Both prayer and family life are very much private affairs, and in particular no two Catholic families face the same set of circumstances when trying to lead the Catholic life of prayer. This therefore is my justification for launching into a description of our family background, since without this it is hard for others to know what is, or is not, applicable in their case. (This whole question of applicability seems to me a fundamental one in the spiritual life, since so much discouragement, or even real harm, can be caused by trying to force a devotion or a way of life on those who are not naturally called or fitted for that way.) In the first place both my wife and I have a certain bond in that the religious backgrounds of our families are somewhat similar.

Prayer in all its fullness is nothing else than making oneself open to God. This sounds very simple, but it is hardly an answer to the question ‘What is prayer?’ It is merely the start of the answer. What then is being open to God, and how does one make oneself open to God? Perhaps the best way for us to begin is by our considering the two most fundamental acts that man performs. Because he is man, and not animal, his most fundamental, most characteristic acts spring from his rational nature. Using a form of expression which is not fundamental, but which is nevertheless deep rooted, we say that these two most characteristic activities of man are those of his mind and his heart. With his mind he understands, and with his heart he loves. Being open to God, then, is having one's mind open to God and having one's heart open to God.

Origen, the great Alexandrian theologian who died in A.D. 253, is a key figure in the Christian tradition of scriptural interpretation. Earlier this year a monumental book appeared on ‘the sources and significance of Origen's interpretation of scripture'. The author, Dr R. C. P. Hanson, D.D., a senior lecturer in theology at Nottingham University. Allegory and Event is a sequel to Origen's Doctrine of Tradition, which appeared five years ago.

It is a book full of excellent qualities; great erudition, vigorous style, acute judgments. Dr Hanson's over-all estimate of Origen as a ‘prosaic rationalist', a theologian who seriously undervalued the significance of the saving event (heilsgeschichte) in Christian revelation, is probably to be preferred to the more favourable assessments of his thoughts made by the French Jesuits Frs de Lubac and Daniélou, who after Origen himself are the main targets of Dr Hanson's adverse criticisms.

In Easter 1955 at Freiburg-Wallenried, Father Conrad Fischer, parish priest and general secretary of Catholica Unio, was suddenly snatched from the fruitful field of his activities by a malignant disease. One year before his death he wrote to me on the question of the revival of the diaconate in the following terms:

I personally am deeply pre-occupied with the question, more deeply, perhaps, even than yourself. In very truth it could be the source of a unique renewal of vitality within the Catholic Church. The presence of one or several deacons living with their families in a parish would bring the Church to the notice of many laymen. People would be compelled to a far greater extent to take ‘churchfolk’ into account. The concerns of the Church would be more deeply impressed on the minds of lay-people… . Through the diaconate something would come to life again in the Church; the layman's sense of responsibility towards his parish.

Medieval saints are often difficult to understand. They flourished at a period when things were so very different from today that, however hard we try, we just cannot enter into their minds. We can't apply their lives to our own. Joan of Arc was inspiring but rather terrifying; some of the early monks did heroically saintly things which just amaze us. This is true, also, to a great extent of the mystics, but there is one big exception to the rule, and that is St Bridget of Sweden. She was, indeed, a mystic—she had more than her fair share of visions—and yet there was much in her life which can appeal to the modern Catholic. That she was an outstanding personality is attested by the great respect that the Swedes still bear for her even though the majority of them have abandoned the faith which was her guiding principle in life.

The first five verses of this psalm, from ‘My heart has uttered a good word’ to ‘Your right hand will conduct you wonderfully', Augustine has interpreted as being addressed to Christ, partly by God the Father, who utters a good word when he eternally begets the Son, and partly by the psalmist speaking prophetically. Then he continues in the same vein:

Your arrows are sharp, very potent.’ It means his words, piercing the heart, arousing love. As the bride says in the Canticle, ‘I have been wounded by charity’ (Cant, ii, 5). She means that she is in love, that she is on fire, that she is sighing for the bridegroom whose words have pierced her like arrows. ‘Your arrows are sharp, very potent', both piercing and effective. ‘Peoples will fall beneath you.’ They have been struck and have fallen.