The psalm just sung, dear brethren, is a short one, and its meaning is quite plain. I say this to put you at ease; there is nothing heavy here. However, just because the matter is so straightforward we must be as attentive and alert as we can. The spiritual meaning underlying the open sense, that is what we want to get at, as far as God gives us grace to do so. God's voice—use whatever medium he will— is always God's voice, and none other can please him. Thus, would we please him, when we speak it must be he speaking through us.

A psalm of praise—such is the inscription: few words, but big with meaning: may they lay such seeds within your hearts as to yield a big harvest and fill a storehouse of good grain for the Lord. The psalm urges us to rejoice in the Lord—that is its bidding: and, because the seeds of blessing have been scattered everywhere, the psalm demands world-wide jubilation, not simply from one isolated corner of the world, or one household or one community.

Religious life is the genuine and wholehearted dedication of man to the love and service of God. In taking vows of religion there is implied a recognition and realisation of the infinitely great and good God, the fountain and source of all goodness, together with an appreciation of our Lord's love in dwelling among us and planning to have certain creatures associated with him for his own great ends and the vast needs of souls. Thus to dedicate our life to God in the following of Christ is not a decision man makes entirely of himself, no matter how much he may be enamoured with the ideal. ‘It was not you that chose me, it was I that chose you’ (Jn. 15, 16), our Lord told the apostles, thereby signifying that it is for God to choose whomsoever he will. Yet although the initial choice of invitation is from God, it is for us to accept, to acknowledge that call, that divine beckoning. When he has chosen us, we in turn must choose him and choose him alone, choose him to the exclusion of all else.

A centenary of a special work of reparation falls in this year, 1948. It is carried on by contemplative nuns who seek by adoration to make reparation for blasphemy and for the neglect of God. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed day and night in their chapels. All the round of the clock the Sisters come in turn, two at least at a time, to pray in silence for an hour. They seek union with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, offering through it, and with it, praise and love, and supplication for sinners.

It was a marked privilege for the Congregation of Adoration Eeparatrice to be allowed to have Perpetual Exposition. Theirs was a pioneer work. In 1S48 the practice was a novelty in the Church, and because a novelty, inevitably regarded with suspicion. Even now there are Catholics who do not seem to appreciate the value of Exposition. They do not perceive the tremendous graces that radiate from the Monstrance, or realise how near it brings our Lord to those who kneel before him.