There is a much greater intimacy between us and the Church than there is between a child and his mother when she carries him for nine months in her womb. This intimacy is not merely physical, made up of relations with the hierarchy, sacred rites and sacred objects. It is visceral in the strongest sense of the term: it is spiritual.

Father Sertillanges (1863-1948)
Dominican

“Fr. Sertillanges was rather small. He had a face lined with deep wrinkles, a broad forehead behind which constantly simmered the noblest and most universal thoughts, a face which radiated tenderness, and a head covered with abundant gray hair. Of rather frail health, he kept himself going by careful hygiene and physical exercise that hardly lessened as he grew older. To the end of his life he remained extraordinarily agile, and anyone seeing him from behind as he walked in the cloister or along a mountain path would never have suspected that he was in his eighties. An untiring worker, he was able to say at the end of his life that he had never left unfinished any work that he had begun. Poetry, music, art history, invigorating contact with nature, and a knowledge, somewhat distant but nevertheless ardent, of the principal branches of science all permitted him to be a well-rounded man. He always considered the Church, to whom he consecrated two books and numerous articles, the Mother “who must give birth to us every day, as she did for the first time at Baptism.” How he loved her, “this coredemptress whom Christ had taken as spouse and identified with Himself in some ways, though still distinct from Him.” “As for myself, I declare in all honesty that the more I studied her, the more I put into practice her teachings – although suffering perhaps through my own fault – the more I admired her and became attached to her with the innermost fibers of my being.” He was thankful to the Church, having received everything from her, having been invited to give in her name. He worried over her tribulations and was passionately interested in her enterprises. As devoted to the Church as a son, he showed himself capable not only of “suffering for her but also of suffering by her, which is the supreme sign of devotion.” Fr. Sertillanges was a true contemplative. Following the example of our father St. Francis, as we say in our liturgy, he sang with love the canticle of creation as God’s troubadour. The book of nature filled him with delight. The night sky with the silent sparkling of its stars, the murmur of rivers, the song of brooks trickling down the mountainside, the chirping of birds, the symphony of flowers, the sunrises and sunsets setting the horizon on fire… everything enchanted him and made him think of the goodness of God who never tires of giving Himself. Those who had the privilege of accompanying him on his studious vacations or even of taking a walk with him discovered once and for all that the universe is nothing but a transparent veil covering the face of God.” France dominicaine, may 1949, P.1-5

Father Marie-Fabien Moos (1901-1977)
Dominican