Vows in Secular Institutes are not recognized by the Church as the public vows of religion, but they are more than the private vows of individuals. They are termed ‘semi-public’ or ‘social', indicating a contract not only with God, but with the specific Institute in which the member takes the vows. Thus the member is bound to the Institute, and the Institute becomes responsible for the member.

As a rule, the vows are taken for a period which varies according to the Institute, and after temporary vows the member usually takes final vows. Whereas religious may not have a period of temporary profession extending beyond six years, this period of trial in Secular Institutes can be extended by particular constitutions, or by the lawful superior, to ten years. This is because of the absence of the common life, and because of more prolonged and more direct contact with the outside world, the process of formation in Secular Institutes will ordinarily be slower than in the more sheltered religious congregations.

The term devotio moderna is used strictly to describe a particular school of piety in the Netherlands which looked to Gerard de Groot (†1384) as its founder: ‘totius modernae devotionis origo'; they were Augustinian Canons, with a famous centre at Windesheim near Zwolle, and many abbeys in the area. Gerard de Groot was in touch with his fellow-Augustinian John Ruysbroeck (†1361), and so with the school of the German mystics. The ‘modern’ Augustinian school reached its greatest and most lasting renown with the writings of Thomas à Kempis (†1471), whose Imitation of Christ is the supreme product of the school of the devotio moderna. In the early sixteenth century there was the influence of the current humanism, with for example Erasmus of Rotterdam (†1536), who himself began at Deventer with the Augustinians of de Groot, and then for a time was an Augustinian himself, and the notions of the devotio moderna became modified.

More than once it has been said that it is no use playing a harp to a jackass! I suppose we can see in such an assertion the obvious truth of the saying of St Thomas that whatever is received, is received according to the disposition of the receiver, and that's why the harpist ignores the jackass. Possibly too that's why the jackass does not bother to sqawk to the harpist! It seems to cut both ways.

The Tchaikovsky enthusiast might be quite ecstatic about a superb rendering of the Nutcracker Suite, but even he would not feel so enthusiastic about it if at the time he had a raging toothache. To the true appreciation of such music he could only hope to return when the toothache stopped and his disposition was better.

If we were to go by modern political boundaries, we would think of St Cuthbert as a Scotsman. For the first instance Bede gives of the power of his prayers occurred at the mouth of the little river Tyne between North Berwick and Dunbar, and it was presumably in that district that he was born and bred. When he became a monk a few years later, it was at the abbey of Melrose. But then modern political boundaries have nothing to do with the case; those were the days, after all, when the Scots were the inhabitants of Ireland. In fact Cuthbert was a Northumbrian Angle , and the kingdom of Northumbria stretched along the whole East coast from the Humber to the Forth.

And when Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table.’ (Matt, xxvi, 6f.) At first sight it seems as thoughts all the evangelists refer to the same woman, but in fact this is not so. I think that three of them do, but that John is describing another, and more glorious person—the sister of Lazarus. Matthew's apparently casual mention of Simon's leprosy is to show why the woman came so confidently to Jesus. Leprosy was a filthy and repellent disease; and yet she saw that Jesus had healed the man (or he would not have chosen to remain in his company), and had now gone to his home. This made her certain that he could easily rid her soul of sin. Again, the mention of the place, Bethania, is significant.

It is now time for us, beloved children, to turn our thoughts to the passion of our Lord. The sacrilegious leaders of the Jews and their impious priests had long and often been looking for a chance to hurl themselves on Christ and vent their furious spite on him. But it was only at the solemn feast of the pasch that they received the power to do so; for this is what had been determined, so we are to understand, in the very designs of God himself. Promises that had long been hinted at in the riddle of a mysterious rite, still required to be openly fulfilled; a variety of different sacrifices were still to be completed by one single oblation. Shadows must vanish before the solid reality, images give way to the presence of the Truth; and so the ancient form of worship is concluded by a new sacrament.