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tion our faith. We act as if faith were a static and fixed thing, whereas, not in its content, but as a virtue, it can be ¯ improved

and therefore we should be questioning ourselves about how constant, how pervasive, how operative and aggressive is our faith. What are the truly important things in our life? Not visible and material things but the invisible and spiritual. Love and loyalty are more important than food

the soul is more important" than the body

God is more important than His world. Some of these invisible things are known by reason, but they can also be known by faith, on the word of God, which gives a higher motfve for belief than does sight or a syllogism. And there are other invisible thingsu . truths about the nature of God and His plans, about eter-nity and the supernatural life--which can be known only 335 CHARLES F. DONOVAN Review for Reffgious on the word of God and, therefore, only through faith. You look at a chair. Your eyes tell yo.u a chair is there

reason and faith tell you that God is there, by His omni-presence and by His conservation..You loo, k at a Catholic. Your eyes show you a person of certain age, complexion, and stature

your faith tells you that here-is a temple of God, a man redeemed by Christ’s blood and alive with Christ’s life through grace. The superngtural is present just as much as the natural and material, but you come in contact with it only through faith. Think of the impor~ tant, the enduring, the non-trivial things of your day: prayer, the sign of the cross, holy water, your guardian angel, holy Mass and the Blessed Sacrament, the souls in purgatory, Our Lady interceding for you in heaven, and the unity of us all in the Church, Christ’s Mystical Body. These are the things that count, not the external motions that we often think of as comprising life--washing the face, buttoning clothes, ascending stairs, chewing bread, hearing a door shut, smelling coffee. Yet all the super-natural facts and truths--everything we prize most highly --are ours by faith. Faith is the bridge between us and the supernatural

it is the doorway to the world of spirit

it is a floodlight on supernatural truth. Faith is only a means. There is no intention here of exaggerating its place in the divine economy. It is a means to the great ends of Christian living--union with God, prayer, love, supernatural life. Faith will pass. There will be no faith in heaven. On earth it is’only a means

but it is an indispensable means. The intellect (to use a paral-lel) may also be considered as only an instrument

it is not itself the man nor is it itself rational life. Yet without intellect or its use, man is irrational, insane, idiotic. The gift of faith is the means, the instrument to supernatural life and love, and so indispensable is it that when mortal 336 November, 1947 FAITH AND PRAYER sin attacks supernatural life, unless the sin is directly against ¯ the virtue of faith, though sanctifying grace and God’s love are repelled from the soul, byGod’s mercy a thread of super-naturality remains, namely,, the thread of supernatural° faith (and faith). We must ponder the significance of Our Lord’s unweary-ing emphasis on faith. It is true that He proclaimed the primacy of love

love of God and love of neighbor are the first commandments. But the virtue He always links with love, the virtue He demands first in His disciples, the virtue that moves Him to miracles, the virtue Hementions more than any other is faith. Our Lord performed miracles for the Canaanite woman whose daughter was possessed by a devil, for.the centurion, for the woman with the issue of blood, for the ruler whose daughter was dead

and the reason He gave for these miracles was the faith of the peti-tioners. Surely some of these people must have loved Jesus, because He was so immed, iately attractive and lovable. But Our Lord doesn’t mention their love

He mentions only their faith. The Gospels present an almost pitiable picture of Our Lord trudging the dusty roads of an unimportant Roman province trying to get people to believe in Him, so anxious about faith in Him, and so pleased when a few believe. In the case of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus we know that there was warm affection both on their side and on Our Lord’s

yet the .reason Our Lord gave for raising Lazarus from the dead was not His affection for His friends or theirs for Him, but that they might believe. One of the great decisions of Our Lord’s life was the choice of a man to head His Church. And for that criti-cal decision, what was the test? Faith. When Peter stated his conviction that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Our Lord replied, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, 337 CHARLES F. DONOVAN Reoieto for Religious but my Father in heaven." Peter’s confession’, therefore, was based not on natural conviction or natural knowledge but on faith, and 3esus praised his faith and immediately promised him the primacy and the keys. Later, after the triple denial by Peter, Ou~ Lord demanded a triple affir-mation of love. But the original test was the test of faith. Our Lord left no doubt that love, supernatural charity, is the first law. Yet His last word to the apostles was on the necessity of faith: "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned." It is not enough f~r us to grasp the plain fact of Our Lord’s constant iteration of the need and value of faith. We may ask ourselves toby, what was the reason for this divine emphasis. Our Blessed Lord stressed faith, which is a means, rather than love, which is the end and consummation to which He invites us, because it was His very function as Redeemer and Mediator to make possible to us, to give us, to disclose to us the means for attaining secure and eternal union with God. He is the Way, and faith in Him is the indispensable and the first means by which we may attain beatitude and come into superna.tural intellectual possession of God. By tl’ie very operation .of the nature God gave us the action of the will follows the action of the mind, the will can embrace only what is presented to it by the intellect, we can love only what we know. Therefore, as the consum-mation to which we are summoned is supernatural love stemming from our will, the necessary prerequisite for that act is the supernatural illumination of our intellect. In heaven the illumination will be by the lumen glorlae, which will enable us to accept the immediate penetration by God into every recess of our being. That will be vision. As 338 FAITH AND PRAYER long as vision is lacking, as it is in the state of trial on earth, the necessary supern~itural illumination God gives us is the gift of faith. Faith is not love, but it is the bridge to love, it is the means of communicating with God: and i~f our love is to be constant, our faith must be active and constant. This is the simple A B C of the spiritual life, so obvious that no spiritual director or writer could overlook it. It is not over-looked. It suffers, however, a lack of due emphasis because it is referred to in conferences and spiritual treatises by cir-cumlocutions. We talk about faith but not always by name. We say, for instance, that for spiritual success we must have recollection: we must be interior men and women

we speak of the man of God, the man of th~ spirit

we talk of the spirit of prayer and the spirit of con-templation. Each.one of these_phrases is really a reference to the virtue of faith. What is recollection but attention to the things faith makes known to us? By an interior person we mean more than a philosopher, one given to speculation and thought

we mean specifically one who concentrates on the truths of faith. And no less an authority than St. ,~ohn of the Cross calls contemplation naked faith. All these phrases, by which we designate one who is earnest about the spiri_tual life, are ways of saying,that faith is actife, faith is constant, faith is sustained. It is precisely when you realize this, that you become c6nvinced of the critical centrality of faith in the soul-life. Sanctity means the constant flow of love and adoration from. the soul to God, and this implies and demands--as it has in the li(res of the saints--the practice of the presence of God. And what is the practice of the presence of God except the actuation of faith in God’s loving nearness the virtue of "faith overflowing in an almost uninterrupted act?’ 339 CHARLES F. DONOVAN Reoiew [or Religious It can be seen that if we are men and women of faith, we will by that very fact be men and women of prayer, men and women of God. A very simple and fundamental way of progressing in the spiritual .life is simply to con-centrate on the virtue of faith, trying to exercise it, nourish it, increase it, and begging for its .increase by God. The just man, the completely spiritual man, lives by faith

faith active when he awakes at night

faith active as. soon as he arises in the morning

faith active when he beholds a fellow-religious

faith active when he enters chapel

faith active when he obeys his superior

faith active at work

faith active at prayer. This is walking in the presence of God

this is the sanctity of the life of faith. When we pray for an increase of faith, therefore, we are not just asking God to keep us from doubt or from hesitant assent

we are not merely asking for the grace to stay in the Church and remain Catholics. We are asking for some-thing more positive: for growth in awareness of God, for growth in taste and understanding of spiritual things, for an increased realization that the world is shadow and the spirit is substance. We are asking for a firmer grip on the substance of things hoped for, a livelier appreciation of the evidence of the things that are not seen. St. Paul says that without faith it is impossible to please God. As faith is necessary for even the beginning of the spiritual life, so spir-itual progress means progress towards a life of sustained faith. Constar~tly actuated faith is itself a very high form of prayer. Bossuet calls the prayer of simplicity attention in faith. The more we try to live by faith, the sooner and more rapidly we will advance. Father Grou in The School of Jesus Christ says of the prayer, "Increase our faith," This is the prayer we should have most constantly on our lips. This is not merely the faith that accepts all revealed dogma and sub- 340 1947 mits to the decisions of the Church. We wouldn’t even be Chris-tians, children of the Church, if we didn’t have that. It is not a simple belief in revelation, but a practical virtue influencing all our conduct, which rouses and feeds devotion, supports the soul4n trial, teaches us’ to sanctify our actions, gives our mind a standard of judging, the will a motive to ~ict on supernatural principles. This distinguishes the true Christian, the interior man, from,the apparent, external Chris-tian. Without this faith even pious works are dead. Its effects are: recollection, dependence on grace, the familiar presence of God. In prayer [because of this faith] God seems visible to the soul, which is struck with’awe, is pro[oundly attentive, and walks in the sight of God.. Archbishop Ullathorne quotes St. Leo, "The force and wisdom of faith is the light of charity," and adds: For charity is the light of faith and faith is the light of charity

for whilst faitl~ gives its luminous truth to Charity° charity gives its fire and ardent sense of God to faith

and so faith works by charitT, for charity gives its force to the will to cleave to the truth of God for the love of-God. Faith is the end of the Divine Incarnation, and God is the end of Faith. YOUNG CHRISTIAN FARMERS Priests and teachers in rural communities should find Young Christian Farmers a helpful p.amphlet on Rural Catholic Action. It contains a group of seven well-prepared inquiries on the basic human relationships of young farm boys to the farm home and the rural community. Each inquiry describes and observes the problem under consideration, judges the findings from the Christian viewpoint, arid suggests possible lines of action to improve the situation. Each inquiry also has its own proper Gospel commentary. Though in-tended for teen-age farm boys, the material can easily be adapted to other farm groups. (Eugene Geissler, Fides Publishers, South Bend, Indiana. 50 cents.) 341 - Christ:Jan Joy Mother Mary Robert Falls, O.S.U. 44

OY to the world, the Lord is come!" With brevity and directiaess the 61d carol thus sounds the domi-nant. note of the Christmas season and its period of preparation, for whether we looI~ to the Advent liturgy with its imperious calls to joy, or whether we consult the customs and traditions of men, we find always the same exultant gladness, the same triumphant joy and satisfac-tion at the Coming of Christ. And rightly so, of course, for joy is eminently a Christian gift flowing ~from the abiding consciousness of loving and of being loved

and nei.ther paganism with ~its haunting sense df unfulfilled .desires nor the fieo-paganism of ~os.t-Protestantism can 9ffer even a vague substitute for the joy that came with the Birth of Christ. ,,~ Since this is so, Advent seems an appropriate time to investigate what we can’ know of the nature of joy and to seek the answer, not i~a ~pec~lation nor in emotion, "but in the bracing realm of doctrine as found in Holy Scripture and in the lives and teachings of the saifits. For religious, the question ~assum~s still .greater significance when we remember the words of St. Francis of )~ssisi: "What else are we servants of God, but in a measure His minstrels, who should uplift the hearts of men and move them to spiritual joy?" The Nature of do~ Dom Marmion defines joy as "the sentiment ~that is born in a soul, conscious of the good it possesses." For St. Thomas, joy is the sequel of charity, in itself not a vir-tue but the effect of love. Moreover, not feelings, not emo- 342 (~HRISTIAN .JOY tions, but intellectual apprehension is the sine qua non of true joy

. for while joy is a kind of delight, not all. delight is joy, since a necessary condition of joy is the rational apprehension of a good-~an important distinction in view of the predominant attention given in these times to th~ more superficial delights often mistaken for joy. Dora Marmion, stressing this rational aspect of joy, addsi "The good ~f our intelligence is truth

the more this truth is abundant and luminous~ the deeper is our inward joy." The classic utterance concerning joy is found in St. Pau.l, "The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace .... " And again, "Thekingdom of God is . . . justice and. peace and joy’in theHoly Ghost." From these considerations, there, fore, it is evident that true joy is’mbre thah a transient emotional state

it is at once a conscious an.d~a reasonable delight in those, goods proper to man and, above all in the Supreme Good--God Himself. ~ St. Thomas tells us that "peace is the perfectio.n of joy." It is evident, therefore, that peace is possible onl$ on the foundation of joyI and is its necessary conseituent. St. Th~r~se illustrates well this sequence, Describing" her realization of her spekial vocation, she wrote, "Then, in an ecstasy of joy, I cried out ’0 Jesus, my Love... !’ " A few lines farther on, she added, "Why do I’speak of an ’ecstasy of joy’? Those words do not convey my exact meaning. I should rather say that peace, has become my portion." Source of Our Joy God is love, and love is the source of all joy--this is the alpha and the omega of the question. There is no one ele-. ment of joy so indispensable as this love of God, and in pro-portion as our love increases and our lives’become theo-centric our joy will deepen and permeate all. Well might the Curi of Ars say that it is always springtime in the heart 343 MOTHER MARY ROBERT FALLS Review for Religious that loves God. The Holy Spirit in the inspired Scriptures has emphasized the joy consequent upon the coming of God among men with an insistence that cannot be ignored. No sooner had Elizabeth come into contact with Mary. bearing Christ within her, than she exclaimed, "Behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy." When the shepherds, confronted with an angelic messenger, were affrighted, they were reassured,"Fear not, for behold I bring ’good tidings of great joy." The Wise Men, recovering once more their luminous guide, "rejoiced with exceeding great~ joy." Truly, the .coming .of Christ promised ~joy to those who should receive Him. Lest we. forget this truth, the Church in the third Collect for the Advent Ember Saturday peti-tions, "Give joy, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, hy the coming of Thine only begotten Son, to us Thine unworthy servants...." And when He had come, neither His Personality nor His message belied the doctrine of joy. How many of His parables emphasized just this note! There will be joy in heaven itself upon the return of a sinner. At the _end of .the time of trial the faithful servant will enter into the joy of his lord: Indeed, the very hearing of the word of God in itself brought joy. Moreover, ~those associating with Christ experienced for themselves this gladness in His presence. Zacheus, called from his perch to entertain Christ, "came down and received him with joy." After their first missionary jour-ney, the seventy-two disciples "returned with joy" to Christ, glad to be with Him again and proud of. their accgmplishments. Not only His immediate disciples but all the people experienced this delight in His pre.sefice. "T~e whole multitude.., began with joy to praise God." So well had the apostles learned the lesson that they 344 November, 1947 CHRISTIAN .JoY found little difficulty in remaining faithful to this tradi-tion of Christian joy. On ]Easter morning Peter and ,John ’~went out quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy," and the fear of the unknown was powerless to over-come the joy of the known. When the clouds had hidden Christ from their sight on Mount Olivet and the angels had bidden them return to the city, "they went back into Jerusalem with great joy," even though they had just been separated from their Friend. On that first [~entecost morning "the disciples .were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost," and in the strength of that joy they began their missionary conquest of the world. _ Joy is the true heritage of a Christian. Christ Himself emphasized thig at the Last Supper with an insistence that revealed His concern. Moreover, it is Christian jo~l, that is, the joy of Christ Himself. After. the tremendous lesson of the many mansions, after the new commandment and the promise of the Paraclete, after the gift of His peace, after the parable of the vine and the branches, Christ reassured His listeners, "These things I have spoken to you that tn~t jolt mat! be in you, and your joy may be filled." Nor is this joy to be .merely transitory

it is Christ who says so, "Amen, amen, I say to you . .. you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you." Mind-ful that men, left to themselves, might forget the source of joy, Christ encouraged them, "Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name

ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full." And then in the sublime prayer ad-dressed to His heavenly Father, Christ reveals unmistak-ably the true nature of Christian joy, "These things I speak in the world, that they may have m~/ joy filled in them-selves." 345 MOTHER MARY ROBERT FALLS Reoieto for Religious ¯ The Character of True Christian dog In all ages great loversof God have known this truth: God is love, and love is joy,~ Tauler says, "~The lovers of God pass into a worldless peace where all is happiness and joy

whatever happens to them, whatever they do, that j6.y and peace remain." Fore Chesterton, joy was the "gigahtic secret of the Christian," a secret of which Isaias, centuries earlier, had told the source, "Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord,’in the Holy One of Israel thou shalt be joyful." For Dom Marmion, "Joy is the echo of God in the soul." This emphasis on the theocentric character of joy is not in any sense intended to deny the reality of ~arthly joys, but rather to intensify an appreciation of the source and qualities of all joy. Earthly joys have earthly sources

and So ’long as these sources are good in themselves the joys are good and are blessed by God. When Lucie Christine reproached herself for tl~e happiness she experienced with ber~hu~sband and her children, Our Lord, coming to her in Holy Communion, made her understand "hOW His kind Heart lo~’es to see the joys arising from the affection of a Christian family." Then, too, by means of earthly joy we are often led further to the higher realms of heavenly joy, "Kepler, in the introduction to his monumental work on astronomy, acknowledged this: O Thou, who hast scattered Thy glorious stars in the depths of Heaven, I give Thee thanks . . . for the ecstasies of delight ’I have enjoyed while contemplating the works of Thy.hands. If such be the joy we ex~perience in scientific research, what must it be to study God Himself? It is well to remember, however, that joys of earth are necessarily transient and finite, depending as they do upon that which cannot endure

and there is danger that in con-fusing the two we may look upon all joy as depending in some way upon the contingent. With her wisdom born of 346 November, 1947 CHRISTIAN J~)Y. faith, the Church takes care to remind u~.of this. "Grant to Thy people abidir~9 jolt,", she prays on the Second Sun-day after Easter

and on the Fourth Sunday her petition is still more explicit: 0 God, who makest the minds of the faithful to be of one will, grant to Thy people .to love that which Thou commandest and desire that which Thou dost promise

that so. among the changing things of this world, ,our hearts may be set where true joys are to be found. The Paradox of Joy Perhaps nothing seems so paradoxi.cal as the joy the sa’ints find in the midst of suffering or evefi from suffering, but the truth of th’is state is too often httest~d to’allow any doub~"of~its re~ility. The simple gaze which can go right past the suffering td the Core of that ~uff~ring is’the an-swer to this paradox. God is:hlw~iys.God. ° Wfie~ a novice at Lisieux cofiaplained"that life is dreary, St. ThOr~se cot2 rected her: it is not life that is dreary

it is ekile. Our’life mustbe considered in its totality. ’ ’ The rhythm of joy and SUffering is noted BY many. Father Plus says, there are only,, two mountains in the world--Thabor and Calvary, and often the 0nly way.to the summit of the former is by way of the long slope of Calvary. For Paul Claudel, "Every rose is slight in com-parison with its thorn." Our gaze will be directed either to the suffering .or to God

and if to the latter, the paradox of joy-inysuffering is easily explained. Th~r~se in a lettei to her sister writes, "C~line, I want to forget this world .... .I find only one joy, that of suffering

and this joy, which is above that Of the senses, is beyond all happiness." And again in a let-ter written after the tragic illness of her father, "Our Father must indeed be loved by God since he has so much to suffer. It is a joy.f0rus to be humiliated with .him." Such were her MOTHER MARY ROBERT FALLS Review for RelioiouS dispositions in trials Of the spirit. After months of physi-cal pain her faith was even more sublime. "What joy it is to feel that I am wasting away," she said. For theencour-agement of the less courageous she explained, nevertheless,. that this joE pervaded only the inmost depths of her soul. Elsewhere there was intense suffeling~ In the heart of the Saint of the Little Way there is a faithft~l echo of St. Paul’s strong cry of faith,, "I-exceedingly abound with" joy in all our tribulation." Indeed, the presence of suffering seems to indicate that all is well. St. Teresa bad already pe~rceived this truth, "I realize better every day what grace our Lord has shown .me in enabling me to understand the blessing:of suffering so that .I can peacefully endure the wart of happines~ in earthly things since they pass so quickly." To Blessed Henry Suso, Eternal Wisdom promised, "There is nothing more painfu! than suffering and nothing more joyful than to have suffered. Suffering is a. short pain and a long joy .... He who is always cheerful in suffer.ing has for his servants joy and sorrow, friend and foe." Then, too, souls who remain close t6 God in their suffering find joy in the thought that they are pleasing Him. It is this which acquits them of all suspicion of abnormal tendencies. A soul favored with divine caresses,, after a long period of desolation, addressed himself to. God, "O my God, can I then never again be happy?" The response ¯ was immediate, "Let it be thy joy to be conscious that thou dost give joy to thy Lord by thy beauty and thy love." For a true lover of God, another source of joy in suffering lies in his realization that by means of suffering God draws " him still closer to Himself. Th~r~se of Lisieux recognized this fact well: He is divinely lovable for not permitting me to be the captive of any passing joy. He knows well that if He sent me but a shadow of 348 Nouember, 1947 , CHRISTIAN JOY ¯ earthly happiness, I should cling’ to it with all the intense ardorof my heart . . . He prefers~o leave me in darkness rather than afford mt aTfalse glim_mer which would not be Himself, St, Franci~ of Assisi] whose life according to Father Felder~ was "oz~e hymn of.joy," has left in his discourse with ]~r~ther Leo the apotheosis of all that .can be said on the subject of joy’in suffering.’ For him the perfect joy consists not in success, not in worldly Ieaming, not even in a suc~ cessful apostolate, but in the enduring of blows, insults, inconveniences, and even repudiation ~ by his own. Arid~ why? "If we should bear all these things p~tiently and with joy, thinking of tlq~ pains of the Blessed Christ as that which .we ought to b~ar for His love, O Brother Leo, write that it i~ in this that there is perfect joy." Obstacles to Jog , For a soul in the state of grace, fortified as..it is by the grace of the sacraments and by faith, all the obstacles to’ joy can be reducedto a single one selfishness. Eitfi~r we shall’ be "concerned with God and"His interests or with ourselves and our own interests. And as our concern~is so our remuneration will be. God is the source of love and joy

and where He is, joy is ~ure to follo’#. But preoccupation "with self brings only sadness and discouragement and a ~endency to,criticize and to complain all of which are fatal tb joy. The more exacting we are in this selflessne’ss. the more minute the dttention we pay to being unselfish in every.detail of our life, the greater.will be our concern with God and the greater, consequently, will be the joy of our lives. The saints of God knew well this secret. St. Teresa-reminded her nuns, "This house will be a heaven, if heaven can be-found on.earth, for~her who can cofi~efit herself. ¯ s61ely with’contenting God, caring nothing for her own. content." Even more delicateis the remark of St. Th&~se. 349 MOTHER MARY ROBERT FALLS~ Review for Religious When a picture of the Hol~ Face had been placed near-I4er bedside, she remarked, "Ot~r Lord did well to close His eyes in giving us the imprint of His Counteria.nce, for the eyes are the mirror of the soul

, if we had been able to gaze into His soul, we should have died from joy." St. Catherine of Genoa described the joy of the souls in purgatory as so intense that only the joys of the Blessed in hsaven surpass them "a joy which goes on increasing day ¯ by day, as God more and more flows ih upon the soul, which He does abundantly in 16roportion as every hindrance to His entrance is consumed away." Mother St. Austi~ , reaffirms this ~ffect of God’s presence_ in a. suffering soul

"And God is God

whether He comes to the unpurified soul as its intolerable suffering or its, perchance, more-intolerable joy." To ’~hoose what God chooses, to-be content with what He" disposes four us, to desire only what He desires these are the means used by the saints to arrive at the summit of all joy.-~ And they knew well that the only path to this summit is that of complete selflessness before the will of God. St. Th~r~se in her farewell letter to L~onie could dare to say, "The only means of attaining true happiness on earth is to strive always to accept whatever God chooses for us as being the rap, st delightful." Here is no stoical endur- ¯ ance

it .is tgue delight that Th~r~se found in God’s .will. Being men, we are ever seeking satiet)~

but ~)be saints

.true loveri and true souls of joy, knew well that this.satiety is achieved only by’ casting off all that is not God. Richard --Rolle prayed: _~, ~Fhe nature that Thou didst make, change ~wlth honeysweet gifts,-that my soul, filled ~with Thy d~llghfful joy, may despis,e and cast away all things of this world, that it may receive ghostly songs, - given by Thee, and going with joyful longs into infinite light, m..ay _ be all melted Withholy love. 350 November, 19"~7 ~ CHRISTIAN JOY ~ .~ ~,St% Johrf of~ the Cross

~the apostle, of. renunciation,, has no other d0ctrine°than this :total denudatibnof sel~ in’ order that God.may

be ~11:¯ ",:: ~ - ~ _ ...... " ~’ :’~ Inasmuch as.~there is no room~ for. the b~.utidless gif_ts of God, sayy in a h~art~th~t,is empty and solitary, . . therefore, ,the L~rd who ld4/s.yoh~r~atlY, lov~s~ou ~o be quit~ ~lbne, ~d~siring to be" H~self ~o~r’onl~’.kompafiion. ~nd you will’ne~d to, set your mind ~n being~ con~ented.w~th H~m alone, that y~u m~y f"ind ~all. content i~ Him. ~,~ ~ ~.~ . , ~. .do~ in Our e the mj ~y oful’~in ~m:~~bosue o~f rpaver.".:: :-- . : ~o~Mar~ion., vpeaki~g of Chri#tjan~ in general

iays~ :~h~w~hagg~J~sgs in our~hear,t~, it~is like 9ffering ~im an :affront. ff-we: are, sad.: It,-~s hke, say ng:

~ You. do~not-suffic~ fore.me ~ ~ Monsignor .Gay~.ye~terates th~s~not~on, ~ ~e:s~g~[~g fgr: jgy~ indicatys .a-~ tru~ un~er~[anding~ ~f [h~ grag.g~ of Baptism.

’ IL-~.[1 Christians.ha.~e ~p their possq~sion . "hoy~’~ so~rce ~qf joy.~an~ t~. ~ljgatiqn~ t%.rej~icq,/ what . ~o live" i~[fl~vest intimacy wi~h~Hi~.: .~ C~ti~ns.~:~st ¢ ,

Jof’is not, something~,weare .~gree .to cho0se~0r to gejedt: _ our very,~nature dictates-that.~e ~i~e aware of its influence" . and-of: our:need for it. Deliberately,tO: reject~.true~j0y.is ~to. de~ny.,t0,

God~.tha~_ dominion over our~ soul~ a~d ou, r lives ~hich is His~by so:many titles. ~-Mo~eover,~it is ~o run~: the serious~ri~k.0fdegenerating to lqwer~ jpys,~ for as St: Gregory warns us, "The soul cannot~be without ~joy

~or~it,will-." delight eitherAn the basest things or themost exal~ed.’f"And Fathe~-~Farre11. remarks, "The human.~heart~ simpl~: mfist haqe ~oy." Ill.the joy is not forthcoming from ~our friendship, %e shall cast about for, more agreeable~compan-ionship.., in a realm other than that of the Spirit.v, ~o live joyfully, therefore, is at once a privilege for a~conse- " 351 MOTF~ER M~RY R(~BERT FALLS Review for Religious cra~ed soul an’d a safeguard fo~ hislspiritual,ff~ll-bein’g. ~And flow shall thi~ be d~Sfie? ¯ in great things and small, in prayer and charity and.s~l,fq dehial and the countless Occasions which religious life offers. For-a religious the fai.thful ob~ervafice of his rule neces-sarily brings joy into his life

the thought albfie that he is st.riving to be faithful and to conquer himself for !ove.0f~ his Lord will bring peace and ,happiness surpassing any earthly joy. Father Kempf remarks, "One of the basic conditions of~ real"spiritual joj~ is th~ testimony" Of a" clean ~ conscience .... The kind Of conscience thav makes joy ~po~ sible is that which testifies . . . that we are .performi~ig our duties tb the best ,of our-ability, that we are earnestly striying for perfection.’’~ For a religious, Gbd’S Will is manifested in his rule and in thewishes of his superior, and the jealou~ carrying ~ut of this will is the,infallible means of happiness. Dom Marmion asserts that our Blessed Mother merited the joys of divine motherhood by her faith’ and lo

¢e, and theh’he adds the significant comment, "Jesus wishes tO .’te°ach us that we may sl~are . . . in the joy of bringing Him forth in souls. And:how

. are we tb obtain this