meditation is very short it ceases just when the mind has begun to be prayerful and so many of its fruits do not ripen. For the beginner meditation will be largely intellectual, but much reasoning is not desirable, and speculation has no place in the exercise. The ideal is that one should pass on from mental images to "affective prayer" or mental converse with God, and then to contemplation. Those who have been practicing meditation for years should be making less use of these mental images and experiencing in adoration more consciousness of the Presence of God.

A suitable series of meditations for those just starting is "Bible Meditations" (2 vols.) by Gerard Sampson, C.R. The Holy Cross Fathers also publish several volumes of simple meditations. There are many works that may be used, but among well-known ones are the devotional writings of Thomas à Kempis, St. Francis de Sales, Père Grou, and Lorenzo Scupoli. Cardinal Mercier has published a volume of conferences to seminarists and one of retreat addresses to priests. There are also "Meditations" (2 vols.) for secular priests, by Father Chaignon, S.J., and "Meditations on Christian Dogma" (2 vols.) by the Rt. Rev. James Bellord, D.D. Meditation will not be easy at first to every one for it requires concentration, the background of prayer and an aptness for the things of God, but if persevered in the soul so engaged will be abundantly blessed. Graces, devout thoughts and resolutions will fill the heart and mind and the love of God will be experienced as the wonderful thing that it is.

IV. DEVOTION TO THE PASSION

"O Crux ave, spes unica!", we say, knowing that all veneration of the Cross is directed to the Crucified. A few months ago while the writer was passing an humble home in the north of France at the hour of twilight he noticed the members of the family gathered around the evening meal while a large crucifix hung above the fire-place, there where it could often be seen and bring its blessing to the household. Another time when he was in a cathedral a woman meditating on the Passion went slowly from station to station, her arms outstretched in the form of a cross as she stood to pray before each sacred picture. A friend once told him that while riding at night in a street car, empty save for herself and a rough-looking man who sat close to her, she, being

frightened, made the sign of the cross and the man arose and moved away. What innumerable incidents of a similar kind could be mentioned! Devotion to the Passion! How it has filled the world! Perhaps there is no saint since New Testament times who has so gained the love of the Christian world as has St. Francis of Assisi. And probably no wonder since the miracles of the Apostles has attracted so much attention as the Poverello's stigmata. May we not attribute this occurrence, to some extent, to the holy man's constant contemplation of the Passion of Christ?

"Passion of Christ strengthen me!

O good Jesu, hear me!

Within Thy Wounds hide me!"

How many lips before how many altars have thus shown their trust in the Passion of their Lord?

Perhaps there is some soul which would like to consecrate this Lent to the Passion of Jesus, to center devotion upon this aspect of our Lord's ministry, and to try with special effort to unite abstinence, fast and almsgiving to the Sacrifice of Calvary. One's reading could be upon topics related to this general subject, one's meditation upon some of the last chapters of the Holy Gospels. On Wednesdays or Fridays one could "make the stations." There is no service which so helpfully recalls the events of the Passion and so stirs the imagination to thought of Our Lord's sufferings and Crucifixion as that of the Stations of the Cross, and its great popularity among so many kinds of people bears witness to this fact.

In this service we unite our love to the sorrow of the Sacred Heart, for we make a mental and spiritual pilgrimage with Jesus along the way of sorrows to Calvary. The devotion arose because of the impossibility for most people of going to the Holy City to visit the spots consecrated by the Sacred Presence of Our Lord on His journey to Golgotha. Many people could not go to the Holy Land so they set up representative "stations" in their own countries. If a parish is unable to afford a set of stations a series of fourteen wooden crosses affixed to the walls of the church is sufficient. One may enter a church alone and journey from station to station, in spirit with Christ; or one may join some congregation and remain in one's seat while the clergy and choir make the round of the church.

Devotion to the Passion might mean for some a more frequent

use of the sacred sign or a more recollected observance according to one's present custom. It might mean visits to the suffering in Christ's name. It might mean a more definite abstinence on the Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, a more rigid fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Above all it should mean a greater trust in the "Precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot."

V. DEVOTION TO MARY

Our Lady of Sorrows. One of the fairest flowers of the spiritual life is the love of our Lord's Mother. As the magi found the Holy Child "with Mary His Mother," so as we offer Him our worship we know that a right belief in the Incarnation requires our veneration of her. St. Simeon's prophesy that a sword would pierce the mother's soul meant that Mary would in her experience enter into the sorrows of her divine Son and become Our Lady of Dolours. We rejoice to think of the happy mother with her new-born Babe. Do we ever contemplate the Mother of Sorrows with the Crucified upon her knees? Many homes contain a Madonna. How few homes, or churches, enshrine a Pieta! We love to think of Mary's joy and purity. How often do we consider her strength? Shall we not direct some of our thoughts and love and intercessions this Lent to her whom Jesus so loved above all others, to her who now with Him in Heaven prays for the extension of His Church and helps us by her prayers? Let us not forget Faber's hymn:

"Jesus, when His three hours were run,
Bequeathed thee from the cross to me,
And oh! how can I love thy Son,

Sweet Mother! if I love not thee?"

Some of us should have a rule during Lent with reference to the saying of the Rosary, meditating upon the Five Sorrowful Mysteries. There is no reason why this devotion should be irksome, as some claim; such a criticism is a criticism of one's self. If each Paternoster is said with a special intention and each Ave is recited as an invocation for some need or some soul, and each Gloria becomes an act of thanksgiving, the chaplet itself may become a veritable chain linking us to God.

Another devotion which may be started, or renewed, during Lent is the thrice daily recitation of the Angelus, while there are

many persons who would be greatly helped by reading some of the literature which from age to age is the spontaneous expression of the love which Christians have for the Mother of God. One of the best volumes to be recommended is Archdeacon Wirgman's "The Blessed Virgin and All the Company of Heaven." "The Mother of Christ," by O. R. Vassall-Phillips, C.S.S.R., is a large volume published within the last few years. A more recent publication of merit but of a different nature is a very small book called "The Divine Motherhood," by Dom Anscar Vonier, O.S.B. Bishop Churton's little book, "The Blessed Mother, A Posie from a Royal Garden," which has a foreword by the Bishop of Kensington, and lastly a lovely collection of verse compiled by E. Hermitage Day, D.D., under the title "In Our Lady's Praise," may conclude suggestions on the subject.

Mater ora filium
Ut post hoc exilium
Nobis donet gaudium
Beatorum omnium.

Of course the purpose of Lenten devotions is that the soul's health may be invigorated and renewed for months to come, that we may love God more and be more closely united to Him in Christ. There should be no spiritual "let down" or harmful reaction after Easter. The spiritual treasures gained should be used and replenished. Our Lenten rule should, to some extent, continue to be part of our daily experience. The subject or devotion upon which we have centered our thoughts and prayers during Lent should continue to be part of our spiritual life and related to our daily problems. The work should be carried on. May God grant us His Grace to strengthen our wills that this may be so.

B

The Happy Consciousness of
Christ's Presence

REV. FLEMING JAMES, PH.D.

ISHOP Touret told the other day how his little boy of six

came to Mrs. Touret and said: "Mother, I dreamed about God last night. I was riding along in an automobile and I looked up at the sky and God waved to me-He didn't say anything; He just waved." Some of us older people, when we heard

the story, were conscious of a secret pang; God does not wave to us in dreams or in waking hours; at least, we do not see Him

wave.

And yet, why not? Surely not because we are long past six years old. It ought to be just as easy to look up to the sky and see that when we are sixty. Childhood has no special prerogative here; indeed it ought to be easier, more natural to know God on such terms in later life, when we have experienced His love and thought upon His ways as children cannot. "How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with Thee." (Psalm 139:17, 18.) It was a mature man who wrote that. Just as beautiful a story is told of the great commentator Bengel in the ripeness of his age. Someone wishing to hear him pray had secreted himself in Bengel's study. The hours of evening wore away, but the scholar remained still deep in his books. At last, he looked up and said with a smile: "Dear Lord Jesus, we are still on the same old terms." That was his prayer.

Yes, the happy consciousness of Jesus' presence is within the reach of us all. In speaking of it to you I am aware that I speak of a possible thing. As no period of life is shut out from it, so is no temperament; it is not reserved for the mystic, nor for the Christian of poetic imagination; Martha can possess it as well as Mary— if she will. When the minister greets his congregation with the ancient prayer, "Dominus vobiscum," he is aware that the Lord can be with each one of those men and women and children whose faces look up to him, that each in his own fashion can feel the dear Presence. And surely when he hears their answering salutation, "Et cum spiritu tuo," he knows that the Lord can be with his spirit also even his.

The happy consciousness of Jesus' presence. You will allow my claim that such a theme is immediately practical. Nowadays it is expected that a writer will present some matter of the hour-no remote or academic disquisition. But we do not suppose only those questions to be urgent which are under discussion in the current periodicals. Down below these problems lies one that never leaves us: the problem of life itself. Our attention should always be given partly to it; woe to us if we disregard it overlong. Any word con