| Summary: | Issue 8.4 of the Review for Religious, 1949. A. M. D.G. , :._~!~;~ Review for Religious~ JULY 15, 1949 ’ Saint Paul, a°Spiritual Master . Auoustlne Klaas What Good are Conferences? . John Maffhews ,It’s a Wonderful Life ~ . Richard Leo Heppler Gethsema ni . M. Raymond That God’s Will be Known . Sister M. Digna Questions Answered Communi.catlons Book Reviews VOLUME VIII NUMBER 4 RI VII::W FOR RI::LI®IOUS VOLUME VIII JULY, 1949 NUMBER CONTENTS SAINT PAUL. A SPIRITUAL MASTER--Augustine Klaas0 S.J. 169 COMMUNICATIONS . 178 WHAT GOOD ARE CONFERENCES?--2ohn Matthews, S.3. 180 IT’S A WONDERFUL L~FE--Richard Leo Heppler, O.F.M .1.85 GETHSEMANI--M. Raymond . 191 THAT GOD’S WILL BE BETTER KNOWN--Sister M. Digna, O.S.B20.1 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSm 26. General Councilor as Local Superior .208 27. Use of Legacy for Education of Religious . 210 28. Novice Makes Will and Disposes of Income in Favor of Community 210 29. Daily Rosary as Sacramental Penance . 211 30. Permission for Equipment Worth More Than $10,000 .211 31. Permission to Lease Community Property .212 32. Superior’s Duty toward Fugitive or Apostate from Religion , 212 33. Formula for Concluding Accusation in Confession . 213 34. Effect of Perfect Contrition (or Love) .~214 BOOK REVIEWS-- First St~ps in the Religious Life: A Procession of Saints . 214 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS . 220 FOR YOUR INFORMATION . 223 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 224 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 3uly, 1949. Vol. VIII, No. 4. Published bi-monthly: January, March, May, 3uly, September, and November at the College Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas, by St. Mary’s College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical ~pprobation. Entered as second class matter .lanuary 15, 1942, at the Post Office, Topeka, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Adam C. Ellis, S.J., G. Augustine Ellard0 S.J., Gerald Kelly, S.J. Editorial Secretary: Alfred F. Schneider, S.2. Copyright, 1949, by Adam C. Ellis. Permission is hereby granted for quotations of" reasonable length, provided due credit be given this review and the author. Subscription prke: 2 dollars a year. Printed in U. S. A. Before writing to us, please consult notice on inside back cover. Saint: .Paul, A Spirit:ual/ asl:er Augustine Klaas, S.3. IN TARSUS, a bustling seaport of Cilicia in Asia Minor and "no. ¯ mean city," the future Apostle of the Gentiles was born of 3ewish parents in moderate circumstances sometime in the first decade of our era. His father, of the tribe ot~ Benjamin, but also a Roman citizen, gave him at his circumcision the 3ewish name of Saul and brought him up in the strict educational t~adition of the Pharisees. In this cosmopolitan town, cut.in two by the Cydnus River and overshadowed by the Taurus Mountains, young Saul, besides his Hebrew Scriptures, learned Aramaic,. Greek, probably Latin, and incidentally picked up the useful trade of weaving tent cloth. Still a youth he went off to the rabbinical school at 3erusalem to study the 3ewisb Law under the famous doctor, Gamaliel. Studies com-pleted, he returned to Tarsus, but later came back to Palestine in time to assist, perhaps not without guilt, at the stoning of Stephen the first Christian martyr. Of an ardent, dynamic temPe.rament, he became in the enst~ing persecution a zealot for the 3ewish Law and took to hunting down for arrest members of the hew religion founded by 3esus Christ. Until one day at high noon, on the road to Damascus, in a blaze of light Saul met hik risen Lord. His eyes were blinded, but he never saw more clearly in his life. From Saul, the persecuting Pharisee infatuated with the Old Law, he suddenly became Paul, the apostle of 3esus Christ, destined to carry the New Law almost to the ends of t~e then-known world. I Baptized in Damascus by Ananias and his sight restored, Paul retired for a considerable time to the Arabian desert south of that city to prepare himself for the apostolate by reflection, penance, and prayer. He emerged to begin his missionary labors, first at Damascus, then at 3erusalem, then at Tarsus, finally establishing with Barna-bas a base at Antioch, third largest city of the Roman Empire and the "gateway to the East," where his special apostolate to the Gentiles began to take definite shape. It was here that the baptized were first called Christians, though Paul never employs that term. He prefers 169 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Review for Religious to call baptized Christians saints, sanctified,, ’well-beloved of God, faithful, chosen ones, holy and loyal brethren. From Antioch, beginning about 45 A.D., Paul made three extensive missionary journeys. He won over large multitudes of converts to the true Faith. With Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy he founded and organized Christian .churches up and down the whole of Asia Minor, in the islands of the Mediterranean, and, over on the mainland of Europe, in Greece, Macedonia, and Italy. During some twenty intensive missionary years Paul fought to victory three important apostoli~ battles: one against the Jews, who never forgave him for deserting them and who treated him as a trai-tor and apostate, hounding him during his whole life and once almost succeeding in putting him to death; another against certain Christian converts from Judaism who wanted to retain in the reli-gion of the New Testament too many customs and practices of the Old Law now defunct; the third, the longest and hardest battle of all, against the pagan Gentiles and the influence of paganism on the recent converts to Christianity. Paul with magnificent generosity toiled and suffered in both body and soul to accomplish these three objectives. He went through an incredible number of adventures and experienced all the so-called romance of the missions, as when he escaped over the wall of Damascus in a basket, or stood on Paphos before the Roman gov-ernor Sergius Paulus to confound the magician Elymas, or was mis-taken for the pagan god Mercury at Lystra, or preached of the "unknown god" in the Areopagus at Athens, or clashed with the pagan silversmiths in Ephesus. Signs and prodigies accompanied him everywhere. To sum up his life he can say forthrightly and without vanity: "I have toiled harder spent longer days in prison, been beaten so cruelly, so often looked death in the face. Five times the Jews scourged me, and spared me but one lash in the forty; three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned; I have been shipwrecked thre’e times, I have spent a night and a day as a castaway at sea. What journeys I have undertaken, in danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, in danger from my own people, in danger from the Gentiles: danger in the cities, danger in the wilderness, danger in the sea, danger among false brethren! I have met with toil and weariness, so often been sleepless, hungry and thirsty; so often denied myself food, gone cold and naked. And all this, over and above something else which I do not count; I mean the burden I carry every day, my 170 SAINT PAUL, A SPIRITUAL MASTER anxious care for all the churches. Does anyone feel a scruple? I share it. Is anyone’~ conscience hurt? I am ablaze with indigna-tion. If I must needs boast, I will boast of the things which humili-ate me; the God who is Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be his name for e~ier, knows that I am telling the truth." (II Cot. 11 : 23-31.) Such was the apostolic career of Paul, God’s "vessel of election," the indomitable warrior for Christ unto the Gentiles. In the year 60 Paul was in prison at Caesarea where he remained confined, but not too closely, for two years, until he "appealed to Caesar." He demanded as a Roman citizen to be sent to the capital for trial. ’His right was recognized and his petition granted. Two more years passed, this time in close imprisonment in Rome; then, at last, trial and acquittal. Immediately Paul was off to Spain and then back again to the East, but his time was fast running out. Once more apprehended in Rome and brought to trial he was condemned to death by decapitation and summarily executed on the Ostian Way under Nero, most probably in the year 67. Taking for granted God’s ordinary and extraordinary graces, likewise the numerous miracles that accompanied his missionary labors, what was the human character and personality that made Paul the Church’s most successful apostle of all times? Physically it seems that Paul was not very prepossessing; he Was small of stature and afflicted with some sort of chronic illness. Yet he had all the fire, energy, and dynamism of a heroic man of action: he had a mind rich in ideas, that could think for itself, that was sharp in contro- ~’ersial debate; he had a gift of eloquence in speech;~ he had sound judgment and an uncanny foresight in choosing the strategic sites of new churches; he was an excellent judge of men to put in charge of them. He was a splendid organizer, pliant and adaptable both in speech and action; he could meet any emergency; he could be and was "all things to all men." Cardinal Newman lists "human sympa-thy" as Paul’s outstanding quality of character. He was also utterly selfless and completely devoted to the cause of Christ. Of course, there were some faults, too, in this strong character: he was at times impatient, self-willed, and not an altogether easy man to work with, as Peter, Barnabas, and Luke found out to their dismay. If Paul was eminently the man of apostolic action, he was also the contemplative. He had the simple, profound, refined traits of the contemplative and was actually gifted with the highest mystical graces (II Cot. 12:2-7). Moreover, he harmonized perfectly the 17! AUGUSTINE KLAAS Reuieu,~ for Religious active life and the contemplative life, as every real apostle must ear-nestly strive to do. The Acts of the Apostles, written by Paul’s disclple and com-panion Luke, gives a vivid account of Paul’s external missionary activity; his interior life and his doctrine, dogmatic, moral, and spiritual, are contained chiefly in his fourteen immortal letters. In this article we are interested above all in setting forth the essential points of Paul’s spiritual doctrine which form likewise, as might be expected, the sum and substance of his own personal spiritual life. Scattered as fragments throughout his Epistles, they are here brought together in a synthesis that reveals something at least of the com-pelling power and beauty of Paul’s spiritual wisdom. II The fundamental doctrine of Saint Paul"s spiritual teaching is the close union of Christians with Christ and Christ with Christians. Christians are with Christ, they are in Christ, in some way they are Christ. Whoever does harm to Christians does harm to Christ; who-ever divides Christians into factions, divides Christ. When Paul was struck down in his mad ’career of persecuting Christians, he heard a voice: "Saul, ’Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Paul wanted to know who was speaking. The voice replied: "I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest" (Acts 9:3-5). ~aul never forgot it. That Chris-tians are Christ became the basic principle of his own personaI spirituality and of his spiritual message to the first Christians. Indeed, this principl.e epitomizes the whole divine plan of man’s salvation and perfection for time and eternity. It pulsates through-out his Epistles. To explain more clearly the ifitimate union of Christ with Christians, Paul employs many analogies, some very striking. Chris-tians are the living stones of a house of which Christ is the corner-stone. Christians are living shoots grafted onto Christ. Christians are united to Christ as closely as husband and wife in marriage. Christians and Christ form a living body of which Christ is the Head. Of course, these images fall far short of the sublime spiritual reality they are meant to describe and explain, namely, that a mem-ber of the true Church of Christ is by that very fact a member of Christ’s Body. Christ and Christians are one. The union is such that Christ shares His life with Christians. Christ actually lives in Christians. Hence, Christians live by a n’ew life--Christ’s life, the supernatural life of grace. Christ’s life flows 172 Julgt, 1949 SAINT PAUL, A SPIRITUAL MASTER in Christians as sap flows from the tree trunk through its branches, as blood courses from the heart to the extremities of the body. It is much more than the Eucharistic presence; it is the life of grace, a real if analogous sharing by Christians in the divine life of Christ. There is here no pantheism, no identity of life. The Christian always retains his own individual personality.’ Nor is this vital union an essential one, such as the substantial union of soul and body. Neither is it a personal union, as the union of the human: nature with the divine Person of Christ. Yet, if it is less .than a physical union, it is more than a mere moral union. It is a hidden, secret, mysterious union, supernatural but none the less also very real. It is a rn~sticat union of Christ the Head with the members of His Mystical Body. Paul d~clares: "And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). "For to me, to live is Christ," (Phil. 1:21). Just as for Paul, Christ lives in Christians, and they live in Christ, with Christ, for Christ; they are incorporated into Christ. In a word, the life of Christians is Christ. By reason of this incorporation into Christ Christians enter into the life of the Blessed Trinity. The Christ-life in their souls makes them, like Christ, sons of God. Christ is the first-born and only Son of the Father by nature; we Christians are sons by grace, the grace of adoption. Adopted sonship is something real, though analogous and subordinate to Christ’s sonship. By. reason of it, Christ becomes our elder brother and with Christ we become joint heirs of the Father. Moreover, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, dwells as in a temple in those incorporated by grace into Christ, forming Christ in them, making them more and more perfectly images of Christ. The Holy Spirit is also the principle of life and unity in the Mystical Body, uniting the members with the Head, and the members with each other. Hence, all Christians are brothers. fundamentally equal, intimately bound to one another, indeed, members of each other in Christ. Children of the same Father, vit.alized by the same Holy Spirit, they form a solidarity with Christ and with each other, a sublime solidarity that transcends both space and time. The gift of faith being presupposed in adults, how is this life in Christ, this incorporation into His Mystical Body, this entry into the life of the. Blessed Trinity initiated? By baptism. Baptism, through the merits of Christ, washes away sin, original and actual, by infusing into the soul justifying grace, the grace of spiritual 173 AUGUSTINE KLAAS R~vieu; for Religious regeneration, a new life, supernatural life, a free gift of God. Ira baptism the believer participates in the death and burial of Chri.st through immersion; he dies to sin and to the "old man" in him. But he also shares in the resurrection of Christ when he emerges from the saving baptismal waters to the life of Christ’s grace, to the life of the "new man." He is now liberated from the powers of darkness and, signed by the Holy Spirit of Christ, becomes a member of Christ’s Kingdom, the Church. The life of the Christian is therefore a dying and a living with Christ, a dying to sin in order to live the Christ-life of virtue and live it to the full. Having become a member of Christ by faith and baptism he must now strip himself ever more and more of everything that is not Christ, and also seek to l~Ut on Christ more and more, progressively~ to identify himself, as it were, with Christ, that Christ may gradually take fuller possession of his whole soul, live in it, become its whole life. In short, life in Christ is not static; it is eminently dynamic. Justification must be followed up by sanctifica-tion, of which it is only the beginning. And sanctification must grow until it ends in everlasting glory. III How then is this life in Christ to be lived and increased? How is sanctification accQmplished? By progressively putting off the "old man" and putting on the "new man," by ceasing to live the life of the "flesh" to live ever more and more the life of the "spirit," by continuallly dying and being buried with Christ crucified in order to live more ~bundantly with the resurrected Christ, in a word, by an ever greater avoidance of evil and imperfection and a more enthu-siastic pursuit of supernatural good. To do this effectively involves a struggle, an all-out spiritual combat, a courageous battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. The Christian must be like a soldier fighting with a full panoply of virtue, or lik~ an athlete engaged in a crucial boxing match in the arena, who does not beat the air uselessly but delivers telling blows on his opponent. Espe-cially, like the runner in the stadium, the Christian must turn away from all else and concentrate mind and muscle on his objective: he must deny himself, suffer many a privation and hardship, ever maintain a salutary fear of failure, steadily increase the swiftness of his pursuit of Christ, and persevere to victory. Constant energetic effort must be exerted if the crowning goal of spiritual perfection is 174 Jul~/, 1949 SAINT PAUL, A SPIRITUAL MASTER ever to be attained. Of course, God always stands by with His help and His grace, without which nothing is possibie supernaturally, but the Christian himself must co-operate, must fight on bravely, relent-lessly, confidently. There must be no discouragement, no defeatism; rather an unfailing buoyant optimism that ultimately the battle will be gained, the enemy vanquished, and the race won. Thus, no mat-ter what may be his station in life, even though it be that of a slave. he will achieve the dignity and destiny of a true Christian, possessing faith, liberty, charity, peace, hope, joy, thanksgiving, apostolic zeal, loving and serving his fellow men for the love of God. Thus, .too, will the love and freedom of the New Law triumph over the fear and servitude of the Old, for the New Law is not the mere meticulou~ observance of multitudinous commands, but above all it is a living, a living of life in Christ. The assiduous practice of penance and mortification implied in the spiritual combat is predominantly a negative aspect of Christian living and perfection. The more positive way is’ the progressive putting on of Christ and His manifold moral virtues, so that gradually Jesus Christ takes undisputed possession of the whole soul, lives in it, becomes its very life. To accomplish this, the Christian must be assimilated to Christ; he must take on the moral and spir-itual likeness of Christ through imitation. He must imitate not so much the particular pl~ysical act.ions of Christ, but must above all assimilate the thoughts and sentiments, the "mind" of Christ. Therefore, not merely an external but an internal, not so much an outward as an inward, resemblance must be sought and striven for. He must put on Christ’s interior, His spirit, His "mind." And this means the mind of Christ as the Word of God before the Incarna-tion, principally as the God-man in the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, in His crucifixion, death, and burial, but also in His Resurrection and Ascension, and finally as the Head of the Mys-tical Body now gloriously reigning in heaven. Jesus Christ is indeed ~he Grand Model," the exalted exemplary cause of all spiritual per-fection; and it is the Holy Spirit residing within us who by His inspirations and guidance gives individuality to our imitation of Christ. Indeed, Christ Himself also co-operates directly in our assimilation to Him; hence we must ask for His.help in persevering prayer. Assimilation to Christ by imitation already leads to and even effects a certain union with Christ, union of mind and affections. 175 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Review for Religious. Beyond this, the Christian must also zealously strive for union of will with Christ by cl~arity, prayer, and action, all of which should increase his union day by day. Here is where the Holy Eucharist plays a leading role in the spiritual life, since the Eucharistic Sacrifice and banquet brings Christians into intimate union with Ch.,~rist. The chalice of benediction is a partaking of Christ’s blood; the bread broken is a sharing of Christ’s body. The Holy Eucharist therefore is a bond of union between Christians and Christ in His sacrificial death and in His living presence. Union with Christ as Head of the Mystical Body will also progress in depth and in extension in proportion as we advance in union with Christ by’ intellect, will, and action. And this ever closer union with Christ, the Head of the Mystical Body, brings with it an ev4r closer union with the other members of the Mystical Christ, just as by sharing in the common food of Christ’s Body Christians become one body. The Holy Eucharist is a real bond of union between Christians themselves because they are "one bread." This Eucharistic bond also marvellously preserves, cements, and per-fects that other union (through baptism) of the faithful with each other as members of the Mystical Body of Christ. In addition to this, to a fortunate few, of whose number Paul was one, there is granted in this life as a divine gift an extraordinary. mystical, ecstatic vision of and union with God. The qualities and effects of this union for the Church and the individual are somewhat obscurely related by St. Paul in his Epistles. We are not here directly concerned with this ineffable experience nor with the other charis-matic gifts of grace mentioned by St. Paul, who considers them the special workings of the Holy Spirit. And so, as the year~ advance, life in Christ must develop and progress. It is dynamic, not’static; an increasing, not a mere pre-serving; an augmenting of grace, not merely a repelling of sin: a going forward, not a standing still; a grow.th’, vital, organic, gradual, from infancy and childhood to maturity, from w~akness .unto strength. The Body of Christ. must grow to perfect manhood. to the fulness of Christ. Individual spiritual growth theremust be, but this is at the same time growth of the Mystical Body; and the necessary condition of its increase is growth in union with the Head of the Mystical Body. This upbuilding of the Body of Christ is not only intensive, but also extensive, adding new members to the Body of Christ, in order to supply what is still lacking to the fulness, the ,176 July, 1949 SAINT PAUL, A SPIRITUAL MASTER completeness, the plerorna of the Mystical Christ. IV While the Christian is thus growing in his own perso.nal Christ-life and also augmenting qualitatively and quantitatively the living Body of Christ, he is on his way to the life of glory, which is pledged to him both by the Spirit of Christ dwelli~.g within him because he is a child of God, a joint heir with Christ, and by the thrilling fact that God loves him and wants to share His glory with him. By baptism~ it is true, he died with the dying Christ; but Christ is also a risen Christ, and so he must rise with Christ--- mystically in baptism, morally and ascetically during his whole life--in order that he may share in "His glorious resurrection. By baptism he was made a member Of the risen Christ. He must realize more and more Christ’s r~surrection by his fervent Christian life, until he is transformed from glory to glory unto the image of the risen Savior. This spiritual, mystical resurrection which belongs to him by baptism is his in its plenitude only after death, since the spiritual resurrection of the soul is completed after death by the resurrection of his transformed body. Death, no longer a punish-ment for sin, is really an ascension and entrance into glory. Only then will the grand plan of God regarding this world’ be fully revealed. Only then shall we understand the mystery of Christ, namely, that the Mystical Christ is the true purpose of creation. Christ is the Head of all: He is over all, and all serve Him.- Christ came into this world to unite all creation under His sway and to draw all creation after Him, for He ascends again on high. He has lowered Himself to this earth only to draw to Himself and to restore all to God; all belongs to Christ and Christ belongs to God. With a magnificent sweeping gesture Christ summons all the members of His Mystical Body and takes them with Him to the place prepared for them in the Blessed Trinity. The Blessed Trin, ity was active in our incorporation into Chris~ by baptism and in our whole life in Christ; now each person of the Blessed Trinity has a share also in our glorification with Christ. Drawn by the Father, who sees us more and more conformed to His beloved Son and who continues to transform us from glory to glory into the image of His Son; sustained interiorly by the Holy Spirit, who signs us :with His seal, implants in us the pledges of immortality, and gives us the first fruits and guaranty of glory: 177 COMMUNICATIONS Reoieto for Religious raised from tile dead and borne aloft by the risen Christ because of the true oneness that binds all the members to the Mystical Head, we shall share in the very life of the Blessed Trinity. Then in due time will come the great parousia, the manifestation of the glory of the children of God at the second coming of Christ. This parousia wil! be the glorification, the apotheosis of the Mystical Christ, who with all the members joined to the Head has now reached His full and lasting maturity. Finally, the glorious Mystical Christ with all His glorified members will be taken up to eternal rest in the bosom of God. To summarize Paul’s spiritual doctrine briefly. The. life ,of Christians in Christ is a sublime reality, inaugurated by’.baptism, which is a participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. Th~s life in Christ, this incorporation into the Church, His Mystical Body, must increase and grow steadily as long as we live on earth. It grows by our putting off the "old man" and putting .on the "new man," by our sharing ever more and more in Christ’s death and resurrection, by an ever greater assimilation to Christ by imita-tion and an ever closer union with Him and His mystical members by faith, charity, and virtuous action, especially by partaking of the Holy Eucharist. Thus, by de~’eloping our own personal interior life in Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and at the sam~: time by augmenting bothqualitatlvely and qua.ntitatively the Mys-tical Body of Christ, we p~epare for and indeed already begin our glorification with the risen Christ in heaven. This glorification wil! reach its climax when we participate in the second coming of Chris.r and then, as members of the Mystical Christ, are assu.~ed with Him into the’eternal sanctuary of the Triune God. The pleroma ha~ now been attained. God’s family is comp!~te; His eternal plan, a’~complished. God is now "all in all" forever. (,I Cor. 15:22-28.). Communica ’ions Reverend Fathers: Since the May 1948 issue of REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, when "Worldliness in Religious" was proposed as a topic which might be, profitably discussed as of g~neral concern, five Communications on this subject have appeared in the Review, Pro, bably the m.o,st,help.~.u.1 178 . ~. ¯ .~. dalai, 1949 COMMUNICATIONS of these is the one that faces the matter of worldliness as an experi-ence acually undergone by the Sister who wrote the communication. Although there should be.universal agreement with the golden jubi-larian Sister in her statement: "A convent is the best place on earth to make a study of unworldliness," there is reason to question Sis-ter’s complacent comment, "that the number of worldly Sisters in any community is a small minority." one is prompted to ask: "Because communists are a small minority in our United States, do our citizens remain smugly satisfied that no harm will come to the ¯ whole through this numerically smaller group?" We have not yet heard from those v;ho are bestprepared to tell us the truth about worldliness in religious. We should like to know what directors of souls, retreat masters, and moral theologians think regarding the debated existbnce of worldliness in religious communi-ties, and it would be helpful to receive their advice on the question, "Where should it be attacked, and how?" The logical distinctions set forth in Father-Creusen’s translated article, Adaptation, March 1949, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, present a guide for minds which are likely to confuse the accident with the essence. However, is there not the possibility .that liberals may take a too-broad view of "objects of adaptation" and fail to give due consideration to the fourth section of the article, which cautions that adaptations must be made with prudence and decision? A question naturally arises also as to the justifiability of onecomparison intro-duced by the author. In one instance regarding the matter of certain exemptions and dispensations, it is religious engaged in lengthy peri-ods of study, examinations, and laboratory exercises who "will be dispensed from certain observance.s," from "exercises of piety"; i.a the other, it is students of pbilosopbg and theology who "are allowed exemption from choir." Because the st, udy of philosophy and the study of theology tend to keep the student closely in touch with thoughts on the supernatural life, it is easy to understand why exemptions from choir may be allowed, but can the same be said of many secular studies’ in which religious must engage? Again, may we ask for further instruction on "Worldliness in Religious" from the Editors and other ecclesiastical contributors? --~A SISTER. 179 What Good Are Cont:erences? John Matthews, S.J. OUR Lord told His Apostles: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them., teaching them to observe all things . " (Matt. 28:19-20). Teach! Christ was not content me, rely to say, "Build libraries, write, put books in every Catholic’s hands." No, books are dead things. Ex;en the Holy Bible is dead without the voice of the Church. But Jesus said, "Teach." He wanted the living word, the sound of the voice. He wanted His priests to teach mostly by talking; and that is why God’s pri_ests give sermons, retreats, points, spiritual conferences, parish novenas, to lay people and religjous~ That is why Brothers and Sisters also teach religion and conduct retreats and conferences. Here we might ask a question: what good are conferences? What use are spiritual conferences to each individual soul who attends them? First, conferences give you holy saving thoughts, thoughts that help you to holiness and salvation. They teach you the truths of your religion, for example, why Our Lord had to suffer, what is the meaning o.f Holy Mass. They instruct you about Jesus, Mary, the Mass, the Rosary, and Holy Communion. They tell ~;ou of what you love most, for example, the saints of the Church, ot~ your order, of your state of life. It will be profitable to delay a moment on one value conferences have already had for you. Conferences teach you to do everything needed for your daily meditation. They teach you about the act of faith and joy in God’s presence within you; and it is this act with which you begin your prayer. Conferences give you word pictures of Jesus and Mary which can help you to make your composition of place. Above all, conferences supply you with the holy thoughts which you will pray over" all your life, which you will discuss with Jesus arid Mary and the Trinity in your meditation, from which you will draw love and courage. These same thoughts will lead you to imitate Jesus and Mary and the saints; they will help you to form your daily resolutions; they will be recalled in your colloquies. Thus conferences supply holy thoughts not only for your morning meditations but for your private prayer during the day, for example. in visits to the Blessed Sacrament. For Jesus wants you to talk to Him morning, noon, and nig.ht; and a true religious must store his mind well with sacred thoughts if be is to live prayerfully as he should. 180 WHAT GOOD ARE CONFERENCES? Again,-conferences teach you how to live your life. They instruct you in the duties of your state as a religious, as a foreign missioner. They teach you to practice virtue--the virtues of a teacher, the vlrtu4s of a nursing Sister. The tools of your spiritual life are prayer, Mass, Holy Communion, work, common life: con-ferences tell you how to use them. The.virtues of a religious are humility, spending one’s life for God, seeing God in all men and events, pure intention, poverty. Your special Virtues may be gener-osity, purity, obedience, fervor, the charity of Christ, prayer. Con-ferences tell you what use these virtues are in your life of holiness and how you can form yourself to Christ by them. By your vocation you are men and women of God. That is your business--and it is a life job! The lad learning his trade tries to learn every trick of the trade. The young man in law school or medical school tries to remember every bit of advice lawyers and doc-tors give him. As men and women of God you must know the things of God--holiness, virtue, what helps to perfection, why prayer and Mass are important, what good is work, and so forth. And conferences are one way of learning your heavenly Father’s business, your business as intimates of God. That is why desus Himself gave spiritual conferences to the apostles and disciples. The one who gives you a conference is another Christ, and you are Christ’s disciples.’ You still need the advice given you in conferences; but it was especially in the early years of your vocation that you needed the help of conferences. Be-fore you entered religious life, how much did you know about 3esus and Mary, Mass, Communion, and prayer? How much did you know about your order, its common life, rules, virtues, history, saints, vows, prayer, and spiritual exercises? You knew very little. So the director of novices gave you daily conferences to teach you about the life of holiness and the religious life. But it is not only in your early years of vocation, it is all through your life that you need the help of spiritual exhortation. For our whole life on earth is only a preparation, a nox;itiate for heaven. We can become more holy every day; so we can always use the means of holiness--and the conference is one of therfi. Our religion is so divine that we’ can always learn more about it, for example, of the depth of Our Lord’s love for us, of the height of God’s majesty, of the fulness of Christ’s holiness. Even the oldest religious can receive new lights from con-ferences, can take new pleasure in the things of God, can give holy 18l JOHN MATTHEWS for Reh’g~’ous example by his attendance at conferences. We said before that conferences give you holy thoughts which can be the food for your prayer. Now we kay that the conference itself can be a prayer. You yourself can. make a prayer out of the conference, for example, just by listening reverently you dwell on godly thoughts and desires--and that is prayer. For prayer is the turning of the soul towards God, and that is what you do as .you heed the thoughts of the conference passing through your mind. You are not forced to pay attention at a conference: you can turn your mind to other things or to nothing. But when you listen with rev-erence and attention to the words of the speaker, you are uniting yourself with God and making a prayer out of your part in the conference. Then too you can say special prayers all the way through the conference. When the speaker says, "Tonight we shall talk about charity," you can say, "Lord, I want this conference to help me." When he tells you how God the Father loved men, you can whisper to yourself, !’Thank You, Heavenly Father." When he mentions the sufferings of ,Jesus and Mary, .you can think within yourself, ’.’I’m sorry for my sins that made You suffer so much." When you hear of Jesus’ love for you in the Eucharist, you can invit~ Our Lord to come to you in spiritual Communion. When the speaker tells you how the Sacred.Heart is offended if you offend your neighbor, you can pray, "My Savior, I offer you my love in reparation." .When the speaker recalls how the Church teaches. Mary’s Immaculate Con-ception, you can whisper, "Lord God, I believe with all my heart." When you hear about the glor.y .of the saints, you can feel .joy your-selves at the happiness of heaven. So we could go on. For there is no end to the prayers we can have in our minds during a conference. Of course we can als6 use v(iell-known.ejaculations like "Jesus, Mary and ‘joseph," "My.Jesus, mercy." When, too, a saint’s name is mentioned, we can say to ourselves, "Pray for us." But, whether we pray in our own words or the Church’s, let us be sure to make every conference a time of prayer in union .with God. "But, Father, that will keep me busy during a conference!" Correct! That is your part of a conference as God wants it. No need to be afraid of making a prayer out of your conference. So many people at Holy Mass just sit and listen. That is so useless. At Mass we should act, do what the priest does, for 182 duI~,1949 WHAT GOOD ARE CONFERENCES ? example, offer Christ to God the Father, give thanks, adore, beg par-don, welcome desus in Communion. Such is your part in the Holy Sacrifice; and you have your part in a conference too. Do not just sit and listen; do something about your conference. It is God who is talking to you through the speaker. So pray to God, offer Him your time at conference, say ejaculations, beg God’s pardon, ask Him to help. you, love Him and Mary and the saints. Then you w~ll make a prayer out of your conference and you will be growing in holiness. Making a prayer out of a conference helps you to keep awake and interested, to overcome dislike for holy things to which we turn often with diffic.ulty. (It it so easy to think of other things we could do that have more appeal for us.) Even whefi the conference is dull, or the speaker has a displeasing voice or tone, or the weather is hot, or you are distracted or tired or sleepy--even then you can make a prayer out of your conference. You can at least try to talk to God about what is.being said, and you will be all the holier for trying to make a prayer out of your conference. Lastly, every conference is an external grace for us. But what is an external grace? A conference as an external grace is an influence which is outside our soul and which helps us to holiness and salva-tion. Because the influence is outside our soul, it is called exte.rnal; because it helps to our supernatural growth, it is a grace. Let us see, then, how a spiritual talk can be an external grace. As the words of the conference strike your ear, they registe’r the ideas in your mind, they warm your .heart, and they rouse your will to action. This is the natural human result of the speaker’s words and of the conviction and sincerity with which he talks. Of course, these thoughts and resolves aroused in your mind and will by the confer-ence are only human thoughts and resolves. They are of the same order as those which any orator seeks to effect within you. Such natural ideas and resolutions alone would never enable you to do a deed of supernatural virtue; for no merely human decision of the will is powerful enough to attain the supernatural holiness that is man’s common vocation. But here is where.the conference does help us. In God’s plan for sanctifying souls, a conference is the occasion of and preparation for the actual graces which empower men to act supernaturally. You are pondering over the ideas of the exhortation, you are planning your decision on the spiritual path to which the speaker invites you. 183 WHAT GOOD ARE CONFERENCES? Reuiew for Religious Now comes the exact moment which God uses to give you His grace. Your human thoughts and resolves have prepared you to receive this grace. Let us suppose that the conference is on humility. While you consider the speaker’s words on that virtue, your mind is enlightened by actual grace to see the supernatural need for humility; while you plan your decision to practice humility more, your will is ifispired and strengthened by actual grace to make this resolve super-naturally. You have been givefi the graces of’enlightenment, inspi-ration, and strength; and the conference has, in God’s wisdom, been the timely occasion to step up your pov~ers of action with actual grace, a "seasonable aid" (Heb. 4: 16). Thus does a conference fit into your spiritua.1 life as a help to holiness. It lets your human powers play their part in your salva-tion; it is an opportunit.y which God uses to give you His graces. In this way conferences have through the centuries aided in forming souls to Christian virtue. Our Savior conversed spiritually with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. First His words had their natural effect. "Was not our heart burning within us whilst He spoke on the way and opened to us the scriptures?" (Luke 24:32). Then, while their hearts burned with human enthusiasm, Jesus flooded their souls with the grace of faith.The result of using this grace was that. they believed in His resurrection and hastened to share their faith. with the apostles. In like manner the impact of St. Peter’s first ser-mon as an external grace plus the powek of the accompanying actual grace brought three thousand Jews (Acts 2:37, 41) to supernatural contrition, obedience, and baptism: So too did the words of St. Francis Assisi and the grace of vocation combine their human and divine strength in leading St. Clare to beg admission into the new Franciscan order. Now there remains for speaker and listener only this, that each do his best to make a conference the richest external grace pos-sible. The speaker will suit to his sacred purpose the thoughts he presents. He will use his skill to explain the spiritual life dearly, he will plan to inspire his hearers, he will seek to persuade his audience to resolution. So will he be a John the Baptist, preparing the way of the Lord. On his part the listener must accept ’a conference not as a penance or even merely as a duty but as an opportunity for instruction, prayer, and spiritual growth. Th’e listener should be wide-awake, supernaturally eager for the speaker’s thoughts, for his own prayer, and for God’s grace. The question to ask after the talk 184 Julg, 1949 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is not, "How did you like it?"--but, "Did I make the conference fruitful for myself?" A conference is a three-way work in which speaker, hearer, and God co-operate. We can be sure God will do His part to mike every conference a spiritual success. It:’s a Wonderi:ul Lit:e Richard Leo Heppler, O.F.M. ~__ UESSING the identity of next year’s crop of postulants would ~ be easier than foretelling the disguise in which the. next blessing will come to us. This is a very crude way of ren-dering St. Paul’s beautiful words: "O the depth of the ricbes~ of the wisdom of God. How incomprehensible are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways." And, in reality, we do not know in what form we shall receive the next good inspiration. God sends His graces, His blessings, His heavenly promptings in accordance with Divine Wisdom and not in accordance with ours. He may choose anything at all to be the means of conducting His graces to us. An apparently chance conversation by Jacob’s Well was an inspiration for the sinful woman. Getting the daylights knocked out of him was a great blessing for St. Paul. A bolt of lightning was a mean.~ of grace for St. Norbert. St. Hyacintba received a heavenly favor when her confessor, who had been summoned to her sick bed, refused to hear her confession until she bad ridded her cell of every: thing that violated poverty. Anything may be a means of grace for us: a good book, a letter, a change of appointment, a siege of pneu-monia, a fire, the failure to catch a train, a radio program--anything! But these divine inspirations to be better and to do better can be refused and rejected. That is why the Psalmist warns us: "Today if you hear his ,~6ice harden not your hearts." Pontius Pilate received a very unusual external grace in the form of his wife’s dream, but he refused to co-operate with it. Judas was offered a great blessing by Our Lord when He called him friend, but Judas hardened his heart. The important thing about these blessings is not the dis-. guise in which they come, but our willingness to accept them and to co-operate with them. If we are sincerely trying to cultivate humil-ity; purity of intention, docility to the will of God, and the practice of mortification, then we are keeping ourselves in readiness to take 185 RICHARD LEO HEPPLER Review [or Religious advantage of each external grace, and--what is more--we are dis-posing ourselves to co-operate with each internal actual grace that God sees fit to offer us. Contradictory as it may at fi~st seem, God wants us to act super-naturally; yet of ourselves we .cannot do so. Without God’s grace we cannot think supernaturally, will supernaturaJly, or operate supernaturally. What other conclusion can we reach after reading the following words of Sacred Scripture: "Without me, you can do nothing"; "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves, but our sufiiciency is from God"; an~, "For it is God who worketh in us to will and to accomplish"? Actual grace is the supernatural magic which enables us to comply with God’s desires. And what makes living the life Of actual grace so exciting is that we are in constant need of actual grace, and God is constantly giving l~s actual grace, and yet at any moment we may refuse to make use of this precious gift. Now, all this may not seem very thrilling to us, so dull of spir-itual perception are we; still, to watch us trying to lead the life of actual grace must be very thrilling for the devils and angels and saints. Our tension in following adventures of a modern radio Cinderella, or of an F.B.I. agent, or of a private detective is quite anemic compared with the celestial suspense our guardian angels may endure in watching us live the dangerous life of grace. Dangerous? Yes, because a rejection of grace is always a spiritual tragedy. Each time God offers us an actual grace, a turning point in our spiritual lives is reached. Will we accept the grace and perform a supernatural action? Or will we reject it and fail to come up to God’s expecta-tion? The angels and saints want us to use the grace; the devils want us to neglect it; the decision rests’ with us. Without meaning to be disrespectful, we may suspect that many a guardian angel has been near the point of prostration when his partciular client drew near death, and breathed a heavenly sigh of relief when that human being co-operated with the final actual grace. It is to be hoped that the guardian angels of religious get off with less strain on their spir-itual constitutions, but they too may be a little gray and bent (if angels show signs of wear) when some of us come grinning up to them to render our undying thanks. At any rate, actual grace we certainly need in order to perform any supernatural action. And to be true to our vocation--to resist temptations, to practice virtue, to make progress in perfection-- 186 dulg, 1949 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE we need a great amount of this marvellous gift of God. Since we need this grace all the time, we have to pray for it all the time. What life is best adapted to the constant praying for grace? The wonder-ful life which is called religious life. Religious life is a wonderful life because it affords us the oppor-tunity of living .to the full the thrilling life of actual grace. Spir-itual adventures surroui~d us; all we have to do is to wake and’live. But there are two kinds of grace, sanctifying and actual. And religious life is a wonderful life because it also enables us to live to the full the life of sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is real life, soul-life. It gives us a participation of God’s life and of God living in’us. By means of sanctifying grace God is present to us so as to make us not gods, but godlike. For God the Father, the Life of All Living, lives within us; God the Son, the Way, the Truth and the Life, lives within us; and God the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Life,. lives within us. With sanctifying grace in our souls we are more wonderful than all lower creation put together, for we are.charged with a divine vitality which enables us to perform supernatural actions pleasing to God and worthy of a supernatural reward. Then it is that drilling a class.i’n the parts of speech, typing letters in the office, tagging plates in the X-ray room, purchasing next month’s supply of sugar, baking hosts, or trying to get money out of the pockets of a fellow mortal is more marvel-ous than the bright glitter of the Milky Way or the slow blossoming of a rose or the violence of an ocean storm. The man of the world who is devoid of sanctifying grace may .devote his time and energy and talent and money to’ the cure of cancer or the composition of symphonies or the construction of skyscrapers, and great worldly success may repay his efforts. But such a man is a monstrosity, an absurdity, because he is not supernaturally alive. On l~he other hand apparent failure may dog the steps of a good religious, but in reality he is a living success. No matter what fellow religious think or say about him or her; no matter whether the doctors and nurses think he or she has an electrifying personfility; no matter whether his or her students laugh at the annual jokes, the good religious is tful7 leading a won’derful life. How important is it to be pleasing to God? How important is anything else in this whole wide world? A young lady whom I instructed ifi the faith assured me when the course was over that the doctrine on grace pleased her most. I must confess that in a n.ear-by 1S7 RICHARD LEO HEPPLER Review for Religious drug store I had seen over the cosmetic counter a sign proclaiming, "Beauty is your duty." I must further confess that I had used the whole notion of grace as soul beauty, and I bad tried to show her that true. beauty is soul deep. And finally I must cont~ess that, wb~le I was certainly no expert on beauty, I did venture to guarantee that she would always be beautiful when walking back from the Com-munion rail. Her only complaint was that she thought it unfair that only men could become priests since that eliminated women from the possi-fiility of getting the third "character" imprinted on the soul. She recovered from her indignation, however, for she now married. But I am confident that she is still continuing her weekly beauty treatment. Being children of God means that we are related to God and to "all creatures; we become members of God’s great family. Sancti-fying grace makes us sons and daughters of God the Father, who with true fatherly love watches ove.r us better than earthly fathers watch Over their children to protect, shelter, feed, clothe, and care for their own flesh and blood. Sanctifying grace makes us brothers and sisters of Our Lord and Savior desus Christ, who is not only" the Majestic ,Judge of fhe living and the dead but also Our Friend, Our Food, and Our Victim. Sanctifying grace makes us temples of the Holy Ghost, who operates jn us to make us more holy, more precious, more worthy to house the Most Adorable Trinity. When we possess sanctifying grace in our souls the Blessed Virgin is truly; our Mother; the angels and saints our companions; the souls in purgatory our suffering friends;, the members of our community our brothers and sisters; and all men are related to us as fellow chil-dren of God. Such is our true dignity; but that is not all, for we also possess by sanctifying grace a claim to a place in God’s own home. Of ourselves we have no right to the perfect and unending enjoyment of God Himself, but with sanctifying grace in our souls we are actually" the heirs of heaven; we have a claim, a title, a right to dwell in the kingdom of the blessed. Strange as it may seem, it is much easier for us to get into heaven than for a displaced person to get into our country. To get into heaven--at least eventually-- we need only die in the state of grace: to get into the United States a foreigner needs almost everything else. Our dignity as children of God and heirs of heaven flows from the supernatural life of our souls. And the life of grace is wonderful because it begins, not at forty, but at baptism; and, if God has His way, it continues, not 188 1949 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE until the final "’Requiescat in Pace" is intoned over our coffined remains, but forever and ever. What is the test of a pilot’s skill? His ability to handle his plane in any emergency. ~v~hat is the test of an actor’s ability? His capability of entering into and living’ the life of the character he portrays. What is the test of a young lady’s popularity? Perhaps her repair bill for shoes worn thin on the dance floor. But what is the test of a person’s spirituality? The amount of sanctifying grace he has at this moment in his soul and the use he is making of that grace. This, of course, does not contradict the statement that a good religious is one who is faithful to the rule and constitutions and seriously strives for perfection. But we are Christlike in proportion to the amount of grace we possess; and we are living in unidn with Our Lord when we are. saturating our every thought, word, and deed with grace. Our spirituality is the work of the Holy Ghost. But the Holy Ghost does not dwell inactively in our souls like a dove idly brooding over the deep. He is ever operative; He is constantly trying to perfect His temples. He knows the exact capacity of each one of us for grace, and He strives to bring us to a personal plenti-tude of grace. Fullness of grace is the same as perfect personal sane-tity. This we know from the fact that, when the Archangel Gabriel " " wished to pay tribute to Our Lady’s holiness, he addressed her as "full of grace." How holy can you become? That depends upon your capacity for grace and your co-operation with God in acquiring and using grace. But all of us must strive to reach the degree ,of sanctity God has set for us; in Other words, we have to keep plugging along in our striving for perfection. But the process of becoming full of grace is certainly not a nega-tive state of existence. Leading the wonderful life of grace does not consist merely, in avoiding sin. No one would say that a person is leading a full intellectual life if he merely avoids a mental break-down. No one would say that a man dearly loves his wife if he merel~ avoids strangling her. The life of grace is certainly not all about avoidance of sin. Religidus who permit themselves anything and everything as long as it is not directly sinful come in time to compromise with deliberate venial sin. Then they develop that most deplorable "It’s-only-a-venial-sin" mentality. From_then on spir-itual growth ~s arrested, and tepidity does the rest towards making religious life miserable: It was the" idea of leading a positive and rich and full spiritual 189 RICHARD LEO HEPPLER Review [or Religious life that attracted us to leave the world. We bad "discovered that soul-growth in the world was at best too often fitful and fractional. Perhaps we did not know that Our Blessed Savior had said, "I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly." But once we discovered that He had said these words, we started to become grace-conscious and, in the most polite and unselfish sense of the word, grace-greedy. When we learned how good grace is, we wanted to possess it; and we wanted to possess a fullness of it; but we wanted this fullness not for our glory but for God’s. We were not satisfied with merely being in the state of grace. We wanted to live! And religious life furnishes us every opportunity to live to the full the wonderful life of grace. Every exercise of the interior life is intended to be a growth in grace. Such things as renewing the dazed good intention made in the. sleepy hours of the morning, recalling the presence of God in a personal way, saying the grace before meals as a prayer and not as a curiosity appetizer, receiving the sacraments fervently, and treating all the members of the com-munity as we would treat Our Lord remind us that living the life of grace is not negative but positive. And living to the full the wonderful life of grace means sancti-fying our external act[vlties. The supernatural life and vitality in our souls’must flood everything w~ do. "I am the vine, you are the branches; He that abi~leth in me, and I in him the same beareth much fruit." The harvest of which Christ speaks is not the dead harvest of mere external activity. It is not an empty, lifeless record of classes taught, interviews conducted, bills paid, recitals given, games won and lost, patients admitted and discharged. We are expected to radiate holiness: One cannot be a good religious without being apostolic, at least to the extent of praying for others, giving good example, and being charitable. Each religious has a tremendous power for good or for evil. What is expected of us is an all-round Christlike conduct. All who come into contact with, us should realize that we are charged with divine vitality. And we must realize that all with whom we come into contact-;--pupils, patients, em-ployees, salesmen, friends, relatives, benefactors, fellow religious-- have been made by God and for God. The vocation of each person we meet, whether we like him or not, is (he salvation and sanctifica-tion of his soul. And our vocation is to help him succeed. There are times when a good meditation on the spiritual dignity of those with whom we come into contact is very practical for one who wants 190 July, 1949 GETHSEMANI to live the life of grace, which demands the wedding of ~/full interior life with a fruitful active life. These are some of the reasons for saying that religious life, the life of grace, is a wonderful life. These are some of the reasons for obeying the injunction of St. Paul to stir up the grace that is in us. These are some of the reasons for thanking God for a religious vocation. Gethsemani M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. GETHSEMANI, the proto-abbey of’ the New World, publicly celebrated her. centennial the First of June of this year. Countless have been the questions .asked about this gray’ Ladyhouse which has stood silent and solitary, cloistered by a circle of undulating hills, for one hundred full years; but two queries that have been most frequently put have been answered most differently. One is about her surprising fertility after ninety-six years of utter sterility. In the last four years she has given birth to two healthy daughters, and soon will be delivered of a third. Such robustness after more than nine decades, during which she was always threat.- gned with recall to the motherhouse because she seemed to be ailing in a foreign air,does give pause to the thoughtful, and naturally raises questions. Perhaps the b’est way to answer these is to give a short interpretation of her long century of silence and thus not only explain her fertility and sterility, but also reply to the other questiori most frequently put. My interpretation is this: If harvest is the result of seed time’s heavy labor, and death for the grain of wheat a necessity for the" hundredfold; if birth pangs are the required prelude to the joy of a child’s being born into the world, and austere asceticism theonly) gate that leads to sound mysticism; if we must know crucifixion before we can hope for a resurrection, and if an agony at the base of Mount Olivet is a necessary condition for an ascension from the top of that mount; then I say Gethsemani’s ninety-six years of sterilit’~" are the explanation of her last four of fertility. ¯ -Viewing Gethsemani as a moral body, the history of her hun-dred years shows God working slowly but surely fbr the°complete purification of her soul. For 6ver fifty years He sent her thr6ugh the 191 M. RAYMOND Review for Religious dark. nights of the senses and the spirit, but only that she might know the dawn of a day that promises to be all flame--and as we humbl~; hope, th~ living flame of love! "The Making of a Mystic" might well be the title for the story of these ten decades; and since every mystic must first have been an ascetic, the opening of the story is somewhat gruesome. On Octo-ber 23, 1848, the Abbot of Melleray, the Cistercian house near Nantes, France, named forty-four men as members of the pioneer community for the New World. One was already in Kentucky trying to convert a log-cabin convent, which he had just purchased from the Lorettine Sisters, into some semblance of a monastery for Trappi~t monks. That is why only forty-two men stretched out in double file behind a priest who walked through a dampening drizzle with a long, thin wooden cross on his shoulder and his clerical hat in i~is hand. The procession that marched the twenty-four miles between Melleray and Ancenis that drear October morning was strange; for while the priest~at the head was in soutane, the men behind him wore ill-fitting secular clothes; yet the silence in which they walked told of the presence of God in their minds and the love for Mary in their hearts. Most of them were fingering their rosaries. Tours saw them the following evening; and Paris, enveloped in an atmosphere as hostile to religion as the one that pervaded that city when the goddess of Reason was enthroned and Madame Guillo-tine set up, viewed the same strange sight on the morning of .October 26th. But what neither Paris nor Tours saw was the ache.in the hearts Of these men who were leaving their country and the mon-astery in which they bad vowed to die. Nor did either city know that these men had had but one full meal since leaving Melleray on October 24th. ’Le Havre was reached on the 27th; and the drizzle of Melleray, which had turned into a downpour at Ancenis; was now giving all the signs of a deluge. But this inclemency was only the beginning. For, though their little ship, the "Brunswick," cast off her lines in a stiff breeze on the afternoon of November 2nd, she was being driven that night into a North Atlantic that had been whipped to a fury by a wind that had risen to hurricane velocity. For ten days that storm raged. Before it had blown itself out, the light of life in the eldest of the Trappists bad gone out. The seventy-year-old Frater Benezet gave the yet unfounded Gethsemani her first funeral-- 192 duly, 1949 GETHSEMANI and it was at sea. The suddenness with which death struck their young community made some of her members wonder: Was God pleased with this undertaking? Forty days later, in rain again, the forty-two monks were clam-bering aboard three open wagons which were to take them from Louisville to Bardstown. The colored drivers assured the superior that they would be at the Jesuit college there before mid-afternoon. But these men had reckoned without calculating the depth of water on the roads and the weakness of their wagons. It was midnight when the monks arrived at the college, and one-third of them had had to splash through twelve miles of mud; the axle on one of the wagons had given way. At.two o’clock on the-afternoon of December 21st they arrived at Gethsemani and learned almost immediately that there were things worse than rain, sea-sickness, and even death. Three of their num-. bet deserted! .When they learned that the house, which had been described as "capable of holding sixty monks," could not accommodate forty properly; that they had no workroom oi bakery; that the kitchen was not half large enough; that there was no heat in chapel, chapter, refectory, or dormitory despite the piercing cold of December, the pall that was slowly enveloping the community fell further. But when, two weeks after their arrival, Father Eutropius, the superior, was announced to be in his death agony, even the most optimistic began to suspect that God wanted no foundation of Trappists in the New World. But some few saw deeper and persuaded the others to. hold on. "If winter comes,, spring cannot be far behind," may have been their argument. If it was, it proved most flimsy when the spring did come; for that brought discoveries that made winter in many a heart. The monks plowed their land and learned that while they were in the Blue Grass State they were far from the Blue Grass Country! Gray limestone and shale were plentiful beneath a very shallow top soil. Father Paulinus, who selected the spot, told the community that he did it to prove to people that Trappists were not afraid of work. Had he looked deeper into the past than into the future, I believe he would have seen God choosing the spot to prove to people that Trappists are not afraid to worship. For I see Divine Providence guiding the Catholic pioneers from Maryland through the fertile Blue Grass Country and on to’Pottinger’
|
|---|