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Baptism which incorporates us to this body is, with faith, the first condition of all grace as of all salvation. All power, Christ has said, "is given to Me in heaven and in earth. "Going therefore, teach ye all nations1; he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." Such is the law established by Christ Himself and ratified by the Father Who "hath given all things into His hand 3. " No man cometh to the Father," is pleasing to the Father, receives the gifts of the Father, but by Jesus: Nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me; no man, (I am speaking of the law and of the normal way; we know that in certain cases, the baptism of desire suffices and that many of our "separated brethren live in entire good faith), no man, we say, is united to Christ except through the Church, nor receives His doctrine nor partakes of His grace except through the Church. This is in fact, because Christ is the head of His Mystical Body; the Church is" of His flesh, and of His bones 5, says St.Paul; now, continues the Apostle, no man ever hateth his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it" that it may come to perfection. This is what Jesus does through His vivifying Spirit.

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We at once understand that the more we live by the life of the Church, through acceptation of her teaching, obedience to her precepts and the practice of her worship, the more abundant share we have in the blessings that Jesus ceases not to pour out upon His Bride. Truth and the light that shines from it in the soul are more fruitful in so far as we are more closely united to the Church.

We likewise understand what a terrible penalty it is for a soul to be separated from the Church by excommunication; it is to be separated from the very fount of grace; like a branch cut off from the stem, the nourishing sap no longer reaches it; it is no longer good for anything but to be cast into the fire. As the etymology of the word indicates, excommunication cuts the soul off from the communion of Saints, from the solidarity of the "blessed of the Father", and from all the graces of light and strength that God sheds upon souls in His Son Jesus; it is like the anticipated shadow of final excommunication and supreme malediction: "Depart from Me, ye cursed" : Discedite a me, maledicti”.

Such is, in broad outline, the Divine plan established by the Father, Who has predestined us to share, as children, in His infinite beatitude. Every perfect gift which gladdens

1. Matth. xxvIII, 18-19. 2. Marc. XVI, 16. 4. Ibid. xiv, 6.

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3. Cf. Joan. III, 35; V, 22. 5. Eph. v, 30. - 6. Matth. xxv, 34. 7. Ibid. 41.

our souls comes from Him1, through His Son Jesus; Christ unites us to Himself only in His Church, the dispenser of her Bridegroom's graces. In order to partake of these graces, we must abide in this visible organisation and live by its life.

The religious Orders and Institutes raised up by the Spirit of God, recognised and approved by the Church, and associated in an official and canonical manner to the Church, possess, on this account, a closer union with the Bride of Christ; their members, having thus become the privileged ones of the Church, acquire a new and special title to Divine blessings.

But these singular graces only reach our souls in the same measure that we live by the organic life of the Society whereof we are members. This is an important truth. In the same way that we enter into contact with Jesus through the Church on the day of our Baptism, so we enter into the current of religious grace on the day of our Profession : henceforward we have an effectual part in it, according to the degree in which we live the common life.

"God's

It is the

What do we ask on the day of our Clothing? mercy and the companionship of His servants. one that brings us the other. If we put aside the common life, which is the sign of our particular divine election, we shall be like wrecks stranded on the riverbank, doubtless still lapped by the tide, but no longer lifted up and borne along on its impetuous living waters.

You see then of what capital importance it is for the religious to live the common life, in the framework of the established and accepted organisation; for the monk, as for the Christian, excommunication even in the simply monastic sense, such as instituted by St. Benedict, constitutes a terrible penalty.

There are some minds, says the holy Legislator, unable to grasp the greatness of this penalty, or the great harm that can be wrought in the soul by being excluded from the common life by the Superior. The great Patriarch has pronounced excommunication for certain transgressions; but do it not let it be supposed that the excommunicated brother is therefore placed beyond the encircling fatherly love that the Abbot is to have for his monks. Human love, after the example of Divine love, does not always exclude severity; it is manifested quite as much by the just application of

1. Jac. 1, 17.

salutary chastisements as by rewards and caresses. That he may cure the one confided to him, does not the doctor use, when there is occasion, prohibitions, separations, and very bitter remedies ?

It is rarely that the Abbot, to whom alone belongs the power of pronouncing excommunication, ought to apply this penalty, which moreover admits of degrees. But, unless we take care, we can practically excommunicate ourselves. And this is equally to be dreaded, perhaps even more so, in that a wholesome reaction is less to be hoped for.

How can this case occur? By wilful and habitual infidelities; by our self-will which gradually withdraws us from the exercises and usages of the common life. Some souls have the tendency of preferring what they do alone to what is done by the Community, as such; they imagine, for example, that it would be more useful for them to spend the time of recreation in the oratory rather than in the midst of their brethren; this kind of piety is not only false in itself, but it is practically sterile, if not worse. How could God give Himself to souls who put themselves outside the current of grace that He has established ? It is impossible. God only communicates Himself to the docile and faithful soul; and such we are when, obedient to legitimate authority, we are where this authority wills us to be, and at the hour and employment it wills us to be. If God does not find us where He looks for us, He will not bless us. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching" Beati servi illi, quos, cum venerit Dominus,invenerit vigilantes 1.

No outward circumstance, besides, can hinder the Divine action and its beneficial effect in the soul. Was it not in the middle of the street, as she was returning home one evening with her young brother Stefano, that St. Catherine of Siena had her first vision, when she saw our Lord, seated upon a magnificent throne, smile lovingly upon her and trace upon her the sign of the cross? And so powerful was this blessing of the Eternal God, that transported out of herself, the child, who by nature was timid, remained standing there, upon the public way, her eyes raised to Heaven, in the midst of the passing to and fro of men and animals 2.

What happens in the case of the saints, comes to pass, all proportion guarded, in every faithful soul: Christ Jesus 2. Jörgensen, St Catherine of Siena.

1. Luc. XII, 37.

sometimes chooses the moments which, humanly speaking, appear the least favorable to calm and recollection, to communicate to us His lights; lights which He renders so much the more abundant in that the soul is the more attentive not to seek self-satisfaction, but to be conformed by obedience to the good pleasure from on high; - lights sometimes lavished to such a degree that the impression of the Bridegroom's embrace remains ineffaceable, and the soul is for a long time embalmed with the fragrance of the Divine visit...

A monk can excommunicate himself not only by withdrawing himself, by unfaithfulness or by mistaken piety, from the exercises, customs and traditions of the common life, but also by making himself singular. Everything can serve as an opportunity for singularity, even things of piety and devotion. Some find the best pretexts for justifying themselves in their own eyes; they are persuaded that they are showing a wider understanding of what should be done, they think they are performing brilliant actions.

Now, St. Benedict himself, gives us to understand that this is often only foolish pride. In fact does it not seem like saying: “I know better than others what ought to be done : non sum sicut caeteri1? However ordinary, however indifferent may appear the common ways and customs, it is giving a proof of humility to hold to them and not to do anytning to draw attention to oneself: "The eighth degree of humility is when a monk does nothing except what is commanded by the common Rule of the monastery or by the traditions of the seniors 2.

This point is very important, because grace is hidden in the humble observance of common customs and traditions. God gives His grace to the humble: Humilibus dat gratiam3, whilst pride, the most frequent principle of singularity, separates us from God, and renders us, even if we do not see it, insupportable to our neighbour. Look at our Divine Saviour. What more perfect model of holiness can we contemplate and imitate? He is God, Eternal Wisdom Incarnate. All that He does is infinitely pleasing to the Father : Quae placita sunt ei facio semper; and that not only because He is the Son of God, but because He brings to all His actions a Divine perfection. Now, during thirty years, He remains in such self-effacement just the contrary to sin

gularity — that when He begins His public life, He is not known otherwise than as the carpenter's son : fabri filius1. The sublimity of His teaching, the greatness of His miracles, cause astonishment because until then He had not brought Himself into notice. And in the acts of His public life, what admirable simplicity! He possesses all the treasures of wisdom 2. What is our personal wisdom, what is all human wisdom in face of His ? Nothingness and foolishness. The true monk, whose gaze is ever fixed upon the Divine Model, follows with simplicity and uprightness the customs common to the Community he has entered and which are a sign of the unity that Christ wishes to see reigning among the members of His Mystical Body. Here exteriorly written for him, as it were, is the practical programme of the perfection he has vowed to seek. If the devil tries to beguile us, to make us think that we shall remain more easily united to God by living apart, and making ourselves singular, do not let us listen to him. If truly, one day, we arrive at the height of sanctity which St. Benedict requires for hermits, and if God's views so design, then a cell shall be built for us in a solitary corner, and we shall be surrounded with the veneration and regard due to so sublime a vocation!

In the meanwhile whether we be simple monks, or whether the confidence of the Abbot has invested us with a share in his authority let us keep to the loving observance of the common life: it is the path the holy Patriarch invites us to follow, it is the path God wills for us. This observance will be like the sign of our stability in good, as also that of the permanence of God's grace within us. For therein we shall find Christ Jesus; and the Father, seeing us united to His Son in all things, will shower upon us, for His sake and through Him, all heavenly blessings: Benedixit nos in omni benedictione spirituali 3.

V.

From the point of view of the cenobitical life, the notion of excommunication can take other shades of meaning and suggest other lessons.

It may happen, and this is no less grave, that a monk may himself excommunicate his brethren. This may be done by failing in charity; by excluding someone, if not from his heart, at least from the radiation of his effective love. Again one may excommunicate someone from 1. Matth. XIII, 55. 2. Col. II, 3.

3. Eph. 1, 3.