ECCLESIA DEI The Mystery of the Church. By HUMBERT CLERISSAC, O.P. Sheed & Ward ; pp. 144. 3s. 6d. (Mis-spelled occasionally as Humbert Clerrisac.)

Although The Mystery of the Church remains unfinished, it is a valuable analysis of the life of the Church, the work of a man with a deep sense of the intellectual and moral order displayed by the Church, as well as of her mystical relations to the divine. His first three chapters describe that relation to each Person of the Trinity, to the mind of God, to Christ Himself in a unique manner ("The whole mystery of the Church," he writes, "lies in the equation and convertibility of these two terms: Christ and the Church. This principle clarifies all the theological axioms concerning the Church. For example: Outside the Church there is no salvation, really means nothing else than: Outside Christ there is no salvation"), and finally to the Holy Ghost as supplying "that perfection of the Church which is personality." The hieratic [i.e. priestly] life of the Church is given a pre-eminent place, for hieratic "is the fundamental qualification of the office which the Church fulfils between God and men," while "it is evident that what the enemies of the Church would so much like to see Her abdicate, but what the world would not pardon Her for forgetting, is Her Priesthood." Man's need, both of the City and of solitude, inspires Pere Clerissac to a chapter of high merit, showing how the monastic ideal complements the life in the world so that each in a sense requires the other: "Sometimes the spirit of retreat blows so strongly that it is like a race to the desert; then the world takes its revenge for having been despised by so many souls, quibus dignus non erat,' by penetrating into the solitude and submitting the spirit to its low constraints. . . . The blossoming of the desert is one of God's promises to the Church. Exaltabit solitudo et florebit quasi lilium' : The solitary place shall be glad and shall blossom as the lily."

More than its incompleteness, this book suffers from compression; often the author has been content with the suggestion of some line of thought which might with advantage have been worked out to its conclusion. But it remains, as Jacques says in his admirable sketch of Pere Clerissac, published as a preface, "a collection of thoughts and fragments rather than a treatise," though it does not thereby forfeit the title he gives it, of "a lofty Meditation."

My scanner's not working, but if you have one handy, maybe you could share page 52 to give others a taste.

Sounds very good.

Any idea of where one could find a copy at a reasonable price?

And here's the rest of the book: http://strobertbellarmine.net/books/mys ... _index.pdf

There are many highlights, including his comments on the prophetic office of the Church and his little vignette towards the end on Newman, which is absolutely perfect.

BTW Fr Clérissac served as a model for the pope in R H Benson's Lord of the The World.

Cristian, according to the Preface by Maritain, they knew each other well, and Maritain speculates that perhaps Benson used Clerissac as his model for the pope in his book. See page xiii.

I thought you claimed to have read this book???