A TRAPPIST WRITES HOME

This volume contains the letters of Abbot Gerard McGinley, O.C.S.O., to his family, covering the period in his life from the time he entered the Trappist monastery at Gethsemane, Ky. to just before he died in 1955 as abbot of the Trappists at the monastery of Our Lady of the Genesee, N.Y. The letters were not originally intended for publication. They will be of interest primarily to Trappists and their friends and particularly to those who knew Abbot McGinley personally. While in their own way they attest to the holiness and humanity of the Abbot, they do not have the quality to convey on their own specific idea of the religious personality of the writer or to move the reader in any profound way. Those who knew the Abbot will relate his personality to these letters will probably not agree with this judgment, as the Introduction by Father Raymond, O.C.S.O. would seem to indicate.