In a Few Words by Jotter

A Letter From India
Fr. Bede Griffith's plans
sOME months ago vse printed a
report about the future plans of Fr. Bede Griffiths, 0.5.13., author of " The Golden String," who went from this country to India to establish a contemplative house there. The report, unfortunately, turned out to be rather inaccurate. I have now heard from Fr. Bede himself, who says: "When we failed to get permission for our foundation at Kengeri, I agreed to join with Fr. Francis. who is a Cistercian of Chimay in Belgium and was for some time novice master at Cafiley. We are hoping to found a monastery following the Rule of St. Benedict under the authority of an Indian Bishop. We have been invited to found a monastery using the Syro-Malankara rite. This is a. most interesting rite. II is the ancient rite of Antioch, one of the most beautiful rites in the Church and very primitive. The The language used is Syriac. which is as near as possible to the Aramaic spoken by Our Lord. It has also the great advantage that it may be said in the vernacular, as is done in all the parish churches here. The result is that the people here join in the liturgy in a way that is rarely seen anywhere else in the Church."
Like Ireland!
FR. BEDE'S letter goes on to describe the south Indian country where he is living. " The whole of this country," he writes.
" is very interesting. ill he new State of Kerala is composed of the ancient princely states of Travancore and Cochin. It is very rich and fertile, as the climate is more or less tropical and it gets heavy rain for half the year. It is a small State but very thickly populated and has the highest level of literacy of any part of India. In fact in our neighbourhood it is said that there are proportionally more graduates than in any other
part of the world This is not altogether an advantage, as owing to the thickness of the population there is a great deal of unemployment and poverty, and this makes it a fertile field for Communism. On the other hand. the Church is stronger here than anywhere else in India. In fact, nearly onethird of the population is Christian, and of these over a million are Catholic. In some parts even the majority is Catholic and the faith is so strong that it is almost like living in Ireland! They provide a great many vocations to the priesthood and the religious life and are now beginning to spread all over India. Only at present there is no monastic life of any sort. It is here that we come in, and it is our hope that we may be able to begin the monastic life here and so bring something which is very much needed in the life of the Church."
Catholic Brains
0NCE again last Sunday I had the privilege of being chairman at a Hampstead Cenacle Convent Brains Trust which, despite the weather and the Rugby International, drew a full house. As an assiduous televisionite, I really cannot help being impressed by the Brains Trust standard which Mother Thornton manages to ensure: Archbishop Roberts (whom, reverting to infancy, I twice called Goodies.); Pamela Frankau (who has published this week her 23rd or 24th novel and. so to speak, equates with Daphne du Maurier on the best-seller list); Ted Kavanagh, a master in.applying his wit to serious discussion; Hugh Ross Williamson and Miss Charlier. both so well known to our readers. And I was able to draw Miss O. B. Stern from the audience to help us with novels. I have no sort of doubt that this team, discussing inainty, but not
exclusively, Catholic matters, would give admirable and most instructive entertainment to the TV millions. One long argument on superstition was quite fascinating. as also was the asrelebishop comparing the spiritual character of the Eastern man with the Western. by no means to the latter's credit. As usual on these occasions. there was strong support for liturgical changes which help the people to understand and actively participate in the Mass.
Tragedy and Triumph
0NE very constructive point came out of the discussion on applying the experience of the Christmas poster to Holy Week. It was pointed out that small posters of the Crucifixion were available for display from the Knights of St. Columba. But then il was pointed out that the whole meaning of Holy Week depended on the glorious mystery of the Resurrection. Would it not be possible to have a poster which graphically showed the meaning of the tragedy in the light of the triumph? 1 thought this was a most important point. The general public too easily associates the Christian religion with sadness. suffering and negation generally — and for that matter many Christians do so too, The Pope in the allocution he made this week to doctors clearly teaches the true place and meaning of suffering within Christian doctrine. We ought to avoid giving a wrong impression that the Crucifix stands on its own. It is the way to the Christian joy and triumph of the Resurrection through which the divine destiny of every human being, in its measure on earth as well as in heaven, is fulfilled.
Hore-Belisha and Our Lady
mISS Rhona Wing, whose father was a close friend of the late lord Hore-Belisha, having read my notes on him last week, has written to me to describe an incident which took place when she visited him at Old Warren Farm. " We were walking through the garden," she writes, " when I saw a small statue of Our lady. I said to him: 'That's an odd thing for you, a Jew. to have, isn't it ?' Smilingly he shook his head: All Jews venerate motherhood and she epitomises it to me.' He adored his own mother and said that her spirit was always with him." Miss Wing gives examples of his great kindness, as on an occasion when she was homhed out, and HoseBelisha from the War Office made sure that she would go down to the farm and remain there as long as it was necessary. I remember years ago occasional anti-Semitic remarks by Catholics at the expense of Hore-Belisha and even of his name, and we know what the Army Blimps thought of him and his reforms. It is good to think that Hore-Belisha's life was such a shattering answer to his critics.
Never seen the sea
I HAVE received a rather dis tressed letter from a mother of four little children, seven downwards who have never been to the seaside. She is asking whether any caravan—or similar—owner could find it in his heart to let it to her for a week for 30 shillings sometime during the summer school holiday months. As she lives in Yorkshire, I suppose it should not be too far away so that she can save up for the fares. " I would dearly love to give my little boys a holiday by the sea hut could not possibly afford it otherwise." A week between lettings? A week when the owner cannot get down? Anyway, I will very gladly forward to her any nffers that may reach me.
Half-crown confession
WE now owe to " Fontana Books," at only half-a-crown, escheat), handy and learned edition of " The Confessions of St. Augustine." Dom Roger Hudleston has revised the 17th century translation of Sir Tobie Matthew, hut he warns us in his preface that so many changes have been necessary as to preclude him front saying that this is simply Sir Tobie's translation. It continues, of course, to carry the flavour of the period, and it is a matter of dispute as to whether such a popular edition should read in this archaic, though beautiful and sonorous, way or should have been put into contemporary English style and idiom. Dom Roger refers us to the "Catholic Encyclopaedia" for information about Sir Tobie. The son of an Archbishop of York, he became a Catholic and a priest. and spent most of his distinguished life in\and out of this country, sometimes suffering from the penal laws of the day and sometimes distinguishing himself at court and in diplomacy, for which he wa, knighted. It all sounds as though he would make an excellent bio graphy. Particularly intriguing is the suggestion that he was, secretly a Jesuit.