bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Blessed Giles of Santarem, Confessor (Died 1765. Feast 14 May)
Authors: Gumbley Walter
Published: August 2024

The is a legend that Giles in his early manhood bartered his soul for a knowledge of the dark secrets of nature with a view to obtaining a position of wealth and rank in the medical world. Setting out for Paris where he hoped to study medicine, he was accosted on the way by a charming stranger who persuaded him to abandon his journey to France and to turn aside to Toledo, where he spent seven years as an apprentice in the art of magic and agreed to trade his soul for the fulfilment of his ambition. He then resumed his journey to Paris where he obtained both riches and fame, performing miracles of healing; but being converted by a frightful vision he returned to Spain and sought the habit of the order at Valencia, where after seven years of the severest penance and the greatest agony of mind on account of his infamous bargain
How a Man may be Contemplative
Authors: C.K.
Published: August 2024

The Stimulus Amoris, long attributed to St Bonaventure but now known to be a composite work, the main part of which was written by James of Milan, a thirteenth century Franciscan, was extremely popular in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Walter Hiltou made a translation of it, adding many passages of great beauty and interest. The work has not been printed hitherto. We give a chapter in which Hilton's additions are printed in brackets. The text is taken from MS. Vernon.
Sermon for Lætare Sunday
Authors: Tauler John
Published: August 2024

In the same chapter from which we have drawn the text of our sermon we also read that our Lord said to his brethren: ‘Go you up to this festival day: but I go not up to this festival day’, a little before he had said these words: ‘My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready’. Today, therefore, we have to consider what is this solemnity or festival day to which our Lord orders his disciples to betake themselves and for which the time is always ready.
Christian Life
Authors: O’Driscoll Benet
Published: August 2024

Christian life is a life of friendship with God, ‘I have called you friends’ (John 15, 5). More, we are called to share the divine life itself in fellowship with Christ and as members of God's family; ‘God is faithful, by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Cor. 1, 9). He is our elder brother, ‘the firstborn among many brethren’ (Rom. 8, 29); we receive the spirit of adoption of sons, and are joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8, 15-7).
St Boniface, Apostle of Germany
Authors: Squire Aelred
Published: August 2024

The Church of God, quickened by the Spirit given at Pentecost, is alive even in her past. Her saints do not depend upon any human memorial to keep their name living, for they rejoice already in an undying communion with all the faithful in whom God's grace is operative and, like a cloud of compassionate witnesses, they support by their prayers those who still struggle to live as they lived and die as they died. It is, then, to rescue ourselves from our forgetfulness that it is good to recall a great English missionary who, on 5th June, 754, twelve centuries ago this summer, was killed by a band of the people he had already given his life to convert.

Wynfrith—it was only later that he took the Latin name, Boniface—was born in the West-Saxon country beyond Selwood a little before 675.
Did Christ Found The Religious State?
Authors: Morson John
Published: August 2024

In October 1950, the Holy Father, addressing a Congress of Religious, explained the positions of religious and seculars, especially religious and secular clergy, in the Church. One sentence in the important and far-reaching document is the following: ‘It is of divine institution that clergy should be distinct from lay-people. Between these two grades is the state of the religious life, of ecclesiastical origin.’ ‘Inter’ duos hos grains religiosae vitae status intericitur … ecclesiastica origine dejluens… .’ (A.A.S., 1951, p. 27). Many of us then received a first impression that the Pope was reversing a teaching which we had regarded as traditional, and with some the impression seems to have lingered. The purpose of this article is to enquire whether it is true in any sense that Christ founded the religious life and what Pius XII really said in 1950.
The True Basis of Religious Life
Authors: Nicholas M. J.
Published: August 2024

A certain uneasiness is felt, at the present day, on the subject of religious life. I am not referring to the criticism of unbelievers, but to the doubts, more or less openly expressed, even in the most religious circles, as to its actual value and its methods.

Young Catholic men and women continue to be profoundly attracted to it and vocations among them are numerous, but the temperaments and even the virtues of today find difficulty in adapting themselves to a system of life which was accepted unquestioningly by former generations.

The most immediate and most general problem is that of health. The great Orders, and the austere cloistered Orders in particular, are somewhat anxious. Their Rule, which represented a minimum nearly always overstepped by generous souls, tends to become a maximum only attained with difficulty by the boldest or the most robust.

Those who have an inside view of these things; those who have the training of young religious, are even more troubled to see that certain methods of formation, apparently essential to the system of religious life, have become less efficacious and are no longer inspiring to a great number of their most ardent recruits.
Three Virtues for Truth
Authors: Smith Canon G. D.
Published: August 2024

I invite you, dear brethren, on this Feast day to pay a visit with me in all reverence to the shrine of St Thomas's soul. The key of entry lies ready to hand; it is in his written works.

Perfect lucidity, unruffled serenity, transparent candour, austere simplicity, complete self-effacement—these are the qualities which emerge eloquent from the pages of St Thomas, and tell us that here is a man utterly devoted to truth. Ego voz, said the Precursor John the Baptist. May we not say this also of the Angelic Doctor—that he is a voice, a disembodied voice which, if it were possible, would tell us nothing of the speaker, and bear witness only to the truth? Is there a single word in all the volumes that he wrote which betrays anything of the pride of personal opinion, anything of the sense of triumph over opponents, anything of the glow of self-satisfaction in discovery and achievement? There is an impersonal quality in the writings of St Thomas—not a coldness, no, that would be to mistake him entirely—an impersonal quality which comes not of self-impoverishment, but of self-abandonment, of self bendenment to truth.
The First and the Last (Apoc: i, 17)
Authors: Cary-Elwes
Published: August 2024

This title of Christ is obviously true in that God is infinite and since Christ is God, therefore Christ is our all. But there is a sense in which it is difficult to reach a happy mean; and it is this sense that we shall now consider.

No one would deny that we love things other than God: creatures, friends, goods, art, power, our own selves. None of these are God, yet there is not wrong-doing in loving them. We need not go into the ordinary theology of the due measure of love to creatures. All our loves are conditioned by circumstance; none are absolute. God alone has absolute dominion over us.

The problem becomes more subtle when we are seeking perfection. Should God be all, and all else nothing? Are we being traitors to our bond by loving God and creatures? Have we not given up all to follow Christ; and to return to creatures, is that not apostasy? The doctrine of the “Nada,” St John of the Cross's word for utter self-abnegation, is very logical from one point of view: the less we give to creatures, the more we give to God; but is this what God asks?
For the First Sunday of Advent
Authors: Tauler John
Published: August 2024

Hora est jam nos de somno surgere.

It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep.

(Rom. 13, 11.)

Today, my beloved children, we are celebrating the first fruits of the coming of our Lord. For the Church, there is no more desirable period than this one. It is the time when she gives us the most magnificent pages to read, when she sings her most beautiful hymns. Just as spring is of all seasons of the year the gladdest and sweetest, so of all solemnities the most touching and the holiest is this time of Advent. This is the time for which the patriarchs of the Old Testament sighed with such ardent longing, as did all the holy souls who succeeded them for nearly five thousand years. They cried out for it with all their hearts: ‘Lord, oh, that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down.’ (Is. 64, 1.) ‘To enlighten them that sit in darkness and ill the shadow of death.’ (Luke 1, 79.) All the happenings, all the types of the Old Testament had no other object but to proclaim the greatness and excellence of the one that they were always desiring and whose coming we are now about to greet.
Christ the Light of the Mind
Authors: Barker Austin
Published: August 2024

In all the discussions recounted between our Lord and the Jews in the fourth Gospel we should note that St John the mystic, the lover, gathers up the sharp details of human reasoning, the clear natural replies of the unbelieving mind. And his record of them in the Gospel can be said to clothe them with a certain dignity and finality. They are at least human replies to God, intellectual, rational; no better perhaps have ever been made; and in symbol they stand as the earliest evidence of the human mind face to face with God revealing—two orders, the reason of man over against the revealed word of God. The doctrines Christ announces are truths beyond the natural understanding of men; but they are truths nevertheless proposed to human assent. In the records of his ministry we find him hearing, and we ourselves can read, the questions, replies and criticisms that men, judging by their own intellectual measure, could give in objection to his mysterious dogmas.
The Ground of Beseeching
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

Few paradoxes can be more important for the Christian in quest of the true life than that between the multiplicity of Christian praying and the single unity of Christian prayer. This is especially applicable to the Christian who has made some progress in grace and is beginning to live a life of union. Mother Julian in her fourteenth revelation includes a short treatise on the prayer of beseeching in order to show how that type of prayer is part and parcel of the prayer of love, which is her one prayer. But from the very first she was confronted by many forms of prayer contrasted with the simplicity of God's goodness.
St Nilus, A Spiritual Director of the Fifth Century
Authors: Graef H. C.
Published: August 2024

Though the term ‘spiritual director’ is of modern origin, the vocation it denotes is very old. Wherever men have devoted themselves to the pursuit of perfection they have felt the need for guidance from someone more experienced than themselves. Even among those remarkable old monks and hermits that peopled the deserts of the eastern part of the Empire from the fourth century onwards, St Nilus is an outstanding figure. Perhaps his most striking characteristic is his gift for spiritual direction in the full modern sense of the word. The old legend that made him a high official at Constantinople who left the court late in life in order to become a hermit on Mt Sinai agrees ill with this office of a spiritual guide as he is represented in his many letters and several weighty treatises. But this ancient, story is no longer accepted by scholars; according to their general opinion we have to think of St Nilus as the experienced superior and novice master 01 a monastery at Ancyra in Galatia.
A Memory
Authors: Atkinson Aelwyn Tindal
Published: August 2024

Do you not say: There are yet four months and then the harvest cometh? Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and see the countries, for they are white already to the harvest. (John 4:35).

We are living in the days of a great harvest. As I travelled here this afternoon, I looked out on the fields of standing corn, and my thoughts turned to our soldiers fighting today in the wheatfields of Normandy, the vineyards of Provence and the olive trees of Tuscany, where the corn, the grapes and the olives are ready to yield their harvest of wheat and wine and oil. A fructu frumenti, vini et olei sui multiplicati sunt, as the Psalmist sang so long ago, ‘of the fruit of their corn and wine and oil have they been given increase.“

These soldiers of ours in the armoured vehicles of modern battle, as they pass the peasant toiling at his harvest, are themselves reaping today the relentless harvest of war that has at last been made possible by the work of shipyard, foundry and factory, and months of hard training and exercise.
Martin de Porres
Authors: Clifton Violet
Published: August 2024

Martin's father was irked by Martin's lowly profession and the friars agreed with Don Juan that Martin, being lettered and well versed in medicine as well, should be received as a brother-professed.

But because of his humility Martin would not agree to become even a lay-brother, and he never rose above the degree of a donator, a tertiary. The only privilege to which, some fifteen years later, he joyfully assented was to be allowed to take the solemn vows for life whilst he remained a tertiary: this was indeed a rare privilege. During the whole of his religious life Martin wore a white habit with a black cappa or cloak.
Conversion in Langland
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

Langland has vividly portrayed the life of sin in the world. From the realm of vice, social as well as individual, the soul steps into the realm of grace through what is known as the first conversion. By this act the dead is quite literally raised to life; it is quite literally an event of a standing with the raising of Lazarus—a miracle. As with all miracles, the act can be examined on the purely natural plane; the psychologist can describe what he discovers on the human side of the process. It is well to look at conversion in these test tubes first, even if it comes to be regarded in the partial light simply as a process of unification or of a vital synthesis.

Conversion has been described as the shifting of the centre of gravity of the inner self, a psychological phenomenon common to science, art, letters… as well as to religion. The individual's ideas are first of all grouped in bunches, more or less isolated and independent like the amoeba in a very low form of life.
Why People Miss Mass
Authors: Sheppard Lancelot C.
Published: August 2024

Callup polls, research, techniques and investigations of all kinds appear nowadays as an essential preliminary to action. Case histories, clinical fashion, illustrate all sorts of books. So long as excessive importance is not attached to the results obtained, and a cross-section of opinion is not made to stand for the whole truth, such a method is of value for it can uncover facts and tendencies that are otherwise little suspected, or if known but hardly realised.
The Soul of a Mystic
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

It is now time to consider certain charges of unorthodoxy which have been levelled against Mother Julian of Norwich. In the question of sin and the salvation of the elect both David Knowles and Roger Hudleston accuse her of unorthodoxy. They do not of course suggest that her doctrine in general is suspect, but rather that she has fallen briefly and inconsistently into an unorthodox view. The point arises out of her solution of her ‘great difficulty’ (p. 127) that all can be well and yet men can sin and send themselves to hell. She appears to restrict her understanding of this intuition of all being well simply to the elect, to the predestined who are to be fully graced in the end.
The Cross and Suffering
Authors: Jarrett Bede
Published: August 2024

In giving us the way in which we should serve God, our blessed Lord laid down a principle that the disciple is not above the master and that presumably no one should be surprised if they found that a way of life good enough for the Son of God was good enough for them, and so he effectually put a stop to any complaint on our part. The highest way of life is the way of the Master; there is none higher. By such a standing only are we to judge our own lives. We talk of the success and of the failure of our life or of the lives of others; we are accustomed to speak of one life as happy, of another as full of tragedy.

The supreme ideal of Christian life was the Master’s; would the people of his own time have said that his life was a failure or a success as they stood on Calvary? Why !—a failure, of course. Even those in sympathy lost all hope. We have women coming to anoint the dead body with no thought whatever of the risen life.
A Rule of Life
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

The first conversion has been accomplished and grace begins its gradual work of supernaturalizing the whole man. In this way a man begins to lead an upright life, upright because directed at last towards his true and last end; his life is now straightened out. This is what Scripture means by the word ‘righteousness’. The righteous man is the upright man; he is not bent away from God. He is ‘plumb’. This plumbness begins with the spiritual life of grace. But to build ‘plumb’, a man must have a plumb-line; he must have a measure. Rightness, rectitude, demands a rule, and the righteous man is a man who lives according to rule. St Thomas contrasts this rectitude of moral life with that of justice which deals with external goods, and he says, ‘This type of rectitude which implies the order towards a fitting end and the divine law which is the rule of the human will is common to every virtue’ (I-II, lv, 4 ad 4). To live uprightly is to live virtuously, according to rule, the straight rule of reason coming out from the divine Reason and the divine law.
Some Letters of Blessed Jordan of Saxony
Authors: Pond K. E.
Published: August 2024

[Blessed Jordan of Saxony, first Master General after St Dominic, entered the Dominican Order in 1220. Among his many labours he had the care of the Convent of St Agnes at Bologna, and when he was prevented by the duties of his office from visiting the Sisters, he wrote letters to them which embodied his teaching. In the original Latin the letters to Blessed Diana (the Prioress) and the other nuns read quite freshly after a lapse of seven centuries. Their spiritual teaching is as important now as then. A very small selection is here given in translation.]

Brother Jordan, useless servant of the Order of Preachers, to his dear daughters in Christ the Sisters of St Agnes at Bologna: seek and receive Christ Jesus.

When I see you so much of one mind and so eager in walking with the Lord, and when I find that you seek nothing except him who alone is able you, and without whom whatever (else) you have is not riches indeed but poverty, it is a comfort to me, dear daughters, to think about you.
A Prayer to the Father
Authors: More St Thomas
Published: August 2024

The following prayer is taken from the Bodleian MS. Lat. th. d. 15, foll. 115 sqq, being a collection made by Eobert Parkin of Erdwioke le Skete near Doncaster. The MS. is in Parkin's own hand and he entitles this prayer ‘Prayers of Sir Thomas More’ and concludes it with the words ‘Compiled by Sir Thomas More sometime Chancellor of England with these additions following’—and he includes various other prayers, all of which have since been published. This beautiful prayer has apparently not yet been printed or at least is unfamiliar to the general public. The spelling has been slightly modernised.
Grace Builds on Nature
Authors: Barker Austin
Published: August 2024

Certain definite effects of divino grace operative through the Church may well he marked off; for in the Church the liberating and redemptive process is to be seen in full career. The Catholic axiom that grace does not mar nature but perfects it, is no empty phrase; nay rather, it epigrammatically states the; exact Catholic doctrine, or the Catholic claim, in the teaching of the Church.
The Speech of Angels
Authors: Jewell Walter
Published: August 2024

In a previous study concerning knowledge after death, we saw that men are the lowest of all intelligent beings, the infants of the spiritual universe. In this life knowledge has to be presented to us pictorially through the senses, for like children we need our crayons and our blocks.

We need them no less for expression. We not only look at pictures, but paint them. We respond to the music of life by striking its chords. No matter how profoundly spiritual the thought of the mystic, he must convey it, if at all, by lips and hands and images drawn from the material world about him.

This being so, how shall we view the life and speech of angels? We know them to be, not unions of spirit and matter, but purely spiritual beings. These intricate bodily organisms of ours are totally unnecessary to them, for angelic knowledge goes behind all colour sound and texture to the inner nature of created things. This kind of knowledge is at present a closed book to us, although a book that death must open.
A Profession of Faith
Authors: Che-Tche John Tong
Published: August 2024

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Mary, conceived without sin, Mediatrix of all Grace, pray for us.

Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, pray for us. (He bowed to the portrait of President Mao, and then to the audience.)

High authorities of the Government, high dignitaries of the Church, faithful Christians, gentlemen:

The subject of this discourse will be: the sacrifice I am making of myself to the two supreme powers.

People who do not believe in the existence of God, nor in the soul, who do not recognise the Pope as the representative of Jesus Christ, nor the Catholic hierarchy, say that the movement for for triple is a purely patriotic movement. They recognise the liberty of the Catholic faith, they agree that there can be relation of a purely religious nature between the faithful and the Pope.
The Bride Of Christ: (Sponsa Christi)
Authors: Pius
Published: August 2024

Now that We have sketched the history of the institution of nuns and carefully described how it can be reconciled with the needs of life today, We think this is the place to give the general norms according to which that reconciliation is to be applied. The Sacred Congregation for Religious will put into effect the entire Constitution and the General Statutes for all Federations of monasteries already existing or still to be set up and for single monasteries. By Our Authority it will be able to achieve by instructions, declarations, replies and other similar documents all that has to do with realising the Constitution carefully and effectively and the prompt and faithful observance of the General Statutes.
The Worship of Mystery
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

Faith and Worship, like Christian life itself, are principally concerned with mystery, the divine mysteries with which we are brought into contact through the Incarnation. It is no mere coincidence that both the Christian faith and the Christian liturgy are essentially bound up with the Christian mystery: and to go even further, the very mysteries of pagan cults apparently so foreign to any aspect of the Christian religion, are themselves related by essential ties to the faith and the worship of the Christian. We must first establish the connection between all these elements before we can see the importance of the life of faith in the life of worship.

When man is confronted by the real God he is at once presented with that which is all knowable and so infinite in its perfection as to be beyond his own capacity to know. The reality of the divine being is too intelligible for man, like the intensity of light that obscures the objects of vision.
Mother Julian Herself
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

A rule was written at the very end of the twelfth century for two or three sisters, anchoresses, and was designed to train its readers in the more perfect life of contemplation. But it treats of the first stages of the spiritual life, and, as we have seen, it only rises above the humdrum of the I purgative way in its final section. Now we are to consider the doctrine of a woman who had no doubt been trained by that or a simi:ar ‘Eiwle', and had so far profited by it as to have first been favoured by a series of visions in which she was passive in her acceptance of the ‘Eevelations', and finally, to have reached the highest forms of prayer. We are thus given the opportunity of studying the effects of the Ancren Riwle in their perfect stages; we are here taught the outcome of tne natural growth of the spirit if it follows the straight lines of an authorised rule.
Visions and Shewings
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

Quite normal people sometimes experience strange communications from a realm beyond their ordinary comprehension. Perhaps once or twice in their lives they will have a very vivid dream or a waking vision in which they see Christ himself, or angels or saints. These experiences are often inexplicable at the time, but they bring with them a certain assurance of having a real meaning, particularly when they are so unusual and unexpected. Such would seem to have been the experience of Mother Julian in her Revelations. But it is always necessary to examine such experiences critically and no one should readily accept them as of heavenly origin without a diligent testing of their nature and origin. St John of the Cross's writings make all this quite clear.

Let us now scrutinise more closely the happenings on that celebrated eighth of May. Were these shewings historical facts of divine origin or merely the dreams of a sick woman? This raises the question of the natural basis of mystical experience.
On the Excellence of the Soul
Authors: Bossuet
Published: August 2024

Man's soul is so wonderfully elevated above the condition of the body that it might be said to approximate more closely to the God who made it than to the body to which it is attached, and it is true that in the soul, alone of all created things, can be traced certain traits and lineaments of God's perfections. It is spiritual like God, and like God it is incorruptible and everlasting. It is free, it is able to foresee and provide, it has its will of which it disposes. Does it not appear to enjoy the privileges of eternity, when it looks into the future, makes the past live again and disposes of the present?

But never does it seem more like to God than when, soaring above all that is created it loses itself in the vast abyss of his infinite perfections, and, realising that it cannot comprehend them, is content to remain lost in them forever with no desire to return.
An Outline for Teachers
Authors: Barden William
Published: August 2024

The Sacrament of the Eucharist is the sacrament to which all the others are ordered. The reception of all the others should be followed by it. It is the crown and consummation of the sacramental system. The sacrament of the Eucharist is not merely the consecrated species of bread and wine, which really and substantially contain the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ and which we receive in Holy Communion: it is also the words of transubstantiation uttered by the priest, which are the vehicle of Christ's substantiative action and make physically present to its his priestly act of self-oblation. The sacrament of the Eucharist in so far as it does this thing, makes present in a sacrament, but really, the priestly action of Christ, is called the Mass. The Mass is thus the supreme sacrament in its active part, as Holy Communion is the supreme sacrament in its passive Part.
Tasting God
Authors: Barry Philip
Published: August 2024

Grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of thy body and blood, that we may ever taste within us the fruit of thy Redemption.

Fructus Redemptionis—the fruit of redemption is grace which Christ merited for us on the Cross—hence the metaphor. We already received grace in Baptism and the other sacraments. But the Eucharist is the Sacrament par excellence of grace. It contains the Author of grace in Person—not so the other sacraments which contain but a participation of the power of Christ. The Eucharist is the very store-house of grace, the very Orchard of the fruit of Redemption, the very fountain-head of the divine life, the very wine-press of the blood.
The Union of Opposites
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

When God gives his graces to a soul, these graces are never restricted exclusively to the individual. They are bestowed also on the whole Body of Christ. No one can hope to receive graces selfishly, nor can he ascend the Scale of Perfection alone. He may look only towards God and seek him alone, as the three kings journeying to Bethlehem following the beam of the star. But when they have reached their goal and have held the Lord of the whole world in their embrace, they may not stay there alone with him. They are sent back to their country by another way. They return transformed, carrying back what they have received to their own kith and kin. When the soul has reached the heights of perfection, she may not rest there; in one way or another she is sent back to her own folk but to take up a new position, as mediator of the grace she has received.
Eternal Wisdom
Authors: Todd John
Published: August 2024

Pride was the cause of the sin of our first parents. The particular part of their nature of which they were thus proud was the intellect; it was and is the most wonderful of the faculties with which God has endowed man's soul. It was with the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge that man, in his pride, desired to glorify his intellect. ‘With this knowledge of the Gods', suggested the Devil, ‘man will really be able to glory in his own nature for he will be the equal to God. The Devil made the false suggestion that knowledge of good and evil would give, would in fact be, a divine wisdom.

But God had not created man so that he should glory in his own created human nature, but only in God's creative nature, his uncreated infinity.
Our Lady of the Oak Tree
Authors: Gillett H. M.
Published: August 2024

Such customs as that of fixing plaques or statues of our Lady on oak-trees, or of giving these shrines titles of ‘Our Lady of the Oak', were both widespread and ancient. There was a famous Virgin of the Oak in Norwich and, according to tradition, our Lady of Penrhys, burned at Chelsea with our Lady of Willesden and our Lady of Walsingham, was found by shepherds hanging on the trunk of an oak on the summit of a mountain at the head of the Rhondda Valley. There is reason, too, to suppose that our Lady of Willesden may have been yet another instance of what was originally an oak-tree sanctuary.

By far the most important shrine, however, of this particular cultus of our Lady still survives in Central Italy, in the Shrine of St Maria della Quercia (Oak-tree), just outside the Porta Santa Lucia at Viterbo, on the road to Bagnaia.
Jeremy
Authors: Smith Margaret
Published: August 2024

The popular notion of Jeremy (otherwise known as Jeremias) is that of a gaunt, sorrow-seared figure thundering the wrath of God through the desolate ruins of Jerusalem. He is the prophet of grief, his message and his life full of warning and a submission that in its vehemence seems to be despair. Perhaps it is because the only quotation from his teachings used in the New Testament is: ‘A voice was heard on high of lamentation, of great mourning and weeping, of Eachel keeping for her children and refusing to be comforted for them for they are not'. ‘Refusing to be comforted'; Jeremy would allow no mitigation. In days of great violence he was a compelling character, he would not suffer his burning message to be quenched by the evil of those who were called the chosen of God.
Simplicity
Authors: Graef H. C.
Published: August 2024

In our age of psychoanalysis and complicated machinery simplicity is a quality of life and character much, underrated, if not actually despised. Perhaps this is the reason why so many of the Saints recently placed on the altars by the Church for our example are men and women of striking simplicity, and even children. St Bernadette, the Curé d'Ars, St Thérèse de Lisieux, Bl. Maria Goretti—a peasant girl, a peasant priest, a young Carmelite cultivating the childlike spirit in its integrity, and a child martyr for purity. It seems as if the Holy Ghost deliberately opposed simplicity to the neurasthenic complications of the modern world.

Our age is given to despise simplicity, perhaps because it is so difficult to understand and even more difficult to attain, except for those in love with it; and it certainly is almost impossible to define.
Bread of Life
Authors: Vann Gerald
Published: August 2024

I imagine a priest-worker gathering his friends together in his shabby little room in the industrial slum: the day's work is over; he is going to say Mass, but first he will talk to them: what might he say; Perhaps something like this:

If you look out of the window there, you can see nothing but factory and tenement buildings; down there in the grey street there are children who have never heard the chuckle of a brook o r seen a meadow filled with buttercups or felt the clean wind peeping across the hills; all around us there are men and women who have grown up like that, and who have lost touch with reality because they are severed from their roots: almost, you could say, they have ceased to be part of the universe, and when a m a n ceases to be that he ceases to be a human being in any full Sense. Modern man has used his intellect, his reason, to great effect within certain narrow limits; but he has lost the instinctive life the intuitive life: he has no symbols.
The Mass and the Mystical Body
Authors: Crichton J. D.
Published: August 2024

One of the most interesting and fruitful developments of Eucharistic theology in the past fifty years or so has been the re-integration of the Mass into the doctrine of the Mystical Body. When Père de la Taille's Mysterium Fidei first came out in 1921, the reactions were shock and amazement that he should speak of the Church offering the sacrifice of the Mass. From the time of Bellarmine onwards it had become common form to say that Christ offered the Mass—of course through the ministry of his priests (with the part of the laity reduced to a hardly visible minimum), and the implication was that the Church as such hardly intervened at all. And it is significant that the content of the liturgy was allowed little or no influence in building up the theology of the Mass. Similarly, Protestant controversy forced the emphasis onto questions concerning the Real Presence (sacramentum-et-res), and the res sacramenti, the ultimate effect (the unification of the Mystical Body, to quote St Thomas), was all but ignored.
A Litany of Silence
Authors: Ephrem St
Published: August 2024

Possess silence, brother, as a strong wall. For silence will enable thee to subdue the uprisings of passion, for thou fightest from a height while they lie beneath thy feet. Therefore, possess silence, in the fear of God, and no weapons of the enemy shall harm thee. For silence joined to the fear of God is a fiery chariot which bears its possessor up to heaven. This doth urge upon thee the prophet Elias who, loving silence together with the fear of God, was taken up into heaven. silence, whereby the monk advances in perfection; ladder reaching to heaven; way of the kingdom of heaven. silence, mother of compunction, mirror of sins, in which man sees his transgressions. silence which hinderest not tears, mother of meekness, companion of humility. silence, spouse of humility and enlightenment of the mind. silence, searcher of thoughts and promoter of discernment. silence, mother of all good, support of temperance, and obstacle to gluttony.
Catholicism and Adaptation in South Africa
Authors: Synnott Finbar
Published: August 2024

In every mission periodical you open now you will find articles on adaptation, on developing Cathohc life according to local custom, on ‘making the word flesh'.
Changing Role of Horizontal Moisture Advection in the Lower Troposphere Under Extreme Arctic Amplification
Authors: Hori Masatake E. , Yoshimori Masakazu , Ukita Jinro
Published: August 2024

Horizontal and vertical moisture advection in the lower troposphere of the Arctic under progressing global warming is examined using a large‐scale ensemble model data set. Advection is decomposed into terms related to the basic state of the atmosphere and transient eddies and compared against a non‐warming experiment. During summer, horizontal moisture advection increases mainly by transient eddies advecting moisture from the lower latitudes. During winter, enhanced evaporation due to reduced sea ice becomes a source of moisture diminishing the role of transient eddies moistening the atmosphere. This effect intensifies under extreme global warming, turning the change in total horizontal advection in the lower troposphere negative. Diminished horizontal advection during winter is counteracted by vertical advection accompanied with enhanced evaporation and upper‐level horizontal advection maintaining the increase in column moisture. These results improve our understanding of how the water cycle in the Arctic responds via atmospheric processes under global warming.
On the Realism of Tropical Cyclone Intensification in Global Storm‐Resolving Climate Models
Authors: Baker Alexander J. , Vannière Benoît , Vidale Pier Luigi
Published: August 2024

The physical processes governing a tropical cyclone's lifecycle are largely understood, but key processes occur at scales below those resolved by global climate models. Increased resolution may help simulate realistic tropical cyclone intensification. We examined fully coupled, global storm‐resolving models run at resolutions in the range 28–2.8 km in the atmosphere and 28–5 km in the ocean. Simulated tropical cyclone activity, peak intensity, intensification rate, and horizontal wind structure are all more realistic at a resolution of ∼5 km compared with coarser resolutions. Rapid intensification, which is absent at typical climate model resolutions, is also captured, and exhibits sensitivity to how, and if, deep convection is parameterized. Additionally, the observed decrease in inner‐core horizontal size with increasing intensification rate is captured at storm‐resolving resolution. These findings highlight the importance of global storm‐resolving models for quantifying risk and understanding the role of intense tropical cyclones in the climate system.
Weakening of La Niña Impact on Negative Indian Ocean Dipole Under Global Warming
Authors: Zu Yongcan , Sun Shuangwen , Fang Yue , Liu Lin , Gao Libao , Guo Guijun , Li Jun
Published: August 2024

As global warming intensifies, the coupling relationship between negative Indian Ocean Dipole (nIOD) and La Niña has substantially changed. However, the characteristics and mechanisms of these changes are not yet fully understood. Here, we find that the impact of La Niña on nIOD has considerably weakened since 1999, with the frequency of nIOD occurrences during La Niña years plummeting to a mere one‐third of the pre‐1999 levels. This is primarily attributed to the early onset of Indian summer monsoon and the decrease in La Niña intensity, while the effect of variations in Bjerknes feedback is relatively minor. Model simulations suggest that the influence of La Niña on nIOD will continue to weaken under future global warming through similar mechanisms as in the observations, increasing the complexity of air‐sea coupling in the Indian Ocean.
Effects of Eccentricity and Horizontal Electric Field on the Characteristics and Outcomes of Binary Collisions of Water Drops
Authors: Pawar Vidya , Bhalwankar Rohini , Kamra A. K.
Published: August 2024

Effects of eccentricity and horizontal electric field (EH) on the binary‐collision outcomes of water drops are examined using numerically calculated collision characteristics from previous studies and results of simulation experiment conducted by the authors. For a fixed collision kinetic energy (CKE), filament breakups can occur at all values of eccentricity but events of coalescence decrease, and that of sheet breakup increase with increasing eccentricity in absence of EH. However, as EH increases to ∼300 kVm−1 it opposes the variability of the coalescence and sheet breakup events with eccentricity. When EH exceeds ∼300 kVm−1 the collision outcomes might be determined only by the CKE and EH. The calculated value of coalescence efficiency and total number of fragments after a binary collision decreases with an increase in EH. It is argued that an electric field can significantly modify drop size distribution in thunderclouds and needs to be considered for development of precipitation.
Continent‐Side Uplifted Mantle and Geological Imprints Along a Paleo Rift in the Western East Sea (Sea of Japan)
Authors: Park Seongjun , Hong Tae‐Kyung
Published: August 2024

We investigate the continent‐size lithospheric structures of paleo rift around the central Korean Peninsula using ambient noise tomography and earthquake‐based Eikonal tomography based on dense seismic networks. We determine Rayleigh‐wave group velocities at periods of 1–15 s from ambient noise tomography and Rayleigh‐wave phase velocities at periods of 20–80 s from earthquake‐based Eikonal tomography. We determine a 3‐D shear‐wave velocity model in the lithosphere from the Rayleigh wave velocities. The model exhibits high lateral variations ranging from ‒9% to 8%, depending on depth. The shear‐wave velocities at shallow depths (2 km) are relatively high in mountain regions and low in coastal and basin regions. Strong velocity contrasts are observed around major earthquake hypocenters at depths of 3–20 km, which may be due to the presence of seismogenic faults. Shear‐wave velocities at depths of 30–40 km are high along the east coast, suggesting uplifted mantle that is responsible for the opening of the East Sea (Sea of Japan). High velocity structures beneath Moho around the coast may suggest solidified underplated magma caused by the paleo rifting. The root of coast‐parallel high‐mountain range (Taebaek Mountain Range) is bounded by the uplifted mantle, presenting mountain range development in rift flank along paleo‐rift axis. Low shear‐wave velocities along the coast at depths km may imply elevated temperature beneath the solidified underplated magma. The continent‐side paleo rift affects the geological, thermal, and seismological properties around the continental margin at present.
Hybrid Eu(II)-bromide scintillators with efficient 5d-4f bandgap transition for X-ray imaging
Authors: Han Kai , Jin Jiance , Wang Yuzhen , Zhou Xinquan , Sun Yongsheng , Chen Lihan , Xia Zhiguo
Published: August 2024

Luminescent metal halides are attracting growing attention as scintillators for X-ray imaging in safety inspection, medical diagnosis, etc. Here we present brand-new hybrid Eu(II)-bromide scintillators, 1D type [Et4N]EuBr3·MeOH and 0D type [Me4N]6Eu5Br16·MeOH, with spin-allowed 5d-4fbandgap transition emission toward simplified carrier transport during scintillation process. The 1D/0D structures with edge/face -sharing [EuBr6]4−octahedra further contribute to lowing bandgaps and enhancing quantum confinement effect, enabling efficient scintillation performance (light yield ~73100 ± 800 Ph MeV−1, detect limit ~18.6 nGy s−1, X-ray afterglow ~ 1% @ 9.6 μs). We demonstrate the X-ray imaging with 27.3 lp mm−1resolution by embedding Eu(II)-based scintillators into AAO film. Our results create the new family of low-dimensional rare-earth-based halides for scintillation and related optoelectronic applications.
Ultrasensitive SERF atomic magnetometer with a miniaturized hybrid vapor cell
Authors: Ma Yintao , Chen Yao , Yu Mingzhi , Wang Yanbin , Lu Shun , Guo Ju , Luo Guoxi , Zhao Libo , Yang Ping , Lin Qijing , Jiang Zhuangde
Published: August 2024

The chip-scale hybrid optical pumping spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer with a single-beam arrangement has prominent applications in biomagnetic measurements because of its outstanding features, including ultrahigh sensitivity, an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio, homogeneous spin polarization and a much simpler optical configuration than other devices. In this work, a miniaturized single-beam hybrid optical pumping SERF atomic magnetometer based on a microfabricated atomic vapor cell is demonstrated. Although the optically thin Cs atoms are spin-polarized, the dense Rb atoms determine the experimental results. The enhanced signal strength and narrowed resonance linewidth are experimentally proven, which shows the superiority of the proposed magnetometer scheme. By using a differential detection scheme, we effectively suppress optical noise with an approximate five-fold improvement. Moreover, the cell temperature markedly affects the performance of the magnetometer. We systematically investigate the effects of temperature on the magnetometer parameters. The theoretical basis for these effects is explained in detail. The developed miniaturized magnetometer has an optimal magnetic sensitivity of 20 fT/Hz1/2. The presented work provides a foundation for the chip-scale integration of ultrahighly sensitive quantum magnetometers that can be used for forward-looking magnetocardiography (MCG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) applications.
Functionalized monodisperse microbubble production: microfluidic method for fast, controlled, and automated removal of excess coating material
Authors: van den Broek M. R. P. , Versluis M. , van den Berg A. , Segers T.
Published: August 2024

Functionalized monodisperse microbubbles have the potential to boost the sensitivity and efficacy of molecular ultrasound imaging and targeted drug delivery using bubbles and ultrasound. Monodisperse bubbles can be produced in a microfluidic flow focusing device. However, their functionalization and sequential use require removal of the excess lipids from the bubble suspension to minimize the use of expensive ligands and to avoid competitive binding and blocking of the receptor molecules. To date, excess lipid removal is performed by centrifugation, which is labor intensive and challenging to automate. More importantly, as we show, the increased hydrostatic pressure during centrifugation can reduce bubble monodispersity. Here, we introduce a novel automated microfluidic ’washing’ method. First, bubbles are injected in a microfluidic chamber 1 mm in height where they are left to float against the top wall. Second, lipid-free medium is pumped through the chamber to remove excess lipids while the bubbles remain located at the top wall. Third, the washed bubbles are resuspended and removed from the device into a collection vial. We demonstrate that the present method can (i) reduce the excess lipid concentration by 4 orders of magnitude, (ii) be fully automated, and (iii) be performed in minutes while the size distribution, functionality, and acoustic response of the bubbles remain unaffected. Thus, the presented method is a gateway to the fully automated production of functionalized monodisperse microbubbles.