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Saint Cajetan (Paperback)
George Herbert Ely; Edited by Brother Hermenegild Tosf; R. De Maulde De Claviere
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R390
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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."
With a Novena to the Holy Ghost and devotions for Mass, Holy
Communion, etc. THE use of this book is fourfold: 1. It serves for
short visits to Our Lord in the tabernacle. 2. It is designed to
sene still better for long visits to the Blessed Sacrament. By
means of it, half-hours and hours of adoration may be spent before
the Tabernacle in the most fruitful and interesting manner; hence
the sub-title has been affixed. It is indeed specially intended as
a vade mecum for those pious souls who, as members of Eucharistic
Leagues and Confraternities, are accustomed to keep the weekly or
monthly Hour of Adoration. 3. It tends to inculcate and to foster
devotion to the Holy Ghost, in connection with devotions to the
Holy Eucharist. 4. It is finally a Prayer-Book for all ordinary
occasions and devotions, especially for Mass and Holy Communion.
Our little book follows the suggestions of Pere Eymard-the
venerated and zealous Apostle of the Holy Eucharist- for making the
hour of adoration. The pious adorer is never permitted to lose
sight of the four ends of sacrifice or of the obligations we have
to God, as our almighty Creator and supreme Master, viz.: 1.
Adoration; 2. Thanksgiving; 3. Reparation; and 4. Prayer.
Pope Pius XI wrote as follows in the Encyclical Letter, Divini
Redemptoris: "For them (the peoples of the Soviet Union) We cherish
the wannest paternal affection. We are well aware that not a few of
them groan beneath the yoke imposed on them by men who in very
large part are strangers to the real interests of the country. We
recognise that many others were deceived by fal1acious hopes. We
blame only the system with its authors and abettors who considered
Russia the best field for experimenting with a plan elaborated
years ago, and who from there continue to spread it from one end of
the world to the other." In this pamphlet, I have outlined some of
the historical evidence which goes to prove that those "strangers
to the real interests of Russia," who are experimenting with this
Marxian plan elaborated years ago, are members of the Jewish
nation, and that Communism is the latest and, up to the present,
the most decadent materialistic phase of the opposition of that
nation to the Supernatural Messias.
This work begins with the holy marriage of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and Saint Joseph and proceeds to discuss the significance of her
wedding ring. Several chapters are devoted to the Annunciation. The
the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem is considered. Then we consider
all of the holy events at Bethlehem leading up to birth of our
Divine Savior, Jesus Christ
The manuscript from which' this work of Eusebius has been at length
recovered, after the lapse of several centuries, is that wonderful
volume of the Nitrian CollectionS now in the British Museum, whose
most curious and remarkable history I have already made known in
the Preface to my edition of the Festal Letters of St. Athanasius.
It is not necessary, therefore, for me in this place to give any
further account of it than to state that it was transcribed
fourteen hundred and fifty years ago, -as early as the year of our
Lord four hundred and eleven. The several works contained in it are
now all printed, and thereby rescued from the cbance of being lost
for all future time. The first-a Syriac translation of the
Recognitions of St. Clement, which I once intended to publish, and
had transcribed the greater part of it for that purpose- has been
edited by Dr. P. de Lagarde, to whom I gave my copy. The transcript
w s completed by him, and compared with another manuscript of the
same work, and afterward printed with that great care and accuracy
which gives so much value to all the Syriac texts which he has
edited. The second treatise in this manuscript is the book of
Titus, Bishop of Bostra, or Bozra, in Arabia, against the
Manicheans. Weare also indebted for the publication of this
important work to Dr. de Lagarde. The third is the book of
Etisebius on the Theophania, or Divine Manifestation of our Lord
.... The text of this was edited by the late Dr. Lee, b who also
published an English translation of it, C with valuable notes and a
preliminary dissertation. The last is this history of the Martyrs
of Palestine, also written by the same Author. In the eighth book
of the Ecclesiastical History, upon the occasion of his giving a
short account of certain Bishops and others, who sealed their
testimony for their faith with their blood, Eusebius stated his
intention of writing, in a distinct treatise, a narrative of the
confession of those Martyrs with whom he had himself been
acquainted. Up to the time of the discovery of this Syriac copy, no
such work was known to exist in a separate form, either in Latin or
Greek. There is indeed a brief history of those contemporaries of
Eusebius who suffered in the persecution of the Christians in
Palestine, found in several ancient Greek manuscripts, inserted as
a part of it, and combined with the Ecclesiastical History: but it
does not occupy the same place in all the copies of that work. In
one it is placed after the middle of the thirteenth chapter of the
eighth book; in two at the end of the tenth book; and in several,
at the end of the eighth; while from two others, d as well as from
the Latin version made by Ruffinus it is omitted altogeth
Let us consider this excerpt: " One day the Saint, taking Pinianus
aside, began tenderly and respectfully to question him. What she
asked was whether carnal love had still any place in his heart,
whether it ever occurred to him now to think of her as a wife.
Pinianus, with a smiling face, and full of the joy of the Lord,
answered her cheerily, Happy art thou to love thy husband after
such sort. Be satisfied on my account, quite satisfied in our Lord,
that ever since we made together our promise to God, I have had
just the same feeling for thee as for Albina, thy saintly mother.'
On hearing these words Melania kissed him upon the breast and upon
the hands, and gave glory to God for this firm resolution. But a
few days afterwards, anxious that he should always advance in
perfection, she said to him again; 'Pinianus, my lord, listen to me
as a mother, as thy spiritual sister; lay aside these costly
Cilician robes, dress thyself in more sober fashion.' Like the boy
that he was, Pinianus, on hearing this, was rather cast down, but
in order that he might not see her look unhappy, and knowi ng that
all was done for God and for his own eternal welfare, he assented
with a good grace, and began to dress in the cheaper garments of
Antioch. But Melania, like a busy bee, was eager to add flower to
flower on his behalf. She pressed him to adopt an even coarser
dress, and this in fact he did. Eventually his clothes cost no more
than a gold piece, or two thirds of a gold piece, and Melania
fashioned them for him herself out of the cheapest natural wool
without dye of any sort." After sketching the condition of Rome at
the end of the fourth century, during which time Saint Melania
lived, we get into her personal story. "But this great solicitude
of her parents, which, however affectionate it may have been, was
yet purely human, was the cause of great torture to the innocent
girl. Melania was not, like so many noble Roman ladies of the time,
a convert to Christianity. She had never tasted the bitter fruit of
Roman corruption. She came into the world with an instinctive
hatred of those infamous customs which were the canker then eating
out the heart of primitive Roman society. Her pure angelic soul
revolted from the licentious manners which held sway around her.
From her earliest years, the love of God completely filled her
heart. She herself on her death-bed declared that in early
childhood she had consecrated herself wholly to Christ. Providence,
which had implanted these desires in the girl's heart, did not
permit them to remain barren. ..." Saint Melania's life in this
time is an inspiration to all of us who live these days of
perversion. She rose to the heights of sanctity, inspiring her
mother and husband to join with her.
The original title of this book, which was compiled from a series
of lectures delivered in Edinburgh in October, 1884 by Mgr. Dillon,
was The War of Antichrist with the Church and Christian
Civilization. The author wrote it "in order to do his part in
carrying out the instruction given by the Sovereign Pontiff in the
Encyclical Humanum Genus when he called upon the pastors of souls,
to whom it was addressed, to 'instruct the people as to the
artifices used by societies of this kind in seducing men and
enticing them into their ranks, and as to the depravity of their
opinions and the wickedness of their acts'. Mgr. Dillon's work has
already been honoured by the Holy Father himself with so marked and
so unusual an approbation that there is no need for us to accord it
any further praise than merely to take note of the fact. The book
was presented to His Holiness, accompanied by an Italian version of
its table of contents, and of long extracts from its principal
sections, and Leo XIII was pleased to order that the Italian
version should be completed, and the book printed and published at
Rome at his own expense." (The Month, Sept. 1885). Despite the fact
that the lectures were delivered by a Catholic prelate to an
audience composed mainly of members of his own faith, we feel that
the subject of international political skullduggery is one which
cannot fail to interest Catholic and non-Catholic alike, the more
so indeed since events in the course of the decades following the
original publication of this book have confirmed the lecturer's
thesis. The last four editions have appeared under the title of
Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked. Mgr. Dillon does not speak
explicitly of the two currents of thought and action proceeding
from the Masonic French Revolution, namely, the current of
Rousseauist-LockianMasonic Liberalism and the current of Socialism
and Communism. Implicitly, however, he does so when, on the one
hand, he foreshadows the United States of Europe and World
Federalism and, on the other, quotes the infamous Declaration of
the International in 1868. This Declaration, formulated at the
International Congress held at Geneva in 1868 and quoted by Mgr.
Dillon in his preface, is well worth reproducing, at least in part.
It runs as follows: "The object of the International Association of
Workmen, as of every other Socialist Association, is to do away
with the parasite and the pariah. Now what parasite can be compared
to the priest. "God and Christ, these citizen-Providences, have
been at all times the armour of Capital and the most sanguinary
enemies of the working classes. It is owing to God and to Christ
that we remain to this day in slavery. It is by deluding us with
lying hopes that the priests have caused us to accept all the
sufferings of this earth. It is only after sweeping away all
religion, and after tearing up even to the last roots every
religious idea that we can arrive at our political and social
ideal. "Down, then, with God and with Christ Down with the despots
of heaven and earth Death to the priests Such is the motto of our
grand crusade." In a note on page 20 of the original edition Mgr.
Dillon returned to the question of the direction of Freemasonry,
which he had mentioned in his preface. He there says: "The Jewish
connection with modern Freemasonry is an established fact
everywhere manifested in its history. The Jewish formulas employed
by Freemasonry, the Jewish traditions which run through its
ceremonial, point to a Jewish origin, or to the work of Jewish
contrivers .... Who knows but behind the Atheism and desire of gain
which impels them to urge on Christians to persecute the Church and
destroy it, there lies a hidden hope to reconstruct their Temple,
and in the darkest depths of secret society plotting there lurks a
deeper society still which looks to a return to the land of Judah
and to the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem?"
Studying the Lives of the Saints will help us imitate their
virtues. Some may ask, why study the lives of the Martyrs? Their
lives are extraordinary in that they suffered the cruelest of
torments for the love of Jesus Christ, which we will not be called
upon to suffer. There are many reasons to study the lives of the
Saints. Saint Alphonsus tells us: "It maybe useful here to remark,
with St. Augustine, that it is not the torture, but the cause,
which makes the martyr. Whence St. Thomas teaches that martyrdom is
to suffer death in the exercise of an act of virtue. From which we
may infer, that not only he who by the hands of the executioner
lays down his life for the faith, but whoever dies to comply with
the divine will, and to please God, is a martyr, since in
sacrificing himself to the divine love he performs and act of the
most exalted virtue. We all have to pay the great debt of nature;
let us therefore endeavor, in holy prayer, to obtain resignation to
the divine will-to receive death and every tribulation in
conformity with the dispensations of His Providence. As often as we
shall perform this act of resignation with sufficient fervor, we
may hope to be made partakers of the merits of the martyrs. St.
Mary Magdalene, in reciting the doxology, always bowed her head in
the same spirit she would have done in receiving the stroke of the
executioner." And there is a further reason to study the lives of
the Martyrs. Martyrdom is not something that is offered to the
mediocre, but to the fervent Christian. Some martyrs lived a
century of holiness prior to consummating their martyrdom.
Martyrdom is a straight ticket to heaven, but it is a ticket that
is often earned by a pious life. True there are those very few, who
convert and then are immediately martyred. But many more lived a
fervent Christian life, which was crowned with the grace of
martyrdom. Althoguh we may not give our lives in the manner they
did at the end, we can give our lives in the manner they gave their
lives before called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Father Faber begins: "Life is short, and it is wearing fast away.
We lose a great deal of time, and we want short roads to heaven,
though the right road is in truth far shorter than we believe. It
is true of most men that their light is greater than their heat,
which is only saying that we practice less than we profess. Yet
there are many souls, good, noble, and affectionate, who seem
rather to want light than beat. They want to know more of God, more
of themselves, and more of the relation in which they stand to God,
and then they would love Bnd serve Him better. There are many again
who, when they read or hear of the spiritual life, or come across
the ordinary maxims of Christian perfection, do not understand what
is put before them." Faber laments the fact: "The teaching of
spiritual books and the doctrines of perfection, as laid down by
the most approved writers, do not recommend themselves to them.
They consider that, unless they are under the vows of some monastic
order, they should aim iLt nothing m(lre than the avoiding of
mortal sin, and giving edification to those around them. They are
good people. They go to mass; they aid or start missions; they
countenance the clergy; they are kind to the poor; they say the
rosary; they frequent the sacraments. Yet when anyone talks to them
of serving God out of personal love to Him. of trying to be daily
more and more closely united to Him, of cultivating the spirit of
prayer, of constantly looking out to see what more they can do for
God, of mortifying their own will in things allowable, of disliking
the spirit of the world even in manifestations of it which are
short of sin, and of living more consciously in the presence of
God, they feel as if they were listening to an unknown language.
They have a jealousy, almost a dislike, of such truths, quite
irrespective of any attempt being made to force such a line of
conduct upon themselves. If they are humble they are puzzled: if
they are self-opinionated, the, are angry, critical, or
contemptuous, as the case may be There are many others to whom such
views are simply new, and who with modesty and self-distrust are
shaken by them, and to some extent receive them. Still upon the
whole such doctrines have a sound in their cars of being ultra and
extravagant, or poetical and fanciful, or peculiar and eccentric."
This work proceeds to explain why God loves us and how we can love
Him back as He wishes. It is an excellent work on the subject of
divine love.
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