Anointed of God (Cyril Alexandria)

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year C

"The Anointed of God"

Night Office from a homily on Saint Luke's gospel
by Saint Cyril Alexandria
(Hom 49: Edit R M Tonneau. CSCO Script Syri 70, 110-115) Christ Our Light, translation Friends of Henry Ashworth. Pp. 100-103.

Gospel: Luke 9:18-24

… It was Peter who spoke up. "The Christ of God" he said. …

Cyril's homilies on Luke, most of which are preserved only in a Syriac version of or 7th century, were written in the year 430. Here Cyril makes the point that professing his faith in Jesus as the Anointed of God Peter had to keep silence about this until Christ's divinity was attested by his resurrection

One day when Jesus was praying alone with his disciples he asked them: 'Who do the crowds say that I am?' By praying alone accompanied only by his disciples the Lord and Savior of the world was setting them an example of a life befitting saints. However, there was a danger that this might disturb them and give them mistaken ideas. When they saw praying like a human being one whom the day before they had seen working miracles like God, they might well say among themselves: "This is very strange - who are we to think he is, God or a man?"

To put an end to any such mental turmoil and steady their unsettled faith, Jesus questioned them. He was not ignorant of what was being said of him by those outside the synagogue of the Jews or by the Israelites themselves, but he wanted to withdraw his disciples from the thinking of the multitude and establish right belief in them. Who do the crowds say I am? he asked.

Then Peter burst out before the rest and became the spokesman for the whole group, his words full of the love of God giving expression to a faith in Jesus which was correct and beyond reproach. The Anointed of God, he said. The disciple had weighed his words carefully and spoke of holy things with complete understanding. He did not say simply that Jesus was one anointed by God, but rather that he was The Anointed. For many were called anointed ones because God had anointed them in various ways, some as kings, some as prophets. Others like ourselves are called anointed ones because we have been saved by this Anointed One, the Savior of all the world, and have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit Yes, many have received an anointing. and are therefore called anointed ones, but there is only One who is the Anointed of God the Father.

When the disciple had made his profession of faith Jesus gave them strict orders to tell this to no one. "The Son of Man" he said, "must suffer greatly, and be rejected and killed, and raised up on the third day.

Yet why was it not rather their duty to preach him everywhere? Surely this was the task of those who had been consecrated by him as apostles. However, as Holy Scripture says, Every work has its own time. Preaching Jesus had to follow events which had not yet taken place, namely, the crucifixion, the passion, the physical death, and the resurrection from the dead - that great and truly glorious miracle by which Emmanuel was attested as true God and by nature the Son of God the Father.

Jesus therefore commanded that the mystery should be honored by silence for the time being, until God's saving dispensation was brought to its proper conclusion. Then, when he had risen from the dead, he gave orders for it to be revealed to the whole world, and for all to be offered justification through faith and purification through holy baptism. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, he said. Go, therefore, and teach all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and instruct them to observe all the commandments I have given you. And remember that I am with you always, till the end of the world.

The Ashworth translation reads better than the ONLINE old version: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/cyril_on_luke_05_sermons_47_

Eucharist

----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Christina … To: Donald ... Cc: Michael …Sent: Sat, 19 June, 2010 9:27:30 Subject: Fw: Believe in the Eucharist! Dear …, I just received this from my friend Rosie Viegas fmm in Pakistan and was deeply moved by it. I had tears streaming down my face as I read it...such deep faith among God's beloved Anawim. Sr. Breige, a Franciscan Sister from the North of Ireland has been very much a part of the Catholic Charismatic Movement for many years and I met her briefly in Dublin in 1977 when I returned from Pakistan to be Novice Mistress in the home Province. ...but that is another story and I never forget that Conference which certainly strengthened me for the years ahead. Blessings, love and prayer. Christina Sr.Briege & The Eucharistic Miracle This story is very fitting for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ! I received this via an email today and thought that it was a great one to share here. God bless Sr. Briege in her ministry. Have a blessed Feast day! Today Sister Briege McKenna’s healing ministry is totally centered on the Eucharist. During a special retreat for Sisters a few years ago, she shared a remarkable story of how Jesus led her to this Eucharistic centering. She said, “I had a big problem. After my own dramatic healing and then receiving the gift of healing others, I was worried because so many people were coming to me. Many Healings “In less than one year, so many healings were taking place, that the people wanted to make a saint out of me, even asking for relics… cloth from an old habit, my hair trimmings, etc. I was astounded and disturbed by it… and then there was the way that some people wanted to touch me, as if they would be healed or graced by doing so. “I loved the people, but I did not like what was happening. There was a danger that, instead of directing people to the Lord or to the Mass, they had come just to see me. “I certainly knew that, of myself, I had absolutely no power, and that it was Jesus Who was doing the healing; that I was only His chosen instrument. However, even to be chosen by Him was itself an extraordinary gift. Pride could step in, and one could begin to believe that one is better than other people. “In a certain way, I felt that I was becoming a celebrity, and I knew that it was neither true, nor good for my soul. “I went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, and begged Our Lady for help. I asked Her, to please keep me in the heart of the Church, and to show me how to integrate this healing ministry into the life of the Church. “I remember sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament in Exposition one day, just praying to Our Lady. Then I went down to the Grotto. “A pilgrimage was taking place of mentally handicapped children, and as I watched them being assisted from Mass, I remember thinking and knowing that Mary will show me the way. Come to El Paso Sr. Briege came back to America, and three weeks later she got a phone call from Fr. Rick Thomas. He had a special ministry across the border in Mexico. He said to her, “I would love to have you come and visit the poor at the garbage dump and pray with them. You can help with the healings. Their need is so great.” She explained that given her existing commitments, she had only an evening and a morning available, and he responded, “That’s fine. God doesn’t need a long time. On your way back from California, stop off and stay over night.” She arrived in El Paso to be met by this very colourful charismatic priest, a man who witnessed to the faith in everything he did. On the one hand, he was normally wearing a Texan hat and Texan boots. On the other hand, “Alleluia” was his favourite word, which he regularly repeated with gusto. When Sr. Briege arrived, he started jumping up and down with delight, and introduced her to his dog and his donkey. Sr. Briege did not know what to expect next! The Unforgettable Dump That evening, they drove directly out to the dump, and he told her, “They do not have a clue as to who you are, and it does not matter. When the time comes, I will just get you to say a prayer with them, and God will do the rest.” When they arrived at the dump, Sr. Briege witnessed scenes she will never forget. On the Texan border with Mexico, there is the Rio Grande, the river which Mexicans try to cross to get into the U.S. They are driven back by border police. These are poor Mexicans, who squat and live at the garbage dump, and their children, are born there. As Fr. Rick showed Sr. Briege around, she was horrified by the sheer squalor. She had given retreats in South America, but she had never seen anything like this. When Fr. Rick told her that he was going to celebrate Mass there for them the next morning, she was somewhat taken aback, wondering how Mass could be celebrated with any dignity in such an environment. What would the people know or understand? The children were running around wild like little animals. She was horrified at thinking that, in that place with those people; they will not be able to comprehend what happens during Mass. Anyway, the next morning, she, a small group of young Mexican Americans, and Fr. Rick set out for the dump. He brought a little table and all the Mass requirements. When they arrived, already up to 1000 people were there, and more were coming! She remembered standing there looking over this crowd of poor miserable people. Clearly visible in the distance, not even fifteen minutes away, were beautiful homes and a big Mexican Seminary. But these people had no church, and indeed, they had nothing. Fr. Rick had taken it upon himself to go out there and to begin evangelizing and ministering to them. He was trying to break down the hatred through speaking of God’s love, and then seeking to get them into groups to do works toward that end. The Mass The Mass started, and although Sr. Briege has been a daily communicant since she was 12 years old, she said that that Mass had changed her life! Before the Mass began, she watched an old woman coming in, carrying a bundle on her shoulder. At first, Sr. Briege thought that it was some form of a gift for Fr. Rick. But, when the old woman opened up the cloth, in it there was a little child, completely burned from head to fool, filthy dirty, and screaming! The woman looked at Fr. Rick, and with great compassion, she said, “Please bless him. I found him smouldering when I was coming across the mountain.” She had picked him up, put him into this cloth, and carried him to Fr. Rick. The child was practically skinless! Fr. Rick looked at the little boy, got Sr. Briege to join with him in a prayer, and then suggested that he be placed under the table on which the Mass was to be celebrated. Sr. Briege related that once the Mass had begun, she felt and saw the presence of Jesus. When Fr. Rick said, “Let us say the Gloria,” praises to God came forth from the tops of their voices. She had come from across the border from comfort. She had everything that she needed, but they had nothing, and yet they praised God loudly and wholeheartedly. She heard the Lord speaking to her, saying, “If my people do not praise Me, the stones will cry out!” Here were the poorest of the poor and they were radiant with praise to God. When the consecration came, she had her head down. Then she looked up and saw that Fr. Rick had one of those large hosts. For a moment, everybody was prostrate on the ground. It was then that she had the most beautiful image of Jesus with His two hands out. He was smiling, and within herself, she heard the words of the Gospel, “Come to Me all you who are weary, and I will refresh you.” Just as she was seeing that, the people lifted up their faces and started shouting, “Viva Cristo Rei” …long live Christ the King!! At that moment, she truly knew that Jesus was in the Host… that it is not just a piece of bread, but truly Jesus, Himself. For these people, in the midst of their poverty, they had the King of Kings. They clapped, cheered, and cried, “Viva Cristo Rei” …long live Christ the King! She found herself weeping as she saw the great faith of these people, and she asked herself, “Is my faith as strong as theirs, that I may always realize that a Consecrated Host is really Jesus’ The Little Children Mass ended and the burned little boy, who had been placed under the Mass table, had long since stopped crying. Sr. Briege went to look for him, and she was overwhelmed when she saw him. He had crawled out from under the table, was totally healed, and was playing in the sand! She went over to the old woman, and said to her, “What happened to him?” With hindsight, she realized that it was a stupid question. The old woman looked at Sr. Briege, and said, ” What do you mean what happened? Didn’t Jesus come?” As Fr. Rick put his hands over the bread and wine and called upon the Holy Spirit, as the bread and wine were changed, the little boy was changed. He was given new skin! Not only that, before the Mass, Sr. Briege saw a mother bringing in a Down Syndrome baby. The mother was a young girl, and she had this beautiful little baby in her arms, but it had all the appearances of having Down Syndrome. She and Fr. Rick prayed over the child. At the end of the Mass, the child’s mother came running up to her, saying, “Look at my baby!” Her baby was now perfect. More Healings There were many more healings. Sr. Briege had spent eight hours with the people, and she did not remember which ones she prayed with, but it was certainly not all of those who were healed. It was as if God had put on a display of miracles. Fr. Rick usually did not pray with the people. All he did was celebrate the Mass. Power Of The Eucharist Sr. Briege spent eight hours on the mountain dump, and she went back to El Passo so overwhelmed that she could not sleep. Finally, at three a.m., she heard Jesus tell her, “Get up and pray.” She knelt at the side of the bed, and the Lord said, “You asked My Mother to help you, and to show and teach you, She brought you here. People come and seek signs and wonders. They go looking for healers and for something to help them, and they will go to anybody! Yet, I am on the altars of the world and in the tabernacles of the world, and they pass Me by. I brought you here because I have a mission for you. I want you to go to the world and speak on the power of the Eucharist. As you begin to lead people to the Eucharist, I will show you what I can do… and, He is doing just that! This occurred in 1972. Since that time, Sr. Briege has been traveling all over the world to speak about the power of the Eucharist. In Ireland, as in many parts of the world, they have a history of men and women who knew that the Mass was worth living and dying for. Beg the Holy Spirit to help you to understand the Eucharist. Beg Jesus to give you a Eucharistic Heart, a real love for the Eucharist, like the two disciples who said to Him, “Where do you live?” and He responded, “Come.” Come to Him in Mass and Adoration. Tell Him your needs, confide in Him, love Him, and then feel His consolation and healing. This is what He wants of us now. Sr. Briege understands that she is only an instrument through which the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus comes to us, but He tells us that we can approach Him directly by loving Him in the Eucharist. He wants to console and heal us, but first. He wants us to believe in Him, and then to come to Him. Do it.

Romuald Abbot

                   

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Saturday, 19 June 2010

St. Romuald, Abbot (c. 952-1027)

 Other saints of the day

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SAINT ROMUALD 
Abbot 
(c. 952-1027)

        In 976, Sergius, a nobleman of Ravenna, quarrelled with a relative about an estate, and slew him in a duel. His son Romuald, horrified at his father's crime, entered the Benedictine monastery at Classe, to do a forty days' penance for him. This penance ended in his own vocation to religion. After three years at Classe, Romuald went to live as a hermit near Venice, where he was joined by Peter Urseolus, Duke of Venice, and together they led a most austere life in the midst of assaults from the evil spirits. St. Romuald founded many monasteries, the chief of which was that at Camaldoli, a wild desert place, where he built a church, which he surrounded with a number of separate cells for the solitaries who lived under his rule. His disciples were hence called Camaldolese. He is said to have seen here a vision of a mystic ladder, and his white-clothed monks ascending by it to heaven. Among his first disciples were Sts. Adalbert and Boniface, apostles of Russia, and Sts. John and Benedict of Poland, martyrs for the faith. He was an intimate friend of the Emperor St. Henry, and was reverenced and consulted by many great men of his time. He once passed seven years in solitude and complete silence.

        In his youth St. Romuald was much troubled by temptations of the flesh. To escape them he had recourse to hunting, and in the woods first conceived his love for solitude. His father's sin, as we have seen, first prompted him to undertake a forty days' penance in the monastery, which he forthwith made his home. Some bad example of his fellow monks induced him to leave them and adopt the solitary mode of life. The penance of Urseolus, who had obtained his power wrongfully, brought him his first disciple; the temptations of the devil compelled him to his severe life; and finally the persecutions of others were the occasion of his settlement at Camaldoli, and the foundation of his Order. He died, as he had foretold twenty years before, alone, in his monastery of Val Castro, on the 19th of June, 1027.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Father Day 3rd Sun June

----- Forwarded Message ----From: father patrick ...Sent: Wed, 16 June, 2010 14:32:53Subject: A father's Day Prayer

A Father's Day Prayer

Let us praise those fathers

who have striven to balance

the demands of work, marriage, and children

with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice.

Let us praise those fathers

who, lacking a good model for a father,

have worked to become a good father. 

Let us praise those fathers

who by their own account

were not always there for their children,

but who continue to offer those children,

now grown, their love and support.

Let us pray for those fathers

who have been wounded by the neglect and hostility of their children. 

Let us praise those fathers

who, despite divorce,

have remained in their children's lives.

Let us praise those fathers

whose children are adopted,

and whose love and support has offered healing. 

Let us praise those fathers

who, as stepfathers,

freely choose the obligation of fatherhood

and earned their step children's love and respect.

Let us praise those fathers

who have lost a child to death,

and continue to hold the child in their heart. 

Let us praise those men

who have no children,

but cherish the next generation as if they were their own. 

Let us praise those men

who have "fathered" us in their role as mentors and guides. 

Let us praise those men

who are about to become fathers;

may they openly delight in their children. 

And let us praise those fathers

who have died,

but live on in our memory

and

whose love continues to nurture us. 

by

Kirk Loadman

Joseph Cassant ocso

Thursday, June 17, 2010 Memorial
Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant ocso
Fr. Nivard introduced the Mass

In today’s Gospel we have the ‘Our Father’.

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can know God personally and call him “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15).

We have the grace to approach God our Father with confidence and boldness. Jesus has opened the way to the Father‘s heart.

Fortunately he does not give us what we deserve. Instead, he responds with grace and mercy. It is his nature to love generously, to forgive mercifully.

When he gives, he gives more than we need.

Thus we see how Blessed Marie Joseph, whose feast we have today, asked to be a priest and ended up as both priest and monk. Being a monk was his parish priest’s idea, not his. Marie Joseph burned with devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In this he is one with many Cistercian saints, Lutgarde, Mechtilde and Gertrude.

In the Intercessions, Fr. Hugh made the striking similarity between the three recent Saint/Beati of the Cistercian Order.
As vocations, the three died under 30 years and the three died by TB. The disease of tuberculosis was rife at the time.
Bl. Gabriella Sagghedu
Bl. Marie-Joseph Cassant
St. Rafael Arnaiz Baron
We prayed for those who died of TB and for those who suffer of it at present.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Post: Joseph-Marie Cassant

18 Jun 2009

The Booklet, Blessed Joseph Cassant, is one of the 'Nine Biographical Profiles of Servants of God, Cistercian Witnesses of Our Time', published by the Sisters, Trappiste, Vitorchiano , Italy . Dec 2008.

Saint Lutgarde of Aywieres

Memorial Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Saint Lutgarde of Aywieres

We celebrated the Memorial this morning, 16 Jun 2010

We remember St. Lutgard for her blindness in sight and her mysticism in light of inner sight. We enjoy hearing of her mystical life.
During the day I have been browsing the resources on:

CSQ (Cistercian Studies Quarterly)

1. Saint Lutgarde of Aywières: 1182-1982 What Are These Wounds? A Re-View Alan Gilmore / Vol 17.2 (1982) 181-93

2. Language and the Body in Thomas of Cantimpré’s Life of Lutgard of Awyières Alexandra Barratt / Vol 30.3 (1995) 339-47

3. Editor’s Note on Saint. Lutgarde: Nun of Aywières , Belgium Patrick Hart / Vol 35.2 (2000) 217

4. Saint Lutgarde: Nun of Aywières , Belgium Thomas Merton / Vol 35.2 (2000) 219-30

Bernard McGinn: Lutgarde of Aywieres, pp163-166. The Flowering of myticism 1200-1350. (The Presence of God: a History of Western Mysticism). Crossroad Publishising Co. U.S. 1998.

It looks as if Thomas Merton needlessly sowed his own doubt about the writing of "What Are These Wounds", The Life of Saint Lutgarde.
From the above reviews and articles, the work stands appreciation.
Merton's own PREFACE sets the touchstone by any yet followed the 'life of Lutgard.

WHAT ARE THESE WOUNDS? THE LIFE OF A CISTERCIAN MYSTIC Saint Lutgarde of Aywieres By THOMAS MERTON CLONMORE AND REYNOLDS LTD. DUBLIN 1948 PREFACE IN the month of June, when the sun burns high in the bright firmament and when Cistercian monks, like all other farmers, hitch up their teams and go out to gather in the wheat, St. Lutgarde's Day comes around in the Liturgical cycle. It is not a universal feast, celebrated by the whole Church. It belongs only to two Belgian dioceses and to the saint's own Order-the Cistercians. Yet she is a saint whose spirit 'is as ardent and colourful as the June weather and as bright as the tiger lilies that enliven the fields and roadsides of America in the month in which we celebrate her memory. And it is especially fitting that her feast should occur in the month of the Sacred Heart. St. Lutgarde was one of the great precursors of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Seven hundred years ago, and some four hundred years before St. Margaret Mary laboured and prayed and suffered for the institution of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, St. Lutgarde of Aywieres had entered upon the mystical life with a vision of the pierced Heart of the Saviour, and had concluded her mystical espousals with the Incarnate Word by an exchange of hearts with Him. But there are other facts besides which make St. Li.rgarde worthy of the attention of the theologian, the Church historian, and of all religious souls. She was a contemporary of St. Francis, the first recorded stigmatic, and she too had received a mystical wound in her heart which historians have not hesitated to class as a stigma. This places her among the very earliest Christian stigmatics. Yet although she stands on the threshold of a spirituality that is distinctly "modern," St. Lutgarde's mysticism springs from the purest Benedictine sources. Her mystical contemplation, like that of St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde, is nourished almost entirely by the Liturgy. Above all, it centres upon the Sacrifice of Calvary and upon the Mass which continues that Sacrifice among us every day. The charm of St. Lutgarde is heightened by a certain earthly simplicity which has been preserved for us unspoiled in the pages of her medieval biography. She was a great penitent, but she was anything but a fragile wraith of a person. Lutgarde, for all her ardent and ethereal mysticism, remained always a living human being of flesh and bone. When she was a young girl in the world she seems to have been remarkably attractive, and we can imagine her as some thing more than merely pretty. She must have had one of those marvellously proportioned Flemish faces, full of a mature and serious beauty, which we find in the paintings of the great Flemish masters of a later date than hers. She must have looked like the" Virgins" of Van Eyck. In any case, her entrance into the mystical life was not without an element of excitement and romance. She was faced with no mere abstract choice between heavenly and earthly love: it was not the mere solution of a conflict of ideals which brought her eventually to the cloister. She was carried into the arms of Christ by circumstances that shook her to the depths of her sensitive being. The life of St. Lutgarde introduces us to a mysticism that is definitely extraordinary. This is not the mysticism which some theologians claim to be a "normal" development of the Christian life of grace and the infused virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. Here we are in the presence of visions, ecstasies, stigmata, prophecies, miracles. St. Lutgarde was a " mystic" in the popular sense of that term, and her life was certainly colourful and extraordinary enough to make her popular with Catholics of our own time, too. Of course, medieval saints' lives abound in strange phenomena, and we are inclined to be a little suspicious of the facile enthusiasm with which so many pious writers of those days set down the deeds of their heroes as "miracles." But the biographer of 'St. Lutgarde, though occasionally suffering from the naivete common in his age, is as reliable as anyone in the thirteenth century. Thomas of Cantimpre, the author of the Vita Luigardis was a Dominican friar and a theologian of some ability. He had studied at Cologne , under St. Albert the Great, as a classmate of St. Thomas Aquinas. He had also studied at Paris gaining a Doctor's Degree in Theology. Afterwards he taught theology and philosophy at Louvain . He was especially [1* Aeta Sanctorum Bollandiae, June. ii, p. 187 ff]. interested in mystical theology and in the direction of mystics. I lis writing springs from his practical experience and ob servation of souls in the great mystical ferment that swept the Low Countries in the thirteenth century. He wrote the life of Bl. Christine, " the admirable," whose levitations make her a worthy competitor for the honours of St. Joseph Cupertino, patron of airmen. He also wrote on Bl. Margaret of Ypres and Bl. Mary of Oignies, and capped it all with an allegory, the Bonum Universale de Apibus, in which he treats of moral and ascetic theology in a way that modern readers would find totally unpalatable. His life of St. Lutgarde is a minor masterpiece. The Latin in which it is written is fresh and full of life and every page furnishes us with vivid little details that stamp his whole record of the saint's life with authenticity. Thomas of Can timpre was writing an objective and lively story of the life of one he had known intimately for sixteen years. At the time when he wrote this biography, shortly after the saint's death, Thomas of Cantimpre was prior of the Friars Preachers at Louvain and shortly afterwards he became suffragan bishop of Cambrai. He took care to have all his statements carefully checked, especially by another Dominican, Fra Bernard, Penitentiary to Innocent Il, who had also directed St. Lut garde. The authority of Thomas of Cantimpre is upheld by Denis the Carthusian, St. Robert Bellarmine, and many others. The Vita Lutgardis was popularized by the famous Carthusian Lawrence Surius in the fifteenth century. In the seventeenth century it was translated into Spanish and Italian. There has never been an English translation of this life, nor any full-length book on St. Lutgarde in our language. The seventh centenary of the saint's death, in 1946, brought forth several works in French and Flemish, but we did not have access to these when the present volume was compiled. In any case, Thomas of Cantimpre is the one authentic source for all " lives" of St. Lutgarde. Many of the modern biographies simply paraphrase Thomas, adding a veneer of pious reflec tions concerning the visions and miracles of the saint. The present book was written before Elected Silence. It was undertaken as an anonymous work in 1945, at the Abbey of Gethsemani, at the earnest wish of the Abbot of that Cistercian community, Dom M. Frederic Dunne, of holy memory. Dom Frederic had great devotion to St. Lutgarde, whom he resembled in his penitential ardour and in his fervent devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her life expresses many of the themes that were dearest to Dom Frederic's heart and which, indeed, must always be dear to the heart of every contemplative monk: the love of God, penance and reparation, intercession for souls. But it cannot be too much stressed that in St. Lutgarde, as in all the early Cistercians, the love that embraces penance and hardship for the sake of Christ is never merely negative, never descends to mere rigid formalism, never concentrates on mere exterior observance of fasts and other penitential rigours. The fire of love that consumed the heart of St. Lutgarde was something vital and positive and its flames burned not only to destroy but to rejuvenate and trans form. It was this love that Christ came to cast upon the earth and which Dom Frederic did so much to enkindle in the Cistercian (Trappist) monasteries of America that came under his influence. This book was written with no other purpose than to help American Catholics to love the Sacred Heart with something of that same purity, and simplicity, and ardour."