In Scripture there are revealed mysteries so deep as to defy man's unaided reason. Unless God himself had revealed them, man would never have come to know them. But such is the conflict between the depths of these sublime mysteries and the merely human language that cloaks them that often it seems that Scripture is proposing for a our belief some impossibility. Our faith tells us that this cannot be so, but we might be tempted to think that the expression of these truths is not exact, nor what it should be. This again is not true; what is true, however, is that we have to use God-given reason to lay bare still more God's revelations. Then we see that God's revelation is in no way an impossibility and that Scripture's expression is exact. A striking example of this fact is furnished by the revealed doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There are many passages in Scripture where we find a revelation of this mystery. St Paul writing to the Romans says ‘But you live the life of the Spirit not of nature; that is, if the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Few things are more easily agreed to and more difficult to realise in practice than the fact that feelings count for next to nothing in prayer and the spiritual life. The position of the emotional life, that is to say, is readily accepted by the Catholic who realises that Faith even in its motive is supernatural, which is essentially of the Spirit and only accidentally concerned with the bodily or physical element of man. There are some who make the distinction between body and soul with too great a facility. And for them theoretically a man should be able to continue living a very highly supernatural life with no experience whatever, living entirely on the divine workings of faith all unfelt in the mysterious depths of his soul.

Father H. Urs von Balthasar wrote recently in Dieu Vivant (No. 12, 1948): ‘From the dogmatic point of view we no longer take the modern saints seriously because they themselves no longer have to be dogmatic…. They leave dogma to the prosaic work of “the schools” and become lyricists.’ Such a statement is not an isolated one among spiritual writers today. And we need hardly add that as a rule it is made with a view to deploring this separation of ‘sanctity’ from theology.

Some readers then begin to wonder whether sanctity in the Church has actually become a kind of lyricism or poetic enthusiasm. Is it a matter of ‘mystical’ intuition, rather exaggerated, a special ‘grace'» Moreover the mentality of many of our contemporaries, sincere Catholics though they may be, echoes these questions. For them the point of view of the ‘mystic’ which they identify with that of the ‘saint', the ‘irrationality’ of his conception of Christian life, of prayer and penance, are all things that should not be discussed. They are accepted or rejected; but in any case such a view of Christian life is not final.

Is it fanciful to see in these three titles combined the summing up of past history, the salving and transforming of the ancient glimpses of Truth; It may be fanciful, but it has an aptness suitable for our purposes. And even if more symbolic than real, the titles apart, Christ did in his Person and teaching sum up the past, even the pagan past.

The world in ancient times seems, speaking broadly, to have been four parted: the Greek world fumbling for truth, the East finding a path to tread, a Way, and the rest seeking survival, the mystery religions; then, quite apart, the little people of the Jews. Christ called himself the Way. The Buddhists and the Confucianists were seeking ways to peace of mind; the first by progressive annihilation of the all or by one's absorption in the All, the beyondnothing; the second by a concentration on manners, on social peace. These Eastern religions or philosophies were concerned with the art of living. They each seem to have begun through the agony of s°ul rising from intense suffering.

The English Society of the Grail is a secular institute, autonomous and ecclesiastically approved, with its own rules and constitution. Its members are not religious, but laywomen who wish to dedicate their whole lives to work for Christ in the lay apostolate. Those who come to the Society come to an adventurous family.

Any girl can join the Society if she is willing to give herself to Christ to do anything, anywhere and at any time. There is room Hi die Society for girls of every social level and of every occupation, for anyone who wants to tlirow in her lot for life with a society of pioneers and who is prepared to accept die discipline of that Society. For lay institutes must be disciplined and their members be bound together with bonds of steel.

The lay apostolate cannot be driven by any mere transitory enthusiasm—indeed there is a distinct danger for women in any violent and undisciplined enthusiasm and if this is the driving power of an organisation then the life of an apostle cannot last longer than a few years.