The obliteration of familiar landmarks and the destruction of an old and accustomed order seem to produce a twofold effect. The majority of those who come afterwards seems quickly to adapt itself to the new outlook and new ways, while a minority clings with determination to what it can remember of the days gone by, and, filled with an intense desire to preserve the values of the past, canonizes both the bad and the good in the old order. It was thus with the Reformation. The forces which produced it had slowly been gathering for centuries. The scandals of the late medieval church were but the manifestation of far deeper ills, of which perhaps the most deadly of all had been, in practice, anv almost complete loss of the sense of the oneness of all Christians with the triumphant and risen Christ. In consequence, a spirit of gloom and insecurity, coupled with an unconstructive puritanism in morals, had prevailed among the devout and had tended to make salvation depend almost entirely upon the precariousness of subjective intention.

In a previous article we considered the Old Testament theme of ‘pilgrimage, encounter, communion’ from its initial instance at Sinai to its later eschatological developments. At the root of this theme lies the idea of the kabod, the visible manifestation of Yahweh's holy presenceto the people in the form of a numinous and fiery cloud. We have now to consider a second tradition which grows out of this initial conception of Yahweh's presence by his kabod, and which has also exercised a decisive influence on the development of Old Testament theology as a whole. It is the theology of the tent of meeting. We have seen that the essential characteristic of kabod theology is that the fiery cloud, the kabod, descends at certain sacred moments on a holy place chosen by Yahweh for his encounter with his people. At first this is Mount Sinai. But at Sinai itself Yahweh chooses to have a movable sanctuary made so that he can accompany the people. Instead of the people going up to him in the mountain, he will come down to them at the tent. The shrine which awaits his presence accompanies them wherever they go.

What is the liturgy? What does one mean by a grammar school? What has each to do with the other? The burden of this paper is to essay some answers to each of these questions, endeavouring to develop maturer concepts of education and liturgy, and to make practical suggestions about the place of liturgy in the life of the school. The liturgy has an important part to play in the Catholic education of all children, so that much of what I have to say will apply to other kinds of school, and it will apply for the most part equally to girls and boys, though I shall generally refer to boys. My own teaching experience in Catholic schools has been largely confined to the grammar school, but this is not the sole reason why I have preferred to speak of the grammar school and the liturgy. I believe that the grammar school offers exceptional opportunities not only for training its own pupils in a right sense and practice of liturgy, but also for assisting the whole Catholic body in this country to arrive at a more realistic understanding of the liturgical life of the Church.

‘Don't you think it would be nicer to be a proper nun’? This question, seriously addressed by a priest to a member of a secular institute, reveals the unfortunate lack of understanding of the vocation to a secular institute. Why ‘proper nun?’ Because in his mind was the erroneous idea that members of secular institutes are, since they take vows, some sort of nun, semi-nuns, not quite the right thing.

But women in secular institutes are not nuns in the world, not nuns in mufti. They are lay women who keep their lay status, even though consecrated fully to God by the practice of the evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity, and obedience, and dedicated to the apostolate in the world.

It was to make this absolutely clear to all who knew us and to all who would come to know us, that we, an institute dedicated to our Lady of Mount Carmel, were led three years ago to take a most decisive step. I say ‘led’ because we believe that our decision was taken under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

‘People buy the Bible in such quantities as to make it a best-seller. But they do not read it very much and they understand it less’. So says Fr N. J. McEleney, c.s.p., general editor of the Pamphlet Bible Series, which is being published by the Paulist Press, New York, at 75 cents a number. The series is the most effective thing that has yet appeared to help ordinary people of general education to read the Bible and understand what they read. A short notice of the first four pamphlets appeared in Life of the Spirit in May 1960. Up to the present (January 1961) twelve pamphlets have appeared, bringing the series up to the book of Judges. No. 1 is an introduction to the Pentateuch; then follow two each for Genesis and Exodus, one for Leviticus, two each for Numbers and Deuteronomy, one each for Josue and Judges.

They help the ordinary reader first of all by their covers, which are bright, light, and modern. “Whether their general décor meets with your artistic approval or not, there is no doubt that it catches your eye and arouses interest.