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•YOl

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• The World

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Speaking to priest, religious,

and lay person



NIHIL OBSTAT:

Fr. M. Alberic Wulf, O.C.S.O.

Fr. M. Maurice Malloy, O.C.S.O.

Censores

Feast of Pentecost, 1940

IMPRIMI POTEST:

t Fredericus M. Dunne, O.C.S.O.

Ahhas, B, M. de Gethsemani

Die la Novembris, 1940

IMPRIMATUR:

t Joannes A. Floersh, D.D.

Archiepiscopus Ludovicopolitanus

Die 15a Novembris, 1940

Copyright 1940

by the

ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI, Inc.



OUR LITTLE SISTER

“PEG”

PRAYING THAT SHE MAY

EVER HAVE

THE LIFE, LIGHT AND LOVE

OF

GOD THE HOLY GHOST





You Can Set The World On Fire I

You Can Do It

Yes, YOU can do it. You can set the
world on fire. In fact, you MUST do it,
if you have any love for God, for self or for

fellow man.

An extraordinary task? — Yes, if you
mean by “extraordinary” one that is not

done by the common run of people. No, if

you mean that it is an impossible one. It is

possible. It is practicable. It is pertinent.

Now is the acceptable time!

The world is a mess. You know it and

you know it better than I. Cloistered away

in my hidden city of God, I seldom hear of
Hitler, Stalin and the other upstarts who are

shaking modern civilization to its very foun-

dations. But these men do not bother me;
it is the movement that gives me concern.
For war has been declared and is being

waged, not against man or against nations,
but it is being waged against God. No

wonder the world is an awful mess—it has
risen against its Maker.

Do I need to tell you that the world

needs a Messias? Hardly. You know that
just as well as I. But what I do need to

tell you, and what you need to know, is that

YOU can be that Messias and help save a
lost mankind.

The time is ripe and you are the person.

Opportunity never loomed larger for anyone,

than it does for you at this dark moment
when Antichrist seems to have risen in the
garb of red-, brown- and black-shirted dic-

tators, who are demanding for the State the
supremacy, sovereignty, adoration and wor-

ship that belongs to God alone.
No, names mean nothing to me, and I think



i You Can Set The World On Fire

that I can pierce camouflage. Clever slogans,

high-pressured propaganda and fraudulent,

blood-stirring catch-phrases cannot veil the

movement, even though they may cloak and
clothe the man. Though the bombs be drop-

ped on cities and the bayonets thrust into

men, the march today is against God. And
that is what matters. Civilization is no

longer at the crossroads. It has definitely

marched on, and over one half of mankind

has taken the road to the left—a road that
goes, not away from God, but directly

against Him. And that gives you your
chance.

Civilization has ever been on a seesaw. His-

tory tells of nothing but a series of ups and

downs. And opportunity is always greatest
when mankind is down, for then it can be
lifted up. Quite definitely we are down,
very far down; and I know that you can lift
us up.

I know little about current history and I

care to know even less. But I do know
something about religion and I know very,

very much, almost all, about you. So I am
going to talk mostly about you. I am now
going to tell you things about yourself that

you have long forgotten (if you ever really

knew them)
;
and I am going to tell you them

just as graphically as I can, for I want you

to set the world on fire and thus save a lost

mankind. You CAN do it!
I suppose you have long since abandoned

all hope of ever ‘‘setting the world on fire.”

I further suppose that you have convinced

yourself that it is not lack of confidence in

your own abilities that has caused this aban-

donment, but a maturer realization of the

tremendousness of the task. It is not that



You Can Set The World On Fire 3

you are weak. Of course not! It is only

that the opposition is too strong. I finally

suppose that you say that youthful dreams

were all right as dreams and for youth, but

they are never to be goals or objectives for

maturity. “Let adolescence blow its bubbles,”

you say, “full growth will bring reality,

actuality and practicality.” That about sums

up your attitude, doesn’t it? Well, I want to

reverse all that. I want to revive those

hopes and recall those dreams, for I want

lights to flash in your eyes, fires to burn in

your heart and flames to leap in your soul;

for I want you to set the world on fire!

You CAN do it! You MUST do it, for the
world is already ablaze!

Some Sound Strategy

Last fall a fire broke out in our woods. It

had not rained for months and the leaves

of many summers were the desired fodder
for a devouring flame. Whirling like a de-

mented dervish, it danced in a mad abandon
among the cedars, the firs and the oaks. A
slight wind chased it up the hillside, and be-

fore our blinking eyes the gold, green and

brown of a gorgeous autumn woodland

flashed into a swirling, snapping, angry in-

ferno of gluttonous flames.

What could we do? Thirty summers had
stored up fodder for this flame, and the

slight wind that was blowing only lifted its

hungry arms the higher. What could we do?
—Well, ril tell you what we did— we
fought fire with fire, we pitted flame against
flame, we met this wild-eyed, twisting and
turning onslaught with a snarling, barking,

frenzied front of flames. Then we prayed for
rain.



4 You Can Set The World On Fire

Next morning the woods were damp and
black, but no whirling dervish of destruction

wove his fiery way among the cedars, firs
and oaks. The fire was out, for you see, fire

is best combated by fire and best put out by

rain.

That is the strategy that you must adopt.

You must do just as we did. You must set
the world on fire because it is already wildly

ablaze. Four hundred years of Protestan-

tism, three hundred years of Rationalism,

two hundred years of revamped Materialism

and one hundred years of Modernism had

heaped Europe high with dry fodder for the

greedy flame of atheistic Communism. Like

a dervish it has swept from the steppes of

Russia to the sand of the English seas and

now threatens to leap the ocean. It is a mad
flame, a wanton flame, a demented flame;

for it is a flame of hate. You must light a

back-fire. You CAN do it. You must light
a blazing back-fire of love and you must pray

for rain. Meet atheistic Communism with

Catholicity’s conquerless blaze and be the

world’s Messias.

I insist that YOU can do it, and I will
prove it to you by showing you what you

are and what you have.

You Afe the King’s Favorite

That is my first point, and a point that
hardly needs proof; but it does call for some

reflection.

Have you ever noticed that the epoch-

making events and the world-changing

movements of history have never been inau-

gurated by the kings, but always by the

king’s favorites? It is not the one with the

power who has started things, but the ones



You Can Set The World On Fire 5

who are in favor with the powerful. And
let me tell you that history repeats itself.
What has happened (before, not only can,
but inevitably will, happen again. That is

why I say that you can do it; you can save
mankind, because you are a favorite of the

King of kings. Yes, you are the favorite,

for God, the All-powerful, loves you, listens

to you and can be swayed by you. This is

sternest fact and you know it. But I beg of
you to be diplomatic. Favorites have lost

their power in the past because of a lack of

tact and proper diplomacy and I know that
history can repeat itself in this matter, too.

You are a favorite, else water would

never have touched your head and Baptism’s

seal stamped your soul. You are a favorite,
else a finger of flame would never dance be-

fore a sanctuary to tell you that the King is

ready for audience. You are a favorite, else

the sacerdotal hand of Jesus Christ would

not be stretched down through twenty 'cen-

turies of time to bless you, absolve you,

anoint you, consecrate for you and hold out

to you Bread that is no longer bread, and

Wine that has been transubstantiated. You

are a favorite, else an ascetic-looking Pius

would not be seated by the Tiber, looking

out over the waters of the world, ready, as

Peter was ready, to “let down the nets for
the catch.” Yes, you are a mighty favorite,

else you would not be a Catholic; but you

can be guilty of a glaring diplomatic faux

pas, and of that I must warn you.

Jesus Christ is King of kings, but Jesus

Christ is God; and in the Godhead there are

three divine persons. Father, Son and Holy

Ghost. Now personality is a very puzzling
and personal thing. It is that almost in-



6 You Can Set The World On Fire

definable, certainly indescribable, incommu-

nicable something. It is what makes you,

you; and me, me; and the other party, the

other party. It is that aloneness and aloof-

ness that complete and entire separateness,

that individuating and absolutely individual-

istic something. It is what makes each one of

us singular, particular, special, what sets us

off from all others and makes each a distinct

person. So, too, with Father, Son and Holy

Ghost. They are absolutely distinct and

separate Persons, as indvidual in their per-

sonalities as you and I. Therefore, when I

honor God the Father, or God the Son, di-

rectly, I do not honor God the Holy Ghost

directly; and this neglect is what I call a

dangerous oversight, a diplomatic faux pas

in our dealings with the Almighty. If you

are to set the world on fire, you need the

Holy Ghost, and unless you cultivate Him
immediatly and directly, you may well
weaken your power with the All-powerful

and thus spell ruin for your fondest hopes

and deprive the world of its greatest need.

You are the King’s favorite, but if you

would be of ever greater service to God,

self and society, you must solidify your

position; and that calls for a special devo-

tion to the Trinity’s Third Person, God the

Holy Ghost. It is true that God is one and

that when I pray to the Godhead, I pray to

Father, Son and Holy Ghost; but it is also

true that God is three, and hence when I

honor Father or Son directly, I do not im-

mediately honor God the Holy Ghost, and

that is a great mistake.

Perhaps this will show what I mean.

Sometime before his death, our late lament-

ed Holy Father, Pius XI, honored our reigu-



You Can Set The World On Fire 7

ing Aibbot with a red cappa magna and a

zucchetto equally red. In doing so he hon-

ored me and every member of the Gethsem-
ani community, for we are a moral unit. But
if His Holiness had granted the use of the

flaming vestments to me personally, or to
any other one of the hundred and twenty,

personally . . . what a difference in the

honor! Personality is so personal a thing;

and direct honor so vastly different from

indirect! So, too, with God—when I pray to
God the Father or God the Son, I do honor

God the Holy Ghost, but when I pray, “Veni,

Sancte Spiritus”
—
“Come, Holy Ghost”

—

what a difference!

That is the difference to be emphasized if

you are to set the world on fire, because for

that task you have a special need of God the

Holy Ghost. Increase your influence with

the Godhead, then, and enhance your power

and prestige as favorite of the King by this

direct devotion to the Holy Ghost and I un-

hesitatingly promise that you can set the

whole world ablaze. Cultivate God the Holy
Ghost and you will be able to break the very

dykes of Heaven and deluge this sorry old

world with flame. Honor, praise and pray to

Him directly, personally, individually; make
Him your favorite and you will become His
favorite and thus be enabled to bring Him
down on yourself and on our wayward world
in the form of fire, the fire of Life, Light

and Love, and thus save this mad, suicidal

society of modern man.



8 You Can Set The World On Fire

It Is as Easy as Two and Two

Make Four

You have neglected God the Holy Ghost
because you have never made Him tangible.
You have never incarnated this third Person
of the Blessed Trinity and that is why you
have failed to fall in love with the Spirit of

Love. But it can be done! It must be done!

And you can do it! It is as easy as two and
two make four!

It is easy to love God the Father, isn’t it?
For we all know what a father is and what
a father does; and daily, we feel the tangible
effects of the Fatherhood of God. God the
Father is concrete and tangible; His provi-

dence is at our fingers’ touch.

It is easier still to love God the Son. For

we have the huggable little Babe of Bethle-
hem, the Wonder-worker weary at the well,

and the blood-splashed, Red-Cross Knight of

Calvary. More. We have a Wafer of Wheat
that holds Infinity and that daily can be

taken down to the very depths of our souls.

God the Son is most concrete and tangible;

the Crib, the Cross, the Tabernacle make
Him so.
So it is easy to love God the Father and

easier still to love God the Son; but God the

Holy Ghost—who can fall in love with a
Dove or hunger to hug a Flame? And yet

I say that you can grasp God the Holy Ghost

just as firmly and hold Him just as fast as
you do the Father or the Son. I insist that

you MUST do it if you would amount to
anything in time or for eternity. You must

do it if you would be of real service to self,

to society or to God. You must know and

love this Spirit of Truth if you would realize



You Can Set The World On Fire 9

the dream of your soul and actualize the

hope of your heart. If you would set the

world on fire YOU must INCARNATE the
third Person of the Blessed Trinity and

STUDY your incarnation! In short, you must
concretize and repeat.

I said that it was as easy as two and

two make four; and it is! You well know
that two and two make four, do you not?

You do not ask me, ‘Two what and two

what?” For you have an unbreakable

grasp on a very intangible truth, an un-

shakable hold on a completely metaphysical

verity. Now how did you get such grasp on
what is so completely spiritual? How? —
You concretized and repeated! Years ago, a

nun or a school-teacher gave you two blocks

and two blocks and told you that they made

four blocks. Then came teacher’s rack with

its colored balls and you learned that two

red balls and two red balls made four red

balls. Then followed two dogs and two dogs,

two apples and two apples, two roses and

two roses, two men and two men, and very
soon you knew the value of two cents and
two cents. What were you doing? — You
were concretizing and repeating. You were
wrapping the insensible in the sensible, the

spiritual in the material and making the in-

tangible, tangible. It was not a difficult

process, was* it? Well, falling in love with

the Spirit of Love is just as easy. Concre-

tize and repeat. Put flesh on the Holy Spirit.

Incarnate Him and render Grace tangible by
the use of sensible signs and symbols, and

devotion to the Holy Ghost will leap into

flame, you will grow in favor with the

Triune God and be better able to serve God,
self and sinning society. Come to a full



10 You Can Set The World On Fire

realization to what you have and what He is
to you by the use of actual pictures and you

will see that you CAN set the world on fire
and be a Messias to a lost mankind by the

constant use of “Veni, Sancte Spiritus’'

—

“Come, Holy Ghost!”

You Have the Fire of Life

You cannot give what you have not got,
nor can you get blood from a stone. Sand

never yet produced a stalwart man, nor a

rose a radiant woman, for every effect must

have its own proportionate cause. Hence, if
you are to set the world on fire, you must

first of all, have fire; for oaiks come only

from acorns and saplings spring only from

seed. So flame can come only from fire. You

have the cause. You can produce the effect,

for you are filled with fire. In the center

of your soul is a ceaseless flame, giving you

life and light and love, giving you the actu-

ality of being a man and the possibility of
becoming a Messias! As a tangible picture

of this intangible actuality, I would have

you look at . . .

The Head of a Still-born Babe

Have you ever seen the head of a still-

born babe? It is the most beautiful and the

most heart-breaking sight imaginable. Some

twenty years ago a nun in a New York hos-
pital showed me the body of a boy who had
been born dead and though hundreds of

thousands of pictures have come to my mind
since, I can never forget the beauty and the

heart-break that was held in the head of

that still-born baby-boy.

Life can be cruel, very cruel; but never

any crueler than when it brings forth a still-



You Can Set The World On Fire II

born babe. Think of the tragedy that that

baby head holds. Think of the dreams that

are vanished and the hopes and possibilities

denied. For nine long months, father and

mother have been living in a world of

dreams and baby has been living in’ dark-

ness. Then came the day when dreams were

to be realized and baby brought forth to

light; but instead of a baby only a body

came forth—a body that is structurally per-
fect; it has every organ necessary and or-

ganization that is exquisite; it has eyes and

ears and tongue, hands the heart and feet.

It is beauty incarnate; but it is blighted and

heart-breaking beauty; for baby-body has

no breath. No breath of God is present, so

baby-eyes will never see; baby-ears, hear; or

baby-tongue, speak. Baby-hands will never

twine in mother's hair, nor baby-feet beat

their sweet tattoo of baby-steps, because

baby-heart is still. No breath of God, so

baby is not a baby, but only a body, struc-

turally perfect but organically incomplete.

The cradle prepared for baby-boy becomes

a coffin for a corpse and a whole world of

wondrous possibilities is annihilated. Think

of it!—That baby’s breath might one day
have had power over the Body and Blood

of God. Those baby-hands might one day

have been able to bless and to break the

shackles of sin. That baby might have grown

to be the greatest thing that man can be

—

a Double for the God-Man, a priest of the

great high God. But no! Baby has no breath

of God; structurally perfect, it is organically

incomplete, so its beauty and its heart-break

must be hidden from the eyes of men. —
Baby is dead.

Hold that beautiful head of the still-born



12 You Can Set The World On Fire

babe in your mental hands often. Study it

in its every detail and know that you are
looking at your own soul, had not God the
Holy Ghost given you the FIRE OF LIFE!
How we should love the Holy Ghost! You

and I were still-born babes spiritually.

Structurally perfect we came into life; our
souls had mind and memory and will, but
our souls had no soul. We were organically
incomplete. We were supernaturally dead!
And dead we would have remained if God
the Holy Ghost had not breathed upon us.

Dead we would have remained and blasted
would have been the hopes of our Parent

divine, void all the wondrous possibilities

of our supernatural life were it not for the

breath of God. Just as God the Father made

the clay of Adam’s body leap with life by

breathing into it His breath divine, so too, did

God the Holy Ghost cause you and me to
spring into supernatural being by breathing

into our souls His sacred breath as a priest

poured water over our heads and said, “I

baptize thee ...” How we should love
Him and cry, ‘Weni Sancte Spiritus,” “Come
Holy Ghost.” Come and give us yet more

life, fill us with a blazing supernatural

energy, lest we ever slip back into the still-

ness of death that we saw in the beautiful
head of the still-born baby-boy.

That is tangible, is it not? And it is true!

You have the FIRE OF LIFE. Theologically
it is called sanctifying grace. God gave it

to you, God the Holy Ghost. Increase that

fire by a ceaseless “Veni, Sancte Spiritus,”

for you have a whole world to set aflame!



You Can Set The World On Fire 13

You Have the Fire of Light

One of your gigantic assets we have seen.
But it is only a beginning. Sanctifying

grace is stupendous. But it is only the start.

God is provident. God is prodigal. Life with-

out light can be worse than death; it can be

an agony to all who know us and a worthless

waste to ourselves. The head of the still-

born babe can teach you much as you ponder

on the possibilities of a death that many

would call life, namely, the natural without

the supernatural; but the eyes of a woman
will teach you even more. They will teach

you about a life that is a death and they will

fan your flames of love for the Spirit of

Love to a brighter blaze. Look deep into . . .

The Eyes of a Woman

In one of our State Hospitals for the in-

sane hangs a very large and lifelike painting.

It is a picture of two winsome little tots, a

boy and a girl, who are standing on tiptoe,
stretching unreaching hands to a table top

on which rests a loaf of bread. Beneath the

canvas runs that tragic verse from Jeremias’

Lamentation: “The little ones have cried for

bread, but there is no one to break it for

them.”

Before this striking picture with its tell-

ing title a beautiful woman is seated every
day. She is the wife of the young American

artist who has worked the canvas. On it
he has placed his own home, his own table
and his own tiny tots, in the hope that from
this masterpiece, which he has painted from

his broken heart, a spark might leap and

kindle in the beautiful eyes of his truly

beautiful wife the light of sanity and of

material love.



14 You Can Set The World On Fire

Were you to look into the eyes of this

woman, you would know fright; for you
would be looking into the sepulchere of an

intellectual soul. She is structurally perfect,

organically complete, but she is functionally

deranged. She has a mind, a memory and
a will; but the mind does not think rightly,

the will does not love rightly, and the mem-
ory will not recall. She has the fire of life,

but she has not the Fire of Light. To look

into her eyes is to look into a void, a fright-

ening void, a fathomless void. Fire is there,

for she has the breath of God. She has life,

but it is only vegetative and sentient. She

has a soul and that soul has faculties; but

they are worse than useless, worse than

dead; they are functionally deranged.

With the aid of your imagination, look

deep into the eyes of this woman often and
know that you are looking into the frighten-
ing void of your own immortal soul had not
God the Holy Ghost, along with His grace,

given you Faith, Hope and Charity— the
mind, the memory and the will of your
supernatural soul; know that you are looking
into the fathomless void of your own im-
mortal soul had not God the Holy Ghost,

along with His grace, given you Temperance,

Justice, Fortitude and Prudence, so that you

could foundation your spiritual structure

“4-square” and send it skyscraping the very

heavens with its tower at the Throne of God.

What a debt of gratitude you owe the Holy

Ghost! He made you structurally perfect,
organically complete and functionally flaw-

less. Human life without intellectual light
is an impossibility. Supernatural life with-

out the virtues, theological and moral, is a

like impossibility. Faith we liken to the



You Can Set The World On Fire 15

mind. For it enables us to see truth, the re-

vealed truths of God; and this light makes

life satisfying. Hope we liken to the mem-
ory, for it enables us to recall those won-

drous promises of God about glory and eter-

nity; and such a light makes life romantic.

Charity we liken to the will, for it enables

us to love God and that makes life a glory.

How prodigal and provident has God the
Holy Ghost been in your regard! A house
built of sand or shale will sooner or later

fall. A spiritual edifice without the rocks of
Temperance, Justice, Fortitude and Prud-

ence would be a house on sand or shale.

Look long and often into the eyes of this

woman and just so often will you thank God
the Holy Ghost for kindling beside the Fire

of Life, the FIRE OF LIGHT. And ever
more earnestly will you cry, “Veni, Sancte

Spiritus”— “Come, Holy Ghost,'’ give us
more light, for the way is often dark!

You Have the Fire of Love

What would life and light be without love?
From baby-days till death we must have
love, else life is empty. A man may have a
grand physique and a mind that is brilliance

itself, but giant and genius though he be, he

will be hungry, lonely, and in misery, if he

is not in love. Hands may be strong and
head may be powerful, but it is the heart
that means the most. Life without love is

torture.

A baby's head and a woman's eyes have
concretized and rendered tangible two in-

visible fires of the Holy Ghost; but the Fire

of Life and the Fire of Light without the

FIRE OF LOVE might well be agony. Look



16 You Can Set The World On Fire

now at a more pleasant picture. Look close-
ly at .. .

The Hands of a Man

1 want you to look at the hands of Jesu

Maria San Roma. Jesu Maria not only pos-

sesses a name that is beautiful and musical,
but he is himself a beautiful musician. San

Roma is piano solist for the Boston Sym-
phony Orchestra and a concert artist par

excellence. One evening some years ago, he

gave us a private recital lasting about three

hours; and on that evening, for the first

time in my life, I listened to a piano’s elo-
quent soul. I had never heard a piano

really played before and I never want to

hear one played again, unless it is played by

Jesu Maria San Roma. Great Lord! How
that man can play! Under his talented touch
the soul of the instrument warmed to life; it

wailed and it wept, it laughed and it shouted,

it crooned and caressed. With consummate

wizardry he grasped those keys and, from

the breast of that piano, brought forth chords

that had a beating heart; chords that went

down into your own soul, telling you tales
that one moment had you weeping and the

next tingling for heroic action. The man is
a magician!

After the ecstasy of the evening, we
chatted. Naturally San Roma was asked how
he had attained such mastery. Laughingly

he held up his two hands and said, “Cleft

hands. Cleft youth.” And looking, we saw
that both hand had been deeply cleft be-

tween the middle fingers to give this de-

licately built man a greater spread on the
keyboard. “Cleft youth” he explained by

saying that he had spent his youth at the



You Can Set The World On Fire 17

piano; four, eight, ten and even twelve hours

a day, and every day. When asked how he
stood such drudgery, he exclaimed: “Drud-

gery? Oh no! It was not drudgery. It was
a delight. For you see, God gifted me. He
gave me a hunger for the beautiful, a thirst
to bring out from the heart of a piano the

marvel and the mystery that is hid in that

mystical thing that we call music. He gave
me a love for every note. Without these
gifts of God, I could never have arrived; but

with them, what would have been drudgery

was easy and often a real delight.”

Look at the cleft hands of San Roma and
realize that without the gifts of the Holy

Ghost you could never arrive. You could

have been structurally sound, organically

complete, functionally flawless, but you

could never have been dynamically and

actually efficient if God the Holy Ghost

had not cleft the hands of your soul with

four gifts for the intellect and the heart of

your soul with three gifts for the will! Small

wonder that you should love the Holy Ghost.

He lit the Fire of Life by His grace, the Fire

of Light by His virtues, and now He lights
the FIRE OF LOVE by His gifts. Small
wonder that your ceaseless cry should be,

“Veni, Sancte Spiritus,” for . .

You Must Have the Spark

Do not wonder and say, “If I am or-
ganically, functionally and dynamically com-

plete, why should I always be calling on
God the Holy Ghost to come?” For you
know that we can always have more life,
more light and more love. You yourself
have seen people who were—well, just not



18 You Can Set The World On Fire

dead. They have life in them, but it is a sad
and sorry thing. They are just about able to

drag themselves through an existence. But

there are others who are simply bursting with
vitality; energy, eagerness, enthusiasm vib-

rate from their being; and everything they do

is done with verve, spirit and dash. Such

people really live, the others only exist. You
want a supernatural life, not a mere super-

natural existence; you want to be vibrant with

supernatural energies and to radiate super-

natural force. That is one reason for your

ceaseless cry of “Veni, Sancte Spiritus.”

But there is another and a deeper reason!

You need THE SPARK TO LIGHT YOUR
FIRES! That spark is known as ACTUAL
GRACE.

Is that too intangible? Well, then, listen.

... You know that your eyes can be per-
fect in every sense of the word: muscle,

nerve, ligament and lens, retina, artery,

humors and processes—and yet, you will
never see unless there is light. Your ears

can be absolutely flawless, outer, inner and

middle ear, everything connected with

auricle, tympanum and labyrinth can be
without derangement or defect—and yet, you
will never hear unless there is ether to

carry the waves of sound. Your lungs can

be completely spotless, upper, middle and

lower lobe—and yet, you will never breathe
unless there is air. So, too, your soul: it

can have grace, the virtues and the gifts, be

absolutely flawless in every detail—and yet,
unless the Holy Ghost gives you those tiny

impulses that are called actual graces, you

will never function! They are the light, the

ether and the air for your soul; they are the

impulses from on high that set all things



You Can Set f(ie World On fire \9

in motion; they are the SPARKS that ignite
your FIRES!

How like a candle is your soul! It has
purest wax that has been rolled; it has wick
that is but waiting to break into bloom; it

has substance and shape and shining po-

tentiality—but wick will never blossom to
tenuous flame-flower, nor wax give love’s
tribute of its substance and its all, that the

golden blossom blow and bend, unless a

burning taper touches candle’s tip and breaks

it into flower. Actual grace is the burning

taper that sets your soul abloom; and that

you may ever be in flower is the real rea-
son for your ceaseless cry of “Veni, Sancte

Spiritus.”
—
“Come, Holy Ghost, Thou Font of

Life and Fire of Love!”

You Are a Very Gifted Person

Life’s greatest tragedy, according to my
way of thinking, is not the frustration of
one’s hopes or the paralysis of one’s powers,

but the non-realization of one’s gifts. Many
a man and many a woman are limping in
their walk of life because they have never

known, appreciated or properly evaluated

their talents. Misfits are due, not to mis-

fortune or to mishaps, but to misapprehen-

sion. That is why there is many a strug-
gling lawyer who should have been a su-
perb musician and many a weary dentist
who should be expressing his passionate and
poetic soul in verse. And that is precisely
why many a Catholic is only mediocre;
simply a good soul, when he or she should be
a mighty saint! They have never been con-

scious of their wondrous gifts of intellect and

will, never fully conscious of their seven-

fold gifts of the Holy Spirit, which refine.



20 You Can Set The World On Fire

elevate and render ever more sensitive the

natural faculties.

Here is what I mean: You and I have seen

rocks and rain and roses; we have seen the
snow, the stars and the sea. But have we
ever seen them as Thomas Plunkett saw

them? He said:

‘T see His Blood upon the rose,

And in the stars, the glory of His eyes.
His Body gleams amid eternal snows;

His tears fall from the skies.

‘T see His face in every flower.

Thunder and the singing of the birds

Are but His voice. And carven by His
power,

Rocks are His written words.

“All pathways by His feet are worn;

His strong Heart stirs the ever-beating

sea.

His crown of thorns is twined with every

thorn;

His Cross is every tree.”

“Poetry,” you say. “A man of the muses.”

And I say, “No! — A gift of the Holy
Ghost. Oh, the rhythm and the rhyme came

om training; but the concept, that rising
from the creature to the Creator, that going

from the visible to the Invisible, that seeing

God in His world—^that is nothing but the
conscious use of a gift that you and I have;

the gift of the Holy Ghost called Knowledge
”

Have you ever made conscious use of that

gift? A tiny flower of the field could put
Ignatius of Loyola into ecstasy. The delicate,

almost imperceptible, needlelike tube of an



You Can Set The World On Fire 21

insect could trap the great St. Augustine in

awe. The silent march of the planets across

a midnight sky has bent the head of many a
saintly scientist in adoration. All nature

mirrors our Maker, and if we but use our
gift of Knowledge we will see how near is
our God.

Oh, you use your gifts to an extent; but

you do not use them consciously, and that is

why you have not yet set the world on fire.
Thomas More was a conscious user of his

gifts. When he was in prison, friends gath-
ered round him and by pleasantry, lengthy

argument and strong emotional appeal, tried

to persuade him to take the oath that he con-

sidered a truancy from God. Thomas laughed

as he always laughed. “Willingly,” he said,

“if you will only answer me one question.”
Then his well-meaning friends rejoiced and

eagerly asked, “What is it?” And with a
merry twinkle in his eye but a solemnity and

sobriety in his tone he said, “What doth it

profit a man if he gain the whole world and
suffer the loss of his soul?” There was no

answer. Friends’ faces fell, but Thomas grew

the more merry, for by the conscious and

continual use of the gift of Understanding he

had attuned his soul to God, he had grasped

with a viselike grip the truths of our reli-

gion. He had the fire of the Holy Ghost and
with it he burned away the mists that rise
from our materialistic world, and he looked

beyond Time’s near horizon.

Another time his daughter “Meg” came to
him, she whom he loved beyond all others,
and with faultless stroke she painted for

him the picture of all that he could have and

all that he could do if he would only take

the oath that many another good man had



22 You Can Set The World On Fire

taken. She showed him home, his library,

his family, friends and acquaintances, she

showed him life. The merry gentleman of

God listened closely; then he asked, “Meg
dear, how many years do you think I could
have those things?^' And Meg exclaimed,
“Why, father, you are still a young man.

Certanly twenty or thirty years are left

you.'’ Meg should have been watching
closely; if she had been, she would have

seen the merry little twinkle kindle in her

father’s eyes as he asked, “And then?” Meg
stopped. She knew. And then . . Death
. . . Judgment. More laughed at his daught-

er’s silence and said, “Meg dear you must

consider your old father a very poor lawyer

indeed, if you. would persuade him to ex-

change the friendship of the King of kings for

the questionable favor of our very vacilla-

ting sovereign.”

That is the sort of Wisdom that should be

native to you, for God the Holy Ghost sharp-

ened and refined your intellect for just such

perceptions by His glorious gift of Wisdom.

To quicken your intellect to a conscious

grasp of God He gave Wisdom, Understand-
ing, Knowledge and Counsel; to strengthen

your powers to pierce appearances and see

God in everything that our wondrous world

holds, from a sub-electron to a mighty sun.

He gave you a fourfold gift and thus enabled

you to look through men and matter and
movements and see, in what looks like a

topsy-turvy world, the orderly ways of the

ruling God.

Yes, you are a very gifted person. You

have four gifts for the intellect and three

gifts for the will, shoring up and buttressing

every faculty and fiber bf your soul so that



You Can Set The World On Fire 23

neither the world, the flesh nor the devil,

neither Satan, sin nor self might deprive you

of grandeur, glory and God. You can be as

faithful, fearless and merry as was St.

Thomas More; you can be as adoring, awe-

filled and ecstatic as was Augustine, Ignatius

or any of the saints; you can and you must

set the world on fire. But to do any or all

of those things you must make a more con-

stant and conscious use of your gifts.

You have made some use of them, else you

would not be what you are today, a Catholic.

It takes some Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel

and Understanding to be even a mediocre

member of our glorious religion. More! It

takes “grit’’ to live an uncompromising Cath-

olic life in a world that is pragmatic, in a

century that is sex-saturated, and in a land

that loves every form of independence, true

and false. Yes, it takes “grit,” great “grit,”

and theologically that is called Fortitude,

You have used it, thank God; and I know
that you will continue to do so. I also know
that down deep in your soul is a burning

love for your Faith. Let me tell you that it
is there because God the Holy Ghost gifted
you with Piety. 1 further know that you
will live and die a staunch supporter of

your Faith, if you but use the gift of Fear
oj the Lord, which in common parlance is
LOVE!

Yes, you have used the gifts, but I am
anxious for a more constant and conscious

use of them; for then I know that you will
be better equipped to set the world on fire.

Such a use will insure a more rapid growth

and promote a faster and a fuller flowering;

and, you know, the gifts of the Holy Ghost

flower into the Fruits of the Holy Ghost—



24 You Can Set The World On Fire

those wondrous fruits of which St. Paul

speaks, and mere enumeration of which

makes one grasp and dream; for they con-

jure up the picture of perfection that every-

one desires. Who does not long for Charity,
Joy and Peace? who does not want Patience,
Benignity^ Goodness? who does not wish to
be known for Longanimity, Mildness and
Fidelity? and who would not give all to be
conspicuous because of Modesty, Continence

and Chastity? Those are the fruits we all
want and those are the fruits we all can
have IF . . IP we make constant and con-
scious use of the GIFTS!

This Is Preeminently Practical

I know that because of the muddle of our
modern world, the temptation will come to

you to say, “Who wants to be writing poetry
as Plunkett or making clever scriptural rep-

artee as More? We want something more
practical, something more pertinent to our-

selves and our times. All this talk about the

gifts and the fruits is very pretty, very pious,

but not too practical!” Unless human nature

has greatly changed since I left the world,

or the devil has taken a long holiday, that

temptation will come. But do not yield to

it, I beg you. Be deeper than the shallow

sophisticates of the day. I am not asking
you to write poetry or to quote scripture, I

am asking you to be happy; and that I con-
sider of preeminent practicality.

Practical? Is it not most practical to have

charity, peace and joy? Why, that is all the

hungry human heart seeks. It craves hap-

piness: a heart that is joy-filled and a mind

that is at peace. Men do not work for money,

nor women for a home; these are only means



You Can Set The World On Fire 25

to the one end: peace, charity, joy. Is it

not supremely practical to be patient, benign

and truly good? Why, every tear that has

stained a human face, and every ache that

has come to a human heart can be traced

to impatience, unkindness and evil. And
what could be more practical in our mad
Twentieth Century than the cultivation of

longanimity, mildness and fidelity? Oh, if

we only had more faithful men and women
and children! More individuals who knew,
appreciated and manifested Christian mild-

ness! What a different story historians,

both lay and ecclesiastical, would have to

tell of our day if every Catholic was con-

spicuous for his fortitude and longanimity!

And oh! what a different world we would
be living in if all possessed and practiced

modesty, continence and chastity! Practical?

Why, you will search the wide world over,

page through every book ever written, con-

sult every sage that is, was or will be, be-

fore you will find anything as preeminently

practical for self, society, domestic, conjugal,

civil and ecclesiastical, as the cultivation of

the fruits of the Holy Ghost!

I have named but twelve of the fruits for

you, the twelve of which Paul makes men-

tion. There are others; but why enumerate?
Why not sum them up in the one word that
they represent? Why not say that the con-
scious use of the gifts of the Holy Ghost

flowers into GODLINESS? And remember

—

Godliness is our only goal!

That shows you how practical is love for
the Spirit of Love. It is the answer to that

puzzling “Why?” of life. It is the only

answer to that still more puzzling “How?” of

living. You know that Omnipotence did not



26 You Can Set The World On Fire

fashion clay and breathe into it a breath di-

vine that you should sweat and strain a few

short years in this valley of tears and then

crumble into dust. No! God made you for
God. God made you to be godlike. Scripture
tells you this again and again, it says that

we are gods and the sons of the Most High.
Your own heart tells you so. Listen to it
sometime. Listen closely and its every beat

will tell you that there is only one thing that

you want in life, death, or after-life; and

that is—godliness.
Practical? Why, the purpose of Catholic

living is summed up by St. Paul in the
words, ‘‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Life on earth has no other purpose. We are
not here to become rich, famous, popular or

powerful. We are not here for a good time.
We are here only for a good eternity and
the only way to earn that is to FORM JESUS
CHRIST IN US!

Is that too big an order? — Yes, indeed!
That is an impossible order . . . without the

Holy Ghost. We are here to be “other
Christs.” That is what “Christian” means.

But no Christ, be He a physical, mystical or

religious replica, was ever formed except by

the Holy Ghost. He overshadowed the Vir-

gin and the Physical Christ came into being.

He overshadowed the disciples and the

Mystical Christ was born. Get Him to over-
shadow you and the Religious Christ will

be brought forth. Do it by a ceaseless cry of

“Veni, Sancte Spiritus!”

You Are a Magnificent Temple

Am I tangible enough in the portrayal of
what the Holy Ghost means to you? I have

not told you all. I have not told you half.



You Can Set The World On Fire 27

But I do hope that I have made a beginning.

God the Father was your Creator, God the

Son, your Redeemer, but God the Holy Ghost

is your Sanctifier; and that makes Him tre-
mendously important and devotion to Him of
paramount practicality. Can you keep from

loving Him as you think on all that He has
done, is doing, and will yet do for you, for

tiny you? Do you realize that He has made
you magnificant?

Do you ask, “How?’’
Let me show you.
Some months ago, my mother, brother and

sister visited me here at Gethsemani. Every
day they assisted at Mass in our abbatial

church, and as always happens, the sublime

simplicity of the Cistercian edifice whipped

them into exclamatory admiration. It is in-

evitable. For anyone with a soul and the

slightest sense of beauty must grow ex-

clamatory.

You stand at the back of a long narrow
nave and look up the dim reaches of the

vaulted ceiling, and you know a strange feel-
ing of far distances and comforting nearness.

The sculptured loveliness of the massive col-

umns with their figured capitals catch your
eye, and you see strength and grace that is

wedded to beauty. The spacious, stained-

glass windows enrapture you; for there in

the front is Mary with her Babe, and in-
stinctively you think of Alpha, the begin-

ning; turning, you see this window’s coun-

terpart, you see Mary’s Assumption, and you

can only think of Omega, the end. Round
the apse you read that story, ever old, ever

new, of Benedict, Robert and Bernard. When
you tear your eyes from the windows, the

gigantic cruciform of the entire structure en-



28 You Can Set The World On Fire

trances you, but your gaze is finally held and

riveted by the heart of the whole grand

edifice— the altar.
An artist dreamed a dream and some

sculptors framed that dream in the modified

Gothic glory that is a Cistercian Abbatial

Church. The sublimity and ethereal loveli-

ness of it all are really breath-taking. The

interlacing, interfolding, intertwining arches,

the farflung reaches of the ribbed and

vaulted ceiling, the stately grandeur of the

tapering, towering side-windows and the re-

velations and the raptures of the storied

stained-glass cause most to exclaim, “Great

God! How beautiful!”
My brother and sister actually grew elo-

quent on the occasion of their last visit and

terminated their remarks by saying, “That IS

simplicity that is sublime. That is modified

Gothic that merits the name of grandeur.

That is one church that can truly be called a

frozen prayer, a doxology in stone, a worthy

temple for the living God.” And they were
right.

But then came a quiet word from a lovely

little lady whose hair is snow—^my mother.
“Yes,” she said, “It is truly a magnificent

church; and yet, I saw more magnificent

temples of God; and I saw them today as I

knelt in that church of which you speak.

Some were old and bent with age, some were

only boys, and all were dressed in Trappist

brown. They are the living temples of the

living God! And the inspiration of inspira-
tions that I take with me as I leave Gethsem-
ani is the sight of your saintly lay Brothers,

shuffling in to High Mass in their robes of

patched and faded brown, after their morn-

ing’s work. These are the temples of God



You Can Set The World On Fire 29

that I admire, and I know that when the very

last stone of your Cistercian Gothic magnifi-

cence has crumbled into dust, your Cister-

cian lay Brothers will be living; living in the

presence of the Ever-living God, Whom in
life they templed.”

Wasn’t that a magnificent tribute? And
isn’t it true? Do you realize that every syl-

lable of it is applicable to you? Your body of

flesh and blood and bone, of sinew, muscle

and tendon, is the glorious temple of the

great High God. The Holy Ghost made it

so! How pure you should keep it; for tem-
ples polluted and ruined are heart-breaks to

the Triune God. Realize your dignity and

destiny. Every time you look at a church

remember that you are a living temple of the

Living God and say a heart-sincere, '‘Veni,

Sancte Spiritus,” for you must keep the

magnificence of your temple intact, and

“without Him you can do nothing.” Winds
will blow and rains will fall, storms there

will be aplenty, but you can weather them

all and live worthy of your Artist, your

Architect and your Sculptor by a constant

cry of “Come, Holy Ghost.”

You Are the Adopted of the Almighty

and the Heir to Omnipotence

Do you now feel equal to the task of
setting the world on fire? If not, then real-

ize this—^you are the adopted of the Al-
mighty and the heir to Omnipotence; God
the Holy Ghost made you so.
Those words are not new, are they? We

have heard them since childhood and they

stimulate us little. There is a reason for

their lifelessness; it is this—we have never



30 You Can Sef The World On Fire

grasped their full significance. Perhaps

Eileen and Marie will help us.

Some years ago I was confronted by a
very puzzling contrast. Eileen and Marie,

two sisters whom I had known since their
baby-days, called on me. One was in tears,

the other, alight with smiles; but you could

see that the tears rainbowed real joy and the

smiles cioaked an impatience that was almost

anger. Marie could only sob, ‘‘Oh, Father,

it’s awful ...” for Eileen would always
snap, “It is not. Father. It’s wonderful!”

Finally between such sobs and snaps, I got

the whole story. It was one with which T

had been acquainted for years, but which

the girls had just heard for the first time. It

was the story of their origin.

Eileen and Marie had been begotten by a

pair of criminals. Placed in an Orphan

home, they had the great good fortune to be

taken when they were still very tiny babes

by a childless couple who legally adopted
them and had them most carefully and

Catholicly trained. The woman whom they
had always called “Mother” had just fol-

lowed her husband to the grave, leaving the

two girls to learn from their lawyer that

they were the fairly wealthy heiresses to a

couple who had saved them from a sorry

lot: a life that most likely would have been

criminal and a death that most probably

would have been desperate.

The news of their origin had come as a

shock to the girls, leaving Marie in tears and

Eileen impatient with those tears. The con-

trast was very sharp, but when the story

came out, it ceased to be puzzling. Marie

was thinking of her real parents and could

not keep back the tears. Eileen was think-



You Can Set The World On Fire 31

ing of her adopted parents and could only

say, ‘‘Marie, you ought to be glad. Ma and
Pa took us from an awful life. They gave
a home, a name, an education. They made
us respectable, fitted us for life in every

way, and now have left us their all. I say
that is just too wonderful!”

I calmed them both that day by telling

them a fact, a fact which they had just re-

vealed to me, a fact which their situation had

made most tangible. I told them that I, too,
was an adopted child and the son of crim-

inals. This shocked them out of their shock

and .as they bent to listen, I told them a

truth that is true about YOU!
You are an adopted child and you are the

child of a pair of criminals. Yes, YOU!
Adam and Eve begot you, and Adam and Eve
were the world’s worst criminals, for when
time was most young, they broke the Law
of God. So you were brought forth to a life

that most certainly would have been crimi-

nal and to a death that, in very fact, would

have been desperate, had you not been

adopted through the Grace of the Holy Ghost,

given a name that is respected, an education
that fits you, not only for this life, but also

and most especially for the after life, and

made the very heir to Omnipotence. Yes,
YOU are a child of God and heir to Heaven,
but only because Grace is in your soul!

Weep, if you will, and as you should.

Weep, as did Marie, when you think of your
sinful origin. But then, like Eileen, see

how truly wonderful it all is, and thank the
Holy Ghost.

I will not amplify nor develop that truth.

The FACT is clear. I leave you to dwell
on, to dream over, it. YOU are the adopted



32 You Can Set The World On Fire

of the Almighty and the heir to Omnipot-

ence. For it all you must thank God the
Holy Ghost!

Your Candle Burns at Both Ends

Divine adoption is a breath-taking fact and

the deeper we penetrate it, the more wond-
rous it grows. Legal adoption is one thing,

but divine adoption quite another. Eileen and

Marie got a new name when they were
adopted, but they kept their old natures. That

truly Catholic and Christlike couple who
adopted them gave them a home, an educa-

tion, a social standing, shared with them the

family fortune and the family name, but,

loving and generous as they were, they could

not give the two girls their family blood.

There is the limitation which exists in legal

adoption but not in divine! You and I are

“children of God” not by any mere extrinsic

denomination or legal form; we are truly the
children of God not only by name but also by

NATURE!
Yes, that is the astounding thing that the

Holy Ghost has done to you and to me. He

has granted us not only a participation in

the divine name, but also a participation in

the divine nature; and this prodigious fact

almost paralyzes the intellect. You and I,

creatures of clay and spirit, entities of a few

hurried years, participate in the very nature

of the Uncreated, Eternal God. Now we are
at a height where senses and spirit reel,

where the atmosphere is almost too rarefied

to sustain life. Now we are at the heart of
the mystery of Grace. Yes, mystery it is,

and no man can fully explain it.
Theologians halt here, and can only stam-

mer and stutter. They fly to analogies and



You Can Set The World On Fire 33

tell you of ‘‘the thought in the thinker’' and

“the beloved in the loving one.” All of which

explains a presence very well, but hardly a

participation. How can we clarify or exem-
plify? I had almost despaired of a concre-

tion when I met with this happy accident:
I was in church. It was just before High

Mass. I was facing the altar when a sen-
tence from Father Leonard Feeney’s latest

book, “You’d Better Come Quietly,” leaped
into my mind. He says, “A mystery is not
something we can know nothing about; it is
simply something we cannot know every-
thing about.” And that sentence kept saying
to me that I should puzzle out this “partici-
pation” effect of Grace; then my eye was
caught by the sacristan, who approached the
altar and with a lighted taper, was touching

off a few candles. At once I knew I had
my concretion. There it was glowing be-
fore me. Now I had my apt illustration.
Now I had something really tangible and
true. The analogy seems perfect. It is A
LIGHTED CANDLE.
Flame has always fascinated me. It is so

tenuous and so tremendous; so frail, fragile

and yet so frightful. It is so entirely beauti-

ful that I can well understand the fatal fas-

cination it holds for the moth and his con-
tinual flirtation with it. Of all the non-living

things that are, it seems to me that flame
most nearly approaches the living. It almost

has an individuality. It bends and blows and

seems to breathe. It waves and weaves and

dances. It does seem to live, doesn’t it? For

life, you know, is action, and if anything can

be justly predicted about flame, it is con-

tinual action.

Do you begin to suspect my analogy?

—



34 You Can Set The World On Fire

What flame does to the candle, the Holy
Ghost does to your soul. Before the lighted

taper touched the candle’s tip, it was a
stately, tall, hut a cold, formal and dead

thing; just wax and a wick. But the mo-
ment the golden flame touched it, it was en-

tirely transformed! It took on life, a new
mode of being, it vibrated with activity and
radiated beauty. Flame had elevated it from

the state of mere wax and wick to that
tremulously lovely state of a lighted candle;

and oh! what a world of difference between

the two! It became a warm, glowing, gra-

cious and graceful thing. Why?—Because it
partook of the nature of the flame.

Study a lighted candle closely. See the

wax, the whiteness and the wick so partici-

pating in the nature of the flame as to be

entirely transformed. Look closely and you

will see that the candle has retained its in-

dividuality; you can see the wick and the

wax, but you will see that both partake of

the nature of the flame. They are both

transformed and become truly beautiful.

You, too, under grace are transformed; you

break into flame. You are elevated and take

on a new mode of being. You retain your
rationality, your animality, your individu-

ality; but at the top-most tip of your soul a

beautiful Flame is burning and that Light

renders you entirely changed. If you peer

closely, you will see that you participate in

the nature of that Flame. You see things

differently, feel things differently, desire

things differently, love all things differently,

because you have been made differently,

very different, from what you were, once

you have been touched off by the Flame of

the Holy Ghost, Your nature becomes super-



You Can Sef The World On Fire 35

nature, your human partakes of the divine.
I know that St. Thomas has used an

analogy closely akin to the above, when he
speaks of metal in a fire and partaking of the

nature of that fire. But I like the candle

better; very much better; for metal in a fire
is most passive, while in a lighted candle, I

see the height of activity. The wax and the
wick do something. They cooperate with

the flame. They make its glow bigger, bet-
ter, brighter and most steady. You, too,

must cooperate with the Flame of the Holy

Ghost. You can make it bigger, better,
brighter. You can make it eternally steady,

by sacrifice and service, by prayer and

penance, by the constant and conscious use

of the grace, the virtues and the gifts He
has given you. You can give body and soul
in such a way to the Holy Ghost that you
will be the wax and the wick for His Flame
of Life, Light and Love!

The analogy is good, very good. I like it

immensely. You have it in you to set the
world on fire, because you can become the

flaming candle for God the Holy Ghost.
All of which, because of those peculiar

laws of association of ideas, makes me think
of Thomas Butler Feeney, S.J., Father Leon-

ard’s younger brother. I think of the song

he often sang to me when life was younger.
Striking his zither and calling for a sweet

chord, he would sing:

“My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night.

But oh! my foes, and oh! my friends.
It gives a wondrous light.

It gives a wondrous light!”

Do you not see how you can sing that song,
and sing it of yourself, if you will but make



36 You Can Set The World On Fire

your life a life of service and sacrifice, a life

of penance and prayer? Do you not see that
by giving your body as the wax and your
soul as the wick, you can become the candle

of the Holy Ghost and can sing:

‘‘My candle burns at both ends:

It will not last the night.

But oh! my foes, and oh! my friends.
It gives a wondrous light.

It gives a wondrous light!”

There is your ideal! Partake of the nature

divine in such a way that you may burn on
and on, and finally burn out! Burn out for

God and you will be lighted again in a land

where candles always burn but are never

consumed! Yes, you can do it. But you

must take the necessary steps!

You Must Take the Steps

In my effort to incarnate the Holy Ghost
I have given you many pictures. All
are connected, however, all are progressive.

From the baby’s head, that was Grace, to

the lighted candle that is Godliness, there is

an absolute and essential interdependence. It

is not very difficult to remember the pictures:

a baby’s head, a woman’s eyes, the hands of

a man, the temple of God and the burning

candle; but to sum up and perhaps simplify,

I will say that if you want to set the world

on fire, you must first attain to Godliness

and to do that you MUST take the STEPS!
To reach God, as He rests in our tabernacle

here at Gethsemani, a priest has to tread on

four steps, each of which depends upon the

other; for our high altar is elevated. So, too,

you, if you would reach God, you must take

the necessary steps, each of which is inter-

dependent. The first step is Grace, sanctify-



You Can Sef The World On Fire 37

ing, elevating grace; the second is the virtues,

theological and moral; the third is the gifts,

all seven of them; the fourth is Actual Grace,

those impulses from on high that set all

things in motion. Use those steps and you

are at the altar of God— the fruits of the
Holy Ghost!

Walk those steps and you’ll set the world

on fire. Walk those steps steadily and you’ll

walk straight into Heaven and into the very

arms of God. And remember that it was God
the Holy Ghost who built those steps for you
and in you. Can you keep from loving Him?

Pit the ‘‘Red Mass’’ Against

the Red Masses

I have called upon you to set the world on

fire, and I gave you my reason; namely, be-
cause it is already ablaze. I have shown you

that you CAN do it, for within you, you have
the Fire and the Flame. Throughout I have

aimed at tangibility and I will not cease now
that I am at the end. I show HOW to set the
world on fire as I point to the “Red Mass.”

There is a theory in phonetics, according to

whichj no sound, once made, ever completely

ceases. Now what in the physical order is
only theory, in the spiritual order is sternest

fact. No soimd ever made in the realm of
the spirit ceases!

Seven hundred years ago, the judges and

justices of France, realizing their utter in-

ability to carry out their divinely appointed

task, knelt with bowed heads and burning

hearts at the first “Red Mass” and prayed

for rain. These men knew their spiritual
phonetics and this was their method of
catching an echo of the roar of wind and the



36 You Can Set The World On Fire

rain of flame that fell one Pentecost in

Palestine, just twelve hundred years before.

When Louis IX, their saintly king, heard
of their action, he not only sanctioned the

“Red Mass” but he set aside La Sainte

Chapelle for its annual celebration. Then

was seen a glorious sight: God’s anointed

priest was in vestments red; God’s anointed

King was radiant in his royal robes, all red;

God’s appointed justices were brilliant in the

crimson cloaks of their office. And priest,
prince and people prayed for rain, the Pente-

costal rain of fire, so that France might have

the Fire of Life and Light and Love.

That sound never died. Across the snow-

covered Alps, Italy caught it up as did Eng-

land by the ever-moving sea. No, indeed!

that sound never died; for though seven hun-

dred years have rolled away and four thou-

sand miles of watery space intervene. New
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on our
eastern coast, Illinois in our mid-west, and

California on our Pacific slope ring with its

echo, as every year judges, justices and

lawyers kneel at the “Red Mass,” the Mass

of the Holy Ghost, and pray for rain.

Five of our states have it. Forty-four

others need it! Across the water Italy,

France and England echo and reecho with

their annual “Red Mass.” But so should Ire-

land and Scotland, so should Denmark and

Sweden, so should Russia, Germany, Portu-

gal and Spain. So should the whole wide

world; for the whole wide world needs the

“Red Mass”—it is the ONLY antidote to the
red masses!



You Can Set The World On Rre 39

Set the World on Fire by

Praying for Rain!

Communism can be conquered only by Ca-
tholicism. Fire is best combated by fire, and

Communism’s fierce fires of hate can be put

out only by lighting the fiercer fires of love.

Atheism can be killed only by the Spirit of

Truth.

Our bewildered world needs God the Holy
Ghost to “convince it of sin, of justice, and

of judgment!” And YOU can bring Him
down in a roar of wind and a rain of flame

if you will often assist at the “Red Mass”

and pray for rain—^the Pentecostal rain of
fire—^that we may have Life and Light and
Love.

You CAN do it. You can set the world on
fire if you will only pray for rain! You can
revolutionize our mad, modern, chaotic so-

ciety by a constant cry of

“Veni! Veni! Veni Creator Spiritus.

Mentes tuorum visita!

Imple! Imple superna gratia

Quae Tu creasti— pectora!”
“Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest.

And in our hearts take up Thy rest.
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
To fill the hearts which Thou has made!”

YOU can do IT! You can make every Mass
a “Red Mass” and every day a Pentecost, if

you will really think of the vital needs of

God, self and society. Christ said, “I am
come to cast fire on the earth; and what will

I but that it be kindled.” YOU can help
Jesus Christ kindle that fire! He also said,
“I am come that they may have life and have
it more abundantly.” He meant the life of
grace, the superlife, the life that leads to



40 You Can Set The World On Fire

glory and to God. That life is only lit by

the flaming fire of the Holy Ghost. YOU
can kindle it! Yes, YOU CAN DO IT! YOU
can set the whole world on fire and thus

save it from destruction, if you will only

pray God the Holy Ghost for a ceaseless

rain!

Octave of St. John the Baptist

Nineteen Hundred and Forty

Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani

Trappist, P. O., Kentucky



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