Editor's Note
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In April, 1992 the Spanish Publishing House, CEME, of Salamanca published a volume containing selected works of Father Richard McCullen, Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Daughters of Charity from July 1980 to July 1992. The book was translated from English into Spanish by Father Luis Huerga, C.M.

We then asked Father McCullen if we could compile a volume with selected homilies, talks and letters which he had given during his term of offlce as Superior General. Father McCullen assented and Sister Virginia Ann Brooks, our Visitatrix, gave her consent. Father Levesque, Visitor of the Eastern Province of the Congregation of the Mission, agreed to sponsor this work.

From the more than 2,000 documents which we had conserved, we selected a variety which would include a wide range of topics. We were limited by the necessity of making the book in a size that could be conveniently used.

There are many quotations from the French edition of the fourteen volumes of the correspondence, documents and conferences of Saint Vincent de Paul by Pierre Coste, C.M., published in the 1920s. At this writing there are four volumes translated from the French and we have used this official translation in the quotations. For the quotes from volumes five through eight we have used Father McCullen's translation which he took directly from the French. Volumes nine and ten, conferences to the Daughters of Charity, were translated by Joseph Leonard, C.M. and published in four volumes by Burns Oates and Washbourne, Ltd., 1938-1940. The four volumes were republished in one book in 1979 by Collins Liturgical Publications. Quotations from volumes eleven through fourteen of Coste were again taken by Father McCullen directly from the French edition.

Quotations from the Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac were taken from the 1991 book, edited and translated from the French by Sister Louise Sullivan, D.C.

Quotations from the Constitutions, Statutes and Common Rules of the Congregation of the Mission were taken from the English Translation edition of 1989, published in Philadelphia. Quotations from the Constitutions and Statutes of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul were taken from the English edition of 1983.

The text includes many quotations from the Bible and Father McCullen used a variety of biblical translations. Most of the scriptural quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952 and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., used by permission; from the Jerusalem Bible, copyright 1966 by Darton Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday CR Dell Publishing Group, Inc., reprinted by permission of the publisher, DC from the Douay-Rheims Bible; and from the Knox Bible. When he quoted in English from a foreign Bible, Father McCullen did the translation himself.

Any omission of acknowledgment is unintentional and will be promptly rectified in any future edition.

We are deeply grateful to Father McCullen for permitting us to publish his writings and to all who have assisted and encouraged us in this work. May the book be as inspiring to those who read it as it has been to us.

Sister Eleanor McNabb, D.C.

Sister Mary Ellen Sheldon, D.C.

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