LIFE IN THE NOVITIATE
The third in a series of articles by Leo Coshan, describing his experiences in the novitiate of the Societas Verbi Divini (S.V.D. Society of the Divine Word)

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Greetings from St. David's!
As I write this third article for you, my friends and fellow Catholics, it is summer. The days are sunny and warm though with many cool intervals. Let me begin with a prayer of thankseiving:
Heavenly Father, you fill the whole world with your presence. You bless us
with the changing seasons. Thank you for the summer with its long days and
warm temperatures, sunny spell and thundery showers, fragrant blossoms and growing new life. You continue to give us so much. You have given us your son, Jesus, renewing us daily with his sacramental presence. You have flooded our hearts with your Holy Spirit, filling our whole being with your constant love. Praise you and thank you, Father. May your Holy Spirit remain within us to help us to share with each other the joy of being yours. Mty these words be written with love, the love you poured in to our hearts through Jesus, your beloved Son and Our Lord. Amen!

When I began the first draft of this article we,were enjoying a long spell of sunshine. Perfect for holiday makers. But not so for dear Brrother who looks after the vegetable garden among other things. The long days were spent in waterihg his tomatoes and lettuces and all the other vegetablea that he grows and from which we eat. However, he is all smiles with the recent showers and lower temperatures. When we had the first downpour I visualized him jumping up and down in joy and kicking hie heels in a
hoZupiec. Brother is a Pole ann nearly 70 years oId (For those interested 'hoZupiec' pronounced 'howupiets' is a typical Polish folk dance step used in many dances like the krakowiak, mazurka , kujiawak, etc). Despite all the rain we have been having of late Brother keeps asking for more, and the good Lord has obliged.

The first thunderstorms came over about a fortnight ago. It was short and sharp. When it was over the sun came nut in all brilliance, recalling the last movements of Beethoven's sixth symphony, known as the Pastoral.

By the time this appears in print we shall be nearing the end of our canonical year. Taking up from my second article on 'Life in the Novitiate' our daily order remains much the same as before with some minor variations, mainly in the evening's recreation. Two weeks were spent raking up the grass which Robert has cut during the day. It was good fun, except that I was under constant attack by flies, who seemed to ignore my companions. Robert is
our gardener looking after the hedges, keeping the lawns trim and tidy and tending, with loving care, his flowers. He hails from Tyneside, is a Carme1ite tertiary and has resisited all invitations to Join the S.V.D. His usual comment on being asked how he is is 'Champion'. He has two familiars, cats, who have given us seven kittens and are about to give us some more. He calls them his tabby-snabs, conveying messages to the kitchen for salmon and
milk for them. In this he is not always successful. But there is no denying his
success in the flower displays that grace the altars of our chapel and the church at Ccrwen. 

Pursuing my reading of Scripture, I've just been through the Books of Tobit and Judith and am currently enjoying the bloodthirsty romance of Esther. It is
interesting to note that they are in the main fictional with very doubtful historical and geographical backgrounds. Judith in fact means Jewess and Esther is a Persian name. But each story has a moral purpos which is their 'Raison D'etre'.

In the New Testament I'm working my way steadily through Paul's letter to the .Romans. It is quite tough but wonderful for rneditation. In our conferences we are .examining our constitutions in depth and augmenting our scripture reading with a fleeting panorama of salvation history in the Old Testament. Currently we are exploring a theology of the O.T. Our free
·periods are much diminished. The washing up seems to take longer. Are we perhaps slowing up? But it is all to the good.

The tlme races by - days.turn into weeks and the weeks into months and eo on.  In our study we have finished the Gospel of John, if John is the author. The next lesson deals with that point. Is it another sacred cow? Having also covered the first 20 chapters of Acts plus the letters to the Galations, Thessalonians, Corinthlana and Romans I am now revising in depth. The problem is to remember all of this One is reminded of Mark 10.27 "With men it is impossible, but not with God".

Since Easter there has been an almost continuous stream of visitors. Some come here on retreat, others on holiday. The length of stay varies from a couple of da¥s to three weeks or so and on weekends ~ we entertain coachloads from Liverpool, Widnes, Wrexham, MoId a nd plaoes in the
neighbourhood. It is always a great joy to welcome them. Far from being too much of a distraction to us two novices, they help us to keep in touch with the world ouseide and also to value the quiet when they leave.

Over the past few weeks we have had Scouts camping n our sites. No sooner does one party leave than another comes so that the camping sites (There are about five) are always occupied. Every Sunday, while they are here our chapel is filled to overflowing. It's been standing room only for lateoomers the last two Sundays.

My previous article ended with an all too brief comment on the founder of our Society. We have been reading from a new publication received from Germany recently of the life of this little-known man. Here is an extract from the latest 'Word in the World'. a, finely produced volume of the work done over the past year,  a kind of year-book contributed by our brothers in 
the mission fields.
   Arnold ·Jannsen was born at Goch, a srnall frontier town in North West 
   Germany, of a Catholic family. His  parents were peasant farmers. His 
   father, Gerard, was a hard working man of fervent faith. Whenever his 
   crops were threatened by the weather, he would light a candle, fall to             his knees and cry aloud in prayer: 'In the beginning was the Word, nd the       Word was with God, and the Word was God ", The whole prologue to             John's Gospel would be recited in his prayer ending with 'And the Word         was made Flesh,and lived among us, full of grace and truth'.

This was also part of the family night prayers.·Often, while at work behind the plough, he would burst out aloud with these favourite words of his and startle the birds that hovered around. Arnold, one of eight children, grew up with this devotion to the Word of God. When in 1875 our Society was born, he gavle 1t the name 'Societyof the Divine Word'.

Quoting further and from our Father Superior General's reflections on the Society's role in the missions of the Church:

   Arnold was a man of God. God was a reality to him, the eternal reality of       all that was. It was as simple as that. To be ever more open to this reality,     to be ever more faithful in responding to it was the great concern of his life.

   He was a man for others. God meant so much to him that he could not           help but proclaim him to others. It was not enough that the heart of Jesus
   lived in his heart, he must leave nothing undone that would help make it         love in the hearts of all men. To this end he became a priest. To thls end       he became the promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer and tramped up and    down hhe dioceses of Germany stirring up interest in the Sacred Heart. To    this end he prayed and urged others to pray for the unity of the Christian        churches. To this end he wrote booklets and founded the Messenger of the    Sacred Heart. Gradually his pastoral horizons expand until they embraced    the whole world, .particularly those who had not as yet heard of Christ.

A few weeks ago the Universe carried a centre page feature on the Missions and Vocations which included a write-up by one of our students in London who was prematurely (by the Universe) promoted to Father. If I get
a Chance in my next article I would like briefly to outline the Ralson D'etre of the Society.

Before ending I must comment on the letter in the last issue of the 'Club News and Views' entitled 'To whom it may concern."

The letter seems to be the result of misunderstanding not confined to the author. God is to be praised and thanked for the Mass we celebrate today. Instead of' deploring any external changes of form let us focus our attention on the Word of God speakingto us in the Liturgy. That Word, the Son of God,is present in all his reality and substance. 'I'he way man weaves

the form of what he wishes to express in worship does not lessen or change th love and thanks offered to the Father through the Son who is himself present and taking the offering from and for us and giving himself back to us as the living bread. Let us not waste our energies in destruotive polemic. Christ has atoned for our ains onoe and for all time and it is our privilege to
to share in this gift. It is up to us to make the most of the advantage that He has already gained for us. 

To try to answer all tbe points in Patricia Dooley's letter is not my immediate
intention. Just one more comment on an important point of concern to me. It is about the 'pentecostal movement'. Not a few of you will be aware of the existence of this breath of the HoIy Spirit blowing in from the West. I prefer to see it as a renewal in the Spirit. It is a 'cha:dstnatlc' renewal, that is, a renewing of the charisme (the gifts) that God is pouring out on us as He gives us the Holy Spirit In Baptism. in Confirmation and, for those called, in Holy Orders. These gifts have always been present for our use. If we have neglected them that is our own fault. nut now is a time of renewal and God is showing us again that He is not a distant God but a God present in our midst and that he wants us to appreciate his gifts. He wants us to take Him at his word. Bessed be God, who is always renewing his church by his Holy Spirit, making young again what had grown old, yet always in such a way, that he makes 'the last things' to be as the first things' - That is how Simon Tugwell
begins his book on the charismatic renewal - 'Did you receive the Spirit?' .We are each one of us, always in need of renewal. Days of recollection,· Retreats, the Spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, Prayer workshops, Days of Renewal, these are all ways of renowlng our lives in God, not necessarily our way. Though we have heen converted (which means turned round to face the Lord) we need the conetant whisper of the Holy SpirIt In our spiritual ears to keep us converted to God. What the Holy
Spirit is doing in the charismatic renewal is to blow away the cobwebs that we may have allowed to dim our spiritual eyes so that we do not see the wood for the trees. While I can praise the Lord and thank Him
that more and more of His children are responding to the gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, blowing of the Holy Spirit, I can also praise and thank Him for making us so differernt from one another in.the way
that we may or may not respond to His leading. Far from the seemingly negative attitude of dear Patricla Dooley's letter mine ie one of optimistic joy that the Church is alive today despite all the attacks from both without and within. "The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her) (Mt.16;18). Jesus is the Son of God who raised Him from death and who lives oh In the Church in the Holy spirit.. This is the important truth. All else will follow and so we should not be overanxious.

I,wlll end this somewhat longish  article with a prayer that I might see YOU all soon, perhaps in November, oh a ramble  'For I am
longing to see you either to strengthen you by sharing a spiritual gift with you, or what is better, to find encouragement among you from our common faith (Romans 1;11).

Praise God forever.
LEO COSHAN, S.V.D.

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 Note for the website: Just in case any readers may wonder what gave rise to Leo's lengthy comments above I reproduce below the letter written by Patsy Dooley and published in previous magazine of the St Francis of Assisi Catholic Ramblers Club:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Shortened form of a duplicated letter dated 11.3.1975 sent to the Editor.  Every effort has been made to reproduce faithfully the opinions of the writer, which are not entirely shared by the Editor. Why not write and say what you think about it?

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As a practising Roman Catholic (although I count myself among the sinners) I deplore the new changes in the Mass which are being imposed on the long-suffering laity from above, with exceedingly doubtful credentials.  The question of obedience comes up here: obedience is relative: if one is asked to do something against ones conscience, one is not bound to obey. If Joan of Arc had obeyed her bishop, she would have denied Cod, She was true to God and

was burned at the stake.

Seeing the way in which the Church, i.e. where our divine Lord dwells in the tabernacle 24 hours of every day, was deteriorating, the Blessed Sacrament increasingly ignored, the lack of respect and reverence shown to the point where there seems hardly a single church left in London where one can pray without continual interruptions I decided to pray more. If not in Church then in a 'prayer group'. Thus was I led into the pentecostal movement, or the charismatic renewal movement as it is called, with many kind people praying for me (while I prayed with and for them) I was led to have recourse to Our Lady, the immaculate sorrowful mother of the God who suffered a horrible and painful death that I and his Church and all who wish it - might be saved from Hellfire and eternal

damnation, Gradually my heavenly mother (who is also Mother of God) made many things clear to me which I needed to know. I learned to compare the relevant, statements of our Holy Father Paul VI, the decrees of Vatican Councils I and 11, with what was actually going on in the English-speaking Church. And I gradually realised that the

Church is not only going through a terrible crisis, but that much is going on which is contrary to the spirit of the Gospels, the tradition of Holy Church through the centuries guided by the Holy Spirit, and the express will of Our Sovereign Pontiff and the lawfully constituted magisterium.

A quick look at the history of the Church through the centuries reminded me that many bishops have been or have become heretics and even apostates, taking with them many blindly obedient sheep of our Divine

Shepherd. I read the life of St. Thomas Becket, who died a saint and martyr, and read of his defence of the rights of God and Holy Mother Church. I remembered that at the Reformation only St. John Fisher

among the English bishops was found faithful. I learnt to distinguish between true and false humility, true and false obedience true and false charity. There is the charity in leading thousands to the holocaust

- for without the Mass how can atonement be made for the sins of the world? Luther said: ‘If you want to destroy the Catholic Church, change the Mass. The Mass has been changed and the Church – and with it the whole world is in danger, How dare our bishops impose upon the faithful. false and even dangerous misinterpretations of Scripture. How dare they alter the 'words of the 'Our Father' - kept intact even by Protestants for many centuries. How dare they alter the .creed - of which

to a large extent the same might be said. It was not necessary to change the 'Confiteor'. How dare they forbid what is lawful: ie the public or private celebration of the Latin Tridentine Mass of St. Pius V"- which· renders then thereby anathema. For what is the head but Peter? And who is Peter but the whole succession of Popes to the present day?

Pope Paul VI has said: 'We live in an apocalyptic age. There has been no increase in the holiness of priests or laity since the Mass was last seriously tampered with in 1969/70. On the contrary, many people have ceased to be practising Catholics. The custom of paying honour to God (the honour due to Him alone) by exposition and Benediction is in decline. Many priests have left and others give bad example. The situation today is so serious that the Pope himself has warned us of the danger. 'Satan is in the Church' he has said. How true. Read the encyclical letters ‘Mediator Dei'(1947) of Pope Pius XII and 'Mysterium Fidei'(1965) of Pope Paul VI published in English by the C.T.S.

After all this, compare the beautiful prayers of the Latin Tridentine Mass in the faithful English translation with the current 'Order of Mass’ and that which is now to be imposed. So many errors will be found that it is unnecessary to enumerate them further. I therefore, with deepest sorrow and grief of heart, sign myself, in all humility, a poor sinner tempted to

despair

PATRICIA K. DOOLEY(Miss)

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