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TRAPPIST

ASKS

Do You

Want

Jjfe and Jj)ve

?



lINIVEai5ITYcff

UBRARIES

Yale University Archives



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016

https://archive.org/details/doyouwantlifelovOOmray





A

TRAPPIST

ASKS

Do You

Want

cQife and Jjove

?



NIHIL OBSTAT:

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

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

Censores

IMPEIMI POTEST:

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

Abbaa B.M. de Gethsemani

NIHIL OBSTAT:

Msgr. Henry F. Dugan, J.C.D.

Censor Deputatus

die 8a Julii, 1941.

IMPEIMATUR:

fi Joseph E. Eitter, D.D.

Episcopus Indianapolitanus

die 9a Julii, 1941.

Copyright 1941

ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI, INC.

(Third Printing
y
1946)

D69(^^@d



TO

FATHER M. MAURICE, O.C.S.O.

of the Priory of

OUR LADY OF THE VALLEY

who as

‘^CENSOR DEPUTATUS^’

has always been a

MOST GENEROUS BROTHERLY

COLLABORATOR.

*^Quam honum et quam jucundum. .

‘*A brother helped by a brother,

,



4 Do You Want Life and Love?

FOKEWARNING

Herein you will find medicine that is needed,

but medicine that is not easy to take. The

pills are not sugar-coated, nor are the bitter

draughts disguised. But if this medicine is

taken the individual will profit, both as an in-

dividual and as a member of the great Mystical

Body of Christ.

The prescription has been written for all

Catholics but especially for those who are in

the maelstrom of modern worldiness and are

caught in the vortex because they are too

close to the whirlpool and not close enough to

Christ.

It is an earnest effort to make clear in a sim-

ple and reasonable way the need you have of

Christ in the Eucharist in your daily life as an

antidote to the paganizing influences all

around you. It is planned to build up a

healthy spiritual resistance to such and to

enable you to live the robust Catholic life our

Faith calls for.

Again I say it is strong medicine and bitter,

too; but if you take it, it will make you well!

Try it!

Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani

Feast of Our Lady^s Visitation

July 2, 19A1



Do You Want Life and Love? 5

Da You Want Life and Love?

If SO, be true to yourself! Know what you
are, why you are, and where you are going.

Then make proper use of those means which

will enable you to arrive at your real destina-

tion.

If you want life, beware of imitations. If

you want love, avoid love's base counterfeits.

But to do either, you must first know yourself.

What are you?—Merely a human being?

—

Never! Your origin was not merely human

and your destiny is something divine. From

human parents came your body, but your soul

is a breath of God. And once you were bap-

tized you were incorporated in Jesus Christ,

the God-Man. You are an inhabitant of earth,

it is true, but your real home is heaven. That

is why one may call you a being who is *‘hu-
man and divine,” and say that if you would
be perfectly natural, you must be supernatural,

and if you would be true to your complete self,

you mst be more than human, you must be

partly divine.

Do you see what that means?—It means that
most people's concept of life is inadequate and

their notions of love untrue. It means that if

you want to live you must feed yourself with

Food Divine, and if you want real love you

must lay hold of grace and open your arms to

God. But to do either, you must beware of

imitations and

Avoid The Common Catholic Heresy

‘‘What is that?'' you ask.

Just this: that EELIGION is only an ap-
pendage to life, a mere plus to life's other

activities.



e Do You Want Life and Love?

That is the ‘heresy’ that many practicing
Catholics are actually living, although they

would never acquiesce to its bald statement.

Ask them, however, who are the successful

Catholics and you will listen to a litany of

governors, senators and mayors, of doctors,

lawyers and judges, of succesful writers,

speakers and radio-artists who were baptized

in the Catholic Church. These people think

that success is measured by the material; and

that Catholic success consists in money, fame,

power or position plus religion. That is what

I call ‘heresy.’

Why, you will even hear some who hold high

office in our educational institutions speak of

the successful Catholic school as the one that

teaches “all that the secular institutions of

learning teach plus religionJ^ And that is rank

heresy

!

You see the type of mind these people have,

and you recognize their eror. Avoid it by

realizing that Religion is NOT a mere appen-
dage to life. IT IS life! And he alone is real-

ly alive who is living religiously. He alone

has true love who is clinging to God. You can

be the same and you can have the same if you

will always

Look Fot The Genuine

It is not just life that you want. No. You

want success in life. And that is perfectly

licit and laudable. But to attain to real suc-

cess you will have to be absolutely orthodox.

Do you know what that means?—It means
avoid the common Catholic heresy alluded to

above. It also means that you will have to

change your idea of success.



Do You Want Life and Love? 7

Here comes some strong pabulum now, and

it will call for hard swallowing; but I trust

that you want life and love, and I know that

there is only one way to both. It is by looking

for the genuine!

Tell me, whom do you call a success in life?

Is it not the captain of industry, the master

of men, the individual who has fought his way

to the top? Certainly. But what of the cap-

tain of his soul, the master of himself? What

of him who has done fierce battle with pride,

covetousness and lust, with anger, envy, glut-

tony and sloth? What of him who has fought

his sinful self down to the very abyss of self-

annihilation. Why, in the hurly-burly of your

mad, materialistic, modern world you hardly

notice such. A John D. Rockefeller, an An-
drew Carnegie and a J. Pierpont Morgan you

understand, and with such feel some sort of

kinship. Why, you even understand the vault-

ing ambition of a Stalin, a Mussolini and a

Hitler. But a Cure of Ars, a Little Flower, a

Benedict Joseph Labre—these are beyond your
ken. Why?—Because you have not been look-
ing for the genuine and the true!

Come now, and tell me honestly, who was
the real success in life—^was it Benedict Joseph
Labre, that vermin-ridden vagabond who

spent his years as an unclean beggar shuttling

between the shrines of France and Rome, but

who died a saint, or the fastidious dandy of
the same day and age who won the respect and
subservience of his cringing contemporaries

because of his fame, position or wealth, but

who to-day is “unwept, unhonored and un-

sung” ? Who was the real success in life—^that
little French girl who buried herself alive in a
convent of Carmelite nuns so as to be nearer

and nearer to God, and who to-day is loved

by millions who call her “The Little Flower,”



8 Do You Want Life and Love?

or the beauty of the same day and age who

captured the eyes, the minds and the desires

of men, but who is now not even a memory?

Or strike a more startling contrast by asking:

Who was the real success in life—Herod Anti-
pas, Pontius Pilate or the Man who died as a
criminal on Golgotha’s hill with the mocking

inscription over His head, ‘‘Jesus of Nazareth,

King of the Jews”?

You know the answer. And you know who

had the genuine and who the mere imitation.

Now ask yourself which of the contrasted par-
ties made Religion their lives, and which made

it some sort of an appendage. Which of them

gave God a chance? Certainly not Pilate who

sneeringly said, “What is truth?” Certainly

not Herod who robed the Son of God as a fool.

But most assuredly He who said to God, “Not

my will, but Thine be done,” even though that
resignation bathed His Body in the crimson

dye of His own Blood and nailed Him to the

Cross.

Do you begin to recognize real success? It

is found in doing the Will of God. And what

is the Will of God in your regard? St. Paul

tells us plainly. He says, “This is the Will of

God—, your sanctification.” Holiness! Sanc-
tification! That is life! That means love!

That also means that you and I must be like

the babe in

The Modern Madonna

Some two months ago, my little sister, (I call
her ‘little’ since she is my junior) made me an
uncle for the second time. A short while ago
she sent me a picture which I title “The Modern

Madonna.” In it my sister is mother, and my
nephew is child. This Twentieth Century



Do You Want Life and Love? 9

masterpiece differs from those of the earlier

centuries in accidentals only, the coiffure and

the dress are changed; but all else, all the

essentials, the high lights, the love lights,

are the same as in a Raphael, a Dolci or a

Bellini. And therein is our lesson. ... If you

want life and love, cling to the Source of your

life and love! My little nephew, by an instinct
which is the law of his being, is clinging to the

source of his life. He wants life and love, and

his instinct tells him where to get both; so he

clings to his mother.

Learn that lesson and you have learned

wisdom from one who is as yet unwise, and

how to be rational from one who is as ycit only

potentially so. The lesson is obvious: If you

would become all that God intended you to be,

if you would have life and success in life, if

you would have love and not lovers base coun-

terfeit, you will enter into a union with God

as intimate and as vital as that which exists

between a mother and the babe in her womb;

in very brief, you will cling to Jesus Christ

in Holy Communion ! He is your only hope for

success, your only means to sanctification, your

one way to true life and real love. Cling to
Him and

stop Puzzling Heaven

As the Seraphim look down on earth to-day,

puzzlement fills their eyes. Not because of the

wholesale murder that goes on in Europe; not

because of the ceaseless, heartless, relentless

struggle between man and man in the economic
and political world; no, nor even because of

the awful slaughtering that takes place on the

very foundation stone of civilization—the
union of husband and wife. These things

grieve but they do not puzzle the Seraphim,



10 Do You Want Life and Love?

for they have intellects that pierce to the very

heart of things. They know that the greatest

sin of society is not the sin of the flesh, not the

sin of man against man, or of man against
woman, or even of man and woman against
mankind. These sins cry to Heaven for ven-

geance, it is true; but the sin that is at the

root of all these, the sin of all sins is the neg-

lect of God hy man!

That is the sin that puzzles Heaven. And I

dare say that that is the root cause of all other

sin. And understand me! I am not talking
about Atheists, Agnostics or gross Material-

ists
;

I am not talking about Bolshevists,
Nazis or Fascists; I am talking about
Catholics! You are the ones who puzzle Heav-

en. Angels can understand the totalitarians.

Germans, Russians and Italians are no enigma

to Seraphim. No. They are only people fol-

lowing a right impulse in the wrong direction.

But the Seraphim cannot understand Catholics

who are not totalitarian Catholics. Seraphim

cannot understand divine-human beings, who

have been vivified by a divine Blood trans-

fusion called Baptism, and saved again and

again by another divine Blood transfusion

called Penance, neglecting the only Food

and Drink that will sustain their Catholic

lives. Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones,

Dominations, Virtues and Powers, Principali-

ties, Archangels and Angels are bewildered by

your neglect of Jesus Christ in the Blessed

Sacrament of the Altar. Can you blame them?

Look! They saw their leader, Lucifer, sin

just once. They saw many of their fellow

angels follow him in that one sin. And they

saw them all hurled from the threshold of

Heaven into the deepest pits of Hell. It was a

lightning stroke. It almost blinded them; but



Do You Want Life and Love? 11

they saw in it the Justice of God, and adored

Him for it.

They saw our leaders, Adam and Eve, sin;
and they looked for the thunderbolt of Justice

to flash again and blast these two first human

beings into Hell. It would have been divine

Justice in operation again, and they could have

adored God for it. But instead, they heard the

condemnation of the serpent, the banishment

of the man and woman, and the promise of a
Redeemer. When they caught their angelic
breaths and recognized this marvel of divine

Mercy, they rejoiced.

Centuries then fled to the night when a

whole host of them left Heaven to brighten

the fields outside Bethlehem with their splen-

dor and set the night air ringing with ‘‘Gloria

in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus

bonae voluntatis^^
;
for a Babe was born who

was Christ the Lord. If Angels could envy,

they would have envied the human race that

night; for God had caught it up and pressed

it to His Heart as never Angels had been

pressed. More ! God had entered into so close

a union with humanity that the actions of this

tiny human Babe would be the actions of God.

The Angels understood the reaction of the

shepherds that night; for they went over to

Bethlehem to see these things which had come

to pass. But from that night to this, mankind

has puzzled Heaven. Angels frown as they see

man’s lack of appreciation of the closeness of

God, and a light of bewilderment fills their

eyes as they watch men

Spurning The Divine Beggar

Heaven saw all that happened in Judea

those three and thirty years. Angels welcomed



12 Do You Want Life and Love?

an army of little babes ‘‘two years of age and

under^’ to their midst, babes who had been

slaughtered because the Divine Babe had been

born. And from that moment Angels knew

that men were mad. Angels saw the God of

life and love become a beggar for life and love.

They saw Him beg for a virgin womb in which

to be conceived; and Gabriel trembled as Mary

asked, “How can this be?” They saw Him beg

for a place in which to be born; and their

hearts failed them at Bethlehem’s closing

of doors. They saw Him beg for a place

in which to live; and it was one of their

number who in anxious fright awakened

Joseph and said, “Fly into Egypt.” Then came

the years at Nazareth, years of begging to be

unknown, years that had only one break in

them, and that a heart-break for Mary and

Joseph, when a Boy of twelve astounded the

Doctors in the Temple. It was His first beg-

ging to be heard, and as far as we can gather,

Angels had reason to be puzzled at the obtuse-

ness of learned men. Nazareth was followed

by three years of intense begging. He wanted

to be listened to and recognized. He wanted

men to know that He was the Son of God, thei r
Messias; so He begged with that divine beg-

gary of miracles, pleading with men to ac-

knowledge their Redeemer; and Angels wept

at the result ! One of their number winged his

way to Gethsemane to comfort the Divine
Beggar who was in a sweat of Blood begging

the father to “let the chalice pass.” Even

that begging failed; and the whole host of

Heaven hid behind their wings as man in his
madness crucifed God.

Down through twenty centuries of time those
three and thirty years have had their counter-

part as man has turned a deaf ear to the God
who begs for his love. No wonder Angels



Do You Want Life and Love? 13

frown. Jesus Christ so loved man that He died

for him; and ‘‘greater love than this no man

has!” Ah, but Jesus Christ is God and He has

a greater love for man than man’s love. He

gave man’s proof of love by dying; He gives

God’s proof by living. Jesus Christ died; He

arose from the dead; He ascended into Heav-

en; and yet, He would not leave the earth!

No. He loves man too much! He must be

near man. That is love’s way. Nearness is

not enough; love craves union! So Jesus

Christ became Food and Drink that He might

live in man and man might live in Him. The

Divine Beggar has beggared Himself. More

He cannot do. Omnipotence is important. In-

finity has found a term. Inexhaustible Love

is exhausted.

Christmas night rocked Heaven. Angels

were aghast at the Incarnation. But Holy

Thursday night struck them dumb. That God

should become a Babe in swaddling clothes

was cause for overwhelming surprise; but

that God should bury Himself in Bread and

become the very Food of man dazzled and
stupefied the nine choirs of Heaven’s court.

And yet, great as was God’s action, they were

not completely bewildered by it. No! It took

man’s reaction to do that! Heaven was not

completely bewildered until it saw man’s cold-

ness to God’s condescension.

Bethlehem closed doors—^but Bethlehem did
not really know who Joseph was or whom
Mary tabernacled. Eoman soldiers scourged
Christ and hammered Him to a Cross while
High priests howled and frenzied Jews mocked;
—^but none of these fully understood what they
did or who He was. But you !—you have made
profession after profession of your belief.

You say that you know that God is on your
altars; that He is there with His Body and



14 Do You Want Life and Love?

His Blood, His soul and divinity under the

guise of Bread and the appearances of Wine.

You proclaim to believe that God is Em-

manuel—God with us—and yet, you leave Him
alone! No wonder Seraphim frown and choir
after choir says, ‘‘Man-hu”—What is this?
They expect Christians to be paradoxical;

for Christ was such. But they do not under-

stand Catholics who are contradictory! They

do not understand men and women and even
growing children who say that they want life

and love, and then deliberately neglect the only

Food and Drink that will give them life and

love, preserve them in life and love, and aug-

ment their lives and their loves! Heaven can-

not understand your neglect of Christ in the

Holy Eucharist, Can you?

Aren’t We The Wise Fools

We gather information on a multiplicity of
subjects, become experts in countless lines of

endeavor, and neglect the one thing necessary

—the life of the soul!
Moderns who can tell the biological func-

tion of almost every corpuscle in the body, are

so learnedly ignorant that some of them deny

the existence of their own soul. Indeed Puck

was right! ‘‘What fools these mortals be!”

But if Puck knew modem Catholics and their
neglect of the Eucharist he would say, “What

mighty fools these Catholic immortals be!”

Why?—Because you are neglecting the only
means you have to immortality. Jesus Christ

has said, “I am the living Bread ... if any man

eat of this Bread, he shall live forever ... he

that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood
hath life everlasting,^^ You believe Him, don’t

you? He also said, “Amen, amen I say unto



Do You Want Life and Love? 15

you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son

of Man and drink His Blood you shall not have

life in you^—In the face of these quotations
what do you say to my original question? In
the face of these two solemn assertions of the

Son of God what do you reply as I ask: Do
you want life and love? Behind the white

veils of the Eucharist is Life! Behind those

white veils is Love! Do you want either?

—

Then why not approach those white veils more

often?

If a babe fed at its mother's breast only once

a year, once a month, or even once a week,

would it have life? If roses stretched out

leafy arms to the sun only once a year, once a

month or even once a week, would they grow?

If unfledged robins opened wide their baby

beaks only once a year, once a month or even

once a week, what would happen? Isn't the

analogy plain to you? If you are going to

feed on the Body of God only once a year or

once a month, if you are going to drink His

Blood only once a year or once a month, if you

are going to establish intimate contact with

your sole source of life only once a year or

once a month, can you expect to be otherwise

than half dead? Do not wonder at the anemia

so prevalent in Catholic ranks. Do not marvel

at the low-vitality in Catholic Action. Under-

nourished people will always suffer from in-

anition ! Marvel rather at the infinite patience

and the almighty mercy of God! Sacred his-

tory repeats itself: ‘‘He comes unto His own

and His own receive Him not!"

My heart bleeds for what you are doing to
God, but it bleeds more profusely for what

you are doing to yourself

—



16 Do You Want Life arid Love?

You Are Neglecting Yourself

When you find yourself physically run down,
you consult a doctor; and he prescribes some-

thing to tone you up. Usually he will have

you take the tonic three times a day saying,

“your system needs it.” Why not be equally
prudent regarding your soul? I think that it

is at least of equal importance ! Why not fol-
low the prescription given by the Divine Phy-

sician? It was written for you, “Come to Me
all you who labor and are burdened, and I will

refresh you.” That is what you need—refresh-
ment ! a general toning up of your souks

system ! a complete renovation obtained by

Food, Drink and Rest.

Father LeBuffe, S.J. in one of the series of

his priceless little books, “My Changeless
Friend,” tells of a person who said, “No, don’t

oall a doctor; I’m too sick. Doctors don’t want

to see really sick people; and I am really
sick.” Of course we consider such a man as
mad; and yet, does not that express our atti-

tude toward the Divine Doctor of our souls?

Do we not seem to say: “No, I won’t go to

the Divine Physician. My soul is too sick”

—

or what is much worse
—“My soul is in good

health.” The sicker I am the more I need
His healing. The fouler I am the more I need
His cleanliness. The weaker I am the more I
need His strength. The more cowardly I am
the more I need His bravery. The more im-

pure I am the more I need His spotless inno-
cence. Why is it that we forget His own
words? He said: “I have come to call not

the just but sinners.” Why do we fail to heed
His invitation? He said: “Come to Me.”

It is those who are ill that need the Physi-

cian; and you and I, because of the world,

our own flesh and the devil, are in constant



Do You Want Life and Love? 17

danger of contracting a deadly disease and

falling into a mortal sickness. Father LeBuffe

would not have to fictionize about soul-sick-:

ness if he knew us. In writing, ‘‘No, don't call

the doctor; I'm too sick," he has touched us

off to the life!

We know that we came from God, and we
know that we have to go back to God. That is

life's cycle, and no matter how few one's years

may be, that is a mighty journey for every

soul. Speculatively, you admit this. But then

you go out and act as if it were only idle specu-

lation. Of what a neglect of self you are

guilty no matter how great your selfishness!

You need food for your journey! You need

“Viaticum," and God has become just that—our
journey's Food, our Viaticum. And we? We
go hungry, then wonder why we faint on the

way.

Have you ever read the Third Book of

Kings? If not, read it today. Read the seventh

verse of the nineteenth chapter. It tells of

Elias and how “the angel of the Lord came

and touched him and said: Arise, and eat;

for thou hast yet a long way to go. And he
arose and ate, and drank, and walked in the

strength of that food .... unto the mount of

God. . ." When you have read, lay the lesson
to your heart. Take those words as spoken

to yourself, for you have yet a great way to

go. Indeed you have! You have to go to the

grave, then cross the great divide, then on

and up to the Throne of God, and finally, down

the infinite stretch of eternity. So, arise and

eat! Arise early in the morning and eat and

drink the Bread and the Wine that God has

provided for your journey. Take your Via-

ticum, and I promise that in the strength of

that Food you shall walk unto the Mountain

of God ! Don't neglect yourself any longer. It



18 Do You Want Life and Love?

may prove fatal. Eemember that God is your
Emmanuel not so much to be adored as to be

eaten! He is your Viaticum, your journey’s

Food. So, ARISE AND EAT, then you will be

Able To Do Battle

Life is a journey; that, no one can doubt.

But it is a journey taken through an enemy’s

country; and that is why holy Job could say:

"The life of man upon earth is a warfare.”

For the most part it is guerrilla warfare, and

the relentlessness of the struggle coupled with

the isolation of our combat positions tends to

make even the bravest of us falter. To fight

shoulder to shoulder with men of bone and

muscle is comparatively easy; to go "over the

tbp” with the rest of the company or to charge

the enemy stronghold with the rest of the bat-

talion is not so terribly difficult; but to fight

on alone ! to battle day in and day out with

Hell’s uncanny enemy; to have to walk steadi-

ly onward, expecting every thicket to be an

ambuscade and every turn in the road, an

enemy trap; and to do all this alone—that
calls for stamina that is superhuman. And
yiet, that is life! It cannot be done alone! No.

It can only be done successfully by walking

•shoulder to shoulder with the All-conquering

Christ.

Face the facts. The world is massed against

you. They tell me that the combined forces of
fashion and mass production have set up a

dictatorial tyranny regarding dress that has

robbed the world of decency, womanhood of

modesty and youth of its sense of shame
;
that

the blatant vulgarity of prurient advertising

militates against anything like a chaste mind,

a pure imagination and a clean heart; while

the profitable pandering to what is low in



Do You Want Life and Love? 19

recreation and reading promises to despoil our

entire country of the very idea of personal

purity. It is a day of naked bodies and naked

souls! How can you keep the Catholic ideal of
spotlessness before you when highways are bill-

posted and street cars are placarded with in-

citements to sin? How can you do it when
over the air, from the stage and on the screen

comes smut? How can you do it when your
smart newspaper columnists and your feature

writers for magazines give you sophisticated,

foul suggestiveness? How can you do it when
your bathing beaches, your board-walks and

even your Main Streets have become show-

places for indecency, along which there is a

constant parade that is an open invitation for

you to be impure. How can you be clean of
heart in the midst of this merciless and unre-

lenting attack? From what I hear one might

well suspect that a conspiracy against chastity

has been hatched in which all the cunning of

Hell and all the lasciviousness of earth have

joined hands to drive the very idea of personal

cleanliness and public decency from the uni-

verse, and that our present generation is see-

ing its most concerted and concentrated bar-

rage. Let me tell you that you will not be, for
you cannot be, clean in this your day unless. . .

unless, I say, you eat the Bread that makes

strong and drink the Wine that germinates

virgins, and do it frequently!

Paganism, with all its immodesty, indecency

and impurity is all around you; and the only

One who has ever combated and conquered

Paganism is the Man who one night ‘‘took
bread and blessed and broke and gave to His

disciples and said: Take ye and eat. This is

My Body. And taking the chalice. He gave
thanks and gave to them saying: Drink ye

all of this. For this is My Blood.” It is the



20 Do You Want Life and Love?

same Jesus who opened His Public Life by

saying: ‘‘Blessed are the clean of heart, for

they shall see God.” At the close of His

Public Life He gave you and me the means!

Do you want to be blessed? Do you want to

be clean of heart? Do you want to see God?

—

Then, “take and eat!” and “‘drink ye all of

this!”

Do be good to yourself ! Eemember that dur-

ing His life on earth the healing touch of His

Body gave the rapture and revelation of sun-

light to those who had become blind or were

born so;—and let me tell you that there is
such a thing as soul blindness! Remember that

the touch of His Body opened the wondrous

world of melody to ears that had never heard;

—and souls can become deaf! Remember that
it was the touch of His Body that gave sound-

ness of limb to the lame and set the feet of

the halt dancing;—many a soul has become
crippled! Never forget that it was the touch

of that same Body that struck off the scales

from hideous leprous flesh and brought back

again the ruddy glow of health to those who

had to go through life calling out “Unclean!

Unclean!”—and the world is full of spiritual
lepers! Never forget that it was the touch

of His hand and the call of His voice that lift-

ed the son of the widow of Naim from his

bier, the daughter of Jairus from her couch of

death and brought Lazarus stumbling forth

from his tomb;—humanity is replete with
weeping widows, grieving parents, and sisters

who sob: “Hadst Thou been here. . . .” In-

deed humanity needs that life-giving Human-

ity of Christ! And humanity has It in the

Eucharist. So, be good to yourself! If you

want life—take Him! If you want health

—

touch Him! If you want happiness, holiness,

real love—they are yours! Jesus Christ, the



Do You Want Life and Love? 21

Wonder-worker of Galilee, the world’s greatest

Miracle-Man, Jesus Christ, your God, can be

touched daily. And the point is that His

Humanity, now glorified, has lost some of its

power to transform! If you want real life

and love, prove it. . .

Be A Practical Catholic

The Church is crowded with speculative

Catholics, those who gave an intellectual assent

to all the truths of our religion ; but the

Church is not crowded with practical Catholics.

The truths of our Faith call for more than

intellectual acceptance; they demand external

execution. They are dynamic entities, not

static facts. They call for energy and action

even more than assent. Most of us knoiv the

mysteries of our religion; but few of us live

them. If we did, they would exercise a domi-

nant influence on our whole make-up
;
we

would feel them penetrate, rule and regulate

the whole realm of our judgments, decisions,

acts and desires; if we did, we would soon

cease to be anemic Christians and become red-

blooded, full-blooded, fiery-blooded Catholics;

we would cease to look at everything from a

purely egoistic and earthly viewpoint and be-

gin to view them from an eminence, looking on

all things in their relation to our attainment of

God. If we lived our religion, our lives would

be religious; that is, we would be God-con-

scious, God-centered, God-absorbed souls
;
we

would be men and women bound by the indis-
soluble bonds of religion to the Infinite One;

we would be lovers hurrying back to the Be-

loved !

Let us be brutally honest with ourselves. Do

not most of us look upon Heaven as something

to be accorded us if we ascent to certain



22 Do You Want Life and Love?

propositions and perform certain definite acts

of religion at definite times and periods? Do

not most of us feel that we have discharged

our duty toward our Religion when we say our

prayers, go to Mass on Sunday and perform

our Easter duty? Have we not made some sort

of a queer distinction between The Church

and God, between our religious duties and the

homage we Qwe the Deity? To be harshly bald

about it all, do we not think of Heaven as

something we can snatch if we manage to re-

ceive the Sacraments in the proper dispositions

just before we breathe our last

Of course, we are orthodox in such a belief;

and yet, it is a way of looking at things that is

perilously close to being false. The Good Thief

is not our model. Jesus Christ is! God meant

us to purchase eternal life by LIVING in a
certain manner, rather than by DYING in a
certain manner. His Church is not so much

a Bona Mors Society as it is a Bona Vita!

Calvary is the focal point of our Religion, but

let it be remembered that of the three crosses

on Calvary, only one is a model death-bed—the
one in the center! For that was a consumma-

tion of a good life.

St. Bernard has a very apt remark about the

Good Thief. He says ‘‘there was one—lest we
despair; there was only one—lest we pre-
sume.” But apart from that, let us be prac-

tical. We were bom to praise, reverence and
serve God from the dawn of reason, not to

acknowledge Him only with our last breath.
We were made to the image and likeness of
God, but Original Sin defaced that marvel,

making our lifers work a work at restoring the

Original, repairng the ruined Masterpiece,

bringing out every line and subtle shadow of

this work of Omnipotence in all its beautiful

relief.



Do You Want Life and Love? 2'3

All of which is but another way of saying

what the Catechism says to the basic questions

of life: Whence? Why? and Whither? We
learned the answers long ago. We have not
lived them. If we had, no one need tell us that

there is only one success in life, and that, sanc-

tity; no one need tell us that there is only

one means to that success, viz., giving God a

chance; no one need plead with us to be good

to ourselves. If we had lived those answers,

no one need tell us that as roses come from

roses and robins from robins, so sanctity can

only come from Him who is substantial Sanc-
tity—God; no one need tell us that God is an
engraver who uses His Sacraments as tools

with which to retrace His image on our souls,

or if it be already there, to cut its lines more

deeply and more clearly. If we had lived those

answers, no one need cry: why are you so ill

at ease? why are you unsatisfied with life?
why do you fear death?

Is not the one answer to all these pointed

questions—Because we have not stayed close
to God?

Ah, there is a terrible logic to Catholic liv-

ing; a logic of sweet fierceness and kindly

severity. It is the terrible logic of holy living!

It is violent, inexorable, unbending. It knows

that not those who say ‘‘Lord, Lord’’ will enter

the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who

“do the Will of My Father who is in Heaven.”
It knows that victory is only to the brave, and

the bravest are those who know themselves to

be cowards and so put their hand into the out-

stretched hand of the All-conquering Christ

and with Him march on to triumph. It is a
logic that knows that “the Kingdom of Heaven

suffereth violence, and only the violent bear

it away.”



24 Do You Want Life and Love?

That is the logic that must be lived. Life

comes only from the living; and Jesus Christ

is deathless! Love comes only from the lov-

ing; and Jesus Christ had His Heart spear-

driven that you might find a way therein.

Bread is the staff of life and ‘‘wine rejoices the

heart of man,” hence, bread and wine are tran-

substantiated “from the rising of the sun to

the going down thereof,” that you might have

life and love.

Did it ever strike you that your one work in

life is to be transubstantiated? It is literally

true! Just as, by the words of consecration,

bread and wine are changed into the Body and

Blood of Christ, so that only the appearances

remain, so to your life, your soul, your self,

your very being is to be transubstantiated. If

you are a practical Catholic your life is a con-

tinual act of consecration
;
you are always

saying “This is my body, this is my blood.
Take it, God, and all that goes with it. Take

it, for it is wholly yours. Take it, and tran-

substantiate me! Transubstantiate me so that,
like the bread and wine, nothing may remain
but the appearances. Let the accidents be

—

my name, my appearance, my specific role in
life—let these remain; but the substance

—

change ! and change completely. Transform

and so completely transubstantiate me that I
will be no longer mine but thine; that I may
no longer live unto myself, but unto Thee;

that I may become another thank-offering to
God the Father, another Eucharistic victim to

bring life and love, real life and love, to the

world!”

That is being a practical Catholic. And that
these words of dedication and consecration be

not idle words, the practical Catholic goes to

the great High-priest, the only One who can,

by His own power, transubstantiate. The prac-



Do Yon Want Life and Love? 25

tical Catholic goes to Communion wherein a

Food is given which, instead of being assimi-

lated, assimilates ; instead of being trans-

formed, transforms; instead of being changed

into our substance, transubstantiates us into

other-Christs. Be a practical Catholic then

and

Be In Tune With The Times

To this point my whole appeal has been per-

sonal. I have been begging you to be good to

yourself by giving God a chance through His

Sacrament of life and love to make your life a

success and your loves satisfying. Such an

appeal strikes a strident note in the song of

the day. It falls harshly upon ears that have

been attuned to nothing but pleas for a better

brotherhood of man, a more animated corn-

unity spirit, a more vital expression of our

social-soul; pleas for a more united living

in our local, state and national spheres, a

greater consciousness of our oneness as men,

our intimate union in the one great human

family; altruistic pleas for ‘‘a better world

of tomorrow” and an unselfish caring for ‘‘the

generation yet unborn.”

You have heard these pleas day in and day

out. Nor have they remained in the realm

of empty oratory. No, indeed. We have seen
them translated into action in every sphere of

human endeavor, economic, political, industrial,
social and civic. So universal and effective has

been this movement that our age is in every

way comparable to such epochs as the Fall of
the Roman Empire, the end of the Feudal Age,
the Reformation and the Renaissance. Ours is

a day of change, vast, grave and universal.

Revolution has swept the world and the in-

dividual has become of little worth.



26 Do You Want Life and Love?

Unionism, collectivism, totalitarianism have

become household words. Solidarity of the

group, be it social, civic, industrial, national or

racial, has been the endeavor of our times;

and a rather successful endeavor. From as

seemingly innocent a thing as a Rotary Club

we have seen this movement to mass, unite and

solidify, sweep to the extreme of the wholesale

regimentations of entire peoples. In this revo-

lution the individual has become so totally sub-

merged as to be entirely unthought of. And in
that fact lies the strength and the weakness of

the revolt. The individual must be thought of

first, last and always. For if you are to have

a successful united action you must have in-

dividual strength. And when the masses wake

up to the fact that they as individuals, mean

nothing to the leaders of these mad modern

movements, then we shall have the deluge!

But let me not wander. I have pleaded with
you as an individual and for your own in-

dividual good. I have shown you your errors

in thought and action, and I have shown

you the one remedy—^Jesus Christ in the
Eucharist. But in pleading with you as an

individual and for your own individual good, I

have been pleading for the masses, the mighty

masses of over four-hundred millions of men,

women and children, of every age, race, clime,

and condition of life, those mighty masses who

are united as no other group is or can be

united, those masses that have a solidarity in

comparison to which Gibraltar is loose and

shifting sand. I have been pleading for the

Mystical Body of Jesus Christ! And in doing

so, I have been pleading with you to be in tune

with your times.

For let it be known that the movements of

our day are correct movements; but they are

under false auspices and have been given a



Do You Want Life and Love? 27

wrong direction. I want revolution. You want

revolution. Every Catholic thinker and leader

of the day wants world revolution; for our

whole life’s story from the Birth of Christ un-

til the crack of doom is and will be a story of

revolution. We are, have been, and ever will
be insurgents. We cannot be otherwise; for
our King and Captain is the world’s only real

revolutionary Leader—He is Jesus Christ. His
doctrine is one that calls for complete, univer-

sal and world-wide revolution; a rebellion

against all that the world hugs and holds up

as desirable. He, by His preaching. His Life,

Passion, Death, Eesurrection, Ascension and

Sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles,

overturned every recognized human hierarchy;

and His Church has always lived that life and

preached that doctrine! But note well that it

is a revolution of the masses, for the masses

accomplished by the individual, through the

individual and for the individual; for it is a

revolution based on the primary truths that

the world is reached only through the indivi-

dual, and that if individuals fail, nations per-

ish! And let me tell you that individuals will
inevitably fail unless they, as individuals, keep

in close and constant contact with the greatest

Individual who ever lived for, died for and

loved the world’s countless masses—Jesus
Christ I

Mankind must unite. We have heard its
groanings for years; and of late have seen

these groanings accompanied by violent stir-

rings. Birth is near. But will it be the birth

of a monster or will it be the birth of the

Mystical Body of Christ in all its fullness?

That is the all important question of our day!

The only important one.

The impulse towards unshakable solidarity

has manifested itself in a series of ‘‘isms” that



28 Do You Want Life and Love?

have torn the world. The impulse is good.

Every Catholic thinker knows the instinct.

Mankind wants to become one. It is but fol-

lowing the urge of its being. But as yet it is

blind to the proper means. The informed

Catholic knows where, and how, complete

and absolute solidarity is to be had, a soli-

darity and a totalitarianism that leaves the

movements of Russia, Italy and Germany look-

ing like amateurish efforts to attain an exter-

nal coherence. The well-informed Catholic

knows that we all may be and should be one—
in Christ Jesus! And the really well-informed

knows that the modern movement of the Twen-

tieth Century is just twenty centuries old. It

is beautifully expressed, showing the means

and the end, in the words of St. Paul, he who

had been Saul of Tarsus but who became

Christ’s firebrand. He said, “The chalice of

benediction, which we bless, is it not the com-

munion of the Blood of Christ And the bread,

which we break, is it not the partaking of the

Body of the Lord? For we, being many, are

one bread, one body, all that partake of one

Breads*

St. Augustine followed him some four cen-

turies later and said: “The faithful know the

Body of Christ, if they do not fail to be the

Body of Christ. Let them become the Body of

Christ if they wish to live. ... He who wills

to live has here the place to live, has here the

source of life. Let him approach, let him be

incorporated, that he may receive life.

And we, in our own hiunble way, echo these
giants of God as we ask you : Do you want life
and love?—If so, receive your God; for as
St. Thomas so succinctly says, “The effect of

this Sacrament is union with the Mystical

Body of Christ^^

;

and you yourself know that



Do You Want Life and Love? 29

a member not joined to the body dies! Be in

tune with the times then and cry:

Give Us Something White

We have had too much of red and brown
and black, too much of false unionism, too

much despair, hatred and death. Give us

something white, that we may live and have

love.

The world’s salvation does not lie under red,

black or brown. No! Never! Christ was white

on Calvary—bled white by the sins of men—
and in that whiteness was our salvation. Christ

was white on Thabor—whiter than the snow,
more shining than the sun. Christ was white

on Easter—^white with the glory of a glisten-
ing triumph; a triumph that came only

through surrender, the surrender of the rich

red of His own Blood. Christ is white on

our altars—that you and I, and all the world
may have whiteness of soul, whiteness of con-
science, whiteness of hope, whiteness of life,

and a love that has been heated to a heat that

glows white. That is what the world needs,

and needs badly—the White Christ! And when
I say ‘‘the world” I mean YOU—for the world
is reached only through the individual!

Our sorry world needs whiteness—a union of
all colors! Our sorry world can have white-

ness if the individuals of all colors will fuse

themselves in the White Christ; if all men
will become vital members of the Mystical

Body of the shining white Jesus. O, how we
need that whiteness ! Eed as we are with Com-
munism, brown as we are with Nazism, black
as we are with Fascism, we can become pure
white with Mysticism, the mysticism of Christ.

Look at our sorry old world! It is red with

deadly hate, yellowish brown with the jaundice

of murderous envy, and black with the ugly



30 Do You Want Life and Love?

black of despair; and yet, it can be converted

to the living of all living, fused in the Body

that will never decay, and glow with the bril-

liant white glow of the glorious Christ! The

Holy Eucharist can do it! But man must do
HIS PART!
For decades now the world has been crying

for political leaders and economic leaders; to-

day it is crying aloud for military leaders;

while all the time what the world has needed

and yet needs is Eucharistic leaders! There

is only one Savior of the world and only one

means to world salvation. He is Jesus Christ,

‘‘the same yesterday, today and forever.” The

Jesus Christ who nineteen hundred years

ago became incarnate, and who for nineteen

hundred years has remained “incarnate” on

our altars, for the sole purpose of giving all

men life and love by allowing them to become

“incarnated” in Him! The salvation of the

world lies in a radical revolution—the total
incorporation of all mankind in the Mystical

Body of Jesus, the complete transubstantiation

of the body and blood of every individual

through the Body and Blood of the world’s

greatest Individual, into a single luminously

white Body that will breathe with a breath

divine, live with a life divine and love with

the Heart of God ! The world’s revolution is a

success and the world’s regeneration accom-

plished when the myriad millions of hungry

men and women, who now stand outside the

doors of the Church crying for the Bread of

Life, are taken in by the other millions who

are in the Church and made one bread, one

body, because partakers of the One White

Bread which is the Body and Blood of Jesus

Christ.

So surfeited have we been with passionate

appeals, that we instinctively distrust any-



Do You Want Life and Love? 31

thing that has a rhetorical swing to it. I am

cognizant of that reaction and yet, cannot

refrain from becoming passionate as I think

of and write about you, the world, and our

Mystical Body. When I give you that trinity

I am naming a unity; for I am thinking

about and writing about our Christ; because

there is only ONE Jesus—the WHOLE
CHKIST—He, the Head, and we, the ?nyriad
members. And when one thinks of Him, one

cannot be cool. But lest I seem too generic

as I cry and ask you to cry for something

white, let me tell you that I am only begging

you to be a tiny white corpuscle in the flowing

blood plasma of the Mystical Body of Christ.

That is how the world’s salvation

Depends On You

You know what the blood stream means to

the human body—it means its life, its growth,
its preservation and its repair. In that blood

stream are red and white corpuscles
;

tiny

things, but they contribute tremendously to the

well-being of the whole. The analogy, then, is

obvious. You are small. You are a lone in-

dividual, lost in the surging masses of the

world. Though tiny you can contribute tremen-

dously to the well-being of the whole Mystical

Body of Christ. If you become white with

the whiteness of the Eucharistic Jesus, then

you can go out into the sweeping tides of men
and bring them life and love as you bring

them the health-giving whiteness of Christ.

If you are a Doctor, you will be a Catholic,

Christ-like doctor; administering the sacra-

ment of healing after the manner of the Divine
Physician and the Good Samaritan. You will
know that certain operations are illegal, not
because the State forbids them but because



82 Do You Want Life and Love?

God forbids them. You will know that mercy

killings are sinful murder, and that certain

practices of Eugenics, purporting to be for the

good of the race cannot be performed because

they are outrages to the sanctity of the in-

dividual. In a hundred and one ways you can

preach by your practices! In a hundred and

one ways you can prove yourself a priest of

God, consecrated to minister unto the needs

of the souPs garment of clay, the temple of

the Holy Ghost. In a hundred and one ways

you can be like unto the God in whom you
live and move and have your being, provided

you take advantage of the One who said:

am the Way!” Be Eucharistic and you will
be a Catholic Doctor, a white corpuscle in the

Blood Stream of the Mystical Body; and like

the Christ, you will ‘‘go about doing good.”

If you are a Nurse, more avenues are open

to you. You can be all that the Doctor is and

more. You are a woman, and to you women

will come to talk of womanly troubles. They

will play on the sympathy that is yours be-

cause you are a woman; and they will ask

your information and cooperation in things

that should not be! You will be a white cor-

puscle of Christ by denying the information

and refusing the cooperation. Then you will go

further. You will lead these tried souls to the

truth that Ethics are above Economics; to the

truth that an inviolate soul is much better than

an intact body; to the truth that selfishness

for the sake of God is much better than satis-

faction for the sake of man; you will lead

them to Him who said: “I am the Truth!”
You will tactfully lead them to Him who came
forth a Baby from the womb of a woman, and

show them that their greatest glory on earth is

to be a mother to a member of the Mystical

Body of Christ. You will do all this wonder-



Do You Want Life and Love? 33

ful work of nursing under one condition—that
you become whiter than the uniform you wear,

that you become as white as the Host that

holds your God! You will do all this wonder-

ful work under the one condition that you be-

come thoroughly Eucharistic!

If you are a Lawyer, you will be a Catholic

lawyer, an advocate for the world^s great

Law-giver. You will know that the law of the

land is only law when it is a clarification of

and in close harmony with the law of God.

You will plead for a white righteousness.

You will live your legal ethics, remembering

that Christ said: “What, therefore, God hath

joined together, let no man put asunder.” You

will argue and plead in such a way that those

who hear you will say of you what was said

to Peter; they will say: “Thou also art one

of them, for even thy speech doth discover

thee.” And though a cock should crow, you

will not deny the Galilean. You will hunger

and thirst after justice because of the Just

One who spoke the eight beatitudes. You will

be a white corpuscle whose one work is to

bring truth and light and justice to the other

members of Christ's Mystical Body.

If you are an Educator, you will glory in

bringing light to the minds of youth, and the

minds of youth to Him who said: “I am the
Light of the world.” You will know that there

is but one science—and that the science of the
saints; that there is but one art—and that
the art of living the life of all living, the life

of the Mystical Body. You will know that

every branch of learning must lead to the

trunk and contribute to the one great knowl-

edge—the knowledge of God and of Him whom
He sent—Jesus Christ! You will know that
education, to be education, must be Christian

education, and that means the methodical re-



34 Do You Want Life and Love?

formation of the child deformed by original

sin, in order t6 conform him to Christ. You

will therefore, give a Christian training, and

that means a gradual restoration in the soul,

heart and mind of man of the Divine Image
which has been defaced by sin. You will labor

to form Christian characters by purifying the

imaginations, strengthening the wills and en-

nobling the emotions of all that come under

your care. You will be wise with the wisdom

of Don Bosco who said: ‘‘I know but two

educational instruments—Holy Communion
and the rod; and I have given up the rod!”

You will be a leucocyte in the Blood stream

of Christ's Mystical Body as you reproduce

the Teacher of all teachers, who said: “Suf-

fer the little children to come unto Me.”

If you are a mother or a father, need I tell

you that you can make the world white? Of

all the many urgent problems that clamor for

attention and demand a correct solution, the

most urgent and most clamorous is the preser-

vation of the family. Let me tell you that I

have many things for which I thank God; but

for nothing do I thank Him more heartily than

for the father and mother who taught me from

earliest boyhood to be a daily communicant,

and who insisted that the family break its fast

every Sunday morning at the altar rail!

It is very laudable to forbid the filthy news-

paper to your home and command the avoid-

ance of the immoral movie; it is highly com-

mendable to watch over the recreations, the

associations and the companionships of your

young; but let me tell you that you will be

laboring in vain to make them clean, keep

them clean and raise them right, unless you

make them most intimate associates and closest

companions to Jesus in the Eucharist.



Do You Want Life and Love? 35

Mothers and fathers, the healthiness of the

Blood stream in Christ’s Mystical Body de-

pends almost entirely upon YOU!

But why should I further enumerate? No

matter what our walk in life, we all have hut

one role—it is to be militant Catholics, life-
giving members of Christ’s Mystical Body; it

is to

Be Different

It is the desire to do what others are doing

that kills devotion and cripples anything like

real Catholic Action. It is human respect that

keeps US from becoming divine. It is a coward-

liness, a being afraid of what others will say

or think, that keeps us from being heroes after

the pattern of the Hero of Gethsemane and

Golgotha. It is a conformity to the ways of

the world, a conformity to its way of dressing

and thinking and acting, that keeps us from

conformity to Christ. What a shame! We
were not born or baptized to ape the world.

We were stamped as Christians to be followers
of Him who said of His disciples: “I have
chosen you out of the world”

;
who said

:

‘‘Fear not; I have overcome the world”; who

said: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
How traitorous of us then, to be in the world,
of the world and like the world! We
have failed in our specific mission to the world

up to this moment; and why?—Because we
have not been different from the world!

I say all this conscious of the fact that on

the opening day of the Twenty-eighth Inter-

national Eucharistic Congress there were over

a million who received the Eucharist in the

single city of Chicago. That was once. Why
not similar multitudes every Sunday and in



36 Do You Want Life and Love?

every city? It is the same Christ! He longs
for the same homage and devotion. And we
need His same life and love!

I have said all this conscious of the fact that

during that same Congress 62,000 voices of

children sang the Mass of the Angels and

changed Chicago into a city of angelic song.

I know, too, that 230,000 men joined in a

vesper pledge to their Eucharistic King that

shook the city; I know that they then lit can-

dles in honor of the Light of the world and

the onlookers gasped: “Isn’t that beautiful!” It

was. It was inspiring. It was tremendous.

And I also know that half a million people
were at Mundelein for the close of that Con-

gress. But you see, my question is: Have
those children continued to sing to the King of

Angels? Have those men lived their Eucha-

ristic pledge? have those countless worship-

pers who thronged to Mundelein been white

corpuscles in Christ’s Mystical Body? Were

those closing prayers of praise: “Blessed be

God. Blessed be His Holy Name,” meant? My
question is: Why only once?
And I am not forgetting the Seventh Na-

tional Eucharistic Congress at Cleveland. No

one could forget that Midnight Mass when the

Municipal Stadium was crowded and over-

crowded; when, after a Holy Hour spent in

prayer and adoration by almost 200,000 men,

the Apostolic Delegate went into the little

house of glass that sheltered the altar, to bring

the White Christ into the White Host that He

might receive the white-hot love and fealty of

the hundreds of thousands of men, and that

the hundreds of thousands of men might re-

ceive the white life and the white love of their

White-hosted God. No, none can forget that

Mass, nor the moment when all the floodlights

were snapped off and then here, then there.



Do You Want Life and Love? 37

then everywhere tiny candle glows appeared.

That was being different! And out over the

waters of Erie’s Lake went the self-same sen-

tence that once travelled over the waters of

Genesareth’s Lake: ‘Tt is the Lord!”

And who could forget the close of that Con-

gress? Half a million people sang litanies

and answered prayers as a parade through

Cleveland’s streets turned into a procession,

swung into a crowded Stadium, and on the

floor of that vast arena formed a human mon-

strance of gigantic proportions, symmetrical,

beautiful, breath-taking. Then under the

gleaming swords of the Knights of Columbus,

who formed the jeweled stem of that mon-

strance, marched our late beloved Cardinal

Hayes, holding in his hands the Eucharistic

Christ. In his wake the Knights fell into

place, and as the Eucharistic Christ was

placed on the altar, the human monstrance

went to its adoring knees. For once Jesus was

monstranced as He longs to be and as He loves

to be—monstranced in the flesh of man!
It seems to me that the whole Congress was

symbolized in that one ceremony; and that

our whole life is expressed in that one symbol.

Have you or I any other business in this world

than to be Christ’s human monstrance? And
it is the memory of Cleveland’s gigantic and

authentic symbol that prompts me to ask you
today: Are you monstrancing Christ? Are

you showing forth the White Jesus to the reds,

the browns, the blacks and the colorless ones

of the world? Are you showing forth the

Jesus of life and love to our own America?

My question is pertinent and practical. You
are a social being. Your life and love affect

the lives and loves of the whole Mystical

Body, and the Mystical Body in America needs



38 Do You Want Life and Love?

greater life and greater love! My claim is
this

:

A PERSONAL DEVOTION ON THE
PART OF EVERY CATHOLIC TO OUR
EUCHARISTIC KING WILL, WITHIN A
GENERATION, CHANGE THE WHOLE
ASPECT OP THE MYSTICAL BODY OF
CHRIST IN AMERICA.

We are great. But we should be, and we
could be, and we must be greater! Souls, more

souls, into intimate contact with Christ is my
cry. Stop our Catholic leakage and swing the

drifting millions of Protestants, Indifferentists,

and Atheists into the Blood stream of Christ’s

Mystical Body. We have nothing to boast of
in our converts. A Church that has, here in
America, over 35,000 priests, over 22 million

members, a school system that is second to

none, a rosary of charitable institutions that

reaches around the world, a Church that has

centuries of tradition and scholarship behind

her, and, above all, a Church that has upon

her altars and within her soul the Eucharistic

King, should blush to boast of the 76,700 con-

verts of the past year. It is paltry!

America is not a Protestant country, despite

the repeated lie of the secular press. If one

wishes to designate the religion of our country

rightly, he must say that it is more Catholic

than anything else; for the Catholic religion

is the majority religion in America. Prot-

estantism is practically dead. Here then is

your practical challenge. There are a hundred

million and more non-Catholics surrounding

you. Five-sixths of your fellow countrymen

neither know nor honor your Eucharistic

Christ. What are YOU doing for them and
for Him? What are you doing for yourself?

For remember, you do not go to Heaven or to



Do You Want Life and Love? 39

Hell alone! No. You are a social being, and

you always drag down or lift up others with

you. That is your terrible responsibility and

your thrilling inspiration. You can feed hun-

gry men; you can lead the lame, the blind

and the halt. You can convert souls to Christ.

There is your social vocation! Live in the

strong, health-giving sunlight of faith, train

yourself to intense Catholic activity, feed daily

on the strong meat of the Eucharist, then you

can talk to your neighbor about the Christ

who is your life and your love. Then you can

take the hands of your daily companions in the

office, shop or store and bring them to your

Changeless Friend and their Divine Kedeemer.

It is the opinion of the thoroughly informed

and widely experienced that the vast majority

of American non-Catholics need only a friend-

ly hand to grasp their own waiting hand and

say, *Tt is YOUR Father’s home as well as
mine. We are brothers, children of the same
God. Let us go together into our home, to the

life-giving, love-filled Banquet prepared by our

Savior!”

You have been called to the Royal Priest-

hood of Christ. Do not leave all the work to a

few consecrated clergy. Be different from

what you have been! You must be different,

for today, you have to answer one of

Two Voices

The call of the world or the call of our

Eucharistic Christ. In this day of upheaval

the lines are strongly drawn. You will become

a member of the Mystical Body of Christ or

you will become a member of the mystical body

of anti-Christ. There is no fence to straddle,

no island on which to stand. It is for Christ



40 Do You Want Life and Love?

or against Christ. You either gather or you

scatter. You will be a totalitarian Christian

or you will be a totalitarian anti-Christian

(whether that be called Communist, Fascist,

Nazi or material Atheist).

Our late Holy Father, Pius XI, hesitated not

to say that seemingly anti-Christ had arisen

in the bold, brazen movement of materialistic

atheism. Monsignor Fulton Sheen shrinks not

from labeling the world-wide movements of col-

lectivism—the mystical body of Anti-Christ.
Hilaire Belloc uses no coloring adjectives as he

says: ‘‘The last generation could talk of ‘the

Churches.’ The present generation cannot.

There are not many Churches. There is only

one. It is the Catholic Church on the one side,

and its mortal enemy on the other. The lists

are set.” That is why I unqualifiedly say:

You must answer one of two voices. It is

either the paganistic, atheistic, materialistic,

animalistic, “Eat, drink and make merry” ;—or
the Catholic, divinely human and humanly di-

vine call of Christ, ‘^Eat—Drink—and make—
holyr

It is the call to Catholic Action that is

sounding. But let it be remembered that the

essential action of Catholic Action is the action

that we call “The Mass.” Let it be further re-

membered that the great Sacrament of Catho-

lic Action is the Sacrament of the altar, the

Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus

Christ, the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

To stand steadfast in the white ranks of

God against the multi-colored masses of the

godless, annual communion will not do, month-

ly communion will not do, weekly communion

will hardly suffice—DAILY COMMUNION IS
THE NEED!



Do You Want Life and Love? 41

Busy men may plead their work, their cares,

their worries, their hodily health, as their

excuses for neglecting daily Mass and Com-

munion, when, in reality, these are the very

things that should drive them to Him who is

both Mass and Communion; for He has said,

‘‘Come to Me all you who labor and are heavily
burdened, and I will refresh you.” Excuses

are admissions of lack of Faith, lack of appre-

ciation, lack of love, and an open confession of

laziness

!

I know that if you could call on the Presi-

dent every morning, you would do it. I know

that if you could ask for what you wanted

from this dispenser of patronage and ruler

of millions, you would never pass him by. I

know that if the White House was open to

you any hour of the day and night, you would

be a frequent visitor. There would be no ex-

cuse. DonT you believe that God is as power-

ful, as generous, and as ready to help YOU?

I have brought you up to the present mo-

ment with that last comparison; let me now
take you back over the years as I list for you

the effects of the Eucharist as they stand in

our little catechisms. They read: The Holy

Eucharist

1) unites our body and soul to Christ in the

intimate union of love;

—Do YOU want LOVE?

2) increases Sanctifying Grace for the nour-

ishment of our souls;

—Do YOU want LIFE?

3) cleanses from venial and preserves from

mortal sin;

—Do YOU want to be CLEAN?

4) weakens our evil inclinations;

—Aren’t YOURS strong?



42 Do You Want Life and Love?

5) is a pledge of the resurrection of the body

and of eternal life;

—Don’t YOU want that?
6) lessens temporal punishment due to sin

—Aren’t YOUR debts HEAVY?

7) gives strength to carry out in our lives the

principles of Catholic Action,

—YOU need that STRENGTH.

* * *

Friend of mine, yours is a glorious oppor-

tunity. The fields are white with the harvest,

the skies are white with the dawning, our

hearts are white with hope, for Christ is

White in the Eucharist. He can transubstan-

tiate individuals; individuals can transubstan-

tiate families; families, the communities;

the communities, the cities; the cities, the

states; the states, the nations; and the na-

tions the world. No matter how dark the day

or night, all is white for those who know, love,

serve and daily receive Christ.

He converted a world more pagan than ours.

His Church survived worse times than ours.

She survived a Diocletian and a Henry the

VIII. Why then should you or I fear a Hitler,
a Stalin or any of their breed? We need not!
.... PROVIDED .... Provided, I say, we, like
the early Christians, feed on the Bread that

makes men strong and drink the Wine that

germinates virgins

!

The Voice for you and me to answer is the

Voice of Christ. It says: “Come to Me!”

For on the day of the Final Assize, when all

the world will have gathered for judgment,

when the white veils of the Eucharist have

been parted and we see Him ‘face to face,’

we want to be in that mighty mass of humanity

which will be held in the paten of His pierced



Do You Want Life and Love? 43

hands and lifted up to His Father as He says:
“THIS IS MY BODY—MY MYSTICAL
BODY! MY BLOOD WAS NOT SHED IN
VAIN.”

Friend of mine, do you really want life?—
Then lose it! lose yours in the life of Him
who said: “I am the Life.”

Do you really want love?—Then give your
heart away! Give it all to Him who pleads:
“My child, give Me thy heart.”

Do you know how to do both of these things?
Allow a priest to place upon your tongue the

Body and Blood of the Deathless and love-filled
Christ and pray, “MAY THE BODY OF OUR
LORD JESUS CHRIST GUARD YOUR
SOUL UNTO LIFE EVERLASTING
AMEN.”

you want life and love—^be a daily in-
timate of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist!







j
"

v>:



other Works

by

Fr. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.

THE MAN WHO GOT EVEN WITH GOD
Of)

PAMPHLETS
A TRAPPIST

asks: WHAT'S WRONG?
Some challenging pages for Catholic
Alumni and Alumnae,

tells of THE GOD-MAN'S DOUBLE
A pamphlet for priests

cries : SAY ‘TIAT" and REMAKE
YOUR WORLD

Stimulating pages for all who know
distress.

asks: ARE YOU . . .?
Some pertinent, personal questions
for men.

exclaims: LIFE IS A DIVINE RO-
MANCE!
A pamphlet for Catholic girls and
women who have minds,

says: YOU CAN SET THE WORLD ON
FIRE!
Speaking to priest, religious and lay

person. , «

asks: WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO
JESUS CHRIST?

Showing the reverse side of the
Mystical Body.

talks to Nuns about DOUBLING FOR
THE MOTHER OF GOD
writes FOR YOUR OWN DEFENSE
A pamphlet for Catholics in the
Service.

asks: HAVE YOU MET GOD?
A pamphlet for Non-Catholics and
Catholics.

For copies of the above apply to

Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani
Trappist P. O.

Kentucky

Reduction on quantity orders,

single copy 10c



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