Last Saturday, in the smoke in the vast distance between the hills of the world, the brother of this man's world, the old man, he will tip a net in August about and then later in the Gospel of St. John, because the onlys, in the sense of the world, knew him not, John would think. And then, of course, the decisive word about which we centred last Saturday's Consecration, Answering the question, what is the attitude to the world understood in this way? As man's world, as that world which knew he not, the answer is given, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, not to condemn the world,

[01:26]

but that the world through him might be saved. We are saved through the Father's love for the world, says Jesus, so that we even cannot believe in this love without loving the world. With love, the Father loves it through his Son. So that we are not sent into this world to condemn what they do. What can the world might be sent in Christ? And therefore we act towards the world as ambassadors for Christ. to bring to minister, administer the word of reconciliation.

[02:30]

Be ye reconciled to God, because he has made him, Jesus, to be sin for us. Which means to say as the Father gave. And this is the real difference between Man is given the modus of eternal heaven. God. That God so loves the world that he does not condemn it. The world may be saved when one desires to heal himself of making his thought to be sin for us. If the prophet Isaiah says in the fifty-fifth chapter of his prophecy, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your words my words, says the Lord.

[03:43]

He refers just to this tremendous difference, it seems to me. The prophet continues, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. It is this difference that I just indicated, which is meant here. And we can see that that is not an invention or reading something into these words, but it is clearly indicated in all this construction itself. In the Psalm, we sang this moment, for as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy towards them that fear him.

[04:43]

Paul read it in Matthew 16. The faith was encountered between Abba God and Peter. From that time forth, it led us to the moment when Abba God began to reveal the thoughts of God. Concerning him, concerning Jesus himself. From that time forth began Jesus' show like ways to side with. How that he must go out into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and spies. And be killed and be raised again a third day. that Peter took him and began to view him, saying, Be it far from you, O Lord, this shall not be unto you. But Jesus turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art a scam to me.

[05:56]

For you think not the thoughts of God, but those of man. Now this then gives really the decisive difference between the world and God. Between man's sleeping and God's sleep. Or as Paul later says, between the flesh and the spirit. And therefore it is vitally forced to enter into this love of the Father for the world. which does not condemn but save the world by making His Son sin for us. And this is really the difference between God and Satan. And that this, therefore, is the way to our salvation. And it's so clear in the famous story of the temptation of Christ in the desert.

[07:01]

Christ in the desert. And we are thinking of that naturally in our little foundation. Now, this is not an empty gesture. But it is, I must say, a confession. It is a pledge. In the desert is the place where Jesus and the devil meet. Therefore the place of decision is the place to draw the line, to see the difference and to deal with it. Let us just do a few thoughts. Make the ask that you like the gift of the Holy Spirit. These are words probably to Saint Luke in the fourth chapter. And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

[08:13]

All that is, of course, is important. Yes. And the Jordan was baptized. At that baptism, our Lord was proclaimed the Son of Man. that carries the sin of the world. Through the act of baptism he had publicly and solemnly associated himself not to the just ones but to the sinners, to those who came down from Jerusalem in order to be led to repentance but to preach about self-baptism and to confess this, their sinfulness, and at the same time have a heap of the saving power of God's mercy through the baptism of water. And from there, Jesus, their Jesus, was then proclaimed by the Holy Spirit as this is my beloved Son.

[09:21]

He took the land with his own soul. And then he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. By the Spirit into the wilderness. St. Matthew said he was thrown by the Spirit into the wilderness. What is that association with? to work as opposed to God, that's the meaning of this, as the king of the devil, to be the prince of the world. Now, being 40 days tempted of the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were empty, he asked about God. So 40 days in remembrance of the 40 years that the Son of God and the Old Testament, that means the chosen people, had been led by their father through the desert and had been fed in the desert by the way from heaven above.

[10:41]

So when this period of 40 days is over, then, as a prayer of the Spirit, how can you say, let him go? That means he was thrown back completely upon his command. His human nature. And he afterward humbled. And in that moment, the devil said unto him, If you be the Son of God, command these stones that they be made great. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is with that man shall not live by blood alone, but by the word of God. If you be the Son of God, The devil uses this as a title of power, as a title of independence, and all by doing that, it distorts the true meaning of the title psalm.

[11:54]

The accent is in our scripture of psalm, for the devil is here of God, under the prefix of power. Do therefore what you believe. I'm going to say, help yourself. That faithless, help yourself. If Christ had done so, if he had helped himself, he would have lifted the balance of the sins. Who may have joined that balance? Have the love of God that caps the sin of the world. he would have destroyed his voluntary solidarity with her. He was fasting his own wayless endowment, whether it is to take upon himself the loss of one's existence as the punishment to one's disobedience to God, to save his life

[13:03]

He would have used his divine power not as God, but as the Supreme. He would have refused to act as the great sinner who recognizes in the spirit of all sinners and fooled them that the Father has a wight of judgment over them, and therefore has the song to give himself for the sins of man. And to give himself, of course, he involves with life, his death. Therefore he would have refused to be obedient to God's word. and the purpose of which he had come into the world, he would have sinned.

[14:06]

He had come to become us, to become sin, and that he would have forsaken. In the eyes of men, in their minds, hardly it would have been a reasonable thing to do. there was no real sin involved. He had, after all, completed the 40 days of identification with the people that God had brought into the desert to be humbled and to be tested in it, as it is said in Deuteronomy 8, to know what was and what was not. But still he would not have put all his trust in the God of Israel who fed his own with mother for the God.

[15:10]

To teach them that they truly live not from weight made by the sins, but that it is their food to do the will of their lifer. He would have forsaken that, Jesus, I mean, if he had, on his own, changed those into bread, to make the power of God set of his own. Instead, our Lord wants to live by the word of God, and that means by the thoughts of God, and that means by his mercy, By the designs of the mercy of the Father, who so loved the world to send his only begotten Son to save the world by the comic sin before us and by the giving over into the hands of those who would kill.

[16:18]

As the first temptation, now the second. It's this way. The devil taking you up into a high mountain, swore to him all the kingdom of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give you in the glory of the dead. For the dead is delivered unto me, and whosoever I will give. If you will worship me, it will all be done. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and he only shall you serve. Again, if Christ had accepted the devil's offer, he would not have uncovered and miscarried the sin of the world by becoming sinful instead he would have received power power to do many good things and still in the end he does analysis to leave everything as it was he would have left the sinners

[17:49]

guides lost ones to their fate for the sake, perhaps, of general world improvement. But, again, the servant, the son of God, sticks back to the original design of the Father's person to become sin for our sake, and therefore to take it on himself. To choose as a way instead of success, defeat, in order to reconcile man to God. Then comes the third temptation, and he brought him to Jerusalem, and sent him on a boat in the air, the tent. And said to him, If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down from hence, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you to keep you.

[18:57]

And in their hands they shall bear up the list, and in time you dash your foot against the stone. And Jesus answered, Say, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Now this invitation is different from the before. Different because it's very solemn and different because it is made in the very sanctuary, you see. It is therefore made at the very place of worship. And there at this place of worship, what does the devil ask of the Lord? He asked for what one could call an act of faith, an act of supreme faith, an act of heroic faith, where in some way he would put himself into great estate.

[20:00]

He risked his existence. In some way, such an act, throwing himself down, It has some resemblance, maybe at first sight, with the act that our Lord Jesus Christ did here, performed on the cross. I would say that his descent to ad infinitum, his sentience ad infinitum, his descent to the Lamb of God, it has some resemblance. And still, Here, of course, he would not have been done in obedience. This act here would have been his own will to assure himself of this infallible power overcome. He would have tempted God to come to his aid

[21:06]

instead of, through him, coming to the aid of sinful men. He would use an act of faith to make God a servant. These are therefore the three temptations. Just short, just to put it before us, the first is the temptation, let us say, of the individual. Help yourself, use your heart, Use your heart to ask if he needs. Always, you know, set off disease through the word of God. The second temptation, make the world happy through power and set all the demons through the cross. The third temptation, May God, through servant, through an act of faith, force God to take the side of Jesus and his heroic faith, instead of dealing the sinful man through.

[22:19]

In that way, God would have been, perhaps, the God that applies, and not the Savior himself. I think these three temptations are, for all of us, of great importance, worthy to consider, also in our monastic life, and that is why it is so important to draw into it the third temptation, and I say the temptation of religion. The third is that of such instead of obedience to God's will. To do with the will of God is food to me. That is the first lesson. Do you remember that? And that also plays such a great role in what we call the school. Always remember to do with the will of God is food for me.

[23:24]

We live By doing the will of God, or through the will of God, may he lead us into sacrifice. He does. And what's for him? So therefore, it's the message of obedience that makes us really and truly children of our Heavenly Father. But we always remember that this act of obedience to the will of God gives an act of obedience to the love that the Father has for the world. That is it. So that our obedience, being obedient to the love of God for the world, our obedience has therefore an absolute universal power. It is in that way entering into the redemption of the world that must be varied.

[24:28]

As children of God, we are, as it were, children of the world, the same way as God is the Father of the world. The second temptation is that, and the doctrine teaching the warning The invitation, let's extend it to us, to refuse clearly the palms of the devil. To refuse the palms of the devil. That also is something from which religious life is not easy. We all are constantly, as men living in this world, tempted to be guided. We are always tempted to be realistic. Power remains always a temptation. And that is clear in the history of the Church. It's clear in the history of the Christian Church.

[25:32]

It's clear in the history of the Eastern Church. Power is a tremendous temptation. And therefore, to interfere with you is to help us out. Don't use power except for death. Don't use, let us say, and don't associate yourself with the practicality of politics where the means are justified by it. Then the other last temptation is do not use piety for your own satisfaction. Do not use religion for your own satisfaction. That again, you know, and that would be the worst and the most certain at this end.

[26:37]

of all temptations that constantly do this to us. Prepare is not enough to put on a habit. It's not enough to go to the house. It's not enough to pray and find great satisfaction in prayer. All these things can still be somewhere under the domination of them. If they are lords, again, you are completely put into the hands of a girl, so that they are clearly and truly the fulfillment of God's will for us. That is, of course, absolutely true also in the question of monastic vocation. Nobody really knows about Because he finds that that is the forgiveness of the satisfaction of God.

[27:44]

Or that that is his personal perfection. And when I said that the most perfect life, I was the most perfect life, therefore I am perfect life. That would be really using piety for our own purposes. Therefore, when there is evocation, it must be truly, truly evocation. We must realize that this is the will of God. And we must pray for that. That is an act of exalting and evocation, and only can be made clear and established in prayer. But not that prayer, not in this act of faith, Well, one throws himself down as a powerful, super-capitalist, and then I have the absolute assurance that what my relation to God is. It's not in that way based on human initiative.

[28:48]

It's based on God's grace. And that really is the whole difference. And that is the essence of the monastic attitude of the Christian attitude. And that makes us children of God's kingdom and takes us if we are out of the world. It's a father's word. It's the power of Satan. That is the way through the grace of God I am what I am. that we received the news that Professor Carlton Hayes is being buried in Afton in New York. And we're down to present the community there too. As you know, he was the...

[29:49]

Carol Hayes wanted me to just give a few ideas about this meeting of that committee there in Chicago. As you know, the Elberts decided on that when they met later on in Chicago at Central Coppice. The idea of such a committee is that various congregations and various houses of the Benedictine Confederation in this country kind of work together, I would say, pool their ideas in preparation for the Abbott's Congress and to kind of clarify the position of the Benedictines here in this country before going to the Abbott's Congress in Rome.

[30:55]

And whenever possible, as it is possible, to formulate a common line of action. The meaning of a committee like this then, of these five people, is to serve as a coordinating organ to make this communication more easies of course the uh various various trojan committees and the abbeys have been asked to cooperate and to submit their ideas and they then send it to send them to this uh committee, and then the committee works out a coordination, makes the material, organizes the material, and digests it, and compiles it, and then a compilation of this kind then is

[32:02]

sent to the abbots, so to make it easier also for the abbots to get an idea of what has been suggested. That was the first work that had to be done at this meeting also to come to a kind of form in which this would be then presented to the abbots. that was done, Father Prior Moore Urbach had worked on this, worked on this material that had been submitted. Naturally, one must say that all these things have They had their drawbacks and their limitations because many of the committees were not able for the time that was given to them really to make a final formulation of their ideas, for example, right away.

[33:10]

The day when I went to Peru, St. Pete, then I was there, but the committee there hadn't been ready for it, so there would be a report that would come of humping our report, as he said. And there would be 25 pages, and I walked about, these 25 pages had no opportunity to get into our report on the act. So, but there are some things that cannot be avoided. Anyhow, so then the, also the The material which is presented, of course, is of different value even concerning the the barrier, to say, the backing these ideas have.

[34:17]

That is another difficulty also for us. I mean, we receive then these records from various committees, but we don't know, of course, then what is behind them. Is that somebody's idea, or is it an idea which has... the backing of the consensus of the community. Those things didn't appear in these reports. Now, that's, of course, another thing. But those then, in the process, will be, that will show itself, you know. And so what the meaning of this committee was, but also to prepare then for the abbots get together in December, the latter half of December. There will be another meeting of all the abbots. And in the meantime, this report that we have made will be, by that time it will have been

[35:23]

We are sending out this report with the idea of getting again the reactions to various liturgical committees. So the report sent out now is again only one other step of this process. The first step we have, as I say, we tried first to kind of organize and get together what has been suggested up to now. Then the second step was to make certain recommendations concerning the Abbott's Congress in 1965 and what to do there. Evidently the Abbott's Congress will a period of experimentation with various things and forms that are being proposed.

[36:26]

So what to do and what to recommend for this period, let's say from one Abbott's Congress to the next Abbott's Congress, whenever there might be in six years, certainly in a shorter period, we don't know. And then the other part of the work committee is then to just also outline and suggest certain things that could be done and should be done right now in the various communities. For example, with those who are not obliged to the public recitation of the divine office in each community and then also the main point that came out really in the discussion was that this committee here of these five people evidently needs subcommittees. We have already spoken here and our liturgical committee had made this recommendation which was then also accepted there.

[37:28]

in Chicago to organize the work there in various and calling upon various experts here in this country concerning various fields, of course, from the most urgent lists concerning the If you're natural, and the text and so on is connected to nature. Also, the other one is the music, which is another one we need there. We need a gathering, a subcommittee of experts from all over Europe, because you can see everywhere attempts are made. Nearly every monastery has, dare I say, some musical genius, you know, who works on these things, making proposals. So there is necessarily a contact at the clearing of material, and then there is the important field, of course, of the divine office, the structure of the divine office.

[38:35]

Then there's the other field of the Mass, the celebration of the Mass, then the leccionarium, the reading, and then the monastic ritual. Those are the fields, it's interesting, that need covering by subcommittees to work for the abbots. And at the same time also we make the suggestion that if the abbots meet in December, that already also a good representation of experts from the various monasteries would be invited to come to this Congress too, so that the abbots have the benefit of this assistance right there at the spot. So what it came down really is, of course, the basic question, it seems to me, is always that of the question what is the monastic life and what has the...

[39:43]

primacy in our planning and our whole approach? Or is it an adaptation of some kind, you know, to practical needs and various avenues? Or is it a rethinking really from the origin, from the principles on which our life rests. And that is, of course, was also clear there in this meeting that this is, at the moment still, there is a lot of, say, utilitarian thinking. It has to be expected, jumping at this and jumping at another, but really without thinking these things over from the origins. And that is, of course, for all of us, but also for us, The important question is always to calm, to ask the privacy of the monastic life, the monastic ideal is of course the basis of our life, it's the meaning of our whole life.

[40:54]

start, you know, that's made here, and that is the thing that is all the time again has to be thought about and has to be kind of recaptured, because we are always in the danger of being, by one way or the other, thrown to the periphery. We have to get back, you know, to the media set. That was also clear. I appear there, and that is simply a general question, a general problem, which is practically in all monasteries, all over the country. So I wanted to also to invite your own thinking, especially your prayer, just in that way, because these months, you know, are of tremendous importance for the further direction in the future of Benedict Monasticism in this country. And so that is something that we really, in all humility, but deeply in our longing and realization of our own poverty, should hold up to God and the Holy Spirit may help us.

[42:10]

thinking about the chapter of thoughts and how to make it kind of meaningful for us and more effective. I thought it would be a thing to take these topics at the chapter of thoughts and I jotted something down at the course of this week. And I thought for today it would be a good thing to consider would be the, as we had some time ago, we had read an article by Romano Guardini that he contributed to that liturgical congress in Mainz where he spoke about the political act and what he understood by it and that he was expressed a certain fear that in the present moment of this excitement about various changes especially also the question of the vernacular that things would be focused just on one aspect as for example the

[43:49]

aspect of intelligibility, while in reality the liturgical act is something that is of a much bigger order, much more comprehensive. It's not only a question of understanding. easily understanding, because that also has, if any principle like that would be followed with a kind of rigid logic to the end, one might end up in platitudes, just for understanding's sake. The nature of the liturgical acts, of course, points to and surrounds the mysterium, the meeting between God and man, and that is, of course, by and large always something that points and transcends also the understanding.

[44:55]

So liturgical act is something bigger, it is a total, it is something that is not simply solved by the, for example, changing from one language to the other. But it's a matter of doing it, of doing it then in the most meaningful way, in a form that corresponds to the inner, to the essence, contents of it, in which man and the community are such, They transcend the order of the everyday life. They enter into a feast. and they do things also in the way in which they act. They do things in such a way that the action itself represents or in some way makes visible that specific importance and the centrality and the reverence which is involved in a community

[46:11]

meeting and entering into a commercium, into a relation, encounter, with God, so that the answer to the celebration of the liturgy is not either simply intelligibility, nor is it simply informality or something like that, but it is to find a form which is at the same time, let us say, human, accessible, of course, and able to express our human attitude, but also how we meet and encounter God and move in the sphere of, one can say, of glory and of salvation as a community, as a whole. And there is, of course, one of the things that is so important there is, for example, the way in which one moves about in the sanctuary, the things one does, the walking, for example, in itself.

[47:32]

That is part of the liturgical act. Therefore, one thing that I would recommend in that connection is to avoid any kind of racing around. during any performance of a liturgical act, but to really walk and to do things in a certain pace that expresses the solemnity and importance and the representative character of what one is doing. And there are other things that, just in what you've discussed also, along the glory, the form, the singing, of course, they are two things have to correspond to the inner nature of what one sings and have to be in a way which

[48:43]

transcends the everyday life. And of course there also the monastic worship will always be different naturally from parish worship, not so what we do. The monastic community is always so that worship plays a much more central role and the time to be given to it, preparation and so on, all that, and also the fact that there is a community which celebrates the liturgy day by day, all that will naturally will lead to the possibility of a greater perfection than it can be done on the parish level.

[49:46]

However, in the monastic community, and I think we all agree that monastic liturgy has I mean, so simplicity and sobriety to it. We don't try, we avoid anything that would look as a kind of forced effort to impress, so to speak. But it is not so much to impress, but it is much more to express what is there. And of course the fact that a monastic community lives much more on what we call the level of being. because in itself also leads to that certain monumental expression, and also may be a certain balance of things, a certain, I can say, level,

[50:57]

leveled performance. We don't, of course, in the outside world, in the parish, especially the Sunday Mass is something that should really kind of be outstanding. It suffers today from the fact that it is really too dry. It doesn't take people out of their weekday, to say, level. That's the big drawback of all what we call the low mass. But for us, of course, as monks, we do, we celebrate every day. And that leads, of course, also necessarily to a certain simplification. And therefore, the extreme, one can say the differences, in some way, to a certain degree, are leveled out.

[52:03]

And that is also something for the singing. That's in some ways the art and the beauty of the Gregorian chant, that it moves in a certain simplicity and in a certain solemnity. Therefore, it lends itself, let's say, to festive expression, the great feasts, and it also lifts up the everyday performance to the level of the encounter with the divine. And there in that connection, I only wanted mentioned that, you know, I had always recommended in the past, too, that certain things in the Mass, certain songs, have definitely an objective function. And one, for example, is the furiae, so that is an acclamation on the part of the whole community, and therefore it is not

[53:08]

And by its very nature, they'll say a field where let's say, a great demonstration of melodiousness, you know, is in its place. But there are, it is, as all the liturgy commentators of the old time always agree, the curioison is Vox Populi, it's the voice of the people. The people's voice, for that matter, is always short and simple. I wouldn't for that matter, I mean, recommend that one. Always and always thinks the same kind of . But I mean, in thinking about it, you know, and how do we approach it, I think this consideration of what is the Kyrie eleison is important. It's a kind of guiding principle. The same is also with the Sanctus. Sure, I have always, you know, emphasized the fact that the Sanctus has by its very

[54:19]

The context in which it is, it has a special, very special position, and the special position God lists in this, that obnes una voce dicentes. So it is in the entire Mass, it's the one time where certainly all, and that means clergy, and that means schola, and that means congregation, all una voce, dicentes, you know, therefore, it's immediately, you know, meant, you know, to be, now at this moment, it immediately, it starts. One can see that, for example, when we And then the eastern mass, you know, that there is, it's a little more complicated, and then we don't know these various tones, so then the various tones have to be indicated, I mean, our performance, and that always in some way stops the whole flow.

[55:22]

You know, the Sanctus simply flows out of the preface, and the preface isn't... leading up to this psalm, you see, in such a way that all the clergy and the people all can sing it, you know, and sing it, as they say, continuing, as it were, this flow of the purpose. There is simply a special, you know, contact between the two. And so one of the reasons why, for example, that on has been dropped in the part of history, in the past history, now, thank God, is being restored, that the people, the priest, you know, simply after the purpose would immediately start with Te Ijituwa and with the canon. What was the reason? Because the Santos had developed into a very flowery affair, and of course it was very annoying.

[56:28]

It was beyond the ordinary priest's level, what was being sung at the Santos. It needed special books, you know, and so on, to look into, to have before you, to follow the melody. And of course, the result of it was that the priest simply, immediately without waiting for the people to end, simply starts the canon. In that way, really deranges the entire inner order. It's against the very nature of the liturgical act. But again, of course, with this, I wanted to mention that too, with emphasizing and pointing out that that is the nature of the santus according to the text, according to tradition, according to the liturgical fact. doesn't mean that now the Santos has to be always the same, but within certain limits.

[57:32]

I would, for example, say that the Easter Santos, you know, for example, a song on a Sunday, seems to me is a very good, for that matter, a very good idea, because the Easter Santos keeps then all these inner requirements, you know, and still it's really and truly, of course, also a very beautiful thing, and brings and so on, reflects in all that simplicity the specific Easter spirit, so that to sing that on a Sunday, for example, would be to my mind a very Good thing. So I've only said that, you know, in order to, that we may always keep that in mind, you know, in all things that we say and that we think about, especially that we do in the liturgy, let's always keep this good.

[58:35]

idea in mind of the Actus Liturgicus. It's also, for example, it's for the canon. We say the canon so that people can follow it, hear it, and I think it's in itself, again, in the very nature of the actus liturgicus, and that is a good thing to follow. I would recommend there very much, as always, that during the sound, during the canon, for example, people would really be, that the whole community participating in that way, would give the impression of concentration and of recollection. Therefore, two conspicuous blowing of noses, for example, could be referred to maybe to another part of the surgical actus.

[59:36]

The same is true, you know, too, for... For example, if everybody is listening, if a word is said, if it is pronounced to the community, there too, concentration on listening, of course, belongs to the essence of the liturgical act at that time. Therefore, also in the past, there was always recommended that people should again you see not destroy that by starting again you know with all kinds of noises that may be very they have the apparent character of great urgency but could really be delayed to a more appropriate moment and so in these various ways, also the way in which one tries, for example, to bring the gifts to the altar, all these little things, also the way in which one walks around the altar before communion or after communion, all these things belong to it, and if we consider that,

[60:53]

And, of course, for the liturgical act, I also wanted to mention that if we now, in the future, we have more and more reading in English, it is really, the liturgical actus is, as far as all reading is concerned, it is a real announcing. That means that, therefore, it should have the character of making it as easy as possible for people to understand. And there I have some misgivings. A great deal of reading that is being done in our choir is very unintelligible, very. And it is not, at times, even not well prepared, and especially the English. I think it's much, it would be just too bad, you know, if now with the English moving in,

[61:55]

and things be done for what the people may understand it more easily the result is just the opposite people can't understand it in what is being read and there is a great danger therefore i just wanted also to appeal to all the juniors and the novices but also everybody in the community to to develop and to help you know that that really the art of reading, that affects our daily life everywhere, at every turn. And therefore it really must be done. And if people have any kind of a defect, so that for one reason or the other they cannot do it, then in the peace of Christ, simply to agree to that, If somebody cannot edify the hearers, then as the rule says, don't let them announce.

[63:04]

And then not to consider, I think, in monastic community, let us say this, the fact that he cannot do it in any way or something that would be disqualifying or that would be, maybe it is in a certain way humiliating. in those humiliation like that, in the community like that, we have to be able to accept it, and to accept it in the peace of Christ, in a certain objectivity. We are all there to serve the form of the liturgical act. And, of course, these little, I would say, personal hurtnesses, or how one would say, they should not really have an influence on the performance of the liturgical act.

[64:07]

The individual there has to be, in all objectivity and humanity, say, now it's better if somebody else does it, because that is for the common welfare as well as for the glorification of God, the better thing to do. It is assuredly, hopefully, so near of a connection I thought it would be good again to remind our seers that this coming week brings to us the evidence, the evidence of four of them. And these evidence are in some way the Christian version, can we say, of In the old Jewish year of the days of the Old Testament, celebrated by the Jewish people, in this month of September, it's the seventh one, the seventh year, in this month of September, where the year begins,

[65:31]

I think this year it's a bit earlier, I think it was two weeks ago, started the new year, the Rosh Hashanah, and then Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and then the Feast of Sukkot, or Tanana, and so on, the Feast of Ingat. Now we have spoken in the past, now just remember that again now, that this idea of the Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the year, in the fall, shows us the comparison to the other beginning in the first, in the beginning of the first month, Nisarana, the first month of March, first month.

[66:45]

Shows us the idea of the two beginnings. Now I think there is always, once upon a time, a practical point of view, It's very important for us, for every Christian, to keep that and to see, especially then, it's question of importance. They all can say there is a two-fold year in the Old Testament, as there is a two-fold today. That is what they are hoping of the time that it gives. with the evening and instant. Evening and morning, one day, is the day of creation. There's another one which begins in the morning and ends with the morning. That there is the day of the temples. In the temple the day comes morning.

[67:47]

From the morning sacrifice to the morning sacrifice. And the opening of the doors to the second opening of the doors. In the morning the sun rises. So we have since the day is in itself in a picture of over here. All the world hears repetition of the day, larger and larger races to speak. So the year, too, has two beginnings. One in spring, and there is, in the Jewish counting, there is the Feast of Passover, Feast of Redemption. In the spring, this month of Nisan, And the second in the fall, the Rosh Hashanah. And the two now was morning and, one can say in some way, one can speak of a morning day and of an evening day.

[69:02]

One can speak of a day and of a night day. And so also would I speak of a light year and of a death year. What that means is great, that is the coming of life, rising of life. The day on the Sabbath, the year starts with the message of resurrection. And there is the other year, it starts in the fall of all needs. Food is the end. It's the life that's coming to its end. It's approaching death. And that are the two basic methods in which the life of man simply day by day is lived. We say we have our ups and our downs. And there are ups and there are downs.

[70:07]

As we say in our language sometimes, lights are on, and we see it, we see God, we see the light of redemption, and then the lights again go out, and we don't see it, it's the light. But, as we always say, and so that is the essential message of the Old Testament, the spirit of the gospel, Who says this and who says not? Yours is the day and yours is the night. The more natural it is, of course, for us as human organic beings, our health, that the day is day, the day is light, and the day is night. It's the natural. But, in Martin's really long essay, the test test of our faith, the test of our real inner union, here as to God, of course, there in the night, to us not.

[71:19]

That use as the day, we are always disposed to believe and to accept. Use as the night, here We are not so disposed to this. Because we all consider that God, I, I, when we are given our life, there are all these periods of depression, of darkness, always thinking of this change. There's a barrier between darkness. This is, this means that I cannot have any contact That means I'm far away from you. And then we start to stay in this stillness. Stillness. We can't perceive every individual. Reflects that to every individual is day-day and is night-night. We all have our positive aspects and we have our negative aspects in our character.

[72:26]

And therefore we have our triumphs And we have our trials responding. It is easy for us to lift up our soul to God when the soul is already lifted up. And this is what will fill the euphoria of life. Of course, it's different when we are down and when we realize our limitations. Yet, in this way, we are confronted with our own nothingness, with our own personal night. But then, the profundities flammable end. Out of the dim, unquieted wood. So that is, that is, seems to me is a beautiful teaching, important thing for us. That's the reason why we went to the day of recollection. So now, this is, besides that moment we see here at the end of the Ramos, where I was called already, every hit, you know, about Frost, and a little bit on the dark side, it has to be, actually, has to be a harvest, it's gathered from India.

[73:45]

And in all of this, they can feel, especially after the spoken trial, how night and vegetation is dying. And that's a picture, of course, of our own life. Therefore, let us, realizing the transitoryness, realizing the limitations of personal limitations, let us Make the people, make the people, not wait until the next spring, until Easter comes around. But now that is the first human way of doing it. We are, in that way, lords of the day and the night, egalitaries of the day and the night. So, in that as a picture, I say always, the love constantly, the status in

[74:55]

In your closeness, God, as my star is concerned, will make a covenant with us, and we are close to healing when our wounds are high, as well as we are healing the value of this life of tears. So that is the first thing that I should put. Then we just take a look at the beginning itself. Now this beginning then is, in this beautiful traditional and venerable costume of the Jewish people, is the wife of these women who washed their hands in the year the Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of India. Those three aspects. And I would say these three aspects are essential for the religion.

[76:01]

And there is first that Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Green Age. Remembering the Day of Green Age. Rosh Hashanah. God is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and He is the end. So this comes out as Creator, who has created this creation out of nothing. That means, to say, out of darkness. which is therefore a communication network of the powers that lead to the creature, creation. This is the divine, sovereign glory of the various forms, the glory of nature.

[77:06]

The index is the symbol, Blowing up a drum. And let us just consider what that means, because there is evidently is, let us say, the signal of it blowing up the drum. This blowing of the sabbath, he and Jewish, the king and Jewish tradition, has, or let us, has many means. Of course, not very long. The rapiers were catched. The poor, I should go and meet them. It's kind of me. Tonight, it would be those who are the ten reasons for the blowing of the ramparts. But let us take two notes. Of course, one is the trumpet. it is the signal of Allah, the sign of Allah. It means, it is now in order, the proclamation of the President and of the Governing Will of the Queen, of the King.

[78:09]

The characteristic prayer of Shaddaa is the beautiful prayer of our Father, our King. Of course, wherever the man has to be a king, especially in warfare, because life is warfare, where the king appears, where the high command appears, it is announced by the blowing of the trumpet. What does the blowing of the trumpet mean? It means he gathers the people. and puts the man at the disposal of the will of the heir and of the king. And therefore the characteristic prayer that is said at the going of Adam's home, tremble and beg your will to the will of the king. That's the first thing. That is the present.

[79:13]

Here we are. The day of worship, they are beautiful. It is a day of silence. Why? Because it is listening to the proclamation of the Lord, the King. And it's the importance of focus. The first, you know, that is to be in every beginning that has to happen to us is this kind of opening of the heart to be that kind by which we are open. The other one, I say, as God, the transcendent of obedience, means that way is the beginning of all this, of this eternal life that we do here during these days.

[80:20]

The other one, of course, and not all these two ways, in fact, maybe require the same thing, right? That is, you're a player, and the glowing house indicates it clearly. Awake, all you sleepers. Awake from your sleep. All you slumberers. Awake from your sleep. That's the player, and I'm blowing the house. You see, by the way, also, in the nation here, because I am sure that you have heard this before, and you are reminded of something, maybe you don't know or recollect at the moment, I don't know, I haven't got the conglomerates, but there is Ephesians 5.14. Ephesians 5.14. Thus it says, away asleep and arise from among the dead, and rise with the dead.

[81:29]

That is the Christian interpretation of the Rosh Hashanah, the blowing of the tomb. At least that's what I think. Some people think that is so kind of a Hellenistic image, not like the Old Testament. It's much closer. So awake, sleep, and arise, though not the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. His name is Rosh Hashanah, the virgin, of course, here, or else, who also, just in this quotation from the epistle to the Ephesians, Jesus Christ was mentioned as the redeemer. Search your deeds, and I want you Remember your creator, or you will forget the truth in the valentines of time.

[82:31]

That, I think, is what the trumpet is. The trumpet is the entering of the divine now into the toga, the chaos of our time. It was forgetfulness. It's that alarm which penetrates our haphazard living dormant, forgetting the truth as it is through sense of unity and leanness to an evil vanity sometimes. This Rosh Hashanah, this beginning, this Trump sign, is absolutely not, but it certainly has been said in the city, the tone, the mood of something arresting. Let us say something terrible, because we remember on our sign in the Trump, on the proclamation of the law,

[83:39]

And the voice was so terrible that people said to Moses, tell him to stop talking because we can't stand it. So it can't stand it. But at the same time, too, it has a joint. May it be inscribed and sealed for a good year. Mr. Boyer, he was a great boy on the day of Rosh Hashanah, beginning of the year. And we have it in our list, and it is a quotation that we find in the Jewish prayer to Rosh Hashanah 2, 3 beginning of the year. If you haven't read the scripture, I'll just mention that. For you will come to read, there you will see it, if you take the epistle of the Emerald Wednesday in September.

[84:44]

The epistle of this coming and only Emerald Wednesday. And it's taken from the book of Israel. Then to read here, we see then, that this promised priest walked the door before the world to choose men with their living, and all of us that would understand, on the first day of the seventh month, on the first day of the Sabbath. That first day of the seventh month stands for Shashank. And he read it plainly in the street that was before the war had ended. At first, then, he immediately takes the book before all of me. And he was all above all of me. And then he proclaims the message of the Lord. What people answer him is the populist. Amen, amen. If they got their hands, they bowed down.

[85:47]

Their faces to the ground. Now the Nephites made silence among the people to hear the law. The people stood in their place. They read the book of the law down distinctly and blatantly to be understood. And they understood when it was read. Then at the end, this is the holy day, Lord, do not warn the weak. He said to them, Go, eat fat meats, and drink sweet wine. Send portions to them that have not a care for themselves, because it is the holy day of good. And be not sad, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. That is indeed the key word of the Rosh Hashanah in the Jewish holy year.

[86:50]

So that has also been for us. Our beginning is our answer to the trumpet call of God, our Creator, is the joy of God. So then if you go on to the next verse, and to Emma Friday in September. And if you read the year of the blessings, then on the other element of a holy, sacred beginning, and that is the element of Jeshua, or of the return, return to the Lord, and say to him, that is the epistle of Emma Friday in September, Take away all iniquity, and receive the good, and make it with thee the counsel of our lips. The works of our hands are our dogs. That is their basic accusation.

[87:55]

Because what is the basic sin of man? is self-deliever, making the works of your hands your gods. That's what we call the essence of idolatry. That is the essence of sin, and that is therefore what it is all about, and that's the objective on the day of the cross of your people. is the absolute renunciation of any form of idolatry. And how is this form of idolatry, how is it, how is it renounced? By two things. The strict stopping of all human activity, of all human work. And then it said, you know, it said, you know,

[89:00]

They shall be converted and sit under the shadow. They shall live and we shall blossom as wine. So that is here in the next thing here. Because the first lesson on Saturday is also still the day of atonement. But the 10th day of the 7th month shall be the day of atonement. shall be more solemn, shall be more holy, and you shall afflict your souls on that day. And you shall do no servile work in the time of this day, because it is the day of obfuscation, that the Lord your God may be merciful unto you. And then it's immediately repeated, you shall do no good whatsoever thereon.

[90:04]

On that day, it's generally an obstacle, the suburb of the West. And you shall afflict your souls. That is the external expression. And again, we should think about it and apply it to ourselves. What is the essence of teshuva, return of conversion? This stopping of blackness, keeping active on our own. It's that absolutely afflicting of our soul, which is fasting, which is declaration that we have no claim on life whatsoever. That is here. Let God take over. What they debate, you see, the deliberation from our sin is outside of any human power. It is only through God's grace that it can be done.

[91:09]

Therefore, what is the public section? Is our public section? That is then so. When they express in the epistle to the Hebrews, it... high priest entering the glory of the Holy of Holies, that is to say, the right, who then is the righteous of the day of atonement. That's of course fulfilled in our logic. But Christ being God, the high priest of the good things to come, by greater and more perfect talent, not made with hands, that is not like this creation, Neither were I ignorant of hosts nor of cows, but by his own blood entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal retentions. That is the reason for the day of Yom Kippur as the day of absolute self-threat.

[92:15]

Why? The void of a self-threat is there to be filled by the work of retentions. by Christ himself offering his own blood to enter once and for all through his death into the Holy of Holies, have attained eternal redemption. That is the second point. And that is again important. And we cannot deal with, let us say, with that inner angle with that religious self that we have. By some kind of machination, some kind of doing is all doing. The beginning is first comes to the side. You have to do. If the beginning of our conversion is always holding up our service, it's always

[93:21]

limitations on to our anger, that he may do with it. And you can also say, putting it, putting this pure man into the sacrifice of Christ, and what he has done for you, take it and accept it as we may be done for There is the act of faith. Faith is essentially a sub-activity. And then comes the last one. Later, and that is then the Feast of India, the Feast of Talents. There was then the whole, and that's also so beautiful, you know, as you read it in these malices of India time, first of September.

[94:23]

These malice were then to say the new man is this crime. And if you have listened to that, you may imagine, feel the sea right away. That is described in the ritual of the Feast of Egan. Because what is the essential element of tabernacle? It is not the tabernacle. You have three things. You have the Rosh Hashanah and you have the Trumpet. That is the Trumpet of attention. Trumpet of the whales. Trumpet of waiting time. Confirmation of your will to the will of your condition. To end the army. Secondly, in your decorum, is this absolute capitulation before God. And his mercy for you. It's like the prodigal son comes back to his father.

[95:29]

What can he do? Nothing. He can only say, Father, I seek you to make you a victor. It's the only thing. And then, yes, this war, this weakness of the soul, what is it feeling? It's the anguish of intention, which is unwise. And then he gives it away. And he gives her a new blood. And he swore as them, the cow, the fat cow. That is the... By the way, if you look at the end of the day, what is the gospel? You see that? You see? You see? What's the gospel of life? Here's the gospel of Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene's conversion. What did she do?

[96:31]

What did she offer? Tears. Tears are always the manifestation of our absolute errors. There is the void in which the mercy of God can enter. One abyss holds thee. The abyss of our identity calls upon the abyss of God's mercy. And then we have the Feast of India. Thanks, Tabernacles. And what is Tabernacle? The Tabernacle is, of course, we have explained that also before to you. The Tabernacle is certainly everything else but a fortress. The Tabernacle is a wind. What was it? Flimsy. Flimsy is not. Flimsy is not. Heaven doesn't offer any kind of protection against the enemy. It's simply the dwelling of a sinful soul that lives as if it had no enemies.

[97:38]

The Feast of Calvary is the simplest of the redeemed souls. And this is the description of it, and you tell me you don't understand, and I don't say, yes, it's true. If you take the fourth lesson of Emo Saturday from the Prophet, sir, and he says, these then are the things which you shall do. You see, first, attention, second, capitulation, third, doom. That's the feat of a diacrist. What is the Jew? Speak ye the truth, every holy state. Judge ye truth and judgment of peace in your gates. And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his strength.

[98:42]

And the Lord not a false one, for all these things are the things that my hands sendest to you. And then the same reading ends with this. The law, the truth, and peace, says the Lord of hosts, has the simplicity of the talents and feasts of the intents. And those three things all have the taste of a beginning, isn't it? Attention, calculation, and living in simplicity. Truth and beauty. I thought I'd know that this would be a great rhetorical success.

[99:51]

But I really thought it might be one of these things that we spoke about yesterday and also this morning. This morning it was always, during the whole time, groping when it's kind of wet and the cold weather is there, you see, and brains don't function and the associations don't come. What I was groping about, you know, for us, In this thing, you see, there is that Rosh Hashanah motif, you know. These days, the Rosh Hashanah, that's the trumpet blow, that is the alert, the alert, the bending our will to the will of the commander-in-chief. That's one element of the beginning.

[101:00]

The other is then the Yom Kippur, that is this sense we are as human beings in this state of fallen nature. inclined to adore the work of our hands you know that is the essence of idolatry and it's of course everywhere you know it's in us too we are inclined to adore the work of our hands and therefore Yom Kippur this you say this answer of this absolute stopping of work and what they call the affliction, I mean that inner impoverishment and that giving up of the claim and right to live, which is fasting. And then in the end, you know, the feast of ingathering, ingathering,

[102:05]

Now, these three elements, you know, what I always had in mind, and I think came quite naturally, was the thing that I had read, you know, very much in during these last days, and that is the Giornale dell'Anima, the journal of the soul of Pope John XXIII. and um the uh let's say the virtues in our life of man you know so close to us and has done so much to our own life to bring them closer to god i thought it might uh be useful, you know, to close the day just to refer to some things which are in this journal and which illustrate this in a very kind of practical way.

[103:18]

And so I must confess that I just so often didn't succeed. I didn't have really probably was too big of an undertaking, you know, to put it into any kind of a real good form. So we have to see what we can do about it tonight. I just give you some points, you know, that may not be all in the exact order of things, but then that isn't such a tremendous loss either. We look at the life of the... you know, the spiritual life of this great soul, John XXIII. And then we see in the development, we see in the beginning one thing which is very clear and I think which is good,

[104:24]

thing also for us to remember, and maybe we, as children of another generation, that's no doubt about it, we are children of another generation. But that is not always an advantage. And it's not automatically what is later is better, you know, that we cannot say. But there is one thing in the beginning which characterizes his years in the seminary, and that is, I think, is in good harmony and that corresponds to this whole idea of the trumpet blow at Rosh Hashanah. And that is the, what can I say, the inner determination of this young student for the priesthood to, at any cost, you know, to avoid sin.

[105:27]

This real, deep inner determination he had. And that, of course, for him, you know, it was, in the seminary, it was... It became concrete in a very strict examination of conscience in the faithful and even in some way maybe scrupulous observance of certain devotions. But nevertheless, the message, I think, we should keep that. You know, there was a boy who was weary with his whole heart, sick on following Christ on the way and path to holiness. And that is a basic feature, the basic thing which goes through the entire life.

[106:34]

There is no doubt about it. Anybody who reads this journal at El Anima realizes that he is an ecclesiastic. Of course, he was, as you know. from Bergamo he was then called to Rome and he had a study stipend and he was called to the Collegio Romano and that was of course the preparation for higher things and then he became secretary of his bishop and then he became chaplain for students, and then he became director of the propagation of faith in all Italy, for all Italy. And then he was consecrated bishop, and then he was sent to Bulgaria, and then he was sent to Turkey, and so on and so on, and to Paris, and to Paris, and so on.

[107:39]

So in this whole life, you know, we're going to see that wherever, you know, this giornale dell'anima first consists of nearly daily entrances as a seminarian and so on. And then there is a lacuna caused by the First World War, where he was a chaplain in the army. Then it goes on again, and later on, of course, it is limited only, not from day to day, limited only to retreats. And they are then retreat notes that he took for himself. But that, in all situations, is this basic inner thing. So the introduction to this thing is called pietas.

[108:43]

The pietas as the constant as a basic virtue. That's the thing that makes the heart of this great, really great Chosen So really tick here at us. He might be good just to to read it to you. But when Monsignor Capovilla, Louis Capovilla, when he came to him and he had, you know, he arranged his papers when he was Pope, and then he came across all these little books in which he had written all his notes. And then he showed it to him and he said, now what do we do with this, you know, and shouldn't we... of the night person, of course that was to the Holy Father at first a kind of a shock and an idea that he didn't like because he was of course conscious of the fact that everybody wants to know everything about the Pope, but he thought his soul really belonged to himself.

[109:59]

But then he started reading it in the early, these early entrances from 1895, 1899. And he says here, you know that when he started reading, He was then an octogenarian when he did it there in the Vatican, and the tears began to flow. Then he looked at Monsignor Capovilla and he said, yes, I was a good and innocent boy, probably a little timid. But I wanted to love God at any cost. And I didn't think of anything else but to become a priest in the service of the simple souls, of those who have wide need of patient and constant loving attention.

[111:08]

And I had also one great enemy in me, and that one I attacked with all possible furor, and that was the amor proprio, the self-love. But in the end, thank God, I was able to discipline it. but if I look back then he said how did I afflict myself in looking up and in showing the resentments and the resurgences of this self-love in me and how I crucified and tormented myself because of the distractions during prayer And how did I put and impose sacrifices, not easy but heavy sacrifices, to free myself from these distractions?

[112:21]

Yes, yes, I took it all very seriously. And the exams of conscience, they were minute, or they were exact, and they were very severe. Today, I look back at it on a distance of more than 66 years. This is my first spiritual writings. And I look at them as if they were the projections of another man. And I bless the Lord for it. yes, you may, after my death, you could perhaps publish them, and there might be some good souls who, because of them, may feel an attraction to the priesthood and to more intimate union with God.

[113:26]

So that were the beginnings, and that's so beautiful to see that, you know, that there was a chosen ego, you know, that was... led from the earliest youth, and you know it wasn't easy, it was a very hard one, on a rough, rough way, you see, but determined, you know, and formed by this great solicitude, you know, really to please God in everything that he did. That is then this inherent link, you know, really to actual holiness that he already had as a boy that then was maintained all through his life. One can see there that his life was a constant inner quiet dialogue with God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

[114:30]

And that is also expressed in the word that he chose for his coat of arms, Obedientia et Pax. That is really then the way in which he tried to realize, you know, to practice sanctity. Obediencia et Pax. And he says then later, I put on my coat of arms these words, Obediencia et Pax, which the father Cesario Barronio of whom he wrote The Life, you know, in 1923, and he was still in Bergamo, Cesare Baroneau, pronounced these and said these every single day when he passed by the statue of St.

[115:34]

Peter's, in St. Peter's, in the church of St. Peter's, And kissing the foot of the Apostle, he always said that, Obedientia et Pax. And Giovanni XXIII, he says, yes, these words are really my story. And they are really my life. Oh, how I wish that they would be the glorification of my poor name throughout the ages. So it's that very step first, you know, this first beginning, this answer to the trumpet call. And that was, of course, for him, was very concrete, actually, and a call to Rome is the obedience to the Pope, to the, he was, as you know, when he said his first Mass, then he said the St.

[116:47]

Peter's, then the preacher of the college had arranged an audience with the Holy Father, Pius X, for him. And Pius X, he received then on that day, received the blessing of this Holy Pope, to whom he was so deeply and completely devoted as to his spiritual father. So that is that trumpet call, and it's good for us, because we are, by nature, we are, let us say, less scrupulous. We are inclined to be what some people may call broad-minded. Of course, we shouldn't be scrupulous. That is certainly true.

[117:48]

But we should have, as here, as the poet, as Jean XXIII had, you know, that inner determination to resist and to . So that is that first thing I wanted to bring to your attention. comes that idea of Yom Kippur. That is, I wanted to just show that a little too, and later on in the life of John XXIII. There was a great crisis there when he was sent to Bergamo. And he was sent to, not to Bergamo, to Bulgaria. He was sent to Bulgaria. Bergamo is so nice to Bulgaria.

[118:51]

But he was sent to Bulgaria, and there... He was kind of put into the corner, you see. I mean, he was in the best thing of... He was their director, national director of the propagation of the faith. Something I think Colonel Cushing had been that, you know, too, up there. a great success. Now, how much of a success he was, especially collecting money, I don't know anyhow. But while he was then promoted to be a bishop, usually anybody who knows the at the Curia Romana in those days, you know, the old days, if somebody became a bishop before he became a cardinal, it was somehow a sign that he was being put on the dead-end road.

[119:54]

He had kind of lost his career, you see. He was made a bishop, you know, because that made it very difficult later on to make him a cardinal or something. So and then made a bishop, and as such then was sent to Bulgaria. And that, of course, it was a perhaps. And that, therefore, was a big crisis. And the crisis was just that we could of the Yom Kippur, you know. He was put into, but in the form of frustration. It was really frustration. He was there, and the directions that he received on what he should do there and so on, all that was rather hazy, and it made him suffer really a great deal.

[121:03]

And he expresses that in the first retreat. Now, I wanted just to show you that in a concrete situation, which is not only, I mean, Important for him, not only for John XIII, but for anybody also, especially for a monk, because he might easily be in a similar situation. And he says here this in 1926 of this spiritual retreat. And he says, now I am bishop for 20 months. as I could foresee easily, my ministry would give me many tribulations, troubles. But, and that is the painful thing, these tribulations don't come to me from the Bulgarians for whom I work,

[122:16]

but they come from the central administration of the Church. And this is a form of mortification and humiliation which I did not expect at all. And it gives me great cause for much suffering. Domine tu omnia nostri. Oh God, you alone know it all. I have to and I want to get accustomed to carry this cross in the spirit of greatest patience. And then all that is all now very characteristic. I mean, you know it, greatest patience. with absolute quiet, calmer, and interior sweetness.

[123:21]

Suavita interior. In this, I have not succeeded up to now. But I have to be very vigilant, especially in any manifestations to anybody else. in this situation and in this regard. Any outburst, any giving to them a piece of my mind would naturally destroy the whole inner merit and glory of patience. Therefore it says, I shall practice this silence, a silence which, as my, he always speaks of Francis of the Sails, as his. That was really the teacher of his inner spiritual life, Francis de Sales.

[124:43]

As Francis de Sales teaches me, this silence must be sweet and without bitterness. And then he continues, I have to watch therefore over charity in my words and especially with persons that have my confidence and in things that touch the good reputation of other people, especially those who are in authority and people in their ecclesiastical dignities. Also, when there could be the need for an open world, or an inner impulse also, for an inner outburst in myself, in some hours, moments of solitude.

[126:04]

I should practice in the abandonment, inner silence and meekness because they are the ingredients to speak of my situation which make my sufferings with Christ really fruitful in and through Christ's love. And that's a point that I wanted to point out this morning. I didn't succeed, you know. There was this, let us say, into the vacuum of the day of atonement. Vacuum of the day of atonement. Yom Kippur. there in our Christian life enters that silence, that faith, absolute faith and confidence, and acceptance of the work of Christ fully.

[127:08]

That is, of course, also our, that is our, that's the meaning of the sacrament. That is, you know, that is what we call the quando facit in me memoria. Whenever you do this, do it in memory of me. These words that are attached in the canon, to the words of consecration, where the priest takes the body and takes the chalice, the blood of Christ. In that way, that is the way in which our Yom Kippur is really and truly fulfilled. That is, of course, in mass, that is a sacramental reality, but this sacramental reality should become, of course, the inner form of our life. So that the silence, and let us say the non-work, if you want, in this case here of John XXIII, it was the frustration, not able to work, but through and in obedience, he wasn't able to.

[128:22]

into that, you know, into then the suffering, the presence of Christ, the presence of Christ with whom we suffer. And that is, you see, that is what fills, you know, that's in the sacraments and that is also in our natural, in our inner workings of our heart. We are therefore our Yom Kippur. It's not only a confession and a prayer for the remittance.

[128:53]

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