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Saint Cajetan (Paperback)
George Herbert Ely; Edited by Brother Hermenegild Tosf; R. De Maulde De Claviere
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R384
Discovery Miles 3 840
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Saint Cajetan lived in Rome in the early 1500s. He went to Venice
and then returned to Rome to found the order of the Theatines.
Saint Teresa of Avila wrote many letters, which are collected here.
Her correspondence was most extensive, including bishops,
archbishops, kings, ladies of rank, gentlemen of the world, abbots,
priors, nuncios, her confessors, her brothers and sisters, rectors
of colleges, fathers provincial of the Society of Jesus, nuns and
superiors of her convents and monasteries, learned doctors of
different religious orders, and even most eminent saints, such as
.St. Peter of Alcantara, St. Francis Borgia, St. John of the Cross,
&c. In the Letters of St. Teresa it seems to me that all her
admirable endowments, both of nature and of grace, can be more
clearly discovered than in any of her other works. When we peruse
her Life, or The Interior Castle, one is at first inclined to
imagine that the Saint was altogether unearthly, unfit for the
cares and troubles of life that all her time must have been spent
in holding sweet converse with her Beloved, and sighing for the
hour when she should be united with Him for ever, and that visions
and raptures must have engrossed all the powers of her soul.
Others, again, might fancy that the Saint must have been very
grave, austere, solemn, exceedingly scrupulous, and given to
melancholy. Some might also be inclined to believe that she was
quite an enthusiast, led away by the ardent temperament of her
character, or the vagaries of an unsteady imagination. But how
quickly are such erroneous ideas scattered, when we read her
admirable Letters. They soon convince us that the Saint possessed
what we call common sense" in a most remarkable manner that so fur
from being an enthusiast, she was endowed with a solidity of
judgment, and a prudence and sweetness in all her actions, which
won the admiration of everyone; that she was so careful to guard
against melancholy, as never to allow any one to enter the Order
who seemed to be the least infected with it. With regard to
herself, we shall see, by perusing her Letters, that she was
cheerfulness itself, even in the midst of her greatest trials and
afflictions, and withal exceedingly witty, lively, and jocose;
indeed, her naivetr is one of the greatest charms of her Letters.
These will show us, too, that her raptures and visions did not, in
the least, interfere with her ordinary duties, for she was an
excellent and most admirable woman of business. Considering her
numerous labours, duties, journeys, sicknesses, and infirmities, is
it not surprising how she could find time to carry on such an
extensive correspondence? Juan de Palafox, the celebrated bishop of
Osma, remarks, "that it was principally by her Letters the Saint
was enabled to effect the reform of the Carmelite Order."
You have asked me, brother Godfrey, to expand and put in writing
the substance of the addresses 'On the Degrees of Humility which I
had delivered to the brethren. I admit that, anxious as I was to
give to this request of yours the serious answer that it deserved,
I was doubtful whether I could comply with it. For with the
evangelist's warning in my mind, I did not venture to begin the
work until I had sat down and calculated whether my resources were
sufficient for its completion. Then when love had cast out the fear
that I had entertained of ridicule for failure to complete my work,
it was replaced by misgiving of a different kind; for I was
apprehensive of greater danger from the credit that might attend
success than of the disgrace that might attach to failure. So I
found myself, as it were, at the parting of the ways indicated
respectively by affection and by fear; and I was long in doubt as
to which was the safer choice. For I was afraid that if I said
anything worth saying about humility. I might myself be found
wanting in that virtue, whereas if, on grounds of modesty, I
refused to speak, I might fail in usefulness. And I saw that,
though neither of these courses is free from peril, I should be
obliged to take one or the other. So I have thought it better to
give you the benefit of anything that I can say, than to seek
personal safety in the harbour of silence. And I earnestly trust
that, if I am fortunate enough to say anything which commends
itself to you, I may have in your prayers a safeguard against
pride, whereas ifas is more likely-I produce nothing worthy of your
attention, there will be no possible cause for conceit. THE TWELVE
DEGREES OF PRIDE TAKEN DOWNWARDS 1. Curiosity, when a man allows
his sight and other senses to stray after things. which do not
concern him. 2. An unbalanced state of mind, showing itself in talk
unseasonably joyous and sad. 3. Silly merriment, exhibited in too
frequent laughter. 4. Conceit, expressed in much talking. 5.
Eccentricity-attaohing exaggerated importance to one's own conduct.
6. Self-assertion-holding oneself to be more pious than others. 7.
Presumption-readiness to undertake anything. 8. Defence of
wrong-doing. 9. Unreal confession-detected when severe penance is
imposed. 10. Rebellion against the rules and the brethren. 11.
Liberty to sin. 12. Habitual transgression.
The Fathers of the Council of Trent showed at a very early date
that they were satisfied with none of the existing works, and that
they were fully alive to the need and necessity of preparing an
authoritative Catechism. The realisation of their desire, however,
was retarded for several years by events over which they had little
control; and when the work was finally taken in hand another idea
prevailed, resulting in the publication of a manual for the use of
the clergy, and not, as originally suggested, a Catechism for
children and uninstructed adults. Of the countless Catechisms that
continued to appear, two - those of Bellarmine and Canisius - have
steadily held their ground ever since, and to a large extent have
served as the models of nearly an subsequent compilations of the
kind. The influence of Canisius, however, has on the whole been
limited to Germany; whereas Bellarmine's Catechism, which was
written by command of Pope Clement VIII in 1597, has been copied in
almost every other country in the world. At an early date it was
translated into Arabic, Latin, Modern Greek, French, Spanish,
German, English, and Polish. It had the warm approbation of Clement
VIII, who prescribed it for use in the Papal States; of Urban VIII,
who directed it to be adopted in all the Eastern missions; of
Innocent XIII and Benedict XIV; particularly of the very important
Council of all Italy, held at Rome, in 1725, which made it
obligatory in all the dioceses of the peninsula; and finally of the
Vatican Council which indicated it as the model for a proposed
universal Catechism. Though Bellarmine's Catechism was largely
followed as a model all over the world, yet, owing to the
modifications introduced in diocesan editions, it came to pass in
the course of time that almost every diocese had its own Catechism,
differing in many respects from the Catechisms of other dioceses.
The obvious inconvenience of this bewildering multiplicity of
Catechisms occupied the attention of the Fathers of the Vatican
Council, the great majority of whom were agreed as to the
desirability of having a uniform small Catechism for the faithful
all over the world. Early during the sittings of the Council,
forty-one of the assembled Fathers devoted six sessions (February
10 to February 22) to an examination of the question; and the
report which they drew up occupied the attention of the whole
Council during the sittings of April 29 and 30. The question being
put to a vote on May 4, an immense majority was found to be in
favour of the compilation of a small uniform Catechism, to be
compiled in Latin, translated into every language, and made
obligatory in every diocese. But the approach of the Italian troops
towards the walls of Rome brought the Council to an untimely end
and there was no time to promulgate the constitution on the
proposed uniform Catechism, so that it has not the force of law.
The idea, however, has never been lost sight of. During the sitting
of the first Catechetical Congress in 1880, the then Bishop of
Mantua (later St. Pius X) proposed that the Holy Father be
petitioned to arrange for the compilation of a simple, plain,
brief, and popular Catechism for uniform use all over the world.
Shortly after his elevation to the Chair of Peter, Pius X at once
set about realising, within certain limits, his own proposal of
1880, by prescribing a uniform Catechism - the Compendium of
Christian Doctrine - for use in the dioceses of the ecclesiastical
province of Rome, at the same time indicating that it was his
earnest desire to have the same manual adopted all over Italy. The
text selected was, with slight modifications, that which had been
adopted for some years by the united hierarchy of Piedmont,
Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia, and Tuscany.
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