draw great profit" from it, Try gently to draw your friends to do the same thing. I'hope more communities will begin this devotion this year and continue it . always." (Ibid.) 'His Stairi~ual Son, Father Galliffet Somewhat recovered," Father Colombi~re was made spiritual father to some sixteen young Jesuits studying at Lyons during the two scholastic years 1679-1681. In one of these, Joseph de Galliffet. he,was to llve again. This man's great spiritul influence, knowledge of tbeolbgy, and gentle persevering way in spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart were to overcome many an obstacle put in its way. Half a century later, in the preface to his book, The Excellence of the Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus Christ, he wrote: "In 1680, on leaving the noviciate, I had the good fortune of coming under the spiritual direction of Reverend Father Claude la Colombi~re, the director God had given Mother Margaret, then still living. It is from this servant of God that 'I received my first instructions on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. I began then to appre-ciate and love it." F~ther Galliffet's book, still a classic on dev, otion to the Sacred Heart, is the voice of Father Colombi~re coming down to us through the years. He was removed from Lyons, very ill and weak, to Pa.ray in August, 1681. Naturally, he communicated with Margaret Mary. About November first.he writes: "Our Lord told her that, if I were well, I would glorify Him by my zeal, but that now, being ill, He is glorifying Himself in me." But Paray was no place for the sick 122 May, 1951 BLESSED CLAUDE COLOMBII~RE man either, so his brother sent a corn, fortable carriage to remove him to Vienne. It was January 29, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, a day dear to both himself and Sister Margaret. A note came from her: he should not leave Paray if he could remain without being dis-obedient. In writing he asked why: in writing he received an an answer. He stayed. Of what happened the next ten days we know nothing. Febru-ary 15, 1682,'at seven o'clock in the evening, he died of a violent hemorrhage. He was forty-two years of age, had been a Jesuit twenty-two years. At five o'clock next. morning a friend carried the news of his death to Margaret Mary. "Pray for him, and get Others to pray for him," she said. But at ten~o'clock the sarrie morning she sent a note: "Weep no longer. Pray to him. Fear nothing. He is more powerful to help you now than ~ver." Sister Margaret begged her friend to do all in her power to get back the last note she had sent Father Colombi~re. But the Jesuit :superior absolutely refused to surrender it, saying he had rather hand over all the archives of the house. To explain, he read it to her. "He has told me that it is here He wishes the sacrifice of your life," it said (Vie et Oeuores, I, 499). The Sacked Heart wanted His "faithful servant and p,erfect friend" tomremain always in Paray. The Retreat Brings Deootion to the Public The Retreat Father Colombi~re made in London in 1677 was published two years after his death. It became at once the great in-strument for promoting the devotion to the Sacred Heart, as it con-tained the great revelation "Behold this Heart . " and his act of consecration and prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His sanctity threw a halo around the devotion Sister ,Margaret"was trying to propagate, and his words that the revelatiofl was made "to a person with whom He communicates very intimately" pointed clearly to her. To her great humiliation, the Retreat was read in the dining room at Paray, but that removed prejudice against the devotion there. She concealed herself behind the Retreat. "We found this devotion in the book of the retreat of ReverendFather Colombi~re." she.wrote, "whom everyone venerates as a saint. I do not know whether 'you know him, or if you have the book of which I am speaking. But it would give me great pleasure to send it to you." (Vie et Oeuores, IE 324, 325.) "You would scarcely believe the good effects It (th( Sacred Heart) produces in 'souls who have the good fortune to know of It through this holy man who himself was 123 C. A. HER~3ST Review for Religious altogether devoted to It and lived only to make It loved,, honored, and glorified" (1bid., 328). Devotion to the Sacred Heart "is spreading everywhere through the medium of the Retreat of Rev-erefid Father. Colombi~re (Ibid., 476). Many decades later Father de Galliffet would say of the Retreat: "It was the first means Our Lord used to make public both the .revelation and the devotion to His Sacred Heart." Colombi~re's Intercession in Heathen Father Colombi~re continues ih heaven the mission begun here on earth of propagating devotion to the Sacred Heart~ Consoling his old friend and hers in difficulties she met with in spreading the devotion, Mother Margaret wrote Mother de Saumaise: "It ought to be a great consolation to you to have so close a union with the good Father' de la Colombi~re. For by his intercession in heaven he is re-sponsible for what is being done here on earth for the glory of the Sacred Heart. Bear up courageously, therefore, under all these little contradictions." (Ibid., II., 427.) "We must address,ourselves to His faithful friend, the good Father de la Colombi~re, to whom he has given great power and to whom, so to speak, He has:handed over whatever has to do with this devotion. I assure you in confidence that-I have received great help from him, even more than when he was here on earth. For, if I am not dece!ving myself, this devotion to the Sacred Heart has made him very powerful in heaven, 9nd has raised him higher in glory than everything else he did during his whole life." (Ibid., 551.) The Society of Jesus, Father Colombi~re's order, was to have a special place in promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart. In a vision of July 2, 1688 Margaret Mary saw the Sacred Heart, the Virgin Mother, St. Francis de Sales, the Daughters of the Visitation, and Father Colombi~re. After confiding to the care of the Daughters of' Holy Mary the precious treasure of the Sacred Heart, "turning to the good Father de la Colombi~re, this mother of goodness said: 'As for you, faithful servant of my divine Son," you have a great share in this precious treasure. For if it is granted the Daughters of the. Visita-tion to know and propagate it, it is reserved to the Fathers of your Society to make its utility and value known and understood, so that all may profit by it." (Ibid., 406.) Apostle of the Sacred Heart ¯ The process for the beatification of Father Claude de la Colom-blare, of the Society of-Jesus, was begun in 1874. He was declared 124 May, 1951 BLESSED CLAUDE COLOMBII~RE Blessed in 1929. In the considered judgment of the Church he is "an outstanding champion and promoter of devotion to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus . Given as guide and master to the holy virgin, Margaret Mary Alacoque, he directed her in ,a wise and holy fashion, especially with regard to devotion,to the most august Heart of Jesus, which from the beginning had not a few adversaries. Cham-pioning and defending it, he merited to be numbered among it chief promoters and outstanding apostles." (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 1929, 505.) Holy Church now prays: "Lord Jesus Christ, Who hast deigned to make Blessed Claude the faithful servant and outstanding lover of Thy Sacrdd Heart, grant us, through his intercession, that we may put on the virtues ~ind be inflamed with the affections of this same Sacred Heart." A prayer Sister Margaret wrote on the back of a picture of Father Claude is not so dissimilar to this. "O blessed Father Claude de la Colombi~re, I take you as my intercessor with ¯ the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. Obtain for me from His goodness the 'grace not to resist' the designs He has on my soul, and that I may imitate perfectly the virtues of His divine Heart." (~r[e et Oeuvres,, II, 826.) BIBLIOGRAPHY Books are listed in the order in which they are cited in the article. Autobiograph'y. Life of Saint Margare~ Mary Alacoque. Written by" Herself. Translation of the Autentic French Text by the Sisters of the Visitation. Rose-lands, Walmer, Kent. Visitation Library. 1930. A small book written by Sis-ter Margaret Mary with great pain under obedience. Simple, intimate, prayerful. Gauthey, Monseigneur. Ed. Vie et Oeuvres de la Bienheureuse Marguerite Marie Alacoque. Paris. Anclenne Librairie Poussielgue. 1915. 3 volumes. Volume one contains Sister Margaret Mary's Life written by her contemporaries, documents of the process begun in 1715 for her beatification, and some minor let-ters, etc. Volume twocontains her autobiography and 140 letters written by her. Volume three contains documents concerning miracles, archives, her superiors, fam-ily and parish. The three volumes are critically edited. Philip, Sister Mary. A desuit at the English Court. London. Burns, Oates and Washbourne. 1922. An excellent and very readable llfe ot~ Blessed Claude de la Colombi~re. Chapter 17 gives the Retreat he made in London in 1677. an appendix is printed the notes of his long retreat made in his third year of pro-bation after ordination. Hamon, A. Histoire de la Ddt~otion au SacN Coeur. Paris. Beauchesne. 1928 --4 volumes (incomplete). Volume one contains a critical life of St. Margaret Mary. Volume two sketches the history of the devotion to the Sacred Heart till the sixteenth century. Volume three deals with the religious orders and outstanding men and women connected with the devotion in France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, .especially St. orohn Eudes and St. Margaret Mary. Volume 4 outlines the difficulties the new devotion met with and its progress to 1765, when 125 C. A. HERBST ~: " the Holy See'.approved the first Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart. Volume five, still~in prepar~tlon, will ;aarrate the royal triumph., Guitton, Georges. Le Bienbeureux Claude La Colo.mbi~re. Lyon. Librairie Catholique Emmanuel Vitte. 1943. Quite a long and very critical life: he takes even Hereon to task. Quotes heavily from Blessed Claude's sermons, correspond-ence, the documents of his beatification and the archives of the Society of Jesus. Gives thorough religious and political milieu and background of his life and times. Oeuvres du R.P. Claude de la Colornbi~re de la Compagne de dEsus. Lyon. Librairie Catholique de P~risse Fr~res. 1864. 6 volumes. Contains his sermons, retreat notes, correspondence. This, of course, is the great source on which all writers draw. This is an old edition, with paper turnin~g brown, small print and hard to read, but was the only one at hand. The newer edition is by Chattier, Oeuvres Cornpl&es, Grenoble, 1900-1901, 6 volumes. Volume six of this newer edition contains the Retreat and his letters. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Rornae, typis polyglottis Vaticanis. In this work are printed the official acts of the Hbly See and the various Roman Congregations dealing with the canonization of saints and the like. It is published serially each year. REPRINTS: SINGLE SETS We are now able to sell sets of our reprint booklets for one dollar per set. The set includes on~ copy each of these bo.~klets~ No. 1: Articles on Prayer by Father Ellard; No. 2: Articles on "Gifts to Re-ligious," by Father Ellis; No. 3: Articles on Emotiotial Maturity, Vocational Counseling and the Particular Friendship., by Father Kelly. To order these single sets, please send one dollar and ask [or one set of reprints. Please address, your. order to: The Editors, Review for Religious, St. Mary's Colle~je, St. Marys, Kansas. PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY The" subscription price of REVI'EW FOR RELIGIOUS is now: $3.00 per year for Domestic and Canadian subscriptions: $3.35 per year for all foreign subscriptions. For further details-please see inside back cover. ~ 126 Franciscan Spiri ualit:y Alexander Wyse, O.F.M. THE personality of Francis of Assisi was at once so singular, so attractive and so powerful that' today, seven and a quarter cen- " turies after his death, it truthfully is as familiar to the world as that of many living notables. His charm is perennial, his in-fluence seemingly indestructible, his life the subject of an exhaustless series of studies. But this persevering popularity is not merely the result of the unusually felicitous biographies that, even from his very age, have not ceased to paint and interpret his life. While he has indeed had the good fortune of a long train of articulate, admirers --some nai've, others penetrating; some objective, more partisan-- his fame rests clearly on the captivating force of his individual char-acter, on the strength of his personal winsomeness. His clients.may contribute to his undying reputation--but they bare success only because Francis himself is too living a figure ever to die. The Influence of St: Francis This fact is fundamental to a consideration of the specific nature of Franciscan spirituality, because in a sense and a measure perhaps unparalleled in any similar instance the individuality of Francis has founded and oriented the Franciscan school. The venerable Benedictine tradition, as an example, has its own distinctive qualities, deriving from the holy Rule. As the source of Benedictinism, that is a singularly unique document--precise, .mas-terly, definitive as a provision fo~ all possible needs of monasticism: but it is not. in any comparable way, a reflection of the personality of Benedict. By contrast, Franciscan spirituality leans but lightly on the several Rules which the Poverello wrote for his friars,-his nuns, and his followers in the world.1 Rather it looks to the person 1As a matter of fact. while he properly wrote no Rule for either the Second or the Third Order he wrote successively two Rules for the First Order, the Order "of Friars Minor. This fact would bear out the contention that the Rule occupies a relatively secondary place in Franciscan spirituality. It likewise helps to explain the ancient division--whlch in centuries past often amounted to very violent dis-sension-- over the meaning and the force of some of the prescriptions.of the Rule, notabl~; poverty. The Holy See had often to intervene in these disputes, had to promulgate official declarations of the true impbrt of, the disputed points, and has sanctioned three autonomous branches of the Order, each interpreting the mind of the Founder with its own constitutions. Since each of the three families looks with equal devotion to Francis. and with.equal right claims him as Founder and Father, in discussing Franciscan spirituality no distinction is necessary because of these diverse streams. 127 ALEXANDER WYSE Reoiew [or Religious of its founder--which, in his lifetime, was so highly original that it could only with difficulty be confined in the legal" terms' of a rule, and, after his death, has remained singularly fresbl highly distinctive, and extraordinarily fruitful. Rooted thus in the individuafity of the Seraphic Saint, the Franciscan school of spiritual theology has about it many of the features which explain the wide appeal of Francis himself.-° The same qualities that made and make him universally loved, make also the spiritual way that derives from him appealing to a vast army of Christians.~ By imitating his delightfully reasonable and joyfully direct methods of reaching God, countless millions through these seven centuries have grown in spiritual" understanding and advanced in mys, tical union. Cbristocentricisrn of Franciscan Spirituality The basic and most far-reaching quality of Franciscan .spiritual-ity is that it is wholly centered about the Incarnate Son of God.4 The positive and avowed attempt to reproduce ~he life of Christ is the simplest summary of the Franciscan vocation--as.Francis put it, "to obs~erve the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Though the imitation of Christ is radically the heart and soul of all Christian 2That there is a rich fruitfulness in Franciscanism is seen'in the large number of saints and blessed who have worn the distinctive three-knotted cord. There are 48 Saints of the First Order, 4 of the Second, and 42 of the Third: there are 112 Blessed of" the First Order, 21 of the Second, and 80 of the Third (of. Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, LXIX, iii, pp. 126~135). Excluding the causes of these beati being promoted for canonization, there are pending before the., Sacred Congregation of Rites or Diocesan Courts the causes of more than 203 members of the First Order, 25 of the Second, and a numberless group of the Third (Ibid., "LXIX, i, pp. 20-34). aThe prihciples of Franciscan spirituality have not ceased to attract enormous num-bers of Christians even in our day. In 1950 the First Order had a combined total of more than 42,000 members; the Second Order approximately 2,000: the Third Order Regular, in its various congregations of priests, Brothers and Sisters, at least 70,000; the Third Order Secular an estimated 2,800,000. ~'For a more extensive treatment of Franciscan spirituality the following studies may be consulted: ValentinSM~ Breton, O.F.M, La Spiritualit~ Franciscaine (Paris, 1948); Vitus a Bussum, OIF.M.Cap., De Spiritualitate Franciscana (Rome, 1949); Pacificus M. Perantoni, O.F.M., "De Spiritualitate Franciscana," in Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorurn, LXIX, v, pp. 214-243: Agostino Gemelli, O.F:M., "La Spiritualit~ Francescana," in Le Scuole Catrolicfie di Spiritualit~ (Milan, 1949) ; Franciscan Educational Conference, Report of the Eighth Annual Meeting, (Washington, 1926); Philibert Ramstetter, OIF.M., "Introduction to a Francis-can Spirituality," in Franciscan Studies, December, 1942; Valentin-M. Breton, O.F.M., Le Christ de L'Arne Franciscaine (Paris, 1927). Additional ligh~t is to be 'had from the reading of such classics" as Hilarin Felder, O.F.M.Cap. Thd 1deals oF St. Francis of Assisi (New York, 1925)~ Agostino Gemelli, O.F.M., The Franciscan Message to the World (London, 1934), as well as the many standard biographies of St. Francis. 128 May, 1951 FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY living, about Franciscan asceticism there is a more distinctive desire and a special effort t6 conform the life of the dedicated one to that of the Incarnate Son of God. In ngthing is the influence of the founder's life and personality more discernible than in this. For Francis, Christ was the center of all things--the focus of all thought, the object of all_ striving, the inspiration of all action. Christ, Francis loved with a consuming passion, as the most tangible proof of God's all-pervading goodness. He could never cease marveling at the divine goodness: it was a theme that both fascinated and transformed him. ]ks he reflected on it, he w~ould~ cry out in the rapture of his contemplation: "Thou, Lord, art the highest Good, the Eternal Good; from Thee cometh all good, and there is no good without Thee." It is primarily and eminently in the Incarnation of th~ Eternal Son that God has shown forth t6 the world that infinite love which is His essential perfection; and this, to Francis, became the most profound and, at the same time, the most penetrable of mysteries. His soul found in it the most, exalted of divine revelations, reaching into the very bosom of the Godhead ~nd manifesting in a singular way God's in.finite life of love. That in God there should be an Eternal Son generated by love, and that the Eternal Father should give this only-begotten Son for the world's redemption, was for Francis the climaxing proof of God's goodness. It opened up to him--as nothing else in all reality could--the depth of charity with which the Creator cherishes every last one of His creatures. For him, it explained all of life and creation ; it served as the foundation for all his spiritual action. "O Lord, we thank Thee," he wrote in the First Rule, "because, just as Thou hast created us through Thy Soft, so also through that true and holy charity with which Thou hast loved us, Thou hast caused Him to be born of the glorious and most blessed Mary,' ever Virgin most holy, and Thou hast Willed that through His cross and blood and death we sinners be redeemed." ./kbove all else, the Incarnation proves God's goodness in that it teaches us how we must live. Jesus is our model, "leaving us an example"; and hence--as Francis saw with an enviable directness-- the ideal of all spiritual striving is that we imitate His steps. This was the desire which burned in Francis' heart for himself and which he held up to his followers. Thomas of Celano says: "His supreme endeavor, his most ardent wish and foremost principle was to observe the holy Gospel in all and above all things, and to follow 129 ALEXANDER WYSE Review for Religious perfectl'y, 'with all zeal, with the fullest ardor of his spirit, with all "the love of his heart, the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to imitate His example. In constant meditation he reflected on His Words, and with deep.intentness he pondered on His works.''~ So fruitful was this contemplation, and so completely did Fran-dis succeed in this. holy ambition to imitate Christ, that he is gen-erally admitted to have been a humanly perfect copy of the Master. Renan, the great skeptic, called him the only true Christian after ~Jesus; and (at the other pole of orthodoxy) St. Bonaver~ture cites the imprinting on his body of the stigmata,as heaven's seal on the ~onformity of Francis' life with Christ's. Love--the Well of Action His d~sire to imitate the supernal example of the Incarnate Son of God was nurtured by an ardent love for Him which literally surpasses our capacity. The "Three Companions" tell us of this burning devotion as the source of Francisr spirituality: "From the time,of his conversion to his death, he loved Christ with his whole heart, bearing, the memory of Him constantly in his mind, praising ,Him .with his lips, and glorifying Him in good works.''6 And Celano expatiates the theme: "His tongue spoke out of the fullness of his heart, and the stream of enraptured love which filled his soul overflowed outwardly. Always he was occupied with Jesus. Jesus he carried in his heart, Jesus in his mou~th, Jesus in his ears,. Jesus in his eyes, Jesus in his hands, Jesus in all his members.''v This attachment to his Saviour revealed itself by Francis' con-stant- preoccupation with the details of the sacred life of the Lord. He had a wholly special attachment to the. feast of Christmas, observing it with a transporting joy and a moving piety. For him it was the feast of feasts--and, if it has become that also for after-generati. ons, his part in making it such is not inconsiderable. He found a fathomless proof of God's love in His condescending to become Man. That the Incomprehensible, the Unchangeable, the Infinite One should humble Himself so wonderfully for our sakes," demonstrated the measureless extent of God's love for us. Not con-tent with having the vision for himself, he longed to make the whole world aware of it. Whether or not it can be demonstrated his- 5.Thomas de Celano, Legenda Prima (Rome, 1906), n. 84. STies Socii, Legenda (Foligno, 1898), n. 68. ~Op. cir., n. I15. 130 May, 1951 FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY torically that he did give us the first Christmas crib, it is certain that he had a leading role in helping to establish the custom,s Perhaps more than any other of our popular Christmas observances, in making visible to us the tenderness of the Birth of Christ the Crib has served to establish in the hearts of Christians a new under-' standing and appreciation of the love of God for the human race; in spirit, at least, it is the product of Francis' intense love of the Christ- Child. At the other terminus of that divine life, the saint likewise found another strong motive to honor the love of God for man. His rever-ence for the Passion of Christ colored his whole think~ing; moulded his whole devotion. From the day when he heard the mysterious voice from the crucifix at San Damiano bidding him repair the Church which was in ruins, to that climax of seraphic love in the Five Wounds of the Redeemer imprinted on his body, the sufferings of 3esus were ever before his eyes. Early in his religious life he was one day walking along the road, bathed in tears, expressions of the most profound sorrow issuing from the depths of his soul. When someone asked" him what he was lamenting, he answered that he was weeping for the sufferings of hi's Lord. Moved by the unction and the sincerity with which the saint uttered these words, the other, too, began to weep and sigh in com-passion for the suffering Son of God. This" is more than an anecdote from his legend--it is a symbol of the vast influence of St. Francis in riveting the attention, first, of his followers, and then of all Chris-tianity, upon the Passion of Christ. For it is true that Francis by his devotion to the sacred sufferings has conferred upon Franciscan spirituality a truly distinctive mark. At the same time, by reason of this new note of tender and human feeling which Francis intro-duced into~or, at least so effectively propagated within--Catholic devotional life, he served to give a new orientation to the spiritual life of the whole Church.9 By stressing, as his own character demanded, the element of love in his approach to God, and by 8Cf. Stephen M. Donovan, O.F.M., The Catholic Encyclopedia (New .York, 1913), sub verbo "Crib," IV, p. 489. 9Francis, of course, did not completely disrupt the traditional lines of devotion in the Church. nor did he accomplish the new orientation singlehandedly. Following by less than a century the age of St. Bernard, he solidified the notable contribu-tions of the great Abbot of Clairvaux toward establishing a love and affection for the humanity of God's Son. For a brief summary of the inter-relation of Bernard and Francis in this" spiritual revival, cf. Philip Hughes, A History of the Church (New York, 1935), II, pp. 306-307, 403-404. 131 ALEXANDER WYSE Review for looking more fixedly upon those aspects of God's relations with men which show forth the divine benignity and condescension, he rekindled in the hearts of men the flame of divine charity. He taught his followers--and the world--to serve God, in a special way, out of regard for the love which God has first shown us. Christocentric Theology/ Francis made the love of God--as proven by the Incarnation of Christ---the basis for his whole system of living. More philo-sophical minds than his would expand this notion into a whole explanation of reality[ The idea which Francis established by his preaching, his prayers, his very act of living, his more learned fol-lowers took and worked into a theology that begins and ends with Christ, the fruit of divine love. The concept of the glorification of the Ingarn~ate Son of God-- which Francis instinctively felt and lived--becomes in Franciscan theology the explanation of all things, the prime motive for the cre-ation of the world. Christ, God made Man, in this system was the First Thought of the Creator; He was destined, before the fall of our first parents, before even the making of the world, to receive the homage, the love, th~ service of the human race. All creatures what-soever enjoy the gift of being in view of the preordained Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. The supreme mani-festation of God's love and power in the Person of the God-Man was to raise up to the life of the Trinity the'human brothers of Christ. In an excess of divine benignity, God conferred upon the human race the riches of the supernatural life--but with, in, and thrgugh Christ, the Head of all things. It was thus that human creatures, endowed'with intelligence and free will, were predestined to share in the personal life of God. In Christ they were willed and destined and called to glory.~ In view of that .high vocation they were elevated to a supernatural plane by the foreseen graces merited for them by 3esus Christ. That man should have failed to correspond to God's purpose in creating him does not, in Franciscan theology, militate~ against God's primary motive in decreeing the Incarnation of His Son. True, historically, Christ did not come as the King of Glory to receive in His earthly days the adoration and the homage of the world; He came rather as the Man of Sorrows, the suffering Redeemer, the Messias making satisfaction for our sins. Yet this but further illus-trates and enhances God's love. In permitting His Son thus to come, 132 May, 1951 FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY to suffer and die on the cross for our redemption, God showed forth His love in a still more striking fashion. Thus in Franciscan theological speculation, as developed by the masters of the school, St. Bonaventure and especially John Duns Scotus, Christ assumes the central position which He already occu-pied in the thought and the life of the unlettered Poverello. All things depend on Him, all things grow through Him, all gifts come from Him to all beings. There is no merit, no promise of eternal life, no blessedness which does not derive from Him. From the part of God, any offering, any virtue, any prayer, has value only insofar as it reflects Jesus Christ. From the part of man, no one arrives at the divine union, no. one knows God, no one serves or pleases the Creator, except through Christ, the Firstborn, the Center and Head of all things. Franciscan theology furthermore eschews the notion of God as the strict Judge demanding vengeance and satisfaction, and sees in Him rather the loving Father who grahts to the Son the privilege of the Incarnation for His human brethren, together with the right to restore them to supernatural life. The Saviour is not so much the victim of divine justice, as He is the friend who, out of love for His Eternal Father and His brothers in the flesh, sacrifices Himself to atone for men's sins. The Passion and the Cross are, in this view, not so much the price demanded for human redemption as they are the yoluntary outpouring of divine love, setting the tone and the pat-tern of the relations between God and man. Povert~l' For all these reasons, as Francis of Assisi insisted, though with-out himself ever formulating his thoughts in such theological termin-ology, there is need of penance and mortification and a voluntary crucifixion on the part of those who know and would repay God's love. If God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, and if the Son so loved us that He willingly emptied Himself of His glory and became obedient even to the death of the cross," there can be little choice for a creature except to imitate that self-sacrificing love and surpassing abnegation. As a logical cohsequence, therefore, of these considerations the three basic qualities 6f Francis-can ascetiscism are generated: poverty, humility, and mortification. In the sixth chapter of the Second Rule of the Friars Minor, St. Francis' speaks of "the sublimity of the highest poverty which has made you, my dearest brothers, heirs and kings of the kingdom 13~3 ALEXANDER WYSE Reoieto t~or Religious of heaven: poor in goods, but exalted in virtu(." In these few words he succinctly demonstrates the pivotal importance which the Fran-ciscan ideal attaches to the observance of poverty as a means of reaching eternal life. Tl~e voluntary stripping oneself of the things of this earth and all attachment to them predisposes one to the practice of all other virtues which, spelling perfection, infallibly lead to ever-lasting l~appiness. Accepting as the most literal truth the promise of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs i~ the king-dom of heaven," the Franciscan world has enthroned Lady Poverty as its queen. She has reigned by the clearest title in the hearts and homes of all those who call Francis "father." St. Clare of Assisi-- that gentle maid who more completely than any other caught Fran- Cis' holy enthusiasm for this Seraphic virtue par excellence--success-fully resisted even the efforts of the Holy See to take away from her what she called "the privilege of poverty." St. Bonaventure refers to poverty as "the sublime prerogative" of the Franciscan Order. A thousand examples might be cited, from the bulging Seraphic chron-icles, of this undying fealty and devotion to poverty, for in a true sense this attachment to Lady Poverty is the history of the order. Her saints have been great, her reformers have been virtuous, .her life has been varied and at time even exuberantly stormy--simply because, in days of fervor as of decadence, the haunting image of "that noble and queenly, that most beautiful of women" whom the Poor Man of Assisi made his bride has never ceased to fascinate the Franciscan soul. If the Order of Friars Minor has been divided into three autonomous groups, this has been because the sons of Francis have never failed to be interested in the question of poverty, and have always wanted to safeguard and the more truly cherish that heritage which is the "'privilegium paupertatis," the "'nostii ordinis praeroga-tioa sublimis." The Franciscan views poverty, as a privilege because it enables him the more perfectly to reproduce ~the life of'the Incarnate Son of God. He was po,or; He deliberately chose the privations of a work-ingman's home for Himself and labored as a carpenter. He had nowhere to lay His head. "Being rich, He became poor" for our sakes. This is the source and the inspiration for the unflinching attachment .to this virtue that Francis conceived: as he is made to say in the hauntingly beautiful Salutation of Poverty, she was with' Christ, God's Son made Man, in all the hours of His life, and when _all other, abandoned Him she mounted the cross with Him, to 134 May, l~51 FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY embrace Him as He hung dying.1° Struck with the truth of the sanctifying power of this virtue so closely the companion of Holi-ness Incarnate, St. Bonaventure, expresses the traditional Franciscar~ ideal when he praises poverty as the very source and fountainhead of evangelical perfection, 'and the first ]~oundation of the entire edifice of .spirituality. Humility The abasement of the Incarnation must find its counterphrt in the life of him who would grow up to thd stature of Christ. "Humil-iavit semetipsum," said St. Paul of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity--and the words re-echoed in Francis' heart with a new and challenging meaning. If Christ could deprive Himself of the glory that was His everlasting and inalienable due, Ought nor the creatures "redeemed by His sacrifice at least avoid all vainglory, all frivolous pride, all empty self-seeking? Francis admonishes his friars to .appropriate nothing to themselves; they must even beg for the neces-sities~ o[ life--"noi should they be ashan~ed, because the Lord made Himself poor for us in this world." With a true understanding of human nature, Francis recognized his own sinfulness, his proneness tb evil, and his entire dependence upon God for the grace to save him from eternal damnation. So, likewise, he exhorted his friars to be always mindful of their lowli-ness and nothingness. Especially those constituted in high places-- preachers, superiors, the learned-=-he exhorted to remember that, of themselves, they are nothing, and that any dignity, any influence, any learning they possess is theirs by the donation of God. The superiors of his brotherhood are "ministers and servants of the other friars": the fraternity:itself is the Order of Lesser Brethren. Repeatedly Francis praised and cited poverty ands humility, holding them up as the double cornerstone of the Franciscan life: "Let all the brethren strive to follow the humility and poverty of our Lord 3e~us Christ." Humility is the companion of poverty,, but it is more--it is the perfection of the other virtue in that it reaches into the soul. It strips the mind of all encumbrances of human origin, it cleanses the heart of all man-made ideals and values. It is genuine poverty of the spirit. With a tender tenacity the Francis-can soul holds to this ideal of a humble poverty and a detached 10Though this tender apostrophe to his beloved Lady Poverty" is no longer regarded as a genuine writing of St. Francis, its spirit is certainly authentic. The same thought is expressed by Dante, Dioine Comedy, Paradiso, XI, 64-72. 135 ALEXANDER WYSE Review [or Religious humility. The most learned among the friars have been humble men: St. Anthony in the retirement of the friary at Montepaolo meekly hid' those great resources of theological intuition which lately won for him the title of Doctor of the Universal Church; and St. Bonaventure (at least in the legend which cannot 'have been made up from whole cloth) was discovered washing dishes when the papal envoys came bearing the cardinal's hat. The large number of can-onized Franciscan lay-brothers is assuredly a standing testimonial to the high esteem which the traditions of the order place on humility as a means of perfection: it shows that the life of lowly service of others, so perfect an imitation of Christ's self-emptying, is an inte-gral part of Franciscan spirituality. Mortification The whole idea of Franciscansim being to reproduce the life of the Saviour, positive penance has a palmary place in Franciscan living. The example of the suffering Saviour demands of His fol-lowers mortification and discipline. This universal obligation of Christians is, in Franciscan asceticism, elevated to the status of a positive and primary pursuit, the chief means and the most abiding guarantee of which are '~the poverty and humility of our Lord Jesus Christ." With a holy delight the Seraphic Father embraced this means of becoming more like the Ideal. Frequently he exposed himself to the cold,, simply that he might feel in his members the bitterness of that which nature abhors. In his eating, he refrained from anything over and above what was necessary to sustain life, on at least one occa-sion taking, absolutely nothing for forty days except half a loaf of bread. By the disciplines wherewith he chastised his body he sought to bring into subjection every unruly passion and emotion. If the extreme mortification of the Seraphic Lawgiver ha.s been tempered in the case of his followers (for how many will ever receive the extraordinary inspirations which were his wholly personal gift from the Holy Spirit? or will be called by grace to the degree of poverty and humility and penitential chastisements which have so set him apart?), there is yet incumbent upon all the obligation of a positive mortification in imitation of Christ. His followers have included such paragons of corporal p~nance as St. Peter of Alcantara. who for forty-six years scourged himself twice daily, and St. Felix of Cantalice who took his nightly repose kneeling on the floor after 136 Mag, 1951 FR~kNC[SC~kN SPIRITUALITY his daily rounds of begging in the streets of Rome. Yet, for the most part, a certain mildness (stemming from another no less holy facet of Francis' spirit) pervades the Franciscan concept of discipline. The Saviour Himself bade His disciples not to be sad while the BridegroOm was with them, and Francis instinctively" was one of the most joyous of beings. He arose at midnight to eat with the young friar ,who cried out with pangs of hunger. And he legislated that ordinarily the friars should not be obliged to fast, except on Fridays (a wholly revolutionary concept: for Christian religious), and that .those going through the world might use the Gospel-privilege of eating whatsoever was placed before them. The Noble Function of the Wilt These three qualities of poverty, ,humility, and mortification, constitute what may be termed the negative, the privative (or, in the consecrated terminology, the purgative) steps in Franciscan spiritual-ity. The ascent is completed with the positive and active forces of charity and prayer (which correspond to the unitive and illuminative ways). It is in this phase that Franciscan spirituality attains its perfection and sanctifyihg power. Having learned the boundless extent of divine charity, the Franciscan soul yearns to make a return; in its poverty and humility it has nothing else to give God but a return of love. The next step is the unreserved attachment to God, and limitless devotion to the creatures made by God for Christ. A deep awareness of his adopted sonsbip makes him ready to proclaim wlth,Francis, stripped even of the clothes his earthly father bad given him: "Now I can truly say; 'Our Father Who art in heaven.' " This sense of belonging tb God is fostered and st.rengthened by an ever-deepening devotion to Him in whom and for whom this sonship has been brought about. Thus .Franciscan spirituality, with a new intentnes_s, comes back to Christ, its starting point. Whatever honors, exaltsl and glorifies Christ, that is seen to be a means o~ displaying this charity toward God. Hence the Franciscan emphasis on devotion to the historical Christ-- particularly, as in the piety of Francis himself, to His Incarnation and Passion. Hence also that touching reverence for Christ as He yet lives among us in the Eucharist,11 in the priesthood and tlae- 11Francis' devotion to the Eucharist is one of the most important facets of his spiritual life. Father Felder's treatment of this theme (op. cir., chap. III) is ~specially illuminating. 137 ALEXANDER WYSE Review for Religious Church,12 and in the souls of the redeemed,is The will, the faculty of love, occupies in all Franciscan the- 91ogy, philosophy, and life a unique distinction of I51ace. A l~eritage clearly from Francis himself~with his ardent nature, his impulsive and forthright way of proceeding, his unqiaalified and unlimited dis-play of love for the God-Man--the role of the wilI .is, in the Fran-ciscan tradition, a pivotal one. There is a subtle but profound rela-tion between Franciscan~poverty and the generous use made of the agent of human .choice. Divested of all material things, the Francis-can soul finds itself endowed with "the freedom w.herewith Christ has made us free." No longer tied to the passing things of this earth, neither is it bound to the conventionalities of routine, custom, or society. The Poverello himself was one of the most uninhibited char-acters of history, a man da,ringly original and boldly enterprising. In an ever-expanding resolve to save souls for Christ, his venturesome spirit led him fo distant and dangerous shores, where he fearlessly presented himself to the Sultan before whom all Christendom was quaking. Unashamedly he asked (and obtained!) from the Pope for the little chapel of St: Mary of the Angels that plenary indulgence which had been previously conceded only for a pilgri.mage to the Holy Land. He entered into a holy pact with God Himself, wherein the mortified servant of Christ deserved to feel in his own'~flesh the sufferings of the Crucified. This same quality of directness, of daring, of wilful aiad pur-poseful action is always inherent in genuine Franciscanism, and shows itself no less in Franciscan spirituality. Tamed, modified, kept within reasonable check, it is a characteiistic which eminently befits the ~poor of sp!rit. Stripped of all desire of self-aggrandize-ment, the Franciscan seeks nothing of this world, fears nothing of its powerful ones. He is in a position to use the liberty of the sons of God. In a sort of reeling climax to liberty, he subjects himself to .the most complete obedience to God and God's delegates--for obedience is the ultimate in self-assertion, the wild and r~ckless sac-rificing of the right to self-will. 1-'2Cf. Felder, op. cit., for the testimony of Francis' profound reverence for the Church of Christ (chap. IV). 13Among the outstanding evidences of his zea! for the salvation of souls is the twelfth chapter of the "Regula II." It is one of the chief glories of the Franciscan tradition that Francis was the first founder to propose for his followers the ideal 6f '~going among the Saracens and other infidels." He thus helped to launch the greatest era of missionary activity after the Apostolic Age. 138 May, 1951 FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY As the will attains its realization in action, inevitably the Fran- " ciscan vocation is one that stresses the apostolate~ Francis--.t,hough at times his soul craved the sweet delights of withdrawal from the world--discovered that the truest way of imitating the Master was, like Him, to go about, "doing good." In labors for the salvation of others Francis and his order seek to live the GoslSel of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Non sibi soli vivere, sed aliis proficere vult, Dei zelo ductus," the Church sings of him.14 In novel and revolutionary-~often 'in all but unpredictablem ways, the Franciscan spirit uses this liberty to bring all things into the kingdom ~designed, from before the foundation of the earth, for God's Eternal Son. There is indeed a great and challenging diversity of methods in the Franciscan apostolate, just as ,there is a most startling, originality discoverable in the Seraphic hosts. Men and women of rare indiyiduality, of almost unclassifiable "character, ~have pledged themselves to reproduce Christ--in themselves and in the world---by living the Gospel. Can there be in the legends of any othe'r religious institute a man so singular as Brother Juniper? so simple as Brother Giles? so unspoiled as Brother Masseo? Has any" other founder welcomed so enthusiastically into his foundation rob-bers who had infested the countryside? or been succeeded in his very lifetime by one so completely his opposite as Elias of Cortona? The Franciscan spirit can embrace, and Franciscan spiritualit~ does sanctify, with equal impartiality, a Duns Scotus of Oxford Univer-sity and a Benedict the Moor from the scullery of Palermo's dark monas~tery. The royal Louis of Toulouse professed the same Rule as the unlettered Paschal Baylon. The mystical Joseph of Cuper-tino is brother to the energetic Leonard of Port Maurice. It is indeed true that, as has been said, by the variety of its manifestations Fran-ciscanism takes on a character of universality, like Christianity itself, which in the Gospel is likened to a tree to which all the birds of the air may come to make their nests. Prayer ' While stressing apostolic actik, ity as an unceasing tribute to Christ the King, the Franciscart soul does not forget the value of prayer. After the example of the Master, Francis himself often interrupted his apostolic labors to refresh and restore his soul in a period of contemplation. Such contemplation, nonetheless, is 14Breoiariura Rornano-Seraphicurn, In festo S. P. N. Francisci, ad Laudes, Ant. 1. 139 ALEXANDER WYSE designed (as is the poverty and humility of the Gospel) to subserve the apostolic vocation. In contemplation the Franciscan draws "waters with joy out of the Saviour's fountains"-~but only that in his preaching and ministry he may the more efficaciously slake the thirst of those who,~ like the hart panting after the fountains .of water, are thirsting after the strong Living God. Seraphic prayer finds its perfect symbol in the figure of Francis on Mount Alverno, his arms raised in the form of a cross. It finds its truest expression in the fervent and heartfelt prayer of the Poor Man on that mystical height: "Who art Thou, my God most sweet? What am I, Thy unprofitable servant and vilest of worms?''15 In explaining later to Brother Leo, his beloved com-panion, that these words expressed his grasp of the depths of the infinite goodness and wisdom and power of God, and the 'deplorable depths of his own vileness and misery, Francis left a classic outline of Franciscan prayer and meditation. It would, of course, be impossible here to explain the special characteristics of mental prayer and contemplation, as elaborated by the masters of Franciscan spirituality. It must suffice to point out two of its salient points: first, it manifests the common Franciscan dependence on the faculty of the will, being affective rather than intuitive; and, second, in prayer as in all else Christ remains the -center. The subjects of predilection for Franciscan meditation are the various phases of the life of the Incarnate Word, while the affec-tions of the heart are offered to the Eternal Father t~hrough the mediumship of Him who is the Source of all things. The truly Franciscan soul but borrows the words of the Seraphic Father: "Because we all are miserable sinners and are not worthy to call upon Thee, weo humbly.ask our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son in whom Thou wast well pleased, together with the Holy Ghost the Paraclete, to thank Thee." lSThe Little Flowers of St. Francis (Everyman's Library), p. 11 1. PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY The subscription price of REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS is now: $3.00 per year for Domestic and Canadian Subscriptions; $3.35 per year for all foreign subscriptions. For further details please" see inside back cover. 140 Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi [EDITORS' NOTE: We present here the positive legislation contained in ,Sponsa Christi, the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII, given under date of Novem-ber 21, 1950, and published in the Acta Apostolicae 8edis, official publication of the Holy See, under date of January 10, 1951, pp. 15-21. The general statutes from the papal document given below are preceded by a lengthy historical and ex-hortatory introduction on the origin and development of the contemplative life for women consecrated" to God, pp. 5-15. ] GENERAL STATUTES FOR NUNS Article 1 § 1. The term nuns is used in this Apostolic Constitution as it is in the Code (c. 488, 7°). In addition to religious women with solemn vows, it includes those who have pronounced simple vows, perpetual or temporary, in moqasteries where solemn vows are actually taken or should be taken according to the institute, unless it certainly appears otherwise from the context or from the nature of the case. § 2. The legitimate use of the term nuns (c. 488, 7°) and the application of the laws concerning nuns are not at variance with the following: (1) s.imple profession made in monasteries according to law (§ 1); (2) minor pontilical cloister prescribed or duly granted for mo~iasteries; (3) the pe?formance of apostolic works which are joined with the contemplative life either by reason of a provision approved and confirmed by the Holy See for certain orders or by the " lawful prescription or grant of the Holy See to certain monasteries. § 3. This Apostolic Constitution does not affect the juridical status of: (1) religious congregations (c. 488, 2°) and the Sisters who are members of them (c. 488, 7°), who take only simple vows according to their institute; (2) societies of women living in com-mon after the manner of religious and their members (c. 673). Article 2 § 1. The special form of religious monastic life which nuns are obliged to follow carefully and for which they are destined by the Church .is the canonical contemplative life. § 2. The term, canonical contemplative life, does not denote that internal and theological contemplation to which all persons in religious.institutes as well as those living in the world are invited, 141 POPE PIUS Xll Revieto for Religious and which individuals everywhere can lead by themselves, but it sig-nifies the external profession of religious discipline which, by reason of cloister, or the exercises of piety, prayer, and mortification, or finally by reason of the work which the nuns are obliged to under-take, is directed to interior contemplation in such a way that their whole life and whole activity can easily and should etficaciously be imbued with zeal for it. § 3.If canonical contemplative life cannot be habitually ob-served under a strict, regular discipline, ,the monastic character is neither to be granted nor, if it be had already, is it to be retained. Article 3 § 1. The solemn vows of religion which are pronounced by all the members of a monastery or at least by the members o17 one, class constitute the characteristic note in virtue of which a monastery of women is legally considered among the regular orders and not among the religious congregations (c. 488, 2°). Moreover, all the pro-fessed religious women in, these monasteries come under the term regulars according to'canon 490, and are properly speaking not called Sisters but nuns (c. 488, 7°). § 2. All monasteries in which only simple vows are taken can obtain a restoration of solemn vows. Indeed, unless truly grave rea-sons prevent it, they will be solicitous about taking them again. Article 4 While always keeping for all monasteries those character-istics which are, as it were, natural to it, the stricter cloister of nuns which is called pontifical shall in future be distinguished into two classes: major and minor. § 2. i o Major pontifical cloister, namely, that which is described in the Code (cc. 600-602) ,is clearly confirmed by this Our Apostolic Constitution. By Our Authority, the Sacred Congregatio~i of Reli-gious will declare the causes for which a dispensation fromthe major cloister may be given, so that, while the nature of cloister is kept unimpaired, it may more suitably be adapted to the circumstances of our times. 2° Major pontifical cloister, without prejudice to § 3, 3°, must flourish by reason of law in all monasteries which profess the contemplative life exclusively. § 3. i° Minor pontifical cloister will retain those characteristics of the old cloister of nuns and will be protected with those sanc- 142 May, 1951 SPONSA CHRISTI tions which the Instructions of the Holy See expressly define as neces-sary for the preservation and safeguardifig of its natural purpose. 2° Subject to this minor pontifical cloister are the monas-teries of nuns with solemn vows which, by their institute or by legitimate gran~, undertake work with externs in such a way that quite a number of religious and a notable part of the house are habitually devoted to these occupations. 3° Similarly, each and every monastery in which only simple vows are taken, even though devoted exclusively to contem-plation, must be subject at least to the prescriptions of this cloister. § 4. 1° Pontifical major or minor cloister must be considered a ¯ necessa)y condition not only that solemn vows may be taken (§ 2) but also that those monasteries in which simple vows are taken (§ 3) may in the future l~e considered as true monasteries of nuns according .to canon 488, 7°. 2° If even the rules for the minor pontifical cloister cannot be generally observed, the solemn vows which may have been had are to be taken away. § 5. 1° The minor pontifical cloister is to be observed in places where the nuns do not take solemn vows, especially in those points in,which it is distinguished from the cloister of congregations or that of orders of men. 2° Howeve'r, if it is clearly evident that even the minor cloister cannot be observed in an individual monastery, that monas-tery must be changed into a house of a congregatibn or of a society. Article 5 § 1. Among women consecra[ed to God the Church deputes only nuns to offer public prayer to God in her name, in choir (c. 610, § 1) or privately (c.'610, § 3) ; and she places upon them a grave obligation by law to carry out this public prayer daily at'the canon-ical hours according to the norm of their constitutions. § 2. All monasteries of nuns as well as individual nuns, whether professed of simple or solemn vows, are everywhere obliged to recite the Divine Office in .choir according to c. 610, § 1 and the norms of their constiti~tions, § 3. According to c. 610, § 3, nuns who have not taken solemn vows are not strictly obligated to the private recitation of the canon-ical hours when they have been absent from choir unless their con-stitutions expressly provide otherwise (c. 578, 2°). Nevertheless, 143 POPE PlUS XII Reuiew for Religious as was stated above (Art, 4), it is the mind of the Church not only that solemn vows should be restored everywhere but also that, if they cannot be restored for the present, nuns who have simple perpetual vows in place of solemn vows should faithfully fulfill the work of the Divine Office. § 4. In all monasteries the conventual Mass corresponding to the Office of the day according to the rubrics is to be celebrated in so far as this is possible (c. 610, § 2). Article 6 § 1. 1° Unlike other religious houses of women, monasteries 9f nuns are autonomous (sui iurfs) by reason of the Code and according to its norms (c. 488, 8°). 2° The superiors (antistitae) of individual monasteries of nuns are major superiors by law and are endowed with all th~ pow- ,ers which are due to major superiors (c.48'8, 8°), except some that from the context or from the nature of the power would concern men only (c. 490). § 2. 1° The extent of the condition of independence or autonomy (sui iuris), as it is called, of monasteries of nuns is defined by both common and particular law. 2° The juridical guardianship which the law grants tO the local ordinary or to the superiors regular over individual mon-asteries is in no way derogated from by this Constitution or by federations of monasteries allowed by the Constitution (Art. 7) and ,established by its authority. 3° The juridical relations of individual monasteries with the local ordinaries or with the superiors regular continue to be regu-lated by ~he common law as well as by particular law. § 3. This Constitution does not determine whether individual monasteries are subject to the authority of the local ordinary or, within the 'limits of the law, are exempt from it and. are subject to the superior regular. Article 7 § I. Monasteries of nuns are not only autonomous (c. 488, 8°) but also juridically ~ distinct and independent of each other and only united and joined together by spiritual and moral bonds even though by law they be subject to the same first order or religious institute. § 2. 1° The formation of federations is in no way opposed to May, 1951 SPONSA CHRISTI the common liberty of monasteries,'which is accepted as a m.atter of fact rather ,than imposed by law; nor should, these federations be considered as forbidden by law or in any way less in accordance with ¯ the nature and purposes of the religious life 6f the nuns. 2° Though not prescribed by any general law, federations of monasteries are, nevertheless, strongly recommended by the Holy See not only to prevent the evils and disadvantages which can arise from complete separation bug also to promote regular observance and the contemplative life. § 3~. The formation'of every kind of federation of monasteries of nuns or of a union of federation~ is reserved to the Holy See. § 4. Every federation or union must necessarily be ruled and governed by its own laws approved by the Holy See. § 5. 1° Without prejudice to Article 6;§§ 2 and 3. and to the special type of autonomy defined above (§ 1), there is no objection, in the formation of federations of monasterieS, ',to the introduction of equitable conditions and mitigations of autonomy, which may seem to-be necessary or more useful, after the example of certain monastic congregations and orders, whether of canons or of monks. 2° Nevertheless, any types of federation which seem con-trary to the aforesaid autonomy (§ 1) and which tend towards centralization of government are reserved to the Holy See in a special manner and may not be introduced without Its express permission. § 6. Federations of monasteries are of pontifical right according to the norms of canon law both because of their source of origin and - of the authority upon which they directly depend and by which they are governed. § 7. The'Holy See may exercise immediate supervision and authority, as the case may require, over a federation through a reli-gious assistant, whose duty it will be not only to represent the Holy See but alsb to foster the genuine spirit proper to the order and to give superiors assistanc~ and advice in the right and prudent govern-ment of the federation. §8. 1° The statutes of a federation should conform to the pre-scribed norms to be prepared by the Sacred Congregation of Religious by Our Authority and to the nature, laws, spirit, and traditions, whether ascetical or disciplinary or juridicgl and apostolic, of the reli-gious order concerned. 2° The principal purpose of federations of monasteries is 145 POPE PIUS XII Review for Religious to f~rnish mutual fraternal a~sistance not only by fostering the reli-gious spirit and regular monastic discipline, but also by promoting ¯ the economic welfare. 3° Should the case arise, special norms are to be proVided in order to approve statutes through which the permission and moral obligation of transferring nuns from one monastery to another should be regulated when these measures are considered necessary for the government of the monasteries, the training of the novices {n~ a common novitiate established for all or for many of the monasteries, and for other moral or mate}ial needs of the monasteries or of the nuns. Article 8 " § 1. The monastic work, which even the nuns who lead a con-templative life are obliged to perform, should as far as possible be suited to the rule, constitutions, and traditions of the individuaI .orders. ~. § 2. ,This work should be regulated in such a way that, along 'with other sources of income approved by the Church (cc. 547-551, 582) and with the abundant assistance of Divine Providence, it will provide secure and fitting support for the nuns. § 3. 1° Local ordinaries, superiors regular, and superiors, of monasteries and of federations are obliged to use all diligence that the nuns may never be wanting in necessary, adequate, and profitable work. 2° On ~heir part, nuns are bound in conscience not only to earn their doily bread by the honest sweat of their brow, as the Apostle teaches (II Them. 3:10), but they should also make them-selves more skillful day by day in the different kinds of work required by present times. Article 9 In order to be found faithful to their divine, apostolic vocation, all nuns must not only use the general means o~ the monastic aposto-late, but they shall also attend to the following:- . § 1. Nuns who have definite works of a particular apostolate prescribdd in their constitutions or in approved rules are obliged to devote themselves entirely and constantly to these works according to the norms of their constitfitions, statutes, or rules. § 2. Nuns who lead an exclusively contemplative life should observe .the .following: 146 May, 1951 MEDITATION FOR A MOTHER SUPERIOR 1° If, according to their particular traditions, they now have or bare had a special kind of external apostolate, let them faith-fully retain it after having adapted it, without harm to their life of contemplation, to modern needs; if they have lost it, let them dili-gently take means to restore it. If there is any doubt about adapta-tion, let them consult the Holy See. 2° On the other hand, if the purely contemplative life, according to the approved constitutions of the order or its traditions, has never, been joined to the external apostolate' in a permanent and enduring manner up to.the present time, then, only in cases of neces-sity and for a limited time, the nuns may, and at lea~t out of charity should, occupy themselves with those forms of the apostolate, "espe-cially such as are unique or personal, which may seem to be com-patible with the contemplative life as observed in their order according to the norms to .be fixed by the Holy See. h edi!:a!:ion t:or a Nkot:her Superior Mother Mary Elizabeth, D.C. Love knoweth no measure Feareth no labor Maketh sweet all that is bitter Findeth rest in God alone LOVE knoweth no measure, no measure of forgiveness. A group of persons living in such. close proximity as religious must, are keenly aware of the weakness of human nature. They begin to understand why Our Lord on the cross prayed: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." And if this understanding comes to those who have no special rseponsibility for other souls, how ~rnuch more dearly to those whom God invests with His authority? So the Sister Superior must learn to love without measure, in the sa'me manner as Christ has lo~ved her. It is well to recall that the rulers of the Jews said that Christ was guided by Beelzebub . Superiors follow (or should follow) more closely in the footsteps of Christ, and they musthave His spirit. He dictated a very beautiful com-mand one evening: '"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 147 Ma~!, 1951 MEDITATION FOR A MOTHER SUPERIOR Feareth no labor: The superior must never call a moment her own." Her time belongs to the Sisters; consequently there should be no so-called "inter,ruptions" in her life. In. giving herself to the community, either directly to the individual members or indirectly. by her care of the house, she is but doing her duty. She should be the last to think of rest, of ease from work, of consolations. "It is for thee to be the support of tl~y brethren." To be the support, the strength, of the weak, the despondent, the discouraged religious. The superior has to deal with each soul in these categories asa mother does with a sick (or peevish) child. She makes sweet the wood of the cross so that her daughters may carry it willingly, carry it joyfu~ly, and, at the end, triumphantly, to the portal of Heaven. Maketh sweet all that is bitter: To give one's will into the hands of another, a symbol of slavery, is the hardest sacrifice God asks of man. To make light the burden of obedience and to sweeten the bitterness found in community life is the task of the superior of the house. In doing this she will be called upon to. forget herself :i thousand times. In each community the superior should image the Rule. In her the religious should find the peace, the joy of laboring for Christ, and the rest tfiat comes to a contented heart doing all for God. Findeth rest in God alone: Truly this is the only consolation worthy of the name. It is reserved, not to superiors, but to the superior after God's own heart. In distractions often, in cares with-out number, in burdens multiplied, the superior should seek rest only in the Heart of Christ. When the power that comes from God alone was conferred upon her, she was set apart. Not that she was made better than others, not that by the very fact of authority she was made perfect, but only because God delegated to her the power that is His by righ,.t. "'Going-up-into the mountain He called unto Him whom He would . " Not because of the spiritual worth of the individual but only because God wills it is a man or a woman set apart to lead and govern other souls. If Christ called all to come to Him that they might be refreshed, how much more those who are burdened with a greater share of the Cross of the Lord? OUR CONTRIBUTORS ALEXANDER WYSE is the director of the Academy of American Franciscan History, Washington, D.C. MOTHER MARY ELIZABETH is prioress of the Carmel of St. Joseph, Long Beach, California. C. A. HERBST and AUGUSTINE KLAAS are members of the faculty at St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. 148 Current: Spiri!:ual Writ:ing Augustine Klaas~ S.3. From La Vie Spirituelle IN.THE MARCH .1950 number of La Vie Spirituelle there is an intriguing little symposium on the subject: "It is difficult to grow old." The matter is of current, practical interest for religious, who too must learn the not-so-easy art of growing old gracefully. Doctor H. Muller pres.ents an introductory survey, noting the marked increase in the number of old people, owing to the reduction of infant mortality, the increasingly successful fight against disease, and. other factors, all of which are adding years to the life-span of society's various classes, including religious. (In the U. S. A. since 1900, a period in which the population has doubled, the.number of persons over sixty-five years old has quadrupled, from three to twelve million in the fifty-year period.) Unfortunately, along with an increase in numbers, has Come a noticeable change of status. When the old were comparatively few, they were honored and respected, and their advice was dutifully sought, but the situation has now greatly altered, presenting nev~ problems of adjustment both psychological and social. Also; the old today are too often "bad patients," discouraging attention and affection, precisely because many have not learned how to grow old in a calm, mature .way. When the life-span was barely thirty years, the saying used to be: "Brother, you are going to have to die." Today it is rather: "Brother, you are going to have to get old." You will be old, perhaps ten, twenty, and even thirty years. The prob-lem must be courageously met and solved on the material and~ above all, on the spiritual plane. H. Duesberg draws a charming portrait of the aged as found in the Old Testament, comparing it not unfavorably with the one sketched in the ancient classical writers and those of the Middle and Far East. After an upright, useful life, the aged man is represented as living out his long years with dignity, while at the same time going down steadily and inexorably to the tomb. Old age may be burdensome and subject to various untoward vicissitudes: never-theless, it is always preferable to death, for as Ecclesiastes (9:4) says 149 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Reuieu~ [or Religious somewhat quaintly: "A living dog is better than a dead lion." Old age merits respect and reverence: "Rise up before the hoary head, and honor the person of the aged man" (Leviticus 19:32). Old age is itself the reward for honoring the old, especially one's parents: "Honor thy father and mother . that thou mayest live a long time" (Deuteronom~ 5:16). What splendid examples of old age there are in the Old Testament: Tobias, Sara~ Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David. Of course, as we might expect, there were also some unworthy old persons, such as the two accusers of Susanna. The old are the living embodiment of the 15ast, particu-larly of the previous generation. Even after they have died they continue to live on in their children and in the memory they leave behind them of their wisdom and experience. Duesberg concludes: "The serenity of the aged ih the. Old Testament is remarkable, for they drew a maximum of confidence and resignation from what they themselves had learned and from what God had taught them." The increasing number of the old presents also an economic problem, a problem of material assistance, which the symposium does not cover. However, Armand Marquisat tells of an interesting association of men, formed in Paris to help solve the social probl,em of the aged. The men call themselves the Little Brothers of the Poor. The group was started by three gentlemen in Paris at Easter 1946: it now numbers over thirty. These laymen, propose to help the old in ev~ry possible way in the places where they live, fre- "quently alone and in need. Some of the Brothers are part-time, others full-time workers, who visit these aged people several times a week, to look after their food, lodging, clothing, medical, and spir-itual care. Professional men and workers of all types are members, and all have placed themselves under the patronage of St. Francis of Assisi. It is a lay institute that vows to serve the aged in this ,very practical, effective, ChriStian way. The symposium, concerned mainly with the spiritual side of the problem, contains a good article by Father Ji Perinelle, O.P., a reli-gious of advanced age and wide experience. He notes that people grow old unevenly. Some keep their mental and bodily faculties intact almost till the very _end; others deteriorate more rapidly and are subject to disease: All experience a certain loss of liberty, a growing dependence on others, and a gradual isolation that does not: lighten their.physical or moral iils. Countering'the~e, there is a tendency among the old themselves to excess in one direction or May, 1951 (]URR~NT WRITING another, and very frequently a pronounced egotism, showing itself in constant speaking onl~ of self and one'Sqlls, or complaining, or demanding that every whim be satisfied, or a lack of gratitude for favors done. Certainly these are not the .proper attitudes that age should bring along with it.' ¯ Old age is'a sthge of life willed by God and like the other stages should contribute to the advancement of one's spiritual good. God governs old age by His Providence; He is all--powerful, all-wise, and all-loving (Rorn. 8:28). The old have the grace at hand to meet the trials of this period of life (II. Corr. 4:16).~ Perhaps St. Paul is the great example of a man growing old in the right way; he did not falter towards the end, but finished victoriously the combat and the race (II. Tim. 4:6-8). Father Perinelle gives some wise counsels for the aging. The first group pertain to the exterior, the second to the interior life. a) Health: Don't become obsessed with care for your health, always an.xiously looking at the thermometer, taking the pulse count, noticing the draughts, etc. Restrict gradually your external activity; live a well~ordered life; keep up a certain minimum of physical exer-cise; attend, faithfully to personal hygiene; watch eating habits; meet weakness~ illness, and finally death itself with resignation and cheer-fulness, as preludes to the call of the Master. b) Work: Keep on doing some real work, physical or mental, at a fixed time every day, no matter how little it may be. But do not persist in doing'work, for which you are no longer fitted. You are not a good judge in this matter; hence listen to the advice of others. Hand over your principal tasks to younger hands, even though this is not an easy thing to do. And don't imp0se.your advice on others, either. Accept the fact that your counsel, when asked, often will not be followed and finally will no longer even be asked for. c) Relations with others: Try to keep in touch with your life-long friends, but do not be locked-up l in the past. Giveyourself generously to the rising generation. Y~u are the bridge between the old and the new. Times change and certainly some real progress is. being made in the wo~ld. Your e.xperience can .contribute to it, if you are not intr.ansigent in clinging to the past. Be like the Catholic Church in this matter, sanely adapting herself to modern conditions. And keep up with the times, if you ~an, but above all keep an open, mind. Read something daily in a slow, reflecting way~ Maintain a 151 AUGUSTINE KLRAS Reoieto for Religious kindly sense of humor in your dealings 'with others. There are two dangerous .attitudes regarding the new members of your religious order or congregation: the first is to have little con-fidence in their capacity and hence to lower the standards of religious life in their favor. This must not be done, but rather a total giving of s~lf must be demanded of young religious. The second wrong attitude is to wish to impose rigidly on the newcomers what you yourself went through. No, prudent adaptation is what is wanted here. Let them prefer reading St. Paul tb reading Rodriguez! And do not attempt to impose inflexibly on the younger generation o.f religious your methods of teaching and apostolate. Guide them, surely, but leave them some initiative of their own. Finally, do not try to appear younger than you really are and thus make yourself ridiculous. Act your age. As for the interior life, remember that God loves the old in a special way because they .are weak and feeble, just as ,for the same reason He has a particular love for children. If you are faithful and prayerful, God will keep you company to your Emmaus when "it is towards evening and the day is now far spent." Two things are to be noted spiritually: you must acquire a spirit of detachment and an understanding or feeling for eternity. All things are passing: the old are very much aware of this. It should make them reflect and pass a true judgment on the fleeting things of time. Past sins must be acknowledged. There must be contrition and penance, but also an immense trust and confidence in God. The o!d feel their poverty-- empty hands after such a long life; God must be their riches now. The old feel their weakness; let God be their strength. They feel powerless to do good; God is now their all. , A sense of eternity must be gradually acquired by the old, for the beatific vision and all that it implies is drawing near. Live in the hope of it; await it longingly. Be humble, be kind, be tolerant of others, pray much, offer up the remaining days of suffering and your Ideath, pray continually throughout the day for y6urself, for your dear ones, for the world, for the Church. See to it that extreme unction and the last rites be administered to you betimes.' Death is the gate,way to eternity: be at peace, cheerful, joyful, expectant. Father A. Masson, ordained recently at the age of seventy-four, likens old age to the season of Advent. It is a time of hope,, ending in a birth. All the Advent liturgy and the prophecies of the Old 152 Mug, 1951 Q~URRENT WRITING Testament can be al3plied luminously to old age. There are three births: the physical one to natural life; the spiritual one of baptism to supernatural life; and the last one to the life of the beatific vision. Are not the death-days of the saints and martyrs called their bi~th-days? Let me close this subject with this little paragraph by Father Sertillanges, O.P., who at the age of eighty-five wrote as beautifully as ever: "For the Christian, old age is not a final farewell to what-ever appeals and desperately clings to our lust for life. Quite the contrary, it is the full growth and final flowering of hope. It is the threshold of what had merely been suggested by t.he springtime of life. It is the first sight of land after an apparently interminable voyage. It is the veil which has been torn from an illusion and exposes to view the supreme realities. Old age is the approach to God. Descent into the grave, since i~ represents, but a partial truth, is an illusion. Rather do we ascend." From Reoue d'Asc~tique et de Mgstique In the January-March 1950 number of Revue d'Asc~tique et de M~tstique there is a seven-article symposium on the general subject: Spiritual Problems of Our Times and Ignatian Spiritualitg. I should like to summarize the article by Father Louis Verny, S.J., on a vital point of Ignatian spirituality, namely, Ignatian prayer, a subject about which there is sometimes misunderstanding and error. The title is "in actione contemplatious," which may be translated approxi-mately: "in action contemplative," or "contemplative in the midst of action," or "contemplative while active." This type of prayer, along with others, is mentioned in a letter of Father Jerome Nadal, S.J., who wasin close contact ~ith Saint Ignatius Loyola for many years. I quote the passage of Nadal's letter from the French of Father Verny: "That prayer is a capital item of prime necessity in a religious institute is most evident. I am speaking of the prayer referred, to in this text of St. Paul: "I will pray with the spirit, but I will'pray with the understanding also" (I Cot. 14:15). It is the prayer which contains, all the phases of spiritual development: the purga-tive, illuminative, and unitive. Wherefore actively, and even avidly, does the Society give herself to it in full measure in Christ Jesus, For there is no one of her members that she does not at first start off .with meditations suited to first conversion and to the putting off of the 153 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Reoieto for Religious old man. Then, by means of contemplations on all the mysteries of Christ ~we seek.to develop ever more in ourselves the realized knowl-edge of Him who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Finally, we find repose in love. What is the necessary beginning of. prayer we find again at its term: charity, the highest and sublimest of the virtues. So that, filled with a very ardent zeal drawn from prayer, we set out for our ministries full of joy in Christ 3esus, with humil-ity of heart, satisfaction, and courage. This is what we draw from the~ book of Exercises. "Although this is no't the time to treat of prayer, there is a fact which I do not wish to omit. Father Ignatius had received from God the .special grace to rise without effort 'to the contemplation of the Most Holy Trinity and to repose in it a lon~ time~ Sometimes he was led by grace to contemplate the whole Trinity; he was 'trans-ported' into it and united himself to it with his whole heart, with ¯ intense sentiments o~ devotion, and a deep spiritual relish. Some-times he contemplated the Father alone, sometimes' the Son, some-times the Holy Spirit. This contemplation of the Most Holy Trinity was accorded him often at other periods of his life, but he received it principally, and almost exclusively even, during the last years of his earthly pilgrimage. "If such prayer was granted to Saint Ignatius, it was a great privilege and of an entirely different order. But "he likewise had another privilege which made him see God present in all things and in every action, with a lively sense of spiritual realities; contem-plative in the midst of action, according to his ordinary expression: finding God in all things. Now, this grace which illumined his soul 'was revealed to us as much by a kind of brightness which emanated from his countenance as by the enlightened sureness with which he acted in Christ. We were filled with admiration for it, our hearts were much consoled by it, and we felt as though the overflow of these graces was descending on ourselves. Furthermore we believe that this privilege which we noted in Saint Ignatius is likewise granted to the whole Society; we are confident that the gift of this prayer and contemplation awaits us all in the Society, and we strongly assert that it is a part of our vocation." Three tfiings are brought out in the text of Father Nadal's rev.ealing letter: 1) ordinary prayer~ and ordinary contemplation, .that is, contemplation in the sense in which it is used in the Spiritual Exercises; 2) infused contemplation, or mystical prayer, with which 154 May, 1951 CURRENT WRITING Saint Ignatius was greatly favored; 3) a state of soul described by the phrase "in action contemplative" or "contemplative in the midst of action," which Saint Ignatius cultivated himself and recommended most highly for his sons, and Father Nadal considered an integral part of a Jesuit's vocation. We are interested here in this last type of prayer, to which Father Verny devotes most of his article. Although it does characterize Jesuit spirituality, it is not for Jesuits only, but can be utilized, at least to some extent, by all.orders and congregations engaged in the active apostolat.e. At the outset Father Verny compares the Jesuit formula "in actione contemplatious . in action contemplativeS' with the forrrfula -of.St. Thomas Aquinas, which can be expressed somewhat like this: "'contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere'" ("to contemplate and to communicate to others .what one has contemplated"). There is some dispute as to whether St. Thomas's formula ref~s to what is technically called the "mixed life," the life of the active apostolate, because it seems rather to accentuate the contemplative element. If it does, it differs from :the Ignatian formula, since the latter certainly puts the stress on the active apostolate. Also, the Thomistic formula seems to refer to alternate activities, namely, to contemplate and then to impart the fruit of one's contemplation, .whereas the Ignatian formula indicates something simultaneous, apostolic action perme-ated with contemplation. Father Verny then takes up the Jesuit formula and has no diffi-culty proving from the Spiritual Exercises and the Formula of the Institute that apostolic action is the vocation of the Jesuit. The Society of Jesus is an essentially active order, a mobile force ready to give apostolic service of almost any and every kind. What is the contemplative element that must permeate its active apostolate? Father Verny says that it can be expressed in two ways, each one implying the other. The contemplative element in the active apostolate is the state of soul resulting from the complete, unconditional, definitive self-surrender to Jesus Christ and total enlistment in H~s cause, spoken of in The Spiritual Exercises. It is begun in the Kingdom meditation, enhanced by the Two Standards, perfected by the Three Degrees of Humility, completed and actuated day after day by the intimacy with Our Lord that is derived from the daily contemplation of Him in the Gospels. This close intimacy with Christ is the fruit of the Second Week, perfected and made more 155 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Ret@to ~or Religious precise in the rest "of the Exercises, and extended throughout life, since the contemplation of the Gospels is a life-long task. It" is renewed every day at Holy Mass and Holy Communion, and in visits to the Blessed Sacrament. It expresses itself in frequent thought of' Christ, confidences, exchange of gifts, and the acquire-ment of a common mind with Christ. It is the asslmilation and "putting on of Christ," who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Father Leonce de Grandmaison calls it "virtual prayer"--a recalling of the presence of God and an actuation more or less'explicit of "that transcendental love which we owe to God Our Lord." He points out some of' its qualities: "apostolic interests placed above selfish interests; divine views over human views; the spirit of Christ pre-ferred to the spirit of the world." This thinking with Christ, this participation in His interior dis-positions, this ever more perfect assimilation and putting on of Christ, can be expressed in a second way, namely, by using the language of the Institute. I cite some of the more important pas-sages. For instance, he who enters the Society of 3esus must take care "always to have before his eyes first God, th~n the spirit of the Insti-tute, which is a way of ascending to Him." Again, the seventeenth of .the Rules of the Surnrnar~ : "Let all endeavor to have a right intention, not only in their state of life, but in all particulars, seeking in them always sin.cerely to serve and please the divine Goodness for itself . And in all things let them seek God, casting off as much as possible all love of creatures, that they may place their whole affection on the Creator of them, loving Him in all creatures and them all in Him, according to His most holy and divine Will." The significant phrases "for the greater glory, of God," "for the greater service of God" constantly recur in the Spiritual Exercises and in the Constitutions. Here is what we read in the preamble to the Election: "In every good Election, as far as regards ourselves, the eye of the intention ought to be single, looking only to the end for which I was ~reated, which is, for the praise of God our Lord . . ." Besides a right intention, a spirit of faith must be had, especially" with regard to obedience. A few selections at random from the Constitutions: "acknowledging the Superior, whoever he be, as holding the place of Christ our Lord." With regard to illness: "using pious and edifying words, showing that he accepts l~is sick-ness as a gift of our Creator. and Lord." These ideas are especially clear in the seventh part of the Constitutions, where there is question 156 Ma~t, 1951 CURRENT WRITING of apostolic ministries in the strict sense, but they also form an under-current in all the parts and also in the General Examen. The twenty-ninth rule, on external comportment, ends: "and hence it will follow that, considering one another, they will increase in devo-tion and praise our Lord God, whom every one must strive to acknowledge in another as in His image." Thus we see sufficiently that to be "contemplative in the midst of action" involves essentially a kno~ving, a loving, and a putting on of Christ ever more and more, and various ways of seeking and finding God in all things, persons, and events, especially by a right intention and the spirit of faith. Father Verny points out three saints in whom we can easily recognize this excellent state of soul, because they were eminently "contemplative in the midst of action." The first is St. Ignatius himself, whom Father Nadal describes in the last part of the letter cited above. The second is blessed Peter Faber. After noting his manifold works for the Church, the fifth lesson of his Office con-tinues: "And while unceasingly he was doing such great deeds for the glory of God, he was with heart and mind so united to God that he seemed to be occupied With nothing but heavenly things." May we not apply to him the words of Holy ~Scripture: oculi mei semper ad Dominum . my eyes are always on the Lord"? The third example is $t. Vincent de Paul, as can also be readily seen from his Office. No doubt we could add many more: Francis. Xavier, Peter Canisius, Francis Regis, Isaac Jogues, Peter Claver, but also Charles Borromeo, Francis de Sales, Alphonsus Liguori, the holy Cur~ of Ars, Francesca Cabrini, and many others, both men and women. For them God has become an atmosphere, and all their activity takes place in this atmosphere. The activity may be very intense, overwhelming and extremely distracting, still it leaves intact unity and liberty of soul. Amid all the bustle and confusion, interiorly there is real silence and recollection. Send Saint Francis Xavier or Blessed Peter Faber on as many missions as you will, you will not change the spiritual atmosphere in which they move. ~ Multiply the" letters of St. Ignatius or the human miseries which St. Vincent de Paul tried to alleviate, deep down within, their tranquility of soul remains, their "conversation is in heaven." They are "contemplative in the mids~ of action." Their "eyes are always on the Lord." Of course, all this is an ideal, and a very high one. To reach it the~e are two stage~. The first emphasizes~the ascetical element. It 157 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Reviev., for Religious consists in the systematic and persevering practice of various spiritual ~exercises: prayer, intimacy with Christ, right intention, purity of heart, spirit of faith, presence of God, mortification of the external senses and the internal powers of the soul, faithfulness to grace and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, the examen of conscience playing a major role. The second phase has no fixed rules or chartered course. It makes use of Father de Caussade's "sacrament of the present ;noment." It employs more frequently Father de Maumigny's "interior retreats." It consists essentially in a steady increase of faith, hope, and love of God and fellow-men, together with a growing docility to the Holy Spirit and use of His gifts. Perhaps the second stage can' be summdd up by Father Louis Lallemant in his Fourth Principle (chapter 2, article 1) : "The goal for which we should aim, after having for long time exercised ourselves in purity of heart, is to be so possessed and ruled by the Holy Spirit, that it is He alone who directs our p0wers,and our senses, and go.verns all our movements both interior and exterior, and that we abandon ourselves entirely by a spiritual renouncement of all our desires and personal gratifications. Thus we shall live no more in ourselves, but in 2esus Christ, by faithful cooperation with His divine Spirit, and by perfect subjection of all 'our rebelliousness to the power of His grace." The more this takes place, the closer we are coming to holiness and also to the mystical state, though the latter seems to be only for the very few. At this advanced level there is scarcely any difference between action and prayer, so much is action impregnated and permeated with prayer. The striving for this type of prayer amidst action is what St. Ignatius wanted in his followers. It is about this that Father Polanco wrote in behalf of Ignatius to Father Urban Fernandez, Rector of Coimbra, on June 1, 1551 : "As for prayer and meditation, except in a case of special necessity . our Father prefers that we t~y to find God in all things rather than devote much consecutive time to that exercise. He desires to see all the members of the Society animated with such a spirit that they do not find less devotion in works of charity and obedience than in prayer and meditation, since they ought to do nothing except for the love and service of Our Lord." This is the grand objective for which not only Jesuits But all religious and diocesan priests engaged in the active apostolate may and should strive~ and with God's grace ultimately achieve. 158 B ook/ eviews Four works by H. Pinard de la Boullaye, S.J.-- SAINT IGNACE DE LOYOLA, DIRECTEUR D'AMES. Pp. Ixxlx ,--1- 362. Aubier, I-=dltions Montaigne. LA SPIRITUALIT¢ IGNATIENNE: Textes. Choisls et pr&sent6s. Pp. I "-t- 4S7. Libralrle Plon, Paris. EXERCISES SPIRITUELS Selon la M6thode .de Saint Icjnace. Tome Pre-mier, Les Exercises, 7 ~:dltlon, revue et augment~e. Pp. xxvill ~ 314. Beauchesne ef Ses Fils, Paris, 1950. LES I~TAPES DE RI~DACTION DES EXERCISES DE S. IGNACE. 7 l'=-dltion, revue et corrig~e. Pp. viii -I- 76. Beauchesne et Ses Fils, Paris, 1950. After acquiring eminent distinction in such fields as comparative religion and religious experience and in giving the Lenten conferences at Notre-Dame, Paris, Fr. Pinard de la Boullaye has in recent years been devoting his great talents to writing on Ignatian spirituality. Among several volume~ on that general theme there are four to which we would call attention. Saint lgnace de Lo.qola, Directeur d'Ames opens with a long preface ~vhich presents the sources of Ignatian spirituality, its leading ideas, its general characteristics, and its value, and then an account of the writings of St. Ignatius and their character. The main body of the work consists of 314 pages of extracts, with notes and explana.- tions, from the original Sources. These excerpts are arranged according to different topics; for example, "the apostle of order and the greater glory of God," ". of self-control," ". of zeal," and so on. Thus in a moment one'could easily find in their authentic form St. Ig-natius's thoughts on many important points in the interior life. La Spiritualitd lqnatienne is similar in structure; and in content it is complementary. First a fairly lengthy preface gives a general description of Ignatian spiritual doctrine. Then in a systematic way the whole of the spiritual life, ascetical and mystical, is presented in selections, not so much this time from St. Ignatius himself, as from his 3esuit sons. This book therefore is an anthology, topically ar-ranged, of 3esuit spirituality. After a brief indication of a basic idea from the saint; various developments of it from 3esuit spiritual lit-erature are presented. Numerous notes and references could intro-duce one to further study of the same subject. A't the end of the book there is a very useful collection of brief biographical and biblio- 159 BOOK REVIEWS graphical notices of the Society's spiritual authors. Exercises Spiri(uels is the first of a four-volume set on St. Ig-natius's Exercises. It may be said that it is designed to explain them, whereas those that follow deoelop them in the form of retreats. However, it is not simply a commentary. It is proposed as "notes," and rather deals with what seem td be the essential ideas of St. Ig-natius, and the principal reasons why he chose such considerations and arranged them as he did. Thus, it is hoped, the right under-standing of the text will be facilitated. This book will no doubt 0 take a foremost place among writings on the Exercises.One special merit of it is a certain wholesome originality. ~ Les t~tapes de Rddaction is a small, but very interesting work on the evolution of the Exercises themselves. The process went on from 1521 to 1548, and in it six different stages or phases are distinguished and studied, If the author:s conclusions be correct, some old ad-mirers of the Exercises will be surprised to learn the dates at which certain of the more characteristic pieces appeared. --(3. AUG. F-LLARD, S.J. JEANNE JUGAN. By Mgr. Francis Trochu. Translated by Hugh Mont-gomery. Pp. xil -I- 288. Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland, 1950. $3.75. If there is one phenomenon in modern Catholic life from which no one can withhold the tribute of spontaneous admiration, it is the work of the Little Sisters of the Poor. It must have been a wonder-ful personality, one feels, that, under God, brought that body into being. Here is the story of that personality, so wonderful that even in the order she inspired and first "established--owing to the fact that it was "kidnapped" by a priest-director and: held captive incredibly long--she was not known by most of her fellow-religious as their founder. "Jeanne Jugan will be canonized some day, but there will be many.difficulties in the way, for we have no dstails about her life," said a priest of Jeanne, when all the.facts were still being cov-ered under conspiratorial silence. Truth can hide in strange places. In this instance it was the records of the French Academy (which had conferred the Montyon Prize on Jeanne before the "kidnapping"), and it was through that source that it came home to the Little Sisters, and the world, what a wonderful woman had called their work into existence. God is wonderful in Jeanne Jugan.--CIERALD ELLARD, S.J. 160 May, 1951 BOOK NOTICES THE TRUE STORY OF SAINT BERNADETTE. By Henri petitotl O.P. Translated by a Benedictine of Stanbrook Abbey. Pp. viii -I- 19S. The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. $2.50. This book is not intended to be a complete biography of St. Ber-nadette. It is more in the line of an appreciation. It supposes that the reader already has a fair knowledge of the facts of Bernadette's life. What the autho~ tries to do is reproduce the spirit behind the facts of her life. The common reaction to a book with a~title like "the true story" of something or other is the suspicion that the author is setting about to correct some popular notions about his subject. Whether the popular concept of Bernadette contains some false notions, the author does not explicitly say. But he wants to be sure that the reader has two things straight by the time he finishes, the book. First of all, Bernadette was not an unintelligent girl. Her intelligence was above average, although her education was neglected until she entered the ,religious life. Secondly, she was not just an ordinary good religious (as her mother superior claimed). It is true that Bernadette was favored with special graces before her entrance into the religious life, But this is not the reason she is a saint. She developed the practice of heroic virtue in tile religious life, especially by the way she accepted suffering and humiliation. The author stresses the heroism that Bernadette manifested in a particular kind of suffering that was harder to bear than physical pain. Two of her superiors took on themselves the job of seeing that Bernadette stayed humble. Some of the other Sisters, taking their cue .from the superiors, took up the crusade to keep Bernadette humble. The uncharitableness that can be cloaked underneath such a crusading attitude is obvious. A fault into which the author seems to fall occasionally is to squeeze heroicity out of insignificant incidents. He has plenty of arguments for her heroism without exaggerating the significance of minor incidents.--JOHN R. SHEETS, S.J. BOOK NOTICES On June seventeenth will be beatified the saintly MotherCouderc, Foundress of the Cenacle Sisters, who died in her eightieth year in 1885. If you wish to see why God so obviously blesses the Society "161 BOOK NOTICES ' Reuietu for Religious of the Retreat of Our Lady in the Cenacle in its very rapid diffusion in the United States and elsewhere, you will find in this biography, SURRENDER TO THE SPIRIT, that supernatural self-surrender to the Holy Ghost, who in the Cenacle came upon the infant C~aurch in Pentecostal tongues of fire. Mother Surles of the Boston Cenacle presents her heroic subject in an inspiring, but slightly "novelized" biography, in casting much of it in conversational form. Blessed ThOr}se Couderc should henceforth bare many friends among girls and women of all walks of life. (New York: Kenedy, 1951. Pp. xxi -b 243. $3.00.) OUR HAPPY LOT, written by Aurelio Espinosa Polit, S.J., and translated by William J. Young, S.J., is directed to all religious and priests. 'It presents various considerations intended to inculcate fer-vor and consolation in those consecrated to God. The unique gi.ft of vocation, its assurance ofsalvation, its call to intimacy with Christ, its sufferings and temptations, the'zeal which it postulates, the means of grace which it affords--all these topics are treated in a spirit of piety and elucidated ,by citations and explanations of Holy Scripture. The last fifty pages (pp. 195-245) are a summary, or recapitulation of the book. The various subjects are condensed into brief medi-tations. (St. Louis: B. Herder Co., 1951. Pp. xi + 245. $3.50.) CAN CHRIST HELP ME?, by C. C. Martindale, S.J., is addressed to the World at large and aims at bringing all 'men to. the knowledge and love of Christ. Nevertheless, the last three parts (pp'. 81-205), comprisifig almost two-thirds of the volume, furnish stimulating spiritual reading for religious and priests. This section develops the Ignatian retreat meditation called the Kingdom of Christ and from it the reader becomes enthusiastic not only for Christ's doctrine'or His past achievements, but e~pecially for the Person who can help me right now "as one living person helps another." This zest and love for Christ are developed by explaining the miracles, the parables, the sermons, the attitudes, the anecdotes: and the ordinary actions of Christ as these are portray.ed in the Gospels. Upon all of these Father Martindale throws new light and be does so in that simple, graphic style which belongs to a master of English prose. (West-minster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1950. Pp. 205. $2.25.) 162 Ma~l, 1951 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS [For the most part. these notices are purely descriptive, based on a cursory exam-ination of the books listed.] AMI PRESS, Washington, New Jersey. Matins in a Leafy~ Wood. The Story of Mother M. Germaine. By Sister Mary Charitas, I.H.M. Pp. 124. $2.50. An inspiring life of an educator dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Issue 5.4 of the Review for Religious, 1946. ; RE VOLUME V / J,ULY 15. 1946 " Nu~BE~,~- ' , , CONTENTs "ORIGINAL SIN AND EDUCATION~Cyril VSIlert. S.J. " " 21,7 A TIMELY PAMPHLET . ¢ -.'. . , .' , 228 ~CONCE~NING DISTRACTIONS~ha'rles F. Donovan, S.J, ~ 2;29 IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW IT~ * 232 "SAINT APPEARED TWICE"--CIem~t J. McNaspy, S.J . 233 ~ PLAN OF SELF-DENIAL WITHIN THE 'REACH OF ALL ~ "Robert B. Eitem S.J . " 239 gP~LS ~ORVOCAT~ONS ., . ~,.~ 2~ SPEAKING' OF NAMES--Claude Kean.O.F.M . DECISIONS OF THE HOLY SEE . ,249 OUR CONTRIBUTORS " . . TWO HE~RTS--W. H. Hingston S.J '. ~ 251 ANN~N~EMENT . - . ~. ~_. ~-25~ RECEPTION OF SEMINARIANS INTO RELIGIOUS INSTI~UTES~, Adam C, Ellis, S.J . :BOOKS RECEIVED . ' ~ ' 263 /QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ' ,~ 22. Permission to Use G~ld Watch . 23.,Number of Delegates for General Chapter: Soliciting Votes 26~' 24. Use of Income from Special Fees '. . ~. 26~ 25. Religious Candidate Whose Parents Have,Bad Reputation 266~ ~ 26. Going to Confession in Order of Seniority . . ~ . 266 27. Communion Sundays ahd Contests to Promote Frequent Communion 267 28. Order of Precedence in Mdther House " " 268 BOOK REVIEWS-- ' , ~,~ The Mystical Life; Meditatio~ on the Passion: The Catholic Centre: Mission for Samaritans: Forming a Christian Mentality; How to Medi-tate; The Mystical Baldy of Christ: La ~iete Eucharistique: John Henr~ , , . Newman: Centenary Essays; The T h"ird Day Mano'logy: Mast'er and~ - Model: Dove Flights: Kyrie Elei~on:XTh~ P~ychology of Liturgical MU- " sic; The Life,of Father Pro 271 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. ~uly, 1946. Vol. V. No. 4. Pu~lisfied bi-monthly; January, March:May. July, September. and November at the C011ege.Press,4 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas. *by-St. Mary's College. St. Marys, ,~ansas, . with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered' as second class ~atter/~anuar), ~'15, "1942. at the Post O~ce, Topeka, ~Kansas. under the act of March 3:. 1879. EditgrlaL Board: Adam C. Ellis, S.J. G, Augustine Ellard. S.J., Gerald Kelly, S.J. Editorial Secretary: Alfred F. Schneider. S.J. " Copyright, 1946, by Adam C. ElliS, Permission is hereby. ~ra~n t e d for- quota't m:"n ~s. of reasonable length, provided due credit "be given this review and the auth6r.' Subscription price:, 2 dollars a year. Printed*ifi ~. Before writln~ to us,,please consult notice on inside 'back over~ ¯ ~' Or~gin~°l ~in ~nd Educa :ion Cyril Vollert, S.J. ~OST OF US who try to keep up with educational ~V~ controversies and discussions have~ become some-what surfeited with reiterated assurances that the one hope of salvaging this creaking world, so near the shoals of disaster, is education. We are told that education can save democracy, resolve the .c~lass struggle~ and confer on man. the good life.- " The striking t~I-iing is, much of this is true. But to realize'these great expectations education must be rightly conceived and rightly directed. It must be true education for man as he actually is; and it must be aimed at the right goal. Most of the. arguing about education is futile, and therefore fruitless, ' because those whd contribute the never~e.nding stream of articles, addresses, and books about education are so'often, unrealisticAn their view of the p.er~son who is to b~educate~d.or are wrong in t~eir idea.of t~e~upshot ofthe educational process. They are trying to stee~la rudderless sh~p throagh an uncharted sea to an unknown port. unless[we are right.in our notion of~the objec-tive to be a.t~ta[ned and of the~p.erson wh9 is to be educated, we are scarcely,.in a position to decide what the ~educational process ought to ~e. , . I,n this article.I s~all not pr3sume to fix the ~ltimate goal of education. Readers of this periodical know very. ~well what it is: ,God, whom we are to possess in the eternal happiness of the beatific vision. Nor shall I rashly attempt to outline an educational program. My purpose will be to describe the beneficiarydr" such a program and to indicate 217 CYRIL VOLLERT ' Reoiew /or t~elipiotts the proximate end to be achieved. The artist cannot pro-duce a masterpiece unless he knows the material he has to work on. Neither can the teacher succeed in transforming an uneducated person into an educated person unless he understands man as he actually is. The raw material of the educational' process is a boy or girl born in original sin, and still suffering the results'~ of original sin. This statement is not naive. It is not a bogy of a bygone day. It is true today and Will remain true for all time. Such a view is the only realistic view. Any other notion is false, or at least inadequate. But even tki'e truth that the person to be educated began life in original sin and still staggers under the burden of the consequences Of origi-nal sin may be distorted. To see the truth, two extremes have to be avoided: a vapid optimism and a groundless pessimism. Clear vision is n~eded, unobstructed either by rose-colored lenses or by smoked glass. The optimistic vie.w, credited by romanticists to the philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau but "actually as old as Pel~ag~us in the fifth century and his iritellectual ancestors, is that every man at his origin is wholly good. Let him alone; do not hamper or misdirect the natural play of his thought-processes and appetites; and he is capable of 'ifidefinite growth ingoodnegs. Signs of the break-up of the "electiv~ System" point to th~gradual abandonment of this view. But many. educators still do not know wh~t is to replace this shallow optimism. Rousseau and Eliot are no longer the .leaders to the promised land. Nevertheless the typical modern educator remains a Pelagian. /] The pessimistic view is also hoary with antiquity. Its crudest form, Manichaeism, regards all matter as evil. Therefore man, so far as he is a corporeal being, is evil. He is hopeless till he. gets out of his Body. A less irrational 218 1946 ORIGINAL SIN AND EDUCATION variety of this pessimism is the notion, characteristic of uncontaminated early Lutheranism and Protestantism generally, that original sin intrinsically corrupted man, l'eft him forever a sinner ihcapable "of morally good actions, and destroyed his free will. Nothing can really correct the depravity of Lutheran.man. His defilement can be covered up byChrist's merits, but he himself stays a sinful wretch, utterly corrupt. A trace of this idea of man, greatly diluted, is found sometimes among Catholics, even amdng educated Cath-olics and religious. They may have a notion, not very-pre-cisely formulated, that man's nature, though not wholly corrupted by original sin, was inwardly wounded so that his understanding, considered on the purely natural _level, is now intrinsically darkened and his will is intrinsically weakened. Those who harbor such an idea of man may have been Subjected to defective instruction On this point; or they may have failed rightly to grasp what was correctly taught; or they may have had teachers who repre-- se, nted a very small, and practically unimportant,-minority opinion tfiat man actually was thus injured by original sin. But there is no sound theological basis for this per: suasion. The truth is that man, coniidered simply as natural man, is as whole today, in intellect and will, as was man regarded in his purely natural endowment when he came from the creative hand of God. In other words orig-inal sin left man in no worse condition, on the purely human level of his mind and will, than he was before Adam cast his momentous decision against God. What is true in all that we hear about the disastrous effects of Adam's sin is this: the first man deliberately renounced God and thereby lost the supernatura! endow-ments which God had conferred on him for the whole 219 CYRIL VOLLER~. 'human~ race. Adam was created not Reoiew for Religious only in'a state~ of ¯ na.tural:perfecti0n, but .was elevated to.the~sonship of God by sanc._tifying grace,. Mor9o,ver,, to~ complement th!s~divine -gift and to enable Adam to preserve it for0himself and .the entire human family, God added other remarkable.gifts, notably, t_he.~gift of.integrity whereby all hispowers affd faculties were perfectly~subordinated to his. reason and.~.wi11., and the gift of immortality whereby his. body.~asi~sub~, 'jected to his~soul so that it was liberated from the necessity of fa!ling into corruption and death. These inconceivably .great bounties, all of ,,them beyond ,the capacities ,of human na°ture, Adam. received for himselt and for all his,~descend- By:_sinning Adam lost~them all~. He lost originals, jus-tice for himseff 'and fo~ his posteri.ty., His children and his children's children down to the end of time (with the unique)exception, ofo.th~ Bles'sed V4rgin'Mary).were begot-ten in.a-sta:te,.of estrangement from God. Instead' of.being ,bOrn sons. and daughters of God in sancti£ying grace: the,y. were,born.%without that relation to God,,,.the-only Fight relation.to God once God bad,elevated mankind i(in. Ada_m). to:the,supernatural level:~ ~They were born ~in,:the stat&of . ~ ~W.ith the sin inherited from" Adamgo theieffects.of, the sin:loss'[0f,the othe'r accompanying 'gifts, integrity, and im-morgality.:,,. ThereforeAdam's~children,are worse off ~ihan-he~-~ as.,.~ Forthey all come into°the,W.ofld withbut.-the grage of di,v, ine~sonship,, without integrit~y, without immottalit, y: ,Adam s,mn £change mankind for the wors~, ifi!,soul and.in :,, --But Adam's~ sin ,did not wreck his. human nature as. such.' We are no w6rse Off now than we ~oul'd have been if God had never elevated Adam to be His ~ad0pted son, with this exception: we ought to be biafn with sanctifying 220 July, 1946 ORIGINAL SIN AND EDUCATION grace, and we are not; find so we are born in a state dis-pleasing to.God, a state of sin. ~l~rue, if we ~compare ourselves with .A'dam as he actually was in Paradis'e, we are far .inferior,,. We are deprived'of the supernatural and.preternatural Preroga~tives¯ that. made him so extraordinarily perfe~t~a man. P~i0r fo baptism we lack the divine sonship he had; and so we come into the world as sinners. And even though.we-.recover tl~e . grace of divine sonshil3 in baptism, we lack the gift of integrity: and so we find in otirselves an unruly mass of conflicting .powers, the 10w~r at odds with the higheL th6 body unsubservient to the soul. We lack the gift of immor-tality,. and so we succumb to illness, wounds, gradual cor-ruption, and death. But if we regard only Adam's nature itself unperfected by any of these gifts, oar own natures ar'e just the same. Adam's-nature, left to itself, ,had the sameelements and equipment as otirs. If he had not had the gift of integrity-he. too w.ould, even without any sin, have experienced the same conflict among his faculties. His senses would have sought their own pro~er objects just as gtubbornly as ours do,-against the will's consent. 'His body .would have been exposed to illness, decant, and death. All this appears, quite reasonable. Our first pgrents, as ,they .actually were, with God's supernatur.al and preter- ' natural gifots added to" their natural make~up, were clearly superior to .tis. Bui if we disregard Whatever is preter-n~ atural arid supernatural, we headily seb th~at they .had the same nature as we their children have. : Only one thought, nagging at our memories of what We have heard and read, keeps thrusting forward an objdc-tion; we have been taught that, as a result.of original sin, ourintellects have been darkened and our wills have been weakened. This ii :the very statement in the elementary 221 (~YRIL VOLLERT Re~oiew for Religious catechis~ most 6f us have studied: "Our natur~ was cor-rupted by tl~e ~in of our fi~st parents, which darkened our understanding, weake.ned our will,.and left in us a strong inclination :to evil." ' ' This brings us to the heart of our discussion:, just what this statement means. It means that, without the gifts of original justice,'-particularly integrity and immortality, our minds are less able to acquir~e truth and our willsare less firm in pursuing good th.a.n if we had those, gifts. I~ does not mean that original sin has .intrinsically harmed our minds and wills so that their natural power to khow and ¯ will has b~en destroyed or i~apaired, ~ The doctrine taught by the familiar catechism of our childhood is of course true. But the trUth.admits of better wording; and the recent revision of this catechism puts the matter more clearly: "The chief punishments of Adam which we inherit through original sin are: death, .suffe)ing, ignorance, and a" strong inclination to sin." What~ever is taught by the ~.hurch about t.h~ darkening of the intellect and the weakenirig of. the~will can be under-stood, and actually is understood by .all great theologians;, in .the sense of a deterioration as compared .with the mind and will of man in the state of c;riginaljustice. .This is easily perceived, in .the °casfi of the will. God ~en~riche, d Adam;s nature, with the'gift of integrity, which lined up .all his powers and passions under, the control of his reason and will so that his animal appetites could not take the initiative in attracting ~him toward evil and could no~ prevail .against the command of'his will., In punish~ ment for his sin, Ad,am lost thisomarvelous gift for him-self and for all of us. We do not possess the gift of integ~ rity, and'so *there is lacking in us the perfect order among. our various powers ~and appetites which that~ gift would have proc~ured. In. other words, we are subject to unruly 222 dulq, 1946. ORIGINAL SIN AND EDUCATION c'oncupiscence, which means simply that each of our .appe-tites seeks its own good heedless of the good. of the whole person. When an attractive object confronts any of our senses, that sense can immediately reach out for the object quite independently of. the will's.consent, and even against the will's command. By that very fact our will is weakened. Concupiscence pulls us toward the tempting object even though we realize that taking it involves sin. We .may "already have reached out to seize it before the mind adverts to what we are doing: And even after the mind does take notice, the enticement still persists, the tug is still felt. We are much less able to resist the allurement than if the Senses were fully under our cohtrol. The will may say, "No!" Sense appetite says, "Yes!" And both will and sense appe- .,.rites. are mine. I am being torn between a higher and a lower good. I can resist, because :my will is still in charge. But often I give up; especially if, the battle is a long one. My will does not resist; I surrender, satisfy my lower craving at the expense of moral good, and so I sin. Adam in the state of original justice would have under-gone no such struggle. His will could simply have said, "No!" The sense appetite would, have straightway obeyed. Indeed, the sense appetite could not have been attracted to the object in the first place without the assent of the will. Therefore'my will is weaker than his; but only because.of the pull of concupiscence. My will, as a natural faculty just in itself, is in no way weakened by original sin. The same is the case with our intellect. Adam had a preternatural gift of infused knowledge. We have not. Therefore our understanding is dark as compared with his, for .his was bathed with divine light. If Adam had not ~inned, he would not have handed on his special, infused gift of knowledge to his descendants. For this knowledge 223 CYRIL VOLLERT Review [or Religious was a personal gift with-vc~ich God eciUipped the~fii~st-man, created.aS he Wasin adulthood in intimate communion with God and with a special office as teacher of the children.he was to beget. ~: ~ ._ ,. ~ - ~ :,~,.- ,~ Adam had, yev other endow, menfs~perfecdnghis intel-lect, Alohg with. the sanctifying grace that~ele~ated him to dupernatural heights went the infused'~virtues, theological and moral. Among these are faith and prudence,., which resided, in his intellect. These'he would h~ve~transmitted: But. he sinhed,~and,so could not. transmit sgnctifying grace and, all 'the:accompanying.gifts. We,~ born without.~sanc-tifying~, grace, begin life deprived of the infused virtues, .includidg " those ,.which would have.equipped ~our minds With a habitual~aptitude for higher truths, In this respect, too, our. minds are defective as com#ared with his before the Eall: . _ ~Bu~-here we must'consider another factor, which is :sel~ dora,well,brought out. In sinning, Adam~ lost, 'besi~h sanctifying grace>~ith its cortege of infused.'virtues, ,th~ preternatural~ gif~s~: of,integrity and immortality. with:~heqos£of, immortality~w_¢nt the loss of impassibility, 6r :immuflitw,.to~sfl.ffering, disease, and death~.,~:~His body was no longer.perfectl~ subject;to his sou.L: ~ ~ From' Adam.weinherit ~bgdies ~bereff of these~ gifts. .Not bnly are we sfibject to 'conCupiscence,~ b6t me-have .,bodies unprot&ted, from ~harm-bythe -g "~ "f t~s~ .:.o.~lm~"m -ortahty and impassibility.,. Ou~. souls are immorthl, ~but tEey ha.re not the' pow&~to i~part., i~mortality to bur bodies. ~us.left ,their nat6ral ~eakness; our bodies easily giveAn, to f~tig~e, .to a thousand different, diseases,',to, the decrepitude of advancing age, .and~:.to dissolution. All. this,,has weighty ~consequences for ~0ur ~no~ledg~ and our (apacity to learn. Obviously~ ,the,pull 0f-c6ncu~iscence,is a tremendous obstacle to the acquisition~of knowledge. Web.have a kin~ 224 ORIGINAL SIN AND EDUCATION ship for the concrete, the. sensible. Higher truths, especially the truths of theology, ,religion, and metaphysics, hav~ -little charm for most people. They waht to know and experience what is pleasant and easy. Whatever has a sur-face interest excites them. The clang of the fire-engine bell~ upsets the class; not only children in third grade but university students, and the professor himself, feel the urge fo rush to the window. Philosophy is hard put to it to rdsist the seduction of the radio. Mathematics runs a poor ~second to.movies. A game of ball in the nearby playground is. more fun than geography or arithmetic. Shakespeare. and Thackeray have less appeal than the funnies. Another important consideration, is the fatigue that goes with thinking. Continuity is essential to study. But the brain soon wearies and seeks distraction. Even under -the most favorable circumstances, sudh as absolute quidt. freedom from interruption, and robust health, mental con- ¯ centration is extremely hard work. We know how right Aristotle was When he remarked, "Learning is'accompanied by pain[" The experience of students is well formulat,ed in a wise man's saying that has passed into a p~overb.: "Knowledge maketh a bloody entrance." But ideal circumstances are rarely granted to us. Leisure for thinking is a luxury. The very necessity of caring for the bbdy's needs takes up the most valuable portion of our time and eneigies. The majority of mankind must spend half or more of each working day in sheer toil for bread~ What leisure is left is without the freshness of mind required for acti,~e thought. -Even when a person has leisure and opportunityfor learning, his bodily condition is often a deterrent to efficient °study. The eye too soon grows dim, and reading has to be rationed. Hayfeve-r, sinus infection, a cdld in the head, the hundrei:l ills that plague mankind, all. militate against the ¯- 225~ CYRIL VOLLERT ~ Revietu /or Religious attention, correlation, and penetration required for ¯ rained.thinking and for the mastery of but a single province of human kno,wledge. ~f~to such bodily distresses we add the emodonal~bias that s~ems froni concupiscence and ,impedes the disinter-ested pursuit of truth, if we take account of the environ-. mental restrictions that, as in Soviet Russia', block access to th~ sources of truth, and if with allthis we mix in the lying propaganda, rooted in selfishness or in bigotry,, that not only closes off truth but teaches error, we can go very far in explaining the darkening of our under~tandin.g that is a result of original sire , Truly, our ability to gain knowl-edge is grievo.usly inferior to that of Adam when, before he rejected God's grace, he was shielded from all these evils by his preternatural gifts of immunity to concupiscence, suf-f~ iing, and bodily dissolution. But our natural faculty of intellect was in no way intrinsically injured by original sin. Our intellect and our will are the same now, considered as purely natural perfec.-' tions, as they would have been if Adam had handed down to-us original justice instead, of original sin. Our intellec-trialand volitional inferiority results from our lack of the preternatural gifts that would have removed all obstacles to their perfect functioning. Such is the teaching of all front, rank theologians, a teaching based on their study of revelation. The punish-ment of original sin, St. Thomas notes, is restricted to the withholding of the supernatur;il goods gi:anted by God to. our first father-for transmission to his posterity.1 ~ Su;irez agrees with Aquinas: The common and true doctrine is that the powers of man or of his free will, rhgarded from the standpoint of the perfection they would ha~,e had in the state of pure nature, were not diminished in iCompendium Theologiae, 1 226 Julg, 1946 ORIGINAL SIN AND EDUCXTION fallen nature by original sin; they are inferior only when compare~' wxth the strength and integrity conferred on them by original jus-rice. -~ - St. Robert Bellarmine teaches the same doctrine: The corruption of nature resulted not from the lack of any natural gift, nor from the presence of any" evil quality, but from the . sole loss, owing to Ada~'s~sin, Bf the supernatural endowment.8 Thus the raw material of our educational endeavors is ~the boy or girl, the young, man or woman, with intelle'ct and will essentially unimpaired on the natural plaiae. Our aim in education should be to develop this goo,d natural equipment and to transfigure it with all the super-h~ itural ,goods Christ has given to the Church for t.he benefit of His brethren. Revelation, the Church, the sacraments, ~sanctifying grace,'the infused virtues and. actual graces and all that the Church_disp0ses of for building up the body of Christ must raise and0perfect the souli of men together with their" faculties, xspecially their powers of inteIlect and wiff. The proximate purpose of our educational work must be to train.the youth entrusted to us so to master thdmselves that, within ~he. supernatu0ral sphdre to which they have been re-elevated by Christ, they may pumue the Truth which is God, and embrace the Good, which is also God. The closest possible approxim:ition to the original in.tegrity must be the goal to which we lead our limping, students. This is no mean ambition for those whose life'long voca-tion lies in the classroom and on the campus. The same goal.is the one we religious propose to reach in our own self,education. But in addition to the bottom-less treasury of graces open to all Catholics, we enjoy,'in" our ascetical striv~ings, certain freedoms that can bring us much closer to the original freedom Adam had. Our privi-lege js brought home to us by the matchless,champion who ~DO gratia, prol. 4, c. 8, n. 5. 8De gratia primi hominis, . 5. 227 CYRIl., VOLLERT -upheld t~ae greatness of the religiot~s state against pertly attackers of his day~ ¯ The exercise of perfection requires that a person 'd6 away witl~ whate~'er can impede him from directing his affections wholly to God; ¯ for in~this consists the perfection of charity. There are'three obstacles of this sort. T14e first is the desire for external good£ This' is removed by the vow of poverty. The"second is the proclivity for pleasures of sense, among which lustful delight isthe keenest., This is surmounted by the vow ol~ chastity, The third obstacle is the deordination of th~ human will. And this.is corrected by,the,vow of " obedience.4 Thus with intellect and will intrinsically good and unspoiled in their natural soundness by original sin, we C~n with Ggd's grace'overc0me all hindrances and eventually make ou~r .own, in limited degree, the perfection of tl~e sec-. ond Ad:;m, J~sus Christ. We cannot, indeed, ever in this" life attain to the integrity of original justice; Christ did0not ~ restore that extraordinary privilege to redeemed man: ~ BuS as brothers and sisters of the God-man, or truer still, as living members of His body, we can get closer to the second ~dam, and therefore closer to God, 'than the first Adam was ~ in his primeval innocence. And so our last state can .be better ~han the first. ~ '~St.'Thomas, 8umraa, II-Ilae, q. 186, a. 7. A TIMELY PAMPHLET~ ':The Guide Posts of the Almighty to Perma~ient Industrial,Peace" presents a "plea for .the Ten Commandments as the only solid basis for lasting peace, industrial and international. The section which describes the rights and dutie~ of 'labor and management is particularly"excellent. Every emp!oyer and every laborer might well read this with profit. The pamphlet is from the pen of the Most Rev. Richard J. Cushin.g, D.D., Archbishop og Boston, and is published by the Radio Re151ies Press, St. Paul, ,Minnesota. Price: I0 cents. ~ 228 Concerning Dis :ra t:ions Charles F~ Donovan, S.d. THERE is an aspiration which I should like torecom-mend; yet I fear it might be misunderstood. It is: "Jesus, be my distraction." Now distractions are bad, they are sappers of spiritual energy, things to be avoided. And obviouslq we' do not intend to couple the name of Jesus with anything evil. But. there are certain characteristics of distractions which would be worthwhile if transferred to the thought of Our Lord, namely, their persistence, their fascination,.and their seeming ubiquity. It is these qual{- ties ofdistractions I have in mind when I say, '"3esus, be my distraction," which is a brief way of saying, ",lesus, be the magnet of my mind, the channel of my thoughts, the theme of my day from task ~o'task; when dut.y of any sort commands the center of the stage, lurk in the wings of my heart, and the moment I pause, the moment I am free ~et the spotlight of my soul rest on You alone." Every day at Ma~s the priest exhorts us, "'Sursttm corda'" (Lift up your hearts). And we respond,"Habemus ad Dorninurn'" (We have them lifted up to the. Lord). This lifting we reaflifm daily is not our passive elevation by God to the state of grace. When we receive grace,~Christ stoops and does the lifting. Yet even with grace we may remair~ earth-bound and inert. The lifting w~e profess when we say. "'Sursurn corda'" is an active elevation, our cooperation with Christ, an ~ffort to use His grace to meet Him on His own level. As Dora Augustine Baker puts it in the 'vigorous English of Shakespeare's time, we mean the "forced but very facile elevations of the will, that bluntly or blindly heaves itself up towards God." We-heave ourselves in spirit 229 CHARLES F. DONOVAN Review for Religious towards God in hope and love and joy. A distraction-, therefore, is truly a fail--not necessariI~ a fall in the sense of sin, btit a descent from the heights of communion with Christ. If we are habitually distracted we really should answer the priest, "'Habemus ad humum'" (Our hearts are fixed on the earth, on dust, on our own level). There is a fervor, a preoccupation with God which in the face of a present and pressing tluty, like signing checks or making out report cards, could be called a distraction. Some of the saints have been "bothered" by such distrac-tions. Saint Ignatius, 'for instance, sometimes had to be dispensed' from reading the Office because during it he would experience ecstasy and thus be kept from other daily business. Saint Teresa was often afraid to think of God, lest she experience some divine visitation that wquld interfere ~vith her work or embarrass her in public. BUt most of us need have no worry about such piotis distrac-tions. It is not often the thought 6t? God-that makes us' shabby workers. Our trouble is generally not that prayer keeps us from mundane things but that mundane things keep us from prayer. Our mind-wandering tends to be from God to creatures, the kind of distraction to wh{cb that religious referred who complained, with healthy self-criticism, that his new superior conducted-such prolonged ~zisits at chapel after meals that he ran out of distractions and had to' pi~ay. Now if we really have .our hearts lifted ad Dominum, if our habitual tendency and spontaneous impulse is to think of Jesus, then distraction in prayer becomes not impossible, but at least unpleasant and of slight Spiritual d~nger, like a ¯ fly buzzing around our prie-dieu. There are also distractions whicb occur all day !ong even in non-prayer time, but which don't actually keep us from our work. These are, therefore, rather potential thah 230 July, 1946 CONCERNING DIS, TRACTIONSj real distractions. Theyare our worries, our enthusiasms, our pet interests, the things which are just outside the. focus of our attention or just below the surface of consciousness, to whichthe mind tends to revert over and over dttring the day. If these concerns, these potential distractions,-are intense, the person who has them is said to be preoccupied or to "have something on the mind." Wouldn't it be won-derful if we were so intimate with Our Lord that we could be said to have Jesus on our mind? Of course, that is the ambition of all religious, to be so in love with Our Lord that He is our dominfint interest, our hobby, the object of . our ardent enthusiasm, our companion day and l~ight. Finally, there are the distractions which we seek, favor-ire" topics to which we let: our mind lazily turn in moments of relaxation, familiar themes which we find congenial and. particularly helpful when we are trying to get to sleep. The subjects that we choose for such distractions are indicative of our spiritual health. _The old saying, "Tell me~ whom you, go with and I'll tell you what you are," is applicable to mental as well as to persgnal companions. If wespon-taneously- turn to worldly thoughts, then we a.r.e very probabl); worldly ourselves. If our favorite reveries are spiritual, our character is most likely spiritual. Habitual 'and sought distractions, the recurrent musings of our idle moments, can be of tremendous influehce in our - spiritual lives. They not only indicate character; they also form character and spiritual taste. Wl~at we think ofand enjoy thinking of~when we are free, when the rule is not directing us, and the choice of mental occupation is up to ourselves, both manifests and shapes the inner self., These chosen reveries can be the occasion when temptation is most .likely to assail us. They can be little secret escapes from the cloister and from the spirit of religious life. Therefore it is of first importance that we cultivate lofty and holy 231 CH'ARLES F. DONOVAN mental companionships so that our idle moments will be in keeping with the tone of our religi0,us profession and will strengthen rather than dissipate our religious spirit. As ~ Kempis says (Bk.iii, ch.58)~ "That cometh in'to my mind which by custom pleaseth me best to think upon: and where my thought is accustomed to be, there is that which'~I love." What nobler~ theme, what~holief com-panion gould we have for our unpres~ribed and effortless meditations than Our Lord Jesus Christ? Wouldn:t we be in a blissful state of spiritual perfection if~. during the day's work we looked forward eagerly to those moments of rest, especially the moments ~ before sleep, when-we would be able to think easily and lovingly of. ,lesus, and say with the poetess, "I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart?" In Case You Donq: Know It-- The Catechetical Guild Educational Society publishes a first-class magazine entitled Catholic Youth. $1.50 per year, for ten issues: 15" cents pet"copy; quantity rates to ~chools and churches on r~quest. Write to: CatholicLYouth, 128 E. Tenth Street, Saint Paul. I" Min-nesota. Another Catechetical Guild project is Post-Reporter, Catholic Youth's own newspaper. It is published every second Monday during the school year. $1.00 for full school year; 5 cents for single copies: bulk rates on application. ¯ Address, as above. The Dominicari Fathers~'of the Province of St. Albert tile Great publish The Young Dominican for the benefit of young men~ho aspire, to become Dominican students. The paper is attractive and informative. Copies are sent.on request. Address requests to Brother Bede's Mail Box, Dominican House of Studies, River Forest, Illinois. The Missignar~r 'Sisters of Mother of God recently began publi-cation of The.Ark, "a. monthly periodica, l devdted to ecclesiastical and' cultural affairs, p~rticulaidy Of Eastern Rites." "Subscription: $2.00 per year; 25 cents per copy. 232 Sain : Appeared Clement J. McNaspy, S.J, AM WRITING this just after giving Holy Commumon in.one.0f the.'most favored and sacred spots in our coun-try. It is the nearby convent infirmary. .The com-municant was a lay sister of the Religious of the Sacre'~d Heart. I don't know her name. The convent is .really c~alled the College of the Sacred Heart; it is located in Grind Coteau, Louisiana. If you have never heard of Grand Coteau, let me assure you.that it is one ~f the least worldly villages anywhere. T.here is no motion picture in town. There is not even a chamber of commerce. A stranger would probably~call it a "sleepy" town. Yet few towns in the United States have known such spiritual activity. For one. thing, Grand Coteau boasts a retreat house where the spiritual, exercises are made almost weekly by sizable groups of laymen. There is too a desuit-novitiate within the city limith; and no ridigious need be tol~l that a novitiate can hardly be called a "sleepy" place, especially at recreation time. But Grand ,Cot ea 'u s c.laim to. veneratioo goes far .beyond this. o As you ~drive'along Louisiana. Highway No; 5 toward the. outskirts of the village of Sunset, you are sta~rtled by a garish-(fortunately, somewhat fadi'ng) 'placard: National Shrine, Saint A15peared Twice." ~An'd the sign points to Grand Coteau.,Jhidden beneath pines and oaks and moss, one mile north of the highway. -l~his gives away Grand Coteau's secret. One of the very few first-class miracles performed in the United Sta~es and officially accei0ted by the Church took place th.ere, in ¯ that very infirmary where I w.as just privileged to gi~re 233 CLEMENT J. MCNASPY Review for Religious Holy Communion. No, the miracle didn't happen yester-day. Yet o'nly a few weeks a~o we buried ninety-six year old "Tante Yomme," who when in school at'the convent had been a witness of the miracle, the last surviving wit-ness. Besides, private archives have a way of annihilatink even decades of years; and the kindness of Reverend Mother Superior of th~ College of the Sacred Heart has put into my hands these treasured documents, original affidavits and first hand descriptions. It is engaging to read among them Sister Mary Wil-son's personal account: how she was cured of~a disease diagnosed as incurable. There glo.w warmth and imme-diacy in the young novice'-s story. She hurries along, ingenuously, simply, impatient of conventional syntax and punctuation, not even careful to sound completely consist-ent. Here are her own words, as copied from the document heretofore unpub!ished.1 Tie very next day (December 10, 1866) I was worse than I had ever been before up to that time, all hope of getting better abandoned me; I felt getting weaker and my sufferings were so intolerable that it seemed to me that it was impossible to bear them long--Given up by the Doctor I disposed myself to receive the.Holy Viaticum this was oix the 10th of December and on the llth the Father gave me the - last Plenary Ifidulgence. One of our dear Mothers brought me a picture of Blessed Berch-marts on~the 6th and said that the community was going to make another Novena to Blessed BerchmansI looked at Mother and in my incredulity asked her, if there was any other saint left that they had not already importuned; for my dear Mothers and Sisters had already made so many novenas that I thought neither God nor the Saints were willing to confer any favor upon me ". I do not think I had eaten an, ounce of food for about forty days, during that time I had taken nothing but a little Coffee or ,tea which" for a week before I recovered, I could no longer take; and for two weeks no medicines had been administered--the Doctor said 1To facilitate reading, dashes have been inserted in the text. 1946 "SAINT APPEARED TW~rCE'' it was useless 'to torture me more so he stopped giving me any; the last two days I was unable to swallow even a drop of water . ¯ Owing to the condition of my mouth and fongue it was greatly feared I would not be able to swallow the Sacred Host--the Father therefore gave me but a sm~ill particle~it was with great difficulty that I could receive even this; the Father perceiving it remained b~; my bed,side with ciborium in hand until he had the perfect assurance that I had swallowed it,~this however could only be affected by means of a teaspoonful of water, and attended by. intense palm Being Unable to speak I said in my heart: "Lord, Thou who seest how much I suffer if it .be for your honor and glory, and the salvation of my soul I ask through the intercession of Blessed Berch-mans a little relief and health, otherwise give me patience to suffer to the end, I am resigned"--then placing the. image of Blessed Berch-mans on my mouth, I said: "if it be true that you can work miracles, I wish you would do something for r~e,--if not I will not believe in you. ~I can say without s~cruple or fear of offen'ding God, I heard a voice whisper: '~Open your mouth." I do so as well as I felt some one put as it were their finger on my tongue and immed~ ately I was re|ieved. "I then heard a voice say in a distinct and loud tone: "Sister, you will get the desired habit, be faithful, have confi-dence, fear not!" I had not yet opened my eyes, I did not know who was by my bedside I turned around and said aloud: "but Mother Moran I am well"--then standing by my bedside I saw a figure he held in his hand a cup, and there was some lights burning near him--at this beautiful sight I was afraid--I closed my eyes and asked: "is it Blessed Berchmans", He answered: "Yes, I come by the order of God, your sufferings are over, fear not !" I opened my eyes but he was gone. The Sister infirmarian had gone down to the chapel to receive Holy Communion. I sat up in the bed I felt no pain. I was afraid it was an illusion and that my cure was not real--I turned over and over in the bed but without pain--I then exclaimed: "It is true, Blessed Berchmans has cured me." , The Sister infirmarian soon returned from the Chapel and made her'act of thanksgiving before a little altar in the, infirmary. I did not speak to her: in about three quarters of an hour Mother Superior came in to see me, fearing at the same time to find me in the agonies of death,--but what was not her great surprise when she met my eyes which had not been opened for six days and heard me wish 235 CLEMEN'T J. MCNASPY Review ?or Religious her good morning. Mother in utter amazement drew back and exclaimed: "and what, those eyes!" then s~eing my mouth perfectly healed.she added: "that mouth!" On and on, page after page, Sister Mary Wilson details her dreadful illness, how the doctors had given .up ,hope, and the aftermath of her cure. Equally impressive, also in these archives, are the sworn accounts of D~octors James G. Campbell and Edward Millard, both.of whom certify, in stolid.professional language, to the miraculo~us cure. Dr. Millard concludes in these words: N(~t being able to discoveb any marks of convalescence, but an immediate r'eturr~ to health from a most sever~ and painful illness, I am unable to explain the transition by any ordinary natural laws. I hereby declare under the sanctity of.my oath that the above state-ment, according to the~best of my knowledge and belief is entirely true. (Sig1~ed) Ed. M. Millard. M.D., Grand Coteau, La., Feb. 4th, 1867. Sister Wilson's close friend, Mother Moran, has for-tunately also left ah eyewitness account. Her sisterly sympathy for the young postulant so .eager to receive the habit is felt as we read along: ' Wednesday evening, Miss Wilson asked me if it was night; for her eyes being continually closed, she could not distinguish' between night and day.On hearing my answer, she rejoined: "I never more expect to see the l.ight of day. I cannot pbssibly endure such suffering much longer." - She then with perfect composure gave me several commissions, requesting me t~ attend to their execution after her death; she expressed her lfiappiness in dying at the Sacred Heart (Convent), and entrusted me with the expressing of her thanks for all her Mothers and Sisters from whom, she said, she had received so many p~oofs of affection and tender charity. Her weakness was so great, that-her voice was scarcely audible, and she spoke with such difficulty that it required over an hour to articulate these few" words. Next morning I was surprised to fintl her still living: this day, Thursday,. certainly surpassed all that had preceded, in the intensity-of pain; her half opened mouth displaying a tongue swollen, inflamed and raw, gums and teeth all 'clotted with black corrupted 'blood, 236 "SAINT APPEARED TWICE" excited an involuntary sensation of horror followed by a deeper ,senti-ment of the most. tender compassion in every one. who saw her in this condition. Mother Moran goes on to tell how exulta~ntly Sister Wilson leaped from what was thought her deathbed, and she reports the physician's reaction when he ~ame to visit his dying patient: Not being able to assign any natural ~ause capable of producing such an effect, .he several times repeated: '~Really, Miss Mary, I can-not understand it! But one thing is certain, if you recover, it is cer-tainly' not to medicine or to my care that you are to attribute your cure." - Among other interesting documents from the convent archives are the-sworn testimonies of Fathers Nachon, Benausse, and Serra, all from th~ nearby. Jesuit college, who had assisted the postulan.t with the last sacraments. Each of these Fathers writes in his own hand, in a personal way, with distinct individual touches. As you read along you wonder if they thofight it odd of Blessed John Berchmans to by-pass his own brethren's house to appear in a neigh-bo~ ing community. If they felt sensitive on this point they surely show no-indication of it: in fact, they seem almost proud that the Blessed had chosen one of their spir-itual charges to work perhaps his greatest miracle. More arresting, probalSly because less technical and formal, is a letter from Father Na~hon to a. Miss M~ry Perry, who would seem to be a non-Catholic. Writing enthusiastically just four dfiys filter the miracle, the~Father tells ~f tlqe fl~ry ~tirred up fill around Grarld Coteau~ ~The moral that he draws is~ possibly .l~ss significant in ourbwn. claywhen Loubdes and Fatima are so widely talked about. He writes: You see, child, that the time of miracles is not entirely passed away. There is nothing astonishing for us Catholics, since we know that~the saints are powerf.ul with God and that nothing is impos- 237 CLEMENT J. MCNASPY sible to God. We may rejoice it has happened amongst us because it excites us to devotion, and contributes to. animate our faith. No wonder that the Archbishop of New Orleans immediately started canonical proceedings to investigate the miracle.' Rome moves proverbially slowly, l~ut after tire-less probing and cross-examination the Church was at length satisfied and set its seal of approval on 'the mirac~- lous healing. It was officially accepted for the canonization of the young Blessed; who henceforth is' thought of as peculiarly belonging to Grand Coteau. For generations now the citizens of the little village have simply taken their privilege for granted. They are not at ali surprised that Heaven should have chosen Grand Coteau to break through to earth. And visitors usually make just that comment. For there are visitors to Grand Coteau, even though no one pushes publicity. Thereare the devoted alumnae who return to dear "Coteau" to see favorit~e old teachers or justthe hallowed, tastily land-scaped grounds. Students of the modern college, and academy attract relatives'and friends. And often enough devotees of azaleas, live-oaks, or Acadian lore are drawn to Grand Coteau. All these, quite naturally, spend some time in prayer in the infirmary. Periodically a .group of" retreatants from the retreat house will also come, and once a year the Jesuit novices and scholastics pay a pilgrimage of homage to their young con-frere. "The small room where the apparition took place has been cony6rted iiato a tiny chapel dedicated to St. John Berchmans. Onl~ two quiet mu~al~ and a notice placed where.the Saint stood remind one that this is one of Ameri-ca's treasUred shrines. "° " ,238 , A Pla°n of.Sei -denial Wi!:hin :he Reach of All Robert B. Eiten, S.J~ ~N ~CATHOLIC LIFE the principle of self-denial holds ~an important place. Yet it is a fact known to all that in i?his~ matter of self-denial there is danger of going to extremes--of failing either by defect or by excess. Those :who are too ,easy on themselves practically exclude the likelihood or even the possibility Of their reaching high perfection.; they go against the injunctions of Our Lo~d and the Chur.ch, and they oppose the common teaching .of ascetic writers. On the other hand, those who overstep their powers and go to the other extreme run the risk of broken health, shattered nerves, and even the loss of vocation. These latte} try to follow a special path without a special c,all; with only ordinary g.races at their dispoiaI they try to follow a way of life that is possible only with .e~xtraordinary grace. There havd tJeen, and there are, souls who have a special vocation to continuous heroic mortifica-tion and even vOluntarily-sought sufferings. These souls need" particular guidance; what we say here is not for them. But concerning those souls--whether priests, religious, or lay peoplemwho Seek high perfection with the aid, at least normally, of only ordinary graces, one might ask.: What~measure "of self~denial and mortification is to be expected of~ them? The answer to this question is~ con-tained in the following program. 1. To begin with, a large number of acts qf-self, abnega,ti0n and mortification can be practiced by ca?~fullg observing the Commandments, thelaws of the Church, and 239 ROBERT B. EITEN for Religious the duties of our state of life includiag the rules and customs of_our religious institute; and by patientl~l bearing those sufferings which a life of carff, ul and reasonable fidelity to grace imposes on us. This does not mean that one will never slip here and there;, for to observe peffectt~l over a long period of time the rules of at least some religious insti-tutes requires special graces over and above the ordinar!l or~es.~, It is well for religious to remember that this is no small program; for a careful observance of the rules makes. great demands in the matter.of self-effacement and morti-fication. St. 3ohn Berchmans declared that the common life was his greatest mortification. 2. Many sufferings, hardships, sorrows, and denials come to us in the ordinary pro.vidence of God. Some~times Divine Providence makes great demands. This was the case during Wokld War II when many, besides sufferingth~ loss of dear ones, had to er~dure such things as destruction of property, poor wages, nearly impossible rationing limi-tations, and so on. It is clearly the will of God that we bear such sufferings at least without complaint, and patiently. Sufferings of this kind may come to us from queer, sorts of cau.ses, cond.itions,, a~nd occasions. They~ .m~,ay come from superiqrs.,I from e~quals,, o.r frominferio, rs; from.t,he i~justice and frqm the justic~e of. others; from ,the sins, o.r.even from the generous but tastl~ss cha~rit, y of°others; or from inani-mate. creation, as~ ~n, othe cas~ "of bad Weather, t~ornadoes, floods, and so fbrth. 3: The, well-estab!ish.e~l and reasonable c.onventions, of polite society which make for proper refinement;~etiquette, ci~lture, neatness, and general social decency, algo provide 1Obviously the fact that we might be assisted only by ordinary graces should never be a pretext for carelessness in observing our rules. Thus we must seriously apply ourselves to their observance as far as we can and ask.God for the h~elp needed tO observe them perfectly. 240 _ '." ~JuJv, 194~5 ~ ~ ~ A PLAi~I OF.SELF-DENIAL~ ~ ~_ ~mucb material for self-abnegation and restraint. We, ought -~to respect these conventions" i'n a spirit of love" of the neigh-bor for the love :of,God since-these things make'life more ~ livable. Theie is r;o reason why their observance cannot-be ~upernaturali~ed. Included here are, such-things as table _ .manners, which should be exquisitely delicate but Without _.affectation; deanlinehs and neatness about our person,. office,- and room; .proper restraint in both the quality and.~ oquant~tg of' food; proper deference shown towards certain /persons.by reason of their age, sex, and rank;~ politeness and the avoidance of all vulg~arity; and, in general,, restraint in our conversation. "- Here it is well to include the mortification involved correcting deflects of disposition" and character. These -('&fects make Us deficient and negligent in the performance . our,duties and their are annoying to others. Slipshod .work, absent-mindedness, failure to return things, frequent boast" fulness, sarcastic language, a ~failure to keep appointments, "all are examples of the defects here referred to. In brief, we should always be and act the perfect, cultured Christian~ gentleman. We may well keep in mind St. Anthony'.s saying_that a saint would be-at home in any society. Such. deportment too (to dwell on another point casually) would be an effective means of fostering and getting voca, tions, oY°Ung people would be fascinated by what they. see -in us and would want to share with us that life which seems _to bring with oit, as it should, such refinement, culture, and fine iense .of propriety. ~ 4. Besides the foregoing instances of the cross which, ° wd~might say, are imposed upon us, there still remain mor~ ~tificati0ns and sufferings which we freely impose on our-~ Selves. ~ In other words they are entirety-voluntary, ~vith-" ' out° any obligation of i~recept or necessity~ All founders ROBERT B. EITEN ~-°-~ " ' Reti~ew for Religious; -of tel.i~i6us orders and all great spiritual~ writers, agree that voluntary penances are in some way an essential element of serious" tending towgrds perfection. Besides-the exercise humility and the cross, these v~oluntar~r penances prsvide,.~ for the.exercise of other virtues. o True, these voluntary mortifications must be practiced° prudently .and under the directi6n of the superior or of a goqd spiritua~l director. Norm.ally we should not, orat least need not; wait for them to propose what v61untary mortifications are to be practiced. Usually such things as ¯-spiritual attractions, reading, the insi)irations of gra~e, and~ so forth will suggest to us what might be done. After thiriking over the matter seriously, we propose, to .our. superiors or spiritual directors what vol~untary mortifica~ tions we .would like to practice. We then follow out their directions. This obedience will protect us against excesses ",in ~ith~r direction. Of course.no one needs permission to practice any of the mortifications mentioned or suggested under No. 3~ above.~ In spite of all the safeguards provided,by consulting,, and following the advice of superiors and spiritual diiectors in this matter, there remain sd,me obscurity and uncertainty - as to what and bow much voluntary mortifica.tion should ¯ be undertakenl An excellent practice might be, perhaps~. to,ask God to. send us in His providence those physical and , mental sufferings which are proper to help us reach.tl'iat~ d~gree o~ perfection to which He has called us. Such a request, if it is sincere, includes the firm resolve to conform ~ourselv~s to His will in all sufferings and hardships__w~hich He-may fiend us. ' 5. Fi~nally, it is not too much to expect fervent souls to, have at least the desire to .desire affronts, humiliationk re~'roaches, misunderstandings, and so forth. A better, dis- positidn:wouldbe to d~slre, tolong for, and to love thes~;~: ver~ things just to be like Qbrist and to help Him mo~e~" ~ffectively in the great workof the redemption. : However . ~ofi"hcco~nt of human misery and frailt~ a soul might.not these ~eneroOs dispositions. If' one has, howeqer, the'desire_to desire these things, he is by that very .disp0si-tion ~rep.aring himself for an actual desir~ and love of. :~ffronts, humiii~tions, and.so on. 7 " Here we might add that souls ought to try to mairftain a ~pi~i~ of cheerfulness in all circumstances of life; whether -'these be e'asy to bear Or very tr~ring. S. uch a spirivadds much, me~it ~and abnegation to mortifications alrea'dy practi, ced. 'A~nd how such a c6nstaht cheerfulness impresses others f, or. the better! To be cheerful at all times're~u~ires gr.eat abne-gation- anal perhaps at times a special grace.Well mi.ght We, ask,God to give us this .grace. ,,:o ~ The t~oreg~ing program of self-denied seems to be pos-sible for all. No one-will ~oncede that- it is an easy one; ~and, yet no' one can Say that it is impossible. It is sweetly: r_easonablg, not violent; yet it will make us like Christ ~Crfi~ified and will make us active collaborators with Him in the g.reat work of the redemption. '~?' P~erh£ps someone, may ask why nothing has been said~ ,.~bout gictim souls, that is, souls who offer themselves and their whole lives with all the sufferings, ti:ials, humilia-tions, mortifications, and so forth contained:therein to Gbd ::.~":jus~ as Christ did upon His entrance into the~ world °-(.~f: Hebrews 10: 5-10.) By. way of reply we may say that: souls who feel themselves supernaturally" urged to ~:his kind of offering, may follow si~ch an urge. Obviously tl~e motive for so doin~ may vary. ,It might, for example be to offer self for the' same intentions that .Christ had; or tb fill':up in one own s flesh~ what is wanting in C.hnstos ¯ o - . 243 ~ROBERT B,~ EI~TEN = ,~, ~ pfission~ fOr"~the Church.-- f.~Colos~sians 1 : 24~ 5 : Thi~--- ~victim-life, th~s.3pds(Slgte-of the cross and suffe)~ag; i~ ¯ grand:vocation., It does not, however, n~cessarilg in~olve~. any more moriifica~ions tha~ tBose~ we have ~mentioned,butT only gives special force to the ~o~i)e f6~ beating them:. _ If however there is question of a victim-sohl in the limited sensd that is, of one who_ ~sks for exceptional ~uffe)i.ng, what should be done? .No~ally,~one should~ not ~.permitt~d to makesuch'a request for-sufferi~g,~asq~ -may show a lack of humility and can emily lead to illu- ~s~ons( But if it is clear that an-individaal-has a special vocation for this type of life, then such a one should fi~stbe thoroughly,t~sted. After suNcient p~oof of the call to such a l'ife of ~uffering, the soul may offer itself to God in this very cult vocation. ~ ' "' " Let us hope that the abov~ Pr9grhm wiil clarify -'t}rs,fo~ us and that we.may "by the mercy of God"~present :our '"~odies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto"God; ~0fir] re~sonable service" (Romans 12;, 1).= . ~I am 'much indebted to De Smedt (NOtre vie surnaturelle, volume 2, "pp.~472 252) not only for much of the ~aterial- found here but also in some wag fdi~the i~spiiation to write this article. ~ -~ .APP[AL5 FOR VOCATIONS ~ .~ ~he following vocation folders and pamphlets rely chiefly on excelle~t and well cffosen photographs to make their appeal: Modern Samaritans, from the NoVitiate "df~ the Alexian Brothers. Clayto~. Missouri: How about gou? (an appeal t~pros~ pective ~riest candidates) and Co~e In (an appeal for fay. Brothers), b6th from "~th~ Dominican House of Studies. River Forest, Illinois:'A Life to Give, from th~ Sisters of St. Casimir, 26.01 W. Marquette Road, Chicagq 29, Illinois: Dominican Sisters: St. Marg o~ the Springs, from the Novitiate.-St. Mary 6f tile Springs, Columbus 3. Ohio;Whg a Hospital Sister? by Rev. Dr. L. Rumble. M.S.C., fiom Radio Reply Press, St. Paul, Minnesota. * Our Ladg's Fz, ends, by Rev. Ju~ Senieur, O.F.M.Cap., describes the work t~e R~gina ~leri Society for the spiritual and financial suppprt of priestly and reli-'~ gious vocations. It. is .published by the Catholic Uni4ersity Cofiference of-Clerics and Religmus. C.S.M.G,, Cathohc Umverslty, Washmgtqn 17, D. C.~ . :~ '-- " 244 - "~,HE visitor,~a gray-hai~ed alumnlus of th~ college~, ~was [~, movifi~ about the° crowded recreation room o[ the faculty" friars, greetirig old acquaintances and ~aking new ones. He approached a card table where, over unfin-ish~ ed pinochle, three.~ unfamiliar friars stood awaiting him. "Tom Casey, class of '13," he ~smiled brgadly, hand extended. "Onesimus," .smiled back the first. "Eleuthe[ rius," smiled back the second. "Symphorianus, smiled the third. And albeit no stranger to Franciscan-phenomena. Tom Casey, class of '13, blinked hard and made a que4~r frog-like noise in°theback of his throat. "Where do you peo131e[get those names?'" he dazedly wondered. Here were names not found.~ven in his prayey-book Litany of the~Saints-though .surely there are enough odd ones in that long list! NOr had he ever, iffal[his long years and his wide travels, encountered those names among the living. If~the~y reminded him~of anything~subsolar at all, it:wa~ of Pullman sleeping cars---or of the Latin play in hi~:.4ophbfiiore year:~or of just" plain "printer's pie:' '~ What a downright shame, his meditation concluded, that nbr~ m~il"youhg men, oprobably christened :John, Wflham, Pat-rick; should now have to confront mankind as Oneslmus, "Eleutherlus, Symphorianus! -~ ~" Undoubtedly,~the religious n~mes of many of~us~d6 ~starfli~ the si~cular eai. They may at first hav~ ~tarfiede v~e ~n our ~own. Wi~: i~robably had "h.oped for something, con[ ventio~al; but the superior, with the finality"~of Z~icl-Jar~, siinply ~declared, "This is hi~ (or her)" r/am'e," and uttered bizarre syllables. A'ndothat was'that. Or, if permitted to CLAUDE KEAN Review for Religious choose our names, we probably found the community's nomenclature as depleted as Kresge counters at closing time on Christmas Eve; and what we got was what all earlier customers hadjudiciously foregone. So the names that many ,of us bear are admittedly unusual. Are they, therefore, absurd? Or may it not be that, compared with the proper names of many layfolk (names which were selected from unrestricted possibilities), our abnormal names are actually quite normal? or oub apparently mean-ingless names are at least relatively, fraught with remark-ab, le significance? From stray evidence now and then I have long sus-pected that the answer lies in our favor. From a half-hour of recent research, I now know for certain that it does. The "research" consisted in a mere scanning of proper names in the.telephone book of a representative eastern clty of the United States. Under the A alone, I found a hundred proper names, male and female, much morfi extravagant than any ever imparted to friar or monk or Sister¯ or Brother. ' To be specific, who. of us, even though destine~dot9 teach geography, is named Maryland, .or Virginia,; 6r,Columbia, or Dallas; or St,aten, or~ Reno? O~who of u~, e,ve ~n~th0.u.gh a ngt,ed nature-lover,. ~ . .bears the. name of Fern,~.~,or,Ivy, or Myrtle, or Reed, or. Violet, or, Daisy,~ or Pansy?., ~ Or ,who of .us, e.ven,thgugh avowedly interested in the classic, long,ago," wears toga-like the name of Homer, or Ca.to, or ~.~Virgil, or Caesar, or th~ myrtle-laden name of Phoebe, or Penelope, or Vesta? Or what choleric character among us is openly known as'Hasty?--what phlegmatic as Tranqu.ilisim~?-- what cynical as Burr?mwhat loquacious as Verba or Vow, els? Yet, as the telephone book plainly attests, laymen who possess these given names do walk and breathe, 246 SPEAKING OF NAMES A few names that occur-under theosame letter A savor of surrealism: Bushrod,.Hedgecomb, Hunk, Whip. Others would seem to suggest endearment: A1icebelle, Birdie, Bowie, Dernie, Goldie, Hommey,-Libby," Shorey, Sibbie, Trudie, Wadie. A sizeable percentage looks yearningly,- though uncertainly, towards the glory that,was Rome and the grandeur that was Greece: Aetha, Al"eathea, Cleora, C1evius, Euna, Iola, Lathena, Lesbia, Nova, Orpha, Thea. Several others walk in veiled oriental mystery: Arsinoe, Bayan, Desma, Zelma, Zetta. There is something of a faded Elizabethan charm in Clift, Bourne, Dell, Teare; and something suggestive Of remote constellations yet undiscovered in Arie, Angrous, Elsir, Louv~enia, Norment, Ord, Sigrid. The rest, howeyer symbolic, are not ~iuite clear in their allusions, and must be listed as mere vocables: Alonda, Armeita, Awillda, Beekman, Belva; Buxton," Demleta, Ena, Grice, Kermit, Lola, Lona, Lora, Ponten-ciano, Reta, Rulloda, Velma, Wilda, Worth. Now, it is no concern of mine--apart from the admin-istration of baptismmwhat names people bestow upon 'their offspring. In the exercise' of American freedom of expression, they may even, if they so wish, prefer numbers to names. (Ripley discovered not long ago anAmerican youth with the proper name of "Eleven."). Nor-do I in the least imply that odd names denote odd characters, that "that which we do call a rose by any other word would" not "smell as sweet." My sole contention is that, as mere~ alphabetization, the secular nomenclature equals in singu-larity, and .frequently even excels, the religious. And ~he Bell Telephgn¢ Company is. my star witness. But names are more than vocables: they are symbols. And the modern secular trend in names indicates the com-plete secularization of modern thought. Gone now are 247 CUAUDE KEAN Review/:or .Religious the.days~when~ the-names of~_men-=:as well as of the,ships they° sailed,and the ,new lands they discovered--were drawn from the rich vocabulary ~of Catholk,Faith. Gone,~ too, for the most part, are the days when devout Protestants turned to their Bibes in search of worthy nami~s for their newborn. In an age turned materialistic, men are more and mor'e taking ~their names not from God's great, but~from the:world;s great: from poets and philosophers of, a~cient Rome and Greece;. from~literati~urs of later eras (my tele: phone~ list includes Milton, Addison, Scott, Emerson, Haw-thorne~) ; from .modern scientists, like Burbaiak and Edison, and modern statesmen, like Roose~celt and Churchill. ° In even'.m6re articulate expressionof, th~ materlahstlc spirit if has now b~6m~ th~a~epted prhctice tona~e pkr-s6ns fiot¢.Mte~ other persons~ but affei things hft~r flbra . and:fauna,~ and geograpb~cal~it~s; and '~vefi mechanical objects.~ -This~ ph~ndmenbfi wOuld, to~do:i~'.ju~tlce~ ~req~i~ a Chesterton's~afysis: :.~ut,ev~n'on tge gu~face~ ~4t, to c~!l,~a.gifl ~'Petunia;,)'.;~or a;boy "Ohio", or '~Derrick":. '(and theg~ does.~,exist, a.[.b~y with: that name), is2 nbt]perceptibly ~ny;~more~?ra.tio~al.~,than. to. call ~a ~favorite .p.etuma.~ . Ger-tr~ fle,:5,or~.the stxte of OhiO~"Harold,'' or a~derrick,,,on 4be property', , "~ rl' .~1,~,- .".d" " , ¯ '~ '~ -,-~ ~. - :~ ~TBa'~: be ,to,hea~n, ~he~.figm?s" that we~rehg~ous-bear ar~,the -names obpersons. , ~nd" at"that,~ no ord~narF per-sgns: -Pe~ha~s~hose'p~rs6nshv~d m~the fat-off ~ast. "Per-ha~ little' i~'kfiooh Oaboot-them~x~pt ,tfi~t "a ~N~o or'3 Tr/j~h~r'~fi ,Diocletiah ~Ut th~ to death:; W~rid has not e~n th~"vag~egt memory 6f~the~.~-'rYet~they are the truly gr~at"~of"the 'h6~an race;.and ~God knows them~well., In their :flames ~we have inherited a, lustrous lggacy~ of honor, ~ special tide-to: protection and~aid. And in-.those names~ we h~ve~,6ur~inspiration fovholy living and DECISIONS OI/: THE HoLY SEE. dying--as :Ruskin .words it; . l~ifting hol.y hands without-wraith, and sinking to blessed ~sle~p.withoht fear." So what 6dds if ~the lay-w0rld pities 0r plllor,es us fdr ohr names? 0 What odds if not one person in ten cab pro~ nounc~e those, names fl~uently, and~,,not one in twenty can ~spell them correctly? We know the inner worth of those flames. And as to their ,outward form, well, an occasional glance at the telephone book will afford us unfailing peace hnd satisfaction. ~ .~o~yember'21, 1945:o The Sac~'d P~nite£tiary announced th~/t His " Holiness Pope'Pius XI~i in ari audience granted to the Cardiri~l Pen[- . tenfiary M~jdr ~n Ndve~ber 8, 1~45, h~d gracio~s~ grafit~d t~al indulgence o~ fifty days to the f~thful who devoutly,k~ss the ring of a p~efect apostohc. Th~s ~s t~ same indulgence which the faithful may gain by devoutly k~ss~ng the r~ng of an archbishop or bishop (Pr~es et Pta O~era, n. ~}0). Prefects apostohc are prelates'in m~s~ slon countries who govern a t~rr~tory call~ a prefecture apostohc. Usua!ly they. are not b~s~ops: h~fi~ the special ~r~nt recbunt~d 'abd~. Pemtent,ary answered ~ree questions regarding the p~ous exerc,se of the Way qf the Cross: I. According "to a decred.,dated August 6, 1757, it~ is~provided that for the pious exercise~0f the Way df the Cross, when otherwise a disturbance might be daused, a~priest and two clerics or cantors may ~ake the rounds, pausing at each station and reciting the accustomed prayers, while the faithful ie~ai~ing ia' their places give the responses. Question: Does this de~i~e.~ hold~ .only fgi, th~ ~.bublic~, exercise~ of the Way of the Cross made in a church, o~ does it hold ~hefi this exer-cise is m~de~by religious in their chapels?. - Answer: In the a~rmative to the first part, in the ndgative to the second. II. Questior~: Whether under the circumstances-mentioned in the decrees of Februa~'y 27, 1901, and of May 7, 1902 namely, when 2~49 DECISIONS OF THE HOLY SEE all the religious cannot go in a body from station to station in their chapel without causing a disturbance be~cause of the smallness of the place they can gain the indulgences connected with the i~ious.exer-cise of~the Way Of the Cros~ i'f only one re, ligious (B~roiher or Sister) makes the rounds f~om station to station and reads aloud ~the accus-tomeffprayers, while'rthe rest remaining in their places rise and genu-flect there.for each station? Answer: In the affirmative. " III. Question: Whether in the same circumstances already de-scribed for religious and following the same method, the faithful who live a common life, as mentioned in canon 929 of the Code of Canbn Law, can gain the indulgences attached to the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross if one man or woman, respectively, makes the rounds of the stations of the Wa.y of the Cross and recites the cus-tomary prayers? Answer: In the affirmative. Questions I and II tell us that in a religious community chapel it is not necessary to have the priest recite the prayers for the Way of the Cross; it suffices for one of the religious, Brother or Sister, to make .the rounds from station to station and to recite the customary pray-ers. ~ This has be~n explained before in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS (I, 1942, p. 424; IV, 1945, p. 61). Question III extends the same privilege to communities of the faithful living a common lifb, for instance, nurses in/training in a h~pital, old folks living in a home, orphans, studehts at a boarding school, an~ so forth, so that the group may gai.n the indulgence in the chapel if one of their number, man or woman, makes the round of the stations and says the accus-tomed prayers, while the rest remaining in their places answer the prayers and rise and genuflect at each station. OUR~CONTRIBUTORS o ~LAUDE KEAN is on the faculty of Holy. Name College~ the Franciscan house of studies, Washington. D. ~C. He formerly taught at St. Bonaventure College anc~ served as spiritual director of the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn. W.H. HING-STON is spiritual director at ~lesuit Seminary, Toronto. CHARLES F. DONOVAN has just completed a year of ascetical study at St. Robert's Hall. Pomfret Center, Connecticut. CLEMENT ~1. MCNASPY is a professor of classical languages at St. Charles College, Grand Coteau. Louisiana. ROBERT B. EITEN, a professor at the University of Detroit, is much interested in ascetical subjects. CYRIL VOLLERT and ADaM C. ELLIS are members of the theological faculty at St. Mary's College, St. Marys, K~nsas. 250 Two I-[eart:s* W. H. Hingston, S.J. IN HIS RADIO address at the close of the Fatima jubilee (October 31, 1942) Pope Pius XII consecrated the wsrld to the Immadulate Heart of Mary. In the same year, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, he pub- -licly repeated this. consecration and ordered that, as a per-petual memory of this solemn consecration, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary should be celebrated annually in the universal Church. In obedience to this, order the Sacred Congregation ' of Rites had a new Office and Mass com-pose& and these were presented .to the Holy Father for approval on December 10, 1943. A decree of the Congre-gation of Rites, dated May 4, 1944, which incorporated the text of the new Mass and Office, ordered that the feast 15e celebrated annually on the Octave day of the Assump-tion, August 22. ' Despite the fact that the decree promulgating the feast was issued two years ago, this year may be the first Oppor-tunity for many of us to make,~use of the new Mass and Office~. The occasioh seems an apt one for recalling some of the basic thoughtspertinent to the devotion to the Immacu-late Heart of Mary, and particularly for considering the relation of thii devotion to theworship of the Sac'ted Heart of Jes~us. Obviously there is an intimate link between the devo-tion to Mary's Heart and tha(which we render to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The same saint was employed by Provi-dence to initiate simultan, eously both devotions. No hearts *This article appeared in slightly different form-in The Canadian Messenger of the Sacred Heart, December. 1945, pp. 778-782. It is reprinted here with permission. 251 .W.~ H. HINGSTON Review [or Religious were ever so united by resemblance and by affection as those of .Jesus and~ Mary. The very flesh of Jesus came from Mary alone through the power of the Holy Ghost. Yet under,the outward likeness of the two beautiful devotions there are fundamental differences; and it is the purp.ose of this a~rticleto set forth briefly the resemblances and the dif2 ferences as a help toward an und~rst~indirlg piety. ¯ There is an essential 'difference to b~ observed from~the oai'set between the Form fff devotion paid to the Sac}ed Heart of Jesus and that paid ~o the Heart of HiS Moth'~r, .be.cause of the fact that in one instance veneration is ren- "d~red tO a divine Person and in the other t0a human son. Since all devotioh goes to the person whom we invoke or honor, it is e¢ident that there must be an infinite distance in this regard between the cultus of the Heart of the God- ¯ man and the cultus of the Heart of .Mary; between honor shown to God_and that shown to a creature no matter how highly favored. ~ To mark t~is essential distinction it seems pre, ferab, le, when speaking of the~ heart ofMary alone and'apart from the heart of Jesus, to use .the words H61y Heart. 0f.Mary, or Immaculate Heart, or Most"Pure Heart of Mary: rati~r than '"Sacred'" Heart ofeM~ry. That i~s whhtthe~Church d6es. Sh~ employa the.title Sacred Heaitof M~ry onl~ in the combified "title of ihe Sacred "Hearts of 5es~s and Mary. Apart°from t'h!s~ preliminary consideration, which.is of a general nature and recalls that first and most essential dis~ tinction which is never lost sight ofo by Catholics but is s~mply taken for granted, there ale other .important dis-tinctions to be made. They relate to the-three chief way~ in which we can co sider a~ay°devo~iofi, or:t0 tde t fire leading aspects under which a dev6t~on may be stud~ed. These are: i'ts ma.,terial object, its f6~mal obje~ct, it.s sp~dia.l 252 appeal~:-i'Th,ough these.wolds ~ay~ ~ound a bit 'technica),~: ~:.-x.~_~;tlSey-~ire very Useful :and '~ccurate;~ and we have all ::.(~li~rized ~ith them thrs~gh~the explanatiSns ~whidh-~e ~a~e Often~h~eafdof the de~otion to the.S'acred Hea;t Jesus. Now on each of these three fundamental ~eadings, ~;~Which together sum up a devotion, the differences between_ "~he~cultus of the Heart of Jesus and that of the H~art Mary are mgmficant and p~ofound. ¯ ~ -~irst~ then, as to the material object. In both devotigns .~a humafi heard.of flesh is presented forour veneration. Yet " ~t Once,we note a profound difference. ~The hea?t of Jesu.s :~" isin ~tself an object of ~doration. It is adorable because ~ is g~a~t.Bf that ihdividual human gature which the Divine :~ ",W0rd" mbec~0 m"m g " ~ncarnate took to H"~ m s~elf and" made Hi_s .Very own.~ It' is part of Him. Though a created object, ~-t~gfigh-a mgtenal thing, ~hough Buman flesh, .~t ~s ~he.heart ~f the Son of God madeMan. The honor, we kh~w /'~ m~s~inciude ad;ratiom "In contrast to this; iff the --,:~ 2~i~n ~to .the heart of Mary such ~eneration i~ refid~fed as~" ~ay~ be paid to a 5feature, b~t nothing o~ the adoration. ~ t~at belongs to God Mone. - N~vertheless, adoration is not the .principal act in th~ ~Tdevotion ~,t~ .the Sacred Heart. The human h~art.of the ;~Sa~ior is:~resented to us nbt primarily.that, we may r~nder ~-~,adoration~ bui because of what it stands for, the hu~" -heart:being the natural symbol of human love.~ T. he_~ight 6f the heart of Jesus spontaneously calls to mind His human -i~ l~ve,for His Father and for us. Uoiversally the he~r(is ~.,. looked upon .as the organ, or at least the symbol-of,ldve. ~So fiatural_a symbol of love is it, that in every lan~uhge the h~art.of a ~an is taken for his inward dispositions.--Aman" ~:. <" .- who - is generous, kind, sympathetic is spoken o~" as big--. ~,'hearted, ~tender-hearted, and so f~rth; or else; if he m~ni- 253 ,W H HINGSTON , ~ ,7~ * ~ ~Reoteto for Reltgtous ,, fegt no such pleasant~characterlstlcs,~ he is spoken of as hard-., h_eart~d, cold-hearted, heartless.~ - --~ N~w that thes~e preliminary observations .have beeri ~ade, we daft completeour statement regarding the materml - j,obj~ct i~ the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus~an'd,say' F_hat it-is His heart of flesh taken as the natural symbol Of " His hhman lo;¢e. The natural sy.mbolism of the heart p.la~cs a large pii,~t in the devotion, which would not be underitandablewith-.-. out'~t. In the devdtion to Maryls Heart on the contrary, the symbolism of the heart is faint and not at all empha-. sized, ,th~ reason being that it i~ not.so much her~love as her pUrit~y and her fidelity that we consider. Our attentibr; ~alled far more to the purity, htimility: and. Other vir~ue~ of ithat most faithful heart than to the~ qualities of its love., It ts~ riot hard to discover the reason why in the,devotion to t~he Heart of Jesus such emphasis is placed on the natural sym-b01ism of the heart, and why such emphasis, is lacking, from, "the'~correspbn.ding devotion to the Heart of His Mother. This will become still more apparent when we consider the_ ,f, ormal object of each devotion. A first difference between. "the t~vo devotions is thus found evenin the matefial object; which in both devotions is the heart of flesh, but in ~ach t~e~ ~ l~eartfis viewed under a somewhat different asp, ect. ~A setond and more pronounced diffe~rence lies ifi tl'ie~ - .formal object of. each,, d~voti6n. - The formal object of the devotion to Jesus' Heart is His human love for m~n. ,-,, Note in'the first place t.hat it is His human love which is stressed: -~a'ther 'than His divine love. Coeterrial with the FatheY~' '/he Wor& the~Second Person of the m6st adorable,_Trini_ty~, ,has known from ~everlasting and has loved witff an eteriaal love,each one of us. Yet it is not this eternal lovebelonging -to His divine n~ature that we c~nsider in His Sacred Heart:,,~ ~, ' dul~l, 19~ 6 "~ ~ ' ' TWO HEART~. . .~ We~ read-therein His huma~-10k~e. The symbolism of the heartdna.kes this perfectly clear, for tl~ heart i~ the symbol ~ of h~uman love, no~of divine love._ Besides, the love'of ['Jesus is presented to us as a suffering love, andonly the" .human in Him can suffer. " We venerate the human love b_y .which a divine Person loves us. Yet Christ's eternal love 5, belonging to His divine nature, though it is not and cannot properly be symbolized by any .natural symbol," is by no, ,means excluded from this°devotion. -After all, we love that ,Person Himself who loves us and suffers for u , and Him as He is, whole and entire Hisvery self, .the~ one living principle of a lov~ that is both human'and divine. The.Woid having been made flesh, having becorhe P0S- - sessed of a human °nature like ours, now loves-with a love that began only at His Incarnation, that is truly .human,- -xhat is ~harged with all the emotions of man's spiritual will -*and is colored with all those feelings that have their roots -., in- the sensitive part "of man's bodily make-up. Christ, though~a divine Person and not a human person, loves even ¯ in the, manner that human p~rsons love. He experiences, 'tOo, the consequences of human love, even to the suffering ~ Which unrequited love entails. The greater the capacity_ ~-~ .for loving, the greater the capacity for. suffering. The more -. rintense and unselfish theaffection, the ,greater the anguish-when such affection, goes unrecognized .and is not returned: Note in th~ sed6nd place' that it is Jesus" human love ° ~or. men that. is .the formal object, rather than His htiman 10re for His Father. Undoubtedly Christ, in the-human" nature that He had made His own, loved FIis Father with a,_ll the strength Of His human will; yet it is not this lmre -for His.Father that is dwelt upon, but His love for mdn_. '-"Behold the Heart which has so,'loved men," were His words to St. Margaret Mary. In contrast to this we find that in the devotion to the" Most Pure Heart.of Mary the formal object,, insofar ~is it ¯ is love and not fideli.ty, is love for her 3esus and for her _G~d, not her love for ma'nkind, at least not primarily her 10re for.mankind. We do not positively exclude from our-~ thoughts in this devotion the motherly ,love that she bears to all mankind; but our attentiofi is focused on something ¯ ~lse, rlamely, on the complete and unique absence of all self-love, on the absolute fidelity to grace, on the devotedness of-- M~ry's heart to God. . " Thirdly, there is the special appeal to be considered in each of .these two devotions, outwardly so alike. ,Here the contrast is most marked. In the devotion to_ His Sacred Heart, 3esus makes an appeal to us by His very love for to love Him i[~ return. He opens His breast, bares-His'heart - to us, reveals it afire with love for. us, bleeding for us, ~giving itself to uS without holding back anything, even t~o the Cross, even to the Eucharist; He even humbles Himself before us and shows us the wounds thiit our indifference and -. coldness have inflicted upon Him, piercing His v.ery heart. His fs a suffering love, arld.there is an awful pathos in'His hOpeal, t-he appeal of the~ Son of God begging of His crea~ tures the favor of being loved in return. Our Savior appea~l~. ~strongly to our feelings; but it would be a grave mistake 6n_ our.part and a complete misunderstanding of His plea were we to content ourselve~ with~ giving Him in answ~er mere;. ~ pious sentiments. He ga~e us deeds! He pleads for real reparation, exercised not so much in the way that at6nemen~ ~ is usually exercised, ~amely, by works of pe~nance, bfit° rather by works~ of love, especially through the ever more ,perf~ect doing of His Father's will and the perform~ance of acts ofde~votion towards Himself in the Eucharist. In "the devotion to the Most Pure Heart of Mary~ there" duly, 1946 " Two HEART~ -is also an appeal, of course, but it is not an impassioned appeal, nor are we besought to love her. She does not show us the love of her heart for us, as 2esus does, and beg us to love her in return. Unquestionably Mary has loved and actually does love us much, incomparably more than any one, save only her Son, has loved us; but there is nd allusion ~o this in her appeal. Mary's love is also like her Son's, a suffering love; and it is significant that those sufferings by which she shared in the Passion to such an extent that she is deservedly styled Queen of Martyrs were all endured in her sinless heart; for of bodily sufferings we bare no record. It is furthermore a historical fact that c6mpassion for the broken-hearted Mother--so bravely standing beside the.Cross, as St. 2ohn presents her, or with the torn and lifeless-form across he/ lap, as Christian piety has long depicted her first led the faithful into the sanctuary of Mary's suffering, heart. Nevertheless the sorrows 0f Mary form the object of a distinct.and much more ancient devo-tion in the Church; and in the devotion to the Most Pure Heart the thought of compassion is not prominent. The heart of Mary° is usually depicted encircled with fragrant roses to denote the flowers of many virtues, with~ which it is adolried, not with,thorns. The specia! appeal in this devo-tion is reilly a .very ge.ntle and very sweet and persuasiv.e invit~ition to highdr ~hings. ~ It is a call to .lead an interior life and to imitate the Blessed Virgin by purity of,life, ,by perfect.chastity~ of;th~ affectigns .which are to be. dlrect~ed ~ avcay"~ro, m°creatures,wl~oliy tO G~d, by the practice' of all those wrtues that are particularly dear to her Son. 2esus, because He is God, draws us by the cords of Adam to himself, to the Divinity. Mary because she is a creature draws us, not to herself but directly to her Son, to .her God, to Him who is in truth her child, born of her, yet 25.7 W. H. HINGSTON Review for Religious who can say of Himself: "I and the Father are one'.' (John 10:30). "Amen I say'to you, before Abraham was made, I am" (John 8:58). "Philip, he that seeth Me, seeth the Father also" (John 14:9) " The two.devotions closelycorrespondwith'one another, yet each in its own sphere. They are not on the same footing. Devotion to the Heart of Mary is really a beau-tiful pendant to the devotion to the Heart of Jesus. Her heart is, after His, the most beautiful thing in all creation, because in every way the most perfect copy of His. Upon such beauty the angels gaze in rapture. To portray it is beyond the reach of words. Yet in contemplating Mary's loveliness let us guard against the mistake of far~cying that her very greatness keeps her aloof, a sublime but ethereal beauty far removed from us, dwelling above all angels and saints in the court of the Most High. The symbolism of ~tie heart ought to save us frdm. this baneful illusior~ and should impress' upon us that Mary's is a warm and comfbrting loveliness, tender ~and sweet, and constant and motherly. The tho~ught of this should .fill us~ With confidence rather than with awe. Shh can be approached in all our needs and in our every mood. She can comfort as.none other can, for the heart of the Virgin Mother has experienced sorrow of e;cery kind and has ,known such depths of human v~oe tha~ all other anguish compared to hers must seem bearable and light. But, far and above all, tile heart of Mary overflows with joy; and no one can approach her in thought and no( feel happier for it. She takes her children by the hand and leads them straight to the Sacred Heart of Jesus along the way of encduragement, and hopefulness, and holy joy. The resemblanees between the two devotions are man, r and obvious. Reflection and meditation bring out the differences, and with clearer knowledge comes a deeper 258 July, 194i5 TWo HEARTS understanding of both these lovely devotions centered upon two human hearts that beat in unison. What does the devotion to the Most Pure Heart of Mary add to our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? It supplies an additional motive for trust in Him. Mary is so approachable, so understanding, so near to us! She is just one of ourselves. 'And withal how close she is to Christ! How dear to His Heart! How worthy by her stainless purity to plead the cause of us poor sinners with Him, who is the fruit of her womb, and to lead us to Him. Besides, a'better realization of the fundamental differ-ences thatexist between the two devotions brings out cer-tain aspects of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of desus which otherwise might never have been so clearly under-stood. In'this sense devotion toMary's Heart is seen to be a complement to the devotion to the Sacred Heart, which ii itself rooted in the mystery of the Incarnation, with which Mary was so intimately associated in the divine plan. But, best of all, there is the encouragement given us by Mary's life to lead an inner life. The attractiveness of . Mary's example is .best studied in its source, her heart. There we can appreciate the exquisiteness of her every action, feel the warmth of her tender affection, and breathe in the entrancing fragrance of her purity, which rises like incense in a pure white cloud from the selfless sanctuary of her immaculate heart. ANNOUNCEMENT It is even more ditScult to get pap~,r now than it was during the war. For this reason we are reducing the size of the REVIEW from seventy-two pages to sixty-four pages. The amount of matter in each number ~ri!l be about the same as we are using more small type than usual. .We shall return to the 72-page issue just as soon as we can get some guarantee of a regular supply of paper. 259 Recept:ion of Seminarians int:o Religious.lnst:it:ut:es Adam C. Ellis, S.3. ON JULY 25:194 l,.the Sacred Congregations of Religious and of Seminaries issued a joint decree regarding the reception of ex-seminarians into a religious institute and the admission of ex-religious into a seminary. This decision was duly" publi.shed in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS (1, 1942, p. 71), as was also a private an-swe~ regarding the same given on May 11, 1942 (III, 1944, p: 67). A number of problems have arisen regarding this decree. Recently we received copies of Commehtarium pro Retigiosis which had been delayed by the war. One of these (XXIII, 1942, pp. 226-237) contains an interesting commentary on this decree written by His Eminence, Cardinal La Puma, then Prefect of the S. Congregation of Religious, who died in 1943. Although the Cardinal did not intend to give.an authentic interpretation of the decree but me.rely a pr!vate or doctrinal interpretation, as he himself tells i~s, yet since he was co:author of the decree there is no other person better qualified.to explain it to us; and we are happy to give our readers the substance of his commentary. We shall omit those parts which pertain to the reception of an ex-religious into a seminary, and confine ourselves to the parts which are of interest to-religious the reception of an ex-seminarian into a religious institute. For a better understhnding of the matter, we repeat here that part of the decree which pertains to our special subject: ~ "Likewise, before those who for ahy reason whatever have left a,semlna[y are a'd-miffed fo a religious family, the religious superiors shall have recourse to the S. Con-gregation of Religious, which will inform them of their opinion (;ud;clum) after having cons;dared all the circumstances of the case." The fact that the document issued by both Congregations jointl~r is called a decree should not be_overstressed, since-it provides little more than.a caution and a necessary re~medy to secure the faithful observancd of certain important prescriptions of t_he Codewhich have been treated too lightly. Much less is this document to b'e considered as a general decree, or new law, since it was not prepared in a plenary session, and it was not approved in focma speci~ica by the Holy Father. 260 SEMINARIANS RECEIVED INTO RELIGION The decree does not establish a new impediment to entrance-lnto' religion or into a seminary; nor is previous permission, properly so-called, to be asked from the SS. Congregations to admit a person into a seminary or into a religious institute since this is left to the proper superiors. The SS. Congregations are to be consulted; and after con-sider~ ng tl~e case,, they will give their opinion (iudicium) ; but thereby they'will neither admit nor impede admission, nor defer it, nor render it more difficult. The SS. Congregations had no thought or intention of. granting to Ordinaries, even indirectly, the faculty to oppose the flee entrance of' seminarians into religion except in the cases explicitly mentioned in the Code--that is, in the case of seminarians and other clerics in sa~red orders and even for these only within the strict and well considered circumstances mentioned in canon 542, 2°, first case: Let us now explain the terms of the instruction quoted above. By seminarg is meant an ecclesiastical.college in which those who aspire to the clerical state are,prepared according to the prescriptions of the law, even though a few lay students are admitted. ;A college to which both clerical and lay students are admitted almost indis-criminately chnnot be called a.seminary. To admit to a seminary means to receive a person as a seminarian; to be dismissed from or to leave a seminary supposes that one who has been a seminarian ceases to be an aspirant to the clerical state by reason of dismissal or voluntary withdrawal. To adn~it to a religious f~mitg means to admit one as a true member, that is "to the novitiate, of a religious institute in which pub-lic vows. are taken, but not to a society of men living in common without public vowS. The words "those who for any reason whatever have left ~a seminary" apply to those who are dismissed from a seminary by superiors as well as to those who leave voluntarily, thereby bidding farewell to their vocation to the clerical state, even though they do so unwillingly because of pressure brought to bear upon them from without. The phrase in question does n_ot apply to those who have completed their studies in a seminary and await ordination outside; "nor does it apply to those who have left a seminary in order to fulfill their, military service but intend to return afterwards, and thus do not renounce their vocation. What about those who Ieave a seminary because theg wish to enter religion? An authentic reply of the S. Congrega6on of Religious given to the question on June-25, 1942 says that "the decree does not 261 ADAM (2, ELLIS affect those who leave a seminary or college in order to embrace the life of religious perfection in some religious institute since these are provided for in'canon 544, § 3." Another class of seminarians who are not subject to the decre'e are those who~though they have truly left a seminary, either by reason of dismissal on account of a lack of talent required, for st6dies, or because they thought they were not called to the clerical state now ask to be admitted to the class of lay brothers in a clerical institute or as lag religious in a non-clerical institute. This means that an ex-seminarian in the strict sense of the term may not be admitted to a religious institute as an aspirant to the priesthood. He may, however, be received as a candidate for the lay brotherhood in a clerical insti-tute, or as a Brother in any non-clerical institute. There are some non-clerical institutes in which a few members are promoted to the priesthood while the majority are Brothers. In this case the ex-seminarian could be received as a Brother, but not as a candidate for the priesthood. If a religious superior wishes to receive an ex-seminarian in the strict sense, that is ohe who has been dismissed from a seminary or who has given up his vocation to the priesthood of his own accord, he must have recourse to the S. Congregation of Religious for its opinion on the case before he can admit him to the novitiate as a can-didate ~:or the priesthood. Meanwhile, however, provfded the superior has re~ceived ttie necessary testimonial letters and is morally certain that no impediments exist, he may admit the ex-seminarian in ques-tion to the postulancy or first probation preceding the novitiate while he awaits the opinion of the S. Congregation regarding his admission to the novitiate. In order to avoid useless delay, which may be harmful to voca-tions, the S. Congregation requires the following documents and tes-timonial letters, written or at least signed by the rector of the semi-nary: (1) testimony regarding the moral and intellectual.qualities of the ex-seminarian; (2) testimonials regarding studies made, as well as progress i~i them, and grades obtained in examinations; (3) tes-timony or opinion about the inclination or propensity of the aspirant towards the religious state; (4) finally, testimony regarding the reasons why the candidate left the seminary and the manner of his doing so, namely, whether he was dismissed or left of his own accord, and whether he left after finishing his studies at the end of the scho-lastic year. These dbcuments should accompany the petition of the 262 duly, 1946 '- BOOKS RECEIVED candidate and should be sent to the S. Congregation of Religious by the religious superior together with any other information which may be judged opportune, either in confirmation, or by way of example, or; finally, as a possible refutation of the statements of the rector of the seminary. Books Received (ApriL20 .to June 20) THE NEWMAN BOOK SHOP, Westminster, Ma~iyland. The Sacred Ceremonies of I2ow Mass. 'By Rev: Felix Zualdi. C.M. $2.00, More About' Fatima and the Immacidate Heart of Mary. By Rev. V. Montes de Oca, C.S.Sp. (No price given.) Life of St~ Stephen Harding. By J. B. Dalgairns: $2.50. A Mystic Under Arms. By' Ft. M:-Eugene Boylan, O.Cist.R. (No price given.) The Spirit of Christ. By Father James, O.F.M.Cap. $2.50. Counsels to Confessors. By St. Leonard of Port Maurice. $1.50. FREDERICK PUSTET COMPANY, New York and Cincinnati. Spirit in Darkness. By Rev. Fr. Brice, C.P. $3.50. H. DESSAIN, Malines, Belgium. Caeremoniale: Pars Altera: De Celebrante. Auctc;r~ J. F. Van Der Stappen. (No price given.) THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Milwaukee. Wisdom /or Welfare. By Sister M. Dolorita, S.S.N.D. mentls in Genere. By Emmanuel Doronzo, O;M.I. $3.75. Shoulder.- By Rev. Thomas J. Hosty. $1.50. $2.00. De Sacra- Straight from the THE MARIAN FOUNDATION, San Antonio. The Golden Thread of Netoman. By ReV. William R. Lamm, S.M. (Paper). $.50 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York. St. Paul: Apostle and Martyr. By' Iglno Giordani. $2.50. B. HERDER BOOK ~OMPANY, 'St. Louis. The Mysteries of Christianity. By M. J. Scheeben. $7.50. Christianity: An Outline of Dogmatic Theology for Laymen. By Joseph H. Fichter, S.J. $2.50, JOSEPH F. "WAGNER, INC., New York, Scriptural References for the Baltimore Catechism. By G. H. Guyot, C.M. (No price given.) (No price given.) THE DECLAN X. MCMULLEN COMPANY, New York. Most Worthy of All Praise. By Vincent P. McCorry, S.J. ST. ANTHONY GUILD PRESS, Paterson, New Jersey. Frances Schervier: Mother of.the 'Poor. By Sister Pauline. 263 May a superior grant a Sister with simple vows permls~ion~ fO use a gold watch? A moderate use of an article made of gold is not. in itself, con-trary to the vow of poverty. This is evident from the fact ,that some constitutions approved by" the~HolY See prescribe the wearing of a gold ring. Frequently the constitutions or legitimate custom forbid the use of articles m_ade of gold. In such cases the superior dould not grant permission for the use of a gold watch. But if there is no such prohibition, the, superior may grant the permission, provided that the watch is not so expensive as to cause surprise to the faithful who see th~ religious wearing_it. This element depends upon. local circum. stances and customs. A possible solution for the 'problem involved might be'to have the watch removed from its gold case and put into one of less precious material. ~ 23 Accordln9 to canon law how many delegates are necessary to make up a general chapter representing a community of one thousand Sisters? May delecjafes of the general chapter of a religious communlfy induce other members o{ the chapter, before the election of the mo÷her general has taken place, to vote for a certain group of Sisters whom they wish have fpr council members? Canon 507, § to tells us that "in elections which are made by chapters, the universal.law as set forth in canons 160-182 shall be obsdrved, as well as the constitutions of the institute which are not contrary to this universal lawJ' The Code leaves th.e organization of general chapters of religious institutes entirely to the constitutions. Constitutions approved by the Holy See. usually provide that every house of twelve or more members is represented in the general chapter by the local superior and by at least one delegat~ elected by the mem-bers of the local community. Smaller houses are grouped together to form a unit of from twelve to eighteen members. This group then elects one delegate from among the local superiors and one from amdng the subjects. If the institute requests it, the S. ~ongregation of Religious will allow large communities one delegate for every twelve Sisters. Thus a community of fifty Sisters would be entitled 264 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS to elect four delegates from that community. Paragraph two of canon 507 states explicitly: "All must abstain from seeking votes either directly or indirectly for themselves or for others." This law is dear and needs no explanation. Howe:oct, the constitutions frequently allow the members of the chapter to seek information from other chapter members regarding the qualifications of certain individuals well-known to them. Insuch a case the mem-bers bf the chapter ~hould give the information required, but should abstain from positively urging any member to vote for another mem-ber. Their ~duty should be confined to giving the information requested~ according to the best of their knowledge, in all charity and sincerity. It may be well to note i~ere that 'the delegates elected by the indi-vidual communities sh0uld not be instructed regarding persons to be voted for. This would clearly be contrary to the canon quoted above: The community must have confidence in the good judgment of the delegates ,whom they elect. --24--- A college has regular tuition and board and room charges. Over and above these charges_there are fees in various departments for certain courses, for instance in home economics for food, interior decoration, and s6 forth; in the music department, for the use of musical instruments. In a~ word, these fees are for things used, for materials, instruments, and the llke. Tl~e sum total of fees charged in any department make up the budget of that department. Must such fees be used only as described or may they also be used for the general cjood of the department, for instance to buy supplies, such as records, in the music department; to give the students of that particular department an. outing; to finance a student's trip to-a con-ventlon as a representative of that department? As long as the fees charged to make up the budget of any si'ngle department are used in that dep~rtment~ both justice and Canon Law ate satisfied. ~:~he purchasing Of instruments and stipplies needed for -the laboratory experiments of the department are certainly for the benefit :of the students, and the same inay be said regarding the travel-ing expensesof a representative of the department who is sent to a .convention. And it is perfectly in keeping with the law of,'the Church to use any balance left over at the end of the year to give the students of that department an outing or some other entertainment " to which, payment of the fee for board and tuition gives them no right or cl:aim. 265 QUESTIONS AND ~NSWERS Review for.Religious ' m2Sm, Our constitutions havi~ the following provision regarding candidates for admission: "Their parents must have borne a good reputation; and should these have been under repute of any enormous crime, or have been condemned in any criminal court, the aspirants cannot be received." Does this artlcle of our constitutions oblige us 1o reject an aspirant whose par-enfs are divorced and remarried? Since the constitutions seem to have in mind a crime against the civil law and a condemnation in a civil criminal court, divorce and "remarriage would not come under the prohibition of the constitu-tions. The requirem'ent of a good reputation on the part of the par-ents looks to the edification of th.e faithful. One may say that the parents have lost their good reput~ition if the faithful would be scan-dalized by the admission of their daughter into a religious commun-ity. Hence in our practical case, if the divorce and remarriage are things "of the past, forgotten by most people, there would be no diffi-culty in receiving the aspirant. If they are recent events,, p~udence must dictate whether the reception of the candidate into religion would cause disedification or not. It may be well to note that the constitutions do not positively forbid the reception of the daughter of parents who have a bad reputation, as is the case in the second part of the article quoted. Hence it seems that such a candidate could be admitted even though her parents are divorced and remarried provided her reception would not cause scandal to the faithful. In some instances at least, it might be a cause of great edification: for instance, if it became known that the daughter was entering religion to aton~ for the sins of her parents. --26-- I heard recently of a community of Sisters in ~vhlch custom demands that they go to confession in seniority. Do you know if such a cu'sfom really exists? Would it not be against canon law? It seems to me that confes-sors' might easily recognize their penitents in such circumstances. It is not clear just what is meant here by going to confession "in seniority." If it means "according to seniority groups"---e.g. senior professed, then junior professed, then novices there seems to be nothing particularly harmful about the custom. This arrangement according to groups would simply facilitate good order and could hardl~r be a source of embarrassment to individuals. Very likely our correspondent refers to a case in which indi- 266 Julg, 1946 QUES'~IONS AND ANSWERS Oiduals go according to sepiority. 'We t6o have heard of such a custom, although we do not know of any definite pl_ace where it exists. Strictly speaking, this custom is not against the l'etter of canon law; at, least, we are not aware of any provision of law which forbids it." It'seems to us, however, that such a custom is not in accord with the spirit of canon law. For one thing--as our corre-spondent points Out" it makes it very easy for confes'sors to recog: nize ~oenitents, for if the confessor knows the community at all he will. very likely know something of the order of seniority. This is often embarrassing t6 a confessor and it.is also an obstacle to the perfect liberty of spirit enjoyed by a penitent. At least, many penitents can confess more freely when they are not recognized as individuals. An added inconvenience for the penitent, if individual seniority is insisted on, is the fact. that those who immediately follow her will always know ju,st howlong her confession takes. Also, if she does wish to take a long time, she may be embarrassed at the thought of delaying the others. m27-- What is the mind of the Church on such matters as havln9 contests between 9fades to have the most Communions in a week, and on havln9 compulsory Communion Sundays under those circumstances where the-external pressure on an individual to receive Communion is very 9rear2 The principle for solving questions like this was clearly formu-lated in a reserved instruction issued by. the Congregation of the Sacraments on December 8. 1938. The text of this instruction may be found in The Canon Law Dfgest, II, p. 208. A synopsis of the instruction was printed in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, III, p. 268. The same number of REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS (III, p. 252) contained the translation of a very thor6ugh commentary on this instruction by Father Emile Bergh, S.3. For an adequate discussion of this impor-tant matter we refer our c~)rrespondent to the text of the instruction and to Father Bergh's article. Answering the question very briefly, we should say: Any prac-tice which induces pressure to receive Holy Communion is wrong and should be changed without delay. If '!spiritual treasuries," contests between classes, Communion Sundays, and so forth, are had at all, they should be conducted in such a way that all indi;ciduals will feel perfect freedom to abstain from Communion if they wish. 267 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Revleto ~or Religious According to our constitutions, .the order of precedenc6 among .the Sisters is as follows: The .superior general always and everywhere precedes all the Sisters including local superiors. Then come: the general council- Ior~ accorcfing to the order of'thelr election; .the secretary general; ~the treasurer general: former superiors general in the mother house (in other houses they follow the local superior); the mistress of novices'. Is this order of precedence to be interpreted as ¯follows? (I) All general officers taEe -precedence over the local superior in pres;ding over the assemblies of~ the mother house community. In other words, in the event .that the superior cjeneral is not i~resent, who presides over the assemblies and exercises of the mother house community? (2) Just what rank and authority, does the Io~al s~perlor of the mother house hold in the mother house? (3) If the mistress of novices is a councillor and the local superior is not, does that fact dispense the mistress of novices from being subject ~o the local supe-rior and excuse her from a chapter presided over by the local superior? (4) Does a councillor stationed in any house other than the m~)ther house take precedence over the local superior? Before answering the specific questions asked above, it may be helpfial to analyze the concept of precedence. Precedence is a sign of g~e~ater honor because of greater e~cellence. It consists in the right to occupy a more honorable place i~a church, in processions, or in assemblies; or in the right to act before others. for instance, to cast a vote ahead of others. This right of precedence supposes-in the person who enjoys it a certain excellence or dignity which places on others the obligation of reverence or obedience to them. Among religious the right of precedence is conferred upon an indi-vidual religious because of th~ office which he holds. Such.an office may or may not have authority over others attached to it. Thus superiors in a religious institute (whether they be general, provincial; or local superiors) have precedence over their subjects by reason of their authority to govern them (canon° 106, 2°). Other officials such as councillors, secretaries, bursars, mistresses of novices, enjoy the right of precedence because of the dignity of their office .even though it does not carry with it any authority over other professed r.eligious. .From the foregoing' it is evident that in assemblies in which no authority is exercised, such as the presence Of a religious community in chapel for the recitation of the office or of othe~ prayers in com-mon, or attendance at meals in the common refectory, it is quite 268 1946 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS r~asonable that-some officials enjoy" pre.cedence over the local superior', even though they-be subject to her in the external discipline of ._the house. They would rank higher in the order of preced.ence~ and would take.a higher.placein the chapel or in the dining room: but .they would not exercise" any, act of authoritg in either place: Such acts "of authority in general:assemMie's belong to superiors only, not to officials who do not enjoy authority over others by reason of their- - office. . The order of precedence in any particular institute is determined by t'he constitutions and by the customs of that institut~e (canon 105, 5°). The common law contains no provisions governing precedence of officials within a .particular institute. According to the present practice Of the S. Congregation,of.Reli-gious, precedence in religious congregations ,is as follows: (1) The superior general precedes all superiors, provincial as well as local, always anti everywhere. (2) The general councillors come next, in the. order, of their election, then the secretary .general and the treasurer general, but only in .the general mother house' in other houses they take their places after the local superior. (3) Former supe~riors gen- ¯ eral come after the treasurer_general, but only in the mother house. Some constitutions give precedence over local s.uperiors to the ~general councillors and to the secretary and treasurer general. Such provisions~ of older con'stitutions would prevail over the piesent practice of the S. Congregation. Any doubts, especially with regard to recently approved constitutions, should be solved according to the pr.esent practice of the S. Congregation. (4) The provincial superior has precedence in all the houses of his province; i~rovincial councillors, provincial secretary and treasurer take precedence but in the provinr cial house only: in other, houses they come after the local sup~erior. Regarding the local superior of the mother house: (1) She gov-erns the community of the mother house just as a local superior ggv-erns a local~ house, that is, in all things pertaining to the community as such,'but subject to (he limitation put upon local superiors by the law of the Church'and by the constitutions. (2) Evidently the superior general takes precedence over the local superior everywhere and at all times; she is not subject to the local S.uperior of the mother house. (3). Unless the constitutions or legitimate "custom~ have exempted higher officers and have made them-directly depend.ent on the superior general, the general councillors, secretary and treasurer ¯ general, exTsuperiors and so forth, are all subject'to the local, s.uperior 269 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS even thotfgh in public assemblies they take a higher place. (4) So,me constitutions provide that the first councillor or any one of the coun-cillors appointed by the superiqb general~ shall be local superior of the mother house. ' The mistress ot: novices and the novices are subject to the local Superior in all matters pertaining to the general discipline of the house (canon 561, § I). The fact that the mistress of novices is also a general couricillor would not change her relations to the local supe-rior of the mother house unless the constitutions or legitimate custom place her direct.ly and immediately under the superior general. In this latter case ~i distinction would have' to be made. In her official capacity as mistress of novices, she would still be under the general authority of the lo.cal superior together.with her novices by reason of the legisla-tion- of the Code; but in her private capacity ~s a general councillor she'would n6t, but: would be directly finder the authority of the. supe-rior general. We are ready- now to answer the questions asked above:. 1. In the absence of the superior general, the local superior of. the mother house presides over .all assemblies of the mother house com-munity. Officials--such as general councillors, the secretary general, the treasurer general--may precede th~ local superior in such assem-blies, that is they may occupy a higher place of honor; bfit they do not fireside, tl'iat is they do not exercise any authority, ianless legiti-mate custom gives them the right so to do. 2. The local superior~ of "the,mother house exercises the same authority over the community as such as does any other local superior over her community. All Officials, the superior genera.1 alone excepted, are subject to her regarding the general discipline of the house, unless -the constitutions or "legitimate custom have exempted higher officials from her authority and have made them subject to the superior gen-eral alone. If the mistress of novices is a councillor and the local superioress. is not, the former wo~uld still :be subject to the local superior in. the chapter of faults presidedover by the local superior, unless the coun-cillors have be~n~explicitly excused from such s.ubjection either by the constitutions or by legitimate custom. , 4. NormaIly a general councillor stationed in another house wh{ch is not the mother house does not take precedence over the.local superior unless the constitutions or legitimate custom explicitly so declare. 270 THE MYSTICAL'LIFE. By Pascal P. Parente, S.T.D., Ph.D., ~J.C.B,.A, s' s o "c,ate Professor of Ascetical Theology,. Catholic University of America. Pp. x ~- 272. B. Herder Boo~( Company, St. Louis, 1946. $2.50. This is the companion volume to the same author's The ~tscet[cat Life, which appear.ed two years ago and contained an announcement of this work. With it Father Parente completes his systematic sur-vey of the spiritual life, and gives us the first study of the kind to ema'nate from an American theologian. Thus it possesses a certain histo'ric~l distinction. In content it is just about what one would expect in a brief intro-duction to mysticism. The first part of it is entitled "General Aspects and Basic Elements of Mysticism," the. second "Mystical State~ in Particular," and the third "Mystical Phenomena."' The last chapter discusses the practical questions of direction for mystics, the perusal of mystical literature, the vocation to the mystical life, °and desire for it: Without saying much about the controversies which have enlivened mystical theology i~i recent years, Father Parente generally steers a middle course between the doctrines of the" extreme schools. \ He is a strong advocate for the distinction between acquired and infused ~onteinplatlon. Rather singularly and originally he pro-poses that the difference is neither specific nor one of degree,-bu.t one of iaianner, of the way in which contemplation comes to one. It is highly uncertain whether St. Teresa, for instance, and others who ha~e experier~ed the diversity, would agree that there is not a greater distinction. In describing the prayer of quiet, the first of the "infra-ecstatic states~,'' the author writes: "As a matter of fact, God by reason of His omnipresence does not enter but simply makes Himself known to the soul" (page 121). Is there any such perception or . experience in" acquired Eontemplation? The vocation to mystical graces is not universal, but, at least practically, restricted to a limited number ofsouls. 'It is rather characteristic of this ~rork that it opens with an inter[ esting account of the ancient pagan mystery cults. It contains rela-tively much from Scripture and also from the Fathers Of the Chfirch that illustrates or supplies analogues to mystical phenomena. The cases botfi of Teresa Neumann and of Padre Pio of Pietralcina, the 271 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Relioious first stigmatized priest, are .treated professedly. ~-G. AuG. ELL/~RD, 8.2. MEDITATION ON THE PASSION. Compiled from Varlou~ Sources, with an Introduction" by the Reverend Reginald Walsh, O.P: Pp. rift ~ 305. The Newman Bookshop, Westm. lnsfer, Maryland, 3946. $3.'/5. "Reaction to a meditation book, especially t'o a book on the P~is-sion, is aft'extremely personal thing. What strikes a responsive chord in one person may prove dull finduninspiring to another. Yet, in spite of the uncertain personal factor; this book is .likely to please and to be helpful to almost anyone who sincer.ely wishes good meditation matter on the Passion. The various chapters treat of the entire Pas-sion'with thoroughness, yet without that meticulousness that makes one nod drearilywhile preparing his meditation. The. points are well planned and gasiiy fixed in the mind. The reflections are sound and agreeably warm. The colloquies--well, it seems that in affy meditation book colloquies have to be taken as "the bitter with the sweet." At least, this reviewer (behold :the personal element!) would be well pleased: if all meditation books dis.pensed with the Ohs .and Abs that give colloquies the fingernail-on:the-blackboard effect. But it is only fair to say ~hat if you like colloquies, you will likethese; and if you do not like them, you can. easily skip them, for they are clearly labeled. The meditations were composed originally by a ~ister who was mistress of novicek for thirty years. The editor has omittedthe parts that applied to ieligious women as such; hence the present edition is useful (decidedly so) to ~ill.--G. KELLY, S.3. THE CATHOLIC CENTRE. By Edward Ingram_ Watkln.Pp. 261. Sheed' and Ward, New YorE, 1945. $3.00.- The republishing of this book Six years after its first appearance is subely, due as much to the book's intrinsic merits as to the fact that Mr. Watkin's more recent Catholic Art and Culture has made his name and w(~rth known to a greater number of readers. This earlier work takes its name from the fact that "Since Catholic Christianity is the supreme :and most complete revelation of religious truth, and the philosophy which it implies the most.balanced and comprehen-sive i.nt~rpretation of human experience, we shall expect to find Catholicism and the philosophy it demands occupying a central position between all extremes and one,sided excesses, reconciling and 272 dulg, 1946 ~ BOOK, REVIEWS balancing[them,by m~aintfiining the p~ositive truth they'contain'~aiad rejecting their~exce~ses and exclusions." The detailed exposition of the ways in which Catholicism is central,~ complemented realistically by the fa~t, that "As. actually~ practiced and understoo& ho.wever, Catholicism is not the perfect oia media, nor do.es .it occupy the exact centre of. human thought and action" because of~human 1.imi-" tations "gives, the author materi:~l for a skillfully integrated., bogk. He~outli~es the ideal, searches out and b~ings under a very uncom~ .plimentary spotlight remediable defections from the ideal; and pro-poses various readjustments by .way of constructive criticism: The attentive reader will not always agree with Mr. Watkin, but he cad hardly fail. to-be,prodded into serious thinkihg oi~ fundamental .questions.--C. DE MUTH, S.,J. MISSION FOR SAMARIT.AN$. By Anna Dengel, M.D. I~p. x -[- 126. The ~,:~ Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1945. $1.75. Medical rriissions is" a,live subject,in the Catholic' mind. Here we hav~.~short .bier-comprehensive treatment from the pen of a pioneer in the movement. The doctor'and the religious in Mother Dengel speak on every page. Not only is she a skilled practitioner,~but she hfis~studied ~he;history °bf:her :field thoroughly. Her statements,~are carefully~ weighed anff sulS~orted; by c0nvincing~evidence. ceeds in stirring the heart to an.appreciation for her ideal,~the win_ning 6fpagan souls for,Christ by~supplyin~ them with.the expert medical ~a~?e of religious .doctor~ and.nurses. Christ is responsible; :for the Catholic attitude~'towards the s!~ck: He first healed men's bodies and.then won their~souls: Mother Dengel has it ~thiit one purpose of His coming was to. renew the weak.ened h~man"body for.the sake of thesoul. She~ puts before us the response ofthe Church tboChrist's~example and precept. ~ Universal care ,of the si~k and°diseased'has flourished wherever~Christ's Church has~ reache& The lat~er half~ of the book is of intriguing'interest. ~ The medi-c~ il situation of mosto of,our mission~fields, includingeven the,,Negroe.s and white vagrants of America, i~ briefly but chpably described. Tbe picture is indeed pathetic, all the more so because ignorance, super-station, and~lack of facilities i~ccount for so much needless suffering. Mother De_ngel shows us ou~ opportunity: if with complete unselfish-ness we devbte ourselve~to the restoration of pain-wracked bodies, we can be sure that the grace of Christ, working through us,¯will take care of their souls. R.D. HUBER. S.J. ,.273 BOOK REVIEWS FORMING A CHRISTIAN MENTALITY. By the Reverend Killan J. HennHch, O.F.M.Cap. Pp. xll -t- 288. Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., New York, 1945. (No price g~ven.) This book, designed as a companion volume to the :author's Youth Guidance, was written to aid priests, teachers, and parents in their direction of'young people. The work is divided into two parts. The aim of the first is to promote the spirttuahzatlon of individuals in their preparation for married life. The second part continues this project with a description of the Christianization of the famil,~ through the liturgy. Father Hennrich's qualifications for this task are attested by his many years of experience in dealing with'adolescents and by th6 dozen or more books he has written in the past several decades-on various phases of Catholic social activities. The exposition is rather abstract and impersonal, almost wholly unrelieved by graces of style, variety, or sprightliness. But preachers and educators who study the book perseveringly will find that it outlines a sound program for the instruction and religious guidance of young men and women. C. VOLLER'I', S.~I. HOW TO MEDITATE.BY Rev. John P. Roothaan, S.J. Translated by Rev. Louis J. Puhl, S.J. Pp. viii + 72. The Newman Bookshop, Westminster, Maryland, 1945. $1.25. First published in 1837, Father Roothaan's little treatise De Ratione Meditandi has become the classic exposition of the so-called "Ignatian Method'" of prayer. Not that St. Ignatius ever intended that religious and other pious persons should confine themselyes to this.rigidly methodical form of prayer for the rest of their lives. He himself "suggests bther forms in his Spiritual Exercises; but he intended it to serve as an introduction to and foundation for a life of prayer. Hence the translator tells us in his introductory note: "It is an undeniable fact that here even the most unlettered beginner will find a clear, easy, fruitful method of meditation that can easily be adapted., to personal needs and dispositions." Normally the religious who has seriously practiced this funda-mental method of prayer, as explained by Father Roothaan, will in due time pass on to the practice of affective prayer: but even he will find it helpful if not necessary to fall back occasionally upon the method d~scribed by the author. It is always a safe refuge in time of spiritual dryness and affliction. ¯ 274 July, 1946 ,~ BOOK REVIEWS Thi~ little book should b~ in the hands of every novice. Older ¯ religious will 6nd it u~eful reading "to spu'r them on to greater dill-gence in practical .and fruitful prayer, and zeal in the pursuit of per-fection." This reviewer .regrets exceedingly that this English version of Father Rootbaan's classic was not publ.ished ~n pamphlet form so as t6 give it a wider distribution.--A.C. ELLIS, S.J. THE MYSTICAL BODY OF, CHRIST. By Frledrlch Ji~rgensmeler, D.D. Transl,,fed by H. Gardner Curtis. Pp. :~09. The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, J945. $3,00. The first section of this book discusses the biblical doctrine.and offers an excellent presentation of the importance and place of the Mystical Body in the divine plan of salvation. The second part develops the author's conviction that this ~ys~ery is the fun~amental~ principle of asceticism. /, The translation from ~bicb this photographic reproduction was ma'de is yery disappointing. After comparing several sections of the book, sections of ten to fifteen pages in length, with the original German, this reviewer was astounded at the many inaccuracies found in the translation. Furthermorel ~t times, phrases, clauses (in fact, sometimes' whole sentences) have been~ omitted. For example, we. read (p. 64) : "The Second Person of the. Godhead u, nited mankind to Himself in a hypostatic union." And, again (p. 81) : "Christ is distinguished from the Father and the Holy~ Ghost by the circum-stance .of His human, existence." .Needless to say, the original Ger-man does not have such ambiguous-(to say.the very least)~ doctrine. The last paragraphs of pages 65~.~66, and sections of pages 69 and 70 are very inaccurately translated. In general, religibus who have not studied theol0gy will find this book too ponderous. Sections, especially the treatment of the Mys: .tical. Body in the ascetical life, will be .helpful. But we cannot ,. recommend the English translation.--M. LA PIETE EUCH,~RISTIOUE By J. F.Ber~ube, s.s.s. Pp. 151. La Libr'-'qrle Eucharls÷ique, 514,.avenue Monf-Royal Est, M<;nfreal 34, 1945. (No '" prlce-given,) The source,, the means, ~nd the end of a11 our life of grace is 2esus Christ. The Holy Eticharist, ~because it c6ntains the whole Christ, must therefore be the source, the means, and.the end of .our spiritual 275 BOOK REVIEWS R~oieto [oF Religidus life. How the Eucharistic Christ, in the ~acrifice of the' Mi~ss, in Holy Communion, in the Real Presence, is the all and all of our tioliness, and fl0w we should respond to these profound truths-- .l~his is the book's important message to the faithful. It is followe.d by two eloquent~ inspiring pronoi~ncements of Pius XII

Issue 4.6 of the Review for Religious, 1945. ; ¯ for " " ' NOVEMBER 15, 1945 ";Joseph's Jubilee, ¯ , . Francis Latin Psaffer . Michael J. ~ ;nce of Rel;9;ous . ~,dam Consider ,~n~ic~ris~? . A.gusfi, C. I:~:No÷ of TMs Fold . Job. S. Co~( s from fhe C~ounci] of Trent . A., ~)~0ne but Jesus" . Charles F. Theology for Everybody . '. Gerald Co~municafions Ouesfions Answered.' ¯ Decisions of the HolySee 'Books Reviewed Index t"o Volume Four " EVlE FOR RELIGI VOLUME IV NOVEMBER 15, 1945 NUMBER, CONTENTS ST. JOSEPH'S JUBILEE Francis L. Filas. S.J . TI~tE NEW LATIN PSALTE'RNMichael J. Gruenthaner, S.J . 365_'~ BOOKLET NOTICES . ". ~ . 372 CORRESPONDENCE O'F RELIGIOUS--Adam C. Ellis, S.J . 373~. WHY'NOT CONSIDER ANTICHRIST?Augustin C. Wand. S.J. STILL NOT OF THIS FOLD~-John E. oogan. s.J . CONCERNING COMMUNICATIONS . 398 S.PiRITUAL READINGS FROM .THE COUNCIL OF TRENT IIN Augustine Klaas; S.J. " . 39,~ "NO ONE BUT JESUS"-~Charles F. Donovan. S.J . 4~5~' BCOKS RECEIVED .~. .'; . 409 LITURGICAL PROCEEDINGS .~. . : . MORAL THEOLOGY FOR EVERYBODY.---Gerald Kelly, S.3. DECISIONS OF THE HOLY SEE . 421" NEW CONTRIBUTORS . 422. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- 47. Sick Sister Requests Comm.union_ . . 48: Number of Siiters in United States .° . .423 49. Superior's Duty to Demand Salaries . 423 50. Apostates from Religion Exi:ommunicated .424 51. Right to Introduce New Devotions . BdOK REVIEWS-- Christian Denominations: Further Discourses on the. Ho!y Ghost: Moral Theology; The Ho.ly Sacrifice: Augustine's Quest for Wisdom .425~ INDEX TO VOLUME IV . ~ . ~ . 429 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. November. 1945. V61. IV. No. 6. Published bi-monthly : ,January. March. May, July, September. and .November at the College Pres.s, if 606 Harrison Street; Topeka. Kansas, by St. Mary's College; St. Marys, Kansas.l with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matter January 15. at the Post Office, Topeka. Kansas. under the act of March 3, 187,9. Editorial Board: Adam C. Ellis. S.3. G. Augustine Ellard. S.3., Gerald Kelly, Editorial Secretary: Alfred-F. Schneider. S.J. " Copyright. 1945. by Adam C. Ellis. Permission is hereby granted for quotation: of 'reasonable length, provided 'due credit be given this rewew and ,the authoi, Subscription price: 2 dollars a year. // Printed in U. S. Before writin~ to u~, ple~se"consult notice on Inside back cover. .:(. ~, St. Joseph's Jubilee Francis L: Filas, S.J. ~N DECEMBER 8, seventy-fivE years ago, Pope Pius IX, acceding to the wishes of hundreds of bishops and thousands-of priests and faithful, declared St. Joseph Patron. of the Universal Chtirch. This action on the part of the Holy Father marked, the end of the era of ~t. Joseph's obscurit~y and ushered in'a period ~when the humble, lovable foster-father of-Jesus was honored to an extent far.beyond th~ most optimistic hope~ of the early proponents.ofhis devotion. The prese.nt sketch purposes tO relate how and why St. Joseph obtained his outstanding ,position in the devotional life of/he Church. .~ ¯ Pope Leo XHI in his encyclical, Quamquam Pluries, su~cinc-t[y set forth the basis for Joseph's p.atronage: ' The Holy Family which Josepl~ governed, as with paternal authority, so he.wrote, contained the beginnings.of the new. "Church. Here was Mary, the Mother of God, who was to become the m6ther of all Christians when she bore them 6n .Ca!vary amid the sufferings of her Redeemer Son. At. that same time ,Jesus-became the firstborn of Christians, ~is brothers by adoption~ and redemption. Consequently Joseph, tl4e "watchful defender of Christ" and "chaste guardian of the Virgin,'.' .cherishes with singular affection the multitudes who make up the Church of his foster Son: Over this multitude "he rules with a sort of paternal authority, because he is the husband of Mary and the father of Jesus Christ. Thus, it is conformable to reason and in every .way becoming to blessed Joseph that as once it was his sacred trustto .guard with watchful care the family of Nazareth, no matter what befell, so now, by .virtue of his 361 FRANCIS L.FILAS Reoie~v for Religious heavenly patronage, he is in turn to protect and defend the Church of. Christ." This concept of~ Joseph's patronage lay.hidde~ and unnoticed for centuries. Probably the first to propose it was John Gerson, the chancellor of the University of Paris, who described it in a sermon to the members of the Council of Constance on September.8, 1416. Gerson'~ sermon had ¯ for its purpose the adoption of a feast of the espousals of Joseph and Mary. With deep anxiety ~he chancellor noted the disastrous results of the great Western Schism bf 13 78, a woufid which-was still unhealed. He asked for approv.ai - of the feast of the. espousals "in Order that through the merits of Mary and through the intercession of so great, so powerful.ahd in a certain way so omnipotent an intercessor ~ith his b~ide., the Church might be led to her only true and safe lord, the supren~e pastor, her spouse in place~ of Christ." The suggestion made by Gerson Was not acted upon,. but once it had been put forth, the idea continued to recur to friends of St. Joseph. What really began to receive marked emphasis .was Joseph's part as guardian of the H01y Family. The full understandink of this role contained the: idea of ~Joseph's further guardianship of the Church. It Was next elaborated in the Summa of the Gifts of St. doseph, a pioneeringbook written by the Dominican. Isidor de Isolani in 1-522. His work gathered the various materihls that.had already been published about St.Joseph and told of the Saint's life, wrtues, blessings, and. glory in Heaven. Isolani also d~ew a glowing picture of Joseph's future glory_on earth. While depicting the exceptional hbn-ors he felt sure would be granted his Saint, he had this to say: "For the honor of His name God has chosen St.-Joseph as head and special patron of the kingdom of the Church, Militant." _ 362 November, 194.5 ST. JOSEPH'S JUBILEE, The theme of St. Joseph's guidanceof the Holy Fam'ily and the Church ~ontinued to run.through the,d~votion as it flourished up to the middle of the 18th cenl:ury. Here, in common with t-he fortunes of the; Church, it suffered a relapse; but with the reign of Plus IX, a hundred year~ later, i~t again surged forward. During t.he 1860's various 'petitions from~ bishops,, priests, and the faithful were~sent to the HolySee, askin~ for St. Josephls full. glorification in the liturgy, and for the declaration of his patronage of the Universal Church. Three special.petitions were presented to the Vatican Council in 1869-70. It seems, that these three were the petitions that moved Pius IX to n~ake his declaration on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1870. Qer~on's purpose was. ~chieved; St. ~Jos~ph was offi- ~ cially proclaimed Patron Of tl~e Universal ,Church--and how sorely the,Church needed that help! Plus had already ' been stripped of his temporal holdings. In a score of countries rampan,t anticlericalism was riding apparently unchecke~t against a Church which the infallible savant~ of that "progressive" era declared dying if not already dead. ~The stre.ngth of the papac~y h~d been c6mpletely broken. so they said; the prestige of the prisoner of the Vatican was shorn from him and his successors for .all time. But as usual with enemie~ of ~he Church, they forgot Christ's promise to be v~ith His Church forever. They forgot the power of its.~mother, of her who was conceived without sin-~in fact they merely laughed at and disregarded the "out-dated" dogma about ~hero which the Pope had expounded. Probably they did not even kn6w of the .Holy Father's action reg,arding St. Joseph on that momentous Feast of theImmaculate Conception in 1870. Now, seventy-five, years later, what is. the prestige of the Churc~ St. doseph protects? Or what is the power.of 363 FRANCIS L. FILAS the Pope, so intangible, yet so compelling, ~hat kept the. Nazi invaders from settin~g foot on the territory of Vatican City? The world press invariably seeks the reaction of the Holy Father on every moral issue that-arises. The ChurCh "is daily recognized as a stable force, if not the or~ly stable force, in a world going somewhere towards" progress "or destr_uction'with, awesomerapidity. It is hard to dismiss i~his resurgence of the Church since. 1870 as mere chance. St. ,Joseph's patronage has shown its effects. Nor hasthe Church been ungrateful t6 its protector. In the last seventy-fi~ve years the popes have lavishly show-ered liturgical honors on St. ,Joseph. He alone of all saints except our Blessed Lady has~been given two feasts of excep-tional r~ink, a spe.cial preface in the Mass, a l!tany, in his ~ honor, separate invocation in the prayers for the dying, and particular mention in the Divine Praises. Now, as the Church is facing a continued crisis in its own and in-the world's history, ,Joseph isoagain the standard-bearer, spear-heading the campaign against atheistic communism, the threat of our times. His name is ever linked with those of ,Jesus and Mary. In all these tributes the mind of the Church can be discerned implicitly: St. ,Joseph is worthy of sp~cial.venerati0n~ second only .to Mary and above the veneration granted any other angel or saint. As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of his patronage of the Universal Church, we should humbly thank Almighty God for ~having given St. ,Joseph to us. and thank, too, our protector for his services to the Church just as Mary and ,Jesus thanked him ~or all he did at Betfi-lehem, in Egypt, and-at Nazareth. 364 The New Lat:in Psalt:er Micfiael J. Gru~nthaner,'S.J. THAT tl~e Psalms are. endowed with unu~uaI .poetic beauty and spiritual powe~ is concedeffby all; Cath~ olics and non-Catholics alike. They reveal to us the glorious attributes of the divinity; they speak ~o us of the sufferifigs and the triumph of the Messias; they recount to us the events and lessons of Israel's h!story; they instruct, us. in the ~ays of true wisdom. Their chief attraction, how-ever, lies in the fact that so manyof them depict .to us the anguish of thehuman heart struggling with almost every imaginable phase of .adversity and rising to heights of hero-oiSmby unshaken confidence in God and persevering prayer. ~Each Psalm, therefore,~ is a gem of religious thought. Its power to enlighten the mind and warm the. heart springs , not only from the wisdom and artistry of its human author but pr.incipally from the Holy Spirit, who inspired its pro-. duction. Need weowonder, then,.that the Psalms formed the favorite private prayer of the devout Jew in the Old .JTestament and that not a few of them,were sun. g in the Temple to enrich and spiritualize¯-the sacrificia, l.Lritual? Under the c!r~cums.tances,_~it seems but natural that the Psalms should.be ,repeatedly quoted by: Christ and° the Apostles and~that the Church should, prize them as a pre-cious heritage from the Old Dispensation: So highly did she esteem them that she allotted them a commanding poSi-tion in her liturgy. Full enjoYment of .the spiritual treasures contained within the Psalms has, however, been barred to many. The reason is that the early Church received the Psalter in an unskillful translation from the Greek, which inits turn 365 MICHAEL J. GRUENTHANER Revieu~ for R~ligious .was an imperfect tendering of the original Hebrew. St. Jerome,.to whom the Church owes so much. for his labors in behalf of the Scriptures, ameliorated ~he situation slightly by revising the Old Latin version extant in his day in accordance with better Greek manuscripts. His first emendation of the Psalter appeared in Rome about 383 and was adopted by the churches of the Eternal City; for this reason it is known as the Roman Psalter. In 386, while residing in Palestine, he published a second and more extensive revision of. the Psalter based, like the former, exclusively on the Greek or Septuagint verson. Because it first gained great popularity in Gaul, it is called the Gallican Psalter. Ultimately, it became the version current in the Latin Church and was incorporated in the Vulgate as the OfFicial translation of that Church. To facilitate religious discussion between Jews and Christians, St. Jerome also translated the Psalms directly from the Hebrew, but this so-called Hebrew Psalter never c~iptivated the ordinary ¯ clergy and the laity; it remained restricted in use to scholars. Histor~t o[ the Neu~ Version The Gallican Psalter, therefore, found in the Vulgate and the Roman Breviary, retains some of the defects of the Old Latin together with all the weaknesses of the Septua- - gjnt, its archetype. These deficiencies became ever more apparent with the progress of biblical studies in modern times. It was noted., that .the meaning of the Psalms had been obscured not infrequently and that much of their artistic merit bad evaporated in the course of the double trans, lation to which they had been subjected. To bring outthe full significance and poetic.beauty of the. Psalms, Catholic.scholars in xiarious countries began to publish translations of the Hebrew text in th~ vernacular. These proved to be so conducive to a fuller understanding and 366 November~ 1945 THE NEW LATIN PSALTER~ keener appreciation of these inspired poems that a move-ment arose among priests and religious to have a Latin ver-sion of the Psalter more consonant with the original than the official Vulgate or Gallican Psalter. ¯ This desire became so widespread that our reigning Pontiff, Pius XII, corn- " missioned the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome to pre-pare a new version of the Psalter in harmony with~ all the most~ approved methods of textual criticis~m. The task of preparing this translation was confided to six professors, each of whom was a specialist in one or more of the branches of bibllcal science bearin.g~ on the subject. Begun in ~lanuary, 1941, the prdject was completed after thre~ and a half.years of intense labor. The Holy Father found, the manuscript of the new version~ so satisfactory that he ~ommanded it to be printed. In accordance with this command tvco books were published by the Vatican Press in 1945" a Liber Psalmorum, and a liturgical edition in which the Psalms oof the new version are arranged according to the system followed in the breviary. The Liber Psalmorum contains a new version not only of the Psalms but also of the canticles ot~ the Old and New Testaments usually° recited in the breviary. Each of them is headed by a suitable title; the text is preceded by a short analysis exhibiting the nature and interrelation of its tho.ught. Brief footnotes have been added, explaining difficult expressionsand ideas, as well as setting forth the reasons for the translation adbpted. These notes supply the absolute minimum required for the comprehension of the text; they are not intended to supplant the more exten- o sive commentaries which supply a complete exposition of all tbd problems presented by a particular Psalm. The 'book is also provided with a brief introduction de. aling with the nature, origin, and history of the Psalms; essentials 9nly are considered and controversial issues are avoided. 367 MICHAEL J. GRUENTHANER Review [or Religious A notable feature of the book is the Morn Proprio of Pius XII, In cotidianis precibns, which is concerned with the new version. It recounts its history, character, alad purpose, and grants permission to all those who so desire to substitute the New Psalter ~for the older one in the pub-lic or private recitation of the Divine Office; this permission is to be valid as soon as the liturgical edition shall have been published. The New Psalter, therefore, has the same official standing as the Vulgate version. This is, unques-tionably, a momentous step; for the latter has been used exclusively i.n the breviary for so many centuries" it is intimately-interwoven with the writings.bf the Fathers, as ~-~the Sovereign Pontiff notes in the Motu Proprio; it has been declareff authenti~ by the Council oi: Trent. The motives ~prompting the Pope to introduce so startlin~ an innovation are well set forth in his Motu Proprio: That all may hereafter derive greater light, grace, and consolation from the recitation of the Divine .Office, so that, enlightened and impelled by these, they may in these most, difficul~ times of the Church be fittedmore and more to imitate the models of sanctity shining forth so egregiously in the Psalms and that they, may be moved to nourish and foster anew the sentiments of divine love, strenuous courage, and piou.s 'repent~ance which the Holy Spir'~t excites within us when reading the Psalm~. Basic Text ot: the New Version An attentive scrutiny of the New Psalter'shows .that: it fulfills, the ~ishes of the Holy Father. First of all, it is based upon a corrected Hebrew text; in this respect it sur-passes any of the ancient ~'ersions. The text found in our present Hebrew Bibles cannot be. accepted without reserve. It is not derived immediately from~the autograph manu-scripts of the sacred writers but from copies which in their ttirn depend on a long line of ancestors. But a text which has come down to us through so many centuries of succes-~ 368 November, 1945 THE NEW LATIN PSALTER sive copying~nec~ssarily contains a :great variety of scribal err6rs. Furthermore, the .primal text of the Psalms ~was written in consonants .only," some oL which bore a close resmblanc~ to one another; in addition, .individual words were not separated from one another as clearly, as ,in. our printed books. Consequently, copyists made not a.few mis-takes by confusing similar letters, by combining: or dividing consonants illegitimately, and by :adding ,vowels that were not approprjaSe~. ° - The New Psalter hassucceeded in eliminating not afexO of these lapses by comparing the Hebrew text with the ver-sions and. by an intelligent application of other laws of textual criticism. How the text.has been improved inthis way may be seen from a few illustrative.examples. Psalm 28:8 in the Vulgate reads: "The voice of ~thd Lord pre-pareth the stags, and he will discover the thick woods.". This puzzling sentence is now replaced by the following: "The voice of the Lord con_torts oaks and strips forests." The much debated verse ini,Psalm 109:3, "From the womb, before the daystar, I begat thee" becomes more. intelligibly, ':Before the daystar, like th~ dew, I begat thee." More examples cannot be given here; it will suffice to say 'that all the resources of modern, scientific textual criticism have been e,mployed~to approximate.as closely as. possible the wording of the Psalms as it left the hands of their inspired authors. Greater Accuracg at~d Claritg Since the principal author of the Psalms is the Holy Spiri.tl the translators strove to reproduce their thoughts .and sentiments with the greatest precision. As a result, some ~bf the statements in the Vulgaye which were difficult to understand either in themselves or in thei~ .c0~ntext, have become lucidly clear. The ,enigmatic utterance of Psalm 63:7,. "Men shall come, to a deep heart, and God sl~all be. 369 MICHAEL J. GRUENTHANER Revleu~ for Religious exalted" takes quite another 'form in. the New Psalter, "They thihk up "evil schemes, they 'conceal the plans which they.have formed, for the mind and the heart of ~ach are deep:" .The passage refers to the evil intrigues of the god~ less againstthe good; ithas no reference to the heart of God, aS the Vulgate suggests. Similarly,- psalm 44:14' in the Vulgate. implies that the glory of t.he royal bride consists in .internal virtue, b~it the new Version renders correctly, glorious, the king's daughter hnters the palace." Th~ verse merely descbibes theoutw:ird appearance of the king's bride as she enters the palace in the.wedding procession. A marked advance in clarity has been achieved by the correct translationof the Hebrew tenses. Th6ugh there are but two of them, a Perfect and an Imperfect; they can-not be translated mechanicallyby the Past and the~Future. respectively, as the Greek attempts to do, without impairing the sense. The New Psalter, on the cofitra,ry, gives each tense its proper shade of meaning. ~ Thus in Psalm 42:3 the Psalmist d~clares in the Vulgate, ~'Sehd forth thy light and thy truth: they have conducted me and brought"me unto thy holy hill and into thy tabernacles." If isevident from the context, however, that the Psalmist is far from Sion; that he is, in fact, a prisoner in the vicinity of Mount Hermbn. The LiberPsalrnorum removes the incongruity by rendering the tenses more correctly, "May they lead me, may they guide~me" to thy ho!y hill and to thy tabernacles." Other sources of confusion in the Vulgate are the slavish rendering of _certain Hebrew idiomatic expressions,. the servile adherence to the letter of the Greek protgtype, and the translationof some geographical names. Needless to sa~y, these infelicities, of tran?lation have been emended in the Liber Psalmorum. Poetic Chara~cteristics Another laudable featureof the New ~salter is the care 370 November, i945 THE NEW LATIN PSAETER , with which itendeavors to conserve the poeti~ chracteris~i~S of ~he original. Forceful metaphors "and othel poeti~ devices indicative of a vivi~l imagination ~ind :strong emo- 'tion are not denatured b3i colorless or. insipid rendering's. Thus'in Psalm 17:3 God is addressed as a rock, a fortress,. a shield, and a tower; the ,forcefulness of these epithe.ts is much attenuated in the Vulgate. Again, in Ps'alm 23:7 the New Psalter correctly bids the gates to raise: their heads in order that tl-ie king of glory may enter; the Vulgate, however/avoids this vivid personification.by addressing the command" to the princes. Even the word-painting which is occasionMly found in the P~alms has been skillfully imitated in the new Ladr~ "version. Conspicuous examples_may be ieen in Psalm 28, in which a thunderstorm passing through P~lestine is desribed and inPsalm 92: 3, 4, which pictures the tumult of the waves breaking upon the seashore. The Liber Psalmorum also attends to the outward form - of Hebrew poetry, The verses are printed in stichs and trheefriar icnosm, abninda tthioen a lipnhtoa b,settriocpahl:e.s sitsr uincdtuicrea toefd .c eRretapient iPtisoanlms,s are also made clear to the reader. .Improved Latinit~ Aquality of the New Psalter which will appeal tO many is its improved Latinity. Expressions and, construc~i0ns which" entered the Vulgate from later Latin and from ,the conversfional .language of the people have been ex~ludedl Instead, the vocabulaiy, style, and grammar of the classical period have been adopted, without, however, disrega;ding the venerable tradition of the. Church; for the discarded words and pl~rases have to a large extent been replaced by others v~hich are classical and which are at'the same time found in other books of the Vulgate and the liturgy. Certain 371 MICHAEL J. GRUENTH~NER words, however, which have acquired adistinct.ively Chris-tian meaning, such .a~ $aluator, gr.atia; dilectio, .have been retained, even though the significance attached-to them has no support in classical usage. Though classical, the style is no~ involved: it is simple, smooth, ~lear, suitable for th~ r.ecitation of the Psalms in public. The LiberP~almorum is noW available in an American edition (Benziger Brothers), and the. liturgical edition will soon be reprinted in the United States. There can° be 'no ,doubt that the study and use of the New Psalter will con-tribute much towards a proper appraisal of the .unique literary qualities of the inspired lyric poems which it trhns-lares so felicitously; it w_ill,prove, above all, ~to be a power-ful means towards the attainment of that ideal of spiritual perfection w.hich 'is ever before the eyes of the devout priest hnd religious, whose life in God draws so much of its sus-tenance from the recitation of the Divine Office. BOOKLETS Maryknoll Mission Letters, Volume i, 1945, contains letters' from China, Latin America, and Central America. Besides the usual wholesome mission news. the volume outalns'mahy inter.estlng items: for example, the story of a snake charmer, an encounter with a tiger, and how it feels to be stung by a scorpion. Price $.50. Order from: Field Afar.Press; 121 East 39th St., N.Y. Let's Look at 8ancti{~!ing Grace, by Francis P. Le Buffe, S:J., contains the sub.- stance of lectures given at the Summer School of Catholic Action. It is a dear-cut, s]istematical, .and simple presentation of a, difficult and involved subject. Readers will l~ke the homely examples and the naive diagrams. The first part of the bobklet deals with grace; the secofid part with the sacyaments, ,channels of-grace". A small bibliography is. suggested. Price $.10. Order from: ~The Queen's~Work, 3742 ¯ West Pine Bl~'d., St. Louis 8, Mo. Fa_ther.Albert A. Murray, C:P~S., informs us that many religious wrote for the booklet, Holy Hour for Conversions, after we announce.d it in our January number (p. 47). He wants our re_aders to know that the booklets are still available, free of charge. Write to: The Paulist Fathers, 911 South Wabash Ave., Chicago 5, Ill. 372 C6rrespondence ot: ReligiQus Adam C. Ellis,. S.J. [~DITORS' ~NOTI~': As a number of quesuons regarding the correspondence of reli-gious have been riceived by the Questions and Ans~vers Department of,.the REVIEW, it. was thought desirable to publish an article on this important subject. The answers to the qu9~tions received will be found in the follow.'ing article.] ~'VERY man has a natural right~ to keep_.his secrets jt~st ~ as he has a right to hold and possess'p'roperty. Since man by nature isa s~cial being,, it frequently becomes necessary to communicate secrets in, writing, and his natural right~ to secrecy then ~xtends to all s.uch writings. This point is most practical :in regard to correspondence or letter writing, and moral theologians tell us that one who reads the letters of another contrary to his wishes violates "a nat-ural secret and may sin .gravely ~gainst justice. .,- When a man unites with his fellow men in any kind Of society, he usually does so in order to share in the benefits to be derived from such a.union benefits which hecannot conven!entiy obtain by himself but which are.the fruits of mutual efforts and of the pooling of individual resources whether these beomaterial objects or the higher and better things of, mind and heart. Experience teaches that in pro-portion to the benefits derived from such common enter~ prises, the individual members must give up certain rights which are not compatible with the common ~good aimed ~t by the society: In a word, if the members of a society wish to share in the benefits which are inherent in the organiza-. tion, they must comply with the conditions laid down for member~ship; and these conditions ~almost always curtail individual rights to a greater or less degree. Such is the reason for and the source of limitations put upon religious in regard to letter writing. Practically every re!igious institute in the Churc~h lays down certain condl- - 3.73 ADAM C. ELLIS Reoielo For Religious tions for such correspondence, and the candidate who applies for admission implicitly accepts all the limitations and restrictions contained in the rule and constitutions in order that he may share .in. the benefits to be derived from membership in the religious society. It will be helpful, therefore, both for superior~ and for subjects, to study, in detail the rights and obligations of both in regard to this matter of correspondence. The Law and Its Purpose Before the Co'de was promulgated,' there was ,no general ilnacwom oinf~g. tahned Couhtugrocihn gr emqauiilr tion gth ael lc ernesliogrisohuips otof tshuebirm suitp teh-.eir riors. Nevertheless, in practically all orders, and congrega-tions, .this was required by the constitutions or .by custom. The Norroae of 1901; which established the standards of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops" and Regulars for the approval of constitutions of new institutes with simple-vows and Which were based upon the practice of the same Congregation during the preceding fifty years, contained two articles on the'subject. Art.~ 179 required that "all-letters to be sent by the religious, as well as all letters sent to them, shall be given to the local superior who may read them at his discretion. Superiors, however, shall use this facultY with that moderation which prudence and charity dictate, and they are bound to secrecy regarding informa-tion thus-obtained." Art." 180 Stated that all letters" addressed to higher superiors (general and provincial), or to the local ordinary, or to the Sacred Congregation, and all letters received from these same persons, were free from such inspection and censorship. These provisions of the Normae were incorporated in all :constitutions approved by the S~cred Congregation during the past forty ye, ars and" more. 374 . b[ooembero 1945 CORRESPONDENCE OF RELIGIOUS The Code of Car~on Latu,.promulgated in~ 1917, has only one canon (No. 611 ) regarding the correspondenci~ of religious. This ca~on, ,which we shall consider presently, does not give sup~biors the right to read the letters of their ~ subjects. Rather it .supposes that this right is contained in the constitutions br, customs of individual institutes, to which it leaves the positive statement of all regulations con-~ "cerning letter writing. ° ~ The purposd of all rdstraint put upon the corresPond-ence of religious is the same as that of the law ofenclosure "--to shield the religious from the temptations, the cares, hnd the distractions of the world which religious have for-saken by their religious profession. There may be no qess danger in communication,with externs by means of letters ~h~in in conversation with them either in the parlor of the religious house or in the homes of secular persons. The religious who has heeded Christ's call, "Come, follow me," has fr.eely renounced the pleasures he might have enjoyed lawfully in the world, in order to follow Christ more closely by striving after perfection through the observance 6f the vows and the constitutions within the security of the cloister. Mere physical s~paration from the world will not attain this end if religious are allowed unrestrained contact with pe/sons in the world by means of correspondence. Hence it is evident that some kind of restraint or super-vision over such correspondence is necessary fob the protec-tion both of the individual and of the community. Rights and Obligations o~: Superiors " The constitutions and customs of each institute deter-mine what rights a superior has in regard to the cokre-spondence of his subjects. More often, especially in con. gregations of Sisters and Brothers, the constitutions pre, scribe what was stated in the Normae mentioned above. Let 375 ADAM C. ELLIS' Review for Religiou,~ us ~take these prescriptions as.a, starting point. All letters. written by-religious and. all letters addressed to religious must pass through the hands of the local supe riot; who has the right to r~ead, them. Thi~, means ~first of all that the 16cal superior isentrus~ed with the task of expediting:.,the mail of the community. He should~see to it, therefore,,,th;it all outgoing lett.drs are mailed promptly after they, ' have" been censored and that incoming letters are delivered-to the persons tO whom they .are addressed within a reasonable time. The right to read the letters of his subjects does not impose an obligation on the superior to do .'so, unless the constitutions impose it specifically. Hefice superiors are to -use their discretion. They-shou!d be fnore careful to read th,e letters of younger religious since these are in a period of sp!ritua! formation, and 'should be trained to use.modera-tion and prudence in regard to their correspondence both as to subject matter and~as, tochoice of persons. However, Superiors may well be more~ready to trust older religious whom;they know'by experience to be prudent in this mat-ter. , Such a0policy is.in,conformity with the moderation recommended by. the Normae. This moderation is to be based on a prudence and charity which will.prompt supe-riors to.instruct,those subjects who are imprudent.in-their " correspondence, pointing out tO them their defects and. .imprudences.so that they,~ may learn-.the norms of religious" moderation. This,-of coarse, should be done in such marl,. ner. as to a,void giving offense and:t0 "convirice. the subject that the only motive the super!or has in checking his cor-respondence'is hi~bwn'. flood afid'th:it of the"~ommunity. The Oblig[~tior~ or: Secrec~/. All commentatorson th~- subject 'of the ~orrespondence of religious.emphasize the. fact that the superior is bound by'the natural la,w to-k~ep Secret whatever information he 376 Nouember2,1945 CORRESPONDENCE OF .RELIGIO~S acquires by reading the letters of his subjects:- This obli-ga. ti~n binds in conscience and~ is of its: natureserious when the subject mat~ter is serious. Superiors, therefore, have,no right to communicate to others information obtained, by reading the correspondence of their subjects, nor may they themselves make use of such information except to prevent harm to the religious himself or to the community. ¯ It is tbe;duty of every superior to safeguard the welfare of individual subjects and of ~the community as a whole. Hence occasion~ may arise when it becomes, necessary, to make known to.higher superiors information received from reading letters. Whendver ~his is-.necessary, the superior may use such knowledge since in taking his vow of obedi-. ence according to the constitutions .the religious freely, giyces the superior the authority to do so. -Prudence and discre-tion Will be the twin guardians of the secret-and will indb care to the superior.the cases in which he should make use of his know!edge and the precautions .which should protect all ievelations of-this kind for instance, not-to make known too're than is necessary. Keeping in mind:the purpose'of all restrictionsregarding correspondence, namely, the protection of religious from the temptations, the cares, and the distractions of the world, superiors will more readily abstain from reading lettdrs" written by corresponddnts who have a spiritual, outlook and spiritual ~hilos0PhY. of life. This will be ~he case especially in regard to the correspondence of pious parents, brothers, and sisters of the religious. We believe that, as a general rule, superiors'should not rea'd letters received by older religious from the members of their immediate family; and. they may also show. their confidence- in'younger-reli-gious by not reading such letters unless some special circum-stance demands it, as in the case of parents who areopposed "to the vocation of their child and who may endeavor to 377 ADAM C. ELLIS Review for Religious ~nduce him to return to the family circle. While it is trde that parents and relatives of religious are usually aware that their correspondence is subject to inspec-tion by the religious superior, an'd that they have confidence in their discretion, nevertheless occasions will arise when they wish to communicate family secrets to their children and tothem alone. If they mark such a letter '-'personal," the superior should neither open it nor read it. If in some rare case h~ has good reason for. suspecting an abuse, he may refuse to give such. a letter to the religious to whom it is ~iddressed. In regard to correspondents of religious who are una-ware of the restrictions imposed upon 'communications by the constitutions and whose letters contain matter which the superior considers undesirable for the religious, the natural .right of the sender would seem to demand that the superior should not simply destroy such a letter, but rather return it to the ~ender _with an explanation of the regula-tions regarding the correspondence of religious and with a warning to desist from-se_nding such letters in the future. Usually it will be more prudent and less offensive to the unsuspecting correspondent to have the religious write hir~ and explain the situation to him. Rights and Duties of Subjects To begin, witl~, religious should .not look upon the restrictions placed upon letter writing by the constitutions as an unjustifiable restriction of their natural rights, but rather as a wise protection from the sp!rit of-the world which they have freely abandoned in order to serve God more perfectly in the religious life. As they grow older and become more experienced, tbey'will obtain a greater realization of the need to pro.tect, their reputatio~l as well as the good name of the communi'ty in which they live:, 578 November, 1945 CORRESPONDENCE OF RELIGIOUS Regularly permission must be obtained to write letters, either for each individual letter, as is usually the cas.e with novices; or a general permission is given which is.renewed from time to time. After the letter is written it is put unsealed into the superior's mail box. Similarly all letters addressed to the members of a religious community are first given to the superior before' they are distributed. The superior may open them and read them befor~ passing them on to the religious to whom they are addressed. Except for privileged letters---of which more will be said presently-- all correspondence of religious is thus subject to the authority of the superior according to the regulations con: tained in the constitutions and customs of each-individual institute. Some are. more strict than others, depending upon the spirit and particular end of each institute. While it. is true that these regulations of the constitutions regarding correspondence have the same binding force as ¯ other prescriptions and normally do not bind under pain of sin, it is likewise true that secret correspondence carried on contrary to the provisions of the rule is dangerous and can readily become sinful. Religious'should learn to be circumspect when they write letters, especially to people living in the world. Con-sciously or unconsciously such,people have a high regard for the religious state, and sometimes their expectations of reli-gious are even. higher than are those of religious superiors. They have never heard of.the distifiction that religious have not as yet ac~luired perfection, but are in the state of acquirifig it. Hence they are not a little surprised, to say the least, to find a religious writing about matters which are ~worldly, or uncharitable, or gossipy. Furthermore a reli-gious,- especially when he writes to members of other com-munities, must remember that individual communities as such also have a right to their secrets and that a religious 379. or o ADAM C, ELI~IS ¯ who Without rhyme or re~ison retails-.local difficulties and happenings which are not edifying offends againsvcharity, if not against justice. _ -, .: . Ex~eptions contained in Canon. 611 " -°° "All religious,-whetJ~er men or-women,, can fr@dy" send 161~e~s, exeml~t from all control (nulll obnoxlas.lnspectionl), to the Holy See and. its Le~gate in the cou~ntry,~to their Cardinal Protector, to their own h;cjher supe~r;ors, fo ~he super;o~ of their house.when absent, to the local ordinary to ~hom they are subject, and, in the case of nuns subject tO the jurisdiction ~f regularS, to the.higher.superlors 6f-th~ order; and from all these p~rsons the religi~us;'~ne~ or ~vomen, can also receive leffers which' r;obody has a right to open.:-(CanOn 611.) These exceptions may be.divided into two classesi let-ters Written to certain ecclesiatical superiors, that is, to the Holy See, the Apostolic Delegate, the local ordinary; ~nd tO the Cardinal Protector. While the l~st mentioned is not, strictly speaking, an ecclesiastical superior,, still he has specialrelation to the congr~g~ition orinstitute and fre-quehtly,, takes care of its correspondehce witl~ the Holy See: The second class of-persons mentioned in the exc_eption are certain religious superiors, that is, all higher superiors .(superiors .general and provincial superiors) and one'.s own local superior ~hen.that superior hap'pens to be absent, from the community. Every religious h,as a strict.~rigl~t to send letters to any~of these persons and to receive letters from them and such letters are not subject, to inspection. It may be well to compare the persons mentioned in the canon with those mentione'd in the Norrnae. There are three notable, differences: (1) the Normae.did not include the Cardinal Protector, the Code ~loes; (2) the Norrnae included councillorsand assistants, the. Code omits therri; (3) the Norrnae meritioned only the S. Congregation o'f -Bishops and Regulars, the Code includes a_ll the Roman Congregations in the term "Holy See." Neither the Norrnae nor the Code grants the right of free correspondence with. ~380 November, "I 9,15 CORRESPONDENCE 6F RELIGIOUS the confess0r~. The ~constitutions~ ~ay~ of course, extend the liberty .g~anted by the Code to' other persons ,not men-tioned in the canon, for instance, to the general ouncillors~ but unless .they are ~xplicitly mentioned in th~ constitu~ tions, these persons are not entitled to the privilege under the Code., ' " . What is meant by the term "free from all inspection"? ¯The authorized English translation of the canons of :the Code which pe~rtain to religious, publishe.d .,by the Vatican Press, translates it by "exempt from all control." The least that one.can conclude from the text.of the Code .is that every religious has the right to send such letters sealed with, out aski.ng .any permission ,from superiors. Although 'the literal interpretation of the Latin text of the Code would seem to require that all "such correspondence must-.pass through, the hands-of superiors, even though they.may not ope~ or read them, still the phrase employed in the author~ ized translationo, e"x e m "pt from all control," would seem to permit the sending and recdving of such letters withou.t their passing through file hands of the local superior. :This opinion was defended even before the Code by canonists who knew the .viewpoint of the S. Congregation of Reli- " gious and is held today by a number of authoritative com-mentators. Their reason for~ this opinion is that otherwise tht liberty granted .~ by the'Code would be restricted, and religious would not bd free in such correspondence. Does this mean that.a religious may send such letters throtigh any intermediary whatever, and that he may pro-cure stamps from anybody in Order to mail such privileged letters freely? - 0pinionsdiffer in this matter,, and a reason-abl. e reconciliation of divergent views seems to be as follows. °Whenever their rights are sufficiently protected hy having such sealed letters pais through the ordinary channels, reli- .g~ous should ~foll0.w this method: Usually there.will be, no ADA~ C. ELLIS " Review for Religious inconvenience in sending ~ealed letters to high'e~ superiors through .the hands ofthe local superior. Bht if the ~religious has a good reason for not wanting his supe.rior to know that he is writing to higher superiors, especially to ecclesi, asti~al superiors, he may mail the letter personally or have someone else mail.it, being careful to select a prudent person who will not be astonished at his request. It i.s customary in some communities for the assistant superior or some older religious to provide stamps for' this purpose, and this is a laudable custom: A religious, therefore, who for good reasons obtain~ a stamp "from ~a prudent person and sends an exempted letter without havingit pass through the hands of his superior violates neither the rule nor his vow of poverty. The permission" of the Holy See is implicit in the ~authorization to send such a lette~ freely~. Such cases will occur rarely, and if the restrictions above laid down are observed, there, will be little danger of abuses. These can occur, of ~ourse, but the fear of. an abuse does not take away the right granted by the law. R~!igious seldom send le~t-ters to the local ordinary, much less to the Holy See, with-° out a serious reason; and if it be necessary, these high authorities will curb any excess on the part of indiscreet correspondents. ¯Letters of Cdt~science As we have seen a.bove, neither the No~rnae nor the Code allow free correspondence with th~ confessor or spiritual director~ and canonists who are intimately acquainted with the mind of the S. Congret~ation.of Religious tell us that the S. Congregation judges that such correspondence can easily lead to abuse, especially in communities of religious women; hence it will never allow the constitutions approved by it to include the confessor among the persons excepted. On.theother'~hand it recommends that superiors use their discretion in individtial cases, and grant permi& 382. November° 1945 CORRESPONDENCE OF RELIGIOUS sion for such letters when it ~s reaso.n~ably requested. ;While it is true that superiors are not bound" in strict justice to do so, nevertheless, in'certain cas.es they will .be b6und by charity to bring ~elief to the spiritual need of their subjects. If the superior has granted permission for letters of conscience, he may not read them,-nor the answers received to them. This p~rmissiQn, however, does not give .the sender~the right to mail such lette/s without the knowledge bf the superior~ In these cases it is customary to use two envelopes. The letter is placed in the inner envelope, .sealed, and marked "conscience matter." This isthen, placed in an outer envelopi~ containing the address and. is pu,t unsealed .into the superior's mail box. If the superior has not granted permission to the reli-gious to send a letter of conscience, and the" subject writ,es such a letter, that letter is subje~t to the ini;pection of th~ superior. If an incoming, letter is marked "conscience mat-ter," the superior may not read it; but, as prudence dictates, he may or may not give it to the religious subject to whom it is addressed: ,If he deems, it necessary to refuse to give the letter to the religious,-he.should return it to the sender unopened, warn him that such correspondence is not per-mitted and that any such letters .sent in the future w_ill be opened or destroye.d. Religious on. their part should be reasonable in their requests to send such "conscience" letters, and they should ¯ realize that it is preferable to receive spiritual direction by word of mouth rather than by letter. The. director is able to ask questions, and obtain information necessary to give sound direction, and the religious has the oppoitunity t6 ask for further information or advice. Thus he can be'cer-tain that he clearly understands the direction given. In a letter; however, a religious may find it difficult to express himself clearly and fully so as to .give a complete pic.t.ure to 383 ADAM C. ELLIS R. euieu~ for Religious the direct'or and to avoid giving a false impression Which may lead to wrong advice. It is also possible for a religious to misunderstand or misinterpret the advice given by the director in a letter. Then there is tlde possibledanger, that' a letter may be lost, or opened by others, oreven that it be Published. Conclusion " In conclusion it may be well to sum up briefly what has been said on this subject~. (1) The Code of Canon Law does not give religious superiors the right to read the correspondence b.f their sub-jects. This right comes from the constitutions 0f the indi-vidual institute or.from custom, and is stiictly limited by them. (2) The superior who has the right and the duty of _inspecting the correspondence of his subjects-is strictly bound by. the natural law Of secrecy in regard to the con-tents of such correspondence. He may refuse .to send out certain letters Written by religious, and he may refuse to deliver undesirable letters addressed to religious, but if be has read them he is bound to secrecy in regard to, their contents. (3) Canon 611 gives the religi_ous the right to corre-spond freely with certain ecclesiastical and religious supe-riors. Such letters are free from all inspectio.n on the part of superiors, fis are all replies received to them. Superiors may neither open nor read such letters. (.4) Normally religio.us should mail such exempt let-ters'. after their have sealed them; through their superiors. For a good reason, however, religious may get stamps from a prudent person and mail siach letters directly without the knowledge of their superio.r: (5) As tO letters Of conscience, they are not en.cour-aged, and may not be sdnt or received without.the permis- 384 CORRESPONDENCE OF RI~LIGIOUS 385 s~on of th.e superior. However, once permission is granted for such letters, the superior¯ may-neither .open" hotread .them or the replies received to them. (6).In regard to ordinary letters received by religious, superiors should be moderate in the use of the powers granted to them by the constitutions. This is especially the case in the correspondence of religious with their parents and nea~ relatives. Superiors should not iead such letters when it is evident that. they contain family secrets. (7) When a letter is received from an undesirable.cor-respondent, it will be mor~ prudent for the superior to return it to the sender, or, preferably, to. permit the reli-gious to Whom it was addressed to write to the correspond-ent explaining the regulations of the institute in th~ n4atter and warning him to desist from sending such letters in the future. (8) Re_ligious should not look upon the restrictio~ns placed upon letter writing by the constitutions as an intol-erable burden or as an oldfashioned restriction .of~ rights, but rather they should consider them as a protection for themselves and their reputation, as well as for the good name of the communi[y in which they live. (9) Religious should learn to be prudent and mod-erate in writing letters, especially to people in the world-. The latter normally have a very high esteem for the reli-gious life andfor religious in general, and they are apt to be stfrprised at finding a religious expressing himself in his let-ters regarding matters which are wor~ldly, or uncharitable, o or just gossipy. (10) Religious communities as such also have a right to their secrets, and religious should show their loyalty by carefully abstaining from revealing in their letters any untoward, happenings which might ngt, be edifying to members of other communities, much less to externs. /'hy Not: Consider An!:ichrist ?" Augustin C. Wand, S.J: THE theme of the Antichrist has for many Catholics an air of the mysterious, the legendary, and the bizarre. If it is mentioned at all it is apt to be shrugged off as unreal and distantly removed. Not even its broad outlines and salient features enter into the thought-and life either" of, the ordinary Christian or bf the seeker for the higher things of the Spirit. It is,. as it were, taboo among serious Christians, whilst the rationalist critics treat it as a bit of Yet it w~is not always thus. The Fathers of the Church abound in direct statements and in allusions to the person and~the career of this opponent of Christ. The earliest of these found a well developed tradition on the subject~' among the Jews, as a careful study of the so-called Old Testament Apocrypha has show.n. ~ This tradition was somewhat clarified and fixed by St. Paul and St. John. From these writers we c'an see that in its primary and proper sense Antichrist is a definite person in whom hatred for Christ and opposition to His Worl~ i's, as it were, per-sonified. The term "Antichrist" is not a proper ~name but a descriptive expression for which also several other words are used. St. Paul tells the Thessal0nians jn his second let-ter that before Christ's return an6tiqer person will appear who-leads a great rebellion against God and tries to be treated as God himself. A great deceiver himself, he is likewise equipped by the devil with great powers for wbrking "signs and lying wonders," so that many who are incautious and ove.rconfident in themse.lves will be seriously misled. After having had his way in working evil for a 386 WHY NOT CONSIDt:R ANTICHRISTI tirrie this great seducer will be overcome by Christ (II Thess. 2:3-12). St: otohn gi~;es us the name Antichrist and fells about the helpers and the spirit of this terrifying indi-vidual.~ ([ 3ohn 2: 1.8-22: 4:3 : II John, 7). These are the main traits which the "New Testament writers have left us regarding the cartier of'the man whom St. Paul names the "man of sift': and the "son of perdition:" Aided and directed by these and other revelations the early Christian writers dwelt often and at length on the subject in learned;works, in sermons to the people, in Com-mentaries on the Scriptures, and in poetical, compositions. Already in the Doctrine of the Ttoeloe Apostle~ and in the so-called Epistle ot:Barnabas, in St. 3ustin, in Irenaeus, and in Tertullian numerou~ allusions to Antichrist a~e found and lessons are drawn from the theme.In the third cen-tury St. Hippolytus wrote a special treatise on the subject. He also spo_ke at length on it in his Commentarg on Daniel, as did St. Jerome and Th~odoretus. Victorinus of Pettau enlarged on it when interpreting the Apocalypse, St. Greg-ory the Great when explaining the Book of ,Job, Rhabanus Maurus.when handling the Bo.ok of dudges and the el:?istles of St. Paul. The poet Commodian and the rhetorician Lactantius spin long passages, filling in from the sibyls and other apocryphal sources, The. theme was, therefore, a familiar one during the whole of the patristic times. The subject thus bequeathed to the Middle Ages fur~ nished a stimulating, topic for tbi vivid imagination of ~hose"sti'rring times. About the middle of the tenth,cen-tury the abbot Adso wrote a tract for the queen Gerberga. In the main this repeated the traditional teaching but 'it added'also a few sibylline verses. Two centuries later we find a Ludus de Antichristo, showing that drama had seized upon the subject. About the same time another movement started which was to have. fateful consequences: 387 AUGUSTIN C. ¯WAND " Reoieu~ for Religious The abbo~ Joachim of Flora-thought ~to find the 'various epochs°of the history of the Church depicted in the suc-cessive visions a~nd figures of the Apocalypse. The spark thus lighted soon caused a conflagration~ .During the r~li-gious controversies of the late Middle. Ages feelings ran high. Some followers of Joachim thought t6 find Anti-christ in this or that pope of the time. Wycliffe and.Huss carried this tendency to new extremes. Along these paths the sixteenth-century reformers went to greater lengths: From Luther onwards the cry resounded that "the Pope is Antichrist." Thus it continued with greater Or lessuinsist- -ehce until well into the nineteenth century. John Henry Newman, while still an Anglican, wrote a lengthy essay in which he surveyed the history of this party cry and acutely pointed out the baleful conclusions that might be drawn from such a slogan) The din of this noisy campaign has, perhaps, led Cath-olics to fight shy of the subject of Antichrist.~ I~ is true that such leading-theologians as Suarez, Bellarmine, and Lessius wrote learned treatises On the subject; but these did hot reach the people and the later Scholastics soon. forgot about -them~ So we ring that preachers and spiritual writers, compilers of meditation books, and even at times the authors of theological textbooks have had little or nothing to say concer~ning Antichrist and the lessons that .can be drawn from the subject. - .0 - At the same time ~rationalists have seized upon the theme and have enervated it by their speculations. For them it is a bit of curious folk-lore. Its roots they trace to the ancient mythologies and its development is explained through various fortuitous h~ippenings. Nothing Super-natural has entered into this strhnge and curious story. So 1J.~H. Newman, Essays CriticalTat~d Historical II, 112-185. 388 WHY NOT CONSIDER .ANTICHRIST? "much have these critics:had the field ~t~themselves that Bousset, a leader in t.his ~investigation, has not found.it worth w, hile; either in' his book or in: several larger treatises in encyclopedias, to mention that there is another concep,. tion of 'this phenomenon. ' r YetCatholics should bear in mind that, if God found it worth while to make a revelation concerning events that are to precede the second coming of .Christ,_He :did this~for . a definite, and seri6us purpose~ Cardinal.~ Newman remarks. on this subjecti o- . - If dreadful scenes still~await the ChurCh, if~t_hey have been fore, told, and foretoldth~it christians may be prepared for ,them, no,calam-ity can be~greater than a belief that they have already ,been fulfilled, and that there is nothing to look.out for or fo fear: no devic~ of Satan can be more crafty than to make us think that they are not to come.2 The tone with which our Lord, St. Paul, and, St. ,John spoke was that of serious concern. Difficult.ies there are in understanding their language and obscurities ~emain but; as Father Martindale remarks, "The upshot . is not to make, us careless. We have to obey the reiterated command~" to Watch . We have. [not to] lap Ourselve~ in false security precisely because [ the' horrible revelation ] has not come." The fullest ~and clearest statement of the d~octrine on Antichrist, though the term is not mentioned, is contained in the second epistle of St. Paul: to the Thessalonians (2:3- 12), which has already been summarized. However we are warned in the very text that the teaching is not mean~ to ~0e clear on all points. St. John uses the term Antichrist and gives some additional points in.his epistles (I, 2:1 22; 4.'3; II:7). Yet he speaks more about the followers of Antichrist than about the leader hinise~lf, The Apo~a- 2--1. c. p. 113 f. *C. C: Martindale, Antichrist, p. 24. 389 lypse;of :St.3ohn certalnly,has some matters that belong to the subject. Of Antichrist but the use of this book is b~set with difficulties and calls for the guidance of an experienced hand. The Fathers of the Church often spoke at length.on the subject. However in reading them a few cautions will be needed. Most of them stood too r~ear to the Roman Em, pire to .disengage themselves from the thought that the fate of,the world and of the Church was bound up with the destiny of that grand old institution. As is often the case with prophecy, the course of events has helped to clarify the. meaning to a certain extent: we now know that Rome has passed and still thegreat conflict has not cbme to an end. Our vision has been directed to a more distant futur~ but that does not impair the absolute truth of the predic[ion. ~ndependently of any reference to a particular political power, St. Augustine has indicated the prospect i1~ a few terse sentences: The first persecution of the Church was violent . the-second persecution is deceptive, sucl~ as is now being carried on by heretics and false brethren of .every description: the third through the agency of Antichrist is still to come, than Which there is nothing more dangerous, as it will be both violent and deceptive. Its force will rest onpolitical power, its deceit on miracles.4 Cardinal Newman has summed up the teachings of the Fathers in a series of lectur~ that will prove very handy2 The best introduction to the subject in English pr6bably is the pamphlet of Father C. C. Martindale, S.J., called Antichrist and published by the Catholic Truth Society of London. ~ 4Enarr.in Psalm. IX, n. 27: MPL. 36, 128. 5j. H. Newman, Discussions and Arguments on Various Subjects, 44-~108. "~90 S ill 0t: This Fold John E. Coogan, ~.J. THEODORE Maynard remarks in his,,Storb, of Ameri- .can Catholicism that there still is a mysterious leth-argy" in our Negro apostolate. Despite the heroic work done by individuals and groups, both clericai and lay, the'work of winning our thirteen million N~groes to the Church does not seem to get under way. The battle for the soul of the race still remains to be joined: so far all tha~ can be found is local skirmishes. Most of Negro A~merica even today remains absolutely unchurched. The two-hundred and fifty, varieties of Protestantism claim something less than one-half of Negro America, frequently to merely -nominal. affiliation. Negro Catholics represent only some two per (ent of the racial group. We Catholics publish slightly more favorable statistics from time t'o time; buc little jus.tificati9n is shown for the reputed rise except that where things are so bad, inevi'table change, must be an improvement. After all, some are being converted; and it is easy for us to fail to count those~ who are falling away. The Church in America has shown in other fidds than the race apostolate that, when we really make up our minds, things happen. For example, our Catholic school system taken as a whole, from kindergarten to university, is an achievement without precedent elsewhere. True, it teaches only half our Catholic students; another half still throng the halls, of Horace Mann. But the educational achievement of double-taxed Catholics is tremendous. Proportionate success in .the race apostolate would recall the, mass conversiqns of the primitive Church. .This statement is the more clearly true because there is 391 JOHN E. COOGAN Repieu~ ?or Reliyiofis no large group in America. that responds so r.eadily to sin-cere, he:irtfelt Catholic'. effdrt; seldom has fruit hung so ripe bn the tree, seldom were fields so ready for the harvest. "The mere announcement bf the opening, bf a Catholic school in o the corner of an old warehouse in. a Negro neighborhood has brought children by the hundreds, eager t6 be taught the things, of Holy God. Last year four thousand children applied for admission to 'a midweste~rn colored Catholic s~hool that could accept only one in ten. Another school was forced to ~u~rn away six hundred disappointed children for sheer lack of room. During thepast summer a nearby vacation school was so en~thusiastically attended that the opening-day teaching staff: had hastily to be doubled, and yet one-hundred and fifty children had to be sent~home. Evidence of whole-souled Catholic interest in the colored - brings an explosive response. ¯ ' The apparent explanation of our slight progress in the Negro apostolate is ,that the collective heart of Catholic America has not been touched. The Holy Father could say, six years ago, We confess that We feel a special paternal affection, which is cer-tainly inspired of Heaven, for the Negro people dwel!ing among you; for in the field of religion .and education We know that they need special care and comfort and are very deserving of" it. We therefore invoke an abundance of heavenly blessing and We pray fruitful suc-cess for those whose generous zeal is devoted t6 their welfare. (Sectura Laetitiae, America Press edition, n. ~14) And in 1942 the American hierarchy, speaking, through the Administra~ivej Board of the National Catholic"Welfare Conference, could say of "our .colored fellow-citizens," "We.fully appreci,ate their many native gifts and aptitudes which, ennobled and enriched by ~ true Christian life, will make them a powerful influence in the establishment of a Christian social order." But the Catholic masses are largely heedless, and little is done. 392 Nooernber, 1945 STILL NOT OF THIS FOLD The eminent non-Catholic Negro historian, Dr. Ca~- ter Woodson, has described racial prejudice as Teutonic and Protestant. Dr.'Louis Snyder, of the department of his-tory of the College .of the City of New York, makes it con- ~equent upon "the division between Church and Statb during the Reformation and the developing territorial con-solidation and rise of national states." In confirmation of: these explanations, last year in Chicago the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church tldus confessed Protestant responsibility 'for racial prejudice: It is a sorry and alarming fact that Anglo-Saxon white Protestants seem to be imbudd with more feeling of racial superiority and are guilty of more arrogant snobbery toward those of another color than any other people. The church has apparently not succeeded in incul-cating humility in English-speaking whites. Equal candor would,, however, compel CatholiCs to acknowledge that here in North Americ&,-almos~ alone in all the Catholic world, many of us have become infected with this same intoldrant spirit; .we too seem to feel that we so-called ~whites are made of finer stuff, and that the Negr~ is definitely second-rate. And although we would be willing to go to some expense for the conversion of such a second-rate' people living in some remote region of the earth --say in the Congo or Uganda--we do °not want many such converts here if they are going to move in on us and use the same religious facilities. We might hear with a sort of mild. cosmopolitan satisfaction the story of the conversion of the King of Bungo; but we would not want to have to look past his kinky head to see our parish altar. Africa~is the dark continent, the land of the primitives; and America is a white man's country! . All right, all right! We'll ~tolerate a Negro or two on a side aisle of the.church, or back near the door. Certainly we understand: Catholic means. world-wide, for all. But do you suppose we want Negroes 393 JOHN E. COOGAN Review for Religio~zs coming, in here just like us? Perhaps in another hundred years; more likely, a thousand. B°ut not nbw! It's all right ¯ to love your neighbor, but we've got to be practical. This impression of Negro ~inferiority extends princi-pally to his intellectual and moral powers: "'He is a recent primitive, unfortunately dragged from his benighted jungle life into the world of white men with mind. s sharpened and deepened by two thousand years of civilization. The Negro is mentally in the childhood of the race." This manner of reasoning°implies'a process of mental evolution, a "trans-mission of acquired' characteristics" that is al.toge.ther unknown to s~ience. Presuppos.ing a similar environment, there is nothing that can. be taught to a white child that cannot be taught to a colored. In interesting confirmation of this, a Catholic. army chaplain, recently returned from Nigeria, reports the native children positively superior in educational performance to his prize parish school pupils in the States. Even the Congo pigmies have been found altogether normal mentally. Professor Ellsworth Faris, of the University of Chic~ig9, declares fron; personal experience amon.g them that he was impressed by their "keenness 6f intellect, native shrewdness and essentially high mentality." Obviously a pigmy father less_than four feet tall and weighing about seyenty-five poundsm 'to supply elephant steaks to his.hungry family must use his wits. - " Argum,ents to African dullness c~rawn from thei~ crude native cultur~ ignore the ruins of.ancient cities scattered about their continent, memorials of their achievements in days when our northern European forefathers were lurking in' cayes, clad in the skins of wild beasts. It is thought-provoking to find Cicero then advising Atticus:."Do not obtain your slaves from Britain b~cause they are so stupid and so utterly incapable of be!ng taught that they are not 394 November', 1945 STILL NOT OF THIS FOLD fit to, form a part of ,theh~usehold of Athens." ' The fact is that all' isolated areas are likely to be culturally stagnant. Inhabitants of our southern hill country are of the stock that gave greatness to early American life; but, ocut off from the busy world, they actually deteriorated culturally. The isolation of. the African continent was far more~ enduring and even more complete. For a variety of topographical reasons, the dark continent is almost impenetrable. When to this is added its long list of fierce animals, poisonous insects, and ~deadly tropical diseases, it is easy to realize the difficulty~ of either boir0~ing foreign cultures or building up one's own. But in America, we may be reminded," education is'free; why has not the Negro risen intellectua:lly to the white man's level, if his innate powers are not inferior? Who does not know that it is only a.long lifetime that the edu-cation of the Negro has been thus even nominally free? And even now,.thro.ugh the" regions of densest Negro concen-tration, four years of slip-shod schooling are still a for-tunate experience. But the fact that Ohio Negroes men-tally out-scored the whitest.of four other states in draft tests for World War. I suggests how dependent mental achievement is upon intellectual opportunity. The whole question of the relative innate mental pow-er~ of ~he several races had better, be left to experts. May it siaffice, then, to say that the United States Government Advisory Committee on Education reported in i939, It is the .consensus among America's most eminent psychologists, educationalist.s, sociologists, and anthropologists, based upon their critical appraisal of investigations of racial differences, that there is no adequate evidence to ;support an assumption of inferior native learning ability on the part of Negro children. Even more impre.ssive is the dictum of" the American A~thropological Association, the unanimous judgment of 395 JOHN E. COOGAN Review for Religious the two-hundred and eighty members,present (led by Father John Cooper, Ph.D., of the Catholic University) at-its 1938 convention in New York "Anthropology pro-vides no scientific basis for discrimination against any people on the grounds of racial inferiority . " The second major point of supposed Negro inferiority that we proposed to discuss here is that of his moral pow-ers: "He doesn't seem to possess the white man's powers of sublimation and self-control!" That dbes sound rather pharisaical, doesn't it? Despite the greater ease with which the economically more privileged conceal their.vices, peri-odic bevelations of life in ~ertain strata of whiteosociety give one a flashlight picture of an "explosion in a sewer." Con- _fess~dly, there is among our colored much" vice arising from sheer ignorance;.it must be remembered that for ~everal centuries our slave lav~ did not recognize their unions as legal marriage. Frequent shifting of partners was not merely tolerated or encouraged, but-often even required. As the competent historian, John Spencer Bassett, reminds us, the Negro slave was a chattel: "He could, according to the popular theory, be "bought, bred, worked,-neglected, marked, or treated in any other respect as a horse or a cow~" It is precisely the Negro's awareness of the moral damage suffered by his people that makes him hunger and "thirst for Catholic truth when once he sees it. Usually the ,only sort of religion he has ever really known was the emo-tional kind that enabled him to forget for a time the stern realities of life in a white man's world. It satisfied the yearning to "participate in s.or~ething bigger than himself,"~ but it offered him little aid or inspiration" to more godly; living. The Catholic Church alone could offer in its full-ness "the way, the truth, and the life," and she" usuall3r remained for him either unknown or apparently a "white° ¯ man's church.''~ And for him she commonly retains that 396- November, 1945 STILL NOT OF THIS FOLD -a.ppearance even today. Hopes for a racially better day lie largely with re.ligious, especially teachers. We religious can teach young Catholic America--our future °priests and laymen alike--what Christ meant when He proclaimed, "I am the Vine, and you are the branches" ;. and what St. Paul meant when he spoke of a Mystical Body of which we are the members and Christ the Head. And we can show how inevitable th'en it is that "As you do unto the least of these My brethren you do unto Me." The Catholic Church. is for the Negro---as indeed for the whole world--the only port in. the storm. Her emblazoned cross must arrest his wanderings and guide him home. If a naked continent can become for the world's deprived a "Land of Opportun~ity,'' then what can not Mother Church mean to an orphan pe6ple ~and'a lace oppressed? Upon .the base of the Statue of Liberty, in New York harbor, ~the s~ulp~or has carved these lines: Give me your tired, you; poo?, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore; Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. Such is the invitation of America. The invitation of the ~tholic Church goes still deeper and promises more: Come all you who are weary and heavy laden, And you shall find rest for your souls. The Negro will come if only our Catholic masses are taught by us to echo the welcome of ~h.e Holy Father and of our hierarchy, and to treat him as a brother; he will come with a feeling of proper pride in his human dignity and in the battles be has fought to make it respected. It will be an inspiration for us then to hear him sing 'in his Nationa! ,Negro Anthem, "Lift Every Voice And Sing": 397 God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, . _~ Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou wfTo hast by Thg" might~ Led us into the light; Keep us forever in the pdth, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we ~orget Thee, °~ Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand, True to our God, True to our native land. ¯ °,. CONCERNING COMMUNICATIONS "Diocesan Priest," who wrote the letter against formalism in the Ju!y number (IV, p. 277) 'has sen~ another excellent communication. Unfortunately we have not space enough.for the letter, but we Wish to digest its essentials. Agaifist "Hos-pital Sister" (of. p. 355) he defends the action of the Sister who sent the first communication on formalism (of. p. 132) : "She was citing a case where formalism was carried to an extrehae, and then put the point up for discussion. Isn't that one of the purposes of the 'Communications' section of the REVIEW?" Also in reply to "Hospital Sitter" he points out that the discussion did not concern religious women only; for "Religious Priest" clearly included religious~men in his part of the discussion. Having taken care of these minor points, "Diocesan Priest"goes on tb say that both pries(s and religious do hav~ visitors who call for perfectly valid and important reasons and cannot always choose their own.time for calling. ~$uch visitors hardly be said to be "importuning" anyone. It is possible to treat these people-- and others to--harshly by adhering to the word of the rule rather than to its spirit. "Christ could have left the miracle at the marriage feast of Cana go unper-formed because His 'time had not yet come,' but kindness and charity for His fel: lowman were more important . Don't misunderstand me. I do not advocate the destruction of all formalism. I imagine that I am only one of thousands of parish priests who really envy; religious the order in their lives. I merely agree with the Sister in saying there can be too much formalism."' We regret that we can print only this brief survey of "Diocesan Priest's" let-ter. It seems to us that his two letters brought out excellent p~ints and manifested a Christlike attitude. It is possible for us religious to be¢ome~so much attached to regularity that we resent any interference with it, even for a good cause, just as it is (Continued on p. 428) .398 Spiritual Readings t:rorn t:he Council of Treni: -Ii* ' Augustine Klaa.s, S.J. Hotg, Sacrifice of the Mass SINCE under the former Testament, accOrding to the testlmony ~ of the Apostle Paul, there was no perfection because .of the. weakness of the Levitical priesthood, there was need, God the Father of mercies so ordaining, ihat .another priest should ~ise according to tb~ order of Melcbisedech (8 3), ou.r Lord Jesus Christ, who might perfect arid lead to perfection as many as Were to be sanc-tified. He, therefore, our God and Lord, though He was by His death about to offer Himself once upon the altar of the cross to God the' Father that He might there accomplish an eternal redemption, nevdrtheless, "that Hi~ priesthood might not come to an end with His death (84), at the last.supper, on the night He was betrayed, that He might leave to His beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice, such as the nature of man requfire'_s, whereby that bloo~ly sacrifice once to be accomplished on the cross might be represented, the memory .thereof remain even .to the end of the ~orld, and its salutary effects applied to the remission of those sins which we d.aily commit, declaring Him-self constituted a priest forever according to the order of Melchise-dech (85), offered up .to God the Father His own body and .blood under the form of bread and wine, and under the forms of those same things gave to. the Apostles, whom He then made priests of the Ne~v Testament, that they might partake, commanding them and their successors in the priesthood by these words to do likewise: Do this 'in commemoration of me (86), as the Catholic Church has always understood and "taught. For having celebrated the ancient Passover which the multitude of the children of Israel sacrificed in memory of their departure from Egypt° (87), He instituted a n~w Passover, namely, Himself, to be immolated under visible signs by the Church through the priests in memory of His own passage from this world to the Father, when by the shedding of His blood He redeemed and delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into his 83) Hebrews 7:11 85) Psalms 109:4 rinthians 11:24 f 84) Hebrews 7:24 86) Luke22:19; ICo- 87) Exodus 13 *Selected from H. 3. Schroeder, O.P., Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, (~t. Louis: Herder, 1941). 399 AUGUSTIN~ KLAAg Reoieu~ [or Religious kingdom. (88) And tliis is indeed that clean oblation ,which cannot be defiled by any unworthiness or malic~ on the part. of those'who offer it: which the Lord foretold by Malachias was to be great amon~ the Gentiles (89), and which the Apostle Paul has dearly indicated when he says, that they who .are defiled by partaking of the table of devil~ cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord (90), under-standing by table in each case the altar. It is, finally, that [sacrifice] which was prefigured by various types of sacrifices during the period of nature and of the law (91), which, namely, comprises all the good things signified by them, as being the consummation and perfection of them all. Mass Propitiatory for the Living and Dead And inasmuch as in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner the same Christ who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, the holy council teaches that this is truly propitiatory and has this effect, that if we~ contrite and. penitent, with sincere heart and upright faith, with fear and reverence, draw nigh to God, ~e obtain merc~./ and find grace in seasonable aid. (92) For, appeased by this sacrifice, the Lord grants the grace and gift of penitence and pardons even the gravest crimes and sins. For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests who then offered Himse, lf on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different. The fruits of.that bloody sacrifice, it is well understood, are received most abundantly through this,unbloody one, so far is the latter from derogating in any way from the former. Wherefore, acco.rding to the tradition of the Apostles, it is rightly ~ offered not only for the sins, punishments, and other necessities of the faithful who are llving.,.but also for those departed in Christ but not let fully purified. The Real Presence " First of all, the holy council teaches and openly and plainly.pro2 fesses that after the consecration of bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is truly, really and substantially con-tained in the august sacrament of the Holy Eucharist under ~the 88) Colossians 1:13 90) See I Corinthians 89) /~lalaehias 1:11 10:21 400 ' 91) Genesis 4:4:12:8 92) Hebrews 4:16 November, 19: 5 READINGS FROM TRENt appearance of those ~ensible things. For there is no repugnance in this that our Savior sits always 'at the right hand of .the.i Father in heaven according to the natural mode of existing, and yet is in°many other places sacram~ntally present to us in Hi.s own substance by a manner of existence which, .though we can scarcely express in words, yet with our understanding illumined by faith, we can conceive a~a'd 6ught most firmly to belie,~e is possible to God. (93) For thus all our forefathers, as many as were in the true Church of Christ and who treated of this most .holy sacrament, have most openly professed that our Redeemer instituted this wonderful .sacrament at the last ~supper, when, after blessing the bread and wine, He testified in clear "and definite words ,that He gives them His own body and His own blood. Since these words, iecorded by the holy Evangelists (94) and afterwards repeated by St. Paul (95), embody~that proper and clearest meaning in which they were understood by the Fathers, it is a most contemptible action on the part of some contentious and wicked men to twist them into fictitious and imaginary tropes by which the truth of the flesh and blood of Christ is denied, contrary to the universal sense of the Church, which, as the pillar and ground of truth (96), recognizing with a mind ever grateful and unfor-getting this mostexcellent favor of Christ, has detested as satanical these unt~utl~s devised by impious men. Institution of the Holg Eucharist Therefore, our Sav.ior, when about to depart from this woHd to the Father, instituted this sacrameiat, in wh~ich He poured forth, as it were, the riches of His divine love towards men, making a remem-brance of his wonderful works (97), and commanded us in the par-ticipation of it to reverence His memory and to show forth his death until he comes (98) to judge the world. -But He wished that this sacrament should be received as th~ spiritual food of souls (99), whereby they may be nourished and strengthened~ living by the life of Him who said: He ~tbat eatetb me, the same also shall live bg me (100), and as an antidote whereby we may be freed from dail~r faults and be preserved from mortal sins. He wished it furthermore fo,be a'pledge of our future glory and' everlasting happiness, and thus be a 93) Matthew 19:26i Luke 18:27 94) Matthew 26:26- 28: Mark 14:22- 24; Luke 22:19 f 95) See I Corinthians 98) Luke22:19: ICo- I 1:24 f rinthians 11:24- 96) See I Timothy 26 3:15 99) Matthew 26:26 f "97) Psalms 110:4 100) John 6:58 401 AUGUSTINE KLAAS symbol of that one body of which He is thehead (I01) and to which He wished us to be unite~d as members by the closest bond ,of. faith, h, ope and charity, that we might all speak the same rhino an, d there. might be no schisms ambng us. (1,02) ¯ Excellence of the Holg Eucharist The most Holy Eucharist has indeed this in common with the other sacraments, that it'is a symbol of a sacred thing and a visible form of an invisible grace; but there is found in it this excellent and peculiar characteristic, that the other sacraments then first have tbe power of sanctifying when one uses them, while in the Eucharist there is the Author Himself. of sanctity before it is used. For the Apostles had not yet received the Eucharist from the hands of the Lo~d, when He Himself told them that ~vhat He was giving them is His own body. (103) This has always been the belief of:the. Church of God, that immediately after the consecration the true body. and the ~rue blood of.our Lord, together with His soul and divinity exist under the form of bread and wine,, the body under the form of bread and the blood under the form bf wine ex vi verborum; but the same body also under the form of wine and the same blood under the form of bread and the soul under both, in virtue of that natural connection and concomitance whereby the parts .of Christ the Lord, who hath now risen from the dead, to die no more (104), are mutually united. also the divinity on account of its admirable hypostatic union with His body and soul. Wherefore, it is .very true that as much is contained under either form as under'both. For Christ is whole and entire under the form of bread and under any part of that form; likewise the whole Christ is present under the form of wine and under all its parts. Transubstantiation But since Christ our Redeemer declared that to be truly His own body which He offered under the form of bread (105), it has,. there-fore, always been a firm belief in the. Church of God, and this holy council now declares it anew, that by the consecration of the bread and wine a change is brought about of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the 101) See I Corinthians 102) See I Corinthians 104) Romans 6:9 11:3; Ephesians 1:10 105) Luke 22:19: John . 5:23 103) Matthew 26:26; 6:48 if; I Corin- Mark 14:22 thians 11:24 402 ¯ Nooember, 1945 READINGS FROM TRENT whole substance 'of the wine into the substance of His blood. This ch.ange the holy Catholic Church properly and appropriately calls transubstantiation. Worship and Veneratio.n There is, therefore, no room for doubt that all the faithful of Christ may, in accordance with a custom always received in the C~ath-olic Church, give to ttiis most holy sacrament in veneration the wor-ship of latria, which is due to the true God. Neither is it to be less adored ~or the reason that it was instituted by Christ the Lord in order to be received. (106) For we believe that in it the same Go.d is present of whom the eternal Father, when introducing Him into, the world, says: And let all the angels o~: God adore him (107) ;. whom the: Magi, failing down, adored (108); who, ,finally,' as the Scrip-tures testify, was adored by the Apostles in Galilee. (109) The holy council declares, moreover, that the custom that this sublime and venerable sacrament be celebrated with special veneration and solemnity every year on a fixed festival'day, and that it be boine reverently and with honor in processions through the streets and pub-lic" places, was very piously and r~ligiously introduced into the Church of God. Eor it is most reasonable that some days be set aside as holy on which all Christians may with special and unusual demon-stration testify that their minds are grateful to and mindful of their common Lord and Redeemer for so ineffable and truly divine a favor whereby the victory and triumph of His death are shown forth. And thus it/deed did it ~behoove the victorious truth to celebrate a triumph over falsehood and heresy, that in the sight of so much splendor and in the midst of so great joy of the universal Church, her enemies may either vanish weakened and broken, or, overcome with shame and confouhded, may at length repent. Worthy Reception If it is unbecoming for anyone to approach any of the sacred functions except in a spi.rit of piety, assuredly, the more the holiness 'and divinity of this heavenly sacrament are understood by- a Christian, the more diligen.tly ought he to give heed lest he receive it without great reverence and holiness,~especially when we read those terrifying words of the Apostle: He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth 106) Matthew 26:26 107) Hebreffs 1:6 -108) Matthew 2:11 109)'Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:52 403 AUGUSTINE KLAAS , ~ .and drinketh judgment to himself, not ,discernin9 the bod~l of the Lord. °( 11 O) Wherefore, he who" would communicate, must recall to-mind his precept: Let a t~an prove himself¶ (111 ) ~ Three. Wa~ls of Receiving the Hol~l Eucharist As to the us~ of this holy sacrament, our Fathers have rightly and wisely distinguished three ways of receiving it. They have taught that some receive it sacramentally only, as sinners; other's spiritually only, namely, those who eati.ng in desire the heavenly bread set before them, are by a lively faith which worketh by charit~l (I 12) made sensible of its fruit and usefulness; while the third class receives it both sa~crameritally and spiritually, and-these a~ethey who so prove and prepare' themselves beforehand that they approach this divine tabl~ clothed with the wedding garment. (I 13) As regards the reception ofthe sacrament,, it has always been the custom, in the Church of God that laics receive communion from priests, but that priests when cele-brating communicate tl~emselves, which custom ought with justice and reason to be retained as coming down from Apostolic tradition. (1.14) Finally, the holy council with paternal affection admonishes, exhorts, prays and beseeches through the b6Wels of the mercy of our GSd, that fiach and all who bear the Christian name will,nov/at last agree and be of orie mind in this sign of unity, in this bond of charity, in this symbol of concord, and that, mindful of so great a majesty and such boundless love of our Lor.d Jesus Chri~st,. who gave His own bel~)ved soul as the price of our salvation and His owri flesh to e~it (1 15), they may believe and ~renerate these sacred mysteries of His body and blood with such cofistancy and firmness of faith, with'such devotion of mind, with such piety and w~rship, that' they may be able to receive frequently that su~ersubstantial bread and that it may. truly be to them the life of the soul and the perpetual health of their mind; that being invigorated by its strength, they may be able after the journey of this miserable pilgrimage toarrive in their heavenly coun-try, there to ~eat, without any veil, the same bread of angels (1 16) which they now eat under sacred veils. 11.0) See I Corinthians 112) Galatians 5:6 115) John 6:56 ff 11:29 113) Matthew 22:11 116) Psalms 77:25 111) See I Corinthians 114) Hebrews 5:3:" 11:28 7:27 404 -"No One Dut: Jesus" Charles F, Donovan, S.J. IN ST. MATTHEW'S account of the Transfigerati0.n ~ occurs ~ seritence which "could serve as an epi.tome of-the religious life, a slogan for those in the path of. spiritual perfection: ~"Neminem viderunt nisi solum desum'" (They saw no one but Jesus). Peter and James. and John beheld' the glory of Christ, "His face shining like the sun and His garments becoming whiteas snow," and they saw Him talking to Moses and Elias. Then the voice of God spoke from the cloud': '~'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; to Hhn.o then, listen." When the apostles heard this, they fell to the ground in fright; but Jesus touched them and told tl~em hot to Bear. When they lobked up, they saw no one but Jesus, ¯ In its context, this little clause, "They saw no 6ne but Jesus," merely means that whereas a moment before the apostles had seen others conversing with Christ, now'.Hg stood before them alone. But taken from its context and considered by itself the sentence can have a variety of spir-itual applications. For instance, it can be taken to sum up the single-minded loyalty, the controlling purpose~ the unfaltering interest, the clear courageous vision of Jesus,. that should dominate oui lives as religious from the time of our entrance to the time of our death. ~ Either of the alternative titles of ~ Kempis' classic gives the gist and the essende of the way of perfection. The busi-ness of ~erfection is on our part a following of Christl an imitation of Christ. And as is obvious, if we are to fol-low the Leader, we must keep our eyes on Him; if weate to ¯ 405 Review for Religious -~,copy thee Model, w.e must never lose sight of Him. All . sorts of-substitute leader'--fakes every one of them, no matter how. attractive--~ry to,win our attention and lo~r- ¯ alty fro~ Christ. For a time we may follow popularity or ease or success or human respect. When we do, we are on dead-end roads¯ because we are not following the one Way t9.perfection: ~f in the big and the trivial crises of life we ¯ imitate Christ, at least to the .extent. 0f asking ourselves .~utomatic~lly, as by second nature, "How would Our Lord act or react in this .situation?" we are doing much. By c.ohStantly appealing to and applying that standard, we are ¯ walking in the fgdtsteps of the saints, those who most suc- ¯ ~.e.?sfully and u;adeviatingly saw noone but Jesus. - "They saw no one but Jesus." This motto is not pro-pbied, of .course, as a justification for a sort of.spiritual dsc~ipism, a flight ~from people and prosak reality to the gonsgling company of Christ. It is not a prop for the asocial, or a defense for those who wish -to reject com-munity life; because it. imports not an exclusive vision of J~sus, but a vision that includesall else in Christ, an ecu-menlcal, all-embracing vision of Christ. If,we live up to this ideal, it means that in all our plans and fun and strivings and world, Christ has the leading role; it means that~for us there is no interest, no pleasure, no effort, no jo.y that is not dominated by Him. When we sa~r that we should see Christ in all men and all men in Christ, that is not just a trick of speech; nor does the phrase recommend a trick of conduct on our part. We are not supposed to play m'ake-bdlie~re and substitute the attractiveness of Christ for the irritating or dull personality of our neighbor.' We don't have to pretend Christ is in our neighbor, especially when that neighbor is a religious, joined to Christ by grace, by mutual choice, and by vow. Christ has told us again and a'gain ,that He is one with, 4O6 " N?~emS~r, 1945 ":'No. ON~ BUT-~JE~US!' identified with, the just soul. Our lover therefore;~fdr~ou} companions, a love of them in Christ and of Christ- in them., involws no pretense, no mental juggling.° It must, like Christ's love fbr all of us, be genuine and sincere. It isa 'lovd with a particular character upon it, a particularbias; a special core and inspir~ition. For in all otirdealings with others, in Our devotion, our service, and our companion-ship, there is one starting point, one term, one focal object~-- Christ, our and their Lord and Lover. "They saw no one but Jesus." This watchword is of ~lpplication and help in various small but not unimportant by-ways of the religious life. For instance, take.~hat saboteur of the spiritual lffe[ distradtions in prayer; We spend .the time of praye.r planning the day's work (work that i~n't half as big to Christ as would be our .loving con- ~rersation during meditation), or grieving for the ~isitors who didn't co.me (visitors whom we left at home, r'emem-. ber, because of our love for Christ), or dreaming of the hap, piness we would have in ~a different community (although Christ is in, this community as well as that, and wants~. me here with Him). Such wasteful dissipating mind-wanderings Would not bother us and spoil the most valu, able partof our day if Our Lord really ruled our heart. We wouldn't be noticing~s0-and-so's absence, ~his one's pos- ¯ ture, or that 6ne's habit at Mass or other common exercises if our eyes, mind, and heart were riveied on the One. All our life we are going to hlive trials. We know that. Certainly we didn't enter religion to get away from them, to get a soft life. And it is in trials that our faith, ofir prac-tical faith in Christ is tested. It's easy to follow Him when things are going smoothly. It's pleasant to walk with Him on cool green.Galilean hills. BU.t the particular following that He enjoined involves a cross. "Take up your cross and follow Me " Whatever it is that gets us down, what- 407 CHAI~'B$' P. DONOVAN ' Revieu~ foroRdi~llous eve~ ,happens to be our cross, whether it is sickness ~or mis-understanding or failure or temptation of our own disposi, tibn or an unaccountable desolation or .spirituals sluggish-ness, whatever form our crosses take, we can bear them courageously,, even lightly, if in them and through them all .we See only 3~sus. ~ Remember those Sisters whom Father De Smet, him-self one of God's heroes, was bringing from'l~urope to America.The boat trip was unusually hard~ and long (they.had to go around South America to reach the west cdast in those days) and the poor Sisters began to compl~in. Father De Smet made this beautiful reproach: "I offered you an opportu.nity and you are making it a sacrifice." For the moment the Sisters viewed the arduous crossing with natural eyes only. Although they were going to America' to work for Christ, they could not see Christ on the way, upon the tossing waters o~ the Atlantic or of the Pacific. :NO doubt, after their holy ~ompanion's reminder, they saw ,Jesus again and cried in their hearts like St. ,John upon .other waters, "It is the Lord." ~ Why do we lose the clear perspective, the selfless~purity of intention that was .ours on entering religion? St. Thomas More says°somewhere that a man who gives up authority and fortune to follow Christ in the way of religious life may soon be striving anxiously for any powe.r he can gain, even if it is nothing more than the high office of tolling the bell. The SiSter who three years ago ~vas ready .to follow Christ's call to the ends of the earth, whatever the cost in suffering or 'humiliation~ to~la~ is disconsolate and bitter because she is given the third instead of the .fourth grade. Ambition, rivalry,]ealousy, c~liques--these ready and time-proven tools of Satan, chillers of fervor, spoilers of happi-ness for individuals and communities ~--get a foothold for only one reason: Christ getsp~ashed to one side, is ~ometimes 408 " ° 1945- "No ONE BUT JESUS" even pushed out of sight. And as the old saw has it, out of sight, but of mind. . . " Life becomes complicated and tense and emotionally snarled only when we lose thfit ciear vision. -Wh~ wea~ri-ness; the 'fever, and the fre~ of which the poet speaks are °inevitable where little idols of selfishness, false gods of ambition or self-indulgence are ¯set up in the place, of Jesus on the altar of out thoughts and desires. Noviceship sirn-plicity, youthful joy,., deathbed clarity are ours as long as we remain true to that .ca.pitul~tion to Cl'irist which we made at.the start of our religio.us, life. There is b~Jt on~ anchb£ one goal, one beacom one spouse for usHe of ¯ .whom the Father says, to us as to the apostie~, :'This, is.my beloved Son in whom i am well ple~ised; to Him,. theft, listen." BOoks.Received " (From¯ August 20 to'October 20) " FREDERIC PUSTET CO~, New York and Cincinnati. ¯ . . , dourney 'in the Night. By Rev. Father Brice, C.P. $2.50. Stars, By Rev. Gile~ Staab. O.F.M.Cap. $2.00., LONGMANS, GREEN ~ Co., New York and Toronto. The Heart.of Man. By Gerald Vann, O.P. $2.00. . THE BRUCE PUI~LISHING COMPANY, Milwaukee. " The Wool Merchant of Segooia. By Mabel Farnum. $2.00. The Life of Our Lord, By Sister 3aneMarie, O.P., and Sister Anne Catherine, C.S.J, $1.00 (Paper). Speech Models. "Selected and Edited by William R. Duffey a~d Aloysius Croft. $2.5.0. Tl~e Religion Teacfier and ll~e World. By .Sister Mary Rosalia, Rev. 3ohn J. Considine, M.M., and Sister Mary Julian Bedier. $1.00 (Paper.). " Heads abooe the LITURGICAL PROCEEDINGS ,~ - National Liturgical Week: 1944 is a record of the Fifth Annual Liturgical Week held.in N~w York last' December. It con'~ain'-s all prepared papers, ~ead at the meeting and brief summaries'of the discussions. Also includ~'d ire five papers read at the Liturgical Conference meeting held at St. Meinrad's the previous October. There i& a notable foreword by His Excellency, Archbishop Spellman. A reading list and an index complete the volume, which is published by The Liturgi~ cal C6nferehce,¯605 No. Michigan Blvd., Chlcago~ . ~. Moral TheOlogy t:or,l:verybody Ge')a~ld Kelly,,S.J~. THE occasion formy present remark~ is the publication ¯ !n i~nglish .of Father Heribert Jone's Moral" "The, ology,1 which it'is my not unpleasant task to review. In writing my review I am taking a cue from the" jacket of the book, which commimds it to pastors "as a. quick and convenient means for rendering, decisions in cases of con-s_ cience," to young priests and seminarians "to facilitate the repetition of Moral Theology,'-' and to the educated laity to. help them "in solving many of ~the .minor problems of' conscience that occur in their daily lives." For pa_storsl for other priests (young and old), and for seminarians who-have begun their Course of theology, my review can be very brief. Father Jone is ~/first-class moralist an~t canoeist. In.his c(~mmentary off The Code (Geset.z-buCh) 2 and in his one-volume .moral theology he has mani-fested toe a remarkab!e degree the power of' selecting impor.tant things and Of presenting his.material in a clear, ,br'ief fashion. Ndt the least of his accompiish~ents is a wholesome "modernizing" of certain sections of moral the- ' ology. For instance, he sketches the pathological obstacles to human activity a,nd he bas_es his necessarily brief remarks on scrupulosity on recent psychological, data. Father Urban Adelman's translation preserves the goodqualities,of the original German, and his adaptation of certain sections (for example, justice and marriage) to the needh bf the American priest is. especially commendable. The boSk is ne.atly pririted and the size is very handy. ~See the. "Book Review" section, p. 426 foi d~tails concerning publisher, l~ric~, etc. '~his has not been translated into English. 410 MORAL THEOLOGY FOR EVERYBODY All this does not mean that the~book is 100 percent flawless. It has its defects; but my impression is that they are few and df re.latively minor importance. For example, a p~iragraph is out of place in'the section on legal adoption; a few opinions seem to be represented as.having more value than they really have; and, though the date of the book .1945, some recent and very important decisions of the Holy See are not referred to. When the book is reprinted it would be well to include an extra page or two indicating the sub~- stance of these decisions. . ~ The jacket also recommends the book to the "educated laity." I trust that I am not misinterpreting the word "laity" in assuming that in the context it refers to all who. are nqt clerics and that it would, therefore, include non-. clerical religioui,- both men ~nd women. At any rate, I am mainly interested in the question of moral theology for religious, and I think that this is an "appropriate 0dcasion for discussing that topic in something more than a super-ficial manner. My remarks on the subject will touch upon these" four questions: should non-clerical religious an~/ moral theology? how much should they, know? and how are they to.get this knowledge? and finally, will the mere reading of Father Jone's book satisfy their needs? Meaning o~: Moral, Theologg Before answering these questions it seems advisable to indicate briefly what moral theology is. An adequate defini-tion may be briefly phrased thus: moral ,theology is the sci-. ence of obligatorg Christian perfection. Moral- theology deals specifically wi'th what we may roughly designate-as the,first two degrees of Christian perfection,3 whereas ascetical theology, according to the more common opinion 8For a description of the three degrees of perfection, confer Father Klaas's, article. "Perfection is UniOn with God," in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, IV, i~P. 259-261. 411 Reuiew for ~eli#ious hdd today; is specifically con~cefned with~the third degree. Moral theology is the science of Christian obligation;~ ascet-ical theology is the science of Christian superero'gation. :. "Obligati6n,~' xherefore; is.-, the moral theologian's/ sphere. He discusses-, the comm~nds of God, of the Church, and of civil~s~ociety that give rise to obligations. He" e~lains the meaning of these precepts, the degree ~ind thee k{nd.of obligation they impose, the way they are to be ful-filled,- the pehalties' for violation, and so forth. He examines the subjective side of obligation: the human conscience and all the factors that concern responsibility before God. Under ~he .same aspect-~obligation--he treats of the divine and ecClesiasticallaws governing :the use of the sacraments, the sacramentals, and indul~gences. Value for Teachers From this thumbnail outline of the scope of moral tbe-ol. ogy it is obvious that at least those religious who have to .teach ,Christian doctrine could profit greatly-by some knowledge-of moral theology. For Christian doctrine inc,!udes the Commandments of God, the precepts of the Church, and certain obligations relative to the sacraments. These are moral subjects. Even in presenting them to small children the teacher who knows something of the science underlying them has a great advantage over_the teacher whose own knowledge is more or less elementary. If we consider merely the formal teaching of Christian doctrine, we may safely say that religious, particularly Sis-ters, are among the most influential "moralists" in the Church in America. They play a most important role in the formation of'c~nsciences. - "Sister says that's wrong. ¯ Sister says we must do this," how. many times have not " such statements become principles of action in the lives of ch!ldren and rehaained so even through adtilt life? That is November, 1945 MORAL ~THEOLOGY FOR EVERYBODY what I mean by '~'influence'"; and it-~cannot be'denied that religious who teach children, exercise such- influenc.e, on oa large scale: And~ I might add here that~ I have no great sympathy for the pe~ssimistic, destructive attitude.that con-centrates on the blunders .:made' by teaching° Sisters and attributes practically all. the harm of malformed consciences to them. The good they have accomplished is tremendous and far~ outweighs the harm done by occasional blunders; ¯ but this good could'be increased and the blunders could ~b~ diminished if the. religious teacher were given some training in the science of Christian morality. ~The moral teaching done by religious is not confined to the religion class. Questions are asked outside of class and advice is sought; and through the answers and the counsel given, consciences are ,,influenced perhaps even more than in the classroom. This is~as if should be. Religious are not mere instructors; their schools are not merely classrooms. The human relationship between the pupil.°and .the reli-gious teacher is,very intimate. If it were not,so, our apos-tolate of teaching would be a very dull one indeed. But with-this extende~ sphere of teaching there is also a~n extended field of opportunity, and. this implies a greater degree of responsibility to be prepared to answer the ques, tions, and to give advice. Since I have touched upon the subject of informal stu-dent counseling I may be pardoned for expanding slightly on that topic. Warm, personal relhtionships between students and teachers are the logical outcome of our system of education: This is. true in all spheres: the elementary. school, the high school, the college, and in so far as reli-gious and priests come in contact with the students--even in the universities. It is perfectly natural, foi i,n~tance, that a high schbol or college girl should place special confidence in a certain Sister; that a boy should have confidence in a 413 GERALD K~LI~Y "'" " ~ Review for Religious Br0t[~er; And because of this confidence they wilt-refer their personal 'problems to the Sister or Brother. ~. The p~rsona~l problems of youth are, of course, quite vari~d;~but certainly many of them pertain to morali[y. The question" of .likes and dislikes, of hot tempers, of char-acter weaknesses, of falling in love, of dean conversation, g!ean reading, clean thinking, conduct at dances and par-ties-~- the~e are but indications of their moral problems. They get puzzled or worried over their moral obligations, and they' will speak about these things to the reli~gious in whom they have confidence. And it seems to me that, Whenever possible, the "religious should be prepared, to answer them. The old cry, '~You'd better see your confes-sor about that," can be overdone. Boys and girls are not able tO talk to everyqne--nor are the rest of us, for that matter--and it may happen t.hat the only confessor avail-able is someone they cannot "open up to." Hence, at least in' those problems that~ do not strictly require the specialized judgment of the priest and the sac~ed priva.cy of the con-fessional, religious teachers ought to think twice before closing their lips with one hand and pointing to the con-fessional with the other. In the problems that I.have indi-cated- the ordinary problems of young people religious who have good judgment and the proper training can give .~veryhelpful counsel. But they must have some training,. some knowledge of the moral principles to be applied. - It will be noticed that in indicating the personal prob-lems of youth I said nothing about the purely physical aspects of sex. I purposely omitted mention of this because I am convinced that it is a special problem. The pa'rents are supposed to give physical sex instruction; but in defect of the ~arents religious are sometimes called upon to sup-ply the needed knowledge. A religious should not do this without an understanding with the parents, if they are 414 November, 1945 ]~'IORAL THEOLOGY FOR EVERY~ODY alive, and without the knowledge and approval of his own superior. Grave misunderstandings can result from a failure to observe these safeguards. Moreover, not every/- one is qualified to give such instruction. Those who do give it should have, not only a.knowledge of the subject, but also a wholesome professional attitude. Otherwise ~they Will manifest a morbid interest, or will be crude in their expression, or will blush and stammer--and all these are fatal mistakes in giving physical sex enlightenment. Before leaving this point of the desirablity of some moral theology for teaching religious, I should like to put the matter in a slightly different wa~. The.imparting of moral instruction, whether formally in the classroom or informally in conversation, calls for an attitude l!hat may b~ characterized as positive, moderate, and objecl!ive. The positive attitude contributes inspiration; it makes moral precepts appear in their true light, as conducive to beauty, harmony, and peace, and nor as balls-and-chain on the feet of joy. The moderate attitude steers the middle course between rigorism and laxism; it overemphasizes neither the divine nor the human elements in the life of Christian per.- fection. The objective attitude removes, as the name implies, the blight of subjectivism in moral teaching and counseling. Not what we as individuals think is right wrgng, but what the Church, through her official do~cu-ments or'approved theologians, teaches is right or wrong-- that is what we are to teach; and that is the one thing with which the truly objective attitude is concerned. The attitude that I have just described may be to soine extent the result of temperament; but only to a relatively slight extent.¢ It is attained chiefly through correct knowl-edge and appreciation of Catholic morality; hence the desirability and even need of some training in moral the-ology for teachers and counselors. 415 ,G~RA~-~D KELLY " : . Review [or Religious ,: . Personal Advantages :. ¯ :The preceding paragraphs,give at l~ast an indication t'hat some knowledge of moral theology is, decidedly bene-ficial for religious ~ngaged in the teaching apostolate. The. sa.me reasonswould apply tO any other apostolate in which the:religious might reasonably be expected to answer ques- .tions about moral matters or to give counsel: for example, n.ursing, and social service. I cannot dwell here on the needs of these other apostolates; but°I should like to say a wo'rd about the value of moral theology in the personal " lives.of the religious. In doing so, it seems advisable to deal'~rst with certain objections that are often voiced when the: question;of moral theology for religious is proposed. . We sometimes hear it said: "Religious lead an ascetical life. They are not s'upposed to live according to the norms of moral, theology." This objection is not asstrong as it is sometimes made to appear. The religious life is certainly an ascetical life, a life dedicated to the perfection of the counsels; and as~ such, the science of it belongs to ascetical the01og~r. From this I am justified in concluding that reli- 'gious ought to know some ascetical theology; but'I am noe justified in concluding that they should not know any moral theology. The f~llowing of Christ in the observance of the counsels does not free religioqs from the obligation of observing the commandments Of "God and precepts of the Church. Religious have the same obligations as. other Catholics, plus a host of other duties. The explanation of these obligations is the function of moral theology. Hence, t.hough it would not be correct to say that-the aim of the religious life is entirely contained in moral theology, it correct to say that it is partially treated there.- And in so far as it is t/eated in .moral thet)logy, this science can ben beneficial to religious. Another obj.ection which is not at all u.ncommon runs 416 ¯ November, 1945 MORAL THEOLOGY FOR E~iERYBOI~Y as follows: "If~you t~acb religious moral theo~logy you, will " be teaching them how far they can go, without cohamitting mortal sin., And they will take advantage Of that knowl-edge and commit many venial sirfS they would otherwise not fiiave committed."., I might m~ntion in passing that the phrasing °of this objection" shows a thoroughly negativ~ and- ~rror~ous concept of m'~ral theology. However, I ~vill not delay on that h~re bUt'~will merely poin~t out a m~ch more fundamental error in this 6bjectibn: namely, it s,fiows a complete lack of confidence in religious idealism. If this obje~fi0ii were really true,'Z'then I believe I could logically conclude that the religious life is°failing in its purpose. _For surely the purpose of the religious" lift is. to-keep alive in us the desire of imitating Christ even beY0n.d the sphere Of, obligation; and.if ev~fi this "desire is lacking in the majo,rity of us, ou~ institut~ have fa~iied~miserably. ~- As a matter of fact, the .objection-may have some weight in the case of a.few; it certhin, ly'does not apply to. religious as a group. If We-consider all religious, we might epitomize tile effects of moral theology on their personal lives somewhat as follow~. For a certain numbei:, th~ effect is entirely n_eutr~il; ~heir lives are neither, better'nor worse for the kiaowledge. In the, case of a comparative few the effect may be evil; they apparently 'abuse the knowledge. -E;cen in these cas~s; however, I doubt if the k~nowledge of moral theology lowers th~ir, ideahsm. Rather, their ideal-ism is already lowered, and the newl,y acquired knowledge helps them to salve their consciences. I ¯believe that.if ~these few had been taught, some moral theology while they were still fervent, it would have had no evil effect on them. Finally, in the case of the majority of religious, the effect of some knowledge is decidedly beneficial. ¯They Understand their own spiritual objectives better and they are able to dis-cuss them ~ith directors and ~onfess6rs more intelligently. 417 "~ERALD KELLY Review 'fop Religious They are fre.ed from needless worries: and many of the averiues that lead to scrupulosity are blocked off. How Much? Granted that most religious would profit by some knowledge Of moral theology, it is quite logical to ask: how much ought they to know? I can hardly give a. perfectly exact general answer to this question, but I can indicat'e certain general norms that might be of service. The first is a negative norm: they do not need a confessor's knowl-edge. _h fair percentge of the matter treated in the ordinary seminary course would be useless for non-clerical religious. On the other hand, speaking positively, it would be Very helpful to know: the fundmental principles, with the more practical applications; the main points considered under each of the Ten Commandments; the ecclesiastical precepts of fast, abstinence;' and the observance of holidays; the' obligations of the vows;, the obligations.pertainlng to the reception 'of the sacraments, particularly of the Eucharist and penance. That is a general 0utlin~. Those engaged in special work might need a bit more. Fbr instance, those teaching in college and the upper grades of high school. might well know something about the Church laws~ con-cerning marriage; nurses would need special training in medico-moral problems; social workers ought to have an acquaintance with the social aspects of Catholic morality. How to Get It? .A mother superior or brother superior might stop me at this point with the pertinent query: '"Fatherl I begin to see that some knowledge of moral th.eology would be "use-ful to many of my subjects, especially the teachers. 'But ple~ise tell me fi6w. they. are going to get this knowledge." That, in the radio parlance of the day, is the $64-question; and, since I led up to it, I ought t.o try to answer it. 418 November, 1945 MORAL THEOLOGY FOR EVERYBODy Religious can learn .some moral theology by reading, especially if the topics are well-developed and more or less self-explanatory. The main disad~vantage of this method is that it is too passive; it affords no practice in the actual solving of problems. Furthermore, if the reading is not directed by someone who knows the needs and the capacities of the religious, much time may be lost; and if the reading matter is very technical, erroneous notions may result. A secbnd method is the lecture system: a professor lec-tures, and the religious listen. A great deal of information can be assimilated in this way and, if.questions are allowed, . many practical problems can be answered. But like leading /it is too. passive. One does not have a real grip on moral principles until one has learned through actual personal effort how to use these principles in solv~ing cases. When I speak of the disadvantages of reading and .the lecture system~ I do not mean to say that they have no value. Properly used, they do impart some knowledge and they furnish a.general idea of the way moral principles are established and applied to concrete problems. But the ideal method is an active class--a class in which the professor explains the main points thoroughly, and the students have time for working problems personally, discussing questions among themselves, and consulting with the professor. Of course, this ideal method takes time. In te.aching Sisters during the summer I have found that it takes two or three 6-week sessions, with a double period each day, to cover the general program I outlined above. And I realize that, consider.ing other needs and the pressure for credits and degrees, very few religious can spare all this time for one subject. Consequently I am not expecting to see reli- ¯ gious swarming~to summer sessions of moral theology with plenty of time for discussions and problems. But surely a few can be spared now~, and there is no harm in hoping and 419 GERALD KELLY planning for future.programs. As a matter of factl in the last decade or two we have made~ great progress~in providing various advanced religion courses for teaching. ~eligious. Personally, I °hope to see the da~i. when a sort of,stream'- lined seminary co~rse-~compris!ng Sacred Scripture, the various branches of theology, and the essentials "of canon law' wili be readily available for many religious. Ea~her Jone's Book What I have said prepares the way for a brief estimate of the ~ralue of.Father Jone's book fo} non-clerical reli-gio~ s. The mere reading_of the book will undoubtedly ft~rnish much valuable information; it is a complete volume moral theology. It is a good book for ready refer-ence when one wants, answers to various problems that are treated explicitly by-the moral theologians: and for this reason it'is a handy book for the community library. But we sh6uld be careful that we do not look for too much from the mere reading of a book like this. Though. it does cover all of moral theology, it is only a compendium. Its full value can be realized only by one who has had a regular course in moral theology. ¯ For one who is just learning it is too brief; so brief, in fact, that, while solving some "minor problems of Consciende" it might .easily create others. In moral theology, as in other subjects, a little knowledge is sometimes a dangerous thing.' A fitful word about the value of the book for the laity in general. I believe that the claim ofthe publisher--that it will help them to solve their minor problems of con-science is true, with the ~eserxiatio'n mentioned above: ._namely, that the brevity of treatment may create o.ther problems. Therefore, they ought to.be in a position to supplement :the~ reading with consultation and discussion. 420 :.Decisions. o,C 'he I-Io1 .See Forb/years ago, on December 20, 1905, Pope Pius X issued the Sacra Tridentina S~jnodus, the hist0ry-making decree on frequent Communion. To recall the anniversary, we are r~printing here the hi.he articles that form the positive and practical part of the decree. The Q,ernadrnod-m (referred to in articl~ 7) forbade superiors .to interfere with the reception of Holy Communion on the-part of sub-jects. The obligation of reading this decree ahnually (see article 8) no longer exists, as its contents have been incorporated into the Code. 1. Frequent and daily Communion, as a thing most earnestly desired by Christ Our Lord and by the Catholic Cliurch, should be ope~n to all the f~ithful, of whateverrank and condition of lifd: so that no one who is in the state of grace, and who approaches the holy "table with the right intention, can lawfully be hindered therefrom. 2. A right intention consists in this: that he who approaches the holy table should do so, not out of routine, or vaing]ory, or human re~pect, but for the purpose of pleasing God, of being more closely ¯ united with Him. by charity, and of seeking this divide remedy for his weakness and defects. 3. Although it is more .expe.dient that thos~ who communicate frequen,tly~.or daily should be free from venial sin, especi;qly from . such as are fully deliberate, and from any affection thereto, never-theless it is ~ufficient that they be free from mortal °sin, with the purpose of never sinning .mortally in the future; and. if they. have this sincere purpose, it is impossible but that daily communi~nt~ should" gradually emancipate themselves from even venial sin~, and from all affection thereto. 4. But whereas the Sacraments of the New Law, though they-t~ ke dffect ex opere operato, nevertheless produce a greater effect in proportion as the dispositions of the recipient are better; therefore care is to be taken that Holy Communion bd preceded by very serious preparation, and followed by a suitable thanksgiving according to each one'~ strength, circumstances, and duties. 5. "lbhat the practice of frequent and daily Communion.may be carried out with greater prudence and more abundant merit, the con-fes~ or's advice should be asked. Confessors, however, are to be care-f~ l hot to dissuade any one from frequent and daily Communion., DECISIONg OF THE HOLY SEE provid.ed that be is in a state of grace and' approaches with a right intention. : . ~--. ~ ~- o - o 6. But since it is plain that, by the frequent Or daily reception "of thee Holy Eucharist, union with Christ is fostered, the"spiritual life more abundantly sustained, the souimore richl# endowed with~vir-tues, and an even surer.pledge of everlasting happiness bestowed on th~ recipient; therefore parish priests, confessors and preachers in accordance with the approved teachings of theRoman Catechism (Part ii, cap, 4, n. 60) are frequently, and with great zeal to exhort the faithful to this devout and salutary practical. ~7. F.requ~nt and daily Communion is to-be promoted e.speciallv in religious orders and .congregations of all kinds: with regard .to which, however, the decree Quernadrnodum,'issued on the 17th De-cember, 1890,.by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars is .to' remain in force. It is also to be promoted especially in ecclesias~ical~ seminaries, where students are preparing for the service of the altar: as also in all Christian establishments, of whate~er kind, for training of yotith. , 8. In the case of religious institutes, whether of solemn or simpl~ ;cows, in whose rules, constitutions, or calendars, Communion is a~ssi~ned to certain fixed days, such regulatio.ns are to be regarded°as directive and not preceptive. In such cases the appointed nfimber of Communions Should be regarded a.s a minimum, and not as setting. a limit tothe devotion 6f the religious. Therefore, freedom of access to the Eucharistic table, whetiaer more frequently or daily, must always be allowed them, according to the principles above laid d~wn in this decree. And in .order that all religious, of. both sexes may c!early, understand the provisions of this decree, the Superior of each house is to see that it is read in community, in the verna~ular, every year ~¢ithin the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi. " 9. Finally, after the publication of this decree, all ecclesiastical; writers are to cease from contentious controversies concerning the dispositions r