Bøger af Brother Hermenegild Tosf

This work will be excellent for those who wish to truly make the First Saturdays advised by Our Lady of Fatima, as an essential requirement is fifteen minutes meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary in addition to reciting a third part of the Rosary. THE name of the world-renowned preacher, Father Monsabre, the author of the Meditations now presented to English readers, is a sufficient recommendation of their utility and intrinsic value. The devotion of the HOLY ROSARY has always been a favorite religious exercise among English-speaking Catholics, and it becomes more and more popular in these countries according as Providence has improved our condition and multiplied our numbers in the present century. Hence we offer these admirable Meditations on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary to our co-religionists of all classes with respectful confidence. In order to clear away all doubts as to the person holding authority to establish canonically, in any mission or parish, the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, it may be well to remark that this jurisdiction is vested solely in the Master-General of the Dominican Order, or in his vicar when the general is absent from Rome. This is manifest from a great number of Papal decrees issued on the subject during the last six hundred years. Special attention is called to two decrees of Pope Innocent XI., issued respectively on the 18th of April, 1678, and on the 31st of July, 1679. The same fact is elaborately and definitively explained in the Bull of Pope Benedict XIII. bearing date of the 20th of May, 1727. Hence, that the confraternity may be canonically established, application must be made to the Master-General of the Dominicans in Rome; and this is usually done through the Provincials of the different nations in which the Order of St. Dominic exists. The explanation hereby given has for its object the securing to all devout clients of the Rosary whatever indulgences and spiritual benefits may have been, at any time, attached to this great devotion. Father Monsabre has published seven series of "Meditations" on the Rosary, only three of which we give at present to English readers. The success of our first venture will insure the early publication of the remainder. The French work has gone through twelve editions. We attach to onr little volume the Encyclical of our present Sovereign Pontiff, Leo XIII., given on the 1st of September, 1883. This magnificent document relating to the Rosary, along with his other letters to the same effect, may be said to constitute a new epoch in the history of this devotion. THE ROSARY is a form of vocal prayer accompanied with a meditation upon one of the fifteen mysteries, distributed into three series the Joyful, the Sorrowful, and the Glorious Mysteries. The Joyful Mysteries are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. The Sorrowful Mysteries are the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carriage of the Cross, the Crucifixion. The Glorious Mysteries are the Resurrection of Our Lord, the Ascension, the Coming of the Holy Ghost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and Her Coronation. The sacred art of the Rosary consists in reciting devoutly the prescribed prayers, whilst the soul, piously occupied in meditation on the Mysteries, conteluplates and draws fruit from the various circumstances in which our Blessed Saviour and His Most Holy Mother appear.

This is a collection of sermons. The first one begins: "The mysteries of the Church, a materialistic scientist once announced to an astonished world, are child's play compared with the mysteries of nature. He was completely wrong, of course, yet there was every excuse for his mistake. For, as he himself tells us in effect, he found everywhere in that created nature which he knew so well, anomaly piled on anomaly and paradox on paradox, and he knew no more of theology than its simpler and more explicit statements." The sermons cover the following paradoxes: Peace and War Wealth and Poverty Sanctity and Sin Joy and Sorrow Love of God and Love of Man Faith and Reason Authority and Liberty Corporateness and Individualism Meekness and Violence The Seven Words Life and Death

Saint Alphonsus tells us a good story: "If a traveller, on his journey to his own country; were to stop and spend his all in building a palace in a land through which he ought only to pass, and neglect to provide a dwelling for himself in that country in which her was to reside his whole life, he would be thought mad. And must not the Christian be deemed mad who think only of gratifying himself in this world, through which, he has only to pass during a few days, and heeds not the danger of being miserable in the next, where he must live forever, as long as God shall be God?" This holy saint tells us: "An act of contrition and of love makes us friends of God." He then warns: "St. Teresa said that all sins had their origin in a want of faith." Let us consider this well and then heed his advice: "Therefore, in order to overcome our passions and temptations, we ought constantly to revivie our faith by saying: I believe the life everlasting. I believe that after this life, which will soon be ended, there is an eternal life, either full of joys, or full of pains, which will befall me, accotding to my merits or demerits." Let us consider these six rules to become a saint and we are all called to become saints: "If, then, we truly desire to become saints, let us resolve: "1. To avoid every venial sin, however slight. 2". To detach ourselves from every earthly desire. "3. Let us not cease OUI- accustomed- exercises of prayer and mortification, however great may be the weariness and dryness we feel in them. "4. Let us meditate daily on the Passion of Jesus Christ, which inflames with divine love every heart that meditates upon it. "5. Let us resign ourselves in peace to the will of God in all things that trouble us, as Father Balthazar Alvarez said, "He that in troubles resigns himself to the divine will, runs to God as swift as by a post." "6. Let us continually beg of God the gift of his holy love."

Some persons derive most benefit from reading the Lives of the Saints in which the supernatural and the extraordinary abound. They delight to see the wonderful display of the power of Divine grace in so frail a creature as man. These biographies, that are written more for our admiration than for our imitation, strengthen our faith in the supernatural, and inspire us with a great confidence in the goodness and power of God. And certainly in these days we need to stimulate and strengthen the life of faith and trust in Providence. The rapturous flights of St Joseph of Copertino have hardly a parallel as to frequency and duration in the lives of the saints. What is related of Christina Mirabilis, who lived 1150-1224, has been suspected of exaggeration, but our saint, having lived in more recent times, this his miraculous characteristic could easily be established in an authentic manner. Father Pastrovicchi wrote his life of St. Joseph on the occasion of the beatification of the saint, 1753. Pope Benedict XIV, to whom the work is dedicated, wished that for each fact related the episcopal and apostolic processes should be cited. This was done. Father Suyskens remarks that the caution of citing the official documents was well employed. "Since the words of the Psahnist, ' God is wonderful in His saints' (Ps. 67, 36), were verified in a singular manner in the life of St. Joseph, it was fitting that the extraordinary facts of his life should be attested in such a manner that credence could not be denied them." Father Gattari regards these miracles as wrought in support of the doctrine of the Real Presence, the authority of the Pope, sacramental Confession and the veneration due to saints, truths which in the time of the saint were impugned by the followers of Luther and other heretics. The fame of the fltights of St. Joseph spread throughout Europe and led to conversions as in the case of the Duke of Brunswick.' Another explanation offered is, that these miracles counteracted the diabolical arts (witchcraft and necromancy, especially in the kingdom of Naples) and superstition then prevalent To a degree our biography is a .. panegyric," with its drawbacks of "generalization" and "superlatives," but it is by no means "a dreary inventory of virtues and miracles." Some of the narratives, as in Chapter VI and IX, are very charming, "invested with all that tender simplicity and charm which voiced itself in the poetic narratives of the Fioretti." This first extensive biography of St. Joseph of Copertino in English was made from Sintzel's German translation of Fr. Pastrovicchi's Life of the saint. Only after years was it possible to procure the Italian original and verify the rendering. In the editions of Pastrovicchi of 1753 and 1767 the text is not divided into chapters; these (thirty in all) are indicated by Roman numerals at the beginning of paragraphs; the chapter titles and the references to the Acts are printed in the margin. The division of the text and the chapter titles in the present work are new. The original marginal titles are preserved in part as sub-titles in the Table of Contents. The numerous references to the Acts in the original have been omitted; likewise, in the interest of delicacy or conciseness. several passages in the body of the work. Details of the canonization, sanctuary, etc., have been added. Other small additions have been made throughout the work, dates and names have been inserted, and obscure passages made clear. The editions used for these changes are marked in the bibliographical list. Saint Joseph is also known as Saint Joseph of Cupertino.

You have asked me, brother Godfrey, to expand and put in writing the substance of the addresses 'On the Degrees of Humility which I had delivered to the brethren. I admit that, anxious as I was to give to this request of yours the serious answer that it deserved, I was doubtful whether I could comply with it. For with the evangelist's warning in my mind, I did not venture to begin the work until I had sat down and calculated whether my resources were sufficient for its completion. Then when love had cast out the fear that I had entertained of ridicule for failure to complete my work, it was replaced by misgiving of a different kind; for I was apprehensive of greater danger from the credit that might attend success than of the disgrace that might attach to failure. So I found myself, as it were, at the parting of the ways indicated respectively by affection and by fear; and I was long in doubt as to which was the safer choice. For I was afraid that if I said anything worth saying about humility. I might myself be found wanting in that virtue, whereas if, on grounds of modesty, I refused to speak, I might fail in usefulness. And I saw that, though neither of these courses is free from peril, I should be obliged to take one or the other. So I have thought it better to give you the benefit of anything that I can say, than to seek personal safety in the harbour of silence. And I earnestly trust that, if I am fortunate enough to say anything which commends itself to you, I may have in your prayers a safeguard against pride, whereas ifas is more likely-I produce nothing worthy of your attention, there will be no possible cause for conceit. THE TWELVE DEGREES OF PRIDE TAKEN DOWNWARDS 1. Curiosity, when a man allows his sight and other senses to stray after things. which do not concern him. 2. An unbalanced state of mind, showing itself in talk unseasonably joyous and sad. 3. Silly merriment, exhibited in too frequent laughter. 4. Conceit, expressed in much talking. 5. Eccentricity-attaohing exaggerated importance to one's own conduct. 6. Self-assertion-holding oneself to be more pious than others. 7. Presumption-readiness to undertake anything. 8. Defence of wrong-doing. 9. Unreal confession-detected when severe penance is imposed. 10. Rebellion against the rules and the brethren. 11. Liberty to sin. 12. Habitual transgression.

The question of the validity of Anglican and Episcopalian Orders is indeed a deep subject. This booklet is offered to help those researching this subject. The writer of this pamphlet has no interest in controversy. It is not controversial. Anyone who thinks to find in it a word which offends against that aspect of charity which we know as courtesy, will misread wholly the purpose of the writer. What follows is an attempt to state as concisely as possible, in a bare outline, the reasons why the Catholic Church considers Anglican orders invalid. It may not be beside the point to say that the writer knows a number of Anglicans whose good faith he respects, and whose honest search for truth he honors. These persons occupy a position which is trying. Their cheerful effort to deal with the insuperable difficulties involved in the "Anglican Position" are ample proof of their entire sincerity. There are persons in the Anglican Church, both clergymen and laymen, who are fully convinced that Anglican clergymen are priests-in the Catholic sense of the word. In other words, they believe that Anglican ministers have power to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, and to give absolution from sin. Moreover, they think that such clergymen speak with the authority promised by Our Lord to His Apostles and their successors.

The first meditation is: We are going to contemplate our High Priest who sacrificed Himself for us; we are going to look into the eyes of the suffering and triumphant Christ. The subject of our considerations will be found in these words of the Creed: "Who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. .. He rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven." Love for our Lord will flame up within us when we look upon His infinite sacrifice for us, when we gaze upon His sufferings, His agony. That our reflections may be of lasting benefit to our souls, we must see clearly the purpose of our Lord's suffering. We must try to grasp man's spiritual misery and his unavailing spiritual struggle before the coming of Christ. Why did the Son of God become man, what is original sin, who is this Redeemer, what is this redemption, what do we mean when we say that we are now redeemed? These are the questions we must first consider so that we may take our stand in spirit beside our Savior as He climbs His lonely path to Cal vary, suffering for our sakes. Today we ask what brought Christ to our midst on earth; in other words, the reason why the Son of God became man. We can answer that the Son of God became man to teach us, to redeem us, and to educate us to the perfect glorification at God.

This work contains: The Church and Personal Liberty The Christian State The Education of Woman Marriage The Value of Work The Priest and Social Reform. The Responsibility of Wealth The Idea of Responsibility Religious Aspects of Social Work The Working-man's Apostolate: The Catholic Working-man a Misstoner Conditions essential to the Workingman's Apostolate Duties of the Catholic Working-man at the Present Time S, Francis and You: The Franciscan Vocation The Three Radical Evils in Society at the Present Day The Need of Personal Service The Church and Personal Liberty begins: T HE old things have gone and the new are before us. At every moment in our existence, once we have passed the initial stage, is this saying true. Whilst we live we can never rest in what we have achieved, but every step gained is but an indication of further progress. "To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often"; and that is true of all life, intellectual, social and political. In our time the change has been of so radical a character as to Justify us in regarding the period as one of the most momentous in the history of Christian civilization. For several centuries Christendom has been undergoing a process of disintegration. The system built up by patient and heroic toil during the long medireval period has slowly and violently been shivered and broken up. Today but little of it remains; but out of the destruction has sprung a new order of things. We can see now more distinctly than those who were engulfed in the maze of the transition, whither we are tending; and out. of the contradictions and violences of their struggle we perceive a new system emerging, having a shapely form of its own and imperative in its demand upon our allegiance. Call it what you will-democracy or constitutionalism or any name you like-the thing itself is here and will remain, penneating our whole social life. And the more frankly we recognize the fact the better it will be for us. We cannot go back upon the past, but we can, if we are wise, take our part in shaping the future. And this is manifestly the duty of all Catholics according to the measure of their opportunity.

"The Goad of Divine Love" has ever been held in high esteem by Saints and devout persons. There is a note, in an antique hand, on the margin of one of the MSS., which says: "In my opinion this book may be called the book of life, and a compendium of the compendiums of the whole doctrine of beatitude." Louis of Granada compared it to the Meditations of St. Augustine, and St. Francis de Sales called it "most excellent." Some portions of the work-e.g., the "Meditation upon the Great Sorrow the Blessed Virgin Mary had on Good Friday "-are as beautiful as anything to be found in the whole range of mediaeval ascetical writings. It is impossible not to be struck by the devotion to the Sacred Passion that breathes in almost every page, as well as by the evidence of the most tender love of the writer for the glorious Mother of God. Lastly, the name of St. Bonaventure, with whom the treatise is associated, gives it a special interest for English-speaking Catholics when we remember that Pope Clement IV. offered the Archbishopric of York to the Seraphic Doctor. Through profound humility the great disciple of the lowly St. Francis could not be prevailed upon to accept the honour. Had he come to our shores, and shed the radiance of his seraphic love of God over our beloved country, the aftercourse of her history might have been widely different, and the England of to-day be still united to the See of Peter, an Island of Saints, and an example of faith to the world

This little book is intended to be a brief but reasoned exposition of the principal doctrines which constitute the faith of a Catholic. It will be of use in the instructions that are given at missions, and will serve as a text-book for colleges and academies. It divides itself into three parts, answering the question implied in the title, "What Christ Revealed," dz., 1. The Church that teaches; II. The Creed that is taught; III. The Sacraments that sanctify.

THE story of "Father Tom and the Pope," which first appeared in Blackwood's Magazine of May, 1838, has been ascribed to more than one contributor to that periodical, but the narrator of the memorable events of this" Night at the Vatican" has thus far seen fit to remain concealed under the pseudonym of Michael Heffernan. Instead of attempting to decide the question of authorship, we shall preface the present edition with a short notice of the original Father Tom, so that all readers may know the incidents which suggested the story. The Reverend Thomas Maguire was R. C. Priest of the parish of Innismagrath about the year 1825, and was well known in the counties of Roscommon and Leitrim. He was educated at Maynooth, and had the reputation of heing a man of ability and learning, although somewhat eccentric. Having a handsome person, a social disposition, and great fondness for horses, hounds, etc., he was universally popular in the part of Ireland in which he lived. In 1827 he had a public controversy with the Reverend Richard T. P. Pope, a Protestant clergyman from Cork, on the doctrines of their respective churches. This controversy had the unusual result of terminating in a friendship between the disputants, which continued until the early death of Mr. Pope in a foreign land. Father Tom at once became an object of popular admiration as a "champion of the church," but he did not receive the preferment which his friends though the merited. Against a charge of immoral conduct, made apparently for the purpose of extorting money, he was triumphantly defended by O'Connell, whose services he requited, at the election in 1828, by actively exerting his influence in behalf of the great agitator. In the Gentleman's Magazine of March, 1848, there is the following notice: "Died, Dec. 3d, at his residence near Ballinamore, in the county of Leitrim, the Reverend Thomas Maguire, P. P. He used to boast that he was the best shot, the best courser, the best quoit player, the best breeder of greyhounds, pointers, and spaniels, and the best brewer of 'scaltheen' in the whole county of Leitrim. He is supposed to have been poisoned by his housekeeper, together with his brother and sister-in-law." It is said, however, that his death was occasioned by tasting water supposed to have been poisoned for the malicious purpose of destroying some of his favorite dogs.

In the chapter on Impediments to Progress we read: "Once in a dream two friends were speaking together on spiritual things, and one offered to read an extract which she knew would please the spiritual Father. He intently listening, she read as follows: "If you will progress in a spiritual way, you must leave your hold of a thousand tons." The Father thought it very striking; but he saw at once it was putting an old truth in a new way: and after waking he remembered the saying, non nova, sed nove. Truly, in the natural order there is no getting on with plain impediments to progress. Fancy trying to walk with huge weights chaining the feet! Or to see the way in darkness without a light! Or to ascend a mountain in a sick and weakly condition! No reasoning is needed in cases of sheer incompatibility. Intuition serves us all alike. It tells us at once that impossibilities are out of the question. Parallels between nature and grace run very closely. A spiritual life means the sweet and willing subjection of man's spirit to the spirit of God, by the inner life of mutual love between the soul and God, formed as a habit disposed to its acts. But man has a body of flesh about him, the allurements of the world pressing around him, evil spirits in league against him, and all this in conjunction with his own unreformed and active human spirit. Considering, too, the multiplied repetition of these workings formed into habits, that become the spring of constant action, breeding many "perverse habitudes," and we see at once what abounding impediments to spiritual life and progress are likely to be found seated and settled in the soul. The all-wise providence of God acts by law, as in nature, so in grace. And in the grant of God's best and perfect gifts the law is to have impediments removed before the grace is given. Divine faith is a gift. And we may wonder sometimes why some obtain it and others not. The explanation is simple. While earnest souls are determined to give all for the pearl of great price, following up their first, second, and succeeding lights till coming to perfect day, others seem not to wish to be persuaded-the costs are great, the wrench tremendous, the sacrifices vast. Alas! they have the light to see, but not the courage to do. The intellect and will are thus at variance; and faith is of the will as well as of the mind. Thus the attachments of the heart hold back the spirit from following the divine light. Here are the impediments to faith. No man cometh to Our Lord except the Father draw him. But the soul is not drawn because it is held. To be held and to be drawn are incompatibilities. A soul is drawn by love; and here it loves the things that hold it-they draw it and keep it strongly tied. The soul can not be drawn on and held back together. Here we see impediments to the gift of faith.

THE full title of this work is, "De Vita et Beneficiis Jesu Christi Salvatoris Nostri Meditationes et Orationes." In the table of contents for the thjrd vohune of Sommalius's "Opera Omnia" of Thomas it Kempis it is simply spoken of as "De Vita Christi Meditationes"; and so at the headings of the pages on the one side we have "De Vita Christi," and on the other, "Meditationes'' It is found in the second edition of the above work. It occupies rather nlore than a hlmdred pages with an index at the end; and is placed at the beginning of the third volume, double columns, small type. It does not appear in the first edition, and, after its appearance in t.his second edition, it. disappears altogether, in a strange and most unaccountable manner, without any explanation, in all future editions. This has tended in no small degree to discredit the work. To this subject some reference will shortly be made. But the first and principal question that will be asked is, How do we kno w that this "De Vita" was written by Thomas it Kempis. That other evidence, besides its appearance in this edition, is there that he was the author of it? It is important to give an answer on this point before we proceed further, because it may be said, "Its appearance in only this one edition is slight ground to build upon, and unless you have some more satisfactory and decisive 'proof to produce, you are not justified in so deliberately speaking of the 'De Vita Christi Meditationes' as the work of Thomas a Kempis."

This is a photographic reprint of the original to insure faithfulness to the original. THE following Treatise is the message or teaching of S. Francis de Sales to the Calvinists of the Chablais, reluctantly written out because they would not go to hear him preach. The Saint neither published it nor named it. We have called it "The Catholic Controversy," partly to make our title correspond as nearly as possible with the title "Les Controverses," given by the French editor when the work was posthumously published, chiefly because its scope is to state and justify the Catholic doctrine as against Calvin and his fellow-heretics. It is the Catholic position, and the defence of Catholicism as such. At the same time it is incidentally the defence of Christianity, because his justification of Catholicism lies just in this that it alone is Christianity; and his argument turns entirely on the fundamental question of the exclusive authority of the Catholic Church, as the sole representative of Christianity and Christ. This is the real point at issue between the Church and the sects, and therefore he, as officer of the Church, begins by traversing the commission of those who teach against her. He shows at length, in Part I., that she alone has Mission, that she alone is sent to teach, and that thus their authority is void, and their teaching but the vain teaching of men. This teaching he tests in Part II. by the Rule of Faith. Assuming as common ground that the Word of God is the Rule of Faith, he shows that the socalled reformers have composed a false Scripture, and that they err also in rejecting Tradition or the unwritten Word of, God. And then, proceeding to the central point of his case, he shows that while the Word of God is the formal Rule of Faith, is the external standard by which faith is to be measured and adjusted, there is need of a judge who may explain, apply, and declare the meaning of the Word. That judge is the Holy Catholic Church. She is thus the necessary exponent of the Rule of right-believing, and each of the voices by which she utters her decision becomes also a part of the Rule of Faith, viz., her own general body, Councils, Fathers, and her supreme Head and mouthpiece, the Pope, the successor of S. Peter and Vicar of Christ. Miracles and harmony of doctrines may be considered the complement of the Rule of Faith. In all these matters the Saint proves conclusively that the Catholic Church alone fulfils the necessary conditions. In Part III. he comes to the doctrines of the Church in detail, but of this Part there only remain to us three chapters on the Sacraments and an Essay on Purgatory. This may suffice as to the aim and subject-matter of the Treatise. Of its intrinsic merits the author's name is sufficient guarantee, but we add more direct testimony because it is a new revelation of the Saint.

This is a new story - the loveliest story that we know of - the story of the Family Rosary. It begins in a little house at Nazareth: there, at the message of an Angel, Our Lady conceived her Divine Son and began to live the beautiful truths of the Family Rosary - the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. For centuries men and women who were true Christians lived by these eternal truths. But a time came in the thirteenth century when men forgot them. Christian civilization seemed to be dying out. All kinds of disorders had sprung up among peoples and nations. Anti-Christian doctrines were openly offered as spiritual food for God's children. Then it was that God raised up one of His great saints, Dominic, a learned scholar and devoted child of Mary. There seemed to be no hope of saving a sin-oppressed world. Dominic did not lose courage. He had a Mother who would not fail him. With all the fervor of his soul he called upon her. Then, according to tradition, the lovely Queen of Heaven and Earth appeared to him holding a Rosary in her hand, taught him how to pray it, and instructed him to preach it to the world. These are her words telling the secret of its power: Introduce the Rosary devotion everywhere; teach it to the people and tell them that this devotion is most pleasing to my Divine Son as well as to me. By means of the Rosary devotion, virtue will flourish, vice will be destroyed, heresy will perish, and Divine graces will be obtained. The Rosary will be an inexhaustible fountain of every kind of blessing. I promise you that I will prove by many graces how pleasing this devotion is to me and how profitable to the faithful." This was what Dominic had been waiting for. He did introduce the Rosary to the people, as his Lady asked, but more than that, he made it his life's work. The people must have been waiting for it, too, for they took it from the churches to their homes. It became the prayer that conquered vice, caused virtue to flourish, and brought Divine graces and blessings to everyone.

ONE of the most important efforts made by Pope Leo XIII., during his long and glorious pontificate, was to promote a greater love and esteem for the Holy Scriptures. Not only did he urge upon ecclesiastical students and professors the need of a profounder and a more critical and exhaustive study of the Hebrew, Greek and other texts, but he also strongly recoIn mended the Inspired Volume to the devout use and attentive consideration of all the faithful in general. In earnest and loving words he exhorted his two hundred and fifty millions of spiritual subjects scattered throughout every land to familiarise themselves more and more with the Written Word of God. So anxious was he that his advice should be laid to heart that he granted to everyone, who should spend a quarter of an hour in reading or meditating on the Holy Book, a special indulgence. In pondering over the words of this holy Pontiff we are forcibly put in mind of what other saintly men have said on the same subject. "There must be," says St. Basil, "assiduous and constant reading and meditation of the Holy Scriptures, in order to bring out and impress upon the mind the majesty of the hidden truths therein contained." "To read the Holy Scriptures," exclaims St. Augustine, in his 112th sermon, "is to obtain no slight knowledge of Divine beatitude. In the Scriptures, as in a mirror, man can see himself, and what he is, and whither he is going. Regular reading of the Holy Scriptures elucidates all things, it instils a fear of hell, and lifts up the heart of the devout reader to heavenly joys. He who desires to be ever in the company of God ought to pray and read without ceasing, for when we pray we speak to God, and when we read (the Scriptures) God speaks to us." Indeed St. Anthony of the desert was wont to say that "the Gospel was a letter from God sent to us from heaven," and St. Charles Borromeo had such a respect for it that he was accustomed to read it bare-headed and on his knees, while some of the saints, such as St. Cecilia, for instance, used to carry it in their bosoms, and never allow anything but death to part it from them. St. Jerome's advice to a young wvidow was always to read each day a certain fixed number of verses". "Pay God this tribute," he wrote to her, "and never retire to rest without having first filled the basket of your heart with this provision of sacred verses." Pius VII., in a Rescript to the Bishops of England, 18th April, 1820, bids them "encourage their subjects to read the Holy Scriptures, because nothing can be more useful, more consoling, or more animating. They serve to confirm the faith, to raise the hope and to inflame the charity of the true Christian." With these and silnilar, vords conling to us from the highest authorities, and still ringing in our ears, we think it may be useful to set before the Catholic public some general account of the Divine Book, together with the vicissitudes through which it has passed, and the abuses as well as the uses to which it has sometimes been put. To the learned and the leisured we by no means address ourselves. For such as these innumerable works of great erudi tion already exist. Our task is a far simpler one, and more befitting our weakness. We address ourselves to the masses of the people-to the multitudes that fill our churches, to the ordinary men and women of the world, to tradesmen, artisans and labourers, whether in field or in factory-in a word, to those, any millions of men and women whose occupations allow them little time for deep study and prolonged and wearisome research. We have done our best to avoid all perplexing, abstruse and recondite questions and contentions (amid which it might be imprudent, if not perilous for us to attempt to thread our way), while the points upon which we have touched we have endeavoured to explain so that every one, who cares to con our words, may readily grasp their drift and meaning.

These essays are: THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS HOME TRAINING THE OFFICE AND FUNCTION OF POETRY A WEEK IN ROME THE IRISH DRAMATIC MOVEMENT CATHOLIC JOURNALISTS AND JOURNALISM THE RELATION OF THE CATHOLIC JOURNAL TO CATHOLIC LITERATURE WHAT IS CRITICISM? THE RELATION OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TO CATHOLIC LITERATURE CATHOLIC INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES THE CATHOLIC ELEMENT IN ENGLISH POETRY The first essay commences: The Church, the Home and the School these are the trinity that mould our lives, fashion our character and fit us for the knighthood of heaven and the knighthood of earth. Each of this trinity has its great work to do. The Church pours upon the new-born the regenerating waters of baptism and makes it a child of God and heir to the Kingdom of Heaven; the home represented in the father and mother keeps watch over the seedlings of grace implanted at baptism in the garden of the infant heart and nourishes those seedlings, while the school trains will and heart and mind to follow the precepts of truth and hearken to the voice and admonitions of God. Now, the nearest representative of God in regard to the child is the Church, but the Church during the first five years of the child cannot exert her care directly over it, so that the life of grace implanted through baptism must remain without nourishment unless the parents-unless father and mother watching over the seedlings of grace implanted by holy baptism in the heart of the child, foster by piety, precept and prayer the tender buds of faith and love that later will bear beauteous blossoms in the full summertide of the garden of life.

R Read with regard what here with due regard, o Our Second-Ciceronian Southwell sent; B By whose persuasive pithy argument E Each well-disposed eye may be prepared, R Respectively their grief for friends' decease T To moderate without all vain excess. S Sith then the work is worthy of your view, o Obtract not him which for your good it penned; U Unkind you are if you it reprehend T That for your profit it presented you; H He penned, I publish, this to pleasure all, E Esteem of both then as we merit shall. W Weigh his work's worth, accept of my goodwill E Else is his labour lost, mine crossed, both to no end; L Lest then you ill-deserve what both intend, L Let my goodwill and small defects fulfil. He here his talent trebled doth present, I my poor mite, yet both with good intent; Then take them kindly both as we them meant. IF it be a blessing of the virtuous to mourn, it is the reward of this blessing to be comforted; and He that pronounced the one promised the other.

The Tenebrae is the Divine Office for the Sacred Triduum, the last three days of Holy Week, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

After a discussion of the Bridgintine Breviary, given by Our Lord to Saint Bridget we proceed to her life. THE. life of a saint who, played so important a part in the history of her time as St. Bridget of Sweden seems to require a slight sketch of the state of Europe, of the Church, and especially of the Papacy, during the period in which she lived, 1808-78, as a prelude to her biography and as a help to the understanding of her work and character. She lived throughout the greater part of the fourteenth century. Now the. watchword of that century was 'Reform.' In 1811, when Clement V consulted William Durandus as to how to hold the Council of Vienna, he answered, 'The Church ought to be reformed in its head and in its members.' The reformation of the clergy, and especially of the religious, Orders, was the leading idea of the time among thoughtful churchmen; it was, as we should say, 'in the air.' It rang through all the fourteenth century, and it's octave note was struck at the Council of Pisa in 1409. As this idea of reformation developed, it became twofold: there was the reformation desired by loyal Catholics, the friends of the Church, and there was, later on the so-called reformation desired, and unfortunately accomplished only too successfully, by the enemies of the Church, those schismatics and heretics known as the Protestant Reformers. It is sometimes said that St. Bridget was a pioneer of the Reformers. If by this is meant that she belonged to the Catholic Reformers, the true sons of the Church, it is true; but no one would have detested more the heresies of Luther, Huss, Calvin, and Knox, and the rest of the Protestant Reformers, than the Swedish seer had she lived in their time. Laxity in the observance of monastic discipline, especially with regard to the precept of Holy Poverty, had crept into most of the religious Orders, and a reaction had set- in among the Franciscans, and had led to quarrels between the two parties, among the Friars Minor, of the 'spirituals' and the 'conventuals.' The spirituals went to the length of maintaining that a friar had no right of property even in his own food; but they were theP1selves split up into several parties. While St. Bridget was still a child, Pope John XXII published his celebrated constitutions, condemning the Fraticelli and their communistic ideas. Then arose another dispute, when the General of the Franciscan Order land our William Ockham, known as the 'invincible doctor, ' also a Friar Minor, maintained that Our Lord and His Apostles possessed nothing, either individually or in common; they and their followers belonged to a school of philosophic thought called the Nominalists. A year later John XXII published a second decree pronouncing this to be heresy, and, as the authors of it persisted in teaching it, he excommunicated them, and they went over to the party of the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria. Notwithstanding these decrees, the echoes of these disputes were heard when St. Bridget was in Italy, in 1350-73, pursuing her great work of bringing the Popes back from A vignon to Rome.

In the ascetical writings of the holy Bishop and Doctor of the Church, St. Alphonsus de Ligouri, there is a characteristic charm and an irresistible attraction. Whoever reads them with the proper dispositions will discover in them an indefinable something that appeals to the heart and stirs it to its very depths. We imagine we see the loving personality of the holy Bishop before us, and hear the words of eternal life from his very lips. According to a beautiful legend, the visitor at the shrine of St. John at Ephesus can hear the pulsations of the Saint's heart enclosed in the tomb. The heart of Alphonsus still throbs in his ascetical writings, where the whole being of the Saint seems enshrined. Little wonder therefore that the reverence and love entertained towards him in life should have passed to his edifying works, the reflex of his very self. There are few ascetical writers more widely known and more sincerely loved than St. Alphonsus. The present volume is made up of choice selections from the various ascetical writings of the Saint. The order of virtues considered is that followed by the spiritual sons of St. Alphonsus in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. For each month of the year is assigned a particular virtue to which they are to devote their especial attention. This is a practice highly recommended by the masters of the spiritual life, and is fraught with the happiest results. It is hoped that the faithful will derive spiritual profit and pleasure from this course in "The School of Christian Perfection." Saint Alphonsus Mary de Liguori was born in 1696 near Naples, Italy, to a noble Neopolitan family. He was the son of a captain of the royal galleys. St. Alphonsus received a doctorate in both canon and civil law at the age of sixteen, and practiced law very successfully for eight years. But he abandoned the practice of law to become a priest, being ordained in 1726. In 1732 St. Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists. This order was established in the face of huge difficulties; it was even divided by a schism at the time of St. Alphonsus' death. The Redemptorists have become famous for giving "missions" to enkindle and rejuvenate souls with true religious fervor. In 1762 St. Alphonsus was obliged to become Bishop of St. Agatha. As bishop he reformed his small but slack diocese, but chronic ill health forced him to retire and he devoted himself anew to ascetical and moral theology. His experience in a lay profession, combined with natural common sense and sweetness of disposition, helped much to make him the best known of all moral theologians. St. Alphonsus wrote numerous books, including his Moral Theology; of his many excellent devotional works, the masterpiece entitled The Glories of Mary is the most famous. He also spent much time combating anticlericalism and the heresy of Jansenism, and he was involved in several controversies regarding probabilism. During the last years of his life St. Alphonsus suffered from ill health, especially from rheumatism which left him partially paralyzed. He experienced the dark night of the soul for several years toward the end of his life, but this period of suffering was followed by a period of peace and light during which he experienced visions and ecstasies, performed miracles, and made prophecies that later came true. St. Alphonsus died in 1787, within two months of his 91st birthday. He was canonized in 1839, and in 1871 Pope Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Church. His body rests in the church of his fathers at Pagani di Nocera.

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.

HUMAN society is the work, not of man, but of God. It is constituted, not by the collective will of the human individuals who compose it, but by the single will of God who created them. God, had He so willed it, might have made mankind to be simply a collection of human individuals, each isolated from the other, and each independent of the other. He might have multiplied men, in the same way as He made man; or He might have ordained some method of production which should have left man as independent of his fellow-man for his human existence, as was the first man Adam. Had God done so, the formation of human society might have been still in a certain sense God's work, but not in that sense in which we affirm it to be His work. He might have been the Author of human society in the sense that He is Ruler and Governor of men, but not in that precise and strict sense in which we say that He is the Author of human society as He is the CREATOR of human beings.

This is a reprint of the 1916 edition. THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY is an official and accredited record, on the pages of which are set forth in simple and brief, but impressive words, the glorious deeds of the Soldiers of Christ in all ages of the Church; of the illustrious Heroes and Heroines of the Cross, whom her solemn verdict has beatified or canonized. In making up this long roll of honor, the Church has been actuated by that instinctive wisdom with which the Spirit of God, who abides in her and teaches her all truth, has endowed her, and which permeates through and guides all her actions. She is the Spouse of Christ, without spot or wrinkle or blemish, wholly glorious and undefiled, whom He loved, for whom He died, and to whom He promised the Spirit of Truth, to comfort her in her dreary pilgrimage through this valley of tears, and to abide with her forever. She is one with Him in Spirit and in love, she is subject to Him in all things; she loves what He loves, she teaches and practises what He commands. If the world has its "Legions of Honor," why should not also the Church of the Living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth? If men who have been stained with blood, and women who have been tainted with vice, have had their memory consecrated in prose and in verse, and monuments erected to their memory, because they exhibited extraordinary talents, achieved great success, or were, to a greater or less extent, benefactors of their race in the temporal order, which passeth away, why should not the true Heroes and Heroines or Jesus, who, imitating His example, have overcome themselves, risen superior to and trampled upon the world, have aspired, in an their thoughts, words, and actions, to a heavenly crown, and have moreover labored with disinterested zeal and self-forgetting love for the good of their fellow-men, have their memories likewise consecrated anti embalmed in the minds and hearts of the people of God? If time have its heroes, why should not eternity; if man, why should not God? "'rhy friends, 0 Lord, are exceedingly honored; their principality is exceedingly exalted!" Whom His Father so dearly loveth, the world crucified; whom the world neglects, desvises, and crucifies, God, through His Church, exceedingly honors and exalts. Their praises are sung forth, with jubilation of heart, in the Church of God for ages on ages.

Children, even in large numbers, and entirely ignorant of music, will easily acquire them. The method I would recommend for teaching them is the echo system. It is practised in the fol1owing manner: The teacher sings one phrase himself, then, with a tap or little stroke of a ruler, gives the signal that the children are to repeat immediately the phrase he has sung. If they make any mistake, the teacher will repeat the phrase until they learn it well. One phrase being learned, the next win be taken up, the teacher singing and the children following immediately at the signal as before, until phrases enough are learned to form a period. The teacher will go over the phrases already learned, and the children will repeat first two phrases at a time, and then four, until the whole period is learned. One period being learned, the others will follow, until the whole piece is sung correctly. To obtain good results from this method, the following rules must be carefully observed: 1. Strict discipline must be maintained among the scholars. 2. The person teaching must sing with a distinct, decided, and clean enunciation of both notes and words, bringing out more expressly those notes which the scholars; seem to have most difficulty in seizing with precision. 3. The children must be trained and compelled to sing always sotto-voce, until they have learned well the piece they are studying. 4. It is of the greatest importance that the scholars shall not begin to sing until the signal is given by a tap of the ruler, when they must begin immediately, and all together. The habit of singing very piano while learning has an excellent effect on children, who are so organized that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be induced to pass into the upper register, or the 'Voce di testa. If they are called upon to sing an ascending scale, they keep on as long as the lower range, the Voce di petto, and voce di mezzo will allow, but when they get up to the high notes they either stop, or else force the voice to a scream. To allow them to go on in this way would put them out of hreath, and might do them serious injury, ruiniug thcu voices perhaps forever.

Anne Catherine Emerich is also known as Anna Catherine Emmerick. The work of Father Schoemeger inspired this work. The author intends to have inserted, at some considerable length, specimens of those "Contemplations" of Anne Catharine which are least well known to English speaking Catholics, especially the contemplations which relate to the active life of our Blessed Lord. These already exist in two several translations in French, but have not hitherto, as far as I am aware, been given in our own language. I found that it would have been difficult to bring the selections within reasonable compass, unless all idea of going over the whole of our Lord's preaching, however cursorily, had been abandoned, and I have therefore thought better to reserve these translations for a separate publication, which I hope may soon appear as a supplement to the present volume. This being the case, it is also natural to defer till the same opportunity some prefatory remarks on the general subject of the visions or contemplations of Anne Catharine which were intended to accompany the translations just mentioned. In truth, the Life of Anne Catharine is a complete study and picture in itself. She might have had her mission of suffering and expiation at a time which in so many respects resembled our own, she might have been the holy peasant child, the misunderstood and persecuted nun, the Religious driven back to the world by the tyrannical suppression of her convent, the ecstatic and stigmatized representative of the Passion of our Blessed Lord in days of unbelief and chastisement, without having also the other gift and the other vocation which were bestowed on her-the gift of marvellous and almost perpetual insight into spiritual truths in the Conn of visions representing the life of our Lord and of the Church, and the vocation of reviving the faith and rekindling the love of so many by the communication of what she saw and heard. These latter gifts, indeed, are not usually and regularly, in the order of God's Providence, imparted to souls less highly enriched than Anne Catharine with the solid treasures of sanctity; but not all who are as holy as she was have shared the special privileges of which we speak. It is, therefore, quite lawful to separate, in a slight sketch like the present, the Life of Anne Catharine from the relation of her marvellous visions, and to use the former as a sort of introduction to the latter. It need hardly be added that nothing in the present volume relating to the more marvellous side of the life and actions of Anne Catharine is put forward as resting upon more than simply human authority. I have understood that great veneration for her exists in Germany, and it could hardly be otherwise in the neighbourhood where many must still be living who have seen and conversed with her, and felt the blessing of heaven fall on them in answer to her prayers. The records, also, of her contemplations must have made her name well known over the whole Catholic world, and few can have read them devoutly without finding themselves drawn more near to our Blessed Lord in consequence. But I have heard of no measures taken to ensure her enrolment among the saints of the Church, and we are thus destitute even of the guidance and security which an ecclesiastical process might have given us as to her virtues, or as to the graces bestowed on her or on others by her means.

Let us consider the early life of Joseph Damien de Veuster: "Every age, happily, has its heroes. Some die for country; others for a cause; some have sacrificed themselves for the many, others for an individual friend or stranger; but the sacrifice of Joseph Damien De Veuster was not as these. For though he died that others might live, his object was not so much to preserve the life of the body as to ensure the salvation of the soul. For that alone did he, in the flower of his manhood and the glory of his days, go down to a living death in the lazaretto, pouring out the riches of his health and strength in the service of the stricken, and wrestling singlehanded with the spirits of darkness for the souls made reckless by despair. And this superhuman labour of love was to continue in health and sickness for sixteen years, even until he, too, fell a victim to the disease, and experienced in his own person the dissolution of the grave. "Before a sacrifice so awful, so complete, so absolute, the world held its breath. It was greater than heroism, better than bravery. It was the defying of death and the challenging of hell. And for what ?-that he might save the souls of sinners." Father Damien wrote home to his parents: " I have plenty of cares and troubles, my dear parents, still I am very happy. Our Bishop has just made over to me a new parish, a little larger than that of Tremeloo! It takes me quite a month to get round it. Here we cannot travel by rail, or by carriage, or on foot. The islanders rejoice when they see Kamiallo and me coming. I like them immensely, and would willingly give my life for them. . .. So I do not spare myself when it is a question of going to visit the sick, or any other persons seven or eight leagues distant." The life of Father Damien in the Sandwich Islands of Hawaii is inspiring and a must read in these days, when such self-sacrifice is rare.

This simple work begins: Q. WHAT is the Sacrament of penance? A. It is a Sacrament by which the sinl we fall into after baptism are forgiven us. Q. Is-this sacrament necessary for salvation? A. It is necessary for salvation to all those who have lost their baptismal innocence by mortal sin. Q. Will then that Christian be certainly lost for ever, who, having been guilty of a mortal sin, dies without the means of receiving this sacrament? A. No; because in such eases of necessity, this Sacrament, like baptism, may be supplied by the desire of receiving it, accompanied with an act of perfect contrition. Q. When did our Saviour institute the sacramant of penance? A. After His resurrection, when he laid to his apostles, and in their persons to their successors: receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained; John xx. 22.

We know that Jesus Christ, our incarnate God, with His body and blood, soul and divinity, with His glorified body, is really, truly, and personally present in the Holy Eucharist. It is from the Altar that He delights most to receive our homage and adoration, to hear our prayers and to grant our petitions. We go to His Temple Home, therefore, when we can do so, to honor Him as our Saviour, to adore Him as our God, to obtain His forgiveness for our sins, to ask Him for all that we need, and to thank Him for His many blessings. We attend His services, as we ought, assist devoutly at His Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and receive Him in Holy Communion worthily and frequently. While in the church with the Blessed Sacrament, ve are mindful of the fact that, ve are with Jesus our God as truly as are the angels and saints in Heaven, and that He sees and knows us, perceives our every thought, hears our every prayer, loves us with infinite love, and grants us His grace and blessing. Do we not, however, too often forget that Jesus, our Emmanuel, our God with us, Who is enthroned as our divine King in heaven and Who can do all things, is watching over us at all times with infinite justice and love, beholding all our actions, perceiving all our thoughts and desires, and hearing all our words? If we become more abidingly conscious of this truth, with the sincere love that we have for Jesus our Saviour, will we not strive more earnestly to avoid all that offends Him and endeavor more zealously to give pleasure to His Sacred Heart? Will not our love for Him be more personal and intense? Our indifference to Jesus comes generally not from malice but from ignorance and forgetfulness. It is to be hoped that this little book will be placed near at hand where it can be taken up and read at least for a few moments daily, and that it will serve to remind us and to make us appreciate as we ought that we are at all times with Christ, our Friend and our God

The Sisters of the Visitation of Wilmington, Del., have conferred a great benefit on the Catholics of all English speaking countries by translating the following beautiful meditations, meditations so full of lively faith and of sweet unction, as to deeply impress all who make use of them. The late Bishop Becker of Savannah, who had previously filled the See of Wilmington, greatly encouraged the Sisters in their labor of love, and, after perusing their translation, wrote under date of September 12th, 1895, the following words of appreciation: "These very thoughtful meditations suit every believer. Their beauty is incomparable, for they are simplicity itself. We have been both edified and instructed whilst merely reading the translation. It seems to be correct, and is given in terse English. We highly commend the work, and deem it worthy of approbation." The translators say that their translation has been a work of love, having the sanction of obedience. They humbly hope that it will receive the blessing of God and be "a love-lighted torch" to guide many souls heaven- - ward, bringing to them, as it did to the translators, peace and consolation. rrhese meditations are well calculated to benefit not only ecclesiastics and religious, but also the pious laity. The editor, in order to adapt the work to the wants and devotions of our time and country, has added the following meditations, taken principally from the Meditations of Father Bronchairn, C. SS. R. - Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; - for the first Friday of every month, - for the feasts of St. Francis Xavier, St. Paul of the Cross, St. Catharine of Siena, St. Philip Neri, St. Antony of Padua, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Holy Name of Mary, the Holy Rosary, and St. Stanislaus Kostka. Each page of this work has been hand inspected prior to publication for completeness. Other publishers merely scan and reprint errors and all, and possibly even missing pages.