Page 204 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

Chapter 31

HIS LAST DAYS

BEDIENT To rHE SUGGESTToN on Brsuop Marou, who
\_,,f felt that the absence of the former Superior would
make it easier for the community to elect his successor,
Brgther Ryken withdrew from "Het Walletje." After
visiting for a few days with Dr. Van der Plancke at
Courtrai, he went on to Ghent to live with the Carme-
lite Fathers. Away from his community, feeling alone
and abandoned, Brother Ryken accepted his cross. He
was a boarder at the Carmelite monastery for several
weeks, and the days dragged by. He heard nothing di-
rectly from "Het Walletje," but from a friend who had
been in Bruges on business he learned about the election
of Brother Vincent. Shortly before Lent, which began
that year on February twenty-second, he completed ar-
rangements so that he could follow the Spiritual Exer-
cises of St. Ignatius at the Jesuit novitiite in nearby
Drongen.
It was at Drongen that Brother Vincent came visiting,
and he was agreeably surprised to find the Old Warrior
so amenable, so willing to sign over the property held
for the Congregation, so resigned to accept what had
happened. Brother Vincent, who had anticipated a very
difierent reception, was embarrassed. On his arrival at
Drongen he had sought out the Jesuit under whom
Brother Ryken was following the Exercises and delivered
to him a letter from Bishop Malou in which His Ex-
cellency requested that the retreatant be impressed with
the necessity of concerning himself with himself and