bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Some Problems of a Hagiographer
Authors: Sheppard Lancelot C.
Published: August 2024

Legends are part of great events and if they help to keep I alive die memory of gallant self-sacrifice they serve their purpose.’ That is a quotation from Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember which describes the sinking of the Titanic when it struck an iceberg in 1912. The particular legend here referred to is that of the singing of ‘Nearer, my God, to thee’ as the ship went down. I have chosen it as an example with whicn begin this paper because it is a legend that I have been acquainte with personally and can vouch for as being in existence with four years of the event that it concerns; it was, in fact, curren very soon after the ship went down. It was totally untrue. If you examine this particular legend you will find that it contains all the elements of those popular legends connected with the saints including the fact of being untrue. There you have an example of the sort of problem confronting the writer of the lives of the saints.
A Syon Centenary
Authors: Colledge Eric
Published: August 2024

In 1861 Syon Abbey at last came back from Portugal to England, having been driven into exile, for the second time, in 1558; and this year in their present home, their third since their return, at South Brent in Devon, the abbess and her sisters can look back with especial thankfulness over their long history of trials and wanderings endured for God's glory and the true faith. And in this year of prayers for the cause of the Forty Martyrs, Syon, which gave one of her sons, the ‘Angel', Blessed Richard Reynolds, to witness with his blood to her constancy, should be in the minds of all Catholics in England as they thank God for his mercies shown to them.

It is not surprising that an English house of St Bridget's order should have been founded soon after its approval and her canonization in 13 91, for England had been long renowned for the great devotion in which the Blessed Virgin was here held, and the Bridgettines were and still are very specially dedicated to her.
The Priest in an Age of Psychology
Authors: Braybrooke Neville
Published: August 2024

It is impossible to maintain a neutral attitude towards the priest; by his very calling, he must either attract or repel. In society, he may serve as a scapegoat, like the Jew, or he may become the beloved shepherd of his flock; he may heap confidences upon himself as easily as insults; he may even arouse feelings of guilt, though no sooner is the word out than the presence of psychiatrists is felt. Today their influence, though not emphatic, is everywhere pervasive. Indeed, if the eighteenth century was called an Age of Reason, so perhaps might the present century be called an Age of Psychology; a definition far nearer the mark than any newspaper headlines about an Atomic Era. For in the end, mind always proves to be superior to matter, just ‘all argument proves to be ultimately theological'.
The Spirit and the Bride: I
Authors: Ginns Reginald
Published: August 2024

In an impassioned appeal for apostolic activity on the part of layfolk, described in the foreword as ‘a disturbing and courageous book', the author strongly decries the defeatist attitude that some adopt in face of the present calamitous state of society. The spread of gross materialism, the threat of unparalleled destruction by new and horrible means of warfare, and the success of what is well-named ‘apostolic Communism', may easily tempt us to think that now is the time to close up the ranks, concentrate on the faithful remnant, and leave the unbelieving multitude to its fate. This attitude is not new in the history of the Church. It recalls the example of those early Christians who were so persuaded of the imminence of the second coming of our Lord that they thought it not worth while concerning themselves with the ordinary affairs of life, or of anything else but their private preparation for that great event.
Reaching Unity by Prayer
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

It is not difficult to trace in the works of Walter Hilton a direct line of prayer from its inception until it reaches the union of marriage with God. And though for this reason many will be familiar with the plan, it may be convenient to extract the holy Englishman's teaching on the subject from both books of the Scale of Perfection and to combine them here into a single and brief account of an English way of prayer.

We may begin with a rather profound definition of prayer as ‘naught else but a stying desire of the heart into God, by with drawing of the heart from all earthly thoughts’ (Scale i, 25, p. 44). This desire rising direct to God himself is indeed the guarantee of true progress in prayer. Indeed it is impossible often to tell from any other sign whether or no one is praying at all. Distractions and dryness flood the spirit to such an extent that it would seem no corner had been left for prayer.
The Liturgy in a Lay Community
Authors: Inrson George
Published: August 2024

To discover the meaning it is sometimes better to walk round the city like the children of Israel round Jericho than to attack the walls directly with battering rams and force of arms. So we shall be talking about the subject rather than on it, about the growth and effect of the Liturgy in the daily life of a particular lay community and the personal experiences of some of its members.

For many years we lived our life together with no accepted religious beliefs and our background was therefore opposed to anything in the nature of a liturgical action—we believed that a gesture or a word which did not spring from our own personal need or experience was a measure of our insincerity and was to be avoided if at all possible.
Our Lady in the Scriptures
Authors: Ginns Reginald
Published: August 2024

The present article continues the study begun in the May number of The Life Of The Spirit under the title of our Lady in Tradition. In that article there was occasion to remark on the benign and gratifying way in which the great organs of the secular press have reported the events connected with the centenary celebrations of the apparitions of our Lady at Lourdes. But I went on to say that this seemed too good to last, and that the year would not pass without a resurrection of the old threadbare objections to Catholic doctrine and devotion concerning the Mother of God. We have not had long to wait. In a recent review of the new book on Cardinal Newman by the French Oratorian, Père Bouyer, we are treated to such judgments as the following:

'It did not take him (Newman) long to realize that in the Roman Church, as he found it, creative theology was dead.
The Nature Of Accidie
Authors: Cassian John
Published: August 2024

When the vice of Accidie has got hold of an unhappy man's mind, it breeds detestation of the place of his habitation, weariness of his cell, and makes him spurn and despise the brethren who live with him, or near him, as all neglectful and unspiritual. For every task to be done within the confines of his dwelling, it makes him slow and indolent. It will not let him either rest in his cell or give himself to reading. Ofttimes will he groan that he had dwelt there so long, and made no progress in good nor acquired any spiritual fruit, so long as he is bound in that fellowship. He depicts the fellowship of the brethren elsewhere as sweet and full of spiritual converse. On the other hand, all that he has near about him is hard and difficult, and he says that not only is there no edification in the brethren among whom he dwells, but also that the very necessities of life can only be there obtained with immense toil.
Comment
Authors: Martin Mary
Published: August 2024

Much has recently been written in the popular press about that vast army of women who live on their own. Following the publication of such articles, a number of these people hotly denied that they are lonely but many others admitted that their loneliness is so great that it is the overwhelming aspect of their lives. Let us hope that no Catholic women were amongst those who made this sad admission: there is certainly no need for them to do so.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, to be lonely is to be ‘solitary, isolated, unfrequented, companionless'. What an impossible situation for the practising Catholic! Frequent reception of Holy Communion and a thoughtful pondering over the doctrine of the Indwelling must immediately prevent sucn abysmal loneliness. The woman who lives alone has perhaps more chance than many others to think frequently how the whole of her life is a partnership with Christ.
Mother of our Creator
Authors: Robert Mary
Published: August 2024

Hail, then from us, O holy mystical Trinity, who has gathered us all together in this church of Mary, the Mother of God. Hail, from us Mary, Mother of God, majestic treasure of the whole world, the lamp unquenchable, the crown of virginity, the sceptre of orthodoxy, the indestructible temple, the dwelling of the Illimitable, Mother and Virgin, throught whom he is called in the holy Gospels “Blessed who cometh in the name of the Lord”. Hail, thou who didst contain him in the holy virginal womb, who cannot be contained, thou through whom the Holy Trinity is glorified and adored throughout the world; through whom heaven rejoices, through whom the angels and archangels are glad; through whom devils are put to flight through whom the tempter-devil fell from heaven; through whom the fallen creature is taken up into heaven; through whom all creation, held fast by the madness of idolatry has come to the knowledge of truth; through whom holy baptism has come to believers, and the oil of gladness; through whom churches are erected throughout the world; through whom the nations are brought to repentance.
From Synagogue to Early Christian Assembly: II
Authors: Gutllet J
Published: August 2024

The primary object of the meetings in the Synagogue was the reading of the Scriptures, yet this was quite a recent innovation, seemingly introduced along with the new institution. In order to realize this better, we must go back to the time of the Temple.

In the old days, when Israel had been gathered together in her own land, leading a national life that centred round the Temple in Jerusalem and the big annual festivals held there, the whole People used to go up to the Temple to offer sacrifice. The indissoluble bond between the Temple and the sacrifices made there was indeed one of the basic requirements of the Testament religion.
Bible Reading Made Easy
Authors: Hill Edmund
Published: August 2024

‘People buy the Bible in such quantities as to make it a best-seller. But they do not read it very much and they understand it less’. So says Fr N. J. McEleney, c.s.p., general editor of the Pamphlet Bible Series, which is being published by the Paulist Press, New York, at 75 cents a number. The series is the most effective thing that has yet appeared to help ordinary people of general education to read the Bible and understand what they read. A short notice of the first four pamphlets appeared in Life of the Spirit in May 1960. Up to the present (January 1961) twelve pamphlets have appeared, bringing the series up to the book of Judges. No. 1 is an introduction to the Pentateuch; then follow two each for Genesis and Exodus, one for Leviticus, two each for Numbers and Deuteronomy, one each for Josue and Judges.

They help the ordinary reader first of all by their covers, which are bright, light, and modern. “Whether their general décor meets with your artistic approval or not, there is no doubt that it catches your eye and arouses interest.
The Person and the Place—II: At Old St Julian's
Authors: Webb Geoffrey
Published: August 2024

The weeping and wailing of Margery Kempe are so un-English a phenomenon, that it is no wonder if many of her fellow pilgrims reviled her as a hypocrite, a Lollard, and a ‘right wicked woman’. It seems never to have occurred to her that most people went on pilgrimage in a somewhat holiday mood, and that therefore her pious table talk was, for them, entirely out of place, to say nothing of her habit of falling down and crying ‘wonder loud’ for compassion of Jesus. With foreigners she usually fared much better, simply because they did not understand the purport of her cries. They would make sympathetic remarks about hot weather and indigestion.

Both at home and abroad, however, Margery had her consolations. There were always the ‘ghostly men who loved and favoured her’, particularly when she cried. ‘Worshipful clerks, both archbishops and bishops, doctors of divinity and bachelors also’, encouraged her to believe that she was led by the Holy Ghost and by no evil spirit, and the list of these is certainly impressive.
Christ's Active Presence in History
Authors: Feret H.-M.
Published: August 2024

’The Revelation of Jesus Christ.’ Those are the first words of John's message to the persecuted Churches. He wished to give them a teaching that would enlighten and comfort them. Although not new, it would be more developed on the person and role of Jesus, ‘the faithful witness, Firstborn among the dead, Prince of the kings of the earth’ (1, 5). To give them confidence in the midst of trials, he would make manifest the active presence and entire mastery in temporal history of the risen Lord.
St Vincent Ferrer in Spanish and European History
Authors: Herrero Ramon Martin
Published: August 2024

Spanish Catholics—that is to say, Spain—arc commemorating this year the fifth centenary of St Vincent Ferrer's canonization. Thus, 1954, the Jubilee Year of St James the Apostle, has found a worthy successor, for, amongst the thousands of names forming Spain's imposing contribution to hagiology, hardly one has a greater significance for the student of history, as well as for the layman, than that of this Valencian saint. It would be pointless and extravagant to try to evaluate what each of the great saints has given to the chronicle of human happenings, since their deeds and words are outside the scope of earthly speculation.
The Scientist's Approach to Faith
Authors: Caldin E. F.
Published: August 2024

The scientist is first of all a person, set in the framework of family and society. The problems arising from his own make-up, and from the current social scene with its special stresses, will often bulk much larger in his life than anything concerned with science. However, there are some aspects of a scientist's life that mould his general approach to Christ, whether he is aware of them or not. The work of the physical scientist, for instance, is concerned with nature, regarded as a closed system—not with God, nor even with human persons as persons. He abstracts from the Cause of nature, and from human causes, and concentrates on the relations between natural facts. This, again, commits him to an interest in the minutiae of sense knowledge which would not be in place in other studies. Philosophers indeed are interested in nature, as well as scientists, but from a different point of view; they ask different questions about nature.
‘Be Ye Therefore Perfect’
Authors: Flannery Austin
Published: August 2024

We use the word ‘perfect’ in so many contexts that it is easy to lose sight of its etymological meaning (‘per’, thoroughly, ‘facere', to make). We need to look to its roots in order to understand St Thomas's use of the term. He speaks of ‘first perfection’ and ‘second perfection’ (I. 73. 1). ‘First perfection’ is God's gift to every man as he enters upon this life; he has a nature which is perfect, ‘thoroughly-made’, in that it lacks none of the finely-adapted faculties proper to a rational being. Activity is the very raison d'etre of these faculties and in bestowing them on a nature God imparts to it the ability to act, to operate. He who ‘created heaven and earth’ has been prodigal even of his power, since he willed to create a world which should mirror his omnipotence as well as his goodness.
Martyrs Through Prayers
Authors: Carthusian A
Published: August 2024

When, at the beginning of the year 1535, Blessed John Houghton, the Prior of the London Charterhouse, announced to his monks gathered together in Chapter that they must either renounce the authority of the Pope or suffer death, all cried with one mind and one voice: ‘Let us all die in our simplicity’. They had lived in simplicity, and it was in simphcity that they wished to die. But what exactly is this simplicity, which is the characteristic mark of every true Carthusian?
The Spirit in the World—V: The International Catholic Auxiliaries
Authors: Lewis Cecily
Published: August 2024

Come over here, Secunda! Ma-the-lawyer's son wants to take a photo of everyone'—it was Prima at my elbow. Of everyone present? That seemed to me optimistic. The old Japanese-style house we occupy in Taipei, capital of Taiwan, is not large, even when we take down the sliding paper-covered doors and make a single room of it; but that afternoon, after the ceremony at the church nearby, the one room was certainly crowded. As we are a team of four Auxiliaries each working in a different profession we have a variety of friends and acquaintances. Nearly all the people in the room were Chinese—natives of Taiwan itself and of all parts of the mainland—and for the photo we were gathering round our own Chinese bishop, Mgr Cheng, consecrated a few months earlier.
Devotion to Mary in the Spiritual Life
Authors: Corr M.
Published: August 2024

It is a common theme in Marian theology that our Lady's motherhood of men means that in some way we are born of her when we are born into the life of grace. What that means exactly no one knows; there is divergence of opinions about the closeness of Mary's work in our souls to the work of the Holy Ghost. Evidently our Lady does not save us; to what extent God has chosen to associate her with himself in this divine work is not yet known, and perhaps never will be till we see it all in retrospect, in heaven.

Our Lady is our spiritual mother. Here we are on safe ground. If we ponder on that fact, work out its implications, act on it, we shall be sure of ‘thinking with the Church sentire cum Ecclesia. Our earthly mothers give us life, earthly life, though they do not create our souls. Mary gives us spiritual life—she is called Mediatrix of all graces but she does not give us grace as from herself, for it is God's own gift.
What Is The Church?—IV: The Eucharistic Community
Authors: McCabe Herbert
Published: August 2024

In the last article we spoke of the Church as the community of those who have been baptised. It is the new creation consisting of those who have left behind their old out-of-date lives in the waters of baptism and been born again to a new life, a share in the life that Christ brought back from the dead. In this article we shall look at the Church from another point of view. Last time we said that roughly speaking the Church consists of those who have been baptised and have not renounced their faith, this time we start from the rough generalisation that the Church consists of those who go to mass. Last time we found that the formula we started from had a lot more in it than immediately met the eye and we shall find the same in this case, but once more we shall begin with the obvious straightforward meaning and leave the qualifications until later.
Tower of Ivory
Authors: Jarrett Bede
Published: August 2024

In speaking today of those in heaven who are interested in us we realise something at least of what St Paul meant when he said he was indebted to the whole world. In the sweep of his vision he meant Christ and all the saints—St Stephen whose persecutors' garments he had held. And so we owe much to all sorts of people, known and unknown. How much we owe to our blessed Lady herself. We think of and speak of her under many titles and invocations, but one title strange though it sounds at first shows more than any other the perfect balance of her character. ‘Tower of Ivory’. We remember how one of the Jewish kings built a palace of ivory for himself, what ever that may mean, probably something we do not know.
The Common Life Among Early Christians
Authors: Ross Anthony
Published: August 2024

This is simply an attempt to suggest some of the main ideas inspiring the common life of early Christians. There are several difficulties in the way of such an attempt. There is, for example, the common temptation to paint a sharp contrast between a golden age of the primitive Church and a cold and dismal present. Such a contrast is unreal. The virtues found in primitive Christian communities can be found in any of our modern parishes. The faults which appear in the modern community have their parallel in our Lord's own days. There were pride and jealousy, lying and treachery, among the Apostles; schism and heresy were a problem before the New Testament was all written. A romantic view is, therefore, unfounded, although we may recognise that pressure of hostile forces probably eliminated from the earliest Christian communities considerable numbers of people who would have existed in more peaceful times as a large body of lukewarm, conventional Christians.
The Monastic Ideal
Authors: Sillem Dom Aelred
Published: August 2024

The theme of the whole conference is the Common Life of Christians; the theme of this paper is the Monastic Ideal of the Common Life. The monastic life exists in two forms, the eremitical and the cenobitical. It would be interesting to show how the common life of Christians is realised also in the eremitical monastic life, but for several reasons this paper will consider only the Christian common life as it is envisaged in cenobitical monasticism. And in the West, the Rule of St Benedict remains the norm of cenobitical monastic life, so that the monastic ideal described will be that of the Rule of St Benedict.

Even with this limitation of scope, the subject is not an easy one to treat. During the 1,400 years of Benedictine history, and also in contemporary monastic life, the ideal of the Rule has been realised in a great variety of ways.
Freedom and the Active Life
Authors: Toner Jerome
Published: August 2024

St Thomas puts very briefly the difference between a free-man and a slave, when he says: ‘a free-man is one who is the cause of what is his, but a slave owes everything he has to another'. (De Reg. Prin. I, i.) Thus in a sense we are all the slaves of God. Our Lord brought friendship into that relation; yet for all that, we did not cease to be God's servants. Terms like ‘military service', ‘civil service’ and ‘foreign service’ are apt to create the impression that ‘divine service’ is likewise limited to a particular kind of work, such as going to church on Sundays. It is easy to miss the real meaning of what Christ said— ‘You cannot serve two masters', or of what St Paul said— ‘All whatsoever you do in word or in work do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him'. (Col. 3.)
‘New Spirituality’ For The Lay Apostle
Authors: Fitzsimons John
Published: August 2024

While the basic and traditional lines of the spiritual life are unalterable, being the fruit of the thought of theologians and the experience of souls, there is room for development in method and indeed, granted changing circumstances, the possibility of completely new methods. Of course the dictum Nil innovetur nisi traditum est is as true here as elsewhere, and new methods can never mean more than a new approach or a new combination of traditional methods. This present age is one in which circumstances would seem to demand such a new approach. It is an age which has seen the growth and development of a deeper appreciation of the place of the laity in the missionary activity of the Church.
The Contemplative
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

The Gospel appointed to be read on the feast of the Assumption is the account of the two sisters, Martha and Mary, and the way they entertained Christ in their home. This may seem a strange choice for this feast. Our Lady is not referred to in the narrative; while the one who bears the same name is the great sinner converted into the great lover, St Mary Magdalen a very different person from the immaculate Virgin whose very perfection of purity seems to demand freedom from corruption. Some will conclude that it is the parallel between the contemplative resting at our Lord's feet and the glorious rest of the Assumption that the Church is anxious to emphasise here. Indeed the glorification of Mary's body reunited to her soul does represent the complete and perfect contemplative state, for our Lady has reached the Vision in which her whole being shares; and that was the heart's desire of the Magdalen.
The Spiritual Life: An Historical Approach—IV
Authors: Bullough Sebastian
Published: August 2024

The term devotio moderna is used strictly to describe a particular school of piety in the Netherlands which looked to Gerard de Groot (†1384) as its founder: ‘totius modernae devotionis origo'; they were Augustinian Canons, with a famous centre at Windesheim near Zwolle, and many abbeys in the area. Gerard de Groot was in touch with his fellow-Augustinian John Ruysbroeck (†1361), and so with the school of the German mystics. The ‘modern’ Augustinian school reached its greatest and most lasting renown with the writings of Thomas à Kempis (†1471), whose Imitation of Christ is the supreme product of the school of the devotio moderna. In the early sixteenth century there was the influence of the current humanism, with for example Erasmus of Rotterdam (†1536), who himself began at Deventer with the Augustinians of de Groot, and then for a time was an Augustinian himself, and the notions of the devotio moderna became modified.
Contemplation and Contemplatives
Authors: Corson John
Published: August 2024

Some confusion seems to exist on the subject of contemplation and the contemplative life—if we may judge from the correspondence in THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT. The point is one of great importance and the confusion extends to a great number of people to judge by the quotation made in the December issue from Cross and Crown. It may therefore be of some use to offer one or two distinctions which may at least form a basis for further discussion and elucidation.
St Thomas and the Word of God
Authors: Potter Roland
Published: August 2024

This Word of life which was from the beginning, which we have heard and seen with our own eyes, have gazed upon and our very hands have handled—this it is which we proclaim unto you… .’ (1 John, 1, 1.) With burning love and earnestness St John speaks of that knowledge and first-hand contact with the Lord Jesus which was his privilege. And now he can use these same words of the great Saint and Doctor St Thomas Aquinas. For he too loved our Lord, constantly and above all else, and by long familiarity with the things of God and long gazing upon the truths of God was enabled supremely to proclaim to thousands of others the saving truths of God.

But let us start, as St Thomas would surely start, with the Word of God; and meditate not on St Thomas and the Word of God, but on ‘The Word of God and St Thomas'.
The Obligation Of Religious Rules
Authors: Middlewick Francis
Published: August 2024

In a series of Rules published by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars in 1901, concerning the approval of new institutes with simple vows, it is stated that the constitutions of these institutes are to express that they do not bind under pain of sin. Similarly, an Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith concerning the foundation of religious Congregations in missionary territories insists that: ‘Since these Constitutions are to be observed not out of fear but out of love, they do not of themselves bind under pain of sin …’ And the ‘Statutes to be observed by External Sisters of Monasteries of Nuns’ (1931) affirm that nothing in these statutes, apart from what has been drawn from the Code of Canon Law or other laws of the Church, binds under pain of sin, though the Sisters are obliged to accept the penance imposed for infractions of their constitutions.
The Pattern of Perfection
Authors: Magrath Oswin
Published: August 2024

Perfection consists in the love of God, and this is independent of any particular way of life, and can reach the highest degrees where there is nothing demanding or compelling great perfection, through the subjective love which is put into the most ordinary everyday actions. But there is also an objective perfection, a life which, by its obligations and the activities it entails, of its nature requires a high degree of perfection; and where such a life is embraced by a solemn and perpetual obligation, it places a person in a state of perfection. While the Spirit breathes where it wills, and the subjective degree of love of God depends chiefly on individual grace, the objective means of perfection (namely, good works which, so to say, compel the exercise of a high degree of love of God and other virtues which accompany it) can be studied as a pattern of perfection, and organised as a means of perfection.
The Way of Perfection in the English Mystics
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

The thirteenth century is universally recognized as the peak of the later medieval period; by the middle of the fourteenth Christendom was well on in the decline which led to the Renaissance and the Reformation. There are many causes of the decline and amid the mounting miseries of war, pestilence, and corruption it is often difficult to distinguish cause trom effect. The tale is well known: the Black Death carried off the flower of Europe as no war could have done. The Hundred Years War began towards the middle of the century and brought with it increasing desolation and poverty to the lower classes. In England the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 revealed the unhappy state of the populace, and similar disturbances occurred in France, Germany, and other European countries. The common people, then as now, had to bear the brunt of the wars, and, then as now, it led to a great deal of unrest and impatience both with Church and State.
The Homely Presence of Christ
Authors: Brewse Giles
Published: August 2024

Brother, if thou desire to have the homely presence of our Lord Jesus Christ ghostly in thy soul in feeling, but how the blessed presence of Jesus is felt, it may better be known by experience than by any writing, for it is the life and the love, the might and the light, the joy and the rest of a chosen soul. And therefore he that once hath soothfastly felt it, he may not forbear it without pain, he must needs desire it, it is so good in itself and so comfortable. What is more comfortable to a soul here than for to be drawn out through grace from the vile noise of worldly business and filth of desires and from vain affection of all creatures into rest and safeness of ghostly love, privily perceiving the gracious presence of Jesus, fully fed with favour of his unseeable blessed face?
The Spirit of St Vincent de Paul
Authors: Leonard Joseph
Published: August 2024

When I was told I should have the honour of speaking to you today I thought I would like to submit for your consideration some thoughts on the spirit that animated St Vincent de Paul and inspired the works associated with his name. He was, as you know, proclaimed to be, and constituted, the patron of all Catholic associations of charity throughout the world by Pope Leo XIII. But he is, I venture to think, in a special way your patron. Tt is not perhaps generally known that, when he instituted the Confraternities of Charity, he established them for both men and women. The ladies of 17th-century France seem to have had both more energy and independence than the men, for, whilst their confraternities flourished and still flourish, those of the men were soon absorbed into a body that came to be known as the Company of the Blessed Sacrament which, a few years after St Vincent's death, was suppressed, on alleged political grounds, by Mazarin.
The ‘Our Father’: A Retreat
Authors: Steuart R. H. J.
Published: August 2024

In the Our Father we have not merely a plan for addressing God, a formula of prayer, but a command: ‘Thus shalt thou pray'. Prayer is the expression of our attitude towards God. Our Lord says, ‘This is the way you've got to ask God for things—this is the way you've got to think of God and address him; the way I wish you to approach him.'

Take the Lord's Prayer in that sense. ‘What is God to you?’ says our Lord; and he begins ‘Father'.

St Thomas says that we are entitled to take as intended for us every meaning of our Lord's words and actions which they will legitimately bear. Therefore we must take God as an ideal Father. ‘I am your Father, I want you to think of me as your Father; and not merely to think of me but to know that I am your Father.’ Look at a little child and his father; he receives all he has and is from his parents, but quite soon goes on independently of them.
Langland’s Way to Unity
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

Langland’s outlook is really centred in the doctrine of the Mystical Body, though he nowhere employs the term itself. He conceives of the Church and her members in this living corporate way. From the very fact of to the Incarnation, all mankind has become related to God in common brotherhood, even those outside the Church.

But my nature shall move me to be merciful to man For we are brethren of one blood though not in baptism together are words of our Lord at the harrowing of hell (Passus XVIII, 397-8). Men are not only blood brethren because they bear the same nature with the same human blood coursing through their veins, but also because they have been bought by the outpouring of that blood made precious in union with the divinity:

“They are my blood brethren”, said Piers, ‘for God bought all men”. (Passus VI, 212; cf. XVIII, 348 sqq.)
Son of Man
Authors: Cary-Elwes
Published: August 2024

Of all the titles of Jesus this is the most mysterious, yet also it was the one most used by him, the title of his predilection.

Christ is called Son of Mary; and that is not difficult to understand. She gave him as much as any mother ever gives her child, his body, his features, temperament maybe. Mary must have given all these, for there was no human father. Thus Nestorius was indeed wrong-headed when he refused her the title of Mother of God. We do not say of our mothers ‘That is the mother of Charles’s body’, but ‘that is Charles’s mother’, i.e., the person Charles; so Mary is the mother of the Person Christ, and the Person is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Son of David, likewise we can understand; though even this is not simple, for he was not so by direct male descent. Still, he was sufficiently descended by blood through Mary, and far more deeply so by inheriting the kingdom; and yet again, not the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem, but that of the spiritual Jerusalem.
The Deadly Sins
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

The classical characterisation of this period of the beginner, or the purgative way, is given in the words of St Thomas: Primo incumbit homini studium principale ad recedendum a peccato et resistendum concupiscentiis ejus, quæ in contrarium caritatis movent: et hoc pertinet ad incipientes in quibus caritas est nutrienda, vel fovenda, ne corrumpatur. ‘At first it is incumbent on man to occupy himself chiefly with avoiding sin and resisting his concupiscences, which move him in opposition to charity: this concerns beginners, in whom charity has to be fed or fostered lest it be destroyed.’ (II-II, 24, 9.) This aspect of struggle against lower nature and the war against vice is therefore the depressing but dominant feature of the age; but this does not mean a purely stoical attitude to self-mastery—it is always that ‘charity may the more abound'.
Agnus Dei
Authors: Cary Elwes
Published: August 2024

Fray Louis of Leon has already treated of this title, but his book is little known and less read—more’s the pity—and I have felt justified in treating of it for that reason.

We know that it is a title of Christ because St John the Baptist gave it him when they met, for the first time in early manhood, on the banks of Jordan. It may seem strange that St. John, when pointing out ‘him that was to come to his followers, should from all his titles choose this one: ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ (John i, 29.) Why did St John think ‘the Lamb’ the title most fitted for the occasion? We can but surmise, yet such surmise may give us insight into the meaning of this title, even if we cannot be sure that all was present to the mind of St John himself or of his hearers.

There was an ancient story told of the father of their race, Abraham, that one day there was demanded of him a sign of real belief in his God and in his God’s promises. It took the form of God telling Abraham to kill his only son Isaac in sacrifice.
The Virtuous Life
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

It is not out of place, perhaps, to consider the influence of the Platonic habit of thought upon the conception of the virtuous life, particularly of the beginner. The general characteristic of the beginner is that of acquiring the virtues, so that the virtuous life appears to him at first as something outside himself, something that has to be grasped and brought into his own possession. The Golden Epistle of William of St Thierry sets this out very clearly in terms of what he calls the ‘animal man’, the man who lives by his senses rather than by the interior grace within him. Such a man is first moved by authority or admonished by a teacher; he accepts the good where he finds it, but he finds it always in what otheis say and do. So he begins by being obedient and by imitating the ways of others.
Psalm 41
Authors: Rolle Richard
Published: August 2024

As the hart yearneth to the wells of waters, so my soul yearneth to thee, God.

This psalm is of all perfect men that are burning widi the flame of Goo S love, and pass into contemplative life. And therefore it is sung in the office for die dead; for then have they that they yearned [for], that Is the sight of God. Therefore saith he, as the hart that has eaten the adder, greatly yearns to come to the wells of waters for to drink and wax young again, so when vices and uncleanness are destroyed in me, my soul desires with burning yearning to come to thee, God.
Religious Obedience
Authors: Magrath Oswin
Published: August 2024

Religious obedience differs from ordinary obedience by being vowed. The vow is an act of worship of God, and dedicates the controlling faculty in man to him, and so the whole of the future life is under the vow. The power to choose is subjected and consecrated to God and his ministers, so that everything done thereafter in execution of the vow has the value and merit of the virtue of religion as well as of obedience.

As in the case of the virtue, there is a difference between the subjective and the objective extension of the vow. It is generally agreed among theologians, and is usually expressed in the constitutions of religious institutes, that there is only objective obligation under the vow when a proper precept binding under sin is given, and commonly only when the Vow is expressly invoked in the precept, in a more or less fixed formula.
The Exercise of the Presence of God in Prayer
Authors: Catherinet F. M.
Published: August 2024

The most important truth for our interior life is an ever more exact knowledge of the God who dwells in us. His goodness, his providence, his justice, and all his attributes seem to grow beneath our gaze, when we consider them in the light of the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption; now we know these only by revelation.

But we receive the greatest light from our knowledge of the Blessed Trinity. There is but one true God. This God who is in us entirely is the God one in nature and three in Persons. This assertion confounds us. This living Trinity, which we are accustomed to represent in I know not what distant heaven where he unveils his splendour for the angels and saints, this adorable Trinity is in us, it lives in us. In me. at this moment, as at all the other instants of my life, God the Father in knowing himself begets his Son and gives to him his whole divine nature so as to make him his equal, consubstantial with himself.
Austerity And Reality In Diet
Authors: Badenoch A. G.
Published: August 2024

Father Gerald Vann, o.p., in an article in a 1951 Blackfriars accused the modern world of flight into phantasy and counselled a return to reality. The Editor, in a later number, suggested forming some sort of Blackfriars Group, where questions so raised might be discussed in the light of what many of us are calling the Dominican Way. The Editor of The Life Of The spirit has been suggesting for some time that I should write something on diet, and especially fasting.

Can I, no philosopher, put all these three indications together and write on that one aspect of reality to which I give most of my study, nutrition?

We may phantasise a good deal about many practical matters and get away with it, but the fundamental things of nature pay a quick dividend, in good coin or bad, according to how we deal with their crude reality.
First Graces of the Proficient
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

The period of ‘great business', described by Rolle in the Incendium Amoris as the purgative way to ‘sweetest rest', has passed, and the obscurity of the night of the senses leads the soul on to this more secure life in Christ. The hermit was perfectly aware of the difficulties of the first period and the progress the devout man had to make to reach this sweetness. For some the progress is rapid and often accompanied by special graces from God.

They that are sickerly ordained to holiness in the beginning of their turning, for dread of God, forsake sins and worldly vanities: and then they set their flesh under strait penance, afterwards setting Christ's love before all other, and feeling a delight in heavenly sweetness in devotion of mind they profit mickle.
Eucharistic Union
Authors: Velarde Ralph
Published: August 2024

The sacrament of the Eucharist is a sort of recapitulation or condensation of the whole of the Christian life, so that the ancient phrase used to describe it was that of ‘the Sacrament of our Redemption'. In the words of the text we have used there is a clear reference to what we call the use of the sacrament, namely, that which we know familiarly as Holy Communion. Their meaning is made clearer by words used by our Blessed Lord when he said, ‘He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him'. That our Lord abides in us is easy for us to see, because, according to the teaching of faith, we receive him truly, really and in the fullness of both his human and divine nature: it is the whole Christ, God and man whom we receive in die Sacrament of the Eucharist.
The Character of a Missionary
Authors: Magrath Oswin
Published: August 2024

A correct view about the purpose of the Missions must determine the qualities needed in a missionary. The first requisite is adaptability: he has to form new Christians, and has to adjust himself to a new and foreign outlook and way of life. While the development of communications and health services has rendered the possession of exceptionally strong bodily qualities generally unnecessary to-day, and the variety and extent of mission work gives an opportunity for almost all kinds of talents and types of mind, there are certain general qualities which are still necessary for all engaged in mission work.

Pope Pius XI stressed especially the dangers of nationalism among missionaries, and these are obvious, though nowadays such tendencies are less than formerly. Yet they are not entirely gone, and Pope Pius XII urges the missionary to make of his Mission a second fatherland, an adaptation not possible to some characters.
The Heir (II)
Authors: Elwes Cary
Published: August 2024

For hundreds of years, it would seem, God left the revelation as it was at the time of the great Patriarchs. Even in the time of Moses there is no explicit reference to the Messias until we come to the most mysterious ‘ of all the scenes connected with prophecy: the oracles of Balaam (Numbers 24, 14-19). Bala King of Moat), asked his local prophet to curse the Israelites who were threatening his borders. Instead of cursing, Balaam blessed them. The fourth blessing runs as follows:

‘I see it (the people of the Israelites), but not as present. I contemplate it, but not as immediate. A star proceeds from Jacob, ft sceptre rises out of Israel. It shatters the temples of Moab. It exterminates all the sons of tumult. Edom is its possession; Seir, its enemy, is its possession. Israel does exploits’ (Num. 25, 17-8). This could be referred to David or to any conquering king of Israel. That was done; but generally, by Jews as well as Christians later, it was seen to refer truly and completely only to a spiritual Messias.
Notes on Christian Contemplation and Perfection
Authors: Brocklehurst Mark
Published: August 2024

A convenient text for these notes is provided by ‘A Challenge from the Cloister', printed in the May issue of the Life of the Spirit. It begins: ‘A Carmelite life in the world does not seem to be really possible'. There is much confusion of mind implicit in this statement, but its elucidation does not call for any profound analysis of the nature of man or the nature of grace. The whole matter is stated quite simply and explicitly by St Thomas, in the Summa, not as a personal and novel view. What is found there is the traditional teaching of the Church.

'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.’ The perfection of the Christian life is the perfection of charity. And this perfection is the highest possible; no one can do better than have perfect charity. Furthermore, perfect charity is the vocation of all, without exception.
God Is Like A Mother
Authors: Dehau Pierre-Thomas
Published: August 2024

Here is a man, forty years old, with a mother whom he respects and venerates. In spite of his own absorbing occupations, he visits her every day for exactly half an hour. He talks as a son should about this and that, always going away at the same hour and returning the next day at the stroke of the clock. More cannot be demanded of him, and from a mother's point of view one could wish that all men did at least as much.

That is a picture of the beginning of the life of prayer—each day the Christian making his or her meditation, and following a method point by point—this is necessary at the beginning. It is already something, but that something is only a beginning, although there are those who think they are doing wonders with their fine thoughts and meditations.

Let us suppose then that the person remains faithful, and that God increases his grace. Oh, how young the soul becomes! It is no longer like a man of forty giving just half-an-hour each day to his mother.
Nought
Authors: Pepler Conrad
Published: August 2024

Live according to thy calling’ is the advice given in the 2nd chapter of the Cloud of Unknowing, which is devoted to ‘a short stirring to meekness'. And in this the author sets the tone of the whole book, introducing in the firstplace this virtue of humility and leading thence to the full ‘noughting’ of oneself before God. For those accustomed to spiritual reading and spiritual exercises it is easy to spend time in considering what God is doing to the soul and so to begin to count his blessings and graces in prayer. This opens the door to a smugness and pride, which may well captivate anyone who is endeavouring to follow the instructions of The Cloud. So, he says, if the reader take the book seriously he must concentrate on the call, on that towards which he is progressing. If a man lives according to his calling he will begin to find the virtue of humility, for his eyes will never linger on himself except in seeing his tragic poverty, his wants and his needs: Look now forwards and let the backwards be.