heart, Oh God, Thou wilt not despise." 1896: Oh, my dear child, I would wish to engrave on your heart in letters of gold this truth, that no matter how great our misery, we are infinitely rich in Jesus Christ, if we unite with Him, if we lean on Him, if we realize constantly by a firm living faith that all the value of our prayer, and of all that we do comes from His merits in us. Prior of Mont César, Louvain (1899–1909) In 1899, Dom Columba helped to found the Abbey of Mont César, Louvain, Belgium, and became its first Prior. He was invested with heavy responsibilities: Director of Studies for the young monks; Professor of Theology; spiritual director of Carmelite nuns, all in addition to being Prior. He gave retreats in Belgium and the United Kingdom. He also became confessor to the future Cardinal Mercier. Marmion the teacher Marmion's great gift for teaching came into full bloom during this period. His lectures were distinguished by, "on the one hand, his extreme clearness, and on the other his happy and fluent application of doctrine to the inner life." Rather than presenting "revealed truths like mere theorems of geometry having no bearing on the interior life," Marmion sought to inspire his students to "live in and by the mysteries he set forth to them." The fruitful years in Mont César enabled him to attain an unrivalled mastery of his subjects. Others may surpass him in the detailed documentation of their learning; but when Dom Columba discusses one of the major theses in which dogma approaches the highest mysteries of God... his teaching has a breadth which approaches the infinite. The vast repercussions of his thought, the fruit of long contemplation, throw light on a whole world of secondary conclusions. His trenchant summaries unite with an unusual power of synthesis in one beam of light the diverse aspects of a problem hidden at the first approach in its complexity. The central point stands out in brilliant relief and the whole assembly of connected truths is illuminated by the light of a governing principle which is the key to the whole problem. As a master of synthesis he is unrivalled. Abbot of Maredsous (1909–1923) In 1893, Dom Hildebrand de Hemptinne, Second Abbot of Maredsous, was appointed by Pope Leo XIII as the first Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order. At the