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DECREES.
1 The Venerable Chapter recognising the prejudice ingest of observance, especially that of Matins, deplores the laudency to search dispensations and the growing privilege of religious observing themselves from Choir without due permission from the Superior. It expresses its darmest desire that the greatest regularity should henceforth be observed; that the profound forces and brothers should regularly assist at Matins; that the communities in houses of full observance should and far as possible be constituted of religious physically exposed of keeping the entire Rule, and dispensations should not be granted unless for grave and urgent reasons. To prevent misunderstanding between subjects and superiors it is hereby dictated that local superiors are not bound to recognise any dispensation or demission or extreme obtained from the higher superiors unless it can be produced in writing; and that such permissions are valid only while the said higher superiors remain in office unless confirmed by their successors. In case of negligence on the part of the Rector in the maintenance of the full observance, the Provincial and his Consultant should rejoice to confirm his pagella as has been determined in the recent "General Chapter - Sec. I, Par. 4 (Cross Observantiam)".
2 Although the attendance at the Sunday sermons deeply in part for the weekly examen, the Chapter recommends the Rectors to see that this duty is discharged once or twice a month in Choir; and that the prescriptions of the Holy Rule regarding the Jerorini before night-prayers and the holding of the Friday Chapter be observed. If for valid reasons the "Horal Cave" cannot be held as frequently as prescribed by the Regulations, it should be held at least in conformity with the prescription of Canon 571.
3 For the successful training of our religious the Chapter directs that the novices, especially the lay-novices, should be well trained in their various offices and duties according to the enstons and traditions of our Congregation. Before the final chap-

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3o For the successful training of our religious the Chapter di-
rects that the novices, especially the long-novices, should be
well trained in their various offices and duties according to the
customs and traditions of our Congregation. Before the final chap-
ter for their Profession a medical criticals should be obtained
trilipting to their shiround fitness for the full observance

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of our Rule.
Lay notices should remain in the Novillate House or be sent to a Relief of full observence during the time of this Temporal wars and be employed in domestic work only.
4o To prevent the same customs and traditions and the spirit of our vocation, the Chapter enjoins that the Pegulations concerning the Students be strictly observed, particularly in regard to visits, letters, walks, recreations, the monthly conference and newspapers.
5o The Un. Chapter decides that the secondarial nest being a room for good conduct and heavy labour cannot be locked upon by individual religious as a right. The granting of this nest and the determination of its place and duration is left to the Provincial who will take into account the opinion of the Doctor. The religious in every instance before leaving the Relief must hands to the Doctor his address and the Rey of his room.
6o The Chapter, renders and confirms the terms of the prohibition previously issued by the Most Rev. V. General prohibiting our religious to speak at any public political meeting without the consent of Dr. Provincial. This prohibition is extended to public attendants in our own and other Churches. Without permission from the Provincial let no one publish any writing on political subjects. Should any one offend against these prohibitions, he is to be reported by the local Superior to the Provincial who should deny correctly with offenders.
For the better preservation of material charity, let all in their daily recreations when healed political discussions or offensive words which might initiate or wound the feelings of their religious brothers.
7o Local Superiors are reminded of the duty of Reporting the Church Relief and other buildings in good repair. All external work was should be praised every three years.

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7o Local Superiors are reminded of the duty of Repring the Church, Retreat and other buildings in good regard. All external work must should be praised every three years.
8o To provide Dr. Provincial with funds for the maintenance of the Annuniate, Novices, Students and several needs of the Provincial, it

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was agreed that at least £1,000 should be laid yearly on St. Murger's Retreat, Elasgow, and £5.00 on Moby Cross, Belfast, Similarly St. Paul's Retreat, Milelaide and St. Brigid's, Sydney such should pay annually £150 to the Pro-Primarial for similar purposes.
Circular Letter of Most Rev. Fr. General.
(To be read publicly with the Hold of the Chaptly).
Silvius of St. Bernard
Superior General
Of the Congregation of the Evergreed Clerks
of the
Most Moby Cross and Passion
of
Our Lord Jesus, Christ.
In all the Superiors and Religious
of the Province of St. Joseph
Health and Beneficium in the Lord.
Reverend Fathers and Most Dear Diethren,
Our common wish of the Catholical Visitation of the Province of St. Joseph has been happily fulfilled. Passing through all your Retreats and conversing with each of you, we have been able to obtain a sufficient knowledge of both the material and spiritual sections of this so important part of our Congregation. You have made Rumin to us your complaints and your aspirations, and we have dept all your words in our heart in order to marrish our ardent wish for your good. If we have found among you a great money milers for rejoining, yet we may not say that everything is perfect. The decrees of the Primarial Chapter and our instructions given to the Superiors both aim at remedying the defects that have expt in among you, as is the common fall of all human institutions. But as our would attempt in vain to disparish or

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order to measure our ardent wish for your good. If we have found
among you a great many miles for rejoicing, yet we may not say
that everything is perfect. The decrees of the Primidial Chapter and
our instructions given to the Superiors both aim at remedying the
defects that have capt in among you, as is the common fall of all
human institutions. But as our invited attempt in vain to disparish or
restore the normal working of an organism either natural or artificial
if the moving forces is wrang, just so the measures the movement
decided where or suggested as a result of the Canonical Visitation

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would prove inefficacious if the motive spirit of our Congregation were awaing amongst you. The effort, of our immense affection for this our Province, would be impossible better to promote its welfare and prosperity than by reminding you of the great ideal that has given life to our Institution and conditionates its existence. This ideal St. Paul of the Cross himself describes to us saying "that the first idea with which God inspired him in forging the Congregation was this, to bring men together who should be detached from all cruelties in order to be united with God, and that our spirit was a spirit of prayer, of solitude and of poverty, without which the Congregation could neither prosper nor endure." This is what our Regulations, the most authorised expression of our traditions, call the "fundamental principles of action" which we might to hold fast without allowing ourselves to be deceived by any appearance of good to the contrary. Were other principles to dominant our lives, we should be ampting but the Passionists of St. Paul of the Cross, were did we preparate devotion to Journ's Crucified with more success than he. To say that these principles constitute the spirit of our Congregation naturally implies that there are some other elements to be informed by the same spirit. The Passionist ideal, as in the Envenaments - if we may use this comparison - is a compound of Watter and Tome. The Watter is our practices, services, observances and thinkings, in a word, all our obligations which are limble to change, within certain limits, according to aircommanders and countries. The Tome is our fourth vow as understood by St. Paul of the Cross, that is to say, with the inseparable moralities that constitute, according to him the spirit of our Congregation; which spirit might to remain invariably the same always and consequently, when insisting on the spirit of our Congregation, we do not mean to deprivate the other elements of the Passionist ideal. The only thing we wish strongly to inculcate is the importance and

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insisting on the spirit of our Congregation, we do not mean to depreciate the other elements of the Passionist ideal. The only thing we wish strongly to insulcate is the importance and equalating primacy of the informing element, commenced as we are that this is the Thermometer of our spiritual prosperity and our providential welfare in the Church. So, all steady Brethren, we exhort you first of all to detach yourselves from things created in order to be intimately united with God. Now could a Passionist worthy of his habit and his name, a soul professing to be commonest of Jesus Crucified and, consequently, desirous to remember its clone Hordel, remain attached without removal to the vain satisfactions our pleasures of the world? Members, however, that our hearts will not seem detached

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from Things to restraint that in hespitite as we are united with God, and our union with God, in its Turn, is a consequence of the spirit of prayer. Now - The spirit of prayer for us consists especially in the love of our nightly and daily observances of the Choir. It requires, besides, silence and recollection and that interior contemplation of, and turning towards God, intermittent at first, that gradually increasing and growing, more frequent or prolonged, till it becomes permanent or habitual as with the secults, yet without interfering in the beast with the fulfilment of the most absorbing duties of this State of Life. At this union with God all of us must aim, first, because we are all called to sanctity, and next because this union with God is easy to all those who take the religious life in connection, as many of you can testify: "expertest foliest victore". Inexperiable from this spirit of prayer is the spirit of solitude. Great souls were solitude. That they may be less molested by the trifles of the world. Solitude is the natural refuge of the soul that is detached from created Things, united with God and uncourted to converse with them. Yet, as the thinker or artist full compelled to communicate to others his overflowing outher warm heart in solitude, so does the Passionist in imitation of his Father and Mother, It. Foul of the Cross, experience the need of communicating to others, according to the spirit of his arcenic, his overflowing love of your Crucified. Lowerer, both the frequency and the circumstances of this periodical absence from the Artest must be constituted by and subordinate to the spirit of our Co-operation. And, as the thinker or artist wishes to renew in a solation his enthusiasm statisfied by outward expression, so must the Passionist, by his own weight as it were, be drawn towards the solitude of Calvary, the source and mountain of his apostolic god geal. Finally, the spirit of detachment, prayer and solitude should be encouraged by the spirit of Poverty whoseover attentive by per

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soulied should be arranged by the spirit of Poverty. Solosomer attentive by peruses in Holy Rules and Regulations has no difficulty in understanding that with us Poverty is not merely synonymous with such detachment as is reconcilable with the abundance of the goods of this world as many sinits have practised it, but it mononoter requires the abunce of every superfluity according to an humble and auster standard. Yes, humility and austerity are two necessary respects of Poverty as understood by It. End of the Crow. We all know how frequently in our Holy Rules he invisits on the climate to be such and and even dispared and on mortification under its multiple forms.

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This is the "Ratio pampaes spiriti" of the Jesus, in the right of which we shall be able better to grasp the meaning, both analogical and literal, of the most anargetic passage of our Holy Rules, to the truth of which forms importantly vein to testify more and more: "It is certain that the spirit of religious practice will plan itself in the Congregation, so long as the love and practice of Voluntary Poverty shall remain in this vigner and intigrity; but when they are extinct, insane enpicity will throw all things into confusion, and the strength and love of holy discipline will fall away." It is it which collective Poverty that our holy Friender intended? Certainly not. But as well and even more individual Poverty, the absence of which would be the signal of the most preceptious steadfast.
This third Dom Button, is what we wished to remind you at the end of this Canonical Vicitation and before leaving this dear Province. These principles are not the monopoly of one single country or one single Province of our Congregation. They are as universal as the Christian idea from which they place and of which they are the refraction through the Passionist senk. (Is in the value of nature a wounded organism easily recovered when the life that animates it is vigorous, so the abuses which have capt in among you will soon disappear, if this true spirit of our Congregation comes to its right and animates your loves. Leaves peace nationes sensibles. The same applies to religious things, and we trust that the history of this Province will confirm this truth. To this effect we commend you all to our Blossed Ludy on this day of her glorious Assumption; to St. Jeseph, the Dation of the interior life and the special Preticer of the Custo-Mibernian Province; to St. Paul of the Cross, who in his prophetical spirit had a love of preference for this country; to St. Habriel, who "arrived at the fitch of saverity in me other way than by the observance of regular discipline," in these times when the pride of life and the invaliable love of pleasures so hold away, that through the completion of the very view that surrounds us it is sufficient even for religious hearts to except the infection of this preticious. In fine, we commend you to the tenable Father Edminie, your second Friender and your shortest, and to all the holy Passionists, your predicessors in these countries, slay their introduction obtain for

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other way than by the observance of regular discipline, in these times when
the friends of life and the innative love of pleasures so hold surely,
that through the examination of the very six that surrounds us it is
difficult even for religious hearts to exerpe the infection of this pristi-
fonce. In fine, we commend you to the trementle father Edminie, your
second friender and your Abordel, and to all the holy Passionists,
your predicessors in these countries. May their interessed obtain for
you the abundance of the good spirit spoken of by our holy father the
Pape in his letter issued on the occasion of our Bi-centuries!

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May this example inspire you with the vigilance and geal necessary to keep intact the magnificent inheritance they have hassed on to you! This is the most and ant wish we form and the greatest blessing we implore for you before leaving you. Separated in body, let us remain united in spirit on Mount Calvery, till we meet again after this proving life on the stemmed that of Heaven.
General at St. Joseph's Kilbreat, Highgate, London,
on the Feast of the Abscuration of Lan Lardy,
August 15th, 1920.
Employment of St. Gernard,
L. + L.
Superior General.