Spirituality
Spirituality for the Individual
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
The French School of Spirituality

March - April 2020

By this name of Spiritual
Exercises is meant every
way of examining one’s
conscience, of meditating,
of contemplating,
of praying vocally
and mentally, and of
performing other spiritual
actions, as will be said
later. For as strolling,
walking, and running are
bodily exercises, so every
way of preparing and
disposing the soul to rid
itself of all the disordered
tendencies, and, after it
is rid, to seek and find
the divine Will as to the
management of one’s life
for the salvation of the
soul, is called a Spiritual
Exercise.
St. Ignatius, 1st Annotations of the
Spiritual Exercises

Letter
from the
Publisher
Dear Reader,
Allow me to present to you an unusual issue of The Angelus. Indeed, this one is geared toward Catholic spirituality. It is unusual for the pages of this magazine which we usually dedicate
to social, family, and polemic topics, such items which demand urgent attention from most of
us. Yet, it is good sometimes to return to the essentials, to refresh ourselves with things both
simple and sublime like the beatitudes, the life of Christ, the sacraments, in a word, Church
spirituality.
The word “spirituality” may be daunting for many of us. Most of us are aloof to such things,
sunk as we are to the neck in the whirlwind of 21st-century cybernetic, immersed in the worldly
world, having to fight daily mundane struggles. How much time do we have left to dedicate to
the “only necessary thing,” our soul and God? And so, from time to time, like on the occasion
of a Lenten meditation or a yearly retreat or a summer pilgrimage, we want to freshen up our
mind and deepen our contact with God within, God who is more intimate to us than our own
soul.
As you go through the index of this issue, you’ll appreciate the various touches we wished
to include in this palette, distributed according to multiple religious spiritualities or the key
periods of spiritualities begotten in time of special needs. Perhaps you’ll be apt to discern how
a thing both simple and complex is contained in the word “spirituality”: variety in the details and
unity in the essential principles.
We hope that this reading will give us all a better grasp of the elements of the spiritual life
and show us how much we all are in need of it. But this is only one part of the toil. Now, we’ll
need to put the hand to the plow and follow the furrow traced by our predecessors in the Faith.
Should we not wish that all Catholics drink from the fountains of Life, which are given us from
the treasures of Christ and His Church?

Fr. Jürgen Wegner
Publisher

March - April 2020
Volume XLIII, Number 2
Publisher
Fr. Jürgen Wegner
Editor-in-Chief
Mr. James Vogel
Managing Editor
Fr. Dominique Bourmaud
Assistant Editor
Mr. Gabriel Sanchez
Associate Editor
Miss Jane Carver
Design and Layout
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(Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
Mr. Simon Townshend
Director of Operations
Mr. Brent Klaske

		
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Contents
Letter from the Publisher

4

Theme: Spirituality
— Spirituality for the Individual—A Vast Garden
— The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
— Dominican Spirituality
— The French School of Spirituality
— Redemptorist Spirituality and the Christian East

6
10
16
20
26

Spirituality
— Reading St. John, Part Two: Types and Figures
— The Family and Christian Societies
— The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: The Offertory, Part Two
— A Bookplate of the First Catholic Bishop in Australia
— The Stability of the Order of St. Benedict

29
32
36
42
46

Christian Culture
— Troyes Cathedral
— The Harrowing of Hell
— Not at All What a Vain Modernity Thinks
— Good Family Spirit
— Questions and Answers

52
58
62
67
70

“Instaurare omnia in Christo”

The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published bi-monthly
under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary,
Queen of Angels. Publication office is located at
PO Box 217, St. Marys, KS 66536.
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Periodicals Postage Rates paid at Kansas City, MO.
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and will be used at the discretion of the editors.
The authors of the articles presented here are solely
responsible for their judgments and opinions.
Postmaster sends address changes to the address above.
©2020 BY ANGELUS PRESS. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
PRIESTLY SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X FOR THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

Catechism
— Complex Questions & Simple Answers
— Modernity and the New Mass
— The Last Word

76
80
87

Theme Spirituality

Spirituality for the Individual—

A Vast Garden
By Jane Carver

The Uniqueness of a Soul
Every person is created by God and is different
from other people in the world, even within a
family. How much more so then, are our souls
unique from one another? Unlike the body
with its physical limitations, our souls have an
unbridled aptitude for good or for evil. We can
always become worse; we can always improve.
From our childhood, most of us have learned
the catechism, our daily prayers, and have
practiced the Catholic Faith as it was given to
us by our parents and education. As adults, we
have a greater capacity to learn and understand
philosophy, theology, and the reasons behind
why we are Catholic and how we can continue to
grow in our knowledge and consequently our love
of God. The education of our childhood is but a
stepping stone in the love of God and leaves much
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room for further development.
Holy Mother Church has set various precepts
and disciplines for her children in their practice
of the Catholic Faith. Something that we perhaps
overlook is the fact that each of us has a unique
soul and we are called by God to love Him in
many different ways. The Church in her wisdom
has given us many different spiritualities to
nourish our souls in addition to and without
neglecting the fundamentals.

Universal Call to Sanctity
Historically speaking, we admire the lives
of the saints who served God with the fullness
of their personality. We have the impetuous St.
Peter, the fearless St. Joan of Arc, the dumb ox

but brilliant theologian St. Thomas Aquinas. Each
saint is completely different and God has willed
it thus.
Our Lady was full of grace and at every
moment, her soul’s potential for grace and charity
increased. She has been called the “complement
of the Blessed Trinity” by St. Maximilian Kolbe.
This would have been the case for our souls too
without the consequences of original sin. That
being said, the interior life often gets ignored or
smothered by our stubborn faults or simply by
trying to force-feed ourselves with the wrong
type of spirituality.
The basic tenets of Catholicism apply to
everyone but how we grow is very different. Some
are saints from childhood, others must fall and
repent, others live hidden humble lives, while
others are public martyrs. Our interior life is the
relationship between God and the soul; it is very
personal and very intimate. Due to this intimacy,
perhaps we don’t quite know how to explain or
pursue that which draws us to God. Perhaps we
find ourselves perpetually lukewarm or going
through the motions of our Faith passively as if it
were merely a requirement. Maybe we do the bare
minimum and see our Faith as something boring
or impossibly complex?
As individuals, it is important that we find
the spirituality that is best suited to our soul
and pursue it. We are not cookie-cutter people,
therefore we are not cookie-cutter souls who
have the same strengths and struggles in the
spiritual realm. Different virtues might be more
appealing or necessary for our progress. We
might be more attracted to Jesus as a Father,
rather than a King, a Spouse, etc. When we
discern these things, we must use them to our
advantage to grow closer to God. It is God who
put these desires in our hearts to love Him
differently as we are all different flowers in His
garden.
It is beautiful to see when those who are in
authority such as fathers of families or religious
superiors recognize that each of their children are
called to be saints, but that it might not be in the
same manner or time frame as one another or even
themselves. The authority realizes with delicacy
that while these souls have been committed to
their care, they belong to God and must be given

the opportunity to love Him as He wills.
To remain stagnant in our spiritual life is
unnecessary when we have so many resources
at our fingertips. A clear picture of the different
types of spiritualities is illustrated for us in
the different religious Orders. Some souls are
Franciscan—lovers of poverty and simplicity;
some are Dominican—soldiers of the truth
and lovers of learning and preaching, etc. A
Benedictine soul loves to praise and adore God
through the singing of the liturgy. These souls
have been called by God in special, individual
ways into lives where they are best-suited to love
Him and grow in charity.
Everyone is able to examine themselves and
see what attracts them the most in the spiritual
life. Attraction is perhaps a word that we
associate with human relationships, but our souls
are attracted in the most real sense to the author
of what is true and good. As we near this union
with our creator, St. John of the Cross speaks of
this unitive love as the most beautiful heavenly
espousal of the soul!
Perhaps at some point we were introduced
to a method of meditation that we continue to
struggle with or devotions that do not touch
our soul, spiritual reading that we find boring
or “Greek” to our mind. We mustn’t try to force
ourselves into a mold that is contrary to our
inclinations. Or persevere against all odds by
taking on too much at once or more than we can
maintain in our specific duty of state.
The devil will try to discourage us by
convincing our sensibilities that the interior life
simply isn’t for us, that we can’t aspire to these
heights. But by the very nature that we have a
soul, we are called to the interior life. Something
important to note is no matter what our state in
life, everyone can find their way to sainthood.
To bridge the gap between what we think the
interior life is supposed to be and what we can
accomplish is realizing that everyone is different
and we need to know ourselves in the first
place. Understanding how we can best dispose
ourselves in order to grow in the spiritual life is
based on who we are, not in the liberal sense of
glorifying the will of the individual regardless of
his beliefs, but in simplicity and truth.

7

Theme Spirituality
The Parable of the Talents
This parable applies to the interior life as
well. Based on our temperament and upbringing,
we practice certain virtues with greater ease
than others. Just as we are required to develop
our natural talents, we must look inward to
determine what kind of nourishment is ideal for
our soul to flourish. Conversely, we each have
our own faults. It is up to us to recognize those
good qualities and to truly cultivate our interior
life based on our personal strengths, weaknesses,
and inclinations. For example, perhaps we grew
up thinking that we had to meditate in a very
specific way or read Carmelite spirituality in
order to make the most spiritual progress. The
truth is, not everyone has a Carmelite soul and
this particular method of spirituality, although

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beautiful and helpful to many, will not touch
everyone. It could even discourage some who
pursue or are told to pursue a certain method
relentlessly as if cutting across the grain of their
soul.
God in His infinite goodness allows for an
array of religious Orders, of methods of prayer,
and of spiritual writers. If we are struggling in
the interior life, perhaps it is because we have
not found the proper niche for our soul. To be
able to give of ourselves in the way that God
intends—which is to give all of ourselves—will
be most efficiently accomplished and bring us the
most selfless happiness when we give our soul
the tools it needs to grow and give of itself, not
to remain stagnant or comfortable. A common
misconception is to consider ourselves flawed
if we do not love a certain saint or a certain

renowned book. According to the discernment
of spirits, if we begin reading a book and we
become discouraged and anxious, those are
normal indications that we should stop reading it.
Likewise, we should not force ourselves to pray,
e.g., a specific number of ejaculatory prayers
daily if reaching that number causes us anxiety
or the practice frustrates the attention we should
be giving to our duty of state.
God in His creative perfection has given us the
means to love Him in countless ways and each
of our souls will move toward God differently.
We often hear Heaven referred to as a garden
with varieties of flowers. Or the soul itself as an
enclosed garden in the Canticle of Canticles. St.
Teresa of Avila refers to the soul as having many
mansions and we are told that Heaven itself has
many mansions. Our body is the shell of our soul

right now, but we must realize that our soul has
expansive potential in charity.
During our earthly pilgrimage, we have the
opportunity to look inward and find the means
to love God to our fullest potential. We mustn’t
remain indifferent to our interior life, which is
just that—an interior life. If we find ourselves
at a standstill, it is detrimental for us to remain
here—which is exactly what the enemy wants.
He wants us to fall into lukewarmness, routine,
frustration, and finally indifference.
Let us conquer the enemy and run in the way
of charity based on who we are: a unique creation
of a good God who wants us to love Him and
give Him a very specific glory in Heaven. This is
where we will find true joy on earth, then lasting
happiness in union with God in Heaven.

9

Theme Spirituality

The Spiritual
Exercises of
St. Ignatius
By Fr. Therasian Xavier

St. Ignatius of Loyola did not invent retreats.
The practice of withdrawing from one’s everyday
occupations to solitude and silent intercourse
with God definitely existed before him. It is, in a
way, as old as the Gospel, if not older, and we can
point to Christ’s own example, to his 40 days in
the desert. Some even speak of his nine months
in the womb of Our Lady and thanks to his
“highly formed intellect” even from the moment
of his conception.
This desire and need of retiring from the din of
the world into silence is natural for men. It is why
this is found even outside of Catholicism. We are
however not interested in such “natural desire”
but from the point of view of spiritual retreats
as the Catholic Church sees it. Throughout the
Christian centuries the equivalent of our retreats
has been practiced in various forms.
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Fr. Viller mentions that it is traditional among
the ancients during Lent to withdraw to the
desert. He says it is widely spread among the
monks of both East and West in imitation of
Our Lord’s example. This was a time of prayer
and penance actually accounting to an annual
retreat. Bishops also are known to have made
these Lenten retreats, especially in the West.
Other forerunners of our modern retreats are: the
custom among the monks of keeping to solitude
for some time before their monastic profession;
the prayer for special intention during these seven
or nine days; the practice of bishops to retire
for a time to a monastery for a spiritual retreat;
the example and directives of some founders of
religious orders such as St. Norbert and especially
St. Francis of Assisi. In fact, the religious orders
founded before the Society of Jesus had their

own version of retreat and their retreat perfectly
reflects their spirituality. Here follows a brief
synthesis of the retreats of various congregations.

The Benedictine Retreat
The Benedictines base their retreat not on the
mere external ceremonies, rites, and prayers of
the liturgy, but on its internal spirit and essence.
The foundation of their retreat is the dogmatic
concept of the Mystical Body of Christ. To this
Body we must not only belong, but be living,
active members of it and share in its life. The
Liturgy, accordingly, brings the retreatant to
the source of grace: the Holy Sacrifice; to the
channels of grace: the sacraments, and it teaches
and guides man’s soul to live with Christ, to feel
His nearness, to be united with Christ, to grow in
Christ.
Fr. Bonaventure Rebstock, O.S.B., speaking
of the results of the liturgical retreat, says:
“The retreatant shall draw from the liturgy
a vital realization of Catholic solidarity. He
will understand the union with the Mystical
Body of Christ into which we are born through
baptism. The Liturgy clearly brings before us and
examines the sources and basic motives for every
kind of charitable and social work. In fact, it is
from the liturgy that such work draws its dignity
and nobility. Christian charity can never be
more thoroughly understood nor more fervently
practiced than in the light of this principle and
ideal: Unum corpus…unus spiritus sumus.

Oratorian Retreat
“Look before all else on God, not on self and
self’s activities. Stand before the majesty of God
in prayerful adoration, and open the soul to the
rays of God’s love; realize your entire dependence
on God, and maintain that attitude of soul.” This
is Oratorian piety.

Dominican Retreat
Veritas is the motto and foundation of the

Order of Preachers. By Veritas is understood not
only the entire complexus of rational truths, but
also the relation of the soul to God, as its origin.
Veritas likewise means the truths of faith. Finally,
Veritas is Christ. This is not only a word dear
to the soul, but a word that breathes love, as St.
Thomas has it: Verbum spirans amorem (ST 1.

“We may rightly
conclude that a singular
resource for the eternal
salvation of souls is
set in the Spiritual
Exercises…”
Pope Pius XI, Mens Nostra

43.5.2).
The Holy Ghost, who is Love, begins and
consummates the union of the soul with God.
Because of this theocentric postulate, the
Dominicans emphasize in their retreats the
omnipotence and the love of God. The Dominican
retreat master delves deeply into the explanation
of the divine guidance of the soul through the
communication of grace.

Franciscan Retreat
Here it is stressed St. Francis’ seraphic love for
the Child Jesus and Jesus crucified, and presented
in the atmosphere of the saint’s poetic attitude
toward nature. The characteristic trait of the
asceticism of St. Francis of Assisi is a wonderful
freedom of spirit. His aim is to make the spiritual
life easier, less burdensome. He strives to
eliminate all unnecessary impositions, even the
impositions of needless methods. Of course, he is
not one of the those who would lead a spiritual
11

Theme Spirituality
life without method, but he would not insist on
perpetually following the same method.
He recommended as the most attractive
and most fruitful form of prayer: the prayer
of simplicity; that is, the peaceful and loving
looking on God, feeling God, communing with
God. So, too, the examen of conscience is
broader and freer: the particular examen has
not the important place that it holds in Ignatian
asceticism; the general examen has as its object
to keep the heart turned toward God.

“Now, if we would cure
this sickness from which
human society suffers
so sorely, what healing
remedy could we devise
more appropriate for our
purpose than that of calling
these enervated souls, so
neglectful of eternal things,
to the recollection of the
Spiritual Exercises?”
Pope Pius XI, Mens Nostra

Exercises in the
Society of Jesus
In what then does the original contribution of
St. Ignatius consists? It is mainly twofold: he gave
the retreat an extension unknown before, and a
practical method.
“If retreats existed before him, they were not
spread on such a scale as they became in the 16th
and 17th centuries. Of what was an extraordinary
means used more or less haphazardly according
to circumstances by an elite, St. Ignatius made
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a quasi-necessary instrument of spiritual
renovation, a regular and indispensable practice
which the Church today prescribes her clerics
and religious and commends to all the faithful.
But his particular merit is not only to have
popularized the retreat, it is especially that he
gave it a method, that he ordered and regulated it.
“It is upon these squared stones that divine
wisdom through her servant Ignatius has built
our Society and on these same foundation stone
she wishes us to hope for its preservation and
felicitous increase” (Fr. Vincent Caraffa S.J.).
Originally the Ignatian retreat was planned
for 30 days more or less, and mainly envisaged
as a unique experience in a lifetime, meant
to lead to a definitive dedication to Christ in
whatever state in life to which He might call. Its
partial repetition on some particular occasion
or for some spiritual need was not excluded and
was practiced during St. Ignatius’ time. But the
evolution towards the practice of the annual
retreat, even within his own order, took half a
century before the custom became general and
was sanctioned by official legislation in 1608.
It is interesting that the 30-day retreat was
prescribed as one of the six principal trials of
the Novitiate and which must be repeated in
the tertianship. Fr. Wlodimir Ledóchowski, the
General of the Society of Jesus, insisted that “this
retreat ought to sow so deeply in the hearts of the
novices and young fathers the true spirit of the
Society and ought to lay such a solid foundation
for the whole religious life and even heroic
sanctity.”

Outside of the Society of Jesus
Outside the order the practice of repeated
retreats was apparently faster in coming, in some
places at any rate. It is, of course, quite natural
that one should go back for spiritual renewal to
the source which one has experienced spiritual
benefits. St. Ignatius himself however, and his
first companions only occasionally and partly
gave the Exercises anew to the same persons.
It required the action of some saintly person
outside the order to decide the practice of the
regular retreat. Outstanding among these is St.

Charles Borromeo (+1584) who himself was an
ardent practitioner of the Exercises. He made
the yearly one-week retreat obligatory on all
seminarians and established a retreat house,
an ascetarium, where his priests also could
periodically retire for spiritual re-charging. His
example found imitators both among Jesuits
and non-Jesuits. The 17th century witnessed the
multiplication of retreat houses in France, Spain,
Germany, Italy and as far as India.
In France, Bl. Julian Manuoir, St. Vincent de
Paul and St. John Eudes were the great promoters
of regular retreats. Gradually the retreat grew into
a normal means for the Christian life. It is St. John
Eudes who writes in 1636: “This is what I call an
annual retreat, as it takes place every year in all
religious communities. It is also practiced by many
people in the world, who each year set aside three
or four days in which they bid farewell entirely
to all care for earthly things and withdraw into a
religious house to devote themselves to exercises
of piety and of divine love.”
The role of Monsieur Vincent is also
phenomenal. He was even willing to spare his
own room for one more retreatant so that “so
great a grace was not denied to anyone for want
of room.” Annual retreats in Brittany during this
time “have rightly been regarded, not as a rare
spiritual luxury, but as a normal part of parish
life—an institution accessible to the people.” The
diocesan ordo will mention the dates of annual
retreats.
By this time the principle and practice of the
regular retreat are accepted de facto. It is so
not only with religious but also with the clergy,
particularly in the seminaries. “The popes
themselves insist. First Rome and the Italian
dioceses receive the directive, then the entire
Church. In the beginning, the retreat was only
counseled, later it was imposed. Alexander
VII, Innocent XI, Clement XI, and Benedict XIV
especially are among its most decided promoters.
Closer to us Leo XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV
strongly encouraged retreats for priests and closed
retreats for laymen. Pius XI wrote an encyclical
Mens nostra to recommend the retreats, and Pope
Pius XII, in his encyclical on the liturgy, urges
that as many of the laity as possible should attend
retreats. And the Code of Canon Law legislates on

retreats for clergy (Can 1367, n.4; 1001; 126; 465 § 3)
and religious (541, 571 §3, 595§1).

Ignatian Character
It is of course the fidelity to St. Ignatius’
Spiritual Exercises both in its subject matter
and its method, that determines the Ignatian
character of a retreat. Pius XII has this to say
about the remarkable efficacy of the Ignatian
retreat: “It is not true that the method has lost its
efficacy or that it is no longer suited to modern
man’s needs. On the contrary, it is a sad fact
that the liquor loses strength when it is diluted
in the colorless waters of super-adaptation,
the engine loses power when some essential
parts of the Ignatian mechanism are dispensed
with. The Exercises of St Ignatius will always
remain one of the most powerful means for the
spiritual regeneration and right ordering of the
world, but on condition that they continue to be
authentically Ignatian.”
A specialist in the history of the Spiritual
Exercises sums up the “tactics” of St. Ignatius
as follows: “In a first phase, the so-called first
week, after having shown in the Principle and
Foundation the norm and criterion to which all
actions must conform, he seeks to arouse in the
retreatant a deep aversion from sin and from
every disorder and affection that are an obstacle
to the service of God. After this purification of
the soul, St. Ignatius introduces Jesus Christ
as the model of the divine service and the One
who calls to follow Him; at the same time he
prepares the retreatant in the imitation of Christ
to put order in all his faculties and his whole life.
In the third and fourth week, the author of the
Exercises endeavors to lead the retreatant to a
more intimate compenetration and conformity
with the Lord by means of an interior crucifixion
and a quasi-identification with the judgment
and sentiments of Jesus Christ. Only in this way
comes the perfect ordering of love, as he teaches
the retreatant to be able to serve and love God in
all things.”
Accordingly, if we wish to schematize the
principal traits of the Ignatian retreats, we
should say, the first important feature is their
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Theme Spirituality
aim. “Seeking and finding the will of God in the
disposition of our life for the salvation of our
soul.” An Ignatian retreat is not just a spiritual
rest, it is a busy time of spiritual activity for a
definite purpose; to put order in one’s life. For
the purpose a definite plan is to be followed in
the choice of the exercises. It begins with the
principle and foundation of all Christian life:
the truth of our faith that we are made for God
and for nothing else; His service and our own
salvation are the thing that matters, the rest is
secondary.
Then follows the meditation on what is
disordered in our lives: sin, and this leads to
a general confession. For those who wish and
are fit to go further (and that is generally the
case for yearly retreatants, especially priests
and religious), the call of Christ, who invites
all to follow Him in establishing His kingdom
of Christ through battle and strife, initiates the
contemplation of Christ’s own example, of His
resurrection. He it is that shows the way to a life
dedicated to the love and service of God. These
meditations and contemplations are of a nature
to reveal to the retreatant what needs re-ordering
in his life and to lead him on to such resolutions
as will ensure the required reform.
It is essential to the Ignatian retreat that both
this purpose and the logical and psychological
progression of the meditation be kept. Much
less important is a material fidelity to the very
wording and phrasing of the Spiritual Exercises,
as an authority in the matter stated already in
1626: “Nothing is more opposed to the spirit of
the Spiritual Exercises and their principles
than to give them to all persons and in all places
without any distinction, following no other order
and using no other phrases than those of the
booklet.”
Variety in the manner of presentation is
imperative especially for regular retreatants, else
they may say they know beforehand what is going
to come. And so, one of the psychological factors
that make for effectiveness of the Spiritual
Exercises, namely, the progressive development
in the entire structure of the retreat, loses its
power.
Two more features are essentially Ignatian: the
role of the director and that of the retreatant. The
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director it is who must plan the order and adapt
the development of the retreat to the concrete
dispositions of the retreatants and to the results
obtained. This supposes contact between
director and retreatants. Though this is more
feasible in individual retreats, yet even in group
retreats it should be kept as far as is possible.
The director should dedicate himself entirely to
giving these exercises. He must not put too much
trust in his experience but must carefully prepare
without fail the points of each meditation (cf.
Letter to future Priests, Fr. Barielle).
Another important feature is the personal
active role of the retreatants: they should reflect
for themselves, find by themselves, not be purely
passive. They must be given time and be asked
to meditate and reflect personally, they may not
be merely listening, they must make the effort
of self-examination and thinking in various
measures according to the age and abilities of the
retreatants. An Ignatian retreat is not a series of
sermons but a course of “exercises.”
All through these last four centuries
the Ignatian retreat has given proofs of its
effectiveness for the spiritual renewal of which
periodically our human nature stands in need.
And we have an official recognition of its
permanent vitality in the decision of Pope Pius
XI who proclaimed the author of the Spiritual
Exercises the heavenly patron of retreats and
retreatants.
Let’s close with the words of Fr. Wlodimir
Ledóchowski:
“Whether, then, we desire to provide human
society, sick as it is in body and mind, with
more successful remedies, and to bring back
the wandering multitudes to the mansions of
the Father, or to help those souls which aspire
to walk more perfect paths, or whether we wish
to repair the losses which our Society, in more
than one place, has suffered either through the
inclination of fallen nature, or from the harsh
circumstances of war, dispersion, poverty,
and persecution, we must go to the Spiritual
Exercises and draw forth for ourselves that
spirit which St. Ignatius used to call ‘the internal
law of charity’ and, thereafter, spread it abroad
among the rest of men” (Epistle of Fr. Wlodimir
Ledóchowski).

136 pp. – Softcover – STK# 8745 – $14.95.

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A defense of Tradition grounded in
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Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music.

Theme Spirituality

Dominican
Spirituality
By Fr. Albert, O.P.

Dominican authors agree that the spirituality
of their Order involves a certain complexity.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in an article entitled
“The Character and Principle of Dominican
Spirituality” [Bernadot, M.V., Cathala, R.,
Garrigou-Lagrange, Martin, R., Petitot, H., La
Spiritualité dominicaine, Cerf, pp. 71-103. We
will simply summarize here this article.], writes:
When one seeks to determine the character
of Dominican spirituality, one is struck by the
multiplicity of the elements that it involves
and by its superior simplicity which is hard to
define. The different principles that constitute it,
considered separately, seem hard to reconcile,
their union remains mysterious and only reveals
itself gradually to the souls called to follow this
way (p. 71).
Fr. Clérissac in his book L’Esprit de saint
16

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Dominique also insists on this complexity: In
the life of our Order, one distinguishes clearly
three principal characteristics. First of all, its
complexity. Our friends praise our simplicity.
I agree; but I add that Dominican life
corresponds to an extremely complex concept
and that one must have lived it for several years
in order to begin to discover its so beautiful
and so simple unity in which are melded all the
elements of which it is composed (pp. 1-2).
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange goes on to list these
different elements which seem to contradict each
other but which, nevertheless, are all integral
parts of Dominican spirituality. On the one hand,
there is the insistence on the fact that grace
does not destroy nature, but perfects it, to the
point that the doctrine of the great Dominican
doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, which the Order has

made its own, was accused of naturalism by his
adversaries. At the same time, however, there
is no doctrine more opposed to Pelagianism—a
4th-century heresy which denied the necessity of
grace—than that of St. Thomas, which insists so
much on the absolute necessity and efficacity of
grace that its opponents assimilate it to that of
Jean Calvin. For indeed, according to St. Thomas,
it is not only impossible to merit the supernatural

the Summa, which constitutes a long ascetical
treatise of the path one must follow to attain
union with God.
Finally, whereas some Orders dedicate
themselves exclusively to the contemplative
life, and others to the active life, Dominican
life claims to unite the two, and to unite them
in their highest perfection. For the active life to
which Dominicans devote themselves consists

life of grace by natural acts, but one cannot even
dispose oneself to receive it without a gratuitous
help of an actual grace.
With regard to the life of grace itself, St.
Thomas teaches, on the one hand, that grace is
not rendered efficacious by man’s free will but is
efficacious by itself: and yet, at the same time,
he insists very much on the necessity of the
exercise of the virtues, carefully enumerating and
explaining them one by one in the Second Part of

in the highest of all actions, the preaching of
the Word of God, imitating in this the apostles,
who, leaving to others the lesser activities,
consecrated themselves completely, as St.
Peter says “to prayer and to the ministry of
the word” (Acts 6:4). However, as these words
of the Chief of the apostles show, to be able to
preach, Dominicans must first of all lead the
contemplative life of prayer, for their preaching
must flow directly from their contemplation
17

Theme Spirituality
and union with God, according to the famous
maxim of St. Thomas: “Contemplate and give
to others what one has contemplated.” This
apostolic life, says St. Thomas, is superior to
the pure contemplative life, for it requires more
illumination to shine and illuminate others than
to simply shine within oneself.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange explains that all these
apparently opposed elements are reconciled in a
synthesis which unites them from above.
The apparent contradictions are resolved by
the equilibrium established when their terms
are pushed to their highest degree. It is at the
summit where their harmony takes place. This
is why Dominican spirituality tends towards
a very elevated synthesis which embraces in
one view the most varied aspects of Christian
life and thus sees how they are united in their
common principle and their last end (p. 76).
This is what accounts for the perfect harmony
of so many diverse elements in Dominican life, as
he goes on to explain.
In such a life there is no dualism or opposition
between liturgical piety and monastic
observances on the one hand, and study and
apostolate on the other. Everything harmonizes,
as long as one clearly sees that the liturgical cult
and the austerity of the monastic observances
are ordered, just like study, to this divine
contemplation, which is itself ordered to a greater
charity, which must overflow on souls by giving
them the light of life in order to lead them to God
(pp. 80-81).
This synthesis is the source of three principles
that must direct Dominican spirituality:

1. Nature must not be destroyed
but rather perfected by grace.
Nature is taken here in the abstract sense of
the ideal of human nature as conceived originally
in the mind of God and not as it exists today after
the fall of Adam. Far from leading to a rejection
of the traditional doctrine of the necessity of
mortification and asceticism, this appreciation of
the fundamental goodness of human nature itself
leads to a greater appreciation of the corruption
caused in concrete human nature by original sin
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and the importance of the remedies that must
heal it.
There is no disagreement, therefore, between
St. Thomas and the author of the Imitation
of Christ or the other great mystics. On the
contrary, having a very precise idea of the
essence, of the immutable properties, the
strengths and the last end of human nature, St.
Thomas sees better all that concretely deforms
it, all that is disordered in it, as a result of sin
and the inclination to sin, that must not only
be moderated, but mortified and extirpated by
penance, which truly belongs to the essence
of Christianity as does the sacrament thus
named. This work of restoring and healing is
always viewed by St. Thomas from the point
of view of the first cause and the last end, and
thus he declares it absolutely impossible in the
present state of human nature without grace, of
which the two principal functions are to heal
nature and elevate it supernaturally (gratia
sanans et elevans). The Angelic Doctor goes very
far with regard to the necessity of this healing
grace : without it the equilibrium of even our
natural moral life, troubled by original sin,
cannot be reestablished (pp. 86-87).

2. A very elevated conception
of the supernatural order.
In spite of this genuine appreciation of natural
good, for Dominican spirituality there is no
proportion between it and the supernatural order
of grace.
There can be no comparison between created
nature, no matter how perfect, and the divine
nature, of which grace is a real and formal
participation. “The grace of one soul is worth
more than the natural good of the whole
universe” (I-II, q. 113, a. 9, ad 2), more than all
created or creatable angelic natures taken
together (…) There is in our nature, as in that
of the angels, just a mere capacity to be elevated
to this life that is entirely divine; this purely
passive aptitude is not any greater in the most
powerful angelical intelligence than in the
soul of a poor Christian woman without any
education (pp. 89-90).

This fact has very considerable consequences
in the spiritual life, in particular in the exercise of
the theological virtues which are at its heart.
This shows also the infinite superiority of
the three theological virtues over the natural
knowledge and love of God, and also over the
natural knowledge of miracles and other signs
of Revelation. Our act of infused faith is not
a natural act clothed with a supernatural
modality, like copper overlaid with gold. It is
essentially supernatural in its foundation,
its immediate formal motive is nothing other
than revealing divine truth; consequently it is
infinitely superior to the natural act of faith
of demons, based on the natural evidence of
miracles (…) The supernatural essence of grace
of the virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost
is incomparably more elevated than that of
miracles and the exterior manifestations of the
mystical life (pp. 90-91).

3. More insistence on the
efficacity of divine grace, to
be obtained by prayer, than on
the human effort of the will.
Here is found the practical consequence of
the Thomistic doctrine on the efficacity of grace
by itself : since God is the first cause of all
spiritual life, its ascetical and mystical stages
are distinguished (since the first is more active
and the second more passive) but not separate,
because even in the ascetical stage, God is the
one who must move us.
Everything in our free salutary acts comes
at the same time from God and from us, from
God first, from us after. This is already the
case in the ascetical order of the most ordinary
exercise of the virtues ; mystical life thus
appears as the normal crowning of spirituality
(pp. 93-95).
The opposing doctrine, which teaches that
grace is made efficacious by our will, leads
to the idea that the mystical life is something
extraordinary (and therefore of which one must
be wary) since it involves a strange passivity
which one can safely avoid by remaining in the

ascetical way.
If, on the contrary, everything in our free
salutary acts does not come from God, if our
free determination and our cooperation is
added, as something exclusively ours, to the
attraction that Our Lord exercises upon us,
then we look above all at ourselves, and the
mystical life with the special passivity that
characterizes it, no longer appears as the
normal crowning of the interior life, but rather
as something completely extraordinary, outside
of the normal path of sanctification (p. 95).
This all finally leads to the Dominican
conception of the relation between contemplation
and apostolate. Since contemplation is a normal
part of Christian perfection, it is also a necessary
element of the apostolate, which is its natural
fruit: if one loves God by contemplation, one
naturally seeks to share Him with one’s neighbor.
Thus apostolate is not the end of contemplation
(one does not contemplate so that one can do
apostolate) but rather its fruit.
If faithfulness to the Holy Ghost must
normally lead to the living waters of prayer,
what must one say about the relation between
contemplation and apostolate? Does the
intensity of the former require the sacrifice of
the latter, and can this latter hope to find its
nourishment in the warm and living light of
the former?
Dominican spirituality responds with St.
Thomas: the teaching of sacred doctrine and
preaching must derive from the plenitude
of contemplation (…) Contemplation is
not ordered to apostolic activity, like study
done hurriedly with a view to preaching a
sermon; rather it produces it as an eminent
and superabundant cause. (…) Thus St.
Thomas considers the active life and the
purely contemplative life as less perfect than
the apostolic life which unites the two and
has as its end contemplation bearing fruit by
apostolate. Like Jesus Christ and the Twelve,
the apostle must be a contemplative who gives
to others his contemplation in order to save and
sanctify them. Contemplari et contemplata aliis
tradere (II-II, q. 188, a. 6), these are the words of
St. Thomas which have become the motto of the
Order (pp. 99-101).
19

Theme Spirituality

The French
School of
Spirituality
By Fr. Dominique Bourmaud

To speak of the French school of spirituality is obviously to set things in a very definite, and, to use
Etienne Gilson’s word, “individual” context. This best describes the fecund spirituality which was
grounded on typically French personalities. Perhaps a Frenchman like the 20th-century philosopher
Gilson is a good way to introduce this article. He makes an important point, touching on the broader
theme of spirituality:
“The study of the spiritual life deals with the supernatural life of the Christian soul in society and in
union of friendship with God. The poverty of the singular and of its history, is that it is not scientific. Yet,
the singular is great in that it exists, and the eminent dignity of history, even if only as knowledge, is that
it bears on the existing individual. And, the real spiritual lives are always things individual concretely
existing, or, if we observe them through history, things individual which have existed concretely. Not
only the object of such knowledge exists but it has an infinite price, and the problems it raises are vastly
important.”

Called the “Berullian School” by some, French
spirituality refers to the 17th-century French
current which has left deep marks up to the
middle of the 20th century. Before we delve into
20

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the thick of the matter (the key leaders and their
spiritual tenets) it will be good to bring up some
context to the spirituality of the 17th century
called “le grand siècle.”

Historical and Spiritual Context
At the coming of the year 1600, France is
enjoying a relative peace past the internal
religious wars between Catholics and French
Calvinists called Huguenots. Excepting the North
Eastern France still afflicted with the Thirty
Years War, the country is experiencing much
peace, the prosperity and population not seen in
other countries. An educated middle class—the
bourgeoisie—along with the nobility, is eager
to wrestle with intellectual issues. The High
Clergy is usually too busy with keeping its social
positions, the regular clergy is weighed down
by large estates administration, whereas the
country priests are mostly ignorant and rough.
The situation offers ample room for improvement
which will see the reformers work on all levels
of both Christian clergy and layfolk to bring the
Tridentine Reformation to full fruition.
Indeed, the Council of Trent (1554-1563)
had promulgated decrees which brought
about the Catholic Reformation, in opposition
to the Protestant Revolution, the so-called
“Reformation.” Although it will take 40 years for
the Parliament to allow the implementation of the
Tridentine decrees, France knows especially in
the first 60 years a period of spiritual fecundity
as rich as the glorious times of medieval
Christendom. Growing parallel to the French
School, the traditional orders are witnessing
a marked renewal of fervor. The Capuchins as
well as the Dominicans are rejuvenated. The
writings and the Congregations of St. Francis de
Sales popularize the spiritual practices. Other
communities are flourishing, like the Jesuits.
Besides the historical and ecclesiastical
context, we can identify the main sources of
French spirituality from the influences at play in
the previous century. The reading of the Bible has
become a common practice, and the avid readers
make a choice among them. If the disciples
of Bérulle insist on St. Paul and St. John, the
moralists concentrate on the Sapiential books.
Yet, all are imbued with the spirit of the Psalms.
Pseudo-Denys is much in demand among the
spiritual masters but so are the Rhine mystics,
like Tauler, Ruysbroeck, and Canfield. Likewise,
the classic Imitation of Christ (by Kempis) is

widely read.
Another major foreign influence is coming
from Spain. Madame Acarie, known as Marie
de l’Incarnation, who holds a “salon” frequented
by the spirituals, including St. Francis de Sales
and Olier. And, along with her cousin, Cardinal
de Bérulle, she promotes the “baroque” Spanish
Catholicism and establishes the Reformed
Carmel in France, which owns her the name of
“Mother of Carmel in France.” In this century
centered on devotion to the Incarnate Word, the
spirit of St. Teresa of Avila and of St. John of the
Cross exert a major influence.
Besides the foreign input, minds are opening
to the religious life. The social elite is attracted to
the most diverse congregations, the Capuchins,
the Carmel, the Visitation, which receive the
patronage of queens and the higher nobility, and
even impact the Parliament of Paris. Madame de
Saint-Beuve founds the Ursulines dedicated to
teaching girls. Dom Mabillon and Claude Martin,
son of Madame Acarie, exert a marked influence
from their Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The
Cistercians of the Trappe appeal to Bossuet for
his retreats.

Spiritual Centers and
Other Spiritualities
Even if he belongs to the 17th century, St.
Francis de Sales (1567-1622) presents an original
movement distinct from the French School which
falls prey to his charm. His spirituality is rather
eclectic and pragmatic, and it is perhaps this
broad and non-systematic spirituality which
contributes to his lasting influence on the future
generations. It is going to be felt throughout the
century and much later, thanks to his writings
as well as his founding the Visitation along with
St. Jane de Chantal. The Introduction to Devout
Life brings out to the layperson what used to
be the privilege of the cloister. Likewise, its
complement, the Treatise on the Love of God,
pictures the spirituality and simplicity of prayer
drawn from St. Teresa of Avila. The work on
one’s conscience to do all for God’s pleasure
shows his masterly role as a spiritual director,
the first of a long series who have given the
21

Theme Spirituality
French spirituality its psychological and practical
character.
Another important movement is headed by
another personality of the early 17th century, St.
Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), who has his entry
in the inner council of Louis XIV. He incarnates
the works of “charity” which, in the 17th century,
are understood as the natural manifestation of
faith. This charity is firstly exercised in the care
of the sick and the poor, who are legion in the
wake of the 30 years wars of religion which has
ruined the Lorraine region and by ricochet, is
pushing refugees to pour down on Paris. Multiple
initiatives are created around him: foundation of
the Daughters of Charity, daughters of Providence,
Ladies of the Christian Union, etc. He also
presides at the foundation of the Lazarists, priests
dedicated to rural areas, by preaching missions to
layfolk and comforting the parish priests. In Paris
itself, he is also involved with the renovation of
the clergy with his “Conférences du Mardi” which
acts as the leaven to form an elite clergy.

School of Spirituality” refers to the movement
of the Oratory of France created by Bérulle. It
includes the “Four Greats,” namely, Cardinal
Pierre de Bérulle, Charles Condren, Jean-Jacques
Olier and St. Jean Eudes. We must now speak of
these and of their specific nuance they bring to
the School, even if only summarily.
Guided by St. Francis de Sales who put him in
contact with the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and
urged by the future Archbishop of Paris, Henri
de Gondi, Bérulle (1575-1629) forms a small
community of priests at Rue Saint-Jacques in
downtown Paris near the Carmelites convent,
of which he is made the spiritual director. With
five companions who pronounce the vow of
servitude to Jesus, he initiates the Oratory in
1615, the year in which the decrees of Trent
are officially promulgated. The Oratorians give
special attention to the liturgy and they are
graciously called by the faithful the “Fathers who
sing beautiful hymns.” The Oratory is going to be
a key instrument in the Catholic Reformation, by

Berulle, St. Francis of Sales, Madame Acarie, St. Vincent
de Paul, Thomas a Kempis, John Tauler, Ruysbroek, St.
Philip Neri, Mary of the Incarnation.

St. Louis de Montfort (1673-1716) is also an
important player in the currents of spirituality
which are converging in this century. Breton by
birth, the future apostolic missionary of Poitou
and Vendée, studies at the St. Sulpice of JeanJacques Olier, along with his confrère Claude
Poulard des Places, the founder of the Holy Ghost
Fathers. St. Louis also creates congregations. He
is the founder of the Daughters of Wisdom and
of the Montfort Fathers dedicated to preaching
missions in the countryside. He is perhaps more
known to us as the author of several Marian
books which gained renown only in the 19th
century.

The French School
What we commonly agree to name the “French
22

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fomenting the missions, the formation of schools
and the creation of seminaries.
Berullism is a doctrine which centers on
Christ as the Incarnate Word and rejects any
spirituality which pretends to reach the divine
essence outside Jesus Christ. Based on sound
theology, his spirituality teaches that the union
in Christ of Man and God is indissoluble: “As long
as God is God, He will be man.” Here, God reveals
Himself to us. The mystery of the Incarnation is
Jesus who has come from God to us and our way
to God is Jesus Christ. God has become man so
that God may permeate every human aspect. To
live a spirituality of the Incarnation is for us to be
“une humanité de surcroît”—a prolongation of
His humanity. We thus need to “adhere” to Christ,
be conformed to Him in all “states”—this is a
word cherished by Bérulle meaning the various
states Christ had in life, death, glory and in the

Blessed Sacrament. He concludes that we need
to renounce ourselves in many things so as to,
ultimately, reach the level of servitude.
Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (16271704) will spread to the masses this doctrine
of Jesus Christ with his classic Elevations on
the Mysteries; Meditations on the Gospel. And
as to priests, the Oratory brings forth the high
esteem for the hierarchy which will contribute
powerfully to raise priestly sanctity, with the
creation of the Sulpician and Eudist seminaries.
To sum up, we can say that the French School or
Berullism is characterized by an acute awareness
of the grandeur of God, of the importance of the
Incarnation, of the sense of the Church and of the
need for apostolic work.
Along with Bérulle, Charles de Condren
(1588-1641) adds to his master the mystique of
annihilation. “Man is capable of all the crimes”
without the help of grace. The soul which adheres
to Christ adheres to His state of victimhood. He
and Bérulle create schools for the elite whereas

of Jesus. For him, we need to let the Holy Spirit
“form Jesus in us, continue His life on earth.” The
liturgy of the Feast of the Sacred Heart instituted
by him says: “While we are in the world, grant
us to live in Thee…becoming other Jesus’s on
earth.”

St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle will later open
primary schools for the destitute.
In the same family of thought, we need to
place Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657). He is less
abstract and more realist than Condren and,
by creating the Company of Saint-Sulpice, he
becomes one of the best means of infusing a lofty
priestly spirituality, providing the ideal of life
and prayer. If all great Christian spiritualities are
Christocentric, nevertheless, what is proper to
the French School is to invite the soul, according
to Olier, to keep “Jesus before the eyes, Jesus in
the heart, Jesus in the hands.”
St. John Eudes (1601-1680), after 20 years spent
at the Oratory left it in 1643. Like Bérulle, in order
to help the Christian soul penetrate “inside the
mysteries of Christ,” he reminds him of his vows
of baptism and of the medieval devotions under a
liturgical form: the Heart of Mary and the Heart

after the Apparitions to St. Margaret Mary at
Paray-le-Monial along with the help of Jesuits
like St. Claude de la Colombière and Lallemant.
This is one of the best means to counteract the
harsh and harmful influence of the Jansenists of
Port-Royal.
In this devotion to the Sacred Heart, we find a
summary of the Incarnation-centered spirituality:
the insistence on the heart of flesh of Our Lord,
on the sufferings which It reveals and imposes
on His adorers, the need to repair for our sins,
although not new, are powerfully promoted. If
this is so, along with the lasting institutions for
the clergy and the country missions, we are in
our right to assert that the 17th-century French
School of spirituality has made an indelible mark
to this day on the spiritual life of Catholics, not
only in France but also across Europe and the
new world.

***
Doubtless, the previous century had seen
books of prayer and meditation, but the 17th
century witnesses an accrued incoming of
methods of prayers, based on the life of Christ, in
accordance with the spirit of St. Teresa of Avila
and the Oratorians. In line with the Tridentine
reform of the Mass and the Breviary, Bérulle
and his friends develop powerfully the liturgical
spirit. This bring about a renewed devotion to
the Holy Eucharist, with the recent adoration of
the Blessed Presence, a new practice fostered
by the Company of the Blessed Sacrament. The
devotion to the Sacred Heart is widely extended

23

Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus
while before Thy face I humbly kneel and,
with burning soul,
pray and beseech Thee
to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments
of faith, hope, and charity;
true contrition for my sins,
and a firm purpose of amendment.
and a firm purpose of amendment.

Theme Spirituality

Redemptorist
Spirituality
and the Christian East

By Gabriel S. Sanchez, J.D.

The Crib, the Cross, the Altar, and Mary—
these are the pillars of the spirituality of the
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer
(C.Ss.R.), commonly known as the Redemptorists.
Founded in Italy in 1732 by St. Alphonsus Liguori,
the Redemptorists was primarily a missionary
apostolate which directed its focus towards the
most abandoned in society. For over a century,
the Congregation spread throughout Europe,
drawing vocations from all walks of life while
forming holy men such as Ss. Clement Hofbauer,
Gerard Majella, and John Neumann.
Like most Catholic religious congregations,
the Redemptorists took root in the Latin Catholic
Church and maintained the traditions of Roman
liturgy and spirituality. However, because of its
mission to seek out the most abandoned, that is,
those most in need of spiritual sustenance and
26

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ministry, by the dawn of the 20th century the
Redemptorists found their eyes turned Eastward
in a seemingly unlikely manner.

The Redemptorists and
Greek Catholics
Beginning in the late 19th century, Catholics
from the area that comprises modern day
Ukraine began to settle in North America,
specifically Canada. Members of the Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) from birth, these
émigré Catholics found themselves strangers in a
strange land without pastors who could celebrate
the liturgy according to their native Byzantine
Rite or were familiar with these Catholics’
spiritual heritage. Sympathetic to their needs,

by external ecclesiastical and political pressure,
the Redemptorists continued their work among
both the native Catholic faithful and Russian
Orthodox Christians.
Under the guidance of Bishop Mykolay
(Nicholas) Charnetsky, who was himself a
Redemptorist, the Redemptorists and other
Greek Catholic clergy began reaching out to
the Russian Orthodox in the hopes of bringing
them back into the Catholic fold. Knowing
that this lofty goal would only be possible if he
met Orthodox Christians eye-to-eye, Bishop
Charnetsky encouraged these missionaries to
embrace the Slavo-Byzantine patrimony in its
fullness, without intermingling or subverting
it to the Latin Catholic heritage. In this way,
Bishop Charnetsky and those who sought out the
estranged Russian Orthodox kept faith with Pope
St. Pius X’s admonition to the fledgling Russian
Greek Catholic Church that it not forge a hybrid
Latin/Byzantine Rite.

Redemptorist Spirituality
and the East

Fr. Achille Deleare, a Belgian Redemptorist,
embraced the Byzantine Rite and began
ministering to these shepherd-less Christians.
In 1910, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, the
head of the UGCC, invited the Redemptorists to
bring their missionary zeal to western Ukraine
(then known as Galicia). In the years that
followed, Redemptorist missionaries established
several houses, monasteries, and eventually
a small seminary. Much of this activity took
place in the shadow of the Russian Empire (and
eventually the Soviet Union), which regarded the
UGCC as an outlaw church that should, by right,
belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. Unfazed

Although Bishop Charnetsky and other
Redemptorists encouraged Greek Catholics
to hold fast to what they had received from
their forebears, it was next to impossible for
the Congregation to not leave an impress of its
native Latin heritage on the Ukrainian Church.
Certain practices which had historically been
uncommon among Byzantine Christians, such
as mental prayer and spiritual retreats/missions,
became more widespread after the Redemptorist
missionaries arrived. Other historically Latin
spiritual devotions, such as the Rosary and
Stations of the Cross, had come to Greek
Catholics from their Roman Rite Polish neighbors
long before the Redemptorists arrived.
It is tempting for some contemporary Eastern
Catholics to decry these “Latinizations,” but doing
so ignores the number of ways Redemptorist
spiritual traditions dovetailed naturally with
Byzantine ones. For instance, the Redemptorist’s
heavy emphasis on The Crib, that is, the Nativity
of Christ is congenial with special emphasis that
great event is given in the Byzantine Rite. It
27

Theme Spirituality
is one of the three Byzantine feasts, along with
Theophany (Epiphany) and Pascha (Easter),
which incorporates a special Vesperal (Evening)
Divine Liturgy of Old Testament readings as a
forerunner to the main vestal liturgy. Similarly,
each of these feast days include a unique service
known as the Royal Hours (Prime through None
in one service) with particular Psalm and Gospel
readings geared toward the feast.
The Cross is never far from the mind of Greek
Catholics. The Ochtoechos (Book of Eight Tones),
which includes the daily hymns for the liturgical
year, dedicates every Wednesday and Friday to
the Cross of Christ. And the altar where bread
and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ
holds a special place in the Eastern soul, a soul
that is uniquely shaped by the Divine Liturgy in
all of its mystery and grandeur.

Our Lady and the East
The final pillar of Redemptorist spirituality
is Mary, whose icon of Our Lady of Perpetual
Help is deeply revered by the Congregation. The
icon, which originated in 15th century Greece,
came to Italy not long after, where it moved
between several churches before being entrusted
to the Redemptorists by Pope Pius IX in 1865.
Today, the icon is enshrined in the Church
of St. Alphonsus in Rome. From the time the
Redemptorists took possession of the blessed
image, the Congregation spread devotion to Our
Lady of Perpetual Help throughout the world. It
is not surprising that Ukrainian Greek Catholics,
with their historically deep devotion to icons of
the Blessed Virgin, would quickly embrace this
devotion as one of their own.
Indeed, the Byzantine Rite is replete with
Marian feasts which are considered holy days
of obligation. In addition to the Feast of the
Annunciation, which Latin Catholics hold in high
regard, Greek Catholics consider the feasts of
Our Lady’s Nativity and Entrance Into the Temple
as among the 12 great feasts of the liturgical year.
Eastern Slavic Christians in particular also keep
Pokrov, also known as the Feast of the Blessed
Virgin’s Protection, with special reverence. For
these Catholics, who have suffered centuries
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of persecution from Russian imperial and
communist forces, Our Lady’s special protection
has given them the strength to keep the Catholic
Faith when apostasy would have been the far
easier choice.
The special role Redemptorist spirituality,
including its missionary zeal, has played in the
life and maintenance of the UGCC cannot be
understated. Rather than a passing “phase” in
the life of Greek Catholicism, the Congregation
still maintains a visible presence within the
Ukrainian Church, both in its homeland and
in the diaspora. When most of the Ukrainian
Catholic hierarchy had been murdered or
imprisoned by the Soviets in the 1940s, it was
the Redemptorist Bishop Charnetsky who kept
his church’s apostolic lineage alive, even at the
expense of great suffering.
Vasyl (Basil) Velychkovsky, Zenon
Kovalyk, and Ivan Ziatik are just a few of the
Redemptorists who gave their lives for the
Catholic Faith when the combined forces of
communism and its puppet version of the Russian
Orthodox Church conspired to wipe the UGCC
from the face of the earth. By the grace of God
they did not succeed. Rather, for half a century,
the UGCC became an underground church in
Ukraine where the faithful kept to many of the
spiritual traditions and practices they inherited
from the Redemptorists.
Icon veneration went hand-in-hand with
reciting the Rosary. With the threat of
imprisonment or death looming, the Ukrainian
faithful could come to understand on a deeper
level Christ’s suffering here on earth. And
through it all, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, with
her promise of protection, helped keep the UGCC
alive.
In the face of Russian propaganda that the
Ukrainian Catholic Church was no more, the
UGCC emerged from the catacombs in the early
1990s with a million adherents and a thousand
priests still ministering to them. Today, the UGCC
is exponentially larger with a rich number of
vocations drawn from its native soil. Without the
holy work and sacrifices of the Redemptorists
and the deep spirituality they brought with them
more than a century ago, none of this would be
possible.

Reading
St. John
Part Two: Types and Figures
(Part One of this study appeared in the January-February 2020 issue)

By Pater Inutilis

St. John’s Types and Figures
When reading St. John, we do have to keep in
mind how he retains the various meanings behind
words, and how he is very much at home with
symbolic language. Maybe more fruitful, though,
will be his understanding of how God acts and
teaches. For God dwells outside of time and place
and is the Master of both, dominating all in His
eternal present and ordering all for His greater
glory. “The Lord hath made all things for Himself”
(Prov. 16:4). He works all things for the good of
the elect: “To them that love God, all things work
together unto good, to such as, according to His
purpose, are called to be saints” (Rom. 8:28).
God does ordain all for our instruction: “All these
things happened to them in figure: and they are
written for our correction, upon whom the ends of
the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11).

Especially of sacred history, of divine doings,
can it be said that they pre-figure the central
events of all human history: the life and mission
of the incarnate Word of God. Things ordained
to Christ, such as the Paschal Lamb, are called
“figures’’; people who pre-figure others are
called “types.” The Sacred Writers of the New
Testament, and St. John in particular, were
very alive to seeing the New in the Old, so preordained by God. As St. Augustine would put it:
“The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, the
Old becomes clear in the New.” Again, he would
speak not only of “prophecy by words” but also of
“prophecy by deeds.”
A phraseology common to St. Matthew: “that
might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the
prophet(s)” is also common to St. John, where
it might be of “prophecy by words,” but also
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Spirituality
“prophecy by deeds.” For example: “I speak not
of you all: I know whom I have chosen. But that
the scripture may be fulfilled: He that eateth
bread with me shall lift up his heel against me”
(Jn. 13:18). Where is the like written? “For even
the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who
ate my bread, hath greatly supplanted me” (Ps.
40:10). This may not be the place to treat of this
at any length, but let us just mention in passing
how interesting it is to consider how the New
Testament cites the Old: rarely literally, usually
substantially; rarely according to the wording of
the Hebrew Bible, mostly closer to the reading of
the Greek text, the Septuagint.
Psalm 40, moreover, is one of the few that
has a “title”: a brief word of “introduction,”
often obscure, dealing with the occasion for or
purpose of the psalm. Here we have: “…a psalm
for David himself.” This is one of those, therefore,
composed by the Royal Prophet himself,
occasioned by some event or other in his own
life. Here, it was when he was fleeing Jerusalem
because of the rebellion of Absalom. Verse 10
refers to a certain Achitophel, who had been a
trusted counselor of David, but joined sides with
Absalom, giving counsel now against David.
We read of him in the second book of Kings
and the first of Paralipomenon; thus: “And they all
wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed
over: the king also himself went over the brook
Cedron… David went up by the ascent of Mount
Olivet, going up and weeping, walking barefoot,
and with his head covered, and all the people
that were with them went up with their heads
covered. And it was told David that Achitophel
also was in the conspiracy with Absalom, and
David said: Infatuate, O Lord, I beseech Thee, the
counsel of Achitophel” (II Kings 15:23, 30f).

King David as a Type
of Our Lord
What is King David doing? He is leaving
Jerusalem in sorrow, crossing the brook, Cedron,
passing through the garden of olives to ascend
the mount of olives… He is a “type” of Our
Lord, who will have to leave Jerusalem on Holy
Thursday night, because of His enemies, who
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will cross the brook Cedron (Jn. 18:1) and pass
into the garden at the base of Mount Olivet,
Gethsemane (ibid.); and Achitophel is Judas, one
of His intimates, “He that eateth bread with me”
(Jn. 13:18). “The counsel of Achitophel which he
gave in those days was as if a man should consult
God: so was all the counsel of Achitophel, both
when he was with David, and when he was with
Absalom” (II Kings 16:23). God, however, allowed
that his counsel not prevail and David be saved.
“Achitophel, seeing that his counsel was not
followed, saddled his ass, and arose and went
home to his house and to his city, and putting his
house in order, hanged himself” (II Kings 17:23).
He is, in a “typical” sense, Judas. “Those whom
Thou gavest me have I kept; and none of them is
lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture
may be fulfilled” (Jn. 17:12).

On Use of the
Allegorical Method
Apart from the literal and historical sense
where words stand for things, there are spiritual
senses, where the things signified by words
themselves stand for things. Seeing the New
Testament in the Old is called the “allegorical”
sense, in which the Fathers and the Liturgy so
delight, and with which we are not nearly so
much at home. Granted! The first and proper
sense is the literal, and the allegorical is open
to abuse. But this latter remains a divine sense
whenever God Himself so guarantees it and, for
one, St. John is a witness to this, which may also
be by the universal testimony of the Fathers.
Another, more obvious, example of the
figurative sense: “After they were come to Jesus,
when they saw that He was already dead, they did
not break His legs. But one of the soldiers with a
spear opened His side…these things were done
that the scripture might be fulfilled ‘You shall not
break a bone of him’; and again: ‘They shall look
upon him whom they pierced’” (Jn. 19:33-36). The
book of Numbers, in a literal sense, refers to the
Paschal Lamb, but in a more true and allegorical
“figurative” sense to the events of the first Good
Friday.
Now, could not the New Testament itself pre-

figure souls in the Church Militant or Church
Triumphant? Very much so, and this is how St.
John would like his writings to be read, that we
“may have life in His name” (Jn. 20:31). At times
Our Lord makes it explicit that He is the pattern
for every Christian who would come after Him:
“I have given you an example, that as I have
done unto you, so you do also” (Jn. 13:15). But,
of course, He is such a pattern even when He
does not remind us of it explicitly: “He that saith
he abideth in Him, ought himself also to walk,
even as He walked.” This will be especially true
of fraternal charity: “In this we have known the
charity of God, because He hath laid down His
life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren” (I Jn. 3:16); for “God is charity” (I Jn
4:8).

God’s loving condescension to us, adhering to
Him, even though we may not understand why or
what He is doing to us. We are invited to never
abandon Him even though He seems to have
abandoned us. We are invited to make always an
act of faith in His tender love: “We have known,
and have believed the charity which God has
to us” (I Jn 4:16). He is the same Jesus, with the
same attitude to repentant souls, Who is treating
with us. We are to believe in His goodness to us,
even if we have been a Peter who thrice denies
Him (Jn. 18:16ff, 21:15ff) or a Thomas who doubts
(Jn. 20:24ff). Could we aspire to being a “disciple
whom Jesus loved”? John gives himself no other
name in his Gospel, but what a glorious name
it is! For us, through his writings, to learn what
attracts the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, and to
pray and seek too to be a disciple whom He loves.

Our Lord and Mary Magdalene
It is very encouraging and enlightening to see
oneself in different New Testament personages,
according to one’s disposition of soul. This
is because it is the same Jesus with the same
attitude towards, and modus operandi with, such
souls that we are dealing with now. At times, can
we not relate to a Mary of Magdala, “a woman
that was in the city, a sinner” (Lk. 7:37), “out of
whom He had cast seven devils” (Mk. 16:9)?
How does St. John present her to us, and how
does Our Lord act in her regard? She is one whom
“Jesus loved” (Jn. 11:5), whose family home in
Bethany would be a haven for Him, (Jn. 11:1,
12:1). In Bethany, she was all attentive to Him,
delighting to recall her conversion, her tears and
Jesus receiving her (Jn. 11:2) by repeating, at
great cost, her actions of that day (Jn 12:3 ff).
Her devotion to Christ would see her at
Calvary (Jn. 19:25) though so devastated that she
could give no consideration to His being risen,
even when confronted by angels (Jn. 20:12).
And with what understanding and tenderness
does not Our Lord deal with her: at the death of
Lazarus (Jn. 11:32ff), at her being rebuked for
such a waste of spikenard (Jn. 12:7), and now, on
the day of His resurrection (Jn 20:14-17)?
We are being invited to be like her in weeping
over our sinfulness, delighting in remembering
31

Spirituality

The
Family and
Christian
Societies
By Cardinal Pacelli

Letter of Cardinal Pacelli, Secretary of State, to His Excellency, Bishop Killian, November 1936.
(The Australian Congress of Catholic Education)

Any thoughtful person realizes, and history
proves it irrefutably, that the foundations of civil
society necessarily collapse with the decadence
of the Christian institutions and Christian
standards; while, on the other hand, the renewal
of the Evangelical spirit constitutes an adequate
remedy even for inveterate evils, and leads to the
attainment of the highest and fullest perfection of
individual, family and civic conditions. This, in any
case, is perfectly natural.

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Christianity and civilization
The Church, being the great Teacher of
mankind, firmly and faithfully defends the
integrity of those principles on which the duties
of everyone, at all times, and everywhere, are
based, suggesting the more effective reasons for
leading an honest life, and pointing out, as the
goal of virtue, a happiness which lies outside the
brevity and fragility of earthly life. Although the
Church tends towards heavenly things, she by
no means hinders or condemns the progress of
those resources which lead to temporal well­
being, and neither does she condemn that which

down to men by the Church only, which has been
set up by divine will as the Holy City of the living
God; the Church perfects minds with the truth
received from Heaven, and she perfects wills by
charity, in such a manner that she unites men to
the Highest Truth, and the Highest Good, without
in the slightest falling short of her purpose, for
with the light of doctrine and the strength of
grace the Church teaches by helping, and helps
by teaching, disposing in a marvelous order the
duties of the faithful to guide them, since the
fulfillment of the divine will and the observance
of the law are the means for attaining the reward
of eternal happiness.

The True Christian

develops natural talent, perfects manners, and
strengthens the body so as to render it more
capable of carrying out with greater perfection
the good works of the spirit and that which
supplies life’s innocent pleasures; all that regards
art and literature, the enterprises and institutions
useful to human society, all that is honest and
lawful has not only never found impediments of
any kind in the Church but rather its beginning
or valuable aid. It seems to be a fact established
by a wonderful design of Divine Providence that
at the moment when the divine flame—Christ
crucified—shone from the torch, civilization
and culture worthy of the name sprang up, like
a precious herb entwined about the trunk of the
Cross, a fruit ripening at the side of the Cross, a
light surrounding the Cross, a dignity flowering in
the life of mankind from the tree of life.
However, all these resources, falling within
the confines of nature, though useful and
praiseworthy, are insufficient to satisfy a soul
created for higher things. Our soul, in fact, tends
toward God, who is not attained by material
means, but by means of knowledge and love.
This, the principal and necessary thing, is handed

Who is wiser, nobler and stronger than the
follower of the Church, than he who is aware
of his duties? He submits his mind to God,
ruler of the universe, and, allured by celestial
promises, patiently resists the enticements of this
perishable life, and does not permit his mortal
body, destined to be the instrument and weapon
of justice, to become the seal of sin; in such a
manner he has a foretaste of heavenly things,
since “man rejoices in peace and true liberty,
when the flesh is subject to the spirit which
judges, and when the spirit is subject to God who
controls.”(St. Leo the Great) In all that he thinks,
in all that he says, in all that he does, be it in
public or in private, he always regulates himself
so as to have the truth as ruler, love as law and
eternity as a goal.

The Christian Family
Such being the Catholic formation, the great
abundance of good derived for the formation
of society and domestic life cannot fail to be
realized by all. Matrimony is not contracted for
the satisfaction of fleshly desires, but for the
procreation and education of children, who are
taken from God and for whom account will have
to be rendered. The foundations of the domestic
home cannot be undermined since, till the death
of one of the couple, the matrimonial contract
33

Spirituality
continues to hold good, so that the pledged
faith, chastity, and the fear of God keep impure
wickedness at bay. Paternal power is suitably
tempered in view of the dignity of the wife and
children; children, moreover, consider sacred the
homage of obedience to be rendered not because
of threats and force, but as a duty of conscience—a
duty born of the reflected authority of God in
parents.
What is more beautiful, more joyful, greater
than the peace of a home resting on the dictates of
Catholic education! The offspring grow up happily,
and their number is determined not by disgraceful
calculations but by the providence of God who
blesses the nuptial bed. The married, loving one
another reciprocally, are fully united in the love
for their children, and as a reward for their care,
are encouraged by signs of a virtue which proudly
reflects ancestral habits. The father’s hard work
is softened by the thought that the children are
amusing themselves at home, while not even the
night brings with it a slackening of the care and
attention of the mother. With what a smile, with
what feeling, the mother, holding the little children
on her knees as they babble their first words,
made all the more sweet by the stumbling tongue,
suggests for their inexpert lips the sublime and
adorable name of Jesus! A family formed in the
Catholic spirit does not complain of poverty, is
not ungrateful in times of abundance, convinced
that, whatever be their lot, favorable or otherwise,
there is always constancy of soul to be practiced;
and even when faced by want, they always find
something to give, never ceasing to desire only
what is good.

Christian Society
If these things contribute in such a great
measure to the well-being of cities, individuals, too,
when they dutifully and faithfully observe the rules
of Catholic education, become excellent citizens,
be it in time of war or of peace. The very precept
of love of God, which is the peak of religious
teaching, bears most excellent fruit and does so
spontaneously of its very nature, namely, love of
one’s neighbor which is the nursery and source
of all social virtues. Forgiveness of offenses,
34

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generosity, kindheartedness, and benignity
are the characteristic virtues of the follower of
the Gospel, virtues which once aroused such
admiration among the pagans that they were
almost enraptured by the new marvel, and very
speedily embraced the Christian religion.
To this charity is added also respect for justice.
Let every honest and competent person, then,
who has civil prosperity and dignity at heart,
reflect what great utility and tranquility is offered
to the State by education taught according to
the spirit and directives of the Church. In fact,
for him who professes the Catholic religion, it is
a sacred and inviolable matter to give everyone
his due, to honor the nation and the authorities
who rule it; to turn a willing ear to governors,
to render them obedience, fidelity and devotion,
not unlike that which is given by children to their
parents; to respect the law; to avoid all revolts,
zealously to defend public order; to devote
oneself with unlimited diligence and dedication
to the glory and prosperity of the nation.
. . . The Adelaide Congress which stands out so
solemnly because of the number of holy Prelates
and priests, the crowds of people, the holy
ceremonies, the debates and conferences, should
prove itself fruitful to Australia, and should serve
as an example to the entire world, a warning to
all peoples, reminding them that, by abandoning
Christ they commit the worst of errors and
plunge themselves into ruin, while those adhering
to Him with unshakeable faith and hope will reap
the most sublime benefits. Indeed Jesus Christ
leads the way to a holy existence, the truth of a
divine teaching, and a life of eternal happiness;
the light of the world, the only Master of men
who, having set up the Church as a pillar and
support of the truth, teaches us and outwardly
trains us with the infallible teaching of the
Church, while internally, in the intimacy of the
heart, He instructs us by the secret light of grace
every time that the whisper of His divine voice,
which speaks without sound, is heard by a clear
conscience, with a genuine faith and in the noble
silence of the mind that meditates and prays.

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35

Spirituality

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

The
Offertory
Part Two

By Fr. Christopher Danel

In this article we examine the Oblation or Offering of the Host, presenting the work of Monsignor
Nicholas Gihr in his fundamental liturgical commentary The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically,
Liturgically, and Ascetically Explained. Monsignor Gihr was a priest of Freiburg in Breisgau whose
work of liturgical research took place during the time frame spanning the pontificates of Popes Pius IX
to Pius XI, including that of Pope St. Pius X. The early years of his work were contemporaneous with the
last years in the work of Dom Prosper Guéranger. (The English translation of his study appeared in 1902;
the original is: Nikolaus Gihr, Messopfer dogmatisch, liturgisch und aszetisch erklärt. Herder: Freiburg
im Breisgau, 1877.)

The Offering of the Host
The preparation of the elements of the Sacrifice
includes the separation, the dedication, and the
blessing of the bread and wine for the exalted
end to which they are destined. This preliminary
sanctification of the Eucharistic elements, if not
essentially necessary, is yet in the highest degree
just and proper. The earthly elements are to be
36

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taken from the sphere of nature into the higher
order of grace, that is, they are to become holy
things, before the Holy Ghost changes them into
the Body and Blood of Christ.
The oblation has in its favor the example of
Jesus Himself, who at the Last Supper, in His
character of High-priest, taking the bread and
the chalice with wine “in His holy and venerable

hands,” and “raising His eyes to Heaven, blessed,
as He gave thanks” to the Almighty Father, the
earthly gifts of bread and wine, that is, He as
Man fervently prayed for that moment and for
all future time that the elements be changed,
a change which He as God together with the
Father and the Holy Ghost would effect not only
then, but as often as the words of Consecration
would be pronounced as prescribed. The Church,
therefore, imitates the Savior, when in the course
of the sacrificial celebration up to the time of
the Consecration, she repeatedly blesses the
Eucharistic elements, and implores of God their
acceptance, sanctification and transformation.
The Offertory of the elements begins with the
offering of the Host, wherein we may distinguish
the act and the prayer of the Oblation.

The Act of Oblation
The priest takes the paten with the Host
resting thereon and elevates it, that is, he offers
it as a sacrificial gift to the Lord God “who dwells
in the highest,” and he does this by holding it,
as it were, before His eyes, and joining to it the
supplication that the Lord would graciously
accept it. The raising of the Host is intended to
express the act of presentation. At the same time,
the priest, as is conformable to the first words
of the accompanying prayer, raises his eyes to
the Crucifix on the altar and lowers them again
almost immediately; this harmonizes with the
rest of the oblation prayer, wherein he is mindful
of his unworthiness and first of all offers it for his
own sins.
After the conclusion of the prayer, the
celebrant makes with the paten and Host the Sign
of the Cross over the place on which the Host is
to be placed.
This ceremony is intended to bring before the
mind in a striking manner that the Cross and
altar are holy places, where, though, indeed, after
a different manner, one and the same Sacrifice
was once and is now offered. The very same Body
that hung upon the Cross is laid on the altar; as
the Cross was once deemed worthy to bear the
atoning Sacrifice for the world, so is now the
altar.

The Oblation Prayer
“Accept, O holy Father, Almighty and eternal
God, this unspotted Host, which I Thy unworthy
servant offer unto Thee, my living and true
God, for my innumerable sins, offenses, and
negligences and for all here present; as also for
all faithful Christians, both living and dead, that
it may avail both me and them for salvation unto
life everlasting. Amen.”
This prayer, which is as terse in composition as
it is rich in thought, affords an answer to various
questions that may be asked with regard to the
Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Who is to receive and accept the Host?
The oblation prayer states: “The holy Father, the
Almighty, eternal God.” The Church in the Mass
generally addresses herself to God the Father,
in order to unite herself to the Savior, who on
the altar offers Himself to His heavenly Father.
God is our Father and through His only-begotten
Son, Jesus Christ, He has conferred upon us
the dignity as well as the goods and privileges
of children of God. God is the infinitely “holy
Father.” Thus does the Savior call Him in His
sacrificial prayer as High-priest (Jn. 17:11). God,
whom we may with confidence call our Father, is,
moreover, the “Almighty, eternal God,” to whom,
on account of His majesty and glory, the sacrifice
of the most profound reverence and humble
subjection is due; finally, He is the “living and
the true God,” to whom alone sacrifice may and
should be offered.
In the liturgy the Lord is often designated as
the living and true God, in contradistinction to
the inanimate and false gods, which are vain,
powerless, and full of deception. The priest offers
the Sacrifice to the “living and true God,” who
created heaven and earth. The “living” God is life
itself, the eternal and uncreated life, the source of
all life; because from Him proceeds both natural
and supernatural life, the life of grace and glory
in the world of angels and of men. In God and
from God all things live and move; out of Him
there is but death. The “true” God is truth itself,
the primordial and purest truth, the fountainhead of all truth. St. John writes: “We know
that the Son of God is come, and has given us
37

Spirituality
understanding that we may know the true God,
and may be in His true Son. This (Christ) is the
true Son of God and life eternal” (I Jn. 5:20-21).
What is offered to God the Father?
An “unspotted Host.” By this expression the
Eucharistic Sacrificial Body of Christ is to
be understood, and in a secondary way the
Eucharistic Sacrificial bread which will become
His Body. That the term unspotted Host is not
exclusively applied to the bread there present,
but is to be referred mainly to the Body of the
Lord soon to be present under the appearance of
bread, is clearly evident from the context, as also
from the comparison of this prayer with other
oblation prayers, recited before the Consecration.
Only the Body of Christ is that unspotted Host,
which secures for us atonement of sin and
salvation, for which supplication is made. (Panis
non est immaculata illa hostia pro expiatione
peccatorum oblata, sed solus Christus.—
Antoine de Mouchy, De Sacrificio Missae).
Hence the priest already before (as later
after) the Consecration calls the gift that he

38

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offers immaculate, unspotted; for Christ is the
absolutely pure, holy and faultless Victim. This
offering of the Body of Christ is, in a measure, to
be distinguished from the offering which takes
place after the Consecration, and the difference
consists in this, that here at the same time the
bread is still presented and dedicated to the Lord
God with the desire that He would accept it for
the purpose of Consecration, that is, that He
would bring the oblation of the bread to its final
termination by the Consecration.
Consequently, the expression unspotted
Host can be understood in a secondary way of
the sacrificial bread lying on the paten, which
is wholly faultless in consequence of the care
taken in the selection of the prescribed materials
and in its preparation. The eye and heart of the
priest are directed to two things while he raises
on the paten the “unspotted Host,” imploring its
favorable acceptance by the heavenly Father.
These two things are, namely, the sacrificial Body
of the Lord, soon to be present, and the sacrificial
bread soon to be changed, which is present in
reality.

Who performs the offering? The priest who
acknowledges himself in the oblation prayer as
an unworthy servant of God. The priest is God’s
servant. The Lord who “raiseth up the needy
from the earth, and lifteth up the poor from the
dunghill, that He may place him with princes,
with the princes of His people” (Ps. 112:7-8), the
Lord hath called him into His sanctuary, that
he may serve Him there all the days of his life.
But it is especially at the altar that the priest is
penetrated with a sense of his unworthiness to
discharge this honorable and sublime service.
The humblest office in the house of God is more
exalted than the greatest worldly position. Now
when the priest considers his misery and frailty,
his ingratitude and sinfulness, how painfully
should he not realize that he is quite unworthy to
serve the Most High and, above all, in the most
holy mystery of the altar?
For whom does the priest offer the
Sacrifice? In the first place, for himself, then
for all present and, finally, for all Christians. The
celebrant, therefore, first offers the unspotted
Host as a sacrifice of propitiation for his
own sins, to obtain remission of all guilt and
punishment; upon the altar there is, indeed, the
very Body in which the Savior bore our sins on
the Cross and atoned for them by His death (I
Pet. 2:24). The priest knows full well that he is not
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
but that he is encompassed with infirmity;
therefore, must he, in the first place, offer
sacrifice for his own sins and afterward for those
of his people (Heb. 7:26-27). He confesses his sins
and faults and negligences to be “innumerable.”
Though even his sins be but trivial, they are still
many and in their number lurks the danger. See
you not how the little drops swell the streams
and tear up the earth? All the sins incident to the
very living of this wretched life of ours, the priest
would daily atone for and efface by the Sacrifice
of the Altar.
The priest, in the second place, offers and
prays expressly for all present, that is, for all
those who are devoutly assisting at the divine
service and who are uniting in the Holy Sacrifice;
such persons, consequently, partake of a more
special and abundant share in the fruits of the

Sacrifice. Like the loving, solicitous Mother she
is, the Church forgets none of her children; she,
therefore, permits the priest to offer and pray for
all the faithful who belong to the communion of
saints and who still stand in need of assistance,
consequently, for all her children, whether this
present world yet retains them in the flesh or
the world to come has already received them
stripped of their mortal bodies, whether they still
are combating on earth or suffering in purgatory.
For what purpose is the Sacrifice offered?
That to all “it may avail unto eternal life,” that is,
that the Sacrifice may apply to them the benefits
and blessings of Redemption, not merely for time,
but for all eternity. Salvation is the ideal and the
sum of all the good things that Christ brought
into the world, for we acquire possession of these
goods when we obtain salvation. This salvation
begins for us here below in receiving pardon,
and is completed in the other world in beatitude.
Now, on the altar there flows the universal and
inexhaustible fountain of salvation, whence all
spiritual gifts come to us. Hence the priest prays
that the Eucharistic Sacrifice may be unto all so
efficacious a means of salvation, that they may
attain to glory of soul and body in eternity.

The Example of Our Lord
The Lord celebrated the Pasch of the New
Testament beginning with an oblation, that
is, by blessing the bread and the chalice, as
also by giving thanks to God the Father. By
these two actions we must not understand the
uttering of the words of Consecration yet; for
there is thereby designated another act entirely
different from the Consecration, that is, a
preparatory prayer of blessing and thanksgiving
preceding the Consecration, the conclusion
of which are the words of the Consecration.
This pre-sanctification of the elements was
wholly fitting, since their accidents remained
after the Consecration, and, in like manner, the
thanksgiving also was fitting before and during
the performance of a mystery as equally glorious
for God as it is beneficial for men.

39

“Yesterday I was crucified
with Him; today I am
glorified with Him;
yesterday I died with Him; today
I am quickened with Him;
yesterday I was buried with
Him; today I rise with Him.
But let us offer to Him who
suffered and rose again for us—
you will think perhaps that I
am going to say gold, or silver,
or woven work or transparent
and costly stones, the mere
passing material of earth, that
remains here below, and is for
the most part always possessed
by bad men, slaves of the world
and of the Prince of the world.
Let us offer ourselves, the
possession most precious to
God, and most fitting; let us
give back to the Image what
is made after the Image.
Let us recognize our dignity; let
us honour our archetype; let us
know the power of the mystery,
and for what Christ died.”
St. Gregory the Theologian - Homily on Pascha
St. Gregory the Theologian - Homily on Pascha

Spirituality

A Bookplate of the

First Catholic
Bishop in
Australia
By Frank Carleton

Editor’s Note: The author of this piece credits Sr. Mary Agnes for her assistance with interpreting
ecclesiastical symbolism.

The first Catholic bishop in Australia, who
arrived in Sydney in 1835, was a Benedictine
monk of St. Gregory’s Monastery, Downside, 12
miles from Bath in Somerset. He was Dom John
Bede Polding, OSB (1794-1877). He had been
preceded in 1833 by another Downside monk,
William Bernard Ullathorne (1806-1889) who
had arrived in Sydney representing the English
Benedictine bishop with authority over New
Holland who resided at Mauritius. He found a
penal colony so replete with vice that he cited Old
Testament texts to evoke its iniquity. Upon his
return to England, Fr. Ullathorne recommended
the appointment of a bishop for New South Wales
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to eliminate factionalism in the local Catholic
population in a penal society, chiefly composed
of convicts and ex-convicts, to end dissension
among a handful of priests and to enhance
pastoral initiatives.
By papal briefs in late June 1834, Dom Bede
Polding was appointed Vicar Apostolic of New
Holland, Van Diemens Land (today’s Tasmania)
and adjacent islands. He was consecrated in
London as Bishop of Hiero-Caesarea in partibus
infidelium in accordance with the canonical
practice of nominating bishops in missionary
countries to the titles of defunct ancient sees.
From boyhood Polding had taken a keen interest

in the originally priestless plight of the chiefly
Irish Catholics of New South Wales. Previously he
had refused episcopal appointment to Mauritius
and to Madras in India.

growth of his ancient Benedictine Order. The
monks of his English Benedictine Congregation
were established on the Continent in France
and elsewhere since the early 17th century. But

The First Catholic Chaplains
The first local official Catholic chaplains were
two Irish priests, Rev. Philip Conolly (1786-1839)
and Rev. John Joseph Therry (1794-1864) who had
arrived in Sydney in May 1820 with an annual
government salary of 100 pounds. The senior
priest, Fr. Conolly moved to Hobart in March
1821. There he remained, except for a six-month
trip to Sydney and the penal settlements at
Newcastle and Port Macquarie in 1822, until his
death in 1839. Fr. Therry traveled extensively in
the Australian colonies and achieved a legendary
status amongst the Catholic laity His funeral in
1864 was reckoned to have been the largest held
in Sydney to that year.
On January 20, 1835 the Catholic episcopal
appointment was notified to Governor Richard
Bourke at Sydney. Bishop Polding arrived there
on September 13, accompanied by one priest and
five students, three of whom were Benedictines.
Fr. Ullathorne became the bishop’s Vicar General
in Sydney until he returned to England in 1840.

Leading a Vast Territory
With a jurisdiction covering the whole of
Australia, in the first instance Polding spent
much of his colonial career in travel over
distances so vast as to recall the far-flung
missionary apostolate of St. Francis Xavier
(1506-1552) in the 16th century. On April 5, 1842
following Polding’s request for it Rome approved
the establishment of an Australian Catholic
hierarchy with dioceses in Hobart and Adelaide
in addition to Sydney Archdiocese. Polding
became Metropolitan and first Archbishop of
Sydney. This was the first Catholic hierarchy
established within the British Empire since the
16th-century Reformation. Nine years later the
Catholic hierarchy was restored in England.
The new bishop was ambitious for the local

the black monks had been forced back to their
native land by the violent anti-clerical excesses
of the French Revolution in the 1790s. In 1814, the
Benedictine community from Douai following
43

Spirituality
a sojourn in Shropshire arrived in Somerset.
In Sydney, he sought to create a Benedictine
abbey-diocese based on St. Mary’s Cathedral and
monastery, a romantic ambition inspired by the
original black monks of St. Benedict (ca. 480540) who had evangelized so much of Europe
and England after the 5th-century expiry of the
Roman Empire in the West.

Founding a Benedictine
Community
In 1843, Archbishop Polding founded a
Benedictine community at the first St. Mary’s
Cathedral in Sydney with Roman approval. But
by the 1860s his abbey-diocese concept, which
was never approved by Rome, was floundering
in the face of particular local realities. These
included majority Irish Catholic preference for
secular Irish priests and their ready availability
from Irish seminaries as opposed to insufficient
local Benedictine vocations to sustain both the
cathedral choir offices and wide ranging pastoral
responsibilities in and beyond Sydney. The
English Benedictine Congregation, which was
painstakingly re-establishing itself in England,
could not spare monks for the Australian
Catholic mission. Then there was the arrival of
other religious orders who proved resistant to a
wholly Benedictine regime.
At Polding’s death in 1877, he was succeeded as
Archbishop of Sydney by his coadjutor, another
English Benedictine monk, Roger Bede Vaughan
(1834-1883). By then a growing Catholic Church
had been firmly established in Australia beyond
the original penal era and with a dominant Irish
character.

The Bishop’s Bookplate
Before his original 1834 departure from
London, Polding had scoured the bookstalls
of Paternoster Row noting on the flyleaves of
purchased books the prices he had paid for them.
On the front pastedown of a 1770 Paris edition
of the Rule of St. Benedict is the new bishop’s
bookplate. Apart from the Rule, this edition also
44

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contained the Constitutions of the Congregation
of St. Maur (1621-1792), the largest Benedictine
congregation in France until it was destroyed by
the Revolution. In 1792, the last Maurist superior
went to the guillotine followed by 40 monks.
This calf-bound volume with its paper
watermarked, “Anvers” (the French name of
Antwerp) for its place of manufacture also bears
the signature of its owner, “Rt. Rev. J.B. Polding.”
The crest on the bookplate of the new Bishop
of Hiero-Caesarea and Vicar Apostolic of New
Holland on the book’s front pastedown is topped
by an episcopal broad-brimmed hat. This is a
Roman galero with descending ten tassels that
denote episcopal rank on both sides of a divided
shield.
The hat and tassels were customarily colored
green for a bishop. A cross crosslet rises out of
the shield. The shield’s left side features a Latin
cross with two traverses, the Cross of Lorraine,
encircled by a crown of thorns symbolizing
sacrifice. This cross rises out of three rocks
standing for Calvary and the three theological
virtues and passes through the Benedictine PAX
(peace). Pax was the motto of St. Benedict’s
twin sister St. Scholastica (ca. 480-543) and a
perennial Benedictine symbol. On the shield’s
right side from bottom to top is a wall perhaps
evoking Fortitude in the building of a new
Catholic nation in the antipodes. Standing on the
wall is a winged lion facing right in profile with
a human head and breasts perhaps evoking the
Canticle of Canticles. The scroll beneath captions
the shield with the new bishop’s motto, Adjutor
Deus (God my helper).

Note:
*

A bookplate or book-plate, also known as ex-libris (Latin for
“from the books (or library)”), is usually a small printed or
decorative label pasted into a book, often on the front endpaper, to
indicate ownership.

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Spirituality

The Stability
of the
Order of
St. Benedict
By a Benedictine monk

Just like every snowflake that ever fell upon
the face of the earth is formed by a different
pattern of ice crystals, every soul, born into this
world, that comes forth from the hand of God is
unique. God, in His divine Providence, creates a
place for each soul to sanctify its life and enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven. Monasteries and
convents are places invented by God to enable
souls to love Him without limit. Each Religious
Order has a common goal, but they remain very
different from each other. The Dominicans, for
example, are called to contemplate the beauty of
God’s light. After having contemplated the things
of God, they communicate these truths to their
fellow man. The Franciscans, drawn by the joy
and freedom of a child of God, willfully embrace
the path of material poverty, mortification, and
penance. They consider themselves to be the
46

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happy spouses of Lady Poverty. They carry the
simple message of the Gospel to the poor of the
Church. The Carmelites, with their beautiful life
of prayer, dwell within the interior castle of their
souls in the continual presence of God. Their
community celebrates the entire canonical office
and spends two hours daily in silent, mental
prayer conversing with the Beloved Spouse
of their soul. Their life of sacrifice and prayer
enriches the entire Church. The Carthusians
sacrifice the greater part of their life in silent
solitude adoring their Creator spending their day
alone with God. When one Carthusian monk was
asked why he had a map of the world on the wall
of his cell, he replied that he considered this to
be his parish territory. He prayed continuously
for the salvation of every soul on earth as if
they belonged to his parish. During the 2,000

years of the Church’s existence, there have been
many Religious Orders founded for the care of
her children. Some of the first centers of free
education, the first hospitals and orphanages
known to mankind were initiated by the monastic
Orders seeking to care for the least and the
weakest of the members of Christ’s Church.
While chanting the mass, St. Mechtilde (a
Benedictine mystic of the 13th century) received
a revelation explaining the introit antiphon “In
the center of the Church.” Our Lord said to her:
“The center of the Church is the Order of St.

Benedict. It supports the Church like a pillar
upon which the entire house rests because it is
in relation not only with the universal Church
but also with the other religious Orders. It is
united to its superiors, that is to say to the pope
and bishops, by the respect and obedience that
it renders to them; and it is united to the other
Religious Orders by its teaching which gives a
structure for the perfection of life, since all of the
other Orders imitate the Order of St. Benedict
in one point or another. Good and just souls
find in this Order counsel and aid; sinners

47

Christian Culture
find compassion there and the means to correct
themselves and confess their sins; the souls in
purgatory find in this Order the assistance of holy
prayers. Finally, they offer hospitality to pilgrims,
maintain the lives of the poor, relieve the infirm,
nourish those that are hungry and thirsty,
console the afflicted, and pray for the deliverance
of the souls of the faithfully departed.”
With its 15 centuries of existence and,
according to Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, with 57,000
known Benedictine saints, the Order of St.
Benedict has a very special place in the Church
precisely because it has no specialty at all. The
special charism of the Benedictine life is simply
to become a good Catholic by praying and
working in a family atmosphere and maintaining
a perfect union with our Creator. The simplicity
of this life produced great fruit for the Church
embracing all the aspects of the Catholic life.
St. Benedict counts more than 20 of his sons as
popes, a vast number of bishops, five doctors of
the Church and many missionaries that carried
the faith to more than 20 major countries such as
England and Germany. It would be impossible to
count the number of hidden saints, known to God
alone, having spent their lives in the secret of the
cloisters.
St. Benedict wrote his Rule for Monks during
the barbaric invasions when Roman society
was rapidly disintegrating in both a political
and moral way. Society was at that time in
great need of the stability of a spiritual life. St
Benedict discovers the need of a stable, interior
life by the very life that he lived. When he was
a young student in Rome, he clearly recognized
the decadence of society. He realized that if he
continued as a student in Rome his soul would
be in danger of damnation and so he chose to
flee to God by living a secluded life of prayer
and mortification. During these three years of
solitude, he learned a great deal about God and
himself. He was at one point strongly tempted
by lust to leave the religious life. He recognized
the disorder in his passions and by uniting
mortification to prayer, he rolled for a long
time in a patch of briars, nettles, and thorns.
He later acknowledged that this mortification
delivered him from future attacks stemming
from his own wounded nature. His sanctity was
48

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finally discovered by others and a neighboring
monastery invited him to be their superior.
While trying to reform their decadent ways, the
same monks that invited him to the monastery
attempted to poison him. He escaped death by a
miracle and once again fled to God abandoning
this monastery. He discovered what even
religious are capable of when their spiritual
duties are neglected. He then establishes 12
flourishing monasteries, closely united to each
other and living in peace with God and man.
A jealous priest named Florentius attempted
to kill him on several occasions. Each attempt
was foiled by God’s intervention, which caused
even greater jealously on the part of Florentius.
This poor priest decided to attack the virtue of
the young monks in the monastery in order to
destroy St. Benedict. He sent a group of decadent
women to dance naked in the monastery to entice
the novices to the sin of lust. St. Benedict decided
to protect his sons by leaving the monastery,
hoping, by his absence, to appease the jealousy of
Florentius.
When we consider all of these examples of
his life, it seems that St. Benedict flees from his
problems. In all reality he flees to God. His great
wisdom is to understand wounded human nature
and the means of healing it by turning to God.
The constant drive of his life is to seek God and
the things that please God by healing the wounds
of a corrupt nature. He found these wounds in the
Roman society as a young student. He found them
again in his own soul while in the grotto battling
against his concupiscence. He observed them in
the souls of the religious that tried to poison him
as well as in the soul of the priest that tried to kill
him and to destroy the souls of his novices. His
constant victory is to humbly and perseveringly
confide his soul to God. He understands the
wound of sin and he turns away from sin to God.
Having learned this art himself, he is capable of
teaching others to do the same. His Rule is like a
road map leading the human soul away from the
misery of sin into the joyful presence of God who
loves us without reserve. He gives the courage
to his sons to recognize their sins and by God’s
grace to change their lives.
St. Aelred of Rievaulx compares St. Benedict
to Moses, the lawgiver of the Old Testament.

Moses led the chosen people out of the slavery
of Egypt, where Pharaoh obliged them to make
bricks out of mud and straw, into the promised
land. In the desert, Moses offered sacrifice to God
and built the Arc of the Covenant. He gave them
the ten commandments that God wrote on tables
of stone in order for them to follow a sure path
into the heavenly Kingdom. St. Benedict leads
the wounded soul out of the bondage of sin and
the slavery of its concupiscence. He invites the
monk to offer the sacrifice of his life to God and
become His temple instead of making worthless
bricks of the mud of the passing pleasures of
this life. He gives his sons a Rule of life that will
free them from sin and lead them to the heavenly
Kingdom of Our Lord.
A historical example of this type of conversion
can be found in the great French Abbey of
Cluny. Some modern critics accused the abbey
of purchasing slaves in order to exploit them for
personal gain. In fact, they did buy slaves, but
not for their personal benefit. They taught the
slaves their Faith and gave them also a formation
in farming and an honest trade. Once the slave
was sufficiently instructed, the Abbey of Cluny
granted freedom to their former slaves as well as
a tract of land in order to earn their livelihood.
They frequently formed confraternities and
became oblates of the monastery. In this way
they would participate in the material and
spiritual benefits of the monastery. During the
different barbaric invasions that threatened the
existence of all civilized society, these oblates
would seek refuge behind the monastery’s walls
and would help defend the monastery as well as
their own possessions.
The way that the monks would evangelize a
country was different than the modern means
of the more recent Orders. The modern Orders
would send traveling apostles around the world
to preach the Faith. They were always on the
move seeking souls. The Benedictine way of
bringing the Faith to a country was to simply
live in the same place, inviting the inhabitants
to come to them. By the example of their life,
they taught the newly-converted souls not only
how to cultivate the land, but especially how
to practice the necessary Catholic virtues. St.
Benedict introduced the vow of stability into the

monastic life. This meant that the monk made a
vow to remain in his monastery under his abbot
until death. This gave great longevity to Christian
life and the practice of virtue wherever the
monastery would be established. He also asks of
his monks to make the vow of obedience and the
vow of conversion of morals, which is essentially
a vow to practice Christian virtue. Through this
wisdom he gives the monks and the oblates of
the surrounding villages a long-term means of
turning away from sin and towards God.
St. Benedict ends his Prologue of the Rule with
a type of vision of what he expects his Order to
be and the fruit that will develop within the walls
of his monastery and in the villages around the
monasteries.
“Our hearts and our bodies must, therefore,
be ready to do battle under the biddings of
holy obedience; and let us ask the Lord that
He supply by the help of His grace what is
impossible to us by nature. And if, flying
from the pains of hell, we desire to reach life
everlasting, then, while there is yet time, and
we are still in the flesh, and are able during
the present life to fulfill all these things, we
must make haste to do now what will profit us
forever.
“We are, therefore, about to found a school
of the Lord’s service, in which we hope to
introduce nothing harsh or burdensome.
But even if, to correct vices or to preserve
charity, sound reason dictates anything that
turns out somewhat stringent, do not at once
fly in dismay from the way of salvation, the
beginning of which cannot but be narrow. But
as we advance in the religious life and faith, we
shall run the way of God’s commandments with
expanded hearts and unspeakable sweetness of
love; so that never departing from His guidance
and persevering in the monastery in His
doctrine till death, we may by patience share in
the sufferings of Christ, and be found worthy to
be co-heirs with Him of His kingdom” (Prologue
of the Rule).

49

The term stained-glass can refer to
colored glass as a material or to works
created from it. Throughout its thousandyear history, the term has been applied
almost exclusively to the windows of
churches and other significant religious
buildings. Although traditionally made
in flat panels and used as windows, the
creations of modern stained-glass artists
also include three-dimensional structures
and sculpture.
As a material, stained-glass is glass that
has been colored by adding metallic salts
during its manufacture. The colored glass
is crafted into stained glass windows in
which small pieces of glass are arranged
to form patterns or pictures, held
together (traditionally) by strips of lead
and supported by a rigid frame. Painted
details and yellow stain are often used
to enhance the design. The term stainedglass is also applied to windows in which
the colors have been painted onto the
glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln.
Stained-glass, as an art and a craft,
requires the artistic skill to conceive an
appropriate and workable design, and
the engineering skills to assemble the
piece. A window must fit into the space
for which it is made, must resist wind and
rain, and also, especially in the larger
windows, must support its own weight.
Many large windows have withstood the
test of time and remained substantially
intact since the Late Middle Ages.
The purpose of a stained-glass window
is to control light coming in. For this
reason, stained-glass windows have
been described as “illuminated wall
decorations”.
Isogood_patrick / Shutterstock.com

Christian Culture

Troyes
Cathedral
By Dr. France-Marie Hilgar

Troyes is a Roman town founded on the
great Milan-Lyon-Boulogne axis. References
to missionaries and martyrs at the end of the
3rd century bear witness to the existence of a
Christian community, organized as a diocese in
the second half of the 4th century. This period
of religious peace enabled a church to be built
in the city, perhaps on the site of the dwelling
in which the first congregation had gathered
to celebrate Holy Communion. Little is known
of the early edifices. A reconstruction or a
restoration erected in the 870’s was burnt down
by the Normans in about 890. Between 975 and
985 the bishop undertook great construction
work. The cathedral was then preceded by a
vast tower-porch which survived until 1532 in
place of the actual façade. After the devastation
of a fire in 1188, funds were obtained for the
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complete rebuilding of the edifice in Gothic
style. By 1223, the radiating chapels and the
pillars of the choir had been built. In November
1228, a cyclone brought about the collapse of
the upper sections. Construction was resumed
in a new style which sought greater luminosity.
The open triforium is one of the oldest if not the
first to be conceived in a medieval work-yard.
By the 13th century, the upper stained-glass
windows of the choir were installed. In the late
13th and early 14th centuries, the transept was
finished, and the nave undertaken, before their
crossing was surmounted by a great steeple.
The cathedral was far from being finished. The
Hundred Years’ War combined with widespread
pestilence drained the financial assets while at
the same time significant flaws appeared in the
construction and a series of disasters struck

the edifice. In 1365, a cyclone demolished the
belfry, in 1381, the southern rose window began
to lean dangerously, then a thunderbolt set fire
to the roof of the nave which collapsed soon
after. In 1390, the northern rose window fell. It

was difficult to face all these calamities. When
the cathedral was consecrated on July 9, 1430,
a year after Charles VII and Joan of Arc had
journeyed that way, it was far from complete
and there was only a mud-wall façade behind

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54

the Romanesque tower-porch. But it must be
remembered that a work-site was never cleared all
at once and the edifice to be replaced was pulled
down little by little as the various stages of the
rebuilding advanced. Notwithstanding the pitiable
portal, priority was given to the crossing steeple
whose new spire, 110 meters (360 ft.) in height was
completed in 1437. Then followed a stone rood
screen and stained-glass windows. The northern
rose window was strengthened by a stone support
and the nave completed at the end of the 15th
century. On May 3, 1507 the foundation stone was

still more disasters befell the cathedral. Dubious
embellishments were added. Then Revolutionary
vandalism destroyed the rood screen and ravaged
the exterior statuary. This irreparable loss
disfigures the flamboyant façade, reducing it to a
composition of lines deprived of the volume of its
decoration. Because of a lack of upkeep, serious
faults were again discovered: crevices in the
southern front which had to be rebuilt, inclination
of the choir pillars necessitating the reinforcement
of the foundations, the wall buttresses and the
flying buttresses. During the entire period of the

laid, 20 years later the towers and portal had risen
to the first gallery. In 1546, the rose window was
finished and in 1554, the level of the clock of St.
Peter’s tower, to the north was reached. Only in
the 17th century was the northern tower crowned,
in classic style but it was never balanced by its
southern twin tower. In 1700, lightning struck the
great steeple, the timberwork caught fire and the
bells crashed through the transept vaulting. The
damage was repaired but the vanished bell-tower
was never replaced. At the close of the century,

Second Empire, the cathedral was a vast buildingsite where architects managed to save it from
ruins. Fortunately spared from the 20th century
wars, the cathedral remains an unfinished edifice.
A Gateway to Heaven, it reminds us that perfection
is not of this world…An interesting result of the
lengthy delays in construction is that one can
obtain an overall view of the architecture of the
Champagne area from the 13th-16th centuries. The
separation of wall and bay created at Reims exists
here in the very early example of the luminous

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triforium which leads to a dematerialization of
the upper elements. The link between the superior
levels, henceforth open and with a rhythmical
pattern of the same ascending small columns
confers a new vigor to the choir. As to the nave,
the renewed surrounding stone fillings of its
windows bear witness to the virtuosity of the
Flamboyant Gothic style applied to stained-glass.
The cathedral, whose walls are constellated
with precious stones, is the image of celestial
Jerusalem: it is among men, the dwelling place of
God, who is Light.

Let’s visit the interior of the cathedral.
Standing at the far end under the organ. Behind,
on the portal pier, the alliance of the porcupine
and the ermine evoke the marriage of Louis XII
and Anne of Brittany, whereas the salamander
announces the accession of Francis I. Ahead
are the five naves erected from 1208 onwards.
Between the laying of the foundation stone and
the accession of Francis I in 1515, slightly more
than three centuries of Christianity have passed
characterized by the stability of the Gothic order.

The rose-window (1546) of the great portal marks
its end. Three distinct periods of construction
reveal the three important stages of the Gothic
style. In the middle of the 13th century, the
edifice has reached the level of the transept. The
choir is then closed by a temporary wall. The
cathedral transept and lateral naves are built
in the 14th century. Work is resumed after the
Hundred Years War, the great nave acquires its
vaulting and its Flamboyant stained-glass. Except
for the portal, the same plan served for the entire
construction. Move to the right-hand pillar and
investigate the holy-water bowl: the cathedral
with the purity of its nave and the splendor of its
stained-glass windows, is reflected in it.
With our back turned to the great portal, we
can advance to the left-hand Lateral nave. First,
you will see the Tower Staircase, then a great
picture of the Transfiguration (1831). On the
second pillar to the left, note the capital made
of cabbage leaves being eaten by a big snail.
Then stands a stained-glass window (1625),
showing Christ lying under a press, His blood
flowing into a chalice. From His chest emerges
a vine whose branches bear the 12 apostles.
Passing into the transept, continuing on the
left, note the 16th-century rose-window and
the four Evangelists in the small roses in the
corners. Arriving at the ambulatory, we first see
the Sacred Heart Chapel presenting the only
semi-circular window. Then, Jesse’s Tree. And
we arrive at the Axial Chapel of the Virgin. On
the windows: scenes of the life of Christ and
His mother. On the altar: the Virgin and Child
depicted in a white marble statue. Several
bishops are buried in this chapel. After the
Chapel of the Virgin is found the story of St. Peter
and the life of St. Loup. The treasury is composed
of a first basic collection of valuable objects
brought from Constantinople (4th crusade). The
treasury was enriched throughout the centuries
by deposits and discoveries, the most recent
being the celebrated 14th-century red cope with
its 49 embroidered medallions. International
exhibitions have displayed important items of
the Troyes Treasury. The treasury is ornate by
an 1170 stained-glass window of St. Peter and
St. Paul. The visitor should note the modern
rose-window of the southern transept: Christ
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Christian Culture
and the four Evangelists. Stop at the Chapel
of the Assumption (of the Holy Sacrament);
the window dates from the 17th century: the
Immaculate One is surrounded by her attributes.
The view of Jerusalem is as described in the
Book of Revelation. The Chapel of the Fonts has a
Renaissance enclosure and a fine copy of the Last
Supper. One can admire also the Window of the
Virgin of the Apocalypse, clothed with sun rays,
a crescent moon under her feet, in the middle of
a chorus of Angels. Then a multicolored stone
group depicts the baptism of St. Augustine by St.
Ambrose (1549). 16th century painted wooden
panels represent the Virgin and the entry of Jesus
into Jerusalem.
The cathedral has two sets of stained-glass
windows that deserve a closer look. The first
set, sanctuary and choir, is middle 13th century.
The second set, end of 15th early 16th century,
to which can be added a 17th century enamel
work. The best times to view them are morning
for the southern windows, late afternoon for
the northern ones. In the very early hours, the
stained-glass, seen against the light, is just a
sparkle of constellations changing and glittering
as the visitor proceeds where he can view all
the jewels of the Apocalypse. The characters of
the Old Testament are placed on the north side,
beginning with Adam who is followed by the
Patriarchs and the Prophets. They draw nearer
to the dawn, whereas the Chapel of the Virgin,
in the apse, receives the first rays of the setting
sun, through the nave rose-window, emblem
of Paradise. Altogether there are 1,500 square
meters (4921 sq. ft.) of windows which have
traversed victoriously centuries of trials: fire,
conflagration, negligence, the perils of wars, and
the Revolution.
Let us look at the 13th century stained-glass
windows of the choir. Facing the choir, moving to
the left we see:
– the story of St. Helen of Constantinople;
– the story of St. Savinien;
– the founder of the church;
– the story of St. Nicolas;
– the Joyful mysteries of the Virgin;
– the Dormancy of Mary;
– the central window relates the Lord’s Passion.
Lower left: the flagellation. On the right, the
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crowning with thorns. In the middle row,
death on the Cross. At the tip of the arch: on
the left, Christ’s entombment; on the right, His
Resurrection, announced to the Holy Women
by the angel. In the rose-window: Christ’s
Ascension.
– in St. John’s window, note especially the upper
lancets: John in the vat of boiling oil. The
apostle’s reception in glory; informed of his
death, he orders his grave to be dug while he
thanks Christ for his departure.
– the story of St. Peter.
– some martyrs.
– wise Virgins and foolish Virgins in discussion,
respectively with an angel and a demon.
– the transfer of relics from Constantinople.
– Theophile’s window. In the upper row: Christ
called upon by Mary who appears to the
wicked grief-stricken cleric before snatching
from the demon the contract formerly signed.
In the foliage, emblems of Castile and France
(1250). The stained-glass windows of the nave:
16th century.
With our back turned to the organ, we can
advance to the right and look at the windows:
– The main episodes of the life of Daniel: Susan
bathing, the stoning of the Old men, the ordeal
of the lions’ den. Note in the trilobed arcs,
angels with three colors and six wings.
– The story of Joseph, which continues in the
triforium, up to his splendid journey to Egypt,
in a hearse.
– Parable of the Prodigal Son, which dwells
chiefly on scenes of the feast.
– Jesse’s tree (1498). A majestic arabesque
on a purple background, displaying all the
ancestors of Christ and His mother at the tip).
– Some Sts. of Troyes Diocese. Passing before
the altar, at the left, returning gradually
toward the organ.
– Life of St. Peter.
– Story of Tobias.
– The adventures of Job, his wife, their
daughters and their friends.
– Story of St. Sebastian.
– Window of the Cross, with angels of Jacob’s
ladder supporting souls in their ascent of the
Cross.
In the choir, the 82 stalls originally were at
Clairvaux. They date from the 18th century.

57

Christian Culture

The
Harrowing
of Hell
The Icon of the Resurrection of Christ

By Romanus

The Resurrection of Our Lord is the most
important event in human history. It has released
us from the power of death and restored our
relationship with God and with one another.
The Gospels do not talk about the exact
moment of the Resurrection, only of “the morning
after”—as that mystery of mysteries is an event
far too great and incomprehensible for men. The
apparitions of Christ confront the witnesses with
a new reality, which will have to be accepted in
faith by those who will hear of it from them.
The exact moment of the Resurrection itself
was represented from the 11th century onwards,
but only in the Western Church. It depicts a scene
that was never actually witnessed, a concealed
secret, Christ emerging triumphantly from the
tomb, while the guards are fast asleep, fallen to
the ground.
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The Eastern Church retained the more ancient
representation, that of the results of the event of
the Resurrection for us, the deliverance from the
power of Hell. Thus, the most common depictions
in Byzantine art are the “Harrowing of Hell” and
the “Myrrh-bearers,” the women at the tomb.

The Victory of Christ over Death
The icon of the Resurrection is not content
with simply showing us the Risen Christ, or the
empty tomb; its aim is not to give us information
about the precise moment of the Resurrection.
It invites us to contemplate the highest mystery
of our Faith: the total victory of Life over death.
Death and evil do not have the last word in our
existence.

Freely accepting death, Christ assumed the
mortal condition of men. As in the death of every
man, His body and soul were separated—“He
rendered the spirit”—but the union of human and
divine natures remained, and thus His flesh was
untouched by corruption.
“While corporally in the tomb, Thou were in
Hell, with Thy soul, as God; and in Paradise with
the thief, and upon Thy throne, with the Father
and the Spirit, filling all, being infinite” (Paschal
antiphon in the Byzantine liturgy).
Nailed to the Cross, obeying the love of the
Father, Christ overcame sin, the origin of death,
and the Father resuscitated Him (I Pet 1:21). His
humanity is deified and becomes the locus of
victory over death.
Jesus Christ was not content with lying in the
tomb for three days after His crucifixion. Instead,
while His body was entombed, Christ’s soul
descended into Hades, or Hell. Christ descended
there not to suffer, but to fight, and free the
souls trapped there. Just as bringing a light into
darkness causes the darkness to disappear, the
Source of all Life descending into the abode of
the dead resulted in Jesus’ victory over death,
and not death’s victory over Jesus. This is the full
reality of what Christ’s death and resurrection
accomplished.

The Harrowing of Hell
The Resurrection is called in Greek the
Anastasis, “raising,” because the victory of Christ
is a re-creation, a new beginning.
In turn, the most common Anastasis icon is
described as the “Harrowing of Hell.” “Harrow”
comes from the Old English word used to
describe the ploughing of a field with a cultivator
which is dragged roughly over the ground,
breaking and churning it up. In the icon, Christ is
shown with the instrument of His death, plunging
deep into Hades—sometimes He carries the Cross
in His hands, sometimes the broken gates of hell
are disposed in the shape of a cross, under which
Satan is crushed…
The descent of Christ to “hell” is one of the
articles of the Apostles’ Creed since the Council
of Nicaea, on the basis of Scripture (I Pet. 3:19,

4:6; Ps. 107:6; Heb. 2:14, Eph. 4:8-9; Apoc. 1:18).
Many of the Fathers spoke of this “Harrowing
of Hell”—St. Melito of Sardis, Tertullian, St.
Hippolytus, Origen, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and St.
Ambrose.
But inspiration for the iconographic details
comes from other sources. For a long time, it was
assumed to have been taken from the apocryphal
“Gospel of Nicodemus,” but recent scholarship
shows that its main sources have been the
homilies and liturgical texts in use from the 4th
century onwards, as exemplified by the Matins of
Holy Saturday in the Byzantine liturgy:
Hell, who had filled all men with fear,
Trembled at the sight of Thee, And in haste he
yielded up his prisoners, O Immortal Sun of
Glory
Thou hast destroyed the palaces of hell by
Thy Burial, O Christ. Thou hast trampled
death down by thy death, O Lord, and
redeemed earth’s children from corruption.
Though thou art buried in a grave, O
Christ, though Thou goest down to hell,
O Savior, Thou hast stripped hell naked,
emptying its graves.
Death seized Thee, O Jesus, and was
strangled in Thy trap. Hell’s gates were
smashed, the fallen were set free, and carried
from beneath the earth on high.
O Savior, death’s corruption could not
touch thy holy flesh. Thou hast bound the
ancient murderer of man, and restored all
the dead to new life.
Thou didst will, O Savior, to go beneath the
earth. Thou didst free death’s fallen captives
from their chains, leading them from earth
to heaven.
In the earth’s dark bosom the Grain of
Wheat is laid. By its death, it shall bring
forth abundant fruit: Adam’s sons, freed from
the chains of death.
Wishing to save Adam, Thou didst come
down to earth. Not finding him on earth, O
Master, Thou didst descend to Hades seeking
him.
O my Life, my Savior, dwelling with the
dead in death, Thou hast destroyed the
iron bars of hell, and hast risen from
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Christian Culture
corruption.

An Important Synthesis
There were obvious difficulties to represent
such a subject. In one composition had to be
merged the “good news” brought to the Patriarchs,
the victory over Hell and the devil, and the
liberation of the just.
Aiming at that synthesis, three types of
composition were developed. The most ancient
represented Christ descending, trampling on
Hades, grabbing Adam’s hand, with the other just

coming behind. A second composition represented
Christ facing us, standing in the center of the
scene; underfoot, the broken gates of Hell, and a
representation of the depths of “Hades,” darkness,
bolts, chains, and the devil. Christ’s right hand
grabs Adam, Eve is on the left, and the just
behind. This representation of Christ leaving hell
and taking the just with Him is a better expression
of the Redemption accomplished. There is still
a third representation, in which Christ appears
elevated, as in the Transfiguration, standing in a
mandorla (an almond-shaped halo), but without

Anastasis (Church of the Holy Savior in Chora, Constantinople, c.1315- 1321)

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touching the just, who are prostrated in adoration,
in two compact groups.
The fresco of the Chora Monastery in
Constantinople (Istanbul) merges these last
two compositions and has become the standard
representation.
In the icon, Jesus Christ stands victoriously
in the center. Robed in heavenly white, He is
surrounded by a mandorla of star-studded light,
representing the Glory of God, in the same light as
in the icon of the Transfiguration.
But Christ is here shown moving, achieving the

work of salvation, vigorously tearing Adam and
Eve from their tombs, pulling them by the wrist,
and not the hand. It is not Adam and Eve who cling
to the Christ, it is He who takes them with Him,
to make them live with Him, in His glory. This
humble surrender to Jesus is all they need and are
able to do. Christ does the rest.
Surrounding the victorious Christ are John
the Baptist and the Old Testament righteous
(David and Solomon, Abel as a young shepherdboy). Those who predeceased Christ’s crucifixion
descended to Hades, where they patiently waited
the coming of their Messiah. Now they are freed
from this underworld and mingle freely with
Christ and His angels.
The icon of the Harrowing of Hell becomes
to some extent the icon of the restoration of the
relationship between God and men. The first Adam
and the New Adam are for the first time face to
face. The bond is recreated between Adam and the
source of his life, the creative hand of God catches
up with Adam in his fall even unto death.
The underworld, Hades, is shown in the
aftershock of Christ’s descent into its heart—in
utter chaos. Beneath Christ’s feet—which still
carry the marks of His crucifixion—lay the gates
of Hades, smashed wide open. Often, they are
shown lying in the shape of the Cross. Christ
has trampled death by death. Within the dark
underworld are scattered broken chains and locks;
and at the very bottom is the personified Hades,
the devil, prostrate and bound. Hades is not
destroyed—it is still there—but its power to bind
people is gone. There are no chains, no locked
doors.
The liberation of the just and the ascending
movement of Christ represent an essential event in
the history of our salvation: the movement of the
love of God, to be totally fulfilled at the end of the
world.
The icon is filled with light, movement, life. It
gives us hope, by showing us Christ who draws
us out of death to bring us into His own light.
Christ goes deep within us, to release us from the
chains of our refusal of love and our anguish, our
alienating passions and our fears, to restore in us
His Resemblance, to awaken us and to lead us to
the true life, which is eternal—Christ is truly the
primitiae dormientium.
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Christian Culture

Not at All What a Vain Modernity Thinks

Transformation
in Christ and 19th-Century Spirituality

By John Rao, D.Phil. Oxon.

There is no doubt that the architects of our
ever more rapidly collapsing “modern” Church
were correct in their chastisement of preconciliar Catholic weaknesses in the study of
history. Nevertheless, it also has to be said that
any valid hopes for a much needed improvement
in the understanding of the Christian past have,
in practice, been buried alive under the quite
unhistorical demands their ideological vision of
modernity impose upon the current powers-thatbe regarding what they are willing to tell the world
actually happened before their regrettable rise to
dominance.

A Distortion of History
Such mischief with respect to the distortion of
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the history of 19th-century Catholicism has been
particularly grotesque, the achievements of both
the clergy and the laity in this era often being
totally ignored or misrepresented to enhance
the reputation of whatever “forward looking”
forces are deemed to have been precursors of the
open, modern Church. Just as knowledge of the
greatness, immensity, and variety of lay Catholic
Action in the 19th century has been buried under
the mantra of an awakening of the laity only first
begun in the 1960s, that same period’s spirituality
has been brutally raked over the coals as painfully
lacking in both substance and good taste.
Let us “give the devil his due” and concede
that much devotional literature of the age,
particularly that of the first part of the century,
does confirm aspects of these accusations. Still,
one must remember that the majority of writings

concerning every human activity, along with the
public record of the practical results achieved by
men and women engaged in each of them is always
less than desirable. I certainly can vouch for that
fact of life in my own field of high education.
Moreover, the evangelical—and, I might add,
truly democratic—necessity of bringing the
message of salvation and the means to attain it to
all of humanity inevitably, at all times in history,
has had to involve extraordinary differences in
intellectual and aesthetic presentation that range
from the most sophisticated to the most popular,
in ways that must end by providing at least
something unpalatable to everyone.
A more suitable standard for judging the
nature and quality of a given age’s spirituality is
whether its basic spirit actually moves men closer
to God or not. And the 19th century, rejecting
the preceding era’s tendency to emphasize a
naturalist, Poor Richard’s Almanac’s grasp of
spirituality—a spirituality wherein cleanliness
was next to godliness, and the chief guide to life
was getting to bed early to be healthy, wealthy,
and wise—cannot be faulted in this regard. Both
its theologians and its spiritual writers, men as
diverse as the Tübingen scholar Johann Adam
Möhler (1796-1838), Cardinal Louis Edouard Pie
(1815-1880), Bishop of Poitiers, and his auxiliary,
Monsignor Charles Gay (1819-1892), preached ever
more firmly, with ever more varied references to
historical sources ranging from the Greek Fathers
to more recent and often neglected mystics, and to
an ever more universal audience the need and real
possibility for a fundamental transformation of the
individual, society, and nature as a whole through
cooperation with supernatural truth and grace
within the Mystical Body. With all due respect to
that great pontiff, rather than St. Pius X’s motto
of “restoration of all things in Christ” being an
innovative call to arms, it can more accurately
be described as a summary of the essence of the
spirituality of the century in which he was born.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart
Let us explore this badge of honor with
reference to the immensely powerful devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This cult, whose

importance was discussed in depth by the
Jesuit theologian Giovanni Perrone (17941876), a disciple of Möhler, was instinctively
understood by many ordinary believers to be the
obvious counterpoint to the naturalism of the
Enlightenment and the disasters brought about by
subsequent revolutionary movements. It was this
popular appreciation of its meaning that caused
the leaders of the counter-revolutionary revolt
of the Vendée in 1793-1794 to plant an image of
the Sacred Heart on their otherwise plain white
banner, their later French counterparts to build a
church on Montmartre bearing its name to expiate
for the nation’s sins against the rights of God in
the 1870’s, and Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-1875)
to place his attempt to Catholicize the political
and social life of Ecuador under its patronage
at the same time. Popular commitment to the
devotion was such that Pope Pius IX and Leo XIII
both enhanced the importance of its Feast Day, the
latter ending the century in 1899 by consecrating
the entire human race to the Sacred Heart.
What does the devotion ultimately teach? It
demonstrates that Christ’s fully human heart—the
most important symbol of a man’s vitality and
openness to altruistic love—was rendered sacred
through its union with His divine nature in the
second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word
of God. This then pointed to the way in which
all things human and natural could be rendered
sacred—“divinized,” to use the language of the
Greek Fathers appropriated by the editors of the
influential 19th-century Roman Jesuit journal, La
Civiltà Cattolica—through participation in the
life of Christ and His Mystical Body.
An awareness of the magnificence of this
truth, the centrality and urgency of the call to
individual transformation in Christ, and the need
to mobilize every possible tool for achieving the
glory it entailed, immeasurably increased the
century’s focus upon the chief means of gaining
supernatural grace. It is therefore no real surprise
it was accompanied by an enhanced appreciation
of the Eucharist and the frequent reception of
Holy Communion. The names of St. Peter Julian
Eymard (1811-1868), Monsignor Gaston de Ségur
(1820-1881), and the layman Marie-Marthe
Tamisier (1834-1910) must be evoked here, Eymard
providing spiritual stimulus to the practical
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Christian Culture
work done by de Ségur and Tamisier to promote
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and reception
of the graces coming therefrom through the
organization of ever more influential and popular
International Eucharistic Congresses, beginning
in the 1880s.
The longing for an individual transformation
in Christ that was understood to be as difficult
a task as it was urgent also increased an
appreciation for the need to mobilize other forces
from His Mystical Body within whose embrace
this “divinization” must take place. Hence, the
massive reinvigoration of devotion to every relic
associated with Jesus, to the Blessed Mother, to
the saints, and to pilgrimages to all of their many
shrines, both old and new. Such devotions had
been forcefully downplayed by the powers-that-be
of the previous century, with their common sensedriven Poor Richard Almanac understanding of
godliness.
Enemies of these developments still steeped
in such a humdrum moralism were stunned by
the mass of believers, educated and uneducated,
that came to revere the seamless robe of Christ,
deemed to be in the possession of the Cathedral
of Triers, when pilgrimage to it was revived by
the local bishop in the 1840s. Moreover, they
were horrified that pilgrims utilized the modern
tool of the railroad, which was supposed to
lead them more rapidly to the performance
of merely naturalist tasks, to undertake this
supernatural journey. They were no more pleased
by the popularity of the rediscovered writings
taking people away from earthly concerns that
theologians and preachers were making known to
the ordinary Catholic, one of the most significant
being Louis Grignon de Montfort (1673-1716),
whose Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed
Virgin was finally published in 1843.
Assistance for individual transformation in
Christ needed the support of a natural order that
propelled men and women to seek this goal and
not to treat it as a fanciful theological speculation
diverting the population from the more practical
labor of building personal economic prosperity
or national political power. It was the recognized
need and urgency for the family, the school, the
workplace, and the political institutions of each
and every land to open themselves fully to Christ
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to push the individual believer to his supernatural
goal, fed by 19th-century spirituality, that fueled
the truly impressive counter-revolutionary
Catholic Action movements of the day in so many
different countries. Such activity then worked
back to stimulate the spirit still further. “Almost
every Catholic meeting which I attended at that
time,” a witness of Austrian political activity
noted, “was a fiery furnace for the souls, from
which a torrent of sparks and flames of holy
enthusiasm was generated; a powerful forge, in
which the armaments were hardened for a battle
for the Cross which now threatened from all sides”
(S.N. Kalyvas, The Rise of Christian Democracy
in Europe (Cornell, 1966), pp. 97-98).

Further Distortions
Anyone unfortunate enough to take seriously
the distortions of the past promoted by the
dominant forces in the Church today, who seem
to argue that Catholic History began in 1962
with the opening of Second Vatican Council, will
believe a lot of ultimately very contradictory facts
about 19th century spirituality which I cannot
fully explain in an article this length: that it was
somehow simultaneously both exaggeratedly
intellectual and yet maudlin, daintily feminine,
and childlike in character, in a fashion that should
alarm both those concerned for democratizing the
Gospel as well as those embarrassed by what this
might practically entail; that it was simultaneously
too obsessed with individual sanctity and yet
constantly seen by the world at large to involve
grand popular pilgrimages, public International
Eucharistic Conferences, and mass Catholic
political action.
Once again, “giving the devil his due,” all of
this has some truth to it. 19th-century spirituality
does display all these aspects, because it was
truly Catholic, and therefore “all things to all
people,” in a proper manner, not “in a way that
a vain modernity thinks.” It displayed all of
these seemingly contradictory elements in a
unified spirit that dealt with humanity in an
honestly—and not selectively—democratic
fashion, recognizing the incredible diversity
necessary to take seriously to find how to lead

everyone to transformation in Christ. In short,
it offered something for everyone in aid of the
same uplifting goal: eternal life in union of God
through incorporation into Our Lord and Savior’s
Mystical Body. And, thankfully, given its rejection
of the previous century’s cultivation of a gloomy
Jansenism suspicious of the possibility of doing

God’s will on earth, and its enthusiastic promotion
of Alphonsus Liguori’s (1696-1787) moral theology
and spiritual teaching, it actually gave living
men and women a real hope that they just might
succeed in joining Christ, Mary, and the saints in
Heaven after all.

65

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Good
Family Spirit
By the Sisters of the Society Saint Pius X

In order to blossom, flowers need warm rays of
sunshine. And in the garden of souls, joy creates
the necessary climate for hearts to expand.

Do Not Let Children
Close Themselves Off
There are happy temperaments, always
optimistic, never downcast or uninterested,
who know how to render gratitude to God: it
is a precious talent. But with grumpy children,
those who sulk, are withdrawn, are grouchy and
otherwise sorrowful, they must be taught to be
joyful. Let us know how to point out the joyful
side of things (yes, there always is one). The
weather is bad: the rain will nourish the earth
and help the crops to grow. Here is a vexation:

what an opportunity, I am able to offer a sacrifice
to the Good Lord! I had less cake than my
brother: I am happy for him.
Let us not let children close themselves up in
their sulkiness. As soon as this is threatened, a
joke or a little teasing can lighten the mood: “Be
careful, you are starting to pout; quickly get your
big smile out of your pocket.”
Grumpy children who are never satisfied will
be interrupted, “Stop whining, you are so busy
complaining about what you don’t have, that you
forget to see what you do have; you’re moaning
like a laundry list of complaints.”
Nevertheless, it’s necessary to detect the cause
of an unaccustomed sadness, for example a bad
influence or difficulties at school of which the child
doesn’t dare to speak. If the child can confide in an
adult and find help therein, joy will resume.
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Christian Culture
Let us take time to savor the simple joys in
family life, such as the joy that follows work:
contemplate the beautiful fields seen from above,
admire the well-weeded garden, or the deeplycleaned living room. There is the joy of being
reunited after the week at boarding school, the
joy of singing while washing dishes, the joy of a
family outing or picnic, the joy to be old enough
to help dad, and so many other little flowers of
joy sown for us by the Good Lord. If a child does
not find the joyful atmosphere necessary for his
fulfillment in family life, it is to be feared that he
will go elsewhere to find it, and God knows where
this will be.
We will show by our example that virtue, far
from smothering it, is the true source of joy. A
rigid virtue, cold, stringent, and austere, is not
communicable. Far from attracting, it pushes
away and easily risks making children rebellious.
True Christian virtue is joyful: joy in knowing
ourselves beloved children of our heavenly
Father, joy in offering Him the little events of
our daily life, joy in being pardoned of our faults
and healed of our weaknesses…Our Lord, in
the Beatitudes, promises eight times to make us
happy. He blesses and encourages all pure joy.
One may say that joy is the sweetest gift coming
from His hands after love.

despite everything, affect the children such as
mourning a loss or sickness. It is necessary to
help them to cope without letting themselves
be overcome with sadness. In fact, as long as
one unites himself totally to the Will of God,
even if it is crucifying, there remains in the
center of the soul, despite all upset feelings, a
little spark of joy. Perhaps it will be unfelt, but

The Effects of Sadness
Sadness, on the other hand, chills and
extinguishes souls, kills the taste for effort,
encourages vice. Let us not be pessimistic
educators, never satisfied with the child’s efforts.
There are icy compliments, “Well, you have done
less poorly than usual. For a loser, you managed
not too badly.” On the contrary, one can be
positive even while reproaching, “I know you are
capable of doing better, you will show me so next
time.” Let us know how to give the child a good
reputation to justify, giving justice to his efforts,
rejoicing in his success.
Certainly, in every life there are crosses,
sometimes very heavy ones. In order not to
sadden the family atmosphere, let us keep all
concerns for the adults; children are not yet
strong enough to carry them. Certain trials will,
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The Ten
Commandments
of Joy
Dom Gaston Courtois

Joy in God demands you be
Calm and smiling each morning,
Even if you disagree.
In your heart repeat quietly,
God, Who loves me, is here always
In everyone, Him will I see.

it is real, because the soul loves God who is
always present, and joy is one of the fruits of the
presence of the Holy Ghost in the soul.
Don Bosco made joy one of his principal
methods of education. He knew that the devil is
eternally sad and communicates his sadness to
the souls that he leads into sin. On the contrary,
the soul in the state of grace is joyful. May

children play, run, laugh, even make noise, but
may they not sin! Our Saint even founded in his
houses the “Society of Joy.” And St. Dominic
Savio learned well from his teachings, he who
said, “We make sanctity consist of always being
joyful.”

Sadness, banish, without pity,
Never criticizing or complaining,
As nothing more surely chases glee.
Apply yourself most cheerfully
With all your heart, quite happily,
To every work—done manfully.
Welcome all visitors so warmly,
And comfort the sorrowful,
Forgetting self, wholeheartedly.
By radiating joy, most faithfully,
You’ll possess it for yourself
Most certainly.

69

Christian Culture

by Fr. Juan Carlos Iscara, SSPX

What is the difference between
calumny and detraction?
Can they be grave sins?
Man has a right to his good reputation. A
“right” is that which is due to another, and it
cannot be denied without injustice. “Reputation”
is the opinion held by many about a person’s
life and behavior. It is the consequence of that
person’s physical, intellectual, and moral qualities
and attainments, and as such, it belongs to him,
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it is his property. It is, as St. Thomas says, one
of man’s most precious temporal possessions.
Without the good esteem of his neighbors, an
individual’s life in society becomes very difficult
and even almost impossible.
Detraction is the unjust violation of the good
esteem in which a person is held by making
known to others some true but hidden fault of
that person. St. Thomas says that it is a more
grievous sin than theft, since a good name
is better than wealth. Calumny differs from
detraction only in that what is said of or imputed

to another is false in fact and known to be false;
in this case, it adds the malice of lying.
To despoil someone of that good esteem
without proportionate cause constitutes
an injustice, which is more or less grievous
according to the harm done and which imposes
on the perpetrator the obligation of restitution.
It may be a grave sin, but its gravity is to be
measured by the gravity of the fault of which the
person is accused, and the extent of the damage
done is to be judged by the character, position,
office of the detractor and of the detracted, as
well as by the circumstances of the hearers.
On the one hand, it must be noted that if a
person’s fault is such as to endanger the common
good or is committed publicly, then his good
reputation is destroyed and can no longer be
reckoned among his assets. In such a case,
disclosure of the evil deed implies no detraction.
Similarly, no injustice is done by revealing the
fault of another if it is necessary in defense of
oneself or of others.
On the other hand, even if a person’s good
esteem in the eyes of his neighbors is founded
upon error or ignorance as to the actual
conditions, still the knowledge of the real state
of affairs by someone does not confer any right
to take away the general favorable appreciation
which that person, as a matter of fact, enjoys.

Is all judgment of our neighbor
condemned by Christ?
When asked about a homosexual of good will
who seeks the Lord, Pope Francis famously
answered, “Who am I to judge?” This seems to be

perfectly in line with Our Lord’s command, when
He commanded “judge not, that you may not be
judged (Mt. 7:1). On the other hand, the Word
of God also has told us that we must “judge not
according to the appearance, but judge righteous
judgment” (Jn. 7:24).
To solve the apparent contradiction, we must
make distinctions to understand the different
senses in which we may speak of “judgment.”
First of all, judgment is an act of our
intelligence, by which we perceive the agreement
or disagreement between two ideas; in other
words, it is, as St. Thomas explains, the mental
act by which we assert or deny something—for
example, when we make simple statements
about the circumstances of our daily lives, such
as saying “today is a beautiful day” or “I don’t
like sweets,” and even when we assert weightier,
doctrinal and moral matters, such as “God exists”
or “abortion is a crime.”
These judgments are necessary for living a
normal, human life. They are required for the
exercise of the moral virtue of prudence, which
helps us to discern what we should do at every
moment in order to direct all our actions, great
and small, safely and assuredly to their ultimate
end, God Himself. Therefore, God does not forbid
such judgments—in fact, He cannot forbid them
without depriving us of what is essential to the
nature He has given us.
In our turn, we cannot abstain from making
such judgments everyday if we want to live a
rational, Christian life—and much less can we
abstain if by our office and vocation we are called
to guide others towards God.
What Our Lord actually forbids us is what we
call a “rash judgment”—that is, the attribution of
something morally reprehensible to our neighbor,
or the denial of something morally virtuous,
without sufficient evidence. It is an assertion,
with firm conviction, about someone’s morality,
rather than a suspicion or a doubt.
The rash judgment is contrary to charity,
which, according to St. Paul, thinks no evil (I
Cor. 13:5). St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that, in
the absence of clear evidence, doubts about the
virtues of another should always be interpreted
for the best. The intention of the person making
a rash judgment is essentially malicious and
71

Christian Culture
rejoices in finding wickedness in his neighbor, in
contradiction to the impulse of charity.
It is also contrary to prudence, because that
judgment lacks a reasonable foundation; it is
based on evidence that, by its very insufficiency,
does not allow a conclusive judgment.
Nevertheless, the specific malice of rash
judgment consists in its injustice. First, we fail
in the justice due to God, because when we
judge not merely someone’s external actions but
assert his internal sinfulness, without sufficient
proof, we offend God by usurping His exclusive
right to judge the hearts of men (I Cor. 4:5; Rom.
14:4). We also inflict a moral injury on the person
judged, who has the right, if not to a positive good
reputation in the eyes of others, at least not to be
held in contempt without sufficient reason.
The gravity of the sin we commit with our rash
judgment depends on various circumstances. It
would especially increase in direct proportion
to the gravity of the sins of which we accuse
our neighbor, taking also into consideration
the dignity of the person accused and the
insufficiency of evidence on which we base that
judgment.
It does not appear that it would be gravely
sinful to take as certain something that could
reasonably be considered highly probable.
Moreover, knowledge of the depth of the wounds
that original sin has left in human nature and
our own past experience may reasonably lead us
to take precautions against the possibility that
another may be sinfully inclined—and that would
be simply an act of prudence.

72

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Is it permissible to buy
relics on eBay?
During the Second Vatican Council (and even
before), some bishops and theological experts
decried the veneration of relics as expression of
an outmoded and superstitious piety that had to
be eradicated so that the Church could finally
catch up with the modern world. Many bishops,
parish priests and religious superiors took up the
task with unprecedented energy. The relics that
were spared destruction during that “cleansing”
frenzy of parishes and convents found their way
into antique shops and, more recently, into online
sellers, such as eBay. Such sellers offer relics that
are often of a very dubious provenance, either
because they have been stolen or, even more
frequently, because they are false.
In any case, canon law (canon 1190)
establishes that it is absolutely forbidden to sell
sacred relics, as it is another instance of the sin
of simony, that is, the sacrilegious practice of
trading sacred things for money.
This prohibition has been recently restated
by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints,
in the context of the growing number of relics
due to the multiplication of beatifications
and canonizations. The Congregation also
reminded diocesan authorities that a certificate
of authenticity is required for the relics to be
exposed for public veneration, and also that they
cannot be displayed in unauthorized or profane
places.
Some sellers on eBay have argued that what is
for sale is the reliquary itself, and not the relic,
which is added as a “gift.” Nonetheless, a simple
examination of those listings shows that that
is not the case, because an identical reliquary
without the relic sells for a fraction of the price of
the one that contains the relic—the difference in
costs appears thus to be the “price” to be paid for
the relic. Hence, simony…
Nonetheless, it may be argued that, in the case
of the eBay relics, if they appear to be authentic,
it may be permissible for Catholics to buy the
listed relics in order to protect them from the
danger of further harm or desecration.

211 pp. – Softcover – STK# 8766 – $15.95

Eastertide Day by Day
Daily readings and meditations
to pray alone or as a family
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Each of the daily meditations covered in this book includes a:
Quote: 		

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Meditation:

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Prayer: 		

Two short daily prayers for the reader to choose from.

Thoughts:

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sspx.gifts
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and support us!

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Catechism

Part Two: Prof. Felix Otten, O.P. and C.F. Pauwels

Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a series of straightforward responses to frequently-encountered questions and
objections concerning the Catholic Faith. The questions and answers are adapted from Professor Felix Otten, O.P. and C.F.
Pauwels, O.P.’s The Most Frequently Encountered Difficulties, published originally in Dutch in 1939.

The Catholic Church teaches
that man is free yet also maintains
that God is the cause of everything.
If that is so, is not God the cause of
our will? And if God knows what we
will do in advance and even causes
what we do, how can we be free?

Persons who ask questions of this nature are

76

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often confused about the concept of “cause.”
A complete and scientific treatment of this
question requires intense philosophical training.
Therefore, only a few comments will be made
here.
The statement “God is the cause of everything”
could lead to much misunderstanding. One could
conclude from it: “So God is also the cause of
evil,” and that conclusion would be completely
crooked. So we should rather say: “God is
the cause of all good.” And now since there is
something good in every human act, so God is
also the cause of every human act. However, God
is not the only cause of that act.

God moves everything, but He does that as
the first cause. This means that He gives to us
our free will. The free will is thus, as a gift from
God, itself the cause of our free deeds. And that
cannot be otherwise: the free will is created, and
must therefore depend on the first cause, namely
God. And by being the first cause, God moves all
things according to their nature. According to
God’s design, it is our nature to be free.
So neither God nor the free will is the only
cause of free human actions: God and the will
work together as the first and second cause. That
does not mean that God and the will each
provide a piece of those acts; but both God and
the will are both involved in causing the act all
along. God is the first cause and the will is the
secondary cause. And if God did not work as the
first cause, the will could never be a secondary
cause.
That is undoubtedly a difficult issue, and
we cannot make a comparison to clarify
this. Because only God, who is the Creator of
everything, is a first cause, there is nothing like
it. The solution to the question therefore lies in
this: God is a cause that causes another, lower
cause to be a cause.

How can original sin be
reconciled with God’s justice? After
all, due to original sin we are deemed
guilty for something we did not do
ourselves, but rather Adam did at the
dawn of creation.

We know from the Bible that God created the
first people in a state of happiness. He bestowed
the great privileges of a soul and body. Above all
He appointed people for a supernatural purpose,
that is, to the eternal salvation that consists in
the blissful sight of God. As a means of attaining
that supernatural goal, man received from God

sanctifying grace, making him an adopted child
of God with the right to Heaven as an inheritance.
These and other privileges, both in the natural
and in the supernatural order, were given to man
as a gift wholly undeserved and absolutely not
due. Now all of this was not only given to the
first people personally, but in and through them
to all their descendants, that is, to all who would
descend from them by birth. But the first people
had to make themselves worthy of those great
privileges through faithful fellowship with God
and adherence to His commandments, namely
the law of nature and especially the specific
commandment: not eating the forbidden fruit.
After all, Adam was not only the natural
ancestor of the people, but he was also appointed
by God’s free disposition to the moral head,
that is, as the representative of all humanity,
with regard to sanctifying grace and eternal
salvation in Heaven. Adam bore not only the
physical and natural, but also the supernatural,
life of humanity. If he continued to obey God’s
command, his descendants would be happy; if he
became unfaithful to God’s command, mankind
in and through him as its representative would
become unhappy.
We know what happened. Thus, the
supernatural life of humanity was desecrated
by the representative of humanity: Adam. And
from there it became that the people who are
born without grace suffer not a mere loss, but
robbery. All who are descended from Adam have
been robbed of the good they should have had.
This has left human nature in a state of spiritual
despair, which we call original sin.
This original sin is not contrary to God’s
justice. After all, a prince can also raise a peasant
to the level of nobility with his entire family,
but on the condition that such a person serves
the prince faithfully. If he does not, he loses
the nobility not only for himself, but also for
all his descendants. Could those descendants
accuse the prince of injustice because they are
born without nobility? Of course not! We must
therefore pay attention to this: because of Adam’s
sin only those goods were lost to which the
people were not entitled. Nature itself with its
natural gifts survived the destruction of sin.
It is therefore better that we should
77

Catechism
look at the boundless love of God, who gave
us a Redeemer, Christ Our Lord, and thus
made Adam’s sin according to the word of St.
Augustine a felix culpa, a happy guilt. This sin is
fortunate in that it brought us the blessedness of
Redemption.

We believe that Christ, as the
Second Person of the Holy Trinity,
knows everything for He is God. So
how is it that He can say that He does
not know the Day of Judgment, but
only the Father knows it?

The words on which this difficulty is based can
be found in Mk. 13:32: “But no one knows about
that day or the hour, neither the angels in Heaven,
nor the Son, but the Father only.”
These words can be explained in two ways
which refute the apparent difficulty raised in the
question.
First, we can point out that God the Son, Who
had become a man, speaks to people here not as
God, but as a man. We could conclude from this
that He is talking about the knowledge that He
possesses as a person. For Christ, who was both
God and man, had an infinite, perfect knowledge
as God. But as a human being, of course, He
possessed a different kind of knowledge with
which he did not know everything that he knew
as God.
And then we might say that Christ speaks
here in the same way as when He says
that the Father is greater than He: that He
speaks of His human nature and His human
knowledge, and that He therefore merely
indicates that He does not know the Day of
Judgment as a man.
However, this explanation was rejected by a
decree of the Holy Office on June 5, 1918. And so
we must believe that even as a human being, by
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virtue of His human knowledge, Christ knew all
the past, present and future; and therefore also
the Day of the Judgment. And that is why we
do better to adhere to the traditional statement
which St. Thomas also gives: Christ did not know
the day and hour of judgment with a scientia
communicabilis, that is, with a knowledge that
He was also allowed to share with others. That
is why He said that He did not know. After all, we
may also answer inappropriate questions about
things that we should not mention with, “I don’t
know.”
With this considered, we can say that the
apostles showed an inappropriate curiosity about
Judgment Day. And so Christ indicated that
day and hour should remain unknown until the
Father Himself would make it known.

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Theological Studies

Modernity
and the New
Mass
By Fr. Philippe Toulza

Editor’s Note: The following is taken from the Symposium on the Mass of Paul VI: Diagnosing a Reform, held
on March 2019. The oral character has been retained throughout.
Not many names have been given to the reality
this symposium is discussing. We call it the “New
Mass” and of course this name is bound to disappear. It is also called the “Mass of Paul VI” and this
name will probably last forever. There are not many
other names for it. But it ought to be called the
“Modern Mass.”
What Do We Mean By “Modern”?
Naturally, this name, unlike the other two, implies
a judgment, and this judgment is not shared by all.
For when we say that the Mass of Paul VI is modern,
we are not using this adjective in an improper sense,
the sense we use, for example, when we say that a
building or a machine has been modernized; for in

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this case, “modern” means “recent” and more precisely “benefitting from recent techniques.” Calling
the Mass “modern” in this sense of the word would
be the same as calling it “new,” an adjective that is
already widely used and bereft of any judgment as
to its quality. When we say, therefore, that the Mass
of Paul VI is modern, we intend to use this adjective
in its proper sense, as a correlate of the concept of
“modernity.”
In this short talk, that is precisely what I should
like to establish: that the Mass of Paul VI is modern. To establish means to prove. The context of a
symposium conference is always limited, but it can
still suffice sometimes to establish a proposition. In
this case, it will not suffice, because it cannot. The

proposition that “the Mass of Paul VI is modern”
unites the predicate “modern” to the subject “Mass
of Paul VI”; and these terms designate two things
that are not simple but complex. “Modernity” is
complex; it does not consist in a single idea, but in
a collection of several ideas, therefore an order of
ideas; a disorder, we should say, to be exact. The
“Mass of Paul VI,” like any liturgical rite, is also
complex: it includes gestures, words, and objects
that occur successively one after another; it, too, is
a whole. The declaration that the Mass of Paul VI, in
all its complexity, deserves to be called “modern,”
with the complexity that this notion implies, can only
be accomplished rigorously with an amount of time
that has not been allotted for this talk.
The Treasure of the Church in the Face of
Modernity
To say that “the Mass of Paul VI is modern” is
no compliment. It is far more severe than saying
an idea or a book is modern, or that a person has
modern convictions, because we are speaking of the
Mass, the sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
God, by whom all things were made, by whom men
can be saved, in whom all things will come together
at the end of the world. This sacrifice was total,
because it was mortal, in a word, a true sacrifice; it
was total because if in a sense the creature is nothing compared to God this is because in a sense God
is everything to the creature; it was total because
it was the accomplishment of the ancient sacrifices and is fitting for the entire period of time that
remains until the Parousia.
For these reasons, the Church watches with pious
care over what Archbishop Lefebvre called the “treasure of the Church,” the Mass, the total, in a way
absolute sacrifice that in her eyes is the supreme
element of the Church’s treasure. Yes, to say that a
Mass can be modern offends Catholic ears. And yet,
it is indeed the case.
Modern ideas were born progressively between
the 14th and 16th centuries in the Western world,
and the Catholic Church has from the start been
their principal and avowed enemy; she used against
them the means she disposed of thanks to her divine
constitution, up until Vatican II. As sociologist Emile
Poulat pointed out, the concept of modernity and
the adjective modern are rare in the conciliar documents. The major problem the Vatican II Fathers

faced was rather that of inaugurating a new relation
between the Church and the world; they sought to
leave the conflict behind them and to establish more
than an armistice, a peace based on shared views. It
was not about becoming modern but about making
peace with the world; however, what had hitherto
provoked war? Modern thought, that presided over
the course of the new world. Consequently, it was
not with the world as the world that the Church
wished to dialogue, but with the world as modern.
We constantly come back to Paul VI’s famous
speech at the closing of the Council, and how could
we not? It was above all in this speech that he joined
hands with modernity. When he promulgated the
Novus Ordo Missae four years later, there was no
doubt that the mission of this reform of the rite was
to incarnate in the Catholic liturgy the new principles
that the authorities of the Church were adopting,
principles regarding their relations with the world,
but also their conception of man and of religion.
We can therefore affirm without fear of error that
the Mass of Paul VI was the liturgical complement
to the Church’s adaptation to the modern world: a
reconciliation with the modern world. This is saying
a lot, but it is not enough. We cannot do without a
definition of modernity if we wish to accomplish the
purpose of this talk.
Definition of Modernity
What, then, is modernity? It is, need we repeat,
not one idea, but an order of ideas, a doctrine in
sum. What is the essence of this doctrine? Allow us
to try to synthesize what authors say of it, be they
for or against modernity. Modernity is a doctrine on
man. What is man in truth? He is something, a substance, we would say in philosophy, finite, therefore
created. As a being, as a substance, he resembles
God. As finite, as created, he is distinct from God.
Now, if we consider him in his relation to the other
creatures in the universe, the other created substances, we can say that his superior faculties, intelligence and will, distinguish him from the animals,
plants, and minerals. There are therefore three
elements that enable us to consider man distinctly:
1, his substance, a finite creature; 2, his intelligence;
3, his free will.
Modernity is a doctrine on man. It therefore has
something to say about his substance, about his
intelligence, and about his free will.

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Theological Studies
1. On his substance, what does it say? That it is
great, worthy, superior. Modernity magnifies
man. In this respect, it is a form of humanism.
2. On his intelligence, what does it say? That it is
great, worthy, superior. Modernity magnifies
reason and science according to modern
philosophy.
3. On man’s freedom, what does it say? That it is
great, worthy, superior. Modernity is an apology
for freedom and rights.

2. Modernity magnifies reason in a rationalistic
perspective that, while it does not deny the
possibility of Revelation and the supernatural
order, refuses to allow the Faith to do anything
but restrict itself to the personal, private sphere.
3. Modernity magnifies freedom in a liberal
perspective; man is independent, which means
that no law imposes itself upon him by nature
or by any authority superior to that of the
collectivity.

Can the Church Be Reconciled with Modernity?
For a long time, the Church considered that she
did not have the right, to use the terms of Pius IX,
to reconcile herself with modernity. She has since
changed her tune. Why? The pretext was that there
are similarities between modern thought and the
Catholic religion.

It is not just a part of modern thought that goes
against Catholicism; it is not peripheral, accidental aspects of it; it is its very nature. There is no
misunderstanding, they are two entirely opposite
viewpoints. This is exactly what we find in the Mass
of Paul VI. Yves Chiron has demonstrated that along
with Bugnini, Pope Paul VI participated in the work
sessions to write the New Mass. The Mass of Paul
VI was not only a liturgical disposition to facilitate
the pacification of the relations between the Church
and the world; it is modern because the standards,
gestures and words of which it is composed are, as a
whole, modern. They follow modernity’s three major
lines of thought: humanism, intelligibility, and freedom. They magnify man, they magnify his reason,
they magnify his freedom. They do not remain within
the Catholic ambitus in doing so. No, they leave this
ambitus behind. Unfortunately, I can only offer you a
few arguments.

1. Modernity affirms the dignity of human nature
and of the human person; but the Church also
magnifies man; in the earthly paradise, God made
Adam the master of all things. In Christianity,
there is also a form of humanism, integral
humanism.
2. Modernity upholds the greatness of reason and
knowledge. But the Church is also a friend of
intelligence, which she marries with the Faith; she
has always supported true science.
3. Modernity exalts man’s freedom and rights. And
the Church has never disdained the will; she has
always considered that freedom was the sign that
man was created in the image and likeness of
God.
In fact, these are only similarities. It is true that,
like modernity, the Church confesses the dignity of
human nature, its intelligence and its free will. But
the modern conception of this is essentially contrary to the Catholic religion. Indeed:
1. Modernity magnifies humanity in a holistic vision
that places God in parentheses (agnosticism)
and tends to deny Him (atheism). For example,
all modern thought necessarily accepts the
sovereignty of the people, which disposes the
order of politics and legislation sovereignly,
absolutely, and independently of any objective
order that would impose itself upon humanity,
such as the natural and divine order.

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First Reason: Humanism
Maintaining that sin is a reality diminishes the
quality of man. The Mass is less a praise of man and
more a praise of God. Why is the Mass a sacrifice?
Because the Mass is a praise of God’s greatness.
When we pay homage to someone, whom do we
glorify? The one to whom we are paying homage.
We are not there to glorify ourselves. The centurion
who asked Our Lord to heal his sick servant did not
say “I am a centurion; I am an officer,” but “I am not
worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof.”
The humility required in the Mass is what guided the
Church to place these words on the lips of the priest,
then the faithful, just before Holy Communion. As
for the New Mass, it mixes the glorification of man
in with the praise of God and honors the profane. It
is simply out of place. It is also a modern-spirited
glorification.

The change to the “Suscipe Sancte Pater” is the
flagship in which we find all this humanism. Here is
the old form of the Suscipe prayer:
“Accept, O Holy Father, Almighty and eternal God,
this spotless host [Our Lord Jesus Christ], which I,
Thine unworthy servant, offer to Thee, my living and
true God, to atone for my numberless sins, offenses,
and negligence; on behalf of all here present and
likewise for all faithful Christians living and dead,
that it may profit me and them as a means of salvation to life everlasting. Amen.”
How does the new prayer of the offering of the
host compare?
“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for
through your goodness we have received the bread
we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human
hands, it will become for us the bread of life.”
God is spoken of as the God common to all religions. The bread is offered only as bread, as a natural thing, the fruit of the earth and of men’s labor.
Man’s work is offered to God. The prayer disregards
the consecration of the bread that will become the
Body of Christ through the ministry of the priest,
in order to obtain the remission of sin, satisfaction,
and the grace to attain Heaven. With the New Mass,
the tendency is to consecrate the work of men that
is worthy to be presented to God, as if our activity
could be a sacrifice. We remain standing, speak to
God on a familiar tone, and offer our bread.
I am going to be severe here. When they say the
new liturgy has a wicked origin, I think they are not
entirely wrong, for Satan’s sin, according to St.
Thomas Aquinas, was that when God offered him a
supernatural happiness that could be obtained with
supernatural help, he refused and wished to attain
this happiness by his own strength and consecrate
himself.
Second Reason: Intelligibility
Desacralization is the result of humanism and
simplicity is the result of rationalism. Both are to be
found in the use of the vernacular and the abandonment of many sacred rites.
Human reason is exercised through intelligibility.
They wanted to bring intelligibility into the liturgy.
In Latin, our intelligibility is not used; we remain
in ancient times when our reason was enslaved to
obscurantist powers. When we hear the Mass in our
language, we are emancipated from the dictator-

ship of dead languages and, therefore, of those who
know them, the priests.
It is the common practice of all religions to
require a sacred language in order to distinguish
the sacred from the profane. Even in the Eastern
Churches the sacred languages ended up becoming distinct from the languages of the people. Dom
Guéranger sings the praises of Pope St. Gregory on
this point: “The Duke of Bohemia, Vratislas, asked if
he could extend to his peoples who were also of the
Slavic race the dispensation John VII had granted
for Moravia. Gregory firmly refused: ‘As for what you
have requested,’ he wrote to this prince in a letter in
the year 1080, ‘desiring our consent to celebrate the
divine office in the Slavonic language in your country, know that we can in no way grant this request[.]
… It is no excuse to say that certain religious men
(St. Cyril and St. Methodius) graciously submitted
to the desires of a people full of simplicity or did
not see fit to remedy them; for the primitive Church
herself assimilated many things that the holy
Fathers corrected after submitting them to a serious
examination.’”
As for the rite itself, the contrast is evident. When
dealing with mystery, one uses signs, for mystery is
supernatural. In the New Mass, simplicity reigns supreme. With Paul VI, the rite is simplified, everything
that surrounds it and all the repetitions are abandoned so that the rite can be understood without
any preparation. Away with the trappings of the old
rite that surrounded the faithful with a magnificent
decor in a church whose architecture uplifted the
soul. For all of that entertained in man the sentiment
that he is not able to understand what is happening under his eyes. Paul VI completely disregarded
this liturgical principle recalled by the Catechism of
the Council of Trent (Ch. 20, 9): “Of these rites and
ceremonies let none be deemed useless or superfluous; all on the contrary tend to display the majesty
of this august sacrifice, and to excite the faithful,
by the celebration of these saving mysteries, to the
contemplation of the divine things which lie concealed in the eucharistic sacrifice.”
Third Reason: Free Will, Anarchy, and Creativity
With the New Mass, human freedom is magnified.
And in the first place, the standards are drastically reduced. With the old Mass, the 270 liturgical
gestures had to be learned very exactly and woe

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Theological Studies
to anyone who strayed from the ritual. Everything
was codified by the Church. In our days, this goes
against human dignity, and therefore the standards
have been drastically suppressed. Today, it is very
easy to learn to say Mass, something I can hardly
recommend!
We also have to mention the liturgical creativity
and anarchy of which Benedict XVI complained 40
years later: “In many places celebrations were not
faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but
the latter actually was understood as authorizing
or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to
deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear.
I am speaking from experience, since I too lived
through that period with all its hopes and its confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations
of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally
rooted in the faith of the Church” (Benedict XVI,
Letter to the bishops on the occasion of the publication of the Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”).
Indeed, in the 1960s, the differences between
various celebrations were such that Paul VI was
forced to conclude in an audience on September 3,
1969: “But this reform is not without its dangers,
in particular that of arbitrary choices that could
disintegrate the spiritual unity of the Church as
well as the beauty of prayer and the beauty of the
liturgy. The Church, while allowing the use of spoken
languages, certain adaptations to local desires, novelties in the rites, does not wish it to be believed that
there no longer exists any common, set and obligatory rule in the prayer of the Church, and that each
can organize or disorganize it at will.”
Some will object that these were abuses and excesses that were not in keeping with the model edition, the only edition promulgated by the pope. This
is true, without a doubt. And yet, we must point out
that these abuses and excesses spread universally,
as a property of the Novus Ordo, as if the “Mass of
Paul VI” lent itself, by its very nature, to these disorders. They belong to a dynamism which seem to go
along the very lines of the liturgy of Paul VI.
Conclusion
In order to understand the new rite, it is not
enough to analyze the texts, one also has to observe it. That is when one discovers this effort to
make friends with modernity. I am not saying that
the Mass of Paul VI is modern in the strong sense

84

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March - April 2020

of the word. If it was, it would be an agnostic and
atheistic Mass, a Mass that denies the supernatural
and miracles, a truly libertarian Mass. But, in his
effort to reconcile with modernity that was pursued
at Vatican II, Paul VI took this effort all the way by
creating a liturgy from scratch.
It is necessarily modern. It has nothing to do with
an ancient Mass, for modernity dates back to the
16th century! In fact, it has sufficiently incorporated
humanism with the reign of reason, intelligibility,
simplicity, and freedom in multiple aspects that
we can say it has ceased to be Catholic. And to say
that a Mass is close enough to modernity that it is
no longer worthy to be called Catholic means that it
deserves to be qualified as modern.

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The
Last
Word
Dear Reader,
Do you have a spiritual life?
I am not asking if you have the true Faith, if you say the rosary, make novenas, or even recite the Divine Office, if you go to the sacraments and the Traditional Mass, if you read Sacred
Scripture, the lives of the saints, their writings, and other spiritual books.
I am not asking if you understand the crisis of the Church, and if you are fighting to preserve
Tradition by supporting traditional Catholic schools, seminaries and convents, or if you are
actively pro-life.
“If I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
“And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be
burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (I Cor. 13:2-3).
Do you have a spiritual life means do you have that charity without which, the apostle says,
in spite of all the knowledge you may have and the works you may do, you will not enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven.
We are speaking of a life, and life is a movement. The spiritual life is then a movement entering in the life of God, “who is a spirit,” vibrating with the living movement within the Blessed
Trinity. “The Father loveth the Son.” “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” Do
you have that deep thirst to know God more intimately and to grow in charity “unto the fullness
of the age of Christ” in order to “reach that degree of glory which, Thou, O Lord, hath prepared
for me in Thy kingdom”?
“I am come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly.” “I thirst!”
One of the keys to that spiritual life is meditation. Without the practice of meditation, one
can go to the Traditional Mass for years and have no spiritual life. With a serious and daily practice of it, in a short time, one makes stupendous progresses. That is a fact. Go on an Ignatian
retreat to learn how to meditate.
That is also the soul of the apostolate: to see all things as coming from God, and to use all
things to go to God. This was the teaching of that master of spiritual life, Dom Chautard. Read
his book.
Caritatem habete—Have Charity!

Fr. Daniel Couture

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