8 research outputs found
Mobile communication experience of students in exchange programs between Indonesia and the Philippines
No full textThe use of technology and mobile communication became prevalent with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, where activities such as student exchange between two universities can be conducted virtually. Mobile communication, in this case, is related to communication using cellular devices based on computer technology, but also the characteristics of mobile communication itself, which is mobility or its ability to be used anywhere and at any time. The study aims to examine the lived experiences of mobile communication on undergoing student exchange programs between Indonesia and the Philippines. The study was conducted using the qualitative method with in-depth interviews as data collection. The research's informants are students from universities in Indonesia and the Philippines. Data were interpreted through a thematic analysis. The research found that mobile communication positively affected the students' learning and experience, mainly how it helps them continue their education despite being disrupted by the pandemic. However, poor connection, English skills, and language barriers affect their academic performance. Recommendations are put forward for further studies to focus on how the language barrier affected students' learning and behaviors on mobile communication. Another further study that can be done is to explore mobile communication through theories in virtual exchange. They are polymedia and affordance theories. Academic institutions should help and monitor students’ understandings that would help and allow the students to understand and learn more
Effect of anastrozole on bone mineral density and lipid profiles when used to prevent breast cancer in high risk postmenopausal women
No full textPhDThe role of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) in breast cancer has expanded since their introduction in
the mid-1990s. They are superior to tamoxifen in the treatment of postmenopausal women with
oestrogen dependant tumours in the metastatic, neoadjuvant, and adjuvant settings and are
currently been explored as chemopreventive agents. When compared to tamoxifen they are
known to reduce bone mineral density (BMD), increase fracture rate, increase joint symptoms,
and may also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. The International Breast Cancer
Intervention Study-II (IBIS-II) is the only breast cancer prevention randomised trial studying
the role of anastrozole versus placebo in preventing breast cancer in postmenopausal women
with a high risk of breast cancer.
Methods
This thesis focus on four main areas: (a) Analysis of data from the bone sub-study of the IBISII
study, exploring the effects of anastrozole on bone mineral density at 12 and 36-months, and
the ability of bisphosphonates treatment to reduce bone loss in women with low mineral density
(BMD) at baseline. (b) Analysis of data from the prevention stratum of the IBIS-II study,
exploring the effect of anastrozole on cholesterol fractions. (c) Analysis of the data from the
Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination (ATAC) trial, exploring different risk factors
for fractures in women with breast cancer who received either anastrozole or tamoxifen for five
years (d) Analysis of data from the prevention stratum of the IBIS-II study, exploring if baseline
25(OH) vitamin D levels predicted arthralgia within one year of study.
Results
Women with normal BMD at baseline had a significant BMD loss at lumbar spine and total hip
for both anastrozole and placebo. However, the BMD loss at lumbar spine was significantly
11
greater with anastrozole. Osteopenic women, who received anastrozole plus risedronate, after
12-months of treatment gained significant bone density at lumbar spine compared to women
receiving anastrozole without risedronate, but not at total hip. At 36 months, there was no
significant gain in bone density either at lumbar spine or total hip. In osteoporotic women,
risedronate abrogated the detrimental effect of anastrozole, after 12 months of treatment,
significantly at lumbar spine, but not at total hip. After 36 months of treatment, risedronate still
abrogated the effect of anastrozole at lumbar spine, but not significantly. These 12 and 36-
months data suggest that bone loss associated with anastrozole may be manageable with DXA
monitoring and bisphosphonate use.
Use of anastrozole did not lead to any significant changes in total cholesterol and high-density
lipoprotein cholesterol levels when compared with placebo, except that anastrozole marginally
decreased TC levels. These data support the lack of cardiovascular toxicity with anastrozole
seen in the adjuvant trials.
Using a model containing the following risk factors; age, weight/height/BMI, geographical
regions, smoking, use of statins and other medication at baseline, previous chemotherapy,
previous radiotherapy and trial therapy, only treatment, age and geographical regions were
found to be significantly associated with fracture risk.
No significant effect of baseline vitamin D levels were seen on the risk of musculoskeletal
symptoms in healthy postmenopausal women at a high risk of breast cancer. The serum 25 (OH)
vitamin D levels significantly increased in the anastrozole group from baseline to 12 months,
when compared with placebo
The Gospel of Thomas and the earliest texts of the synoptic gospels
No full textResearch on the Gospel of Thomas in the last quarter of a
century has made it clear that the origins of this apocryphal gospel
cannot
be
satisfactorily explained from a single point of view. The
author thus suggests that Thomas
be
understood as a growing collection
of sayings which originated in various places and languages, with some
logia being added to the collection after its inception. While this
suggestion is by no means new, there have been few extensive attempts
to study Thomas from such a presupposition.
Due to the need for a control group, only the logia which have
rather close parallels to the Synoptic gospels are investigated. Verbal and textual affinities are noted between these logia and the earliest texts of the Gospels (the Coptic versions, the Diatessaron, the
Old Syriac version, and other early versions and Christian writings).
Various degrees of probable contact between each logion and these
texts are assigned.
The results of this study give some idea as to the place of
origin, the original language, and the approximate date at which certain logia were added to the collection. Those sayings which show a
closer affinity to the Diatessaron, the Old Syriac version, or other
Syrian writings may
be
considered as having been added to the sayings
collection as it circulated in its earliest form, possibly in a Semitic language. Other logia which show no signs of awareness of a
Syrian reading, but which are similar to variants found in the Coptic
versions or other Egyptian texts, may well have originated in Egypt
and been added to the collection at a later stage. These results,
however, must await verification by those who might approach Thomas
from related, but different, perspectives
Beyond the pink: (post) youth iconography in cinema
No full textBeyond the Pink: (Post) Youth Iconography in Cinema is a project in cultural time travel. It cuts up linear cinematic narratives to develop a hop-scotched history of youth, Generation X and (post) youth culture. I focus upon the pleasures, pedagogies and (un)popular politics of a filmic genre that continues to be dismissed as unworthy of intellectual debate. Accelerated culture and the discourse of celebrity have blurred the crisp divisions between fine art and crude commodity, the meaningful and meaningless, and real and fictive, unsettling the binary logic that assigns importance to certain texts and not others. This research project prises open that awkward space between representation and experience.
Analysts require methods and structures through which to manage historical change and textual movement. Through cinema, macro-politics of identity emerge from the micro-politics of the narrative. Prom politics and mallrat musings become imbued with social significance that speak in the literacies available to youth. It grants the ephemerality and liminality of an experience a tactile trace. I select moments of experience for Generation X youth and specific icons - Happy Harry Hardon, Molly Ringwald, the Spice Girls, the Bitch, the invisible raver, teen time travellers Marty McFly and Donnie Darko, and the slacker - to reveal the archetypes and ideologies that punctuate the cinematic landscape. The tracked figures do not configure a smooth historical arc. It is in the rifts and conflicts of diverse narratives and subjectivities where attention is focused.
This research imperative necessitates the presentation of a series of essays arranged in a tripartite framework. The first section proposes theoretical paradigms for a tethered analysis of filmic texts and Generation X. The second segment explores sites of struggle in public spaces and time. The final section leaves the landscape of post-Generation X to forge the relationship between history, power and youth identity. I particularly focus on the iconography, ideologies and imaginings of young women to lead the discussion of the shifts in the experience and representations of youth. By reinserting women into studies of film, it is imperative to stress that this is not a dissertation in, and of, women's cinema. Rather, it serves as an historical corrective to the filmic database.
The existing literature on youth cinema is disappointing and narrow in its trajectories. Timothy Shary's Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema and Jon Lewis' The Road to Romance and Ruin: Teen Films and Youth Culture exemplify the difficulties of capturing the complexities of individual films when they are collated in artificial and stifling categories. At one end of the analytical spectrum is the critique that comes with the caveat of 'it's just another teen movie'. Jonathon Bernstein's monograph Pretty in Pink: The Golden Age of Teenage Movies is one such example which derails into acerbic diatribes and intellectual dismissal. The Cinema of Generation X: A Critical Study by Peter Hanson is a more successful project that is interested in the influences that inform a community of filmmakers than arriving at a catalogue of generic themes and narratives. There is an emphasis on the synergy between text, producer and readership.
I continue this relationship explored by Hanson, but further accent the politics of film. The original contribution to knowledge offered by this doctoral thesis is a detailed study of (post) youth popular culture, building into a model for Generation X cinema, activating the interdisciplinary perspectives from film and cultural studies. With its adaptability into diverse media forms, cultural studies paradigms allow navigation through the expansive landscape of popular culture. It traverses beyond simple textual analyses to consider a text's cultural currency. As an important carrier of meaning and sensory memories, cinema allows for alternative accounts that are denied in authorised history. As a unique form with its own visual literacy, screen theory is needed to refine observations. This unique melding of screen and cultural studies underscores the convergent relationship between text, readership, production and politics.
This doctoral thesis activates concepts and methods of generationalism, nationalism, social history and cultural practice. There is a dialogue between the chapters that crosses over text and time. The 1980s of Molly Ringwald shadows the dystopia of Donnie Darko. The celebrity status of the Spice Girls clashes with the frustrated invisibility of the female raver. Douglas Coupland's vision of Generation X in 1991 has evolved into Richard Linklater's documentation of post-youth in the new millenium. Leaping between decades through time travel in cinema, I argue that the nostalgic past and projections for the future evoke the preoccupations and anxieties of the present
Prophylactic effects of mindfulness: the role of mindfulness in the treatment of anxiety
No full textMindfulness derives from meditative traditions and is a form of mental training that is increasingly incorporated into Western treatment approaches for common mental health problems. This thesis addresses the prophylactic effects of mindfulness practice and the implications for the treatment of anxiety. The first paper considers the role of attention as a predominant mechanism of mindfulness. The paper reviews the evidence for the effects of mindfulness on attentional subsets and suggests that mindfulness may in part exert its benefits by ameliorating maladaptive attentional processes that have been implicated in the aetiology of anxiety. The empirical paper reports the results of a randomised controlled trial that directly compared the prophylactic and differential effects of two mindfulness practices on pharmacologically-induced state anxiety and negative affect through inhalation of 7.5% carbon dioxide (CO2). 60 participants engaged in 10 minutes of focused mindfulness, open mindfulness or relaxation prior to a 20-minute inhalation of 7.5% CO2 or air. Consistent with the evidence-base, this study found that mindfulness reduced self-reported state anxiety and negative affect significantly more so than a period of relaxation. In the context of non-significant reductions in autonomic measures of arousal, these findings support that mindfulness exerts its benefits through specific rather than non-specific effects. The results are consistent with contemporary conceptualisations of mindfulness mechanisms that highlight the key role of attention and suggest that clinical effects are exerted through top-down control mechanisms that support emotion regulation
The crisis of modernity : culture, nature, and the modernist yearning for authenticity
No full textThe Crisis of Modernity: Culture, Nature, and the Modernist Yearning for Authenticity This dissertation is situated at the intersection of two critical traditions: the discussion about Modernist literature in English and ecocriticism. By viewing a certain strand of literary Modernism through an ecocritical lens, it tries to offer an investigation of salient aspects that arise out of the experience of modernity. In order to stress the relevance of ecocriticism when dealing with Modernist motifs and themes, I chose authors associated with the so-called vitalistic or primitivist side of Modernism. The condemnation of technological progress, the alienation of the individual living in urbanized societies, and the fear of the widening gap of what is natural and what is cultural in ourselves inspire the work of Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Djuna Barnes and Claude McKay, and raise important questions for ecocritical consideration. Their severe critique of western civilization suggests that for these authors modernity constitutes a crisis of culture. One of the major aims of my work is to define the crisis of modernity as an environmental crisis. To gain recognition of the environmental aspects underlying this critique of modernity, I begin my analysis by focusing on the depiction of urban contexts as a source of profound conflict. The ensuing argument will center on the notion of the pastoral, which both Miller and Durrell recognize as the traditional mode to express an urban yearning for a utopian counterpoise to civilized life. But rather than promoting an idyllic return to nature, these authors primarily seek to unmask the artificiality of the pastoral enthrallment for the natural world. Instead, they try to revitalize their contact with nature by drawing attention to the individual’s physically embodied experience of his or her immediate environment. By focusing on the body as a medium to recuperate humankind’s original affinity with nature, Miller and Durrell represent a powerful alternative to the pastoral tradition. In my final chapter I extend my ecocritical reading of Modernist literature to Djuna Barnes and Claude McKay. Barnes’s struggle with the gendered landscapes of modernity and McKay’s thematization of ethnic difference offer alternative approaches to the crisis of modernity
Review for Religious - Issue 18.6 (November 1959)
No full textIssue 18.6 of the Review for Religious, 1959.Review
Religious
Ecclesiastical Formation
by The Congregation.of Seminaries
A Fuller Sense of Literature
by Father Aidan, C.P.
~Examen on Renovation and Adaptation
by Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.
St. Lawrence of Brindisi
by R. F. Smith, S.J.
Current Spiritual Writing
by Thomas G. O’Callaghan, S.J.
Survey of Roman .Documents
Views, News, Previews
Questions and Answers
Book Reviews and Notices
Index to Volume 18
321
328
333
346
353
36O
365
367
370
381
Volume 18 November 15, 1959 Number 6
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
FATHER AIDAN is stationed at St. Gabriel’s College, Blythe
Hall, Ormskirk, Lancs., England, JOSEPH F. GALLEN, the editor
of our Question and Answer Department, is professor of canon law
at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. R. F. SMITH, editor
of the REVIEW, is professor of apologetics at St. Mary’s College,
St. Marys, Kansas. THOMAS G. O’CALLAGHAN is professor of
ascetical and mystical theology at Weston College, Weston 93,
Massachusetts. ~,
REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, Nov., 1959. VOI. 18, No. 6, Published bi-monthly
by The Queen’s Work, 3115 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis 18, Missouri.
Edited by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary’s College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ec-clesiastical
approval. Second class mail privilege authorized at St. Louis, Mis-souri.
Copyright, 1959, by TKe Queen’s Work. Subscription price in U. S. A.
and Canada: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U. S. A.
Editor: R. F. Smith, S.J.
Associate Editors: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.J.;
Henry Willmering, S.J.
Assistant Editors: John E. Becker, S.J.; Robert F. Weiss, S.J.
Departmental Editors: Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.; Ehrl A. Weis, S.J.’
Please send all renewals, new subscriptions, and business correspondence to:
Review for Religious, 3115 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis 18, Missouri.
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Ecclesiastical
Formation
SACRED CONGREGATION
OF SEMINARIES
AND UNIVERSITIES
Prot. N. 541/59
CIRCULAR LETTER ADDRESSED TO BISHOPS ON THE OCCASION OF THE
FIRST CENTENARY Of THE DEATH OF THE CURI~ OF ARS CONCERNING
CERTAIN PROBLEMS OF ECCLESIASTICAL FORMATION.
Your Excellency,
Not long ago pilgrims of every race and tongue Were gathered
at the grotto of Massabielle to commemorate the centenary of the
apparitions of Lourdes. And now, before the echo of these solemn
celebrations has died awdy, our minds and hearts turn once more
towards France, to a small village of that lalid which was the
scene of the apostolic labors of a humble parish priest in whom our
Lord saw fit to renew, with copious. 9utpourings .of grace, the
portents of His public life.
This Sacred Congregation of ~eminaries and Universities does
not wish to let this year pass without recalling the attention of
future priests to this humble son of the soil. For he, by corres-ponding
faithfully with the grace of vocation, became in the hands
of God a powerful instrument for the renewal and the deepening
of the Christian life in many souls.
The life of St. John Mary Vianney has many valuable lessons
for the young levite of our own times. In fact, we may say that
his message, implemented now by the lustre of his heavenly
glory, carries a greater significance than ever before.
I. First of all, he shines as an example of fidelity to the
inspirations of grace. Once he had come to know the divine will
in his regard, he pursued the priestly ideal with a tenacity of
purpose that has rarely been equaled. He never allowed himself
to be discouraged by the many obstacles which seemed to bar his
way towards the goal he so ardently, yet so humbly desired.
Rather was he guided always by a most profound appreciation
of the greatness of the priesthood. Contemplating that greatness
.he would exclaim in ecstasy, "Oh how wonderful is the priest!
His greatness will only be seen in heaven. If a priest in this life
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ECCLESIASTICAL FORMATION Review for Religious
were to comprehend his real dignity, he would die -- not of fear
but of love."
It is this appreciation, this tenacity of purpose, this spirit
of dedication which the Church wishes to bring home to the
ecclesiastical youth of our time to urge them to cherish the ideal
to which the Lord has called them. The present scarcity of voca-tions
is a well known fact while the spiritual needs of the faithful
are daily on the increase. It is not that the Lord scatters less
abundantly the seed of the divine call. Alas! it is the fewness of
those who gather it; and even of these, how many put their hand
to the plough and then turn back, abandoning the work they
have begun. The example of the Cur~ of Ars should urge all who
have received a divine vocation to the priesthood to treasure it
as a priceless gift. If there is a lack of generosity on their .part,
the wiles of the evil one may well rob them of this hidden pearl.
To safeguard it, everything should be willingly sacrificed.
Clerics, as the very name implies, are the portion of the
Lord and have been called by Him to a special destiny. They
should, therefore, for their own encouragement and perseverance,
be always mindful of the tender goodness and munificent kindness
which has singled them out. If "the Apostle, reminding the early
Christians of their redemption, could charge these laymen to live
as children of light and heedless of the works of the flesh, how
much more grave is such an obligation for clerics who are called
not merely to share in the grace of Redemption but to follow in
the footsteps of the Divine Master as its dispensers and ministers.
Let them, therefore, give thought constantly to the gift of God
and let them strive to make themsebfes more worthy of the divine
choice, making a daffy offering of their youth to the Church for
their own salvation and the salvation of their brethren.
II. If we look at the figure of the saintly Cur~ of Ars, we
will recognize in his shining virtue a supreme model of priestly
excellence. He knew that the priesthood had, in some mysterious
way, identified him with the one Eternal Priest, the Word incar-nate.
It was such knowledge which inspired him to repeat phrases
like these: "When you see the priest, think of our Lord Jesus
Christ" or "The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus."
But even these sentiments, however beautiful and expressive of
divine realities, were of secondary importance. For him the essential
was to live the priegthood which the Lord exercised through him.
Behold him, therefore, the holy Cur~, in the rSle outlined by the
Apostle, a mediator for his people, devoted to a life of adoration,
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November, 1959 ECCLESIASTICAL FORMATION
of intercession, of total sacrifice; he too a victim like his Redeemer,
ready day and night to implore "with unspeakable groans" the
remission of sins, ready always to fill up in his body what is wanting
in the Passion of Christ.
This closeness to God and perfect conformity to the Eternal
Priest inspired in him a deep appreciation of prayer and of the
interior life, and were besides the secret of his "extraordinary
success. He knew perfectly well that the: efficacy of his work for
souls depended above all on prayer and on union with God.
Conscious of his rSle as an instrument of divine grace, it was to
grace alone that he looked for the success of his ministry. Not
without reason, therefore, did the Supreme Pontiff Pius XI name
St. John Mary Vianney the special patron of parish priests and
those entrusted with the care of souls, wishing thereby to emphasize
that the efficacy of all pastoral endeavor is directly dependent
on the personal holiness and interior life of the priest.
The Sacred Congregation of Seminaries is convinced that in
this matter much is left to be done in institutes for clerical train-ing.
In view of the attitude of young priests, particularly towards
the problems of the ministry, the question arises whether the
traditional principles of formation are not being overlooked. In
most cases, it is true, there is no lack of zeal for the external works
of the ministry; but such zeal, unsupported by prayer and morti-fication,
issues only in vanity and disillusionment.
The fact is that without the interior life there can be no
true apostle. Apart from it the most elaborate and spectacular
techniques of organization will achieve little of permanent value.
The true apostle, conscious that he is but an instrument in the
hands of God, knows that he has other and less fallible means
at his disposal. He is aware that a spiritual edifice may be raised
only by prayer and the power of grace. His labors will be successful
in the measure of his reliance not on himself but on these God-given
aids. "Therefore neither he who plants ~or he who waters
is anything, but God who gives the increase .... For we are God’s
helpers" (1 Cot 3:7-9).
The Supreme Pontiff, Pope Pius XI says clearly: "It would
be a very grave and dangerous error should the priest, carried
away by a false zeal, become completely immersed in the external
works of the ministry to the neglect of his own sanctification ....
Without piety, the holiest of actions, even the most solemn rites
of the sacred ministry will be performed in a mechanical and routine
manner, devoid of spirit, of unction and of life" (Ad catholici
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sacerdotii [December 20, 1935] in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 28 [1936],
23-24).
Later, Pope Pius XII, in his apostolic exhortation Menti
nostrae vigorously reiterated the same teaching. "An ardent
spirit of prayer," he says, "is necessary today as never before,
when so-called ’naturalism’ has taken hold of men’s minds and
virtue is beset by dangers of every kind -- dangers which, at
times, assail even those engaged in the sacred ministry. What
more effective means can there be of avoiding these snares, what
more apt to raise the mind to higher things and preserve its
union with God than constant prayer and invocation of the divine
assistance?" (Menti nostrae [September 23, 1950] in Acta Apos-tolicae
Sedis, 42 [1950], 673).
More recently still, Our Holy Father Pope John XXIII,
happily reigning, has insisted on the need for an efficacious pastoral
apostolate. In his discourse to the Apostolic Union of the Clergy
(March 12, 1959), proposing the holy Cur~ of Ars as an apt model
for the members, he addressed to them the following solemn
considerations: "How is it that in the ministry so much labour
frequently yields but meagre fruit? How is it that priests who
seemingly neglect no weapon of the apostolate fail to bring back
so many lapsed children of the Church who are dead to the life
of grace? Perhaps it is because they are not single-minded in their
ministry; perhaps because they do not always seek exclusively
the good of souls; perhaps also, they place too much reliance on
means that are human and therefore frail without giving due
attention to prayer and sacrifice."
We must insist therefore that teachers in seminaries, and
particularly the rectors and spiritual fathers shall give adequate
and timely instruction, especially to students approaching sacred
orders, on the true nature of the priesthood, its mission, and the
means to be relied on in the apostolate. Furthermore they shall
be careful to base this in’struction on the traditional principles
that are to be found in revelation and have been authoritatively
interpreted by the Fathers and the magisterium of the Church.
They shall not permit the introduction of any novelty which could
undermine or alter the teaching of the Church in so delicate a
matter. These instructions must be regarded as of the highest
importance because upon the ideas instilled in them during semi-nary
years will depend the future conduct of priests in the ministry.
III. The loyalty of St. John Mary Vianney to the Church
is well known. He had a most tender love for the Holy Mother
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November, 1959 ECCLESIASTICAL FORMATION
of all the faithful. Whenever he spoke about her his face appeared
transfigured and his voice thrilled with emotioh. His love, it is
true, embraced all the faithful and was not confined to the narrow
circle of Ars -- in fact, people came from all over the world to
lay siege to his pulpit and his confessional--but it was especially
directed towards the visible head of the Church, the Pope, whom
he venerated. It is clear from the process of canonization that he
sought out every opportunity to testify his supreme devotion
to the Roman Pontiff. He could not conceal his emotion when he
spoke about the Mother and Teacher of all the Churches or heard
her spoken about. He showed respect, love and obedience to his
own Bishop "as to the Lord." And what obedience! Everyone
knows that he was bent on withdrawing from the public eye to
weep over what he called the emptiness of his life. For he was
conscious of his unworthiness and dispirited by his increasing
responsibility. But obedience, manifested in the will of his supe-riors,
wished him at Ars; and at Ars he remained in a spirit of sub-mission
and sacrifice.
Those responsible for clerical education have here a matter
for serious reflection. The virtue of obedience is absolutely funda-mental
in the process of forming sacred ministers. It is necessary
to engender in them a habit of obedience which reaches to the
very fibre of their being. And this is particularly true in times like
ours when the demon of pride bids everyone throw off restraint
and indulge in unlimited liberty of thought and action. Such a
norm of behaviour, hailed as progress, has crept into educational
methods and threatens the very foundations of Catholic teaching
on the principles of pedagogy. Cases are sometimes met with
even in ecclesiastical colleges -- indeed this Sacred Congregation
has had to intervene -- where attempts are made to exploit the
methods of "self-education" with too great concession to individual
caprice and too little thought for the frailty of human nature.
To strive to develop in their charges a sense of responsibility,
initiative~ and judgment is indeed the legitimate and necessary
work of educators. But what must be deplored is the attitude of
teachers who are afraid to command lest they invade the sanctuary
of another man’s mind and do violence to his personality. Such a
teacher abdicates his position as superior and renders the very
concept of discipline meaningless. It is a false approach; for it is
only by discipline that one achieves a strong personality, endowed
with that spirit of sacrifice which is required of all those who would
follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ. By means of this
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discipline alone are formed genuine apostles bent on doing the
will of God, as indicated by their superiors, rather than following
their own c.apricious inclinations. Let discipline, therefore, joy-ously
embraced, be the touchstone by which superiors test the
vocation of their students. Let them demand an obedience, not
merely theoretical, but effective, single-minded, and complete in
all things, great and small, contained in the seminary rule. In
requiring this obedience and in putting it before the students, let
them recall the supernatural motives which are its justification
and its supreme model, Jesus Christ, who had only one purpose
on earth: "To do thy will, O God" (Heb 10:7). Let them always
remember that obedience primarily involves "obsequium," that.
is, a total submission of mind and heart which makes our actions
pleasing to God. If superiors can achieve this much they can be
assured that their students will also acquire the other virtues
proper to a priest, especially those, like chastity, which require
manly will-power and perfect self-control.
For the members of all pious institutes, therefore, the prin-ciple
must hold that the rule is the will of God manifested in their
regard and consequently of obligation as a necessary means of
their formation. The vigilant presence of a superior must not be
regarded as something injurious to personality but rather as a
help towards securing that spiritual development which is re-
’quired of a priest and is his glory: "All things are yours; you are
Christ’s; and Christ is God’s" (1 Cor 3:22-23).
Addressing our beloved seminarians we would exhort them
to keep before their minds the repeated teaching of the Church
which compares the clergy to an army, carefully chosen and proper-ly
trained, ~in object 6f terror to enemies because of its disciplined
might. During the long and arduous period of training let them
cultivate a spirit of discipline, sound convictions, and an un-questioning
obedience to those placed over them. Thus will they
acquire that perfect "thinking with the Church" which will enable
them. at a later stage, to fight the battles of the Kingdom of God
"prepared to act and to endure bravely for the salvation of all"
(Leo XIII, Alacritas ista [January 18, 1885] in Enchiridion Cleri-corurn
[Rome: Vatican Polyglot Press, 1938], n. 458).
However arduous the preparation for the priesthood may be
and however toilsome and full of sacrifice the life of the future
priest, the reward for valiant service under the banner of the
Lord is very great indeed. St. Augustine, who was called to the
apostolate in times as difficult as our own, affirms: "Nothing in
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November, 1959 ECCLESIASTICAL FORMATION
this life and especially at this time is more difficult, laborious, and
dangerous than the work of a bishop, priest, or deacon; but
God’s view nothing is more blessed, provided one conducts one-self
in the way our King orders" (Letters 21:1).
Your Excellency, much more might be said in pursuance of
the example of the holy Cur~ of Ars; relevant to the right formation
of candidates for the priesthood and therefore helpful to the better
administration of seminaries. We have confined our attention
however to those matters which have come to our notice through
the reports of apostolic visitators and which seem peculiarly
related to the needs of our time. We wish to emphasize the need
for a deepening of the sense of responsibili~ty in relation to the
grace of vocation, to insist on the primacy of the interior life
as an essential condition for the pastoral ministry, and finally to
establish the formative value of a discipline which is accepted
willingly and conscientiously. In this way, the truly priestly life
will be protected and developed and it will be able to meet the
needs of the time and adapt itself to the pastoral circumstances
of the moment, never forgetting the sources from which its super-natural
fecundity and its truly noble character derive.
We are convinced that these principles added to the essential
requirement of knowledge -- which, let us remember, was not
wanting in the case of the Cur~ of Ars, for God enriched him won-derfully
with the gifts of His Spirit -- are the solid foundation
on which future apostles must raise the structure of their priest-hood.
Only with this foundation may they go forth, the able
workers of the Lord’s vineyard "trained to do all good works"
as heralded by St. Paul, and the good shepherds described by
St. Peter as "from the heart a pattern to the flock" (2 Tim 3:17;
1 Pet 5:3).
While we beg Your Excellency to ensure tha~ the contents of
this letter are brought to the notice of your students with what-ever
comments you consider opportune, we take the occasion to
express to you the sentiments of our profound esteem and remain,
Yours devotedly in Our Lord,
Given at Rome on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
June 5th, 1959,
JOSEPH Cardinal PIZZARDO, Prefect
DINO STAFFA, Secretary.
327
A Fuller Sense
of I_iterature
Father Aidan, C. P.
AMONG THE MANY hardships incident to the student
state, the writing of essays was one that could rarely be
evaded. Of course, as one realizes -- later -- the correction
of these’effusions must have been’ an even more Herculean labour.
It is only when we face an exercise-book armed with red ink in-stead
of blue that we realize that sufferance is the badge of all
our tribe. But all the same, we were rather surprised when one
long-suffering student once plaintively, complained that we were
always giving a religious turn to the development of our thought.
"Isn’t that a happy fault?" we replied. "Surely you should be
pleased that we are so spiritually minded?" and so on ran the
ready answers. And I think that, as the unspeakable vernacular
has it, we’d got something there; a thought that has often recurred
to me when the study of literature is discussed.
I think it was Sir Roger de Coverley who preferred his parson
rather to deliver the solid sermons of accredited authors than to
drone out his own efforts; and while we would not perhaps care to
descend to such utter conservatism, we ought not to despise
learning aspects of truth, often brilliant and revealing, from the
great minds of past ages. "A good book is the precious life-blood
of a master spirit," and our own minds cannot fail to be improved
by such a blood ~transfusion. Again, it strikes me very forcibly at
times when "doing" (horrible word) literature in class that a
statement in the texi is a very brilliant facet of a perhaps vaguely
realized spiritual truth. One realizes that such and such a remark
is capable of application on a plane of thought other than what
the author intended. Its significance can be extended to shed a
grateful ray of light on some spiritual principle whose full expres-siveness
has perhaps been obscured by familiarity or neglect.
What the author has said is perfectly true in its context, but it
is also more profoundly true in a higher sense.
In studying the acknowledged classics of English literature,
we are surely not being disloyal to our author if we read with our
ear attuned to the deeper harmonies that perhaps underlie t
Ensuring Sustained Beneficial outcomes for water and sanitation (WATSAN) programmes in the developing world.
No full textThe two objectives of this thesis are firstly to suggest approaches to achieve sustained beneficial outcomes from WATSAN, and secondly how to ‘scale up’ application of these approaches, so that they impact positively on the lives of the millions of people who live without safe water or adequate sanitation.
To discover what these approaches are the literature is examined and practical lessons are drawn from two WATSAN programmes in East and Central Africa.
The conclusions are presented in the form of a charter for the sustainable development of WATSAN, with nine clauses suggested to guide project and programme managers around the issues that need to be taken into account in this most important of development sectors.
The charter’s clauses walk the reader through various stages of WATSAN development, through participatory project identification, need and demand response, sustainable environmental approaches, structured health education, staffing issues, decentralisation, and the practicalities of policy, allowing work to progress at the speed that communities need to acquire ownership whilst at the same time scaling up programme implementation to make a meaningful impact on the MDGs.
The global issues of financing the MDGs are also assessed, and the conclusion is that meeting the MDGs is possible in sustainable manner, but only if there is a massive shift in the resources allocated towards those really in need, and a change in the attitudes of the political power brokers to allow this, promoting quality work, to be implemented by integrated teams, in a process orientated, ethos driven way, with WATSAN set as a keystone of wider human development
