The Latin word Officium, like the Greek word Liturgia, means duty or service; hence ‘Office’. Both these words describe what we know as Divine Worship—that which is the prime duty of man and the purpose of his creation.

The supreme form of worship is the Sacrifice the Mass. That is the central gem, and it has' a setting—the Divine Office. This setting is further elaborated by the Little Office and all the ceremonies which go to make up the official public worship of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. This is all known as 'The Liturgy'—the public, official and universal worship of God.

The apostolate of the Missionary Priests would have been I impossible without the heroic co-operation of the lay Catholics. As in the early Church, the faith lived in the houses of the faithful. No less than eighty laymen and women—a Quarter of the whole—find a place in the calendar of the martyrs. But there were many who suffered a slow martyrdom in prison, under conditions inconceivable to us, and whose sufferings have deceived scant recognition. The names of ten layfolk who died in prison are among the Dilati (those whose causes have been postponed through lack of evidence), but this list is woefully incomplete. There were many others who spent most of their lives in prison, but were let out to die. Richard Wenster, the Yorkshire schoolmaster, and Francis Tregian were there for more nan thirty years. Thomas Pound, after a similar ordeal, was sentenced in his old age to lose his ears for protesting against the martyrdom of Laurence Bailey in 1604. The sentence was commuted, but he had his ears nailed to the pillory in London and Lancaster. Roland Jenks the printer was sentenced to be nailed to the pillory by his ears and to release himself by cutting them off with his own hand. Yet none of these are martyrs properly so—called

It is a disconcerting experience to read a book on what is perhaps the most important subject in theology, to be aware that one is making contact at every stage with a powerful mind ranging easily over the whole of the Biblical data, to be grateful for a number of profoundly true observations, and yet to find oneself at the end seemingly very little nearer the heart of the matter. The cause of this failure may be no further to seek than the present reviewer's obtuseness, or at least his habitual inclination to approach these problems in a manner quite different from that of the author; but it is not perhaps only the vanity of self-justification which looks for some other explanation. Dr Thornton is a difficult and obscure writer, but he is never unintelligible; given the necessary sympathy, there is significant meaning to be found in all that he says; there is also much that is rewarding.

We have come together, by the grace of God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we who have set before us one and the same end of religious life. And it is plain that you on your part are longing to learn something of that which concerns salvation. I therefore for my part am bound to declare God's righteous acts, since night and day there runs in my mind what the Apostle says: ‘For three years by night and day I did not cease to admonish every one of you with tears’ (Acts 20, 31). Since also the present time is very favourable, and this place provides quiet and complete freedom from the tumults without, let us unite our prayers, that while we give to our fellow-servants their measure of corn in season, you, like good ground, receiving the word, may, as Scripture says (Matt. 13, 23), yield a hundred-fold a perfect fruit in righteousness.

It was dark. Looking up from the floor towards the window I could feel, rather than see, the dawn breaking. But to try to sleep now was useless, even though the old priest in the next cell had at last become quiet. All night long his groans had sounded through the wall between us, getting more like a mad nightmare as the night wore on and as their echo rang up from the floor on to my ears and nerves. Old priests and old nuns left lonely in their cells during years of trial; it is not often that one has the grace of being so close to them, so I had asked God to let me share the old priest's pain; and the night had been long. The darkness lay heavy upon me, shutting me m upon my own emptiness.

The word recent is hardly applicable to the first of the works here under review, La Voix Vivante de l'Evangile au Debut die l'Eglise (Casterman, Tournail & Paris), by M. Le Chanoine Cerfaux of Louvain. It is three years since the Collection Lovanium published this excellent little study of the origin and character of the Gospels. In that collection it finds itself in somewhat strange company with works on genetics, archaeology, law, the atom bomb, and even on the tendencies of modern English democracy. But the series claims to be a collection of studies on general culture, and no one can claim to be cultured who is ignorant of the Gospels. It may be said without hesitation that this book provides a useful course of introduction for the student of the New Testament, showing him his way about in the maze of difficulties he will meet. Readers of the book already familiar with the teaching of the venerable Père Lagrange will not fail to recognise how copiously the author has drawn from that admirable source.

In the liturgical tradition of the Eastern Church the idea of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin includes the following incidents: the death of the Virgin, her burial. her rising again, her assumption, and finally her enthrone- ment in heaven as Queen of all being. According to the eastern manner of thinking it is the first event, that is to say the death of the Blessed Virgin, which occupies the central position in liturgical prayer and meditation. This death is called the falling asleep’ or ‘dormition', whence comes the name of the feast of 15th August, ‘The Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary'.

In preparation for this feast there is a period of fasting called the Lent of the Dormition which begins on 1st August. The 14th is the Vigil and the whole festival ends on the 23rd.

ON the 15th August the Church learnt of the Holy Father's decision to define Mary's Assumption as an article of faith on the 1st November. The previous day the S.P.C.K. brought out a small book 'entitled The Assumption of Our Lady and Catholic Theology. The blurb informs us that 'It is an important characteristic of this book that it is written from a Roman Catholic point of view'. That before the dope's decision was known Catholics should speak against the opportuneness of the definition is in no way extraordinary. Learned theologians have expressed such an opinion. But we are at a loss to understand how Messrs Bennett and Wynch, if they are Catholics, consider themselves authorised to publish a book on such a serious subject without the imprimatur and from a publishing house which is ex professo non-Catholic.

In September 1931, a young priest entered the Carmelite Monastery at Lille, which is under the patronage of the Little Flower. It was a month of stirring events in the world of high finance and politics, for the question of the gold standard was throwing the money-markets into confusion and unemployment was kindling the flames of class-hatred. The British Association was in session at the time, listening amongst other things to a broad-sweeping address from General Smuts, an address in which he painted his holistic Deity on a canvas large enough even for the views of his audience.