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."

UNION with God is the secret of the lives of the Saints. They left. all to attain it, and trod in the one only path which leads up to it. We find tbem humbly and pimply seeking Him in the ways He has appointed, most especially affectionate to the Blessed Mother of God, and most fervently devout towards the glorious Sacrament of the Altar. The Saints by this divine onion became themeelves vessels of grace, ofwhich Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the living source. When a believer is worthy to receive Holy Communion-that is, when his soul is in a state of grace-it is not possible to reckon all tbe wonderful operations of grace which the participation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ produces in him. These come from the interior union which takes place therein with J sus the God-Man. Our Lord has Himself given us to understand this when He says, Whosoever eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, he dwelleth in Me and I in him' (St. John vi. 57). All bread when it is eaten becomes one with man, becomes a part of his flesb, and of his blood, 'so, ' saitb St. John Chrysostom, 'He mingleth Himself with us, we become one existence with Him, whereby we are one whole with Him, being with Him one flesh and one body.' He becometh the Soul of our soul, as it were, and the Life of our life. The man no longer lives of himself; but' Christ liveth in him, ' according to St. Paul, and according to our Lord's own words; 'I live, now not I; but Christ

By giving to the public the present Life of Venerable Pere Eymard the publishers have added to Eucharistic literature a volume of no little interest. It opens to our gaze the secret recesses of a soul who, to purchase "the pearl of great price in the monstrance set," gave all that he had. He relinquished home, family, the closest spiritual friendships, health, life itself to possess what to him was the one thing necessary- Jesus Hostia. The following pages reveal the workings of grace in one whom the Holy Spirit led to most exalted heights of love divine. While living in closest mystic union with his Divine Master, Pere Eymard also taught others to love and serve devotedly Him who so craves the affection of men. For this ardent apostle the Blessed Sacrament was more than a mere Presence. It was the living personality of Jesus of N'azareth with His oft-repeated "Come to Me." Very aptly has Pere Eymard been called "the Priest of the Eucharist." He is still in our midst, exerting his uplifting influence over souls by the work of his zealous spiritual sons, the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament. This Society has placed before English readers the four volumes from Pere Eymard's pen which portray his character more clearly than any mere Life could do. Still a short account of the incidents of his fifty-seven years will cause readers of these pages to delve more deeply into his writings and there learn the secret of becoming adorers in spirit and in truth. Such is his message to us of the twentieth century, a message which is fraught with much meaning if we would respond to the pleadings of the Sacred Heart in these days of daily Communion and annual Eucharistic Congress.

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life. 2. I will establish peace in their families. 3. I will bless every home where the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honoured. 4. I will console them in all their difficulties. 5. I will be their refuge during life and especially at the hour of death. 6. I will shed abundant blessings on all their undertakings. 7. Sinners shall find in my Heart a boundless ocean of mercy. 8. Tepid souls shall become fervent. 9. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection. 10. I will give priests the power of softening the hardest hearts. 11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in my Heart, never to be effaced. 12. I promise you that, in the excessive mercy of my Heart, my all-powerful love will grant to all who communicate on the first Friday of the month for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance; they shall not die in my displeasure nor without their sacraments; my divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in their last moments. Who has drawn up this tabular form? Not St. Margaret Mary. All the promises she reports are found scattered here and there without any order in her letters to different persons. As far as we know from existing documents, the tabular form of the promises was published for the First Time in 1863, that is one year before the beatification of Margaret Mary. It was found on the cover page of a booklet which was printed in Le Puy (France) with ecclesiastical approval. The work then proceeds to persent the authentic promises directly from Saint Margaret Mary's own writings.

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.