Council of Elvira

Vol 8 Issue 44 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
October 31, 2015 ~ Our Lady on Saturday

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (40)
2. Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
3. All Saints
4. Christ in the Home (15)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

The Communion of Saints is one of the most consoling part of the Catholic Faith in her intercessory action. The Saints in Heaven intercede for those on earth and we pray to the saints for their intercession to help save our souls as well as we pray for one another that each has the grace to obtain eternal salvation. Knowing this, that being part of the Communion of Saints all members assist one another—even the souls in Purgatory have the faithful on earth making satisfaction for their sins—to reign with Christ in Heaven, to enjoy the Beatific Vision, brings reassurance that the faithful Catholic is not alone and not wanting to be alone encourages the devout Catholic to join in the prayers, alms and acts of penance the other members are performing. In the same vein November not only reminds us of the Communion of Saints with the Feast of All Saints and the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed, but also in through these acts Holy Mother Church encourages especially during these days and the whole month for the Souls in Purgatory with the lure of indulgences added to increase our life of intercession and asking for intercession. May we be reminded of our patron Saint to ask his or her intercession; may we remember those deceased in our families—the ones in heaven to pray for us on All Saints, the ones in purgatory to pray for them on All Souls; and may we look forward to joining the Saints while doing penance now to avoid a delay in purgatory later.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit.—The Editor

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Sacrament of Baptism

An Early Controversy Concerning Baptism

The Church Defines her Teachings on Baptism 

In the last section the controversy Saint Cyprian introduced into the Church was deliberated. Because of his arguments for the unity of the Church, which were accepted as orthodox, his arguments for re-baptism seemed plausible and, despite the condemnation by Pope Stephen I, became accepted in the African Churches as well as many Churches in Asia. Re-baptism of those baptized by schismatics and heretics would be a topic that would extend through the fourth century and only end with Saint Augustine’s refutations of the Donatists. The other controversy, which also involved Cyprian in the beginning, but was the rallying point of the anti-pope Novatian, began as an attack against the laxity of Pope Cornelius toward those who denied the faith during the persecution under Decius. Novatian continued the accusations as defending his claim to the papacy by implementing a more rigoristic view then Cornelius and denying absolution to lapsed Catholics and the denial of baptism to lapsed catechumens until death or after extreme penances. The influences of Church discipline at this point of Church history may be too varied to cover in this short section, but baptism was being delayed even for infants. All sides of the debate seem to agree on only one point: At the hour of death none should be deprived of baptism, absolution or viaticum (Communion), as seen in this decree from the Council of Nicaea (325):

Canon. 13. Concerning these, who approach death, even now the ancient and regular law will be kept; so that, if anyone is departing from the body, he be not deprived of the last and necessary viaticum. But if after being despaired of, and receiving communion, and being made a sharer of the oblation, he again regains his health, let him be among those who receive only the communion of prayer. Generally, however, to everyone without exception placed at death and requesting that the grace of communion be given him, the bishop probably ought to give from the oblation. (D 57)

One reads in the life of Saint Augustine that he, too, was deprived of Baptism though his mother was a pious Christian who would become Saint Monica. With such notions becoming prevalent the Bishops on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) decreed at the Council of Illiberi (Elvira) between the years 300-306 the following:

Canon 38. If people are traveling by sea in a foreign place or if there is no church in the neighborhood, a person of the faith who keeps his baptism sound and is not twice married, can baptize a catechumen placed in the exigency of sickness, on condition that, if he survives, he bring him to a bishop, in order that it may be made perfect by the imposition of the hand. (D 52d)

The Council further instructs deacons to baptize those who wish this sacrament, even if the baby or catechumen may never receive any other sacrament (Confirmation, mentioned in both passages, is administered normally by the bishop, never by a deacon):

Canon 77. If any deacon ruling the people without a bishop or priest baptizes some, the bishop will have to confirm these by a blessing; but if they should depart the world beforehand, in the faith in which anyone of them has believed, that one can be justified. (D 52e)

Thus it appears the Iberian bishops give an almost blanket permission to baptize anyone at any time and that even a lay person may do so in opposition to the Novatians. This is something one learns in Catechetical instruction even to this day: In case of emergency anyone may baptize (cf. Batimore Catechism c. 24, q. 318).

Pope Saint Siricius (384-398) in his epistle Directa ad decessorem to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona (Iberia or present Spain) on February 10, 385, affirms what the Council of Elvira had decreed, while at the same time attempting to keep the custom of the Church to reserve baptism to the days prescribed:

(Chapter 2, § 3) Just as We say, then, that the sacred reverence due to Easter is in no respect to be reduced, so we wish that aid be brought with all swiftness to infants who, because of their age, are not yet able to speak as well as to those who require the water of sacred baptism in any necessity whatsoever, so that it may not redound to the loss of our soul if, after those who desired it are denied the font of salvation, one (of them), when he departs this world, loses both his life and the kingdom (of heaven). Let anyone, likewise, who is in danger of shipwreck, the attack of an enemy, the uncertainty of a siege, or the hopelessness of some bodily illness and who requests that help be provided him by the incomparable aid of the faith obtain the reward of a speedy rebirth at the very moment when he requests it. The error made in this respect up to this point should be enough; from now on, let all priests hold to the aforesaid rule if they do not wish to be torn from the firmness of the apostolic rock upon which Christ has built his whole Church.(Denzinger-Hünermann, 184)

In other words, Pope Siricius is teaching that infants and those in danger of any kind of possibility of death need not wait for the Easter Vigil, the assigned day for baptisms and in which normally those preparing for baptism were to be enrolled before Lent and in which no one could then join the catechumens preparing once the second week of Lent had begun, leaving more than a year before the next cycle of preparation and the possibility of death overtaking the infants or those in risk of death. As explained previously, baptism removes both original sin and, for those who have arrived at the age of reason, any actual sin. The Church teaches that one need not have perfect contrition to have actual sin taken away through Baptism or Confession, imperfect contrition is sufficient—but imperfect contrition isn’t sufficient to take away actual sin of itself, leaving one in actual sin and the loss of one’s soul. Infants (who are not able to speak) are not able to desire baptism, so the words loses his life and the kingdom does not refer to the infants, but those capable of personal sin. Finally, the phrase if . . . one of them definitely excludes that he is implying all of them. The Church is here to save all souls and does not wish any to be lost. She knows those who are baptized are assured of salvation if they have persevered in sanctifying grace, or, having lost grace, obtained it anew through the sacrament of penance. She does not deny, in so saying, it is possible to obtain the forgiveness of sins through a perfect act of contrition without confession—or justification before baptism. [N.B., there is also a commentary by Steven Speray, Brother Peter Dimond, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and Baptism of Desire of April 27, 2012, that would say these words apply to the Bishops in neglecting their duty].

The second effort of the Universal (Catholic) Church was to continue the fight against the observances of the African Church and its insistence on re-baptism. The Council of Arles (314), with the Bishops of Gaul (France) in attendance, found that they, too, would need to contend with this error. The following decree was formulated to confront the issue:

Canon 8. Concerning the Africans, because they use their own law so as to re-baptize, it has been decided that, if anyone from a heretical sect come to the Church, he should be asked his creed, and if it is perceived that he has been baptized in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, only the hand should be imposed upon him, in order that he may receive the Holy Spirit. But if upon being questioned he does not answer this Trinity, let him be baptized. (D 53)

The Council of Nicaea, which met in 325 chiefly to fight the growing heresy of Arians, who denied that the Son of God was consubstantial with God the Father and, therefore, Jesus Christ was a creature of God, still found it necessary to address the controversy surrounding baptism. The following decree re-affirmed what Pope Stephen taught:

Canon 8. Concerning those who call themselves Cathari [Novatians] that is, clean, if at any time they come to the Catholic Church, it has been decided by the holy and great Council, that, provided they receive the imposition of hands, they remain among the clergy. However, because they are accepting and following the doctrines of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, it is fitting that they acknowledge this in writing before all; that is, both that they communicate with the twice married and with those who have lapsed during a persecution. (D 55)

And, against the rigoristic trend, that there should be an amelioration for the relapsed catechumen: Canon 14. Concerning catechumens who have lapsed, the holy and great Synod has decreed that, after they have passed three years only as hearers, they shall pray with the catechumens. That is, rejoin those preparing for baptism.

The Council also clarified once more that Gnostics do need to be rebaptized, as later Councils would also indicate any sect not baptizing in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy—as Christ commanded—were invalid:

Canon 19. Concerning the Paulianists who take refuge with the Catholic Church, a decree has been published that they should be fully baptized. If, however, any of these in time past have been in the clerical order, if indeed they have appeared spotless and above reproach, after being baptized, let them be ordained by the bishop of the Catholic Church. . . . (D 19)

Later in the century the Council of Constantinople (381) would add to the Nicene Creed these words: We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. (D 86) It sealed that there was only one sacramental baptism in opposition to the Africans who claimed there was the baptism of those in union with the pope and another of the schismatics, re-affirming the decree of the Council of Nicaea (cf. Can. 8) that all who baptized in the name of Christ with proper form (I Baptize you in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost) and matter (water) with the proper intention (as Christ commanded) did so validly.

The Council of Constantinople had just ended (382) and already Pope Siricius, previously mentioned, had to remind the bishops of the Church of this teaching regarding baptism. Here one reads in the letter (February 10, 385) to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona, the following words:

(Chap. 1, § 2) [You have indicated] . . . that many of those baptized by the impious Arians are hastening to the Catholic faith and that some among our brothers wish to baptize them again: this is not allowed, for the apostle forbids it to be done [cf Eph 4:5; Heb 6:4f (?)] and the canons oppose it, and the general decrees [1] sent to the provinces by my predecessor Liberius, of venerable memory, after the annulment of the synod of Rimini, likewise forbid it. We receive these (Arians) into the community of the Catholics, along with the Novatianists and the other heretics, in the manner decided in the synod: through the sole invocation of the sevenfold Spirit by the imposition of a bishop’s hand, as is likewise observed throughout all of the East and the West. If you do not wish to be separated from our communion by means of a synodal decision, you also, from now on, must not deviate in the least from this practice. (Denzinger-Hünermann, 183; cf. D 88)

The Church, then, made it clear that anyone could baptize, the words of baptism are I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and no one should be deprived of this sacrament when in danger or risk of death. Finally, it also forbade re-baptizing if one was baptized as Christ commanded using the above mentioned words.

(To be continued)

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Week of Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

De profundis                            

1. The liturgy takes great pains during the last weeks of the Church year to keep alive in the hearts of all Christians the thought of the day when the bridegroom will return, and it inspires them with great hope in that day. It strengthens men in the hope that He “also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”; [Epistle for the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost.] it would have us always prepared, that we “may be sincere and without offense unto the day of Christ.” [Epistle for the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.] We are invited to celebrate the joyful feast of All Saints for eight days, and we are also allowed to share that ardent longing for heaven which possesses the souls of those in purgatory. The Church then prays for us that “we may be delivered from the trammels of our sins” (Collect) and not be “overcome by human dangers” (Postcommunion). She admonishes us always to stand fast in the Lord” (Epistle). She knows well how easy it is to desert Christ and to fix our attention on the things of this world.
2. “Stand fast in the Lord.” We are incorporated in Christ through baptism. From that moment on Christ relives His life in us. His thoughts and desires are not centered on earthly things, on lust and uncleanness, on honors, pleasures, and luxurious living. All that is sinful or displeasing to His father is entirely foreign to Him; Christ has the will of His Father always before His eyes. Christ lives in us here on earth the life that we shall live in eternity, a life of continual union with God. Thus His conversation is in heaven. This “conversation” consists in the contemplation of the Father, a continual devotion to what the Father loves and to the unbroken adoration and praise of the Father. It is in effect an eternal “I go to the Father” (John 14:28).

Christ has joined us to Himself through baptism in order that He may be able to live His life again in us, and live it to the end. By means of Holy Communion, He daily deepens this union in order that we may be filled with His spirit and His strength, that we who are the members of the mystical body may share more perfectly in the life of the head. The more perfectly we become united to Him, the more perfectly is our conversation in heaven. Thus we also become more perfectly detached from worldly goods through a joyful self-abnegation and a renunciation of inordinate occupations, possessions, desires, honors, and worldly esteem. In Christ the things of this world lose their value for us. We become like the Apostle who, once he had caught a glimpse of the glory of heaven (II Cor. 12:1 ff.), considered as dung all that he had heretofore valued and trusted in. He is now “in Christ”; he is possessed by Christ, and he forgets all that lies behind him, all that is earthly. He longs only for the things that await him, and attends only to the mission to which God has called him through Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:5 ff.), Today the liturgy directs our attention to him: “Brethren, be followers of me” (Epistle).

“Many walk that are enemies of the cross of Christ” (Epistle). They have renounced Satan and his works, and have received the impression of the sign of the cross on their breasts and foreheads to show that they belong to Christ crucified. Through their baptism they were engrafted as branches on the vine which is Christ, in order that they might live by Him. “The flesh that is reborn through baptism is the flesh of the Crucified” (St. Leo the Great). “With Christ I am nailed to the cross” (Gal. 2:1 g). “But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). But today some Christians walk as “enemies of the cross of Christ,” for they “mind earthly things” (Epistle). The Apostle wept bitterly over these wayward Christians, and today the Church does the same, “Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord; Lord hear my prayer” (Offertory). But she also prays for them: “Remit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the sins of Thy people, that by Thy kindness we may be delivered from the trammels of our sins” (Collect), from the trammels of earthly goods and possessions.

In the person of the ruler of the synagogue the Church approaches the Lord, “My daughter is even now dead; but come, lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall live” (Gospel). And He assures her: “I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction” (Introit). “Amen I say to you, whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive, and it shall be done to you” (Communion).

3. “Stand fast in the Lord.” We must stand fast in the Lord through our continual consciousness of our living union with Him who is our head. We have been elevated above all that is merely natural or temporal, for “our conversation is in heaven” (Epistle).

After having received so many graces, should we not be entirely possessed by Christ? Should we not by this time consider all that is precious in the eyes of worldly men but as dung? Are we to be numbered among those who walk as “enemies of the cross of Christ; . . . who mind earthly things? But our conversation is in heaven.”

PRAYER

We beseech Thee, almighty God, that Thou wilt not permit to be overcome by human dangers those whom Thou grantest to rejoice in the participation in the divine mysteries. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Postcommunion.)

 “I will take you to Myself”

1. This joyful message the Church brings us today: “1 will bring back your captivity from all places” (Introit). The Lord has ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us. “If I shall go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am, you also may be” (John 14:3).
2. “He shall come again,” the Church assures us in the Credo. The Lord Himself has to return. “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. . . . All tribes . . . shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty. And He shall send His angels with a trumpet and a great voice; and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them” (Matt. 24:30ff). “But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand” (Luke 21: 28). He will come to judge the wicked and “to be glorified in His saints [the baptized] and to be made wonderful in all them who have believed” (II Thess. 1:10). “All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28 I.). “And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But every one in his own order: the first fruits, Christ; then they that are of Christ, who have believed in His coming. Afterwards the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when He shall have brought to nought all principality and power and virtue. For He must reign until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. And the enemy, death, shall be destroyed last” (I Cor. 15:22-26). Once He has subjected ‘all things to Himself, He will take us by the hand and lead us to the Father, saying, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). Then the promise will be fulfilled, “I shall come again and will take you to Myself.” We trust in this promise of the Lord, and in His will and His ability to fulfill it. “Lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand.”

“That where 1 am, you also may be” (John 14:3). “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me” (John 17:24), not only as My brethren, but as members of My mystical body. Therefore if I am in glory, they also shall be there with Me as My members. “That they may see My glory, which Thou hast given Me” (John 17:24). Yes, they shall receive this glory themselves; for I “will reform the body, . . . made like to the body of [My] glory” (Epistle). Father, “I in them, and Thou in Me” (John 17:23). Therefore the love which Thou hast for Me must be given to them also. And the joy and glory and blessing which Thou hast given Me, must be given to them also, that My joy may be made perfect in them.

Who indeed can comprehend “what things God hath prepared for them that love Him” (I Cor. 2:9). All these things have been prepared for us, who are the members of Christ, who are members of His spouse, the Church.

3. O marvelous mystery of our union with Christ through baptism and the Holy Eucharist! O marvelous mystery of the communion of saints! “I will that where 1 am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me” (John 17:24). I am the head, you are the members. “I am the vine, you the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into fire, and he burneth” (John 15:5 f.).

“Thou hast delivered us, O Lord, from them that afflict us; and hast put them to shame that hate us. In God shall we glory all the day; and in Thy name we will give praise forever” (Gradual).

PRAYER

Remit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the sins of Thy people, that by Thy kindness we may be delivered from the trammels of our sins, in which through our frailty we have become entangled. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

NOVEMBER 1 

All Saints

1. “Gaudeamus! Rejoice we all in the Lord, as we keep holiday in honor of all the saints; whose feast makes angels joyful and sets them praising the Son of God” (Introit). We join the angels in singing the praises of the «King of all the saints,” of Christ, our Lord and Redeemer. We are conscious of our fellowship with our happy brethren in heaven in the oneness of the body of Christ.
2. “Then I saw a great multitude, past all counting, taken from all nations and tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne in the Lamb’s presence, clothed in white robes, with palm-branches in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, all saving power belongs. And all the angels that were standing round the throne, round the elders and the living figures, fell prostrate before the throne and paid God worship; Amen, they cried, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength belong to our God through endless ages, Amen” (Lesson). These are blessed, happy ones who are saved and are praising God for His goodness to them. It is these whom the Gradual addresses: “Those who fear him never go wanting. Those who search for the Lord are denied none of his blessings.” They possess Him and in Him the fullness of good things. They are perfectly satisfied, eternally content. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened; I will give you rest in heaven” (Alleluia verse). We rejoice with our redeemed brethren in their happy attainment of their goal. We, too, have been created for heaven.

The road on which they have sought and found their goal is the one pointed out unmistakably by Christ: “Ever since John the Baptist’s time, the kingdom of heaven has opened to force: and the forceful are even now making it their prize” (Matt. 11: 12). Anyone who thinks he can gain heaven without doing violence to himself, without conquering, without daily dying to his own will-such a one is deceiving himself. Those who enter heaven are the “poor in spirit,” who have freed themselves from everything that is not God: the meek, who bear insult and injustice calmly, without returning evil; those who have renounced the world’s enjoyments to find their joy in God; those who hunger for justice and earnestly work to sanctify themselves; the merciful, who sincerely sympathize with their brethren in bodily or spiritual distress; the clean of heart who fly from every willful imperfection; the peace-lovers, who cling to God’s good pleasure and thus preserve peace of soul; those who for Christ’s sake bear rash judgment and slanderous abuse in patience. To all these our Lord’s promise applies: “Be glad and light-hearted, for a rich reward awaits you in heaven” (Gospel).

3. “These . . . have come out of the great affliction; they have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. And now they stand before God’s throne. . . . They will not be hungry or thirsty any more . . . . The Lamb, who dwells where the throne is, will be their shepherd, leading them out to the springs whose water is life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Apoc. 7:14-17). “God’s throne (which is the Lamb’s throne) will be there, with his servants to worship him, and to see his face, his name written on their foreheads . . . the Lord God will shed his light on them, and they will reign for ever and ever” (Apoc. 22:3-5). Truly, “the souls of the just are in God’s hands, beyond the reach of their tormentors’ malice. Fools account them dead, but all is well with them” (Offertory).

All Saints is the day of the triumph of grace over fallen human nature; the triumph of the Church; the triumph of her doctrine, her preaching, her sacraments and her priesthood. By the power of the Holy Eucharist, especially, the Church has turned sinners into saints. In the strength of this Sacrament our brothers and sisters in Christ have, in spite of human weakness, walked the way of the beatitudes and become holy. We therefore remain true to the Church and her Sacrifice, we too are on the sure way to heaven.

The saints of heaven whom we contemplate admiringly today are the fruit of the Incarnation of the Son of God, of His “emptying Himself and becoming obedient unto death.” In the saints we see ultimately Christ Himself, the working of His grace, of His spirit, of His power. He continues to live His life on earth in them, just as the vine lives on in the branches. It is a life of voluntary self-denial, obedience, virginity, adoration, surrender to God, penance, and atonement. The saints are what they are entirely through Christ; they are reflections of the power of the King of apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins. We recognize in them the power of the Redemption. The same power of Christ that was operative in the saints and led them to the heights of holiness is at work in us too, who are called to the heights of Christian virtue and sanctity; and it will accomplish that end in us.

Collect: Almighty, everlasting God, by whose leave we pay homage to the merits of all Thy saints in one great festival, we pray Thee bestow upon us, at their manifold intercession, the fullness of that mercy of Thine, for which we long. Amen.

CHRIST IN THE HOME

BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.

(1951)

MARRIAGE 

MOTHERHOOD

THE writer who said, “Man conquers and woman gives herself,” was correct. Such indeed is the difference between man and woman in their attitude to life. His is an active heroism; hers a passive heroism. For the grown man, life is but a series of conquests; he goes from one victory to the other, carried along by the zest of it until he fails. Woman makes a gift of herself to life; she spends herself to the point of exhaustion for her husband, for her children, for those who suffer, for the unfortunate. But this gift of hers in its fullest significance is childbirth, a supreme act of passive heroism. Giving birth to a child is not a purely physical achievement. A mind, a soul come to life and uniting with the foetus form, without the mother’s awareness, a man—a miracle indeed.

What is the most wonderful is the blossoming and growth of maternal love in the woman from the very moment of her child’s conception, through its birth, and throughout its whole life, but particularly during its baby days.

In a certain sense, every woman from her earliest years has the makings of a mother in her. As a little girl she plays with her doll, and the game holds her interest only because her imagination transforms the rag doll or china doll she clasps in her already expert arms into a living child. So true is this, that even virginal souls who consecrate themselves to the service of the neighbor may be called mother; that they really are for their poor, their orphans, their sick . . .

But it is quite evident that at the time of actual maternity, of physical maternity, a special creation is effected in the woman. At the same time that milk mounts to her breast, maternal love takes possession of her soul, a love of a very special quality which does not precede but which follows childbirth. Before the child appears, there can be expectation, yearning, vague tenderness like the dawn preceding day; it is not yet maternal love in the strongest and strictest sense of the word.

The child is born. The woman, even though she had been extremely lazy, manifests an astonishing energy for all that concerns her baby. Though she had been previously most shiftless now she becomes ingenious, attentive, watchful and almost anxious. No one need tell her that her tiny babe can do nothing for itself and that it is exposed to danger of death at almost every instant. She anticipates its needs, its desires and a frown appears at the least cloud that passes over the cradle. No trouble daunts her. As a young girl and young woman she grumbled over sacrifice and became irritable; now she is eager in sacrifice—hours of watching, getting up at night; if not able to nurse the child, she makes minute preparation of formulas, and even later, pays careful attention to the kinds of food the baby may have. It all seems to come to her naturally; it seems to be second-nature. But even if she has acquired her knowledge through training and study in special courses which she may have taken with no particular relish, now she carries it out with special zest and warmth of feeling.

If her baby is well formed, beautiful, healthy and lively, she rejoices. But if, unfortunately, it is deformed, weak, listless, her love increases. It is as if she wishes to shower him with love to make up to the little one for all he lacks as if by clasping it more tenderly to herself she can supplement its life.

Should her child later become a prodigal, she will have for him an astonishing partiality; if she believes him to be a hero, it is her prejudice in his favor! Marvelous contradiction in which maternal love reveals itself!

How eagerly she desires the father’s love for the child. Then again she is afraid that the father will not be sufficien

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