Bøger af Brother Hermenegild Tosf

Over two hundred hims with daily prayers.

This work is divided into six sections 1.Human Responsibility 2.Conscience 3.Law 4.Dispensations and Privileges 5.Justice and Right 6.Restitution The first edition of this admirable little book having been so well received by the public, has now for some time been entirely out of print, and, in consequence of continual applications for it, I am induced to re-issue it as a verbatim reprint, the proofs of which have been corrected under the immediate supervision of the Author.

Here is a collection of stories with a moral to them: Yonder, which is a ghost story Guardian Angels Red Magic This story quotes Tertullian: "The very matter of the sacraments, too, the devil, in idols' mysteties, doth imitate. There are those whom he too dippeth, his own believers, assuredly, and his faithful; and from their bath he promises remission of their sins." And this story is about such early day imitations among the pagans. More Immortalis is the story of a the death of a young boy. The Net is the story of a Vestal Virgin. Roma Felix The Twenty Firster God's Orphan is a longer story. Jesus taught by parables and so should we. And here ae several useful parables for educating young people.

The Life which is here presented to the reader is for the most part a translation of the French Vie de St. Hugues de Lincoln, which was published by a monk of the Grande Chartreuse in 1890. From one cause or another the production of the hook in its present form has entailed almost as much labour as the composition of an original work would have done, and the Editor has more than once been tempted to regret, when it was too late, that he had not cut himself entirely free from the trammels imposed by a rendering from another language. The English version, however, had already been made, and had become the property of the Manresa Press before the duties of editorship devolved upon him. If the name of the translator does not appear upon the title-page, the omission is not due to any wish to ignore the service so rendered, but only to the fact that in editing it for publication very many changes have been made in the version throughout, and parts of it even rewritten. It is possible that a number of these changes might not be regarded by the translator, or others, as changes for the better, and it seems fairer to leave the responsibility indeterminate than to assign any definite name to what is really the work of more than one hand. If any difference of style be detected between the earlier and later portion of the book, it is chiefly to be referred to the process of revision just spoken of. In the first few chapters the French as originally translated has been more closely adhered to, in the later the Editor has allowed himself considerably greater latitude. Although the Preface, the Appendices, and occasionally portions of the text, of the French Life have been omitted, the printed matter contained in the book has been increased by more than one-third, i.e., by the equivalent of more than two hundred pages of the present volume. This is due to the large number of additional topics which have been dealt with in the text or in the notes, a list of which, under the heading Additions, will be found in the Index. To the substantial facts of the history of St. Hugh's career, the Editor can claim to have contributed little that is new. Perhaps the most interesting of the points here touched upon for the first time is the connection between the subject of this biography and the revelations of the monk of Eynsham. The fact that St. Hugh must have been personally acquainted with many of those whose fate in the next world is there described, lends emphasis to the share taken by him in the publication of the vision. Again, a rather important chronological error, which has led Mr. Dimock, and with him all subsequent English writers, to antedate by five years the coming of St. Hugh to England, and hence to make the Saint five years older than he really was, has at last, I think, been finally disposed of.2 The author of the French Life had already rectified this mistake, but his correction is now- further justified by an extract from the Bruton Chartulary, and by the indisputable evidence of an entry in the Norman Exchequer Rolls, to which attention had not previously been directed. The Editor's principal aim, however, has been to supplement the. information given by the French biographer in those features of the Life which have a special bearing upon English history or English institutions, or which depend upon local knowledge not easily accessible to a monk writing at a distance, and with the restrictions imposed by the Rule of the Grande Chartreuse. That must be my excuse for dwelling, perhaps somewhat unduly, upon such questions as perpetual vicarages, St. Hugh's grants of churches, the right of sanctuary, the character of Henry II, &c., and particularly on the Cathedral, the Jewry, and the leper hospital of Lincoln, the site of the house where St. Hugh died in London, and of the tomb where his remains first reposed.

It is with the hope that English lay folk will learn to value more highly, and understand more clearly, the beauty, dignity, and antiquity of the Church's public liturgical prayer that this little book has been translated into English. While there are so many books of private devotion-of various degrees of excellence and authority-the one devotional book to be used above all others, which has grown with the Church's growth and nourished the devotion of her saints, which is intimately bound up with her history and full of her spirit, seems to be forgotten, to be set aside as dry and archaic, or to be regarded as the private property of clergy and religious. Yet there is no book richer in treasures of devotion, endowed with higher authority, or more capable of producing in the souls of those who use it digne, attente, ac devote, a devotional temper at once hearty and strong and truly Catholic. It is much to be regretted that the history of the Roman Breviary is so little known, even to those upon whom the Church has laid the obligation of its daily recital throughout the year. Were priests and religious better instructed in the origin, development, and purpose of the book with which in one sense they are so familiar, we are confident they would fulfil their obligation with greater fervour and respect, and by this means the reign of God would be more perfectly realized both in the hearts of those who are priests and in the souls of the faithful entrusted to their care. I t is for the benefit of priests occupied in the work of the ministry, who may have neither the time nor opportunity to consult the works recently published on the Breviary, that we have undertaken to give in the following pages an abstract of the monumental work of Dom Baumer on the history of the Roman Breviary, while making use at the same time of the less voluminous work of Mgr. Batiffo. "We conclude with the following words of Dom Baumer: "The earthly psalmody, or, in other words, the praises of God uttered by the lips of priests and monks, either in their solitary cells or in the choir in church, are but the echo of those eternal songs which the elect, in union with the choirs of saints and angels, sing to the melodies of the heavenly Jerusalem before the throne of the Lamb. May we all find ourselves among the elect, that we may for ever be eternally associated with those choirs of blessed spirits. Here below in our exile let us practise with fervour that which is to be our endless occupation in the realms of bliss in our Father's House.""

Mr. Lucas begins: "It seems to me that a person who separates from the religious society in which he has been born and educated, for the purpose of joining another, which is little known to those whom he is leaving, and which, although little known, is yet much disliked, and bitterly condemned, owes it both to them and to himself to furnish some explanation of the reasons by which he has been guided. All change of religion implies a disapprobation-qualified or unqualified-of one body, and approbation of another. And, in the present case, where the Catholics are regarded with so much unfounded jealousy and blind fear by the Society of Friends, it cannot but amount almost to a duty to shew those I am leaving, that I am leaving them with the fullest sympathy, and that the Church which I have joined is deserving of far other feelings than those with which it has been hitherto regarded." After asserting that eh Society of Friends, of which he was once a member, hold that all can be proved from Scripture, Lucas states: "Fenelon believed, and all Catholics believe, that the tenets of the Catholic faith, which Friends deny, are contained in the Scripture; Baptism, Transubstantiation, Extreme Unction, Confession, Purgatory, Invocation of Saints, are all proved out of Scripture. I say, then, that it is obviously untrue that the Holy Spirit has been promised to Christians as an infallible guide, and to supersede the necessity of an outward teaching." The Protestant theory that the Bible can be the sole rule of faith is thus disproved, for it is not clear. The Church produced the Bible, the Bible did not produce the Church. Let us consider the infallibility of the Church: "When we look into the New Testament, we find this distinction clearly recognized. The guidance given to the Apostles, in their character of Apostles, is very different from that given them as private individuals. Thus we find that St. Peter errs grievously, but his language speaking authoritatively to the Church we receive as inspired. Would the authority of St. Peter's Epistles be at all affected, if it were proved that he wrote them at the very time he was weakly yielding to the prejudices of the Jews, for which St. Paul withstood him to his face. In the general assembly of the Apostles at Jerusalem, when they discussed the obligation of the Mosaic law upon the Gentiles, while the matter is under discussion, they each give their opinions as fallible men, but the moment the Church has pronounced, these fallible and frail men declare their judgment in these terms, "It seemed good to the HOLY GHOST, and to us." The right, then, of the Church to pronounce with authority is not based by the Scriptures upon the individual faithfulness of its members, but upon their character as a Church, and is a trust given them for the benefit of future ages, not for their own individual benefit."

This Book not only represents a past in which you are as much mixed up as with that other past six years ago, but, by God's appointment, it calls up associations, which, if they are less joyous, are on that very account more tender. That Will of God, which has laid you aside and given you, apparently for life, only pain and endurance for your portion in the work of His vineyard, has disappointed many hopes and frustrated many schemes, which were more dear to us than strangers can ever understand. Yet I trust that neither of us have, even so much as in thought, rebelled against it. The various ways of dividing or regarding the Life of our Blessed Lord have always interested you with a peculiar interest, and have indeed occupied you not a little. You sent me from the Holy Land a scheme of narrating His Life, in connection with the topography of Palestine, Egypt, and the Desert, which I once fondly hoped you would have been allowed to execute. Iwill now tell you what it is that I proposed to myself in this Book. There are several ways in which we may treat of the mysteries of the Three-and-Thirty Years of our dearest Lord. We may look at each of them singly as it is in itself, full of grace and beauty, and distinctively unlike any other. Secondly, we may

IT is with painful feelings that the Catholic at his private devotions in churches at home and abroad, has oftentimes to observe groups of non Catholics examining the objects of the sacred buildings, and then departing evidently as uninstructed on what they have seen, as when they first entered. There can be but little doubt that most frequently such visitors would be delighted to receive some information on the things that thus come under their observation. To supply a little of that information in a handy form is the purpose of the present manual. The following pages and include the prayers of the Ordinary of the Holy Mass, with the hymns usually sung at Benediction; thus making the work useful as a prayer-book, wherewith to follow the words of the principal services of the Catholic Church in Latin or English. It is not intended or expected that this work will be found capable of a full perusal in church, but it is hoped that its pages may prove useful and agreeable matter for reading either before or after such visit. Let us consider the opening chapter: "ON entering a Catholic Church, the visitor's attention is naturally first bestowed on the principal or High Altar. Flowers and candles stand on either side of the Tabernacle which the Altar bears in its centre; while a single lamp, or more, burns night and day before our Lord Whose Divine Presence-reserved in the Tabernacle under the visible form of bread-is the most prominent and most sacred feature of Catholic doctrine and belief. In the Old Law, the Temple of the Jews was more than a mere meeting-house for Divine worship; it was the abode of the Ark of the Covenant of which we read (Exodus xl. 32) that the cloud covered the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled it." In the New Law, as befitting its greater spiritual dignity, the Catholic Church teaches that its temples are not less favoured than the Jewish one of old. Far otherwise, for Catholic doctrine holds as established by Holy Scripture and sacred tradition derived from the Apostles, that the Catholic "House of God" is not only the resting-place of the Cloud of the glory of the Lord, but the residence of the Lord Himself after a special or Sacramental manner.

In the first place, it is not, as some suppose, a service which concerns priests alone. It is one in which all have a part: it is the heritage of all Catholics. We may say, indeed, that it has a lay origin, for the Divine Office owes its beginning in the Christian Church to the assembling of the people together, and especially the religious of both sexes. We must bear in mind that the early monks were laymen, and in the time of St. Benedict the priest-monk was the exception, not the rule. The Divine Office has nothing especially clerical in its structure, as it is said daily by nuns without the presence of a priest, also by various secular confraternities and societies in Catholic countries. We read in the Peregrinatio Etheriae how the faithful in Jerusalem in the fourth century assembled together for the morning and evening services, and it would appear that the congregation was almost entirely composed of lay people, the Bishop with his clergy entering towards the end, when the Bishop concluded with prayer. In Rome also on Sundays and Station days, all the faithful assembled for the vigils, and although owing to the crowds great disturbances sometimes took place, still, when Vigilantius urged this as a reason for the discontinuance of the service, the Roman Church, to show the great value which she set upon the service, condemned Vigilantius. The service was eminently congregational and remained so, the earliest servicebooks bear witness to the fact, inasmuch as books were written not one for each type of service, but one for each class of person engaged in the service, as is still done in the Eastern Church; for instance, for the Mass we find the SACRAMENTARY containing the Celebrant's part, the GOSPEL BOOK for the deacon, the ANTIPHONALE MISSARUM for the singers; and for the Divine Office, the COLLECTAR for the officiant, the LESSON BOOK for the reader, the RESPONSORIAL for the singers. As time went on and piety declined, the services were performed in a less dignified manner, the old Solemn Mass wellnigh disappeared, and High Mass gave way to Low Mass, and hence all parts of the Mass were gathered into one book. In the Divine Office, when it came to be said in private, the parts assigned to officiant, reader, and singer, were gathered into one book, hence our Breviaries. The Carthusians, the most conservative Order in the Church, have kept to the old way; no Breviaries are used in choir, but the ANTIPHONER, the PSALTER, etc., are employed. The sole Breviary that is used is a small one with shortened lessons, for those monks who are sick and thus unable to attend the choir. The ideal, however, of the public service was never lost sight of. High Mass and the Divine Office were daily sung in all cathedrals and monastic and collegiate churches; and, what is more, in England, right up to the Reformation, the Divine Office was performed daily in all large parish churches; and even in the smallest churches it was performed on Sundays and Feast-days. More than this, we have proof that the lay-people attended, and each Sunday, at least, they assisted at Matins and Vespers (or to give it its old English name, Evensong).It is scarcely necessary to give examples, there are so many, and no one who knows anything of the ecclesiastical history of this country would venture to deny it. To give only two instances, Langland says that all business is to stop on the Lord's Day, and that all ought to hear God's service, both Matins and Mass, and after meat to hear Evensong. Saint Thomas More bears witness to this; he himself attended Matins, and he reproves those that neglect to do so even on Sundays. In 1557, Cardinal Pole inquired whether taverns and ale-houses opened their doors on Sundays and holy days in times of Mass, Matins, and Evensong, showing that these were the services of general obligation.

Originally published in 1915, this work is in conformity with the Decrees in place for the Little Office before Vatican II, which is the Traditional Little Office. The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin is one of the liturgical prayers of the Church, and she imposes it "on many of her children. Although the Little Office of Our Lady is considerably shorter than the ever-varying Office which the Clergy and Religious in solemn vows have to say, yet, coming as it does from the same authority, it is as much a liturgical prayer as the . Divine Office, and has the same claims to be considered a part of the official worship which the mystical Spouse of Christ, the Church, daily offers to her Divine Head. Prayer is the great duty of man here below: " We ought always to pray and not to faint" (Luke xviii. I). We appear before God under three different aspects: as individuals, as members of congregations or societies, and as members of a Divine Society. Hence there are three kinds of prayer: (I) private prayer, (2) prayer in common, and (3) the prayer of the Church, or liturgical prayer. Of the first kind, private prayer, Our Lurd spoke when He said: "But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee" (Malt. vi. 6). The second kind, prayer in common, is that which we offer as members of congregations or societies. The prayers said by the members of a family, such as morning and night prayers, the prayers said together by the members of a congregation or a community, are better than individual prayers. Our Lord praised this kind of prayer when He said: "If two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by My Father who is in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them " (Matt. xviii. 19, 20). The third kind, liturgical prayer, is much more pleasing to God; it excels both private prayer and prayer in common. It is the prayer we offer as members of a Divine Society, the Holy Church. The public prayer of the Church may be looked upon as the public act of the whole body of the Church. Those who by their Rule, approved by the Church, are charged with saying the Office, whether it be the Divine Office or the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, say it as public officers of the Church, who officially stand before the throne of God and make intercession for the whole body of Christ's Church. When performing this duty, even when alone, they cease to be private individuals; they are invested with the public character of ambassadors to the heavenly Court. But an ambassador's personal merit is of very secondary concern: What does matter is the dignity and power of him who sent the ambassador, and whom he represents. Those who take part in this public Office do not stand before God in their own name, nor yet in the name of the faithful assembled, but in the name of the Holy Church appointed by God. Her service and prayer do not partake of the worth and devotion of the .angels, but of the worth of the mystical body of Christ. This prayer of the Church is the most excellent of prayers. Private prayer and prayer in common are doubtless very good, and highly pleasing to God; but they are human prayers, necessarily defective, made and said by men who are sinners, and not always altogether pleasing to God.

Messenger of the Sacred Heart, are a continuation of a former series published in a small volume under the name of "Under the Sanctuary Lamp." It has been suggested to give this present series a new title to avoid confusion with its predecessor, which, much to the writer's surprise, has had a very wide circulation. The title of this present volume, The Fountains of the Saviour, is thought to be in keeping with the subjects treated within its pages. For the Beatitudes and the Baptist's Example and the Home at Bethany may not inappropriately be looked upon as flowing to us from the love of the Sacred Heart. It were ungrateful not to express my thanks to two very dear friends, Fathers Joseph H. Smith, S.J., and Mark McNeal, S.J., who, by their careful revision and proof-reading, have made the publication of this volume possible.

The prophesy of Abbess Maria Steiner says: "I see the Lord as he will be scourging the world and chastising it in a fearful manner so that few man and women will remain. The monks will have to leave their monasteries and the nuns will be driven out of their convents, especially in Italy... The Holy Church will be persecuted... Unless people obtain pardon through their prayers, the time will come when they will see the sword and death, and Rome will be without a shepherd. But the Lord showed me how beautiful the world will be after this awful punishment (chastisement). The people will be like the Christians of the primitive Church. The Council meets again after the victory. But this time men will be obliged to obey." The author writes: The subject I am proposing to treat, and which, if God permit, I intend at some future day to pursue down to the epoch of St. Augustine:: md St. Leo, is the history of the formation of Catholicism, that is to say, of the Church in so far as it is a visible, universal society, built upon the fra, mework of a rule of faith and a hierarchy. In the present volume on "Primitive Catholicism," I study the origins of this formation, taking the time of St. Cyprian as the term of these origins. It might indeed be contended that their real term was reached more than half a century before his time, but his writings and the discussions in which he took a leading part, show so clearly that the doctrines and institutions of Catholicism were then generally accepted, and, on the other hand, the historical continuity that had governed the development of these doctrines and institutions up to his day, makes itself so sensibly felt in these same writings, that they complete for us in an admirable manner the knowledge we are able to acquire of the two hundred years of previous Christianity. We must confess, however, that it is not without some timidity we approach the study of these two centuries of primitive history, seeing that the documentary evidence, abundant as it is, gives us but a faint idea of the early Christian life, so varied, so complex, so deep! How much light we should be deprived of, had not the Epistles of St. Ignatius and the Apologies of St. Justin been preserved! On the other hand, how much more light we should have, were the" De Ecclesia" of Melito and the "Memorabilia" of Hegesippus still extant! The discovery of the "Didache" has been a genuine revelation and has obliged scholars to correct many an inference. So too has the discovery of the Odes of Solomon. The preservation of the texts, as well as their loss, is something accidental. For this reason history, when dealing with centuries concerning which we have few and scanty documents, is a science of only approximate correctness, always susceptible of revision, except as regards certain manifest facts, and some general features inferred from several series of concordant observations. Such is the condition of primitive ecclesiology. Its history is made up of a few features which, clearly marked from the beginning, acquire with each successive generation a more vigorous and expressive prominence.

ON entering the church, ask yourself, as Blessed Berchmans was accustomed to do: Where am I going? I am going to present myself before the Eternal Father, to offer Him the sacrifice of His Divine Son. Then, knowing that you are in the presence of God, kneel with deepest respect before the holy altar. Renew your general intention to honour God; add to it expressly the offering of your Communion in union with the objects of the Sacrifice. Propose to yourself a special intention, which you may plainly express, so as not to content yourself with vague prayer; which are apt to be made without sufficient fervour. Consider this meditation: THE soul, a simple and spiritual being, has need of motion, of food, and of rest, like the body. Being created in sympathy with God, it finds in Jesus Christ its type, its sphere, its aliment Being made in the divine image, its activity is thought, its light is truth, its rest is in confiding prayer. In the soul, all activity and all lively or profound feelings tend to produce actions equivalent to their strength; it is then necessary for its welfare that it should be united to Jesus Christ on earth, because He alone can feed it with food suitable for it, capable of developing its activity; of satisfying its needs. In the Holy Eucharist our Lord places Himself at the disposal of the soul. One Communion ought to be enough to attach us irrevocably to Him. Between God and the soul there exists a resemblance, and therefore a harmony; in the beginning there was even a close intimacy. But sin has destroyed the resemblance, and turned the harmony into discord. And now the infinite greatness of God, and our littleness, are brought near to each other, by means of the Incarnation and the Holy Eucharist. Nothing more venerable or more tender can be imagined than the relationship established between Jesus in the Eucharist and the soul of man. This relationship begins upon the blessed day of first Communion, which develops the germ of supernatural life first implanted in us at baptism: and in everyone of our future Communions our Saviour increases and perfects that supernatural life in the soul. I have had a spiritual childhood of which I remember even less than of my bodily infancy. Perhaps the first awakening of reason implanted in my mind the remembrance of some early fault. My youth, though marked by precious graces, yet leaves me the regret that at that age I did not do good without constraint. I deluded myself with passing desires which had not Jesus for their object and end. How carefully I observed the rules laid down for my studies, but how little solicitude I showed to keep faithfully the solemn compact made with my God in presence of the Sacred Host! Still more do I grieve for having afterwards tarnished the beauty of my soul by contact with the world. My soul perhaps loved that imperfect life and desired not its own revival. If I dwell upon those days of error and illusion, it is in order to feel more deeply how much I ought to love Jesus who has delivered me from them. o my Saviour, it was not Thine intention to come into my soul to form with it a passing union only, neither to dwell inactively therein. Thine intention was to make it better. Thou didst seal it with Thy Blood, with the intent that it should retain a sign to call ever to my remembrance Him who for my sake delivered Himself up freely to the bitter death of the Cross for me. Thou hast signed me with that sacred unction which Thou hast Thyself received, and caused my name of Christian to be formed out of Thy name of Christ. May that mysterious sign shield me from all my enemies. Preserve to my soul the health which Thou hast restored to it, and keep it ever under the direction of Thy grace.

A GENIUS is said to be "a man or woman who knows something about almost everything, and almost everything about something." But if any boys or girls became acquainted with God's Wonder Book, the Missal, they would know almost everything about almost everything! How easy it would be to learn if we loved the Book of the Mass! Indeed, how hard it would be not to learn, if only we loved "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." It is strange to think that if we really loved Jesus we should find a delight in learning, say, geography. How much geography, and not of the dry sort, is in the feast of the Transfiguration or of St. Ambrose. What a fine history hunt is provided by the feast of St. Augustine, St. Patrick, or St. Rose of Lima. As for languages, almost our smallest children at school know a little Latin, Greek, and even Hebrew! The writer of this book loves two things, and therefore has given us a book, easy to open and hard to close-she loves children, and she loves the Child Jesus. Both they and He will thank her for "God's Wonder Book." YOU have all seen the deacon or server accompanying the priest to the altar carrying the large Mass book which is called the Missal, have you not? And have you not often wished that you could read your Mass from it like the priest? How to do this is what you and I are going to find out together. You will want a Missal of your own, but not quite so large as the priest's, and I think, too, you would rather it was not all in Latin. You can get the kind you will want at the Catholic repository in your town if you ask for a "Missal for the Laity."

Mr. Taylor begins by stating that when a person becomes a Catholic, he is considered a lunatic. And this is indeed what the world thinks. Catholicism demands much from Catholics. So why would anyone want to become a Catholic? Taylor proceeds to go into great detail as to his prejudices against the Church and serious in depth study into the whole matter, which led to his conversion. "The greatest objection against the Catholic Church, that I had always harbored, was, that she has ever been an unrelenting persecutor of all who have differed from her in faith. I had been taught to believe, that her horrid butcheries have stained with blood the pages, of history; and that, had she the power to-day, she would not allow a Protestant to live. The persecution of heretics is with her a sacred work: their extermination, by brute force, is her great aim and object. This is no exaggeration: it is distinctly affirmed by many prominent Protestants." He then considers the matter fully. While considering persecution he says: "While investigating sections of history, for the purpose of learning something about persecution, I came across several scraps that have a bearing On another charge often leveled against the Church; namely, that it has always been her steady care and sensible interest to check every aspiration of her people towards intellectual culture." He then notes: "Few institutions connected with the Church have been more falsely described or foully defamed than the monastic orders. Since the time of Henry VIII."

T HERE is nothing in this world more common than affliction, and nothing is more vain and frivolous than the consolations which are most frequently offered to dry the tears of those in sorrow. There is no true or solid consolation except in religion, especially when the sorrow is caused by the loss of some dearly loved friend. How many mourners have declared that they could be reconciled to the separation if only they knew that their dead friends were happy, if someone would unveil for them the mysteries of the world beyond the grave! Only religion with its Gospel and its revelations, the religion of Christ with its great dogmas of Purgatory and the Communion of Saints, can give them the enlightenment they desire. It tells us that if our dead friends are in heaven, they are in possession of a happiness which nothing on earth can equal, and that if they are still in purgatory, we, by our prayers and good works, can make satisfaction for them, relieve their sufferings, and shorten the time of their detention. This little work is intended to comfort those who are in sorrow by showing them what consolation is to be found in devotion to the holy souls; and for that purpose it presents the doctrine of the Church according to the writings of her holy Fathers and Doctors and the revelations of the Saints

This book is especially designed for the instruction of novices who sincerely desire to enter a religious community. It may be read with much fruit by all those who wish to lead exemplary lives. It is supposed that when you begin to peruse this Manual, you'do so through an earnest desire of advancing in virtue. We take it also for granted that you are convinced of the expediency of choosing the state of life which God has destined for you at your birth, because He attaches to it special help and graces. For men there are three states to which a special vocation is attached: the priesthood, the religious state in a community approved by the Church, and the lay state, Women are called only to the two last named. In the lay state there are the state of marriage and the state of virginity. The latter is in itself more perfect than the former but not for all, for to some the words of St. Paul may be applied, that "It is better to marry than to burn." Although this volume may be read with fruit by priests who are in charge of religious communities and by all those who wish to live holy lives, it is mainly intended for the instruction of postulants and novices, who desire to embrace the religious state, whether in a contemplative order or in an active religious institute, for the practical lessons are particularly applicable to them. St. Thomas teaches without the least hesitation that the essence of Christian perfection consists primarily in the love of God, and secondarily, in the love of neighbor for God's sake. There is then a perfection that we can attain in this world, a true perfection, which is a perfection according to man's nature, aided by God's grace, .and it is this perfection or charity to which we should all aspire according to the words of St. Paul: "Have before all charity which is the bond of perfection," as if he said, strive to possess the virtue of charity, which unites all the virtues into one homogeneous whole, and in that, perfection consists. Again the same Apostle says: "Love therefore is the fulfilling of the law," for he that loves God and his neighbor fulfills all that God has commanded, according to the Savior's words: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God. and thy neighbor as thyself. On these two Commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets."

THE present volume has been prepared for the special use of theological students, who, being already acquainted with the leading facts of the Biblical narrative as found in most Bible Histories, need -to be introduced to the scientific study of Holy Writ upon which they enter, by a more accurate and thorough knowledge of the History of the Jews. Not. indeed, that the present work is intended to supply students with a detailed and continuous narrative of all the historical facts recorded in the Bible such as would enable them to dispense with a careful perusal of the Sacred Books themselves. The writer is fully persuaded, on the contrary, that the Inspired Text should ever remain pre-eminently the text-book of Biblical students, and that whatever else may be placed at their disposal should be only helps calculated to promote their closer acquaintance with the Sacred records. Whilst therefore describing the events of Jewish history in such a way as to recall them sufficiently to the minds of the careful readers of the inspired books of the Old Testament, whilst also constantly referring to the Bible for further details, the writer has aimed at supplying theological students with much of what is needed for a scientific study of the History of the Jews. It is with this distinct purpose in view that he has embodied concisely in this work the best ascertained results of modern criticism-and recent exploration through Bible Lands, and has availed himself of every source of information to make Jewish history at once more intelligible and more attractive. It is for the same purpose that he has taken notice of the principal difficulties which are daily being made on historical grounds to the facts narrated in the Biblical records, and has suggested briefly the best answers which have been offered. I t is believed that the Biblical student will also be greatly benefited by the references to sources, which he will constantly find in the text-book now placed at his disposal. Whilst aiming principally at meeting the requirements of clerical students, the writer is not without hopes of doing service to a much larger number of readers. For example, teachers of Sacred History in Sunday-schools, colleges, academies, and the like, who constantly feel the need of something more consecutive and methodic than is supplied by the Sacred Text itself or by the popular manuals, will rejoice to meet it in the present volume. Perhaps even the deeper student of Biblical history will occasionally find in its pages views and suggestions new and helpful. Finally, if the writer of the present work has not dealt with the great facts of the Creation of the \Vorld, or the Fall of Man, etc., which are narrated in the opening chapters of Genesis, it is chiefly because their study is not directly connected with the history of the Jewish people as a nation, for this history begins strictly with Abraham, the first distinct ancestor of the chosen people, and also because this study may be more profitably postponed to a later period in the Biblical training of theological students.

I must point out here the principal works of documents on which I have drawn for this book, and explain my manner of reference. I. First and foremost come the writings of the Saint herself: -Her Life; The Book of the Foundations; The Way of Perfection; The Interior Castle. These I quote from the translation by Pather Bouix (Librairie Lecoffre), and since the editions are numerous, and the pagination of them may differ, I refer as a rule to chapters. One of the most important sources is furnished us by her Letters. Of these the new edition of Father Gregoire de Saint-Joseph is that to which I refer. Beyond question. This valuable publication sets right many interesting points and gives us a very large number of fragments which, if not all hitherto unpublished, in the strict sense of the word, had never been translated into French. As often as possible have given the date of the letter: this gives facility. in certain cases, for referring to Pather Bouix's translation. Next come: The Manner of Visiting Convents, a pamphlet, Rules- and Constitutions of the Carmelites. II. General History of the Carnulite Friars and Nuns of the Reformed Order of St Teresa, compiled in Spain by Pather Prancisco de Santa Maria, new translation (with notes) by Pather Marie Rene. At present published 5 vols. 4to. Lerina Abbey. 1896 (not on sale). Memoir on the Foundation, Government and Rule of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns. published on behalf of the Carmelite Nuns of the first convent of Paris. 2 vols. large 8vo. Reims, 1894. Pather Ribera. Life of St Teresa in 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, Lecoffre. The Bollandists. The Spain of St Teresa, an album composed of plates representing all the Carmels of Spain and various memorials of the Saint, with explanatory letter-press, published at Ghent bJ Mr. Hye Hoys (1893). Finally, I cannot refrain from paying a debt of gratitude and of the highest esteem to the two volumes of the writer henceforth widely known under the humble name of the "Carmelite Nun of Caen". The fear of challenging too rashly a perilous comparison has been my chief reason for adopting in this work a less rigidly chronological order, in places where, in default of lengthy narrative. I have perhaps been able to bring into fuller light certain important passages in the life of the Saint.

Though the mists of time have closed down to some extent on those early days, Adamnan wrote his Life of Columba only a hundred years after the Saint's death. Cuimine the Fair was abbot at lona when Adamnan was there as a monk, and Cuimine had known Columba, had been trained under him as a lad and had himself written a short Life, De virtutibus sancti Columbae, which Adamnan quotes almost entire in his Third Book. Adamnan had therefore every advantage for the writing of Columba's life: he lived soon after the Saint among those who had known him; he had all the manuscript records of the monastery to draw upon; he wrote at Iona amid the scenes and in the atmosphere in which Columba had lived, probably even in the very hut he had occupied. And Adamnan was a native of Connacht; he belonged to the same royal race as Columba and was born only twenty-seven years after the Saint's death. Abbot of lona from 679 till 704, Adamnan was a remarkable man for those times, a scholar who could write Latin and was acquainted with Hebrew and Greek, a diplomat who persuaded the Celtic Church to make several important changes in its government and who secured the "lasting liberation of the women of the Gaels" from taking part in battle. These points are mentioned to show that Adamnan was not merely a monk on a lonely island, but one of the representative men of his time. It was at the request of his brethren that he undertook to write the life of the founder of the Columban Church, a document which is the earliest piece of historical literature connected with the Highlands-" the most complete piece of such biography. Europe can boast of, not only at so early a period, but through the whole Middle Ages." It may be asked why, when that Life still exists, there is any occasion for this one. The answer is that Adamnan's so-called Life is not a biography. It is a collection of anecdotes not arranged in chronological order and not complete. Adamnan does not tell us all he knows; he tells us nothing he considers derogatory to his hero, and most of his stories are chosen because they lead up to a miracle or a vision. History is of little importance to Adamnan, what he wants to do is to give a portrait of Columba as he saw him. Consequently although his Life is a priceless document of antiquity, there is a great deal which it does not tell us as it might conceivably have done. To the student of Celtic antiquity, of early religion, and particularly of the pre-Christian religion of our own country, Adamnan's Life of Columba is as full of riddles as it is of information. It gives us a bright and fresh picture of one particular phase of Scottish life in those early times: we see the monastic system as it was practised in Ireland and then in Scotland in the sixth century of our era, painted in vivid colours with a considerable amount of detail, but as to what lay outside of monastic life we gain from it very little information. A bright piece of real life with a great circle of darkness round it into which we would give much to be able to penetrate, that is what Adamnan gives us. By inference we learn much from his pages that he does not directly tell us, but his Life is incomplete, and must be supplemented by the old Irish Lives: that in the Book of Lismore, edited by Dr Whitley Stokes: that in the Leabar Breac or Speckled Book of MacEgan and that of Manus O'Donnell, a member of the clan from which Columba sprang, who in 1532 caused a Life of his illustrious kinsman to be compiled from every available source both in Latin and in Irish, in manuscript and in tradition. But these Lives, too, are collections of stories and legends rather than biography.

Archbishop Patrick John Ryan writes: "THE Rev. A. J. Schulte, Professor of Sacred Liturgy in the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, Overbrook, is about to publish several works on the Rites and Ceremonies of some of the principal Functions of the Roman Pontifical and Roman Ritual. From what we have read of this addition to our liturgical literature, we feel safe in recommending it to the clergy of the Archdiocese. Father Schulte has made this department of sacred science a special study for several years and has been eminently successful in conveying to others his knowledge of its details. An extensive, exhaustive, and practical treatise is the natural outcome of such applied qualifications on the part of the gifted and industrious author. Hence our recommendation." Father Schulte also wrote Benedicenda: Rites and Ceremonies to be Observed in Some of the Principle Funcations of the Roman Pontifical and the Roman Breviary

This is a fifteen volume set, which is being brought back into print for the edification of the Faithful. Anyone who wishes to appreciate the timeless Tridentine Mass and liturgy will find this set a valuable aid in that endeavor. Dom Gueranger has produced a most excellent work, which began the liturgical movement. We pray that this set of books will bring many more to a true appreciation of the Latin Mass and the Divine Office of the Catholic Church. At one time, under the impulse of that Spirit, which animated the admirable Psalmist and the Prophets, she takes the subject of her canticles from the Books of the Old Testament; at another, showing herself to be the daughter and sister of the holy Apostles, she intones the canticles written in the Books of the New Covenant; and finally, remembering that she, too, has had given to her the trumpet and harp, she at times gives way to the Spirit which animates her, and sings her own new canticle. From these three sources comes the divine element which we call the Liturgy. The Prayer of the Church is, therefore, the most pleasing to the ear and heart of God, and therefore the most efficacious of all prayers. Happy, then, is he who prays with the Church, and unites his own petitions with those of this Spouse, who is so dear to her Lord, that he gives her all she asks. It was for this reason that our Blessed Saviour taught us to say our Father, and not my Father; give us, forgive us, deliver us, and not give me, forgive me, deliver me. Hence, we find that, for upwards of a thousand years, the Church, who prays in her temples seven times in the day, and once again during the night, did not pray alone. The people kept her company, and fed themselves with delight on the manna which is hidden under the words and mysteries of the divine Liturgy. Thus initiated into the sacred Cycle of the mysteries of the Christian year, the faithful, attentive to the teachings of the Spirit, came to know the secrets of eternal life; and, without any further preparation, a Christian was not unfrequently chosen by the Bishops to be a Priest, or even a Bishop, that he might go and pour out on the people the treasures of wisdom and love, which he had drunk in at the very fountain-head. For whilst Prayer said in union with the Church is the light of the understanding, it is the fire of divine love for the heart. The Christian soul neither needs nor wishes to avoid the company of the Church, when she would converse with God, and praise his greatness and his mercy. She knows that the company of the Spouse of Christ could not be a distraction to her. Is not the soul herself a part of this Church, which is the Spouse? Has not Jesus Christ said: Father, may they be one, as we also are one? and, when many are gathered in his name, does not this same Saviour assure us that he is in the midst of them? The soul, therefore, may converse freely with her God, who tells her that he is so near her; she may sing praise, as David did, in the sight of the Angels, whose eternal prayer blends with the prayer which the Church utters in time.

All members of the Brown Scapular Confraternity are Carmelites and thus called to the spirit of Carmelite prayer. So this work, which is prepared for religious will also be useful for all who wear the brown scapular. What pleases me above all is that the author insists so much on the meditation of the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the pure doctrine of our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, and of our Father St. John of the Cross. "No one can advance in virtue", says the latter, "but in following Our Lord Jesus Christ; He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only gate by which anyone who pretends to be saved, should enter. Let the first care of your heart therefore be, to excite in yourself an ardent desire to imitate Jesus Christ in all your works, trying to do everything as Our Lord Himself would do it. And our Holy Mother Teresa teaches us that "in the beginning of the life of prayer; we should meditate assiduously on the life of Jesus Christ", that "meditation on the Passion is the method of prayer by which all should commence and continue"; that "it is a sure and excellent road which we should not leave: until Our Lord Himself raises us to higher ways". Finally she assures us that "if we accustom ourselves to remain with Him, He will never abandon us; He will assist us in all our needs, and will accompany us wherever we go". I could cite many other texts also, but these profound words of our two great mystical Doctors are powerful enough to convince the soul that will take these "Spiritual Exercises" for a guide, that in the beginning of her retreat she should resolutely enter the school of Jesus Christ as she is often reminded during the course of these instructions. The author himself, I am convinced, insists so much on this because he was inspired not only by the doctrine of our Holy Parents, but also by that of the great St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose plan he has followed as traced in the retreat of Manresa.

Saint Thomas Aquinas compiled a set of catechetical instructions. This books follows the basic plan of a catechism, beginning with the Apostle's Creed. This if followed by ten Commandments and an explanation of the Sacraments. This work closes with a section on the Lord's Prayer, commonly known as the Our Father and on the Hail Mary.

Since the age of Luther and the Protestant Revolt, indulgences have been to non Catholics one of the least understood and most criticized institutions of the Catholic Church. Some of the misconception is undoubtedly due to the fact that the writings of Catholic historians, lay or cleric, too generally ignore the point of view of the intelligent non-Catholic. Some of it, equally without doubt, is due to the failure of non-Catholic secular historians to avail themselves fully even of the means at hand to understand the ecclesiastical viewpoint. In the present essay, which Fr. Ross has put into such straightforward English, Dr. Paulus has not concerned himself with the doctrine of indulgences, and for that reason, perhaps, his book will make a wider appeal to the non-Catholic mind. Frequently the indulgence was merely a permit to commute one form of penance into another, and Dr. Paulus has pointed out the social significance of this fact. Fasting or some other such penance was changed into a contribution of money or service to some useful public undertaking, and Dr. Paulus presents an impressive list of these works due to a commutation of penances, or indulgences. The list includes the construction and maintenance of churches, schools, hospitals, and other charitable institutions; bridges, dams, roads, harbors and fortifications, and the stimulation of such important social movenlents as Crusades and the Truce of God. This latter was the first really effective step taken to end the almost universal petty warfare, pillage, and banditry of the early Middle Ages, and of itself would give importance to this feature of indulgences. In making this contribution to Church history easily accessible in English, Fr. Ross has rendered a service of genuine value.

This is a photographic reprint of the original to insure faithfulness to the original. THE emotion of friendship is amongst the most mighty and the most mysterious of human instincts. Materialistic philosophers delight in tracing even the most exalted emotions - art, religion, romance - to purely carnal sources; to the instincts of the propagation or sustentation of physical life; and yet in this single experience at any rate - when we class together, as we can, all those varied relationships between men and men, women and women, as well as between men and women, under the common title of friendship - materialistic philosophy wholly breaks down. It is not a manifestation of sex, for David can cry to Jonathan "Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women"; it is not a sympathy arising from common interests, for the sage and the fool can form a friendship at least as strong as any between two sages or two fools; it is not a relationship based on the exchange of ideas, for the deepest friendships thrive better in silence than in speech. "No man is truly Iny friend," says Maeterlinck, "until we have each learned to be silent in one another's company." And this mysterious thing is as mighty as it is mysterious. It is bound to rise, so far as it is true to the laws of its own development, to a pitch of passion far beyond that of ordinary relations between the sexes. Since it is independent of those physical elements necessary to a love between husband and wife, it can rise mysteriously higher in certain respects, than the plane which those elements sustain. It seeks to win nothing, to produce nothing-but to sacrifice all. Even where the supernatural motive is apparently absent, it can reflect on the natural plane, even more clearly than does sacramental wedded love, the characteristics of divine charity. On its own plane, it also "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things ... seeketh not her own ... is not puffed up." It is the salt of perfect matrimony, but it can exist without sex. It takes its place with those other supreme departments of human experience - art, chivalry and even religion - and it is not the least noble of the company.

AFTER the mission is over and the parish has come back to every-day piety, there are always some good souls in trouble of conscience, and the pastor or ordinary confessor is slow to place the blame of the trouble on the preaching of the missionary. For has he not weekly experience of some of his flock taking in a wrong sense his own matter-of fact Sunday announcements, which he has dinned into their ears in plain words and strong tones? And how can he now be surprised that doctrines of theology or spirituality have not been caught right by all, or that burning words of censure, which had to be spoken for the lax sinner, have been taken especially for themselves by the saints of over delicate conscience? They fear that some things are now certain which were told as doubtful, and the answer is that even though they are now certainwhich the confessor denies-the sincere telling them as doubtful was enough. They fear that they may have consented fully to some grievous temptation without being fully conscious of such consent, and they are told in the language of the old ascetic that this is as absurd as to suppose a roaring lion could be in a well kept room without being noticed there. They fear that the fact that they have the same kind and number of venial sins to tell every week is an evident sign that they lack a serious purpose of amendment, and the confessor takes this fact as evidence that they have a most serious purpose of avoiding sins of worse kinds and of checking the number of these venial faults, if they are really sins at an and not, most of them, mere temptations. Again, they fear that they are making no progress and had better give up trying, because year in and year out they have the same defects which they have not conquered. But, granting that they have the same defects, they must not forget that goodness is not only negative, but also positive, that it is not only in avoiding bad acts but also in doing good acts; and that so long as we are in the state of habi tuaI grace, or friendship with God, and remain in this state, by avoiding any act of mortal sin, even though we may be then committing many deliberate venial sins and thereby heaping up fuel for our purgatory, we may be, at the same time, doing countless good acts and heaping up treasures of gold, or supernatural merit, for heaven and eternity. So that if we have been living such a life, it would be better for us to die next year than this year, or tomorrow than to-day, because we should thus be higher in heaven, with more good works following us there. But as the Imitation, the Introduction to a Devout Life, and other such books, which were originally written for particular classes, are no, v perused with fruit by persons of all the classes who have souls to save or sanctify; so, too, this little treatise on the fundamental practical truths may gain a warm and wide welcome. Its easy, copious style makes it well suited for reading in the refectory. With a few phrases blotted out here and there, the director of the Holy Hour or such other popular devotions, will find in it many meditations that seem made to order for him. Preachers of Missions, or of Lenten instructions to the people, or of retreats to communities, will discover in it a rich mine of matter easy to assimilate. May this little book help many souls to depth and fulness of Catholic life.

A 'religious ' must needs look upon prayer as the most practical as well as the most important activity in life. Any book which can make the ways of prayer more frequented, which can guide the bewildered, and above all can assist the clergy in doing some of the most difficult as well as the most necessary of their tasks), cannot but be sure of a welcome from every religious. But for a religious Superior to commend a book which springs from his own Community is a more delicate matter, and requires a belief in the book's value which is not always necessary to the writers of prefaces. The book would seem to me to be one that may be commended not only to the notice, but also to the careful and above all devout study, of those called upon to direct souls - and this on two separate grounds. First, if one can judge, the book is timely. The Tractarians, great men of prayer as they were, were forced, by the very circumstances of the case in which they found themselves, to concentrate upon the one basic end of the recovery of Catholic dogma. The English Church seemed to be in a parlous state, and its most alarming symptom was that it could see it appeared to have discarded its appeal to the Early and Undivided Church, and to be in danger of becoming an isolated entity in itself: With the vision of the Church Catholic, whose commission was from outside time, whose strength and whose message were not her own, the English Church's hope revived, and slowly from that hope came confidence and fulfilment. But this was only a first step. The laity-even that butt of the more worldly clergy, the' ecclesiastically minded' laity-do not absorb theology as a rule from reading it; or, even if they do, its implications and corollaries are as a rule obscure to them. If the Oxford Movement was ever to become more than a clerical mental attitude, then there would inevitably be needed another restoration, the restoration of Catholic worship. The battle for this was bound. to be longer, because such a restoration was more practically startling to the plain mind than any abstract doctrinal emphasis. But we can roughly say that by the outbreak of the war the battle had been won in many parts of the kingdom, or at least was going successfully. But the victory for Catholic worship produced in its turn a new need. The keynote of Catholic worship is latria, that prostrate adoration by the' nothingness, ' which is the human soul, of the supreme and everlasting 'All, ' that is God - that adoration which Baron von HUgel called ' the heart of religion.' But once this conception of religion had been regained even to a slight extent, the old-fashioned 'pietism' which the eighteenth century at its best had substituted for devotion was bound to be inadequate to the needs of souls. The restoration of Catholic devotion inevitably had to wait until the preliminary steps of restoring Catholic Faith and Practice had been taken. Devotion is alike their fruit and their only guarantee of life. But to change the whole current of a soul's life, let alone that of a Church, is often enough a dangerous business. Certainly, even where it is most tranquilly accomplished, there will be swirlings and eddies and something of a backwash. In this case the process has been complicated to an indefinite extent by the simultaneous impact upon the English mind not only of the Catholic tradition, but of a number of other forces, racial, psychological, critical, and moral (or frequently antimoral), which, though they have arisen outside the religious world, have their full effect upon i

Studying the Lives of the Saints will help us imitate their virtues. Some may ask, why study the lives of the Martyrs? Their lives are extraordinary in that they suffered the cruelest of torments for the love of Jesus Christ, which we will not be called upon to suffer. There are many reasons to study the lives of the Saints. Saint Alphonsus tells us: "It maybe useful here to remark, with St. Augustine, that it is not the torture, but the cause, which makes the martyr. Whence St. Thomas teaches that martyrdom is to suffer death in the exercise of an act of virtue. From which we may infer, that not only he who by the hands of the executioner lays down his life for the faith, but whoever dies to comply with the divine will, and to please God, is a martyr, since in sacrificing himself to the divine love he performs and act of the most exalted virtue. We all have to pay the great debt of nature; let us therefore endeavor, in holy prayer, to obtain resignation to the divine will-to receive death and every tribulation in conformity with the dispensations of His Providence. As often as we shall perform this act of resignation with sufficient fervor, we may hope to be made partakers of the merits of the martyrs. St. Mary Magdalene, in reciting the doxology, always bowed her head in the same spirit she would have done in receiving the stroke of the executioner." And there is a further reason to study the lives of the Martyrs. Martyrdom is not something that is offered to the mediocre, but to the fervent Christian. Some martyrs lived a century of holiness prior to consummating their martyrdom. Martyrdom is a straight ticket to heaven, but it is a ticket that is often earned by a pious life. True there are those very few, who convert and then are immediately martyred. But many more lived a fervent Christian life, which was crowned with the grace of martyrdom. Althoguh we may not give our lives in the manner they did at the end, we can give our lives in the manner they gave their lives before called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.