“There is a divinity which shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will” is Hamlet’s expression of the ever-governing influence of Divine Providence.

Of this heavenly disposition, this writer has had continuous experience during his 70 years in the monastery as well as in all the years of boyhood and youth which preceded his joining the religious community. There is no one, however afflicted, who has not more reason to thank God for his blessings than to complain about his chatisements.

In my own life, as I contemplate it retrospectively, I truly have every urge to chant the Te Deum for the blessings which have been mine, which are far in excess of any merit, and little reason to intone De Profundis for the crosses, far below what I deserve, which have been placed on my shoulders.

My original impulse was to let pass the anniversary, that falls on January 20, 2016, of my entering into the monastery.