A or iS-eo -iSIHOL Get Ready for OUR MISSION During the Mission Supply yourself with prayerbook and rosary; your family with cruci- fix, candlesticks and good books. Subscribe for a good instructive Catholic weeekly paper, and let one of your mission resolutions be to read it regularly. [See notice of Our Sunday Visitor and of its Catholic Action literature.] Get Ready For OUR MISSION What is the purpose of a mission? Its purpose is to bring the entire con- gregation together for intensive consider- ation of the eternal truths and their appli- cation to the individual. It is a spiritual clinic, during which each person submits his soul to a careful diagnosis, and receives the prescription which will arrest and even cure the spiritual disease otherwise certain to lead to spiritual death. Who conducts the Mission? Usually members of a Religious Com- munity specially trained for that specific work. They are invited by the pastor to take charge of his congregation for a week, or two weeks, or three weeks, or a month. During this period a program of sermons, spiritual exercises, and devotions is so ar- ranged that no parishioner will have occa- sion to allege that it was not possible for him or her to attend the services. Usually Mass is said and an instruction given at an early hour in the morning for those who could not otherwise attend. Hence even the busy professional and working-man and woman are expected to be present in church at least twice daily during the week assign- ed to them. For those who have more leisure time the Mission partakes of the nature of a Retreat, calling for abstention from social functions, and the passing of the entire day in recollection, meditation and prayer. Is there usually some advance prepara- tion for a mission? There should be advance preparation not only on the part of the pastor, but on the part of the people themselves. It must be remembered that those who have lost their first fervor do not deserve those special powerful graces from Almighty God which will restore that fervor. The Lxxrd owes us nothing at any time, and particularly owes us nothing after we will have spurned His many admonitions and graces, after we will have opposed His voice speaking through our own consciences. Therefore each should pray that mercy be shown him and unde- served graces be granted for a very spirit- ually profitable mission. Then all the members of a congregation should pray that those who have given up the practice of their religion almost alto- gether might be inspired to make the mis- sion earnestly, that Catholics who are mar- ried to a non-Catholic might be successful in bringing their spouses to make the mis- sion with them; and particularly should the prayers of the innocent ones, the little chil- dren, be offered for the thorough conversion of their grown-up brothers and sisters and parents. The best way for any one to merit special graces for the mission is to do a little ad- vance work himself, by urging others to arrange to cancel all other engagements for the week intended for them, so that they may not be absent from any morning or evening exercise. In what way will one profit most by the mission? By a very thorough self-examination, a study of one’s principal weaknesses, then by the firmest kind of a resolution of amendment, followed Jby a serious confes- sion. If you were afflicted with some physical disease slowly undermining your health completely, your physician would expect you to give him, as far as you would be able to do so, the story of its beginning and of its progress. He would ask what other diseases you have had during your lifetime which might have had some connec- tion with your present affliction. After a correct diagnosis he would prescribe the remedy, and you would naturally be ex- pected to apply this remedy if you hoped to become well. Now, it is the same with a spiritual dis- ease. You need not tell the spiritual physi- cian, or the confessor, how it started, but you yourself should know this; you should know what occasions or circumstances have, because of your indulgence, aggravated your spiritual malady. Then, evidently, if you would hope to have a permanent cure you must apply the necessary remedies, re- solving, in the future, both to avoid the dangers which would again wreck your spiritual health, and to use the sure cura- tive medicine. If, in your town or city, there lived a physician competent to diagnose and cure any physical malady, people would flock to him from all parts of the country. You have such a spiritual physician regularly in your parish, but for some reason or other you have not availed yourself of your opportu- nity. But the missionary specialists, who come from the outside, are there for the one purpose of curing you, and it may be fatal for you not to take advantage of their services. As you were told above, the Lord owes you nothing, and the present mission may be the last call He will issue to you. Is it necessary to make a general confes- sion during the time of the mission? It is not necessary that all people make a general confession, but only those who may have made unworthy confessions. However, it is advisable for all people to review their whole life in their examina- tion of conscience, and then to confess the principal serious faults of their lifetime. Their sorrow or contrition will be the bet- ter if they do this, and contrition, as you are aware, is the principal requisite for a profitable confession. Too many people go to confession and receive Holy Communion through routine, and seem to act on the notion that the re- cital of the sins, which they can quickly bring to mind, is the only requisite. As a matter of fact, the confession of one’s sins without sorrow or any serious thought of amendment may be worse than no con- fession. We fear that very few people aim at perfect contrition at the time of their monthly or weekly confession, but they should certainly aim at having perfect con- trition at the time of the mission. How can one best awaken perfect con- trition? Perfect contrition flows from perfect love. If you honestly can tell your Creator that you love Him above all things, and that your sorrow is prompted more by the con- sideration of having offended Him, Who is goodness itself, than of having deserved IN REPARATION for the great amount of money you have wasted on pleasures, often sinful pleasures, make A Generous Offering to your parish for the good of your soul before the close of the mission. Everyone will wish to have a part in meeting the ex- penses of the mission. His punishment both in this world and in the world to come, then you have perfect contrition. The best manner of awakening sorrow is that which a holy Bishop of Spain followed and recommended to others. He says that after having examined his conscience, re- sulting in the presentation before him of many sins, each bearing his own trade mark, so that he could not disown any if he would, he always made three visits in spirit—the first to Heaven, the second to Hell, and the third to Calvary. Try this. Visualize Heaven open before you, where you see in fancy myriads of angels basking in the glory of God; you see your own Guardian Angel, some of your deceased rel- atives, a little brother or sister w7ho had died in baptismal innocence; you see Mary; you see Christ; you imagine you see God. Then say to yourself: “You were created for this same indescribable happiness, but by your sins you have deserved to be ex- cluded from it forever and ever. There is not a single sin in all Heaven, and yet they cover your soul as an ulcer.” How easy it is then to be sorry for all your sins and to resolve earnestly never more to commit them, lest all chance of your admission into Heaven be lost. In the same manner try to visualize hell open before you, wThere you behold myriads of souls living amid demons in indescrib- able suffering, hating and cursing one an- other, steeped in despair because this mis- ery wfill ever be their portion. Then say to your soul: “My soul, there is thy place. Thou hast sinned far more than many souls which thou beholdest everlastingly exclud- ed from the happiness for which they wrere created. How can’st thou, who can’st not endure physical pain, who could’st not hold thy finger in the flame of a candle for five If you cannot afford your local Catholic paper subscribe for OUR SUNDAY VISITOR the most popular Catholic weekly in the world, for 75c a year. If you receive the local Catholic paper, you will want Our Sunday Visitor in addition, because of the invaluable instruction and Catholic Action material it contains. You can have the monthly edition of above paper sent to a non-Catholic friend for 20c a year. Address: OUR SUNDAY VISITOR Huntington, Ind. seconds, continue in sin with the risk of being steeped in suffering forever? “How easy it is then to turn to God with eyes full of tears, and with a heart full of sorrow, and to protest that never again will you be guilty of the sins, which have made you deserving of such an eternal fate!” In your visit to Calvary you see Christ hanging on the Cross, suspended by nails, His head crowned with thorns, His face swollen with blows, His whole body torn into shreds. Looking into the face of Jesus you fancy you see Christ staring at you accus- ingly, as much as to say: “It was you who caused all this suffering for Me by your sins. There are multitudes of other sinners, it is true, but I have been so pained by your offenses, that even if you were the only per- son living on earth I would have undergone all this suffering to prevent the sins which you have committed.” How easy it would then be to fall on your knees, acknowledge your guilt, pour out tears of sorrow for having been such an ungrateful criminal, and to promise the loving Savior that you would never again grieve Him through the repetition of such sins! Excellent as this contrition is, it might be only inperfect (although satisfactory for a good confession) because it might have been provoked almost wholly by the thought of the loss of Heaven or the certainty of hell, or by shame for having treated so good a Friend so meanly. But after these con- siderations how easy it would be for you to turn to God with a heart full of love and to assure Him that, because He is Love Itself, you grieve exceedingly for hav- ing ever offended Him; and then to promise Him that you will, by the help of His /1iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiili>nn>