In the case of the majority of saints, sanctity and knowledge seem to be two different things. Our admiration goes to the heroic penances they have imposed upon themselves, the uncompromising apostolate they have carried out, the outpourings of love which have been their heart's expression or the martyrdom which has crowned their life. As a general rule, we do no realize that intellectual excellence may have a connection with tb merits which raise a Christian to the altars. The interest of the case of St Thomas Aquinas is that in him we are compelled to investigate this problem. That the Church solemnly canonize him less than fifty, years after his death is a fact, as is also tn circumstance that his life was given in a remarkable degree to the work of the mind. It was spent in intellectual activity as exclusive and intense as one could wish.

In attempting to teach religion to sixth-formers in a live fashion one becomes aware of a temptation to go to extremes. We may be so much aware of the needs the boy will experience within a few years of leaving school and the tests to which his faith will be put that we bow to necessity and equip him with a set of slick answers to all the questions with very little understanding of the underlying theological principles; we teach him apologetics rather than theology. On the other hand we may be so aware of the limitations of the ready-made answer that we embark on a long-term policy of teaching theology which of its nature can never be finished in a school life and which, much more disastrous, might easily be confined to a speculative study of principles with little linking up with personal and contemporary problems.

My dear Fathers and Brothers, we have met here to discuss the relevance of Newman to the modern age, and we have prided ourselves, not without reason, that we have come to understand him better than many in the past. We have, however, been in some danger of forgetting what the essential aim of his life was, and what the fundamental lesson it teaches us. Yet these matters were thoroughly understood from the first, and clearly stated at the time of Newman's death, by two writers especially, neither of whom were Catholics.

The first biography to appear after Cardinal Newman died was that of R. H. Hutton, of The Spectator. It hailed him as the champion of revealed religion, and showed how this gave his life the wonderful unity which characterized it. Amid the many changes of his career, his one object, to which from the age of sixteen he was entirely devoted, was the promotion of faith in the Christian revelation. Certainly Hutton was right.

How is a mime made? Surely the methods must be as varied as the makers, so that any description will to some extent, be personal.

First, the choosing of a theme. Mime is essentially simple: in its action, in its presentation, in its appeal, and to derive full value from it, the underlying idea needs to be simple too; simple because it is basic, a statement of fact, which is not to deny that it may be profound. Indeed, it is through the simple straight forward movements of mime that some of the deepest mysteries of our faith may be illustrated.

The theme of this mime was to be twofold: the linking thread was to be that of the angels, whose name both in Hebrew and Greek means ‘a messenger’, and it was in this manner that they were to be shown, as God’s messengers to man.

Prayer in its specialized sense means turning our hearts and minds to God. Prayer in its widest sense means directing our whole lives to God. Everything falls under this definition: work, play, joy, sorrow, health, sickness, our whole selves and the circumstances in which we live. But if we are to direct our lives to God we must see life as it really is—God's plan to enable us to know, love and serve him in this world and to be happy with him for ever in heaven. Any conflict in our minds here is fatal. “We need to see life as a whole, not divided into watertight compartments of ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ or ‘indifferent', but as God's will being worked out by us, here and now, in everything. It means co-ordinating the bits and pieces that make up everyday lite into one harmonious whole, knit together by the simple desire of pleasing God at all times and seeing his hand in all things.