Review for Religious - Issue 11.2 (March 1952)

Issue 11.2 of the Review for Religious, 1952.

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Review for Religious - Issue 11.2 (March 1952)
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title Review for Religious - Issue 11.2 (March 1952)
title_short Review for Religious - Issue 11.2 (March 1952)
title_full Review for Religious - Issue 11.2 (March 1952)
title_fullStr Review for Religious - Issue 11.2 (March 1952)
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title_sort review for religious - issue 11.2 (march 1952)
description Issue 11.2 of the Review for Religious, 1952.
publisher Saint Louis University Libraries Digitization Center
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spelling sluoai_rfr-213 Review for Religious - Issue 11.2 (March 1952) Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus Jesuits -- Periodicals; Monasticism and religious orders -- Periodicals. Gallen ; Hardon Issue 11.2 of the Review for Religious, 1952. 1952-03-15 2012-05 PDF RfR.11.2.1952.pdf rfr-1950 BX2400 .R4 Copyright U.S. Central and Southern Province, Society of Jesus. Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute individual articles for personal, classroom, or workshop use. Please credit Review for Religious and reference the volume, issue, and page number and cite Saint Louis University Libraries as the host of the digital collection. Saint Louis University Libraries Digitization Center text eng Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus A. M. D.G. ~ ¯ Review for Religious MARCH 15, 1952 St. A~dgustine and His Rule Tho~nas F. Roland’ Quinquennial Directive, II " Joseph F. Gallen Th6r6se’s Devotion to Mary ...... =John A. Hardon Foreign Missions for You? ..... ~,. EvereffJ. Mibach Meekness ................ C.A. Herbsf Salnthood.through Lis~’enincj ..... Bernard plogman VOLUME XI Questions and Answers Summer Sessions Bo6k Reviews NUMBER 2 R,I::VI W FOR RI:::LI IOUS VOLUME XI MARCH, 1952 NUMBER 2 CONTENTS ST. AUGUSTINE AND HIS HOLY RULE--Thomas F. Roland, O.S.A. 57 ~FHE QUINQUENNIAL REPORT: OBLIG,’~TIONS AND DIREC-TIVES II-~Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. . 69 OUR CONTRIBUTORS ....... [ .’ ..... : . i i 74 DEVOTION OF ST. THI~RESE OF LISIEUX TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MA’RY--John A. Hardon, S.J. . 75 ARE THE FOREIGN MISSIONS FOR YOU? Everett J. Mibaeh, S.J. 85 TEN YEAR INDEX--NOW AVAILABLE ......... 88 THE PROPHETS .................. 88 MEEKNESS-~C. A. Herbst, S.J ............... 89 ~UMMER SESSIONS ". ................. 95 SAINTHOOD THROUGH LISTENING--Bernard Plogman, S.M. 97 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- / 8. May a fiovice will property to the C~mmunity? ....... 99 9. Wording of canon 583, 1° . ........... 100 10. Readmission and profession date 100 II. Participation in Vocal Prayer . . I .... o ...... 101 12. Use of Worn Corporals .... I .......... 101 SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN NURSING ! 101 BOOK REVIEWS-- The Theology of the Mystical Body; The Queen;s Daughters; Where There is Love; Father Luigi Gentili and ,,his Mission ...... 102 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS ..... i ........... 106 BOOK NOTICES ......... i ........... 109. WHAT MAKES A WOMAN CHOOSE SUCH A LIPE? 111 VALUABLE SOURCE BOOKS ....... . . 1 12 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, March, 195~. Vol XI, No; 2. Published bi-monthly: 3anuary, March, May,3uly, Septembe~, and November at the College Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas, by Stt. Mary’s College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matter 3anuary 15, 1942, at the Post Office, Topeka, Kansas; under the[act of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Jerome Breunig, S.3,.: Augustine G. Ellard, S.3.; Adam C. Ellis, S.2.; G~rald Kelly, S.‘1. Copyright, 1952, by Adam C. Etlis, 8.,1. Permission is hereby granted for quota-tions of reasonable length, provide~ due credi~ 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. Saint: Augustine and" His Holy Rule Thomas F. Roland, O.S.A. AMONG his many titles to glory Saint Augustine of Hippo was the founder of the monastic life in Roman Africa. He was a teacher of rhetoric in Milan when he wearied of the tumult of the classroom and the cares of daily life. He longed for a quiet re-treat, ~where, with a few kindred souls, tie cduld pursue the search for truth. This came after his ambition for honors, wealth, and a rich wife had br’ought no peace; after a chance meeting with a happy beggar, drunk in the gutters of Milan, forcibly brought to him and his companions the lesson that happiness is where one finds it. "we would like nothing better than to find a sure happiness, and look! that beggar had already found it (Confessions, VI, 6)." The ~riends debated on how to arrange a way of life that would provide the leisure needed for attaining their goal, quiet study. A group of ten would pool thei~ resources; two would be chosen each year to look after the domestic" chores; those of them who were married would bring their wives with them .... or could they? Here the shock of reality broke into the fantasy . . . "the plan so well framed broke into pieces in our hands and was utterly wrecked" (Confessions, VI, 14). some time later, Augustine was living a few miles from Milan at a villa called Cassiciacum with his mother Monica and some friends. Led on by the eloquence and learning of Ambrose, the bishop of that city, he had inscribed himself among the catechu-mens. It was here that for the first time he heard about Christian monks. An acquaintance, Pontinianus spoke of Anthony of.Egypt and the companies in the monasteries there. He told too of a group of pious brethren living nearby, outside th~ walls of"Milan, and under the guidance of Ambrose (Confessions, VIII, 6). Also of Trier where with some companions he had happened upon a com-munity. and found there a manuscript Life of Anthong which had so moved two of the group that they also had retired from the world to live as monks. These tales of lowly Christians seeking after the perfect life deeply affected Augustine and brought on that crisis wherein he exclaimed to his boon companion Alypius, "the illiter-ates rise up and steal heaven, and we, unfeeling, behold, where we wallow in the flesh" (Confessiobs, VI~ 8). Later he visited that 57 THOMAS F. ROLAND Reoiew [or Relioious community near Milan and found "the lodging house of s’aints, not a few in.number, presided over by one priest, a man of great excel-lence and’learning" (De Moribus Ecctesiae Cath., 70). After his baptism in 387 Augustine and his small group were joined by Evodius. Writing of this in the ContYssions, he intro-duces it as God’s work. "You who make some to live together in harmony brought to our company the youth Evodius who had been cohverted and baptized before us, and who left the army of the Em-pire to be enrolled in Thine.. We were together, we were to remain together in holy agreement. We sought a place more suited to those who would serve Thee; further, we were to return ’to Africa" (Coni [essions., IX, 8). The death of his holy mother Monica at Ostia, whither ti~e company had gone to board ship, interrupted this plan. This incident afforded the occcasion for writing one of the most beautiful bits of poetic prose that occurs in the entire Confessions. It i~ the recital of the colloquy between mother and son, talking of the things of God, and lost in the beauty of His Being. At its close Monica was ready to leave this earthly life, now that she saw him a Catholic Christian. It wss more than that, she said "most abun-dantly has my God dealt with me, since I behold thee, despising earthly happiness, become His servant; what do I here?" The teacher of rhetoric had come a long way from his sterile search for truth among the Manicheans, through the pages of Plato and Plotinus, to the humble study of the Scriptures, a recognition of the emptiness of earthly pleasures and knowledge, to baptism, and the resolve to leave all and follow Christ. After the death ~)f Monica the little group returned to Rome, and there spent the following year. Augustine visited the mona~- teries in the Eternal City and studied the. manner of living where "those who were outstanding for gravity, prudence, and sacred learning governed others who’ lived, joined to them in Christian charity, holiness, and freedom" (De Mot., 70). At the end of the year the company went to Africa, to Augustine’s native town of Tagaste, in Numidia. With Alypius, Evodius, Novatus, Severus, and Adeodatus he settled down on a small holding outside the walls of the town, the sole property he had reserved when he sold his pat-rimony and distributed the proceeds to the poor. All these of course were laymen, and until then Roman Africa knew no monastic life. The friends lived together "for three years, fasting and praying, doing good works and meditating day and night on the law of God" (Possidius, Vita S. Aug., 3). 58 Match; 1952 RULE OF ST. AUGUSTINE The fruit of his meditations was gathered by Augustine into the book~ he wrote during this period and in the letters he sent to his friends. At the close of the three years his reputation had gone far abroad. It must have been a good repo’rt, both of his own conduct and that of his community .... While on a visit to the episcopal city of Hippo, whither he had gone to induce a friend to join the Ta-gastan group, he was brought by the Catholics of the city to their bishop, Valerius, with their request that Augustine be ordained a priest for work among them. Valerius ordained him, thus removing him from the group of laymen at Tagaste. But his ideals of the apostolic life went with him, and "he soon founded a monastery within the church" in a garden donated by the bishop for that pur-pose. A canonist of our day writes an interesting gloss on the phrase, "within the church." He interprets it to mean practically a canoni-cal foundation. The donation of the bishop included of course l~is bone placitum; Augustine, now a cleric, could function for the first time as a religious superior. Inthe light of this exegesis, Hippo, and not Tagaste, must be considered the first Augustinian monastery. The writer, Father Kavanagh, sums up his thesis in these words: "because the Tagastan hermitage, begun in 388 was not acanonical establishment, the first Augustinian monastery dates from the’Hip-ponese foundation in 391. And since that was the first monastery canonically established in Roman Africa, Augustine is truly the in-stitutor of monasticism in that province. That he was universally so regarded in his own day is" evident from the fact that Catholics accounted it to his credit, heretics imputed it as a fault; all agreed as to the fact, and Augustine himself acquiesced in the consensus.’’1 In the new monastery the pattern of religious life’begins to show through. "There he began to live with the serxiants of God according to the manner and rules established under the holy Apostles; chiefly, that no one in that society should have anything of his own, but all should be in common and given to each as each had need; as he him-self had done on returning from across the sea to his own country (Possidius, op cir., 5)." This was the home of Augustine the priest for the next five years. When he was. consecrated a bishop in 395 he felt that the duties of the new office could not be combined with the solitude and quiet needed in that monastery, and so he m6ved from among his loved monks into the episcopal residence. But there he brought tl~e priests, deacons and sub-deacons of his diocese, to-l" Thfi First Augustinian Monastery." by D. J. Kavanagh, O.SA., in TAGAS-TAN, III, 1, page 10. 59 THOMAS F. ROLAND Review for Religious gether with one or two young laymen, perhaps preparing tO become clerics. He took as a model the early church of Jerusalem, insisting that his clerics live together, hold all property in common and call nothing one;s own. So he lived for the next quarter of a century,: When death came to the bishop of Hippo, in 430, he had made no’ ~last will and testament. As Possidius puts it simply "he made no Will, since the poor man of God had nothing to bequeath" (Ibid.,. 29). The manner of living initiated by Augustine spread rapidly through North Africa and the coastal islafids. Already by 394 Paulinus could write to Alypius (Epistolae, 24) and send greetings to "his companions and followers in the churches and monasteries in Carthage, Tagaste and Hippo .... " As the movement spread the monks were sought for by other bishops and churches, to be ordained as clerics for their congregations. Augustine encouraged the monks to put the needs of the Church before their own preference for soli-" tude, and as they accepted the calls for service elsewhere many of them established communities in their" new surroundings patterned on that which they had left. Possidius tells of ten such subjects who were furnished by Augustine himself from his own monastery; who became bishops and founded monasteries (Possidius, op. cir., 11). The tie which bound these individuals together, making of them a community, was called b3~ Augustine in the earlier days a holy agreement, sanctum ptacitum. Later he speaks of propo~itum or de-termination, and urges its binding force. It centered on the com-mon life. "I began to gather brethren of like disposition as myself, my equals, having nothing as I had nothing.., as I had ~old what-ever. little I had and given the proceeds to the poor, so did these also, so that we c’ould live in common . . . in our society no one may have anything that he calls his own. But suppose someone does keep something: it is not lawful; if they do so, they do what is unlawful. For I know, as do all who live with me know our determination (propositum) they know our law of life" (Sermones, 355, 2).. Later in the same discourse he says: "he who deserts the society of the common life which he has taken on himself, that life which is praised in the Acts of the Apostles, falls from his vow (votum) and falls from his holy profession." All who sought to enter a monas-tery were to be admitted, if their intention was" to serve God. He wrdte: (De Opere, Monachorum, 25) "Many come to this profession of serving God from a servile condition, or as freedmen; some who 6O March, RULE OF ST, AUGUSTINE expect to be freed by their masters because of their intention to do so; some from a rustic life, some plebeian Iab6rers and artisans . . . if such be not admitted, it is a grave crime (delictu.m). For many such were truly great and worthy of fmitation." Even those who had shown but few signs of improvement in the world were to be given a trial, for it was impossible to judge their motives for seeking admit-tance to the brotherhood. He wanted no distinction to’be made be-tween the poor who came naked to the common life and the rich who brought something to the common store. Nor was it to be noted where a rich postulant distributed his possessions before en-tering the monastery, since the respublica of Christians was all one, and wheresoever the poor received the benefit, Christ had been served. Many of the founder’s ideas and ideals for his monks are to be" found in his writings against their detractors. Prominent among such were the Donatists, whose violent mobs waged’a guerilla warfare against Catholic congregations. From Possidius’ description of their masquerade "going about under the guise of con~;inence," we may perceive the true monk’s profession of the celibate life as an out-standing mark of his order. From Augustine’s reply to the attacks made by Petilian we gather his acquiescence iff being called the founder of monasticism, and know his v~itness to the spread of the work (Cont.ra Litter: Peti[., 25). "Next he went on with his cursed mouth to vilify the monasteries and the monks, reproving me for having started this manner of living. However, he does not know what manner of life it is, or rather, he pretends to ignore, something that is well known all over the world" (Enarrat. In Psal., 119, -3). He calls the monastic life a seeking after perfection. "When a man begins to want to rise on high--I will put it more clearly-- when a Christian proposes to himself to follow the. road toward per-fection, he begins to suffer attacks from the tongues of the adver-saries. He who has not felt this has not made a single step in the way of perfection . . . as Soon as one starts to improve, to wish to advance, to despise earthly things, fragile and temporal things, to hold worldly happiness as something worthless, .to fix his thoughts solely on the contemplation of God, to find no joy in profit, to feel no pain for wrongs endured, to wish to sell all in order to give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Christ, behold, we see such a one suddenly made the target of the detractor’s tongue, opposed in a thousand ways, and what is w6rse, any and every means is used to drag him from the way of salvation . . . some will try to forbid, others will decry the efforts made to progress. But since the mon- 61 THOMAS F. ROLAND Review for Religious astic life, which by now has spread over the entire world, is such, and the authority of Christ is so great that not even a pagan dares now to reprove His. words, ’Go, sell wha[ you have, and give it to the poor, and come, follow Me,’ "since, I repeat, it is impossible to contradict Cl~rist or His holy, Gospel, the tongue of the deceiver must twist words of praise into the opposite meaning . . . ! Yes, it says, others have done so... but you perhaps will fail.., you are trying. for perfection? Be careful, lest you fall.’ It would seem to offer good advice, but in very truth, it is a serpent’s lying tongue, puffed with poison." While lauding the quest for perfection, Augustine was not blind to the faults and failures of some of his monks. In a sermon to his people (Ibid., 132) he said: "there are false monks--and I know several. But the pious brotherhood of the monasteries is n6t to perish because of those who profess to be what they are not . . . (they are) reprobates, in whom the charity of Christ has no part; who, while living in community with others, are hateful, spiteful, turbulent, disturbing by their raucous conduct the peac~ of their brethren, seeking always for a chance to speak against them, much as a fractious horse, in double harness, not only does not help to pull the wagon, but torments his team-mate with his kicks." He spoke openly of several scandals that arose in his monasteries, and took an occasion to explain in a sermon how each +f his clerics had acquired and disposed of his property, although some were unable to do so at the time because of the civil laws on ownership. His apology for not having a perfect community has become a classic (Epistolae, 78, 8). "Although discipline rules in my house, I am a man, and live among men. I dare not boast my dwelling is better than that of Noah, wherein one of eight men was found reprobate; nor that of Abraham, where it was said, ’Expel the handmaiden and her son’; nor that of Jacob... nor that of David... nor the dwelling place of Paul . . . nor that of our Lord Christ, wherein eleven good men tolerated Judas, a thief; nor lastly, is my house bet-ter than heaven, whence fell the angels." He continues with a state-ment that has beer~ justified but too often since he made it: "as I have rarely found men better than those who were making progress in the monasteries, so too I found none worse than they who lapsed there- With all the cares of his office as Bishop, amid the doctrinal con-troversies of his day, in which he was so commanding a figure, Augustine found time to keep in constant touch with the monas- 62 March, 1952 RULE OF ST. AUGUSTINE teries that grew up as the result of his efforts. Dozens of his letters are to his brethren and children in God, counseling, clarifying and settling arguments, and correcting abuses. Outstanding in this genre is Letter 211, entitled in many codices, "A Reprimand To The Quarreling Nuns." (Objur~latio contra dissensionem Sanctiraoni. alium.) It was written to a convent where his own sister had been the superior, and where he had found occasional retreat from the cares of office. When some of the nuns disputed the rights of her successor a disturbance arose in the community. After giving his advice and counsel, Augustine wrote out his commands "These are what we prescribe that you observe, living in the monastery." This part of the famous ietter has come down through the centuries as "The Rule of St. Augustine for Nuns (Ibid., 21 1)." After a long life of service in the vineyard of Christ Augustine died at ~he age of seventy-six, during the siege of his episcopal city of Hippo by the invadii~g Vandal hordes. Violent persecution of the Church followed the victories of the invaders, forcing the bish-ops,’. clerics and monks of North Africa into exile. Many took refuge in Sardinia, and there they deposited the greatest treasure carried with them, the body of the saint and founder. The little seed he had planted in Tagaste had grown into a flourishing tree. Monas-teries had been opened along the lines he had set down, not alone in Africa, but in the islands of the Mediterranean, and along the fur-ther shore. Through the dark ages that followed the fall of Rome the work went on sporadically, hidden away in hermitages wherein chosen souls withdrew from the world and its alarums. So it was that the dawn of the Christian Renaissance found the successors of those early monks scattered through Europe~ treasuring a tradition of their Augustinian foundation, and following the Rule which bore his great name. This is not the place to review in minute detail the tektual his-tory of the Rule. Let it suffice to state that three documents have carried this title. One is the famous Letter 211, another is the Re~lula Ad Ser~;os Dei, (Rule for the Servants of God) and the third, ge.nerally called Regu[a Secunda or The Second Rule. The Rule from Letter 211, as noted above, starts, "Haec sunt quae ut obser-yetis praecipimus." The Regula Ad Servos Dei starts "Ante omnia, fratres carissimi, diligatur Deus, deinde proximus, quia ista praecepta sunt principaliter nobis data." The second sentence, following im-medi~ itely, with no break indicated, is the first sentence of the Rule for Nuns, and it continues to follow, word for word, that entire 63 THOMAS F. ROLAND Review for Religious Rule, changed only when the gender of those addressed requires what are chiefly grammatical adjustments. But at the end there is always added, "Explicit Regula Sancti Augustini," words which neve~ ap-pear when the feminine Rule is transcribed. The Re, gula Secunda begins, "Ante omnia," repeating the start of the Regula Ad Sert~os Dei. Th~ next sentence however is "Qualiter autem nos oportet orate vel psallere describimus . . ." and a short listing of hours for prayer, with some admonitions on conduct in and out of the monastery, fol-low. Then come the words, "Haec sunt quae ut observetis praeci-pimus in monasterio constituti. Primo," and continuing on with the entire Regula Ad Ser~;os, complete with the Explicit. Which of these, if any, is the l~ule written by Saint Augustine? The Augustinian tradition takes the Regula Ad Servos to be the original, thbu~h some thought that the holy founder himself handed it to the nuns in a format adapted to their sex when he was called into their dispute. The Regula Secunda was generally held to be a production of a later date, and was listed accordingly among the spu-rious works of the great Doctor. Modern editors since Erasmus take Letter 211 to be the original Rule, and speak of Reguta Ad Servos as "a later adaptation made for men. This seems to be .the opinion of the Maurists, whose edition of St. Augustine’s works is reproduced in Migne (P.L. XXXII, 377 seq.). It is also that of ~l.Besse, whowrote the article of the Rule which appears in Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique (I, 2, col. 2273 seq.), and of Father Hugh Pope, O.P., who speaking2 of Letter 211 says: "where we have this Rule in its original form written for the community of nuns." The studies of Father Pierre Mandonnet, O.P., led him to a dif-ferent conclusion. He summed up his solution of the many questions ,involved, by accepting all three documents as authentic works of the saint. He holds that the Regula Secunda is the original Rule, prob-ably written for the Tagastan foundation; the Regula A’d Servos is a commentary written on the Rule, made as experience demonstrated the need for broader explanations; the founder wrote Letter 211 late in his career, when he was a bishop, to the quarreling nuns, and gave them something already proved by years of actual use to be a pr.ac-tical guide for a monastery. The Rule accepted today is composed of one sentence, the very first, from the Reguta Secunda, or original Rule, plus the entire Comme.ntary.3 2Saint Augustine Of Hippo, 1937, London, Sands ~ Co., page 383. 3Salnt Dominic And His Work, by Pierre Mandonnet, O.P., trans, by Sister M. Benedicta Larkin, O.P., Herder, St. Louis. 1944, page 195 seq. 64 March, 1952 RULE OF ST. AUGUSTINE Recent Augustinian writers generally concur in these conclusions of Father Mandonnet.4 But an English author, writings last year, though characterizing the work of the Dominican as brilliant, holds that his theory is not yet proved from the manuscripts available, and states "(the Rule is) based largely on his (Augustine’s) writings, and composed perhaps in the mid-fifth century by one closely under his influence." The Rule of St. Augustine that has been in general use for more than seven centuries is divided’ into twelve chapters in the edition made by the Maurists and reprinted in Migne. The chapter headings are: 1) On the Love of God and Neighbor, Union of Heart, and Common Life; 2) On Humility; 3) On Prayer and Divine Office; 4) On Fast!ng and Eating; 5) On Care of the Sick; 6) .On Dress and Public Behavior; 7) On Fraternal Correction; 8) On the Vice of Holding. Things as Personal Property; 9) On Washing Clothes, Baths, and Care for Other Needs of the Brethren; 10) On Asking Pardon, and Condoning Offenses, Through Charity; 11) On Obedi-ence to be Shown to the Superior; 12) On the Ready Observance of the Rule, and Its Frequent Reading. The publisher, John Mayer, who brought out an edition6 of Hugh of St. Victor,s Commentary of the Rule, combined in one vol-ume with that by Humbert of Vienna, Fifth Master General of the. Order of Preachers, tells in his Preface of finding great variety in’sub-dividing the Rule. Earlier publishers had each followed his own counsel in doing it, so he chose to sub-divide it into thirty-two parts, even though Hugh used eleven and Humbert seven, in their respective Commentary. That by Hugh of St. Victor, composed early in the XII century has always been held in great esteem; so much so, that Egidius of Viterbo, the zealous reforming Prior General of the Her-mits Of St. Augustine ordered it to be reprinted, together with the Rule, as one of the first official acts of his administration,z’ Every generation since has seen some new Commentary written, many by men of reputation for piety and learning. An instance is Ft. Pros- 4"The i~ule of St. Augustine," by J. A. Hickey, O.S.A., in URSULINE TRADI-TION AND PROGRESS, V, 1945. SThe Origins Of The Austin Canons, by J. C. Dickinson,’London, S.P.C.K., 1950, page 8, 255 seq. 6Regula D. Aurelii Augustini Ugonis de S. Victore, et Umberti, Quinti Ordin. Praedic, Gem Mag. Commentariis Illustrata, 158 I, Dilingae, Joannes Mayer. 7Regula S. P. Augustini, una cum Expositione Hugonis de S. Victore, Venice, 1508, De Gregoriis, page 9. 65 THOMAS F. ROLAND Reuieu~ for Religious per, o di S. Giuseppe, of the Recollects, who composed a volumes of one hundred sermons, taking the Rule phrase by phrase, and who had reached only the opening of Chapter VII at the end of his tome. The Rule begins by citing the two great commandments, to love God and our neighbor, for, Augustine says, these are the chief com-mands given to us. His own first precept, which then follows, is to live in harmony, one in mind and heart in God; this is the only rea-son for living in community. And as the first means to attain this end, the precept next in order in his Rule is, to hold everything in common, to have no personal property. On these grand notes .the Rule begins: Love, Unity, and Poverty. Next, the dangers attending common life are pointed out: the poor are not to feel proud of their rich, new associates, while those who were formerly rich are not to feel proud of their sacrifice of worldly goods. Pride is the danger, "Pride, that lurks even in good works, seeking to destroy them." Then, in two very short chapters, prbvision is made for prayer and fasting. No detailed schedule is outlined for either. Prayer is to be in common at the times appointed, chanting is to follow the direc-tions of the liturgy. Fasting is to be done with due care for health, and meals are to be accompanied by reading, "as is the custom." The next section is the longest up to this point; and details the loving care that is to be given to the sick. It is to be given to all who need it, and no preference is to be shown those who brought riches with them on entering the monastery, except that preference made neces-sary if their previous soft living had left them unfit for the rigors of the common regime. Dress and external deportment are next taken up, and here Augustine’s genius for the middle road stands out prominently. Let your dress be plain, he says, literally, "let your dress attract no atten-tion." The monks are to try to please not by dress but by their con-duct. Modesty is to be the mark of the religious, who is not to be seen alone in public, and whose every move avoids giving offense to any one. Particularly are the eyes to be guarded, lest unseemly glances invite unchaste reactions. And in this, each one is to keep prudent vigil over his brother. This fraternal solicitude is to be a general rule. When one notes a brother to be in error, he is to give him a charitable admonition; if that does not suffice for his correc-tion, the fault is to be brought to the notice of the superior, always 8Discorsi Claustrali, P. Prospero di S. Giuseppe, Agno, Scalzo, Milano, 1731, Stampa Vigone. 66 March, 1959. RULE OF ST. AUGUSTINE in charity, and always for the brother’s betterment. Then, if cor-rection does not follow, the erring brother is to be expelled, for the common good. The common good is to be the aim also in caring for the things which belong to the monastery, so that the individual brother may be relieved of all worry and solicitude on this account. No one shall work for himself alone, but charity, the binding factor in all monastic living, shall rule in all things, ~ven those most ma-terial and trivial. Clothing is to be kept clean, and in good repair, but the individual is not to be bothered here--those appointed will take care of Such details. Bodily cleanliness is to be cared for, and the physician is to be consulted on questions of health. Public baths may be frequented when needed, a detail which reflects the age in which the Rule was composd. A library is. assumed to be part of each monastery, since a specific prescription states "Books are to be given out at a fixed time each day." But no such time limit is placed on material necessities. "They who have the care of clothing and shoes shall not delay giving these when needed." But all such chores are to be done in. charity. "Let him who has charge of food or clothing or books serve his brethren with cheerfulness." Augustine knew when to underscore the points of friction in community life, and to turn each such into an occasion to practice the great common virtue, charity. Charity is to govern all daily life, bad temper is to be avoided, and all show of anger quickly ended. But this is not to prevent the superior from using stern measures when he deems such to be needed for the common good, and for the maintenance of proper discipline. The superior is to be obeyed as a father, and here the Rule reflects the growth of ~he monastic ideal on this point. When Tagaste housed the first community all the brethren were laymen and no question of ec’clesiastical authority could be raised there. But the final written Rule recognizes three superiors, the Pater (father), the Praeposftus (local superior) and the Presbgter (priest). With the introduction .of the priest jurisdictional power is brought in.9 The local superior took over the place of the original father (Augustine himself) as new monasteries were started. He was responsible for discipline, but he was not to rejoice in his power, but to fear God in all humility, .exercising it in all charity, and striving to be more loved than feared. The closing chapter r.epeats the theme of the entire rule. "The Lord grant that you observe these precepts with Iove.(cura dilec- 9"The Concept of Authority In the Rule Of St. Augustine," by R.. V. Shuler, O.S.A. in TAGASTAN, XI, 1, 1947. 67 THOMAS F. ROLAND tione)--not as slaves, but as freemen, living under the rule of grace." And the ever practical Augustine adds one last command--let this Rule be read once a week. Then it will not be forgotten, but will serve as a spiritual mirror for each brother to note therein his progress. Such is the Rule which from the days of Pope GeIasius III has been the inspiration of many varied groups of pious men and wom-en, as before his day it had inspired the hermits who carried the tra-dition of African monasteries through the dark night which c6vered Europe after the fall of Rome. Dickinson (op. cir., 71) quotes from The Observances of Barnard Priory a summary of reasons for such widespread acceptance. "Who was more holy than blessed Augus-tine, who more profound in thought, more eloquent or more wise ¯ . . His Rule is simple and easy so that unlearned men and little children can walk in it without stumbling. On the other hand it is deep and lofty so, that the wise and strong can find in it matter for abundant and perfect contemplation. An elephant can swim in it and a lamb can walk in safety. Even as a lofty tower surrounded on ’all sides by walls makes the soldiers who garrison it safe, fearless, and impregnable so the Rule of Blessed Augustine, fortified on alt sides by observances in accordance with it, makes its soldiers-- that is, canons .regular--undismayed at the attacks of the devil.’~ The Rule has proved itself, through the centuries, and in many ¯ lands, to be a practical guide to perfection. Poverty, chastity, and obedience are all there, explicitly or implicitly, practiced as a rule of life under the guidance of ecclesiastical authority. Its very lack of detailed precepts, its cleaving to the golden mean, make it available. and adaptable in changing conditions of the passing centuries. But its insistence on charity, love of God and love of neighbor in God, makes it a fit.instrument in any age for souls seeking the heights of sanctity. Augustine’s initial idea of a community of savants seeking a quiet refuge in which to pursue the search for philosophic truth, has been baptized, and made into a potent, enduring device for the attainment of holiness, And through the ages religious men and women have joined, and still join, in a mighty chorus, raising their voices in the hymn of praise that hai,l3 their great Founder and Law-giver, MAGNE PATER AUGUSTINE! Tu de t;ita monachorurn Sanctam scribis Regularn Quarn qui arnant" et sequuntur Viarn tenent regiam Atque tuo sancto tluctu Redeunt ad PATRIAM. 68 The Quinquennial Reporl:: Obliga!:ions and Direct:ives II. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. 44~I~’A!~ERE the following reports presented to the General Chapter in due time, so that’they could be conveniently examined by each of the Capitulars and by a Commission elected in the Chapter if that is prescribed: a) The report on the state of persons, discipline and works since the last General Chapter, drawn up by the Superior or Vicar General and approved by the General Council? b) The report on the true and complete financial condition of the Institute drawn up by the Bursar General and approved by the Superior General with his Council? "Was the decision on these reports read in Chapter and seriously weighed and discussed before the general elections?" Pontifical, 32- 33 ; Diocesan, 21-22. The matter referred to in these questions is a complete report of t.he’personal, disciplinary, apostolic, material, and financial condition of the entire institute from the time of the last general chapter. This report is read to the capitulars by the superior general in a preliminary session of the general chapter. There is no obligation from the Code of Canon Law or the decrees of the Holy See to furnish this report, nor is the report always prescribed in constitutions approved by the Holy See. However, it is almost universally included in such con-stitutions, and the present questions manifest the mind of the Holy See that the report should be made in all institutes, with the sole ex-ception of independent monasteries and houses. The report is ob-viously helpful. The chapter is informed of the present state of the institute, which can influence its choice in the elections, and is also furnished with many i3ractical measures to be discussed in the chapter of affairs. It is evident that this report is not a mere formality, nor should it be presented to the chapter in such a way as to be of little utility. The report should be so compiled that the capitulars can readily per-ceive and grasp the points to which they should be more attentive. For example, the personal state of the institute can be given in the form of a chart, and the bursar general should not merely give figures 69 JOSEPH F. GALLEN but should also indicate clearly the material and financial problems of the institute. Great attention is to be given, to the.words of the Sacred Congregation, "Were the following reports presented to the General Chapter’in due time, so that theg could be convenfentlg ex-amined bg each of the Capitulars . . ." I believe the more usual way of presenting this report is that the superior general ,merely reads it. This is not an efficient method. The report is necessarily long and it contains many and disparate matters and details. No one can give close attention to the reading of such a report for any great length of time. The following method is proposed as a means of eliminating the difficulties of a mere reading of the report. Before the chapter the whole report should be mimeographed.and a numbered copy given to each capitular as long before the preliminary session as is possible. The capitulars thus hhve an opportunity of studying the.report. A real study is impossible in the system now in very common use. The capitulars never see the report. It is presented to them only by a mere .reading of the superior general in a preliminary session in the morning; it is discussed in the afternoon session of the same day. Some institutes expedite the report even more rapidly. If the system of mimeographed copies is used, the superior general is relieved of the necessity of giving numerous details and can confine himself to the necessary explanations. The numbered copies can be collected from the capituIars after the completion of the chapter of affairs. The findings of the committee of capitulars that examined the report are read in another preliminary session of the chapter. The purpose of this examination is not to give a judgment of approval or failure on the regime of the retiring superior general but to indicate where the report should be clarified, corrected, or supplemented and especially to suggest th~ matters in the report that should be con-sidered in the chapter of affairs. The discussion of the capitulars on the findings of the committee should be ’restricted to the same points.16 VI. Vote of Councillors "a) Was the opinion of MI the Councillors always asked? b) Do absent Councillors give their opinion, and if so how? c) Were any of the Councillors negledted; if so, what was the reason?" Pontifical, 50; Diocesan, 38. These questions refer to all the’councils of the institute, general, provincial, and local. When either the consent or advice of a council 16Cf. Bastien, Directoire Canonique, n. 255. 70 March; 1952 QUINQUENNIAL REPORT ¯ is .required, canon 105, 2° commands the religious superior to con-voke all the councillors. He must, therefgre, sufficiently ahead of-time, inform all the councillors of the place, day and hour of the session. This convocation will not be n~cessary if either the consti-tutions or custom piescribes that the meetings are to be held at a definite place, day, and 15our of the month or year. It is thus possible for a councillor to have been neglected or his vote not asked because of a lack of convocation. The same canon also obliges the superior, at least for the liceity. of. the action he is to take, to ask the consent or advice of the mem-bers of the council present together. The superior may not request ’ the consent or advice privately and separately from each councillor, for example, by letter. The reason for the common deliberation is that the facts, reasons, and difficulties proposed may clarify the issue in the minds of all. The assembly of the council also facilitates a negative vote, which would be more difficult to give in the presence of the superior alone. ¯ It is not to be presumed that the question quoted above makes the giving of an opinion by an absent councillor licit. In answering the question the fact and reasons for voting in absentia must be given, as also the means by which such a vote is conveyed. In an extraordinary case, where the delay’ in assembling the coun-cil would cause at least the probable danger: of a proportionate loss, damage, or injury, there is an excuse from this law of the Code, and the superior may licitly ask the vote of the council privately and separately, for example, by telephone. Such cases must also be listed in the response. It is possible’to find constitutions that approve a more extensive right of asking the vote in absentia, due to a more constant difficulty of assembling the council. This can very readily occur in mission ’countries. Canon 105, 3° commands the councillors to give their opinion with reverence, the proper motive, and sincerity. Logically, there-fore, the Sacred Congregation wishes to know whether the opinion of all the councillors was always asked. VII. Reports to Higher Superiors "What means are taken in order that the Superior General and his Curia be constantly, fully, and sincerely informed as to the state of the Institute? "Are periodical reports to be made to Major Superiors, and how often ? 71 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for ReIiyiotts "Is a faithful observance of the prescriptions in this matter in-sisted upon?" Pontifical, 64-66; Diocesan, 52-54. The higher superiors, generals and provincials, should evidently be constantly aware of the general state of their institutes and prov-inces. The canonical visitation of higher superiors is a great aid but is not sufficient for the purpose. The more common norm is that this visitation is made by the general once every three or six years and by the provincial annually or once in three years. The visitation is an intermittent rather than a constant source of knowledge. No other means of acquiring such knowledge is prescribed by the Code of Canon Law or contained universally in constitutions approved by the Holy See. It is true that there is" an established system of finan-cial reports, since it is the practically universal norm of constitutions approved by the Holy See that a financial statement is made every six months by local superiors to the general or provincial and every .six months also by the provincial to the general. Some pontifical con-stitutions, have a system of reports on the more important affai’rs of the houses and provinces, their disciplinary and religious condition, and the changes made in the assignment of subjects. These reports are sent to the general or provincial every three months by the local superiors and by the provincials to the general at the same intervals. Some institutes prescribe also a more detailed and complete report annually to the general on the personal, disciplinary, and religious state of the province. A few institutes also demand an annual letter to the general from each provincial and local councillor on the state of the province or house, and the local councillors also write semi-annually to the provincial on the same matter. Higher superiors may initiate such a system of reports. Their in-troduction does not demand any addition to the constitutions. The present qhestions of the Holy See clearly imply that there should be some system of r~ports. VIII. General and Provincial Tax o "Did the individual houses and other units subject to the Prov-inces contribute toward meeting the expenses of the Provinces? "Did the Provinces and equivalent units and the houses which are immediately under the Superior Gdneral contribute to the com-mon necessities of the Institute? "By what authority (Chapter, Council General or Provincial Superior), on what principles and in what proportion are the con-tributions to the general and provincial funds d~termined? 72 March, 1952 QUINQUENNIAL REPORT "Were these contributions paid willingly or more or less under pressure? "Are the Provinces and houses allowed to retain whatever.is pru-dently foreseen to be necessary or very appropriate for their own life and growth, in view of the good of sohls and the welfare of the Insti-tute?" Pontifical, 96-100; Diocesan, 84-87. Religious do not always fully, realize that the houses and prov-inces should contribute to the defraying of the provincial and general expenses. The support of the provincial and general bfficials, of the novices and postulants, of the younger religious in studies, of a cen-tral infirmary, and of the needy houses is evidently a common ex-pense. The general and provincial tax must be considered as a neces-sary item of the budget of every house and not as a generous or merely possible gift. Two systems of taxation are in use in religious congregations of Brothers and Sisters. The first system is that of the Normae of 1901.17 At the end of the year each house is obliged to send one-third of the net surplus of the past year to the provincial or general treasury, if the institute is not divided into provinces, and each province sends one-third of its net surplus to the general treasury. This surplus is what remains after all dxpenses, ordinary and" extraordinary, have been deducted. .The amounts paid or to be paid on debts, together with the interest, are also to be deducted. The surplus is only that of the current 9ear. It is not necessary to pay again on the surplus carried over from a previous year. In the modern practic4 of the Sacred Congregation of Religious in approving constitutions, the determination of the contributions by the houses and the provinces is left to the general chapter, which can " thus increase or decrease the tax as demanded by changing values and ekpenses. This is the preferable norm. The amount fixed by the constitutions or the general chapter is the minimum sum to be given by each province and house, which are not forbidden freely to give more. Religious houses, as far as is pos-sible and within the limit established by the general chapter, or higher superiors, should give alms. It is not to be forgotten that the houses, works, and members of the institute are the ones to whom charity should be shown first, for example, by gifts for the support, training, and education of the postulants, the novices, and the young 17Normae Secundum Quas S. Congr. Episcoporum et Regularium Procedere Solet in Approbandis Novis Instit’utis Votorum Simplicium, 28 iun. 1901, n. 294. 73 ,JOSEPH F, GALLEN professed, for the missions, and also for the needy houses of. the in-stitute. ¯ If the ordinary tax does not suffice for the needs of an institute or province, the practice of the Sacred Congregation permits the supe-rior general, with the consent o} his ~ouncil, to impose an extraordi-nary tax on all the provinces,and houses that can afford it. Some constitutions give this same POWer to the provincial council, with the consent of the general council. As is implied in the last question, the Sacred Congregation rarely permits that all the surplus funds of a house or province be sent to the provincial or general treasury. Such places as the academies, col-leges, and hospitals owned by the institute should be allowed to set ¯ up a reserve fund for repairs, improvements, and additions. However, there is no reason for a reserve fund in such works as parish schools, orphanages, hospitals, and other institutions in which the income of the religious c’onsists of salaries paid by the administrators or.proprie-tors of such institutions. It is the practice of the Sacred Congrega-tion, irrespective of the form of taxation employed, that such houses should send all their surplus to the .provincial and general treasury and should retain only a relatively small sum determined by the gen-eral chapter or superior general. This norm is frequently asserted in constitutions approved by the Holy See, for example: "The houses, however, or schools, in which our Sisters are supported by salary or other remuneration from the parish, will deliver to the same Pro-vincial safe all the money remaining at the close of the year.." It is realized that most of these houses will not have a surplus. The needy houses should not be an unimportant beneficiary of the provincial and general funds. Such expenses as necessary medical care .are not to be denied because of the lack of means, of a pagticular house. OUR CONTRIBUTORS A monastery, a high school, and three theologates supplied our writers for the present issue. THOMAS F. ROLAND writes from the Augustinian Monastery at Villanova, Pennsylvania. BERNARD PLOGMAN teaches at North Catholic High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. C.A. HERBST is on the faculty and EVERETT ,J. MIBACH, a former missionary to China, is studying ’at St. Mary’s College, St, Marys, Kansas. ,}’0HN A. HARDON teaches fundamental theology at West Baden College, West Baden, Indiana, and’,JOSEPH F. GALLEN, who contributes in this issue the second in a series of three articles, teaches Canon Law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. 74 Devot:ion ot: $t:. Therese ot: Lisieux t:o t:he Blessed Virgin Mary John A. Hardon, S.J. ANEW STAGE is developing in the devotion of the faithful to St. Th~r~se of Lisieux. In 1947, the fiftieth anniversary of her death, a congress of theologians was held in Paris with the object of studying the theological implications of St. Th~r~se’s spir-itual doctrine and of tracing her relationship to the other ascetical writers of the Church. Among the phases of Th~r~se’s spirituality, her" devotion to the Mother of God d~s~rves special attention. For if, according to sound theology, all graces are given to us through Mary, the extraordinary graces which made Th~r~se, in the wbrds of Pius XI, "a miracle of virtue" should be no exception, as even a sun’i-mary analysis of her life will fully confirm. The Little Flower of the Blessed Virgin Marg "The greatest saint of modern times," as Pius X described her, was. a!so one of the most devoted lovers of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the opinion of the Italian Mariologist, Gabriele Rbs~hini, writing in, his collection of Marian sketches, Con Maria, Editrice Ancor~i;...Milan. The present analysis is based largely on this study. Shortly after her religious profession, as the consecrated spouse of Christ, Th~r~se painted a symbolic picture of herself. It showed a snow-white lily, symbolizing her soul, above which~ was a glistening star tracing the letter "M"--Marie--and letting fall its rays into the open petals below. She used to call herself, "the Little Flower of the Blessed-Virgin," and Mary, on her part, ~vcas called her "heavenly Gardener." When she received from superiors the order to write her life, she immediately had recourse to Mary. "Before I took pen in hand, she writes, "I knelt down before the statue of the Blessed Virgin, which had given to my family so many proofs of her mater-nal protection, and I begged her to guide my hand and not. allow me to,write a single line that might displease her." (Autobiograpbg, 15) The Queen of the Martin Household Th~r~se Martin came from a household where the Mother of God may truly be said to have ruled as Queen. A statue of the immaculate Conception--made of plastic and measuring 36 inches in height~ 75 JOHN A. HARDON Review for Rdliqious which" had been given to her father as a young man-~occupied the place of honor in the house. Before this statue Th~r~se’s mother con-secrated her nine little children, one after the other, shortly after birth, and gave all of them as tl~eir first name, the chosen name of Mary. Gathering around the statue every night, M. Martin led his family in common prayers. And after prayers, each child was al-lowed to render some special homage to Mary’s statue, which, we are ¯ told, would often have to have its fi~gers replaced after the children had scrambled all at once to kiss Our Lady’s hands. The Martins belonged to the parish of Our Lady of Alencon. As one child after another was given to them by God, the father and mother joined in asking the Mother of God that all their children might be consecrated to the service of her Son. Their prayer was not unanswered: four of the children died in their baptismal innocence, shortly after birth, and the other five, Pauline, Marie, L~onie’, C~line and Th~r~se, were consecrated to God in two orders of the Blessed Virgin, Our L~dy of Mt. Carmel and the Visitation. The Blessed Virgin in Th3rkse’s Earl~t LiFe Th~r~se was born January 2, 1873, at Alencon. The following day, in the Church of Our Lady, she was reborn in the life of divine grace, with the name Marie-Francoise-Th~r~se. L~ss than five years later, her mother died at the early age of forty-six, and Th~r~se’s character underwent a complete change. From "having been so viva-cious and expansive," she became "timid, meek, and sensitive to an extreme." The void left in her heart by the loss of her earthly mother drew her instinctively towards her heavenly mother Mary. When she made her first confession at the age of five, her confessor ex-horted her to a filiaI love of Mary. "I remember," she says, "the exhortation with which he then urged me above all to a devotion to the Blessed Virgin; and ][ promised to redouble my affection towards her who now held such an important place in my heart. Then I handed him my rosary to bless, and left the confessional so free and happy that I can say I had never before in my life experienced such joy." (1bid., 35) Consecration to Mar~j Until Th~r~se was nine years old, her sister Pauline took the place of her mother. But in 1881 when Pauline entered the Carmel at Lisieux, her younger sister felt the shock so severely that she came down with a nervous malady from which according to human calcu-" lations she was never to be cured. She seemed to be almost constantly 76 ~larch, 1952 ST. THERESE AND MARY in delirium. The doctors were perplexd about the nature of the sick- ¯ heSS, but were sure that it could not be cured. During moments when the pain was less severe, she found special delight in weaving garlands of flowers for Our Lady’s altar. "We were then in the beautiful month of May, when all of nature was adorned with the flowers of springtime; only the little [lower was lhnguishing and seemed destined to die. That is, until she received sunlight from above, and that sunlight was the miraculous statue of the Queen of Heaven." (Ibid., 50) Often in the course of her illness, she turned towards the statue of Our Lady and asked to be cured. Her father wrote to Paris to have some Masses celebrated in the Sanctuary of Notre Dame des Victoires, ¯ asking for the cure of his "poor little queen." At th~ same time, a novena was begun to the Blessed Virgin, but no sign of improve-meant. In fact, Th~r~se l~ecame steadily worse until she could not ¯ even recognize those who stood beside her, Finally, on the Sunday before the novena ended, during a spasm of delirious pain, while her sisters were praying before the statue of the Immaculate Heart, "I also turned to our Heavenly Mother," she relates, "begging her with all my heart to have pity on me. All of a sudden the statue became alive! The Virgin became beautiful, so beautiful that I could never find words to express it... But what penetrated to the roots of my being was her rayishing smile. At that moment all my pains vanished." (Ibid., 51 ) May 8, 1884, at the age of ten, she made her First Communion .with the Benedictine nuns at Lisieux, after a fervent retreat of three days. In that first meeting, or, as she expresses it~ "fusion" with Jesus, it was her Heavenly Mother again, irl the absence of her mother on earth, who accompanied her to the altar. For "it was she herself who on that morning of the 8th of May placed her Jesus into my soul." (Ibid., 60) In the afternoon of that happy day, she solemnly ratified Mary’s gift to her by consecrating herself "with all the affection of my heart" to the Blessed Mother of God. "I pronounged the Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin in the name of my companions. Doubtless I was chosen for this because I was left without my mother on earth... In consecrating myself to the Virgin Mary, I asked her to watch over me, placing into the act all the devotion of my soul, and it seemed to me, I saw her once again looking down and smiling on her ’petite fleur.’ " (Ibid.) But this general consecration to Mary did not satisfy the ardent 77 JOHN A. HARDON Review [or Religio, us heart of Thir~se. She wished to dedicate herself in a very special’ way. "I resolved therefore," she says, "to consecrate myself in a par-ticular ..way to the Most Holy Virgin, begging for admission among the Daughters’of Mary." And so, on May 31, 1887, she was en-rolled in the Association of the Daughters of Mary, at the convent of the Benedictine Abbey of Lisieux, among whom were admitted only those students who were distinguished for their piety an’d good ex-ample. "The same year," she adds, "in which I was received as a Daughter of the Blessed Virgin, she took away from me my beloved sister Mary, the only solace of my soul . . . As soon as I heard of her decision to leave, I resolved never again to take any pleasure in things here below." (Ibid. 68) Already since the age of three, Thlr~se had a strong desire to enter "~ the Carmelites. And now her sister’s entrance intensified this attrac- ¯ tion. But there were obstacles in. the way. One was her extreme sen-sitivity, considered irreconciliable with the Carmelite way of life. What to do? She betook herself ~to her Heavenly Mother who, on Christmas night, 1886, happily freed her from this impediment. However, a more serious obstacle still remained: she was too young to be received. First Conquests of Mar~ The words of’Christ on the Cross, "I thirst," inspired St. Th~r~se with "an indescribable zeal for souls." More specifically, "I wished to give to my Beloved the drink He desired. And I felt myself con-sumed by a thirst for souIs, wishing at any price to save sinners from the eternal flames" of hell. (Ibid. 73) In this apostolate of prayer and sacrifice, she always depended on Mary. Thus at Buissonnets, she heard of a middle-agekl servant woman who had lost her faith, and whom no one could bring back to God. Th~r~se tried to con-vert her, but seeing that her efforts were being wasted, she finally took from her own neck a medal of the Blessed Virgin, gave it to the un-happy woman and extracted from her the promise to wear the medal fintil death. Roschini, quoting Carbonel, La Picola Teresa, c. 22., notes that she was also in the habit of sewing medals of Our Lady into workmen’s clothing--unknown, of course~ to the workmen themselves. However, the outstanding convert of Th~r~se’s early apsotolate was undoubtedly the notorious Pranzini. A criminal who had stained his hands many times with human blood, he still retained some kind of devotion to the Mother of God. Condemned to death by the courts in Paris, he had refused the ministrations of a priest. 78 March, 1952 ST. THERESE AND’MARY.’ While awaiting his execution set for the last day of August, he asked: for permission to hear Mass on the Feast of the Assumption. At this tim~ he declared publMy that even after entering on his life of crime, he seldom failed to stop in a church to greet "La Madonna," and that in Alexandria, where he was born, he once had the privilege of carrying a banner of the Blessed Virgin in a religious procession. A devoted client of Mary could not be lost. And as the story of the Little Flower informs us, the Blessed Mother inspired St. Th~r~se to offer prayers and sacrifices to God for Pranzini’s conversion. "The ¯ news," writes Th~r~se, "became daily more discouraging . . . to the very last hour Pranzini refused to see a priest." Still she contifiued hoping that somehow the impossible would happen, pleading with our Lord that, "He is my first sinner, and for this reason I ask You to giveme a sign of his repentance, simply f6r my consolation .... I am sure that You will pardon this unfortunate Pranzini." (Auto-biography, 73.) And there was a sign, as detailed by the newspapers. "On the morning of August 31, Pranzini had already climbed the guillotine ¯ . ..Then, seized by a sudden inspiration, he swiftly turned around and cried out, ’M. Cur~, give me your crucifix, quick!’ He added only one more word, ’I have sinned!’ And the priest cried back, ’I absolve you.’ A moment later, his head rolled off the guillotine, into the dust." (Roschini, 210) Pilgrimago to Rome In’ 1887, Th~r~se was .only fourteen years old, too young to enter the Carmelite cloister. So had judged her Sister Marie, the Pri- .oress, the Superior of Carmel, and’the Archbishop of Bayeux. No one remained but the Pope. And she went to the Pope, in the com-pany of her father. The Blessed Virgin showered this pilgrimage with untold graces. "Arrived in Paris," she says, "my father’wanted me to visit all the places of interest, but of such I found only one, Our Lady. of Victories. What I experienced in her Sanctuary is past description; when the graces she brought me were.like those I had received at my First Communion... She told me clearly that it was she who had smiled upon me and cured me." (A~tobiographg, 89- 90) While the original purpose of the Roman journey was not to obtain the Pope’s consent, in the course of the pilgrimage Th~r~se decided on this resolution, and thus changed ar~ audience of devotion into a successful petition for entrance into Carmel. Finally in Rome, on November 20, 1887, she asked the Holy 79 JOHN A. HARDON Reoieto for Religious Father, Leo XIII, for permission to enter Carmel at the age of fifteen. The Pope referred the decision to her immediate superiors. And so, on April 9 the following year, the transferred feast of the Annuncia-tion, Th~r~se Martin realized her life’s ambition of entering the Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. In the Order of Carmel January 10, "the generous postulant took the habit of the Virgin of Carmel. But then she was told to wait a few months after the novitiate before making her first profession. This was a hard sacri-fice, but "the Blessed Virgin," she confessed, ."helped me to prepare the vesture of my soul." Msreover, there was the reward of having her profession take place on Mary’s Birthday. "The Nativity of Mary," she exclaimed, "what a perfect feast on which to become the spouse of Jesus!" On the 24th of the same month, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the ceremony of taking the veil took place. Not long after, obedience called her to assume the delicate office of mistress of novices. But her guide in everything was always the Seat of Wis-dom. Thus she confided to her spiritual charges who marveled at he~ knowledge of their souls, "I never make any observation without first invoking the Blessed Virgin. - I ask her to inspire me to say what is most for your good; and often I am surprised myself at what I am telling you." (Roschini, 215) Life of Union with Mary Her life of union with the Mother of God became daily more intense. According to the late Prioress of Carmel at Lisieux, what contributed not a little to this was the classic treatise, "On the True Devotion of Blessed Virgin Mary," by St. Simon dd Montfort, which Th~r~se frequently read and meditated upon. Following Simon de Montfort’s advice, she did everything with Mary, or rather, in the presence of Mary, under Mary’s influence and acco, rding to her example. The very name of Mary was enough "to transport her’heart with joy." Her prayer to Our Lord was that He would always remem-ber her as the daughter of the same Mother as Himself. This thought so fascinal~ed her that she never tired of repeating it. "Everything is mine," she wrote Oct. 19, 1892, to her sister C~line, "God is mine, and the Mother of God is also my Mother .... something I find my-self saying to her, ’You know, dear Mother, th~t I am happier than you? I have you for Mother, whereas you do not have the Blessed Virgin to love... I poor creature am not your servant, but your 8O March, 1952 ST. THERESE AND MARY daughter. You are the Mother of Jesus, and my Mother too.’ " And in an outburst of love she was prompted to say, "O Mary, if I were Queen of heaven and you were Th&~se, I would wish to be Th&~se, to see you Queen of heaven." These were the last words written by the saint, three weeks before her death, on a picture of Our Lady of Victories. ~ Her ardent wish was "to live during this sad exile in the company of Mary, submerged in loving ecstasy in the depths of her maternal Heart," that she should "pass the day of .life hidden with Jesus, under the mantle of Mary," declaring that there alone she "finds the prelude of Paradise." When in trial or difficulty, she had recourse to Mary, "whose glance alone is enough to dissipate every fear." (Quoted from Histoire d’une Ame, pp. 379, 423, 428) She li(,ed especially ih the presence of her Blessed Mother when fulfilling the most important act of the day: receiving Holy Com-munion. This was her method: "I picture to myself my soul as an open field from which I ask the Blessed Virgin to remove the obstacles which are my imperfections." And again, "At the moment of Com-munion, I sometimes imagine my soul is a child of three or four years, who has just come from play, hair disheveled, and clothes dis-orderly and soiled. Thesh are the injuries that I meet in combating with souls .... Then comes the Blessed Virgin and in a moment makes me respectable-looking and fit to a~sist at the Banquet of the Angels without shame." (Autobiograpb~l, 254.) However, Th~r~se had resolved not only to live and work under Mary’s watchful eyes, but also to follow’ her example. She wished "to follow every day" in the footsteps of her Mother, especially in learning from her "how to remain little." Mary taught her that "suffering out of love is a joy." But more than a.nything else, she instructed her in simplicity, in the practice of that characteristic vir-tue of "the little way." Thus in a poem she wrote for one of her young postulants, she has the Blessed Virgin telling her that, "the one virtue above all others that I am giving you is simplicity." . (His-toire, 425 ) Apostolate through Marg There are 238 letters of St. Th~r~se in the latest collection, edited by l’Abb~ Combes in 1947. In the spirit of the canonical rule of not concluding a Process of Beatification till fifty years after the death of a Servant of God, the Carmelite Superiors of Lisieux waited until now to publish all the extant correspondence of the Little Flower. 81 JOHN A. HARDON Retffew /’or Religious This correspondence gives us an insight ifito what may be called the external apostolate of the Patroness of the Missions. Running through the letters is a spirit of reliance on the example and assistance ,of the Mother of God that is truly remarkable. On October ’14th, 1890, shortly after Th~r~se took the veil, she wrote to her sister C~line who was making a pilgrimage to Paray-le- Monial. After exhorting her to a great purity 6f heart, she continues: "Virginity is a profound silence of all this world’s cares, not only useless cares, but all cares .... To be a virgin one must have no thought left save for the Spouse, who will have nothing near Him that is not v~rginal, since He chose to be born of a Virgin Mother ¯ . . Again it has been said that every one has a natural love for the place of his birth, and as the place of Jesus’ birth is the Virgin of virgins and Jesus was born, by His choice, of a Lily, He loves to be in virgin hearts." Ayear later (July 8, 1891) she is writing to C~line about a cer-tain Hyacinthe Loyson, who apostatized from the priesthood. Again the burden of her letter is a plea for holiness, but now as a sacrifice to obtain Loyson’s conversion through the Mother of God. "We must not grow weary of praying" for the unfortunate man, she says. "Confidence wqrks miracles .... And in any event it is not our mer-its but those of our Spouse, which are ours, that we offer to our Fa-ther who is in heaven, in order that our brother, a son of the Blessed Virgin, should come back vanquished to throw himself beneath the cloak of the most merciful of mothers." Th~r~se, who had prayed for the apostate throughout her religious life, offered her last Com-munion for him in 1897, August 19, the feast of St. Hyacinthe. Loyson .is known to have been converted on his death bed, fifteen years later. On the Feast of Our Lady of Mr. Carmel, in 1894, Th~r~se wrote to her cousin, Mme. Pottier, to congratulate her on her hus-band’s return to the practice of his faith. Mme. Pottier had gone to Lourdes to ask for the grace of his conversion. "Your letter," she writes, "gave me great joy; I am lost in wonder at the way the Bles- "sed Virgin has pleased to grant all your desires. Even before your marriage, she wanted the soul, to which you were to be united, to be but one soul with yours through identity of feeling. What a grace to feel yourself so completely understood! and above all to know that your union will be immortal, that after this life you will still be able to love the husband who is so dear to you... I had asked Our Lady of Mr. Carmel for the grace you obtained at Lourdes." And she adds, 82 March, 1952 ST. THERESE AND MARY "I am so happy that you are wearing the Blessed Scapular; it is a sure sign of predestination." , For several years before her death, Soeur Th&~se kept in corre-spondence @ith various priests and clerics engaged in missionary work, or preparing for the same. The day after Christmas, 1896, she sent a letter of encouragement to a young priest who was’soon to leave his family for the f.oreign mission field. "Jesus knows," she tells him, "that the suffering of people dear to you makes your own greater still: but He too suffered that martyrdom to save our souls. He left His Mother, He saw the Immaculate Virgin at the foot of the Cross, her Heart pierced by a sword of sorrow; so I hope that our Divine Lord will comfort your dear mother, and my prayer for that is most urgent." One of the longestand probably most light-hearted letters of St. Th~r~se was penned (dated March 19) in 1897, the year of her death. P~re Roulland, a missionary in China, had asked her to sug-gest a name for baptism. "You ask me," she answered, "to choose between the two names, Marie or Th~r~se, for one of the girls you are to baptize. Since the Chinese don’t want two saints to protect them but only one, they must have the more powerful, so the Blessed Virgin wins." Writing to the same missionary two months later, she confided to him her conviction that all missionaries are not only saved but will not even pass through Purgatory to enter heaven. "How c~n God," she asks, "purify in the flames of Purgatory souls consumed in the fires of divine love? Of course no human life is free from faults, only the Immaculate Virgin presents herself in absolute purity before God’s majesty. What a joy to remember that she is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weaknesses; what have we to fear? What a lot of phrases to express my thought .... I simply wanted to say that it seems to me that all missionaries are martyrs by desire and will, and that, in consequence, not one should go to Purgatory. If, at the moment they appear before God, some traces of human weakness remain in their souls, the Blessed Virgin obtains ford, them the grace to make an act of perfect love, and then gives them the palm and the crown they have so truly merited." Last Days and Death On the day of her profession, Th~r~se had asked Our Lo’rd, as a nuptial gift, "the marty.rdom of heart and body." She obtained both. Dur.ing Holy Week in 1896, she had the first flow of blood from her 83 JOHN A. HARDON lungs; but she was not taken to the infirmary until July of the f~l-lowing year. She herself remarked that on entering the infirmary, her first glance rested on the miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin, which was brought there to keep her company. Witnesses say that she was favored on this occasion with another visitation from the Blessed Mother, judging.by the transport of joy that cove~ed her face and the subsequent testimony which she gave. She had hoped to die on the sixth of August, the Feast of the Transfiguration, but in vain. It was during these final weeks before her death that she gave expression to some of,.the noblest sentiments about the Mother of God to be found in the lives of the saints. One" day she was heard to exclaim: "How I love the Blessed Virgin! .If I bad been a priest, how I should have spoken of her. She is some-times described as unapproachable, ~vhereas she should be represented as easy of imitation.. She is more Mother than Queen. I have heard it said that her splendor eclipses that of all the saints .as the rising sun makes all the stars disappear. It sounds so strange. That a Mother should take away the glory of her children! I think quite the reverse. I believe that she will greatly increase the splendor of the elect . . . Our Mother Mary... How simple h~r life must have been." (Auto-biograph~ l, 208) She begged the Blessed Virgin to remind her Divine Son of the title of "thief" which He gave Himself in the Gospels, that He might not forget to come and steal her soul. But two months of martyr-dom still separated her from that liberation. Eagerly looking forward to death, she complained, "It might be said that the angels were given orders to hide from me the light of my approaching end." ~When asked if her Mother Mary also concealed this knowledge from her, she answered, "She ,would never hide that from me because I love her too much." (Roschini, 223) Finally on the morning of September 30, she observed that this had been her last night on earth, and added, "How fervently I have prayed to Our Lady .... And yet it has been pure agony, without a ray of consolation." Towards three o’clock in the afternoon, seized with a convulsion that shook her whole body, she opened her arms in the form of a cross. The Superior placed an image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on her knees. Th~r~se looked at it for a moment and said, "Mother, recommend me quickly to the Blessed Virgin. Pre-pare me for a happy death." Three hours later, as the monastery bell was ringing out the Angelus, with her eyes fixed on Our Lady’s statue, she passed into eternity. 84 Are t:he Foreign Missions t:or You? Everett 3. Mibach, S.3. .~F*HERE exist in the Church religious orders and congregations | whose apostolate is exclusively that of the foreign missions. Candidates who apply for admission into these groups do so with the express understandin, g that they will eventually be sent to a mission field. This article is not intended for such as these. Their choice of the missions has already been made by their entrance into the missionary order. These lines are addressed, rather, to those reli-gious who b’elong to an institute iff which the choice of the foreign missions is Often left to the members. The question of volunteering for the foreign missions can be a very tantalizing one. And a person seriously considering where, he will give God the greatest possible service may fluctuate for years between "yes" and "no." Oust when he thinks that his mind is made up and that he has come to a definite choice, the question "how can I be sure" starts the pendulum of indecision swinging. A reli-gious in this quandary should realize that an absolute certainty in such’ matters is rarely had. Since a missionary vocation is "a voca-tion within a vocation,", the same common sense rule must be ap-plied to it as applies to vocation in general: the desire to serve God, in a more perfect way (in this case on the missions) and acceptance by superiors. If these two conditions are fulfilled the religious should have peace of soul and go forward with confidence in his mis-sionary vocation. Acceptance by a superior is no problem for the religious. His final approval as a missionary is not a decision that he has to make. It comes from those who are placed over him by God. It is based on an objective review of his qualifications. If the approval is not forth-coming he may prudently and reasonably repeat his request for mis-sionary service. There he should let the matter rest, knowing that his superiors understand his attitude. He can draw hope from the thought that if God really wants him on the missions He is going to get him there. The chief concern of a religiou~ who is considering volunteering for the missions should be his motive. Why does he want to offer 8~ EVERETT 3. MIBACH Review t:or Religious himself to work afield. A careful, frank, perfectly honest and pray-erful examination should be made by the one who. feels dra.wn to such a life. One must be on his guard against self-deception and illusion in so important a choice. Examination may reveal that it is simply the exotic lure of the "mysterious east." Twenty-four hours in thht "mysterious east" and the glamor has "folded its tent like the Arab and silently passed away," leaving behind a thoroughly dis-gruntled would-be-missionary. Even Hollywood’s magic wand would be hard pressed to glamorize prickIy heat rash, chilblains, or a swarm of malaria laden mosquitoes. Th~ missions may appear to some as a short-cut to sanctity. Quick "disillusionment is in store for them. Waiting on the dock to greet them when they disembark is the "old Adam.". And they were so sure that he had been left stranded at home. Mistakenly they think that simply by being in circumstances that are more difficult they will be sanctified. And yet it is the difficulties and hardships that do attract most of those who volunteer. They see in the missions a place where they will be surrounded by opportunities to overcome themselves. Life will be physically harder than it could possibly be at home. Creature .comforts will be at a minimum. There are some who object to such a motive of self-sanctification. They say that the only motive worthy of a missionary is zeal for souls. You must love the people, they argue, among whom you work. If you go to the missions because they offer you a chance to suffer for Christ this will be sensed by the people. These objectors seem to imply that the missionary would do his work with a long face and a grumbling spirit. Granted the people must be loved by the missionary. But it is also a dictum of phi-losoPhY that one cannot love that which he does not know. Once among the people the love will follow. Supposing the right motive what traits of personality are highly desirable? The first is adaptabilit~j.. It is most necessary. Its lack can cause much heartache. It takes no small amount of virtue to accommodate oneself to a culture that is totally different from one’s own. It is a subtle dying to self. It often means doing the ordinary things’differently from the way one has done them for years. Etnilgt Post is turned upside down. At times one feels as socially at ease as .did the proverbial bull in the china shop. They find to their embar-rassment that what they have always considered as social niceties are merely relative conventions. It piques’ one’s pride to be considered a well-meaning boor. Nevertheless, one must be constantly on his 86 March, 1952 FOREIGN MISSIONS guard lest he look down upon the foreign culture. A patronizing attitude will never sow the seed of the true Faith. Adaptation means more than the mere outward acceptance of a culture. It means a sin-cere love and a whole-hearted embracing of the adopted country. It is St. Paul’s "becoming all things to all men to win them to Christ." At times the missionary.will not only have to think and act like the people of his adopted land, but he must also adapt himself to the ways of. the French, Italians, Hungarians, Germans, and others who ’will be his fellow religious. All of this takes Christ-like patience and largeness of heart. One should carefully examine his adaptability. In many cases there will be the problem of a new, language. The missionary will have to put in reverse the saying of St. Paul. He must now say, "When I was"a man I spoke as a man, I understood as a man, I thought as a man, but now I have become a child and put away the things of a man." All of the growing pains will be there. Mountains of dictionaries, grammars, and language recordings bear eloquent testimony that the precious gift of tongues is no longer standard equipment for the modern missionary. The new language will be the occasion of long, hours of hard work and many humiliations for the missionary. But he should be thoroughly con-vinced that his new mother tongue is the best natural means at his disposal for spreading the Kingdom of Christ. He should make an all:out effort to perfect himself in it. A second valuable personality trait for the missionary is a sense of humor. Th~ ability to see the funny side of a trying situation has saved many a missionary vocation. If the Lord ever wanted cheerful givers He wants them on the missions. There the communities are necessarily small and the ordinary diffichlties of religious life cannot be as ’easily escaped. Nerves get frayed and personality clashes can-not be avoided. The necessity of real fraternal charity where com-panionship is so limited cannot be over stressed. If the "religious can-not get along with the community at home he should not inflict himself on a missionary community. The missionary with a happy disposition can relieve tension, lift ’up dejected spirits, and provide needed recreation where recreation is hard to come by. A third consideration is the question of healtl~. Note that we said "health" not "strength." There is a difference. Some people wrongly think that great strength is needed on a mission. In the majority of mission lands there is a plethora of workers. And it is an act of real charity to employ them fbr work that requires strength. 87 EVERETT J. MIBACH ~iood health is another matter. The rigors of climate and diet will take their toll of the healthiest. The standard of living will be lower and in some cases very much so. All the good will in the world and the highest of spiritual motives will not change the fact that a man’s system needs food of a certain type because it has long been accus-tomed to it. In the matter of food the matter of adaptation is a diffi- ¯ cult one. It is physiological and not psychological or spiritual. One simply cannot reason with one’s appetite or digestive system. These few thoughts by no means exhaust the considerations pos-sible. It is hoped that they may help some who are trying to choose between home and foreign missions. TEN-YEAR INDEXmNOW AVAILABLE The Ten-Year Index of the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS (1942- 1951.) is now available. It is a green-covered booklet of sixty-four pages including a general index with an integrated listing of all ar-ticles, authors, editorial comments, questions "and answers, communi-cations, decisions of the Holy See and other items of interest to reli-gious, and a separate index of all books reviewed and noticed. The entries in the content index have been grouped according to subject matter, for instance, admission to religious life, beatifications, con-fession, indulgences, mariology, novitiate, poverty, vocations, vows, .and the like. All the articles of an author are listed beneath his name. We appreciate the generous response we have already received and the encouraging comments. Kindly do not ask us to bill you. The cost is one dollar per copy. Please send the money with the order to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, St. Mary’s College, St. Mary", Kansas. THE PROPHETS Two of Dom Hubert Van Zeller’s books on the Prophets were reprinted in 1951 by the Newman Press: ISAIAS: MAN OF IDEAS (Pp. 123. Paper, $1.25; ¯ cloth, $2.25), and DANIEL: MAN OF DESIRES (Pp. 231. Paper, $1.50: cloth, $2.50.). By giving the local habitation and history "with a lively imagination and a dash of fiction," the author helps the reader draw inspiration from these heroic men of God who lived in the Pre-Christian era. While of far less impor-tance and immediacy than the "good news" of Paul and Peter and the Evangelists, the prophetical writings form a considerable segment of the Bible, and teach un-mistakably that God’s way is often not man’s way. The "other books in the ap-proach- to-the-Prophets series by Dora Van Zeller are: Sackcloth and Ashes and Watch and Pray (on the Minor Prophets), deremias: Man of Tears, and Ezechiel: Man of Signs. .88 C. A. Herbst, S.J. THE one and only time Christ expressly mentions His Heart in the gospels He characterizes It in the first place as meek. "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt. 11:29). That He should single out humility is not very surprising since everybody,knows that without it any virtue is im-possible. But why out of the host of other virtues He shc~uld choose meekness is not so clear. Perhaps because meekness is so necessary in everyone’s daily life. Also, no doubt, from the conte,xt, to en-courage us to come to Him, since just before He invites: "Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt. 11:28). Surely, too, from the text "Learn of Me," that we may imitate His meekness. He is gently inviting us here as in so many other places to share lovingly with Hirh the hard things He took for Himself. This is but a specific instance of His general "If any man will come after me, let .him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:32). Meekness is, indeed, a gentle name for a hard fact. It is a hard virtue. To realize this we have but to think for a moment on a recommendation Christ gave: "If one turn to him also the other" (Matt. cheek spirituality is not the easy way, gate, and strait is the way that leadeth find it!" (Matt. 7:14). strike thee on thy right cheek, 5:39). This turn-the-other-but then "How narrow is the to life: and few there are that Meekness is anger’s opposite, its contrary. Anger is a thing of sense, a passion,, a vindictive thing, eager to get even, to right a wrong, to repair an injury, to restore justice. A passion is amoral, neither good nor bad. It betomes good or bad according as the.will moves it to a good or bad object, or too little or too much. That is where meekness comes in. It must oppose anger, go contrary to it, restrain it lest it go too far, urge i~ on lest it do too little, direct it to a good object, prevent its heading for a bad one. If it directs anger to a good object, makes it restore right order or correct an offender, puts it to work to defend God’s glory, anger becomes a praiseworthy and zealous thing. In a word, meekness must keep anger within the bounds of right reason and direct it. (Cf. S. Th., 2-2, q. 158, a. 2.) Meekness controls anger. It must not only suppress sinful anger 89 C. A. HERBST Reoieu~ for Re}igio,,s but stir up holy anger. We can sin by being too meek, one might say. Not to be able to rouse oneself is bad. Omissions coming from such stupor may be quite sinful. We must have enough active meek-ness, aggressive meekness in us to arouse and direct our anger so that it will drive us on to do our duty in justice and charity. We must, for instance, give advice to others. We must correct the faults of thos~ under our charge. We must punish them for their transgres-sions. The insolent must be put in their place and the contumacious beaten down. The timid naturally recoil from taking such vigorous action but aggressive meekness is also, if not especially, for them. Meekness must thrust aside sluggishness, rouse one out of one’s tor-por, stir up that holy anger which adds heat and audacity in the struggle against evil and zeal and fortitude in the prosecution of good. Men are so made that they must have such a stimulus. Anger is the sin opposed to meekness, by excess, sluggishness the vice op-posed to meekness by defect. Apathy or lack of feeling is never a virtue. Meekness rousing holy anger and thus strengthening man’s will power (and his won’t power, too) to do "good and avoid evil has brought God’s men and women to great heights. Meekness, then, must be strong and active, not something weak, lethargic, sleepy-headed. The meek are not cowardly and without spirit. The fire is not extinguished in them. It is subdued and kept under control. A meek man can be roused. We mlght.even call meekness well-ordered anger. The Lamb of God, the sweet babe of Bethlehem, and the Man done to death by His enemies and praying from the cross "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34) became on occasion the Lion of 3uda. Having asked the hypocrites whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath and getting no answer He looked "round about on. them with finger" (Ma~k 3:5) and healed the man. The zeal of His Father’s house had so eaten Him up that when "he found in the temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of. money sitting, he made, as it were, a scourge of little cords and drove them all out of the temple, th~ sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. And to them that sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not of the house of .my Father a house of traffic" (John 2:14-16). When the disciples rebuked them who brought little children to Hirri "he was much displeased, and saith to them: Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. For of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14). He turned with a holy anger even on 90 2~larcb, 1952 MEEKNESS St. Peter, who rebuked Him for saying He rhust suffer. "Who turning, said to Peter: Go behind me, Satan, thou art.a scandal unto me" (Matt. 16:23). No, meekness is not weakness. Neither does one always tu~:n the other cheek. Even He who said: "Learn of me, because I am meek ¯ and humble of heart" did not’do that, but when "one of the servants standing by, gave ,Jesus a blow, saying: Answerest thou the high priest so? ~lesus answered him: If I have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil; but if well, why strikest thou me?" (~lohn 18:22, 23). ~ret Our Lord was.ready and eager to suffer and to die for the one who struck Him and for His murderers. So, too, St. Paul when, after having been unjtistly scourged, was told privately by the jailor that the magistrates said he. could go now, said: "They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Romans, and have cast us into prisen: and now do they thrust us out privately? Not so; but let them come, and let us out themselves" (Acts 16:37, 38). Yet "I most gladly would spend ’and be spent myself for your souls" (II Cot. : 12, 15), he said. Prudence therefore in each particular case must dictate what it is best to do, what not only the precept against anger but wha.t the counsel of meekness requires for the occasion. Sometimes for the public good and our. neighbor’s greater good we may not give in but’must take a firm stand. This may even be true for our own greater good, although usually it is more perfect to let a personal injury go. In an~r’case, whether we fight back or not, in-ternal charity and meekness must be preserved. Anger is eager to take it out on somebody or something for an injury received. Meekness must restrain this eagerness and keep it within due limits. Because of this restraint which it must apply it is part of the cardinal virtue of temperance. Temperance must restrain the grosset sensual" appetite for food, drink, and sexual pleasure. Meekness holds somewhat the same position with regard to the car-dinal virtue of temperance, therefore, as pa.tience does to the cardinal virtue of fortitude. For fortitude must sustain one in following after the things of the ~pirit in the face of the gravest dangers, ever/death, whereas patience must put up with the lesser evils. Meekness and patience are very closely akin. This,is true especially in fact, in our daily life. We can see this from the commonly accepted meaning of the words patient and meek. One is patient who bears or endures pains, trials, 6r the like, without complaint or with equanimity, who, exercises forbearance under provocation. One is meek who is mild of temper, patient under in.juries, long-suffering. Both are fruits of the 91 (~. A. HERBST Ret;iew for Religious Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23). And both meekness and patience in turn are closely related to charity, as we can see from a famous chapter in St. Paul. "Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; Beareth all things, be-lieveth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (I Cor. 13:4-7). Meekness is a very practical virtue. To become convinced of this we have merely to look into our own lives and see how many sins we commit against charity, and patience. Most of these come from a lack of meekness. Every day some person, some place, some thing, some combination of circumstances exasperates us. Difficult people, plans that miscarry, lack of success in our work, bodily ailments, and afflictions of soul all conspire against us. What with our tempera-ment, weak nerves and upbringing, to say nothing of the terrific rush and high tension of the modern world, there is a wide field close at hand for meekness to cultivate. "Meekness is as necessary for us as our daily bread. Where is the day that does not offer us an occasion for becoming impatient?" (Zimmermann, Aszetik, 442.) We must be meek toward others, patient in bearing with their real or imagined faults, gentle; With a little care we can foresee the occasions when meekness will have to be in readiness to take in hand our rising temper. This is very import~i,nt, Casslan thinks. "Every-thing, however useful and necessary it may seem, must be put aside, in order that the storm of anger may be quelled. Everything that one might consider undesirable should be taken on and borne with, in order that the serenity of love and peace may be preserved /ate. Nothing can be more advantageous t5 charity than this, nor anything more disastrous than anger and sadness." (Collatio XVI, c. vii.) Nor is it other people only who cause us much trouble. We ourselves are often our own greatest cross. With ourselves especially we must practice meekness. "When we commit faults we should be displeased and sorry for them, yet we must restrain ourselves from having a displeasure which is bitter and sullen, fretful and angry. Wherein many commit a great fault, who, when they have given way to anger, are annoyed at having been annoyed, are vexed at having been vexed, and fret at having fretted; for by this means they keep their hearts preserved and steeped in anger: and although ~be second 92 March, 195Z MEEKNESS anger may seem to destroy the first, yet it serves as an opening and passage for a new anger on the first occasion that presents itself; and, moreover, these fits of anger, fretfulness, and irritation, which we have against ourselves, tend to pride and have no other source than self-love, which is troubled and disquieted at seeing ourselves imper-fect." The solution is not to become exasperated with oneself and call oneself names but rather to gently reprove oneself thus: "Well! my poor heart, here we are, fallen into the ditch which we l~ave made so firm a resolution to avoid: ah! let us arise and leave it for ever; let us implore the mercy of God and trust that it will help us to be more steadfast in the future, and let us place ourselves again on the path of bumillty; courage! henceforth let us be more on our guard, God will help us, v~e shall do well enough."(St. Francis de Sales, Introduc-tion to the Devout Life, III, ix). , Holy Scripture promises great things to the meek. "The Lord lifteth up the meek" (Ps. 146:6) ; "He will exalt the meek unto sal-vation" (Ps. 149:4). "The earth trembled and was still, when God arose in judgment, to save all the meek of the earth" (Ps. 75:9, 10). "He will guide the mild in judgment: he will teach the meek his ways" (Ps. 24:9). Our Lord Himself promised the meek a special blessing: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land" (Matt. 5:4). This promise is taken from Psalm 36:11: "But the meek shall inherit the land, and shall delight in abundance of peace." -That is, the meek, in opposition to sinners, shall come into possession of the divine promises and that happiness which God has in store for His own. In the OId Testament the peaceful possession of the land was considered a sign of God’s ~avor and good pleasure and a pledge that His people would inherit the kingdom of God, the messianic kingdom to come. As the Messias was to appear on this earth patient and meek and humble, the sharers and co-heirs of His kingdom were to be the same. (Cf. Knabenbauer, In Mattheurn, I, 234ff.) The great and holy men in the Church frequently commend meekness. St. Clement, third Pope after St. Peter, wrote: "Modera-tion, humility, and meekness dwell in the hearts of those blessed by God" (Epistota ad Corimbios I, 30, 8). And St. Ignatius of An-tioch: "Oppose meekness to.others’ anger, humility to their boastings, prayer to their curses, your strong faith to their errors. Be meek in the face of their savage manners: do not imitate them. Let us rather be their meek brethren striving to imitate the Lord (for who ever suffered greater injury than He, who was ever more destitute, more 93 C. A. HERBST despised?), so that we may have no part with the devil but may ben in Christ Jesus, wholly sinless and meek’ both in the flesh and in the spirit." (Epistola ad Epbesios,lO, 2 and 3). St. Augustine’s com-ment is a classic. "Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me nor how to construct a world, not how to create all things visible and in-visible, not how in that world to work miracles and raise the dead to. life; but, Because I am meek and humble of heart." ° (Sermo 10 de verbis Domini). Meekness is one oi: the rungs in St. John Climacus’s Ladder Paradise. "Meekness is a fixed state of soul which preserves equa-nimity through every honor and dishonor. You are meek if you~ pray calmly, sincerely, and with all your heart for those who vex you. Meekness is a rocky promontory against the anger bf the sea. It shatters and scatters every wave that strikes it, itself remaining the while unbroken and unmoved. Meekness it is that steadies patience, is the gate and even the mother of charity, and causes prudence to, grow. For, says the Lord, ’he shall teach the meek his ways’ (Ps. 24:9). It procures the forgiveness of sin, confidence in prayer and a place of rest for the Holy’Spirit. ’For upon whom shall look °with favor if not upon the meek and the peace-loving?.’ (Is. 66:2). Meekness is the handmaid of obedience and the guide in a religious society. It places a restraint on thieves, drives away anger, teaches joy, imitates Christ. It is an attribute of the blessed, a bond’ and a stumbling-block to the demons, a shield against bitterness. The Lord rests in the hearts of the meek, but a turbulent soul is the devil’s nest." (Patrologia Graeca, 88, 979 and 982.) Theologians speak of meekness in connection with the sin of anger. Suppose we let the Venerable Leonard Lessius speak for them with his usual unction. He illustrates the matter thus: "As the pas-sion of love is given to man so that he may strive after what is good, so the passion of anger is given to him that he may repe! evil and: harmful things. It has the same function in man that the police have in a state. That is why Nemesius in his work on the nature of man (c. 21) says anger is the guard of reason. Nor is this changed by the fact that it may perturb, reason and hinder one from comin’g to a sound and considered judgment. It is not supposed to rouse a mart .until after mature deliberation, till one is’supposed to go into action: just as the police and the executive, do not go into action until after the jury has spoken and the judge imposed the sentence. The police are told to hold off until called .... Without police in a state evil is 94 SUMMER SESSIONS not headed off; neither does reason in man rise to the occasion with-out anger." (De Temp.eranda, Lib. IV, cap. iv, dub. 4.) Some of Our Lord’s sweetest and most consoling words were spoken in connection with meekness. "Come to me, .all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart. And you shall find rest to your souls. For my ~roke is sweet and my burden light." (Matt. 11:28-30). Around these words the Church has built one of her most popular and practical ejaculatory prayers: "Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make my heart like unto Thine." (500 days.) Summer Sessions The Institute for Religious at College Misericordia,. Dallas, Pennsylvania, (a three-year summer course of twelve days in Canon Law and Ascetical Theology for Sisters) will be held this year August 19-30. This is the third year in the triennial course. The course in Canon Law is given by the Reverend Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.. that in Ascetical Theology by the Reverend Daniel d. M. Callahan, S.J., both of Woodstock College, Woodstock, Mary-land. The registration is restricted to higher superiors, their coun-cillors, general and provi’ncial officials, mistresses of novices, and those in similar positions. Applications are to be addressed to the Rev. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J., Woodstock College, Woodstock, Mary-land. The Ninth Annual Psychological Institute, conducted under the auspices of Cardinal Stritch College, Milwaukee, witl be held at the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children, Jefferson, Wisconsin, from June 23 to July 31. For information and enrollment blanks, please address: Sister M. Anastasia, Superintendent, St. Coletta School, Jefferson, Wisconsin. Saint Xavier College will conduct its Theological Institute for Sisters for the fifth year between June 23 and August 2, 1952, in cooperation with a faculty of twelve Dominican priests of the Prov-ince of Saint Albert the Great. The Very Rev. John W. Cur-ran, O.P., will be the director. More than 130 sisters representing 95 SUMMER SESSIONS twenty religious communities have received the certificate in theology which is awarded to those who complete the three-summer basic pro-gram. The advanced program in theology, which leads to the mas-ter’s degree in the theological sciences, will also be offered. Pre-quisites to this course of study are completion of the basic program in theology and a bachelor’s degree. 225 sisters participated in the Institute last summer. Its twofold objective is the spiritual develop-ment of the individual sister and the preparation of excellent religious teachers. For further information, address The Registrar, St. Xavier College, 4900 Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago 15, Illinois. For the fifth successive year, Boston College offers its Social Worship Program, with new courses and an enlarged staff. The Program, a department of the Summer Session of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and of Education, offers courses accredited in the-ology, education, history, and art. Classes open on June 25 and close on August 6. Each day begins with the Mass of the Summer Session, congregationally sung by students of the Social Worship Program and others. Conferences for Religious are given weekly in the campus chapel. Address the Director of the Summer Session for detailed announcement and information concerning lodging. The courses offered are as follows: Papal Answers to Worship Problems, William 2. Leonard, S.J.; The Mass across the Ages, Gerald E1- lard, S.J.; The Sacraments of the Priesthood and Workshop in Chant, C. 2. McNaspy, S.J.; Methods: Teaching the Mass: Sister M. Brendan, S.C.I.C., Sister M. Francille, S.S.2., and Rew Thomas F. Stack; Painting, Mary A. Reardon; Workshop in Crafts (leather, silk screen, w.eaving), Sister M. deanne, O.S.F.; History of Modern Art, Dr. Ferdinand Rousseve. --A special institute, "The Worship of God," will be offered for priests and seminarians in three units of one week each, opening July 7, 14, and 21. Write for complete announcement, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. A theology program of four summer sessions, leading either to an A.B. or to a certificate in theology, is being, offered at Saint Jo-seph’s College. The course begins this year (,June 23-August 2), as part of the regular summer session. A music program in chant and conducting is also offered, as well as courses in physical educa-tion especially adapted for Sisters. For further information on the summer session write to: Director of the Summer Session, Saint Jo-seph’s College, Collegeville, Indiana. 96 Saint:hood :hrough List:ening Bei’nard Hog.man., S.M. ~AVE you ever noticed how i~eople interested in modern avia-tion play up the idea of speed? To them, speed is almost synonymous with progress. Perhaps that is one reason why America hasn’t more saints. We get to feel that even the business of becoming a saint can be done in record time. Yet, have you ever stopped to think that it is easy to’ become a saint in no time at all. Just sit down and listen. Develop an interior spirit by tuning in Christ in our souls. Attuning Our Minds This interior spirit is more thin just an interior life. Interior life is the life of God in us, while interior spirit is our habitual attention to God’s presence Within us. However, we are not always conscious of this though He is s~urely there waiting for us. Of course, He does not speak loudly; we have to train our ear to hear the Divine whis-pering. We must listen. , A person who listens and has this interior spirit acts only under the influence of the Divine indwelling. Moreover, he considers even the slightest happenings in the light ot~ God. Hence, for this man, religious life is not just a series of routine actions but the best honest-to- goodness way to get to heaven. In Our Very Midst Now, sainthood means perfection, and l~erfection is simply the intimate union with God. How can we become intimate with Him?_ Easy. Seek Him where He is closest, that is, in ourselves and others. The more we give ourselves to Him and make ourselves conscious of this presence the faster we shall advance in perfection and become saints. How Can It Be Done? Let’s be a little more specific. What are some means of acquiring the interior spirit? 1) We must sepa~rate ourselves from the world. Aim at inward spiritual things. Observe the’prescriptions of the rule. Re-collect ourselves after our contacts with the world. Let’s not 97 BERNARD PLOGMAN lose our souls while trying to save the souls of others. 2) We must practice silence; above all silence of the passions, mind, and imagination. Avoid overrating our difliculties, and brooding over wrongs. A persecution complex never helps. Have self-possession in our work, but let our heart rule over the work. 3) Make spiritual exercises well, especially meditation, and as-sistance at holy Mass. Develop a conviction that this is why we became a religious and then go ahead manfully to carry out our job. 4) Have a good intention for all our actions and work. 5) Exercise our knowledge of God’s presence within by spiritual communion. 6) Make little retreats and visit the Blessed Sacrament as often as circumstances permit. Is It Practical and Sure? Nice plan. But does it fit the teacher who c6mes home dead tired and is expected to make his evdning exercises well? Certainly. The idea of listening will come in handy. The teacher may be too tired to think and feel, but he can always listen. During meditation, if he must rehash the things that went wrong in class that day, let him look at them from Christ’s and Mary’s point of view. Then he must listen. He can make a resolution to try to hear ’at least one thing during each meditation. To help Christ speak to him, he should do some spiritual reading. It is no mere accident t.hat certain passages strike the attention. Can this plan go wrong? Indeed, it can. If we allow ourselves to become too attached to the things of this world, we are already undermining the plan. We must stay by Mary’s side in order to per-severe in the idea of uniting ourselves with Christ. "If we learn to slight "exterior things and to give ourselves to things interior, we shall see the kingdom of God come within us. Christ will come to us and discover His consolations to us if we will prepare Him a fit dwelling. All His glory and beauty ard within and there it is that he taketh de-light. Many are His visits to the man of interior life and sweet are the conversations that He holds with him; plenteous His consola-tio. ns, His peace, and His familiarity."’(Imitation, 2:1) Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriouslgt. Although this may sound contradictory, there still remains the 98 QUESTIONS AND ANS_WERS fact that if you are a man who listens you must also have a sense of humor. By that I mean you must be able to laugh at yourself. Things are not going to run perfectly all the time. Life wouldn’t be interesting if they did. Consequently, avoid going about this busi-ness of becoming a saint with a poker-faced soul. Don’t be dis-couraged if you fail to receive the consolations of Christ all the time. Laugh and go about your work knowing all the time that ,Jesus and Mary have not stopped thinking of you for a moment. A Spirit of Love Finally, a good listener must necessarily be a lover. Saint Francis de Sales says, "The truest sign that we love God only in all things is when we love Him equally in them all." If a saint were to give us a "chalk talk," the drawing would be very simple: an arrow pointing straight to tl~e word "God." By the arrow would be writ-ten "love." This kind of a lover’s listening points straight to saint-hood and to God. Questions and Answers --8-- May a novice will his property fo the religious community before pro-fession? If he does so, may the community use this property during the, period of the novitiate, or at least after th, e religious has made his first profession of vows? According to Webster’s Dictionary, a will is "the legal declara-tion of a person’s mind as to the manner in which he would have his estate disposed of after his death; the written instrument, legally executed, by which a man makes disposition of his estate, to take effect after his death." To will, or to make a will, is to declare in writing that one wishes a certain person or persons (whether physi-cal or moral)to become the owner of one’s property after one’s death. Obviously, therefore, since the .will does not transfer the ownership of property during the lifetime of the person who makes it, the beneficiary o’f that will has no right to the property until after the death of the person who made the will. Hence, in the case pro-posed, the religious community has no right whatsoever to the prop-erty of the religious in question during his lifetime, and, therefore, may not use it until after his death. 99 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Immediately before taking his first vows, the novice in question may give the religious community the use and income of his property during his lifetime, in conformity with canon 569, § 1,. but the ownership of his property remains in his name and is transferred to the community only after his death, supposing that he made his will in favor of the community. --9- What prec;sely ;s meant by the statement: "The professed rel;gious cannot abd;cate gratuitously the title to his property by voluntary deed of conveyance?" These words, taken from canon 583, 1° mean that a religious who has taken simple vows, whether temporary or perp’etual, in a religious congregation, may not give away to others the ownership of his property without a price or some recompense or for some other consideration. He may not give it away freely as a gift. The canon does not forbid such religious to sell their property for a just price and then invest the money obtained in safe securities; nor does it for-bid them to exchange one piece of real estate for another of equal value, but it does forbid them, as stated, to give away their property during their lifetime as a gift, or for a very small consideration out of proportion to the real value of the property. Because of ill health, a relicjious voluntarily leaves his community at the end of the period of temporary vows. Three months later, having re-gained his health, he asks to be readmiffed. Superiors welcome him back on August 13, 1951, and the local ordinary writes to the Holy See for a dispensation from the dirlment impediment of canon 542.-The answer comes on October 4, 1951, granting the local ordinary the power to give the dispensation, according to his own good judgment. He does so tha~ same day. May the new novice pronounce his temporary vows on August 15, 19S2, after the expiration of the canonical year, or must he wait until October S, before he can validly pronounce his first vows? Canon 38 tells us that "rescripts by which a favor is granted without the intervention of an executor, are effective from the mo-ment when the letter was issued; other rescripts are effective from the time of their execution." In this case the Holy See did not grant the dispensation directly without an intermediar). Had it done so, the dispensation would have been effective from the date on which the letter was written. But since the Holy See granted the power to 100 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS dispense to the local ordinary, the dispensation was effective only from the moment on which he gave it, that is, on October 4. Hence the religious began his canonical year on that same day, and may take his first vows any time on or after October 5, 1952. It may be well to remark in conclusion that under normal circumstances dispensa-tions from the diriment impediments to.entrance contained in canon 542 should be obtained from the Holy See before the candidate ’is admitted to the novitiate. II Does a religious who is present for the 9ocal prayers prescribed by the rule fulfill his obligation if habitually he does not answer them? If the religious is’ physically and men.tally capable of taking part in the vocal prayers prescribed by the rule, it seems that he does not fulfill his obligation when he takes no active part in these prayers but is merely physically present. One can understand how old reli-gious who are deaf or ailing will show their good will by being physically present at prayers said in common Without being able to take part vocally in them. For those not so handicapped, it is diffi-cfilt to find a reason which would justify a religious to abstain hab-itually from taking part actively in such prayers said in common. --12- Is if permlss~ble to utilize parts of worn corporals for the backs of palls, or as collars for stoles? Corporals are given a special liturgical blessing, and as long as they remain intact should not be used for any other purpose. How-ever, according to canon 1305, § 1,1,°, a blessed article loses its bless-’ ing "if it has suffered such lesions or transformations that it has lost its origin~il form and is no longer considered fit for its original pur-pose." Hence old corporals may be cut into smaller pieces which thus lose their blessing~ and these may be used for backs of palls and other similar purposes. SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN NURSING Sister Mary" Isidore Lennon, R.S.M., author of Professional Adjustments (RE-VIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, VI, 36), now gives us the fruit of long study and experi-ence in Sociology and Social Problems in Nursing. The book covers the fields of sociology in general and social work in particular in a manner that should be very helpful to nurses. It is published by the C. V. Mosby Company, St. Louis, Mis-souri. 101 Book Reviews THE THEOLOGY OF THE MYSTICAL BODY. By Emile Mersch, S.J; Translated by Cyril O. Vollert, S.J. Pp. xvlll -I- 663. B. Herder Book Company, St. Louis, 1951. $7.50. "It seems ~lear that God, Who is the source of alt holiness and wisdom, wished to show by the example of St. Thomas, how these qualities foster each other, that is, how the exercise of virtue fits one for the contemplation of truth, and how the more exact study of truth aids one to a more perfect refinement of the virtues." These words, by which Plus XI marked the sixth centenary of the canon-ization of the Angelic Doctor, will find an ample and felicitous con- " firmation in the present work. Its central thesis is the Pauline doc-trine into which those professionally engaged in the acquisition of perfection and holiness of life will have the deepest and most appre-ciative insights. Its elaboration and development, ranging over the entire field of dogmatic theology, will serve as a stimulating incentive toward the cultivation of a spirituality which is intelligently alive and Catholic in the finest and most meaningful sense of that word. The title of the work is to be taken in a wide sense. This book ’is not merely an intensive study of Christ’s teaching about His Church as presented in St. John’s Gospel and elaborated by St. Paul. If it were, we should indeed be grateful for the work, because Ft. Mersch’s competency in the matter is beyond question. But, what is much more important, the author has undertaken to present all the principal points of Catholic dogma insofar as they have special bearing on, or receive particular light from, the doctrine of the Mys-tical Body. Moreover, he prefaces this work with a pertinent intro-ductory study of the method and content of philosophy .and the-ology, orientating the minds of his readers to his ensuing presenta-tion. (It is this section which I think will deserve the most serious attention and offer the most satisfying reward especiall~r to the reli-gious whose exposition to these disciplines has hitherto been of a somewhat haphazard or incidental sort.) Truly this wealth of the teachings of the Church makes for a full and complete theology of the Mystical Body. The author devoted the whole of his priestly life, from the eve of his ordination in 1917 to his death as a victim Of priestly charity in a bombing raid in 1940, to a whole-hearted study, at once prayerful and scholarly, in preparation for the writing of this work. As evi- 102 March, 1952 BOOK REVIEW8 dences of the extent and depth of his preparation we have competent English translations of two other works touching this. In Morality and the Mystical Body (translated by Daniel d. Ryan, S.J., P. d. Kenedy. 24 Sons, N.Y., 1939), the author presents a series of, studies in which "the everyday problems of individuals and ot~ nations" are i:onsidered on’the light of the doctrine of the Mystical Body. Of more immediate import to the present work is The Whole Christ, (The Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee, 1938~, a translation by John R. Kelly, S. )., of the author’s Le Corps Mystique du Christ which is an historical study of the background furnished by Scrip-ture and Tradition for this doctrine. The reader who finds the au-thor’s magnum opus a.source of profit and interest will not be disap-pointed by these two volumes. Always in evidence in this book is the spirit of charity in which it was written. From the opening pages in which a habit of faith ¯ filled with humility and piety is demanded for the proper under-standing of the mysteries of religion, to the conclusion, where uhion with Christ is set forth as the unique source and reason of grace, the entire work inculcates by precept and example the truly Christian compatibility of virtue and learning. For this reason, if for no other, it deserves the attenti’on of every religious. The depth and subtlety of the author’s thought is presented in a translation marked by clarity and grace throughout. Nevertheless, even a cursory examination will show that this depth and subtlety. prdclud~s the book’s suitability for spiritual reading in common. Spiritual directors will discover a wealth of excellent conference ma-terial here, and religious in general will find that The Theology of the M!tsticalBody will afford them an opportunity for many a prof-itable period of reflective and prayerful reading. -~DWARD L. MAGINNIS, S.J. THE QUEEN’S DAUGHTERS: A STUDY OF WOMEN SAINTS.- By C. C. Marfindale, S.J. Pp. xvl ~- 252. Sheed & Ward, New York, 1951. $3.00. Father Martindale’s book is most timely. Just as the tragic breakdown of .family life today can be traced in large part¯ to the inroads of paganism among women, so the regeneration of Christian family life can be effected’only by the return of those same women to Christ. In the short compass of 252 pages, which cover women saints ¯ from the early Christian ages through the 19th century, only an in- 103 BOOK REVIEWS troduction to individual women saints is possible, although the author lingers over a few who have a special appeal to him person-ally or a special significance to women of today. ¯ The strength of the book lies in the total impression of feminine sanctity the reader carries away; feminine sanctity, for as Father Martindale points out, no virtue is the monopoly of either sex, "but in a woman all virtues are womanly." Three ingredients of sanctity are emphasized through-out the book: prayer, a desire f6r an apostolate, and self-sacrifice-- especially in the form of "sufferings endured by holy women at the hands of those who thought themselves and were virtuous." The book, written in an informal .style, would profit by some revision. The transitions are poor and sentence structure is. often ’too involved for clarity. Many will regret the omission of St. Teresa of Avila and Blessed Margaret Clitherow. Father Martindale him-self excuses his omitting St. Teresa on the pica that "her doctrine was so overwhelmingly important that it might not have suited the book.’" Yet in his prologue he asks "who was a more womanly woman than she?" The omission of that great Englishwoman, Blessed Margaret Clitherow, must have been an oversight, for she is par excellence a model and an inspiration to Catholic wives and mothers of today.--SISTER M!kRY JUDE, S.C.L. WHERE THERE IS LOVE. The Life of Mo÷her Mary Frances Siedliska. By Kafherine Buff on. Pp. 200. P.J. Kenecly & Sons, 1951. $2.50. Born into high, "enlightened" Polish society, possessed of high talents but poor health, Frances Siedliska had to struggle to overcome the glamor of social life and the objections of her embittered father and mother ("whom she loved dearly") in order to follow Christ’s call to found a new congregation for Him, the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. (Her mother became her own spiritual daugh-ter by entering the congregation shortly after its foundation and bet father became reconciled to her chosen way of life and to the Catholic Church from which he had lapsed,). Sister Mary Frances opened her first convent in Rome in 1875. From there the congregation spread to Poland, to Chicago and other large cities in the United States, to France, England, and Puerto Rico, always engaged in corporal and spiritual works of rnetcy: schools, orphan asylums, ’ hospitals, convalescent homes for babies, health re-sorts, and catechetical missions. They work in 27 American dio-ceses and archdioceses. Her own words, "Where there is love there is also God, for ~od 104 BOOK REVIEWS is love," inspired the foundress never to count the cost if Christ asked for it. She attracted in Christ’s own manner. Even when she would visit the schoolrooms as Superior General there was a rush of little ¯ ones to her and many would cling to her as long as she could stay. ’She died on November 21, 1902, joining the Holy Family in their .everlasting Nazareth.----EUGENE L. ,JENNINGS, S.,J. FATHER LUIGI GENTILI AND HIS MISSION (1801-1848). By Denls Gwynn. Pp. 271. Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin, Ireland. 16/ . There is something fascinating about watching new life grow ,and develop, especially if that life is the life of grace. Denis Gwynn has given us an opportunity to watch the growth of three kinds of ,spiritual life; the life of grace in the impulsively generous soul of Luigi Gentili, the working of Divine Providence in establishing the Institute of Charity, and the revix;al of Catholicism in England ,during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. At the age of seventeen the brilliant and industrious Luigi Gen- ,zili was admitted to the Roman bar; at twenty he had won his doc-torate in civil and canon law. He was out to climb. To attain prominence and social acceptance in the highest circles, he devoted a whole year to the study of languages and another to music, becoming .accomplished in both. ~He bought land to establish himself as a "Country Club" patrician. He planned’ to marry into high Roman :society. He won the acceptance into society and even the titles of "knight" and "count." With unexpected suddenness actual graces floodlighted his sense of values and the inanity of his worldly ambi-tions. He turned to religious and theological reading. With the same characteristic drive he started attending regular classes in the- .ology though he was the on.ly non-cleric in the college. In his last year of theology he was admitted into the Irish College in Rome and ordained in September, 1830. When he began his theological studies he had met Antonio Ros-mini, who was in Rome seeking approval for his Institute of Char-ity. This institute.was a religious congregation of priests at the com-plete disposal of any bishops who might need their help in any work of the ministry. He later joined the institute and became a veryim-petuous but extremely valuable member. His impulsiveness proved embarrassing t6 superiors more than once, b City of Saint Louis (Mo.), http://www.geonames.org/4407084 http://cdm17321.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rfr/id/213

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