A Sermon on Psalm 42 by St Augustine</i>

This is a short psalm; so it will do nicely for satisfying eager minds without being irksome to fasting stomachs. May it provide food for our soul, which is said to be sad, according to the man who is speaking in this psalm ; sad, I think, because of some fast of his – or rather of some hunger, since fasting is something you do on purpose, while being hungry just happens to you.

The Task of the Order is Study

'Our study should be principally and zealously directed towards fitting us to be of use to the souls of our neighbours.'

According to this early tradition, study is one of the proper means for forwarding the Order's special task of preaching the Word of God for the salvation of the world. Apostolic preaching, the passing on of God's truth to the world of men, necessitates a deep and thorough knowledge both of revealed truth and of the teachings and ideas of men. The task of studying belongs in the first place to the whole Order as such: to our Order there is committed a theological and doctrinal role. As Cajetan wrote in the 1513 General Chapter, ‘Let others enjoy their own privileges; but if we are not commended by sacred learning, then our Order is finished'. It is therefore of great importance that there be formed amongst us well-trained brethren, able to assist the Church in her teaching office. Study is such an essential means in the Order that a clerical brother will not be living up to his calling and not fit to go out on his apostolic work unless he holds study in high esteem and applies himself to it properly.

Africa has been concentrated on far too long in isolation; both by exploiters and by sentimentalists. It is only recently that African history has begun to be seen as a part of world history and that attempts are being made to correlate archaeological findings in Africa, Asia and Europe. A new series which is being published from the Oxford University Press at last makes it possible to study African literary forms as an essential part of world literature.

The first four volumes of the series have now appeared. The most important of these is Somali Poetry, by W. B. Andrzejewski and I. M. Lewis, both specialists of recognized distinction. The first sixty pages deal lucidly and surely definitively with the social and cultural setting of Somali poetry, the Somali language and the characteristics of Somali verse. Biographical notes on the poets are provided. The next ninety pages consist of Somali poems with the original on one side and the English translation opposite.

Somali verse has been transmitted orally; it is a great tradition and still a living one. The editors write of one class of lyric: ‘While the origins of other types of poem go far back into the past the heelo is an innovation which was first introduced in 1945. Its creator Abdi Deeqsi, nicknamed “Cinema”, was the owner and driver of a trading lorry and composed the first heelo when his lorry broke down near Zeila. In a desolate place he sang his love song, beating the rhythm on an empty petrol tin.