ba was ordered by the doctors to take some weeks of rest during the summer of 1918. He went into Luxembourg to recruit his strength, and there he enjoyed to the full the beauties of nature by which he was surrounded. As a companion for his long, solitary walks in the forests of the Ardennes, he took the Commentary of St. Bernard upon the Canticle of Canticles.

His lively and penetrating faith showed him during the contemplation in which his reading plunged him, the marvellous condescension of the Word toward his privileged creatures: the theme of the Canticle itself.

Dom Columba generously communicated the spiritual lights he received to souls that were eager for them; consequently, on his return he gave a series of conferences to the nuns at the Abbey of St. Scholastica at Maredret, Belgium, commenting on a text of St. Bernard that had specially struck him; in this passage the great Doctor indicates the conditions necessary for the soul aspiring to become the spouse of the Word.

Although these conferences were given to Benedictine Nuns, they are not specifically monastic as all souls are called to become spouses to the Divine Word! The conferences were first published a few months after the death of Blessed Columba Marmion.