PUBLICATIONS

New Zealand Tablet, 18 December 1913, Page 31

PUBLICATIONS

Bodily Health and Spiritual Vigor, by William J. Lockington, S.J. J p. 128; price, 2s 6d. Longmans. The principles of asceticism are unchangeable, but their application must change with the ever varying conditions of life and society. For man changes (let it not be said, for the worse) and the apparatus of virtue will be made to suit him and his needs. Formerly men had to mortify their appetites, nowadays many find they have no appetite to mortify; our ancestors had to invent austerities for their vigorous bodies, we find our austerities to hand. The times have gone by when a man ' wore a rapier at his side, and stabbed or was stabbed by his brother man in pure good-fellowship and sociable high spirits.' The body, has its claims and the spiritual director must recognise them. St. Francis of Assisi towards the end of his life admitted he had been too hard on his body, Brother Ass, and St. Ignatius Loyola found he had impaired his physical health by his severe but not over-wise penances at Manresa. That health has much to do with holiness has always been recognised, but it is only of late that spiritual writers are beginning to apply modern science and physiology to the science of spiritual life. Abp. Porter, a very prudent confessor, wrote some years ago to a penitent: ' Better far to eat meat on Good Friday than to live in war with every one about us. It is not wise to starve yourself into misery. Jealousy and all similar passions become intensified when the body is weak/ And now Father Lockington, a native of New Zealand, has just published some lectures he delivered on this subject to members of the Society of Jesus ' The aim of the lectures was to point out the evil effects consequent upon the neglect of the body, the house wherein the tenant soul must work; to show the obligation that exists of taking a rational care of the body and to furnish a practical method of keeping it in good working order' (Preface). The first part of the treatise deals with Body Training, its necessity for all, especially for clerics and religious, and its effects. The second part treats in a practical manner with questions of Food and Exercise ; and a detailed system of physical exercises, fully illustrated, is given. The author handles the important subject in a plain, sensible way, and the book should be useful to those who are anxious about their spiritual welfare and especially to those who have charge of the spiritual training of others. De Obligationibus, Ghristianorum Prqpriis, etc. : Dominicus Mannajoli. Pp. 250; price, 7s. Linehan, Melbourne.

The author of this work treats of two questions : first, of the obligations of those concerning the validity of whose Baptism there is some doubt; secondly, whether a heretic, who on returning to the Church is baptised conditionally, is bound to confess the sins he may have committed up to that time.. This second question has recently come into prominence owing to Instructions issued by the Holy Office in 1859, 1868, 1874, 1900. In opposition to Bucceroni,' Genicot, Gennai'i on the one hand and Lemkuhl, Noldin, and Pesch on the other, the author holds (a) that the obligation of an integral confession falls both on converts from heresy and adult Catholics who are baptised conditionally, and this obligation is de jure divino; (b) that the Instructions of the Holy Office, dealing, it is true, with particular cases, really apply to all cases of adults who are rebaptised, though it must be admitted (c) that no law or precept has yet been promulgated by the Church. The work is exhaustive and highly technical. Our copy is from W. P. Linehan, Melbourne.