INTEGRITY - Vol.6, No.6 - Lent and the Family

Sep 29, 2026

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Magazine issue focused on the theme of the Cross through editorial reflections and devotional content. Discusses Christian redemption as inseparable from taking up one’s cross, contrasting secular or humanistic approaches that avoid suffering. Connects the Cross to Lent and penance, describing how personal and collective hardships can become meaningful when accepted in union with Christ. Includes poetry, prayers, spiritual reflections, letters, and book review sections within the issue.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages52

Reading Time2 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Editorial

Lent and the Family

The Gift (A Poem)

The Cross—Our Only Hope

Letter to Gethsemane

How to Love Your Enemy

Prayer in Time of Spiritual Dryness (A Poem)

“Who is Like God?”

The Martyr Complex

The Seven Capital Sins (A Poem)

Book Reviews

GRIT ! THIS ISSUE:THECROSSVOL.6,N0.6MARCH 1952 25 cents a coby CO N T E NT S EDITORIAL - -1LENT AND THE FAMILYBy MARY REED NEWLAND-THE GIFT(A Poem) 3 By ELIZABETHM.SHEEHAN9THE CROSS—OUR ONLY HOPEBy DoROTHY DOHEN10LETTER TO GETHSEMANEBy ELIZABETH M.SHEEHAN21HOW TO LOVE YOUR ENEMYBy MARIA AUGUSTA TRAPP22PRAYER IN TIME OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS(A Poem) By A.P.CAMPBELL -24“WHO IS LIKE GOD?”By R.C.DoUGLAS -25THE MARTYR COMPLEXBy ELAINE MALLEY -36THE SEVEN CAPITAL SINS(A Poem)By WILLIAM E.WALSH!42BOOK REVIEWS -43 INTEGRITY is published by lay Catholics anddedicated to the task of discovering the newsynthesis of RELIGION and LIFE for our times. March 1952 Vol.6,No.6 Published monthly by Integrity Publishing Company,243 East 36th Streer,New York 16,N.Y.,MU-5-8125.Edited by Carol Jackson.Re-entered as Second Class Matter May 11,1950 at thePost Office in New York,N.Y.under the Actof March 3,1879.All single copies 25each;yearly subscriptions:Domestic $3.00,Canadian $3.50,Foreign $4.00. INTEGRITY is indexed in THE CATHOLIC PERIODICAL INDEX # E D IT O R IA L OW IT’S this way.If you want your Chris-tianity without the Cross,and take instead todo-gooding or mystical feelings(whether inthe name of Christ or not)the whole worldwill become obsessed with the need of redemp-tion—like the child with a calcium deficiency,who takes to eating the plaster off the wall;orthe sinner who will not face guilt and cannotwash his body enough;or the tense man withthe superficial control,who breaks out all over in a rash;or the proletarian masses whose very humanity is deniedthem and who are ready any day to break out in mob violence. We forgot man had to be redeemed,that is ransomed,thathe’d got himself in a mess from which he was really powerless toarise.We knew it was a mess he was in,but we thought he couldpull himself out—by education,by hygiene,by national self-determination,by a higher standard of living,by trade unions,bywonder drugs and atomic energy.Suffering increased.We re-doubled our efforts to eliminate it(tomorrow),or deaden it(today). Science and technology will not save us,but suffering canif it becomes not simply suffering,but the Cross.Both hurt,butone is rejected(and so embitters),the other is accepted in unionwith Christ(not just stoically)and so becomes a part of HisPassion,a bit of the ransom of the human race. This issue of Integrity is about the Cross,but naturally notall about it.Lent and penance is part of the subject.Suffering isa great bit of it.What may puzzle our readers at first is the rele-vance of humanism.But humanism is a doctrine of the self-redemption of man,of salvation without the Cross. In a book by Arthur Koestler there is told how the verymention of a special torture chamber in a Soviet prison made thebravest men tremble.Yet no one could tell what went on there.It turned out that in this room each man met what he hated andfeared most(an open attack by a rat,in the case of the hero ofthis book).It might be a little thing in itself,but it was the worstpossible torture for the victim. Koestler's torture chamber is like a caricature of the Cross.Each man's cross is made to measure.It is the thing he dreadsmost,because it is the instrument by which alone he can die tohimself,so as to find a higher life.For some it is humiliation,for others material deprivation,for still others the patient acceptanceof a physical deformity,or the pain of illness,or the loss of some-one loved,or the life-long gracious endurance of a marriage toohastily contracted.Lesser sufferings and voluntary penancesstrengthen us for our own crucifixion,but it is in our crosses thatwe shall find our redemption. And so it will be with the modern world.There is plentyof suffering that goes along with material ambition and secularism(like having your hair pulled while getting a permanent wave orriding the subway to a plush job or enduring the delay in thecoming of color television).It won’t help.But the hardshipa

FAQs

What role does Lent play according to “Lent and the Family”?

It presents Lent as the Church’s way of moving believers from spiritual childhood into spiritual maturity, recalling preparations in Advent and guiding the faithful toward deeper growth through penitential seasons.

Sep 29, 2026

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