DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
Techny, Illinois





I



"Jesus of Nazareth . . . went about doing good and

healing all . . (Acts 10:38)



“BeolfidddBeart!”

By

(Rev.) Bruno Hagspiel, S.V. D.

REFLECTIONS and EXPERIENCES

OF AN OPTIMIST

“God’s in His heaven,

all's right with the world’’

Browning: Pippa Passes

DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
TECHNY, ILL.



IMPRIMI POTEST

Techny, 111., die 1 m. Augusti, 1941

Carolus Michel, S.V.D.

Superior Prov.

NIHIL OBSTAT

Chicagiae, die 2 m. Augusti, 1941

Eduordus M. Burke, J.C.D.

Vic. ger. Cancellarii

IMPRIMATUR

Chicagiae, die 2 m. Augusti, 1941

4^ Samuel A. Stritch, D.D.

Archiepps. Chic.

175,000 copies

De2c!®cl

COPYRIGHT, 1941

REV. BRUNO HAGSPIEL, TECHNY, ILL., U. S A



‘‘BE OF GOOD HEART

The Christ who walked among men for

three long years never shrank from misery.

Again and again He stretched out His hand,

healed, cured, alleviated the sick of body

and of soul. He invited those plunged in

trouble to seek His aid: “Come to Me, all

ye that labor and are burdened, and I shall

refresh you." Never in the history of man

had there appeared a universal benefactor so

lavish of His favors, temporal and spiritual.

Never will the world see His like again.

Shall we, born so many centuries after

Him, find ourselves shut out from the garden

of His grace and its wondrous refreshment?

No! We have only to turn the golden pages
of the Bible story to find again and again

His words ringing clear, lifting us, inspiring

us, bidding us take courage and continue the

good fight. He ascended into heaven itself

only after He had pledged Himself to send

the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,

the Consoler. Even in the moment of His

greatest exaltation. He had thoughts of our

poor mortal weakness and lack of faith.

One of the tenderest episodes in the New
Testament is the one narrating the cure of the

man sick with the palsy who was brought to

Jesus lying in a bed.

"And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the

man sick of the palsy: Be of good heart, son,

thy sins are forgiven thee" (Matt. 9:2).

Significantly, first He relieved the man of

5



the weight of his sins. Then, after the scribes

had murmured in their secret thoughts against

this. He explained His action, and turning to

the sick man, bade him "rise, take up thy

bed and go into the house" (Matt. 9:6).

And 'shortly after, on His way to raise the

daughter of Jairus from the dead, a woman

troubled with an issue of blood for twelve

years came behind Him and touched the hem

of His garment, saying within herself, "If I

shall touch only His garment, I shall be

healed."

"But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: Be

of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made

thee whole.

"And the woman was made whole from that

hour" (Matt. 9:22).

Well did Jesus rebuke the scribes and the

Pharisees, who could not understand His

methods and reasons: "They that are in health

need not a physician, but they that are ill"

(Matt. 9:12).

Today there is need more than ever before

of the Divine Healer to come in our midst

and cure our souls of their unbelief and dis-

trust, to urge us to have faith and continue

the battle with renewed courage.

A cheerful spirit is the birthright of the
Christian. Jn Ecclesiasticus we read: "Drive

sadness far from thee. For sadness hath

killed many, and there is no profit in it"

(Eccl. 30:24-25). As St. Teresa urges us:

"We should strive to be cheerful and un-

constrained; for there are people who think

it is all over with devotion if they relax them-

selves ever so little." The true Christian

knows, rather, that he should delight in the

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Lord, that he should, like the Apostle to the

Gentiles, "exceedingly abound in joy" (2 Cor.

7:4).

So we say to you, dear reader, BE OF

GOOD HEART! Cling to the hand of the
Lord, and He will cure your ills, temporal

and spiritual, in His own good time, in His

own all-wise way. Your faith will make you

whole.

This booklet, "Be of Good Heart!" is the

second of a series, commonly known as THE

SUNSHINE BOOKLETS, which includes the

following: "Cheer Up!"; "Be of Good Heart!";

"Have Confidence!"; "Take Courage!"; and

"Lift Up Your Hearts!"

While "Cheer Up!" is intended mainly for

people in every walk of life, the succeeding

booklets have a special appeal for all those

who desire a more ascetic spiritual approach

to the problem of discouragement and pes-

simism.

Readers are urged to pass on their copies of

these booklets to friends. All of us need such

encouragement in our daily lives.

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TODAY

Rise, for the day is' passing, and you lie

dreaming on.

And others have buckled their armor, and

forth to the fight have gone;

A place in the ranks awaits you, each man
has some part to play;

The past and the future are nothing, in the

face of the stern today.

Rise, if the past detains you, her sunshine and

storms forget;

No chains so unworthy to hold you as those

of a vain regret:

Sad or bright, she is lifeless ever, cast her

phantom arm away.

Nor look back, save to learn the lesson of a

nobler strife today.

Rise, from the dreams of the future, of gaining

some hard-fought field.

Of storming some airy fortress, or bidding

some giant yield;

Your future has deeds of glory, of honor,

”God grant it mayi'V

But your arm will never be stronger, or the

need so great as today.

Rise, for the day is passing, the sound that

you scarcely hear

Is. the enemy marching to battle: arise, for

the foe is near!

Stay not to sharpen your weapons, or the

hour will strike at last.

When, from dreams of a coming battle, you

may wake to find it past.

8



A SNAKE STORY

Once I was conducting a week-end retreat

and did not realize that I was running a tem-

perature. I did know I was unduly tired, and

so took to bed early this particular night and

tried to sleep.

I actually started worrying about what

would happen if I were really taken ill and

could not return home to complete certain

unfinished business. I would not admit to my-

self that I was sick. The fear mounted and

mounted.

I drifted into an uneasy slumber and a

terrible dream beset me. Then suddenly I

found myself overlooking a plain which lit-

erally crawled with snakes, big and small,

all slimy and slithery and sinister. And I

felt an uncontrollable power take hold of

me and urge me on — I simply had to
cross that field. The instinctive fear and hate

we all have of snakes took possession of me.

I did not want to go down into that plain; I

stood in awe of the very thought of making

my way through those knots of snakes. I

sweated and streamed blood with the agony.

Finally I set out, in mortal dread, putting one

foot ahead of the other slowly, with especial

loathsomeness of the smaller reptiles which I

knew could fasten around my ankle so easily
and make their way upward. It might have

taken me hours to consummate the trip; it

seemed as if whole days were spent in cross-

ing that plain of crawling snakes. As I went

on, however, the snakes disappeared — one
after the other they simply vanished. And

when I had reached the other side of the

plain I woke up exhausted and streaming with

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perspiration. But the snakes were all gone

and my worry was all gone. Then I knew I
was sick — but my fear was gone, and I was
mentally normal again.

How often our imagination creates trouble

for us where none exists! How often our

physical condition causes us to worry and

fret! Let this be your rule: never to make

decisions of any importance when plagued

by ill health or undue mental pressure.

Just the other day I picked up a copy of

one of Vera Marie Tracy's books and stumbled

over the lines from LowelTs Vision of Sir

Launfal

:

"
'Tis only heaven is given away,

'Tis only God may be had for the asking."

And I thought of that heroic invalid, bed-

ridden for years, yet incurably an optimist

through all her trials and troubles. The fetid

air of the sickroom can produce heroes beside

whom the most romantic figures in legend and

history lose their glamour. Not every cause

is won with a sword and a gallant cavalry

charge.

Think of this rare soul, who through her

more than thirty years of invalidism, sustained

herself by complete trust in God and self-ab-

negation. Since her first year in high school

she was completely paralyzed, yet managed

to despatch from her bed of sickness one

book after the other to lighten the weary heart

of the world: "Incense" (a book of poems),

"Break Thou My Heart," "Blue Portfolio,"
"Burnished Chalices." (For readers anxious

to obtain the above books let us mention here

that "Incense" is published by the O'Brien

Printing Co., Pueblo, Colo., while the others

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are put out by Bruce Publishing Co., Mil-

waukee, Wis.) Under God's chastening hand,

Vera Marie Tracy was led to the heights of

the spirit, whence she instructs us, in many

brief and meditative snatches, how to look

through tears to Him, kissing His hand which

hurts us, yet because it has been torn by

the nails of Calvary, can heal us forever of

our woes. Even while she admits our human

weakness to whine under suffering, she points

out that if we want His caresses we must ex-

pect them sometimes to be painful in their

excess of love.

For the pleasure and uplift of our readers

we append here two brief gems from her pen:

MY LITTLE CALVARY

Lord, how trivial seems my Calvary

When I consider Thine!

For only Simon helped Thee lift Thy cross.

But many carry mine!

I am not scorned, nor scourged, nor ridiculed.

And all along the way

Are many sweet, unnamed Veronicas

To wipe my tears away!

There are no cruel nail-wounds in my hands.

No thorns upon my brow.

And ministering angels walk with me.

To smooth the way — but Thou!
How dare I think it, call it Calvary —
This sheltered life of mine,

O broken, beaten, bleeding Lord, my God,

When I consider Thine!

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And here is the other:

GIFTS

He came with burdens, laid them at my feet,
"I bring thee gifts," He said. His smile was

sweet.

"These were my own. I give them all to
thee I"

I shuddered, staring at them fearfully.

The tools which of His Passion were a pajt —
The thorns, the nails, the spear which tore

His heart.

The massive cross, the cruel whips were there.

"O God," I uttered, voicing deep despair.

But then I glimpsed the sorrow in His eyes;

"I — take them, Lord." I sobbed, reluctant-
wise,

"I scarce am strong enough this cross to

lift
—

"

Eager, He spoke: "I have another gift

Will strengthen Thee. Ah, this I cherish

most!"

He placed upon my lips — a sacred Host!

It is so easy for our imagination, if un-

bridled and uncontrolled, to cause us more

woe and worry than actual troubles. Look

at all the good people who let scruples make

their spiritual life a real purgatory on earth;

they forget that temptations are no sin, and

no disgrace. The greatest saints had them

unceasingly. From experience, we know

nothing will happen if we do not yield to

them. Then why worry about them? Like

Macbeth brooding on his murder of Duncan

— after a while he ^dually did believe he
saw a dagger hovering in the air

12
;



Some overdevout people start worrying

about what v/ould happen IF there were a

persecution, and they were threatened with a

cruel or painful death or torture such as being

boiled in oil, or being put into a sweatbox such

as we are told existed in Germany's concen-

tration camps. Let such people have faith; let

them place their hand in that of the Divine

Master, and let . Him lead them; if He wants

you to carry a burden. He will give you the

strength, and if He wants you to walk a cer-

tain road. He will give you guidance and

courage to do so. Why worry eibout spooks
that do not exist?

I was talking the other day with a man in

the airplane business.

He was explaining the principle behind a

certain pet theory he had of aerodynamics.

To emphasize his point he stressed very

earnestly how, to be able to fly, a plane

MUST have resistance — just as a bird MUST
have pressure of the wind or at least some

resistance before it can wing its way through

the sky.

I am afraid I seemed to be wool-gathering

to him; I was reflecting to myself how this is

the exact truth and kernel of life's most sig-

nificant secret; our souls cannot fly toward

God unless we have some resistance; they

will not fly if we beat our wings in a vacuum

fruitlessly.

St. Francis of Assisi was called "Brother

Ever-glad." He knew how wonderful life

could be if you gave it half a chance to show

its good sides.

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He realized that one must have strength

and courage:

"Cowards die many times before their death,

the valiant never taste of death but once."

SHAKESPEARE

By stripping himself of everything he lost

most of the worries which attend our mortal

existence. He knew most of our worries

never happen. We think them into existence
and then magnify them, making of them

Frankensteins that slay us spiritually and

physically alike. St. Francis was a great ob-

server of the animal kingdom, and he would

have found a place in his tales' for the wise

beaver which took a mouthful of grass and

swam into midstream, submerged all of its

body gradually until only the mouth holding

the grass remained level with the water, then

released the grass and swam back to shore.

An interested watcher investigated and found

out that this was the simple way the animal

got rid of all the parasitic little insects that

infested its hide. They fled for safety to the

only dry spot remaining — the grass — leav-
ing him cleansed of his unwelcome tenants.

Perhaps St. Francis would have found a pet

name for even, such a pest and called it

"Brother Louse," for he had that grand knack

of making everything in life or nature help

him onward to perfection.

If you would sharpen your zest in life, re-

member that life is like a dull ax: you must

keep grinding away until ALL the rusty spots

are off ... it is the only way to do it!

14



Every day we pray, are tempted, fall, rise

again.

Eventually the day comes when we wonder

whether it is worth while striving onward any

more.

We feel we are tempted too much.
We give up the strife.
This is silly.

Just think: Christ Himself was tempted by

the expert in that line: Satan himself. And

how He was tempted — read for yourself
how Satan unrolled all the finest illusions,

promised the grandest things, asking in re--

turn only a very small deviation from the

path, apparently.

Did you ever realize that the devil tempts

only those who have NOT yielded?

If he has you in his bag, he does not have

to lure you any more.

The rabbit that is caught does not have to

be snared by the poacher a second time.

The more you are tempted, the harder the

devil is trying to make you yield — but you
have not yielded yet.

Flaubert wrote a whole book on the tempta-

tions which St. Anthony the hermit underwent

in the desert. But eventually St. Anthony

had the whole desert to himself . . . and Satan

was too worn out to continue.

Holiness and happiness go together.

The Early Christians, the hermits in the

desert, the preaching monks of the renais-

sance, the Poor Clares, Neri walking about

Rome, Damien toiling on Molokai — none of
them were long-faced individuals who had

soured on life. A saint can be a street-car

15



conductor, a janitor, a tennis-player, a base

ball player — what matter the label so long
as the holiness is there and with it, of course,

the happiness, which is almost the hallmark

of holiness.

GIVE UP!

Satan whispered this to Judas.

Judas could have been the greatest of the

apostles had he held on a little longer.

If you do not give up, you can move moun-

tains.

Satan is the prince of ennui, despair and

unhappiness; God is the master of joy.

THE SET OF THE SOUL

One ship drives east and another drives west

with the selfsame winds that blow,

'Tis the set of the sails and not the gales

That tells them the way they go.

Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate

as we voyage along through life,

Tis the set of the soul that decides the goal

and not the calm or the strife.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

Even the devil was aware of how far he

could go.

When he tempted Jesus in the desert, he

said, "He has given his angels charge over

Thee
"

He knows that he can lead and lure us so

far and the rest is up to us.

16



The next time you feel grouchy, remember

this. The medicine you swallow may be sour,

but the face you make depends on you.

A CONTRAST

Yes, today I woke up to hear that blasted

alarm clock, with a headache, and eyestrain,

and general discomfort; I got a verbal scourg-

ing and felt moody and a failure; embarrass-

ing things happened to me all day, and there

were blunders (which I did not do) laid to

my account. Then I heard of trouble burden-

ing those I loved, and a swindle perpetrated

where it hurt the most, and my health was

so poor I did not enjoy any of my meals.
Suddenly the thought struck me: I am only

one man, and these are just one man's small

troubles.

But God took all these things on Himself

for ALL OF US. HE was THE MAN OF SOR-
ROWS,

The rest of the day I was working on air.

If you are always sad and sour, you have

ceased to believe in the sacredness of your

own life. You will eventually vegetate aim-

lessly; and you will find the egotism which

thrives on such soil will become like one of

the giant liana plants of the jungles which

ultimately crush the life out of the trees around

which they are wrapped and from which they

draw their sustenance.

Talleyrand's advice: "Laugh and grow fat,"

is far better to follow than to fatten your

egotism with self-pity and despondency. Mo-

17



roseness and anxiety are like barnacles on

our ship of life which retard the voyager-

engineers calculate that the average ship after

a few months' voyage has so many tons of

barnacles clinging to the keel that the ship's

efficiency is impeded sometimes as much as

50%. It does not matter what trivial things

you use to encourage in yourself the spirit

of laughter. Dryden spoke wisely when he

declared that a straw, if it can tickle a man,

is an instrument of happiness.

If your imagination too active? Do you

propound too many questions to yourself

when a course of action lies before you?

Do you ask yourself: is this the right way

to do it? Wouldn't it be better if I followed

some other plan? Wouldn't it be better to

wait a while? Do my friends mean what they
say about it? Can I depend on myself? Can

I depend on anyone?

You can find questions enough to ask your-

self about any enterprise . . . but the main

thing is to go ahead and START and KEEP

GOING.

Some men are forever being pallbearers —
they carry around with them one dead or

morbid idea which they parade before our

noses with all the cheerful gusto of a morgue-

caretaker showing off his latest incumbent.

Geography for them begins and ends with

the Dead Sea.

They read history for the record of catas-

trophes.

Poetry for them is good only if tinctured

with dabs of melancholy.

18



Religion is for them the list of painful and

excruciating martyrdom endured for an ideal.

I read a story once in which a man visiting

us from Mars fled in horror when he heard

some humans laughing together. . . . He had

his mind made up that such a queer outburst

must be due to complete insanity on the part

of the people he had observed.

Perhaps such pallbearers as we have just

described would be well classified with our

friend from Mars — and perhaps it would
be a good idea if they were all sent there

to reside permanently.

Every doctor knows that fifty percent of

illness is in the mind.

There is a lot to be said for the 'Think you

are well, and you ARE well/' theory of

health.

And of course, if you feel depressed, and

act depressed, after a while you will tell your-

self there is an actual good reason why you

OUGHT to feel depressed.
Don't worry until you have to . . . and then

be honest as to the size of your worry.

Depression comes from solitude overly in-

dulged in : man is essentially a gregarious

animal. Few of us are called to be Fathers

of the Desert and live in the wilderness of

our own personality.

Or it comes from dyspepsia, in which case

a few dollars paid to a reputable doctor will

remove much of the harm accruing to your

whole system.

19



Or from grief — and the solution here is
the unfailing solution for all human ills

:

prayer.

Or overwork — and you must consider that
Lucifer, the Prince who fell from heaven, was

quite possibly just another executive who

worried too much about his job and the pos-

sibilities ahead, and let ambition lead him by

the nose.

If your depression arises from a sense of

sin: God Himself has prescribed the medicine.

When life seems darkest, do these two

things: try to help someone in need, and

count the blessings which Almighty God has

bestowed on you.

Instead of wasting your time moaning and

murmuring, you will be finding ways to make

each hour lighter and cheerier.

We hear a lot about propaganda these lat-
ter years.

The most successful propagandist of them

all has, of course, been Herr Hitler.

His dictum on propaganda is worth remem-

bering: "Successful propaganda can make a

nation see heaven as hell and utter misery as

paradise."

This is the technique of the devil too. He

makes us pessimistic when we should be full

of optimism, and vice versa. How about

analyzing the next "propaganda" that comes

your way and seeing for yourself whether it

should be worth crying over? — or laughing

20



"I had rather have a fool make me merry

than experience make me sad."

Shakespeare wrote that.

As usual, the bard of Avon hit the mark.

He had the knack of compressing the whole

race's experience in a few words. “For that

we call him immortal, since there are not

many writers who describe wfhat we all know

in phrases that we consider totally satisfac-

tory and pungent.

The next time things go wrong, choose

rather to laugh with the fools, than be sad

with the sages.

Little souls should keep diaries. Months

later, years later, let them read in those

diaries. Let them see how puny those vexa-

tions and irritations were, and how small a

dose of poison can bring to naught the finest

project. A mote of dust in our eye can seem
like a mountain. Yet the bystander still sees

only a mote.

Here is a real test for you: are you a big

man or a small one?

Emerson thought: "The great will not con-

descend to take anything seriously; all must

be as gay as the song of a canary."

Did you ever stop to think that if you de-

spair you are degrading God?

You are saying, in effect: God is not enough

or He is not true to His word, revealed to

the Scriptures. Or He has not got the power

to ward off this evil or that calamity

21



Of course, you don't really believe that.

Then, why despair?

Bovee states emphatically: "Cheerfulness is

the offshot of goodness."

If you are good, you are happy.

It makes sense, does it not?

Check yourself against this remark.

BELIEVE IN LIFE

Nothing else matters much — not wealth,
not learning, not even health, without this

gift : the spiritual capacity to keep zest in

living.

When we say a man is good for nothing,

we generally mean he is bad: a criminal, a

wastrel, a lazy ne'er-do-well; he is good for

nothing. Jesus' insight went deeper. Every

personality is important, that was Christ's

starting point. If a man takes Him in earnest

and sees what He means, a life begins that

can keep its savor. About 22,000 people com-

mit suicide in this country every year and a

careful investigation reveals that for the most

part it is not the poor, the hard-put-to-it, who

thus end their lives. It is the fairly prosperous

people, comfortably circumstanced. Life com-

monly loses its zest, until men and women

kill themselves, through inward spiritual fail-

ure, not through outward material difficulty.

We all need a sustaining faith that puts mean-
ing into life. How can a thoroughgoing, ir-

religious materialist, seeing no cause for our

existence anyway, except physical accident.

22



and no outcome except ultimate annihilation,

still say, with radiance and zest, "I believe in

life"? How can a man empty the whole

universe of spiritual significance, and see it

with no purpose unifying it, no meaning in-

herent in it, no destiny ahead of it, and still

grow old, saying, "I believe in life"? This

is the "creed of creeds," the final deposit and

distillation of man's important faiths, that he

should be able to believe in life.

DR. HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK
Riverside Church, N. Y.

Do you wish never to be sad? Then live

rightly.

ST. ISIDORE OF SEVILLE

In reading the Old Testament, we can't help

marveling at the heroic endurance and stal-

wart character of so many of the Prophets,

men cast in a gigantic mold.

With Isaiah, they seem all to have taken

for their slogan:

"Behold, God is my salvation: I will trust
and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my
strength and my song."

Paul and his disciple Silas seem also to

have partaken of this quality, and even in

their dungeon at Philippi we find them sing-

ing songs of hope and courage no matter

that it was the darkest hour of trial for them.

It is enough to have bread and to live in

the Faith of Christ.

MICHELANGELO

23



THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

OF SUFFERING

God would not send you darkness, dear.

If He felt you could bear the light;

But you would not cling to His guiding hand

If the way were always bright.

And you would not care to walk by faith

Could you always walk by sight.

'Tis true He has many an anguish

For your sorrowful heart to bear.

Many a cruel thorn-crown

For your tired head to wear.

He knows how few would reach heaven at all

If pain would not guide them there.

So He sends you the blinding darkness.

And the furnace of seven-fold heat,

Tis the only way, believe me.

To keep you close to His feet.

For 'tis always easy to wander

When our lives are glad and sweet.

Then nestle your hand in your Father's

And sing, if you can, as you go;

Your song may cheer someone behind you.

Whose courage is sinking low;

And, well, if your lips quiver,

God will love you better so.

The next time you feel despondent, get hold

of one of these three little books (none of

them is over 65 pages long) and tuck it into

your pocket and dip into it throughout the

weary day:

FATHER DANIEL CONSIDINE'S "Words of

Encouragement" or his "More Words of En-

couragement" or "Future Words of Encour-

agement."

24



Here is a sample:

"We must get it out of our heads that we

can only be religious by being miserable."

And another:

"Goodness naturally leads to joy. It would

be a trump card in the devil's hand if it were

otherwise."

Pick some out for yourself; paste them in

your hat or fix them in your mirror; and most

important, glue them in your memory. You

will find yourself a more cheerful person

throughout everyone of the hours of the day.

It pays to be concerned about the right

things but not to worry about them. Take for

yourself the grand maxims' of St. Teresa of

Avila, that saintly woman with the sparkling

wit, who proved once for all that a saint had

to be able to laugh fervently and frequently.

ST. TERESA^S MAXIMS

Let nothing trouble thee.

Let nothing frighten thee.

All things pass away.

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God.

God alone suffices.

God gave us — or most of us — five senses
with which to appreciate His world and ours.

Then, to make sure we would get all the

finer nuances and meanings of it. He added

a sixth sense: a sense of humor.

25



Take Puck's remark for your own, and you

will find yourself shrewder and saner:

"Lord! what fools these mortals be!"

The world has gone through every catas-

trophe which man can imagine — and has
survived. You, too, will go through still

further calamities in your life — and you will
survive, too. There is always something to

be cheerful about.

An old lady I know is an incorrigible op-

timist.

"Nasty weather," I said one day with-

out thinking. It was vile, typical Chicago

weather. . .

.

"Well," she smiled back, "nasty weather

is better than no weather."

Few people know that Henry Ford once

agreed to sell his business to W. C. Durant

for eight million dollars.

Financial experts, however, declared the

price was too high. Durant could not raise

the money from the bankers, because of their

acceptance of the experts' views.

The deal fell through.

Today Ford's plant is a billion-dollar in-

dustry.

Those experts might have been good busi-

ness men, but they did not trust the future

much.

Fenelon, the great French preacher, once

said

:

"The crosses which we make for ourselves
by a restless anxiety as to the future are not

26



crosses which come from God. We show
want of faith in Him by our false wisdom

wishing to forestall His arrangements, and

struggling to supplement His providence by

our own providence. The future is not yet

ours; perhaps it never will be. If it comes,

it may come wholly different from what we

have foreseen. Let us shut our eyes, then,

to that which God hides from us, and keeps

in reserve in the treasures of His deep coun-

sels. Let us worship without seeing; let us

be silent; let us abide in peace."

FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY are always
being urged on us as ideals to follow. . . and

isn't it peculiar (or perhaps you don't think

so) that of these three, two of them are noth-

ing more nor less than undiluted- optimism?

DUMB OR... ?
St. Thomas Aquinas was so dull and slow-

witted that his schoolmates nicknamed him

the Dumb Ox.

He got the poorest grades in his class.

With persistence and application, he over-

came his defects, and today not one of the

Doctors of the Church ranks with him in

brilliance.

He is the Church's brightest gem in learning.

In later years he was called Wonderful Doc-

tor, The Father of Moral Philosophy, The

Fifth Doctor of the Church, The Second

Augustine.

His secret: he kept plugging.

By the way, does anyone know the name

of ANY of his schoolmates who gave him his
nickname?

27



By having faith in yourself and in your

work you will easily come to take pride in

your work.

For centuries Venetian glass has fetched

high prices. Venice is limited, as far as nat-

ural resources and fuel go, when compared

with other localities. But the people who do

the glass-blowing have from old taken such

pride in their work that none can compete

with the products they turn out.

What of China's cloissonne workers who

hand on the tradition of their art from family

to family? Yet anyone can learn the rudi-

ments of the craft in half an hour.

And Persian weavers of rugs? Everyone

knows the fabulous prices for their handicraft.

Still, rugs are woven on machines today which

— almost — come up to the standards of
those ancient weavers. But not quite

And diamond cutting . . . the knowledge of

this rare trade is in the hands of fewer than

a thousand men, yet by reading a book on

the topic you would know as much as they

do . . . but you would not be a diamond-cutter.

That trade is a closed shop ... for it takes the

most painstaking care of all to produce an

excellent cutter.

God always gives us strength to bear our

present burden, but He never calculated that

we would add to that yesterday's grief, and

tomorrow's Worry.

"Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof."

A soul recollected in God would not change

her repose for the greatest good in the world.

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

28



GOD’S WILL FOR YOU AND ME

Just to be tender, just to be true.

Just to be glad the whole day through;

Just to be merciful, just to be mild.

Just to be trustful as a child.

Just to be gentle, kind and sweet.

Just to be helpful with willing feet.

Just to be cheery when things go wrong.

Just to drive sadness away with a song.

Just to have faith through darkness or light.

Just to be loyal to God and right.

Just to believe that God knows best.

Just in His promises ever to rest.

Just to let love be our daily key —
That is God's will for you and for me.

I like to recall that the word Bible means

not so much just one book, but a collection

of books, so that when I feel like reading in

it, I can find the homely wisdom of Peter, the

flight of Isaias, the mournings and groans of

Jeremias, the swift narrative of the Evange-

lists, the brilliant letters of Paul

I can learn history from the books of the

Bible. Or psychology. Or strategy. Or di-

vine truths . . . such as this nugget

:

"Who, then, shall separate us from the

love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress?

or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or per-

secution? or the sword?" (Romans 8:35)

Isn't it worth while having and reading a

book which can give you such thoughts now

and then, to animate your will in the struggle

of life?

Religion without joy — is no religion.
THEODORE PARKER

29



And Edmund Burke said, 'It is the source

of all good and all comfort." Does it not

teach us how to bear pain and suffering in

relation to our goal, life eternal?

The finest university men can assemble will

never teach the lessons which are to be

learned by those initiated in the School of

Christ, the Man of Sorrows.

A teacher should know whereof he teaches.
Christ did.

He was:

betrayed,

denied,

arrested,

accused falsely,

bound,

scourged,

spit upon,

mocked,

saw His dearest ones suffer,

died on the cross, in shame.

Such a teacher can really have the authority

to teach us . .

.

we owe it to Him and to our-

selves to listen and to learn.

Father Tabb, who endured many trials,

among them the loss of his sight, wrote i.gain

and again of the meaning of pain and trouble.

Few of his brief sparkling poems have the

rich meaning of this gem:

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me;
I may but choose the colors —
He worketh steadily.

30



Full oft He weaveth sorrow.

And I, in foolish pride.

Forget He sees the upper

And I the under side.

In my mail this morning is a story which

I think is too good to keep. Here it is (I copy

it just as I read it in the letter of a friend):

'Tather N — was asking me about th^
family, mother, dad, myself, etc. He said,

'Well, Dorothy, we all have our crosses, you

know.' And that reminds me of a little joke.

One day a missionary was giving a mission.

When he had finished his sermon, he said:

'Now if any one has any rosaries to bless,

hold them up, and I'll bless them. And

prayerbooks, hold them up, and I'll bless

them. Any pictures, hold them up, and I'll

bless them. Any crosses, hold them up, and

I'll bless them.' Guess what one man did.

Took and held up his wife at the mention of

'crosses.' Apparently she was his cross —
and he thought a blessing might do her

good."

Reading that story in the mail was as good

as getting out of bed the right side, that

morning!

FROM AFAR OFF
your fears look like seven-horned devils.

Walk up to them.

Face them! Say "scat!"

You will find they disappear into thin air.

THEY have been afraid of YOU!

31



When you worry too much about the state

of your souL and burden yourself with

scruples, you are like Mike, who found the

menu in his favorite restaurant, one fine Fri-

day, had bacon, pork, beef and ham — but
no eggs or fish. It would have been easy to

walk down the street and get the eggs or

fish at some other place, but Mike thought:

"Maybe the Lord is too busy watching spar-

jows and the grass grow to notice me"; so

he ordered some slices of bacon, ate them and

continued on his way.

He was not far when a change came in the

weather and the winds blew wildly and the

rain pattered down. It got darker and darker.

Lightning lashed out. Thunder rolled. Final-

ly one terrible bolt of lightning hit close to

the quaking Irishman.

"Holy Father," he moaned, "who ever heard

of such a fuss over such a small piece of

bacon?"

TODAY IS YOURS

but if you do not use it, it is still yours —
UNFORTUNATELY.

Out of what is today, you are making your

yesterdays and your tomorrows.

Today is always yours, whether you want

it so or not.

It is better to have a little too much en-

thusiasm rather than not enough.

You will find you contribute more to life

by being a little overzealous and too cheerful

than by being a wet blanket.

Better to be like Bolivar, the Liberator of

32



South America, of whom an English acquaint-

ance said: ''the flame is consuming the oil"

•. . . than to be without any flame whatsoever.

Even Christ had such "sourpusses" in His

entourage. When Magdalen poured ointment

lavishly over His feet, sweated with walking

the hills of Bethany, the groaners were quick

to point out: "This ointment could have been

sold for three hundred pence and the money

given to the poor." . . . But Christ did not stop

her — He encouraged the outburst of en-
thusiasm. . .

.

America invented a grand idea: payment

by installment.

Why not try to get rid of your debts to
worry and trouble on the same plan?

You can even swallow big doses of poison

— if you gradate the amounts — a little at
first, then a little more, finally a full sized

dose which would have killed you if taken

at the first attempt.

The little watch was terrified at the pros-

pect of ticking away for sixty seconds times

sixty minutes times twenty-four hours times

three hundred sixty-five days. . . . But the

large grandfather clock standing in the hall-

way smiled: "Do not fret yourself, my son;
I have been going now for three generations,

and my experience is that all you need to
remember is this: you are expected to pro-

duce only one tick at a time."

And we all know the story of the devil and

St. Ignatius Loyola, who being sorely tempted

by His Satanic Highness that it was impossible

to remain steadfast in his resoultion to be a

saint for forty or sixty years, replied vigorous-

33



ly: "Sixty years! Who promises me that
length of life? Fll keep this up till noon

and if alive then. I'll hold on till evening."

Temptation is not to be construed as the

final proof of our failure.

In fact, it is often simply a sign that we

are still fighting, hence must be tempted and

fall before the devil can feel sure of eventual-

ly conquering us.

St. Francis de Sales was wont to assure

anxious penitents that temptations should not

worry them: "The just man," he would quote

from the Bible, "falleth seven times." ... Do

not be troubled, confess the falls humbly and

frankly, and keep on trying, for God will save

you from bruises.

Be not dispirited; be not afraid; keep a

good heart; be bold; draw not back — you
will be carried through. Whatever troubles

come on you, of mind, body, or estate; from

within or from without, from chance or from

intent, from friends or foes; whatever your

trouble be, though you be lonely, O children
of a heavenly Father, be not afraid; acquit

yourselves like men in your day; and when it

is over, Christ will receive you to Himself,

and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no

man taketh from you.

CARDINAL NEWMAN

If you promise to do something tomorrow,

do it today.

34

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA



BE WITH ME YET

In time of trial, care and pain.

In sorrow's dark afflicting hour;

O Father, let Thy goodness reign,
and let Thy love aye be my power.

E'en though my deeds unworthy be;

E'en though Thy mercies I forget.

Hide not Thy grace, I pray, from me —
Be with me yet, be with me yet.

Thy will be done upon this earth.

Thy honor first above the law.

Teach me to know more of Thy worth
— to have for Thee a greater awe.
Then when Thy prophecy's fulfilled

and my life's sun about to set,
when e'en this beating heart is stilled —
Be with me yet, be with me yet.

LOUIS ARNOLD EWING

The next time you are in mental or spir-

itual difficulties ask God to give you an in-

creased sense of trust in Him. Get this book

and study it carefully: PAUL DE JAEGHER,

S.I.: "The virtue of Trust."

You will find everything necessary to get

through the pitfalls of life contained within

these pages. All the wisdom of the world is

contained in the virtue ol trust. Chapter 18

will teach you more real learning about the

'way to treat your very faults than the finest

advice your most intimate friend can give

you. It will show you how even your errors

and sins of commission and omission can be

used as stepping stones, it will make real

for you Tennyson's immortal poetic phrase:

35



"men may rise on stepping stones of their

dead selves to higher things."

The word discouragement is not found in

the dictionary of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Never let yourself use the word if you have

God's work to do.

Give me a sense of humor, Lord,

Give me the power to see a joke.

To get some happiness from life

And pass it on to other folk.

‘‘GOD’S CHILLUN”

How often traveling through the Southland,

down to one of our missionary centers in

Mississippi and Louisiana, I noted the wretched

hovels all along the Illinois Central Railroad

tracks where the Negro lived! How poor

these people were! How little of their birth-

right was ever allotted to them! Surely here

was the most downtrodden race of all, for

in the midst of plenty and in the very cradle

of freedom, they seemed chained to the

slavery of poverty!

And yet, nowhere in all my travels through
the two hemispheres, the seven seas and the

five oceans, have I found more songs bub-

bling from the hearts of men; nowhere have

I seen more contentment and peace emanat-

ing from human faces. Happy-go-lucky mood

is theirs, sunshine is in their eyes, and they

seem to say to you in their very bearing:

"We are the kings of the world, even if we

36



are as poor as lob's turkey — we are God s
chillun."

Faint not that this or that man fell;

For one that falls, a thousand rise

to lift white Progress to the skies:

Truth keeps the bottom of her well.

Fear not for man, nor cease to delve

for cool, sweet truth, with large belief.

Lo! Christ Himself chose only twelve,

yet one of these turned out a thief.

JOAQUIN MILLER

You can't show cheerfulness in your face

if you do not have it in your innermost heart.

It can't be put on like rouge, or lipstick or

powder

One who lives deliberately in sin cannot

rejoice

One who lives persistently in the proximate

occasion of sin cannot rejoice. . .

.

One who leads a double life and is a hypo-

crite will find it impossible to rejoice

Only one who is on good terms with God,

one with Him in thought and word and deed,

i.e., one who has a good conscience, can re-

joice in all sincerity. Dante states it beau-

tifully :

"In His will is our peace!"

and where peace is, there is joy.

By his very profession of faith, a Christian

must be an optimist. If he is positive that

everything works together for good for those

who love God, he must be cheerful. He ban-

37



not go around with a sour face. There must

be joy in his heart, knowing what he does.

He must enter the daily battle with a song

on his lips and a smile on his countenance.

At Leuthen the soldiers of the king went

into the battle singing a Christian hymn.

Their general asked the king if he should

stop their singing: it was not at all according

to discipline.

"By no means," cried the king; "men that

can sing like that can fight."

And those soldiers won the battle.

TRUST

Dark dark the starless sky,

and blinded. Lord, I stand.

Dark — so dark the night that I
see not, but feel. Thy hand.

Lord, be Thou leader mine —
See, lay my hand in Thins,
I lean my heart on Thine —
Carry me. Heart benign.

Lead me, O Love Divine;
My Father, in the night
I stretch my hands to Thee,
nor crave the dawning's light.

Because I trust in Thee —
And from Thy Heart to mine

Doth pass Thy pledge divine —
"Trust — trust in Me, child of Mine,
Trust, for thy Father's strength is thine.

Trust, O loved child of Mine."

In your worst misfortune there is humor if

you have the grace to see it.

38



Blessed Jordan of Saxony lost an eye. If

there is one sense we value more than an-

other it is that of sight. Aristotle remarks fre-

quently on this: how we treasure sight before

most other possessions.

What did Blessed Jordan do?

He did not weep.

He did not bemoan.

He did not curse and complain.

He joked about it

He found a blessing in his loss; said he:

“Now I have one less source of temptation.". .

.

If the conditions produced by laughter

could be permanently maintained, we would

have the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

God does not make a furrow in your heart

unless He plans to sow there the seed of His

grace.

Joy in life is like the oil in a lamp — the
wick burns with a black smoke as the oil

gets low, and instead of light we get a flicker-

ing glow which is painful to the eyes and

which does not enable us to read or see

clearly.

Think of your troubles in the same way as

a game. Do you remember the "Daisy" game

you used to play as a child? "He loves me,

he loves me not, he loves me greatly, he

loves me not at all" . . and with each phrase
we used to pluck out one petal of the flower

until they were all gone.

39



Try this with your worries: ''A little one,

none at all, a very big one, absolutely none

at all" — and you will be surprised how
often, as you near the end, you will find the

last one is sure to be "none at all."

LIVING BOUQUETS

When I quit this mortal shore,

and mosey 'round the earth

no more, don't weep, don't sigh,

don't sob; I may have struck a better job.

Don't go and buy a large bouquet,

for which you'll find it hard to pay;

don't mope around and feel all

blue — I may be better off than you.
Don't tell the folks I was a saint,

or any old thing that I ain't;

if you have jam like that to spread,

please hand it out before I'm dead.

If you have roses, bless your soul,

just pin one in my buttonhole while I'm alive
and well — today.

Don't wait until I've gone away.

Do you think our President Franklin Roose-

velt would have worked his way to the

eminence he occupies if he had slid easily

along the greased political course mapped for

him, around the time he was Assistant Secre-

tary of the Navy?

His calamity — the infantile paralysis which
struck him down —- forced him to concen-
trate for whole minutes at a time in order to

use one single muscle in his foot . . . until

he had attained a marvelous mastery of his

40



"THY

FAITH

HATH

MADE

THEE

WHOLE"

Again

and

again

did

Jesus

say

these

words,

centuries

ago,

when

curing

the

lame

and

the

blind

and

the

halt

and

the

deaf.

Today,

we,

too,

need

that

loith,

-\^hich

alone

can

cure

us

of

our

ills,

spiritual

and

material.



body and thus of his mind. From this arena

of suffering he went on to the highest honors

of the land.

Seeming failure often points the way to the

peaks of success.

The newspapers recently carried a story of

a university student who was placed in charge

of a research experiment with instructions to

perform a certain operation after a long in-

terval of time. Worn out by his vigils, the

student overslept . . . and when he woke was

horrorstruck; the whole formula was without

doubt a total loss. But when he rushed to

the laboratory, lo and behold! an entirely new

plastic had been created, simply through the

fact the student had NOT performed the opera-
tion. And a new product was added to the

world's chemical marvels.

Some time ago a Sister complained bitter-

ly to me because she was transferred from

one position to work in a school . . . she

thought her whole life was being wasted.

After her transfer, she slowly became aware

that the whole affair was really a blessing in

disguise, which enabled her to advance much

further on the road to perfection.

One of the greatest surprises in heaven will

be the real outcome of many so-called trage-

dies we comment on sadly today . . . which

are really triumphs, if we only knew.

Another case I know was due to a severe

attack of scarlet fever, which sent a boy,

studying to be a secular priest, to a hospital,

from which he emerged to find that he had to

make his classes over. While there he made

the acquaintance of a student at Steyl, Hol-

land, the Motherhouse of the Society of the

Divine Word, and eventually became a priest,

42



a religious and a missionary — all of which
would never have happened if he had con-

tinued in good health.

Many a time that crabby feeling is due to

only one thing: insufficient food, or improper-

ly cooked food. If we would pay a little

attention to the needs of our body, brother

Ass, then the rider, brother Soul, would fare

much better on his journey through life.

'"Have you lived a good life?'" asked St.

Peter of a timid female knocking at the gate.

'T was good only at one thin^," said the

woman dolefully.

"And that was?"

"Cooking."

"Come right in." And Peter opened the

gate wide. "Good cooks have saved more

men from damnation than a dozen mission-

aries. You can have all the heavenly happi-

ness you want in here — you are entitled
to it."

Not what we give

but what we share.

For the gift without the giver is bare;

Who gives himself
with his alms feeds three:

himself,

his hungering neighbor,

and Me.

J. L. LOWELL

Under the storm and the cloud today.

And today the hard peril and pain.



Tomorrow the stone shall be rolled away.

For the sunshine shall follow the rain.

Merciful Father, I will not complain.

I know that the sunshine shall follow the rain.

JOAQUIN MILLER

The next time you meet a friend you will

say: Hello! or Good morning! or How aie

you!

It all shows good will.

What if you were to repeat to yourself this

salutation? Wouldn't it be an even finer

wish?

"The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the

Lord make His face to shine upon thee and

be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His

countenance upon thee and give thee peace."

THE OTHER MAN

One of the mistakes of mortals is the uni-

versal impelling desire to correct the other

man, your neighbor, and the world in gen-

eral. It is easy to see the mistakes of others

while your own are overlooked. It is not

correction that will redeem the world, but per-

fection in your life and acts.

Correction takes words, but perfection takes

daily acts and deeds. Corrections are easy,

a child can make them; even a parrot might.

Corrections often come from those filled with

envy for their more successful neighbor. The

heart filled with envy is a regular correction

factory.

44



Really to reform man, really to reform the

world, live as perfect and just a life as you

can, for this attracts not only residents of

earth, but the hosts of heaven. ^

The corrective tongue repels not alone

earth's residents, but even the residents of the

next planet. The desire to be just, to be per-

fect, is personal, it is long-suffering, it thinks

no evil, it sees no evil, it hears no evil, it

vaunteth not itself, it is not puffed up, for per-

fection does not watch the other man; it watch-

es self. It is not the noise of the loom that

counts, it is the pattern in the loom that brings

forth the beauty of the product of the loom.

The other man and all other men will be

redeemed when those they associate with are

perfect. It will be the pattern of the perfect

life you live that will redeem. Words are

cheap, they are copper and sounding brass,

but the perfect life is like the harmony of a

great organ. It stills the discord and helps

redeem the other man.

ADMIT YOUR MISTAKES!

The only way to progress is to see one's

own deficiencies; to admit those things in

which others excel and profit by them.

SPLINTERS FROM THE CROSS
Little headaches, little heartaches.

Little griefs of every day.

Little trials and vexations.

How they throng around our way!
One great cross, immense and heavy.

So it seems to our weak will,
^

Might be borne with resignation.

But these many small ones kill.

45



Yet all life is formed of small things.

Little leaves make up the trees.

Many tiny drops of water.

Blending make the mighty seas;

So these many little burdens.

Pressing on our hearts so hard.

All uniting, form a life's work.

Meriting a grand reward.

Let us not, then, by impatience.

Mar the beauty of the whole.

But for love of Jesus bear all

In the silence of our soul.

Asking Him for grace sufficient

To sustain us through each loss.

And to treasure each small suffering

As a splinter from His Cross.

Humor is not an obstacle to sanctity. If

you can find nothing else to smile at, there

is always yourself.

BISHOP KELLEY of Oklahoma City

Don't worry! You shorten your life, you

add to the misease of others, you force your-

self to focus on the ugly facets of the world

about you, even while they may really be

reflecting the most beautiful gleams of light.

Discouragement should be treated as a

disease — which it is. Nobody has yet iso-
lated the microbes which conquer us from

within, with approved Trojan horse tactics.

But
^
we all know the germs are there, and

we know how they operate. When we be-

hold a Scrooge, we cannot tell the exact stages

46



of the disease that has attacked the unfor-

tunate individual, but we know he is just jam-

packed full of loathsome microbes. Let in

laughter! let in joy! and the whole machinery

of the mind and the clogged pistons of the

soul will alike be cleansed and be their nor-

mal selves. Woe to the poor man who takes a

pill for the malady he imagines is besetting

him; when perhaps all he needs is a vigorous

round of God's medicine, laughter!

Like the Deacon's wonderful one-horse shay

commemorated in Oliver Holmes's poem,

there is

"always somewhere a weakest spot"

which allows the devils of disintegration to

sneak in and pull down the structure about

our ears. The Deacon had the right solution:
"

'tis mighty plain,

that the weakest place must stand the

strain."

Hence he maintained the way to fix it was

"only jest

T'make th-place uz strong uz the rest."

We all have a "weakest" place, a loophole
in our defenses, through which despair and

despondency creep in and assault our strong-

est bastions and defeat us irrevocably. Make

that spot the strongest in all your armor; and

after you have proved its staunchness the

enemy will attack you at any other place

except there.

A man is like a motor — the more they
knock, the sooner do they lose their power.

47



HAPPINESS

Half the happiness of living

Comes from willing-hearted giving;

Comes from sharing all our pleasures.

From dividing all our treasures.

And the other half is loving

First the Lord, then all things living.

So, each mortal should be sowing

Love seeds while his life is growing.

For all happiness in living

Comes from loving and from giving.

Saying "No'' when people want you to do

things is not easy. It takes courage. But you

will go far if you have the courage to refuse

to take on things that you know you will

not have the opportunity to do well. If you

see that you are not in a position to give

a task your best effort, don't take it on. Have

the nerve to say "No."

WORDS OF CHEER

Words of cheer are words of help. Words

of gloom are words of ha^m. There is a

bright side and a dark side to every phase of

life and to every hour of time. If we speak

of the bright side, we bring the bright side

into prominence; if we speak of the dark side,

we deepen its shadows. It is in our power

to help or to hinder by a word any and every

person with whom we are. If we see a look

of health or of hope in the face of an acquaint-

ance whom we casually meet, and we tell

him so, he goes on his way with new life

48



in his veins. If we see a look of failing

strength and of heaviness of heart in one to

whom we speak, and we emphasize the fact

that he does not look well, we give him a

push downward, as our contribution to the

forces which affect his course. A look or a
word can help or can harm our fellows. It

is for us to give cheer or gloom as we pass

on our way in life, and we are responsible

for the results of our influence accordingly.

MEET THE CHAMP!

Championship is a state of the mind.

A champion doesn't just happen. He puts
long years into training and developing his

muscles, coordinating them with his brain,

with his sense of timing, with his judgment.

He cultivates the ability to last just a little

longer than the other fellow; in the historic

phrase once used to describe England, he is

willing to lose every battle except the last

one.

Paavo Nurmi, the great Finnish runner, used

calmly to let all his competitors lead him all

the way as long as his timing told him he

was running at the pace he ought to be hold-

ing. Then he would gradually increase the

pace near the end until he outdistanced every

other contestant. He was a "champ" — and
knew he had the qualities for the top place,

whereas the others guessed they might defeat

him.

Start training today, even if you seem to

have had nothing but failures in the past.

You can be a champ, but you must work at

it first. In the spiritual life, a "champ" is

49



nothing more and nothing less than a saint.

Did you know it was so easy?

The devil is the Father of Guile.

He is the great-grandparent of the well-

known Blue Devils.

One of his tricks is to get you feeling sad

and moody.

We know he is clever; but nobody ever
proved he is courageous.

Defy him.

He will flee.

And, like father, like son — the blue devils
will flee also.

Years ago there was a cartoon strip called

"Calamity Jane." Poor Jane! she never could

see any fun in life. Everything was sure to

turn out wrong. The world was on the rocks.

If it didn't rain today, it would tomorrow.

Why bother trying anything — wasn't it go-
ing to end dismally? . . . and so on.

The encouraging part of the whole thing

was that many people turned to this strip daily

in order to see the tide of events work out

nicely, leaving Jane more than ever in the

dumps because her prophecies were proved

wrong. From perusing the cartoon, they in-

variably swung over to some other heavier

fare — with a chuckle.
Those people had the right idea. They

would have made good Religious.

50



THE MAIN THING

is to try and try again . . . and to keep on

trying.

An alligator pursued a turtle and was just

ready to snap it up, when the turtle gave a

leap into a tree and — there he was, safe as
snuff.

I told this story to a little boy and he jeered

at me:

"How can a turtle jump into a tree?"

"Why," I answered, chuckling, "the alligator

was so close, the turtle HAD to. . .
."

There are many things we CAN, and WILL

do, but we don't believe we HAVE to.

HARD TIMES

A man we know had trouble settling an
avalanche of bills.

By dint of thrift and hard work, he managed

not only to pay them off, but he even in-

creased his regular business, and wound up

with an even greater showing than in the

previous year.

One of his creditors, receiving a check in

payment of his account through the mail, wrote

and admiringly inquired how he had done it.

My friend wrote back:
"It was quite simple. The wolf was at my

door. The wolf came in the door. The wolf

went into my kitchen. The wolf had pups
there. I sold the pups and — there was the
money to pay your bill."

Try inviting the wolf into your house next

time, instead of just letting him prowl around

outside.

51



Why don't you laugh?
Don't let your spirits wilt!

Don't sit and cry because the milk is spilt.

If you would mend it now,

pray let me tell you how:

JUST MILK ANOTHER COW!
Why don't you laugh?

When Lady Macbeth stalks through the

castle at night wringing her hands, and going

through the gruesome scene of the murder of

Duncan all over again, a physician stands on

the side and comments on her to the audi-

ence: "More needs she the divine than the

physician."

Many a conscience is burdened with crimes

which prevent the individual from realizing

it is not physical health but mental or moral

health which spoils his outlook on things.

The next time you feel you ought to go to

the doctor, stop off first at the nearest church

and check over the Ten Commandments.

Every doctor knows how many people go

through life afraid of imaginary ills.

President Roosevelt, when he was called

on to take over the country from Hoover in

1932, campaigned vigorously in his very first

public utterance against fear of fear. And

swept the country along with him to new

heights of valiant struggle against the crisis

which was headed for a miserable end.

How many of us when we were little lay

awake all night scared to death of some ogre

lurking in the corner of our bedroom, only

to find in dawn's light that it was an old coat

52



lopsided on a hook, or a trick of the shadows?

Do not fear until you know just what you

are fearing — and then you won't fear it.

Too many people expose themselves to

worry and fear simply because they are over-

concerned over things that really do not per-

tain to them. What a source of unhappiness!

Let them remember the printed prayer so per-

tinently put into my hand by a friend one

day: "O Lord, help me keep my damn nose

out of other people's business!"

On the other hand, do not allow your joy

to be spoiled by others and their opinions.

What a pity that some people get upset and

really worry about what others are saying of

them, probably in an untrue interpretation at

that. What is the use? For God's sake, re-

member that your friends need no explana-

tion, and your enemies do not want one. . .

.

Some people get so angry they lose all pep

and vitality and droop away at the mere

thought of what others say and think of them.

If only God is satisfied with you, nothing else

matters.

In my breviary right now there nestles a
little memorial card of a great and good man,

dead some years, Monsignor William Quinn,

once the National Director of the Society for

the Propagation of the Faith. It is significant

that on the reverse of his memorial card is

printed the following extract from the "Imita-

tion of Christ" (Book 2, chapter 2). Whether

the Monsignor himself stipulated that this be

done, or whether his friends arranged for it

after his death is not known. "Take no great

account of who may be for you or against

53



you, but mind and take care that God be with

you in everything you do. Have a good con-

science and God will sufficiently defend you,

for he whom God will help, no man's malice

can hurt. If you know only how to be silent

and to endure, doubt not, that you shall ex-

perience help from the Lord."

Some time ago I received in he mail a

little clipping which read:

"I COMPLAINED BECAUSE I HAD NO
SHOES

UNTIL I MET A MAN WHO HAD NO FEET."
I was much taken up with this little spark of

wisdom. I managed to get a few hundred

printed and sent them around to friends, who

also were impressed with the originality of

the phrase. The thought struck me that it

would be worth while finding the source. But

that was not so easy. It was an interesting

search, however.

Then I came across a poem called:

"HUMILITY"

"There was a time when faith began to slip,

when I had lost all that I had to lose

(or so it seemed to me) — I lost my job,
my house.
I had no home, no food, no shoes.

Then sudenly I felt myself ashamed!

For I, who talked of shoes,

then chanced to meet

upon the busy highway of my life

a man

who had no feet!"

MARCELLE HOOE ALEXANDER

54



This poem was tracked down to "Outstanding

Contemporary Poets of 1939." Then the chase

began getting out of control — I will skip
details — but it ended in the third chapter
of Sa'adi's Gulistan, where the first mention

of the expression runs as follows:

"I had never complained of the vicissitudes

of fortune, nor murmured at the ordinances of

heaven, except on one occasion, that my feet

were bare, and I had not wherewith to shoe

them. In this despondent state I entered the

mosque at Kufa, and there I beheld a man

that had no feet. I offered praise and thanks

for Allah's kindness to me and submitted with

patience to my want of shoes."
Sa'adi lived in the 12th century and was

the most famous poet Persia claims. So you

see how far afield a noble and inspiring

thought will travel once people realize how it

helps them. Centuries and countries are no

barriers to its peregrinations; and the farther it

travels the deeper it becomes engrained in

the proverbs and folklore of a nation. We
are forced to the inescapable conclusion that

people grasp eagerly at such uplifting ideas,

because people are born optimists.

Laughter is the codebook which enables us

to decipher the whole man. If a man never

laughs — look out! If he laughs now and
then, there is good in him. If he laughs all

the while, he is on the way to be a saint —
or insane. And what matter? We know God
loves fools, saints and children.

The poet of the people, Walt Mason, wrote

solid stuff:

55



"I do not cry a vain alas!

I wear a cheerful grin,

— the future hasn't come to pass,
the past's too dead to skin."

I have forgotten the title, the name of the

author and every other significant fact about

a certain novel I read years ago.

I remember only one thing.

There was a character, and his name was

Denys. And of him I remember only one

sentence which he uttered. But that sentence

I treasure.

It was: "Courage, my friend, the devil is
dead."

The Negro preacher, who had gone through

life with open ears and eyes, warned his

listeners: "Enthusiasm is not everything.

Yo' got to hab judgment as well. Good in-

tentions am responsible for some of de worst

singing in de choir."

In Montague Glass's inimitable dialogues

between Potash and Perlmutter, Morris Perl-

mutter proves himself quite a philosopher.

Says he: "That's what's the matter with

most people, Abe. They think themselves

over very carefully every morning and see

if they can locate a pain somewhere. If they

do not succeed in doing it, y'understand, their

whole morning is spoiled."

Only neurotics consider life full of pitfalls.

A careful inventory of our health assets and
bodily situation would oftener than not amaze

us with the potentialities we have in our

grasp ... if we would admit it to ourselves.

56



A RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE

Take a large quantity of CHEERFULNESS

and let it simmer without stopping. Put with

it a brimming basinful of KINDNESS, then add

a full measure of THOUGHT FOR OTHER

PEOPLE. Mix into these a piling tablespoon

of SYMPATHY. Flavor with essence of Char-

ity. Stir well together and then carefully

strain off any grains of SELFISHNESS. Let

the whole be served with Love-Sauce, and

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.

A PRAYER IN GRIEF

O heart of mine, be patient!
O heart of mine, be strong!

Be steadfast to endure thy grief.

So heavy and so long.

For there's a Word to comfort us

When nothing else avails.

And there's a holy Hand to help

When human guidance fails.

O heart of mine, be patient!
O soul of mine, be strong!

God's ways with men are righteous ways.

Nor can His ways be wrong.

A mystery still may veil His will.
But He will grant us strength

To walk the road, and bear the load.

And reach His rest at length.

Said Olin Miller shrewdly, "You wouldn't

worry about what people think of you if you

could know how seldom they do."

Saintliness starts when you lose false pride.

57



I read a treatise one day on how to be a

failure. That sounds funny. No, I was not

trying to see what course I must choose to

be a failure; the other way around, I was seek-

ing for pitfalls to avoid. Somewhat like the

early explorers in Africa, who sent on a na-

tive ahead and watched where he didn't go

to be sure they would not fall into tiger

traps, and lion decoys.

In this treatise there were eight reasons

listed why men failed in business or other

enterprises : swellheadedness; launching an

enterprise at an unfavorable time; being out

of step with the times; extravagant living;

reckless speculation; over-expansion; dis-

honest and unsatisfactory associates; misman-

agement and outside disaster beyond one's

control.

Strange — but the author of this booklet
omitted the most significant reasons for fail-

ure: lack of stick-to-itiveness. 'Tlugging"

gets more things done than any other method.

OUR THOUGHTS

One who permits himself to become the

victim of his thoughts is a fool. He is really

stupid. All thought, as the psychologists tell

us, tends to find its way into action. Think

about a thing long enough and you will do

it if it can be done. You will do it whether

it is wise or foolish, good or bad. Our salva-

tion lies in the fact that thoughts are control-

lable. Put your thoughts on the right course

of action and you will eventually begin to

travel that course. If you do not try to con-

trol your thoughts, they will get out of hand.

58



By and by it is next to impossible to control

them. To be a slave to bad thinking is on

the way to being a slave to bad habit.

Inspiration is all right, but perspiration is

what gets things done.

As Benda says in Wasserman's "Goose

Man," "The great majority of what you call

talent is ignominious. Talent is a feather-

duster. All that comes from the finger-tips is

evil. The man who has a distinct goal and

is willing to suffer in order to reach it, that

man we can use. . .
."

And Alexander Hamilton said something

similar when he declared: "Men give me

credit for some genius. All the genius I have

lies in this: when I have a subject in hand,

I study it profoundly. Day and night it is

before me. My mind becomes pervaded with
it. Then the effort which I have made is what

people are pleased to call the fruit of genius.

It is the fruit of labor and thought."

Did you think there was an easy road to

victory?

How often do we hear, today, on all sides,

complaints and execrations from people

against God, for allowing or ordaining suffer

ing to happen!

There are many reasons for suffering.

bewildered world which has been struggling

in a titanic war covering all the nations of

the two hemispheres asks frantically for tnc:

WHY ... the WHEREFORE . . . the REASCW
for suffering.

Let us look at some of them.

God allows evil in order to create good.

Properly understood, suffering is a mark of

59



God's favor, enabling us to atone for public

and national sins; to effect our own conver-

sion; to forestall the danger of eternal per-

dition; to atone for personal sins of others of

which we are cognizant; to promote the wel-

fare of the Church; to acquire conformity with

God's will; to gain an even higher degree in

heaven; to substitute for the pains of purga-

tory; to balance the temporal punishment due

to our sins. We have not alluded to the fact
that suffering came into the world through

the sin of our first parents; nor to the fact that

suffering often is simply the natural result of

people's breaking the Ten Commandments.

Do you begin to see the WHY of suf-
fering? . .

.

The world says: "Do away with suffering.

We don't want it." To Christ hanging on
Calvary, the world says: "Come down from

the cross. Be like us. Do as we do. Don't

be extraordinary. Just be as human as we

are." — And the world does not stop to re-
flect that when they strive, scientifically, to

do away with suffering, by "euthanasia" of

those who are incurably stricken with some

foul disease, they are officially murdering

souls, and are refusing to solve the problem

of pain by turning away from it.

If we were all to remember that in every-

thing the finger of God is present; if we would

go against our baser selves in such moments;

if we would train ourselves to see God's hand

in all things . . . what a solution we would find

to this problem of pain!

Cardinal O'Connell tells the beautiful story

of his mother kneeling by her husband's

deathbed, after years of devoted nursing,

60



closing his eyes in peace, then rising from

her knees and addressing her eleven children

with the words: "God's will be done/' and

thenceforth immediately assuming all the

heavy obligation of a mother of eleven fa-

therless children, and the weary burden of a

widow. In such Christian resignation is our

salvation, if we but accept the lesson.

‘‘BE OF GOOD HEART

Jesus came into the world to bring, not

grief, but joy. Indeed, on three separate oc-

casions He distinctly and specifically urged

people to cheer up, to take courage, to be of

good heart. Then, the very announcement of

His infant birth was couched in words of

gladness: "Behold I bring you glad tidings

of great joy." The very word for gospel or

evangel (from the Greek word "euangelion")

means glad news. Christianity was designed

not to take from us tribute such a6 pagan

religions demanded — it was to leave us a
legacy of happiness. Not one of the sages

or philosophers who preceded the Christian

era is remembered for his cheerful or amiable

spirit ... it is only after Christ's appearance

on the scene of the world that we have that

long line of authentic Christian saints and

wits, such as Philip Neri, St. Francis Assisi,

Thomas More, etc.

A friend of mine once remarked to me,
when making me a gift of Van Dyke's "Blue
Flower," "that man is Catholic in everything

except his name." Probably you all have

read his "The Other Wise Man," and other

61



books of his, but you may not have seen "On

A Sun Dial." Here it is:

"Time is —
Too Slow for those who Wait,

Too Swift for those who Fear,

Too Long for those who Grieve,

Too Short for those who Rejoice ,

But for those who Love

Time is not."

Don't feel that your failures prevent you

from achieving final success. Indeed, they

perhaps insure that you are able to gain even

greater glory. ... A famous skater studied
her own progress by counting the falls she

had each day. Wellington, by reverses* in

less important campaigns, learned the lessons

which enabled him to vanquish the great

Napoleon. St. Teresa of Avila deplored her

own weakness: "The devil sends me so of-

fensive a spirit of bad temper that I think I

could eat people up." Through such gruel-

ing tests she evolved the cheerful and hu-

morous outlook on life which is inseparable

from her name.

And it was after Peter denied his Lord —
the gravest lapse of Faith in the history of

the early Church — that he became not the
REED but the ROCK of Christ's Church. Mary

Magdalen, too, was not afraid to follow up

her forgiveness by Jesus by attending Him

in public as much as possible, her first failure

giving her the courage to atone for it by un-

remitting striving toward perfection.

Indeed, to revert to our earliest origins,

let us say "O felix culpa!" — O happy sin!
— when alluding to our first parents: if it
62



were not for the sin of -Adam and Eve which

resulted in their expulsion from Paradise, we

would never have been redeemed in the

blood of the Lamb and given the key to

heaven. On Holy Saturday the hymn states

this viewpoint concisely and beautifully: “O

happy sin of Adam, which has merited for

us so great a Redeemer."

Before it can bear fruit in abundance, the

vine must be pruned. Do not mind your

failures; keep trying, always with complete

trust in God, and He will touch your failures

with His miraculous grace and convert them

into victories.

HEAVEN WITHIN YOU

A shrewd commentator once observed that
England was "Merrie England" when it still

had the Faith.

A different spirit breathed throughout the
land when on each hill towered a monastery

topped with a cross, or when each plain was

tracked with roads with pilgrims going to one

shrine or the other.

Cheerfulness has always been a Christian

attribute.

Father Raoul Plus, S.J., with typical Gallic

vivacity, writes: "Certainly, I pray as you

that earth be kind to us. But for mercy's

sake, don't forget the heaven that is in you

May human happiness continue to smile on

you; but if it withdraws bit by bit, look with-

in you. God dwells there. God in your

soul, is that nothing?

"It is everything."

63



This is the attitude which is reflected in

Addison's whimsical remarks that when he

was "afflicted with the gout, he thanked God

it was not influenza, and when it was influen-

za, he thanked God it was not gout."

And look at the long line of saints who

could not stand moroseness and insisted on

cheeerfulness through their entire day: St.

Philip Neri and his practical jokes in the streets

of Rome; St. Charles Borromeo and his games

of chess; St. Aloysius and his ball; St. Thomas

More keeping his household in a perpetual

"humor and fun"; the familiar jests of the

Cure of Ars about the devil that plagued him

physically; St. Francis of Assisi pretending

to play a violin with two sticks of wood.

In all human relations, people prefer the

man who is cheerful to the one who is eternal-

ly peeved with the universe and its popula-

tion. Isn't it better to have a chronic smile

than a chronic frown? And to combat the

daily routine of petty annoyances no better

remedy has been found than a smile. It be-

tokens the inner tranquillity of spirit which

indicates that there is a hero of the humdrum.

Before a certain priest went to China as a

missionary, I asked him to write in my little
"black book" a summary of all the exhorta-

tions and admonitions he had given me as a

spiritual director. This he did, and he com-

pressed all that counsel in these words

:

"Tacere et orare" — "to be silent and to pray."
In my thirty-one years as a priest, in how

many trials and troubles did that advice stand

me in good stead! How often has it proved

to me to be the best counsel man could ask

64



for . . . and the only advice worth following!

KEEP MUM AND PRAY!
Do not talk with men about your troubles;

talk with God. Tell him you know they are

all allowed by Him; tell Him you understand

that while you do not know the reason for

this grief or that sorrow, you are sure He

knows best. To keep still and pray is to

show complete confidence in God . . . and He

will not "let you down."

Our crosses are made of two pieces — one
long and one short.

God's will is represented by the short

piece; our will by the long one.

Place the two pieces side by side, and you

have simply two lengths of wood. All goes

well; they fit smoothly together. There is no

conflict, no contrast.

Place God's' will upon your will, and you

have a cross — your cross.
Not for nothing was Jesus schooled in His

foster-father's carpenter shop.

Will you learn this lesson from Him? Or

must He send strangers to teach it to you?

When I was first inducted into the spir-

itual life, an old and wise priest taught me a

simple yet profound truth. Said he: "People

get so readily discouraged because it's so easy

to do it. There is nothing easier than to

lie flat bn the floor and stretch out your four

extremities and say goodby to the world —
every fool can do that. Some people say

that to commit suicide is the hardest thing in

the world. I say it is the easiest. Animals

65



rarely commit suicide; they usually fight

gamely to the finish. Only man, endowed

with superior reasonii^g powers, can find ex-

cuses to make to himself for dropping out of

the combat, for committing spiritual or phys-

ical suicide. Any fool can give up. MEN
keep on trying

"

IN HEAVEN WETL UNDERSTAND
Not now, but in the coming yeaxs.

It may be in the Heavenly Land,

Well read the meaning of our tears;

Some day, in Heaven, well understand.

Well know why the clouds instead of sun

Were over many a cherished plan;

Why smiles have ceased when just begun;
Some day, in Heaven, well understand.

Then trust in God through all your days;

Fear not, for He doth hold your hand;

But, while you live, still sing and praise.

Some day, in Heaven, well understand.

DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED

This is no time for discouragement. Quit-

ters never win; winners never quit.

We were reading about Maurice Francis
Egan, former Ambassador to Denmark, who

died in Brooklyn about 15 years ago. Mr.

Egan was a man of as high a type of intel-

ligent and aggressive Catholicity as the gen-

eration now dying out produced. He was as

thoroughly human as he was Catholic. A
prince among gentlemen and a light among

66



scholars, he had courage quite akin to the

immortal Bayard.

When the time came for him to die, he

ordered that the tall death-candles be lighted,

stretched himself full-length in his bed, crossed

his hands over his breast in the manner of

a Crusader, and with a smile passed over

the bourne.

Courage? Indeed; the courage of the sin-

cere Catholic who knows that death is but

the beginning of life, that all the future —
an unending future — lies beyond.
Here are a few lines from Mr. Egan's

memoirs; they deserve a place where all can

turn the page each day to read them.

"Looking back — if I had my life to live
over again, I should never worry about any-

thing that might happen; during my long life
the things that I worried about never hap-

pened, and the things to which I gave no

unhappy thought always happened.

"I should like to say, too, for the benefit

of the young, that when one is old, one re-

grets not the sin one has committed so much

as the good deeds one might have performed

and did not.

"As a Christian, I trust that I can leave my
sins to Christ, who is more merciful than

man; but I Can never forgive myself for not

having been keener to discover means of

helping others."
PATRICK SCANLAN

So many of us look for results.

We want to see something come to life
beneath our hands. We want to see some-
thing tangible proceed from our work.

67



You know, God Himself apparently did not

expect all of us to be able to see our own

achievements, especially in the religious life.

When He sent the angels to announce the

birth of His Son, He bade them give the tidings

to ”men of good will." They did not neces-

sarily have to be concretely aware of the great

achievement of their slow or fast conversion

to the faith . .
.
just so they had the awareness

of good will, it was enough.

Think of Christ Himself. After 33 years on

the earth He had only a handful of disciples

and apostles and a few pious women to shov/

for all His miracles and healings. . . . Think

of His followers today, the missionaries in

foreign lands, who toil year in and year out

with a small numerical success — which
means nothing. One persecution or plague or

emigration and all their labors in one corner

of the vineyard may be swept away.

Of all the stories related about the un-

known heart of New Guinea, this one of the

Dutch missionaty (his name has slipped my
mind) has always stirred me most profoundly.

For 24 years he lived on an island.

He tried every method known to missionary

skill to bring the people to the true knowl-

edge of the Faith.

In 24 years he made not one convert!

In 24 years he never had the consolation

of administering one of the sacraments to one

of his charges.

In 24 years he never had one soul to offer

as proof of his labors to the First Missionary,

lesus.

68



His story is almost paralleled by that of a

missionary on Bali who after years of effort

made two converts — and one of these event-
ually murdered him

Yes, to measure our lives by the surface

results would be the sheerest stupidity.

To be a failure: what does it mean? Was

Christ a failure because He died on the cross?

— and do not forget that to die on the cross
was the supreme ignominy in His day and

age, being reserved for criminals. St. Paul,

remember, was beheaded, for Roman citizens

were given an "exalted" punishment, not the

degrading death of the cross.

How the Pharisees and Sadducees wagged

their heads as they jeered under the shadow

of Calvary's hill: "He saved others; Himself

He cannot save."

Today we know He was the greatest suc-

cess in history. His failure was in itself a

triumph.

The noted convert Robert Hugh Benson

once wrote: ."We are all failures and the best

of us are those that know it."

The Alleluias of the Risen Savior have a

peculiarly beautiful meaning.

Hearing a whole church resound with the

repetition of that paean of Christian hope, who

can refuse belief that God did rise from the

dead, and that we, too, can rise from the

death of material selfishness, despondency,

unbelief, and lead a new life, leaving stricken

about the exit of our sepulcher the legionaries

of fear and despair and sin?

69



If the Resurrection had never happened,

man would have had to invent it.

RECIPE:

For removing the blues, the dumps, the jit-

ters, the little devils of discontent and the

big demons of despair:

'Is any of you sad? Let him pray."

ST. JAMES, 5:13

When little children walk along a dark

road at night, they instinctively hold hands.

They get added confidence from the touch of

someone they know. If you have faith in

God, if you believe He understands you, and

you confidently place your hand in His, you

will want to echo the words of Father T.

Burke's poem:

GOD UNDERSTANDS

Day after day I've toiled beneath the sun,

I have not shunned the burden and the heat.

Along life's roughest pathways I have trod

Weary of heart, with bruised and bleeding

feet;

Evening has come and lo, I turn me home.

Bearing no golden sheaves from conquered

lands.

Let the world call me failure if it will —
What care I for the world? God understands.

God understands the heart I gave to Him

In the untroubled springtime of my life;
How I have walked submissive to His will

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In days of deepest calm and sharpest strife;

He has seen fit to break me as a reed.

To sear my hopes and shatter all my plans;

Let the world scoff and scorn me as it will —
It is enough to know God understands.

"O all ye that pass by the way, attend,

and see is there be any sorrow like to my sor-

row!" This cry from the Lamentations (1:2),

reminds us how Mary our Mother is the

Mother of Sorrows.

From the day she welcomed Gabriel and

agreed to be the handmaid of the Lord, she

was pledged to sorrow. Simeon promised

grief to her. "And thy heart a sword shall

pierce." One grief after the other, one pain-

ful dolor, thrust into her very heart — surely,
she is the Queen of Martyrs with good cause.

Like children, we ought to turn to her for

her support . . . and will she not give us the

best possible advice? Does she not know,

having gone through such suffering herself,

just what extremes we are enduring — per-
haps right now? Think of her as your mother,

and her sorrows will make your appear light.

The horrors and ravages of the late greatest

world war in all history are still fresh in our

memory. We also remember the terrors and
trials of the first world war, and being Cath-

olics, we like to think back to Joyce Kilmer,

the poet, and the part he played in it. Do

you recall his immortal poem? Read it:

My shoulders ache beneath the pack
(Lie easier. Cross, upon His back).

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I march with feet that burn and smart

(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).
Men shout at me who may not speak

(They scourged Thy back and smote Thy

cheek).

I may not lift a hand to clear

My eyes of salty drops that sear.
(Then shall my fickle soul forget
Thy agony of bloody sweat?)

My rifle hand is stiff and numb
(From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).

Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
Than all the hosts of land and sea.

So let me render back again

This millionth of Thy gifts. Amen.

"Take up thy cross and follow me.". .

.

But this simple action does not mean that

once we have chosen to follow Christ the

rest is to be made easy for us. No — in
Newman's words, "to take up the cross of

Christ is no great action done once for all;

it consists in the continual practice of small

duties which are distasteful to us."

NO IFS OR BUTS

When your heart is heavy and you feel

weighed down under your burden of depres-

sion or disappointment, take to yourself the

prayer of St. Frances de Chantal, who turned

to the Lord in her grief with these words:

"They will be done forever and ever, O Lord,
without IF or BUT. . .

."

You will find the "lift" you get from this

prayer out of all proportion to its brevity.

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There is so much wisdom to be learned

from the mouths of babes and sucklings that

again and again we find ourselves chuckling

over their self-evolved philosophy of life.

A little boy (Father Dussman of Glenview,

111., tells the story in his book “Shut-In and

Happy About It“) was called on in class to

give the complete quotation starting “the Lord

is my Shepherd."
With his reply, he reminded me of the

soccer player who took such a powerful kick

with his right foot that he tangled both feet

badly, and in the process kicked the ball

with his left foot, and across for a goal!

The lad stood up and in hesitation and

trembling started, “The Lord is my Shep-
her . . .“ paused a moment, and surged on

triumphantly," — I should worry."

How often when conducting a retreat have

I urged my retreatants to compile a list of
all the favors for which they ought to be

grateful to Almighty God! I assure them

time and again that such a list would be ten

times longer than the Litany of All Saints,

and they would be left to quote the words of

Holy Writ: “What shall I render to the Lord

for all the things that He hath rendered to

me?" Here is one litany of gratitude:

I thank God the Father with all my heart
because:

He created and redeemed me through His

beloved Son;

He gave me the Christian faith and adopted
me as His child on my day of baptism;
He has surrounded me with so many means

of salvation;

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He gave me a beautiful angel from His holy

court to protect me;

He gave me a sound intelligence, a just

judgment, a loving heart;

He gave me eyes which see, ears which

hear, a tongue which speaks, and limbs which

move;

He gave me the beautiful sun to furnish

light, the waters to refresh me, the flowers

to charm and delight me with their sweet

fragrance;

He made the fruits and crops to ripen and

increased the animals so that they feed and

clothe me;

He gives me benefits daily up to the very

moment of my death;
He will give me, I hope, through His mercy,

the grace of final perseverance through the

merits of Jesus Christ;

He will crown me with eternal pleasures

in heaven — for thus I have been commanded
to hope.

I thank God the Son because:

For love of me He did consent to become

man;

for love of me He did pass nine months

in the womb of the Virgin Mary;

for love of me He did will to be born in

a poor stable;

for love of me He did work in the sweat of

His brow;

for love of me He did suffer a most painful

passion;

for love of me He did hang for hours on

the cross and died on it in shame;

He gave me His own divine Mother for my

mother, as He hung dying upon the cross;

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He ascended to heaven to prepare for me

a place there and to plead my cause with

the Father;

for love of me He resides today and every

day in the prison of the tabernacle;

for love of me He immolates Himself every

morning on the altar;

for love of me He comes into my heart
so often in Holy Communion;

in the holy tribunal He often washes me

in His Precious Blood.

I thank God the Holy Ghost because:

He has so often enlightened my soul with
the light of His beams;

He has sent so many holy inspirations and

good desires;

He has sustained my weakness with His
sovereign virtue and strength;

He has made me accomplish acts of virtue

due to His salutary assistance;

He has enabled me to do what little good

I have achieved.

I thank the Father, the Son and the Holy

Ghost for all the graces and favors past, pres-

ent and to come, which They have bestowed

upon me.

Why did Christ fall down beneath the cross?
Was it not to show us how weak we all

are?

And to prove to us that, stumble and fall

though we may, we CAN eventually rise
again?

Have you been in straits and turned to

some one for aid, whom you trusted and
loved? And found only rejection?

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Think of Christ on the cross.

He said: thirst."

Where were those whom He had cured,

and fed, healed and loosed from their sins? . .

.

Where were those to whom He had opened

the gates to a life of peace and happiness?

They were not there.

For His thirst, a stranger took a sponge and

gave Him vinegar.

AN OPTIMIST^S PRAYER

Lord, let this my prayer be,
evermore to trust in Thee.

Let my heart be of good cheer,
knowing Thou art always near.

Never let me anxious be,
seeing Thou dost care for me.

Let me thankful be for food

raiment, shelter, every good.

Let me through this entire day

scatter sunshine on my way.

Always let me here below

sympathy and kindness show.

When I meet a soul that's sad,

let me try to make it glad.

Far from hot ambition's strife,

let me lead the simple life.

Whatsoe'er my tasks may be,
let me do them cheerfully.

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Forward pressing, unafraid,

let me hope on Christ be stcdd.

When this earthly race is run,

may I hear Him say: "Well done!"

O. S. HOFFMAN

Religion teaches man the secret of life —
and that secret is suffering.

Even the ancient knew that "misfortune is

a holy thing."

In the old Grecian fable, Prometheus did

not knead the clay of which he formed man

with water, but with tears.

The Church knows this well. For each of

its conquests it is prepared to pay with blood,

the blood of martyrs which is the seed of

the Church, the blood of valiant confessors

who knew the place suffering has in the

scheme of life.

And the reward for such suffering is never

meted out with coins based on bullion or

human barter. Ask Joan of Arc what earthly

reward she got for following her Voices —
was it not the stake at Rouen marketplace?

Ask the humble priest who braves the plague-

stricken air of hospitals and hovels in his

ministrations — is not his earthly reward often
a lingering death? Ask the Sister who ex-

changes her cultured background for coarse

clothing and rude environment among savages

what she gains on earth — it is not the ac-
claim and admiration of the world. Ask the

missionary who writes the gospel for pagans

with his blood on remote shores — is not
his guerdon an anonymous grave, a frus-'

trated (seemingly) career? The soldier fall-

77



ing on the battlefield, listed as "unknown";

the miner entombed by a sudden fall of rock

far below the surface; the sailor who is swal-

lowed up in the ocean's vast deeps — all
these know the call of life is one demanding

sacrifices and suffering and a passion for

anonymity. . . . But God keeps the record.

Make your misfortunes redound to your ad-

vantage or to the benefit of others and you

will find yourself automatically cheering up.

Clifford Beers spent three years in the realm

of unreason. A brilliant student, his health
broke down and he was confined to one insti-

tution after the other. The day came when

his reason returned and, appalled at the con-

ditions he had found in the various "homes"

in which he had lived, he set about enlisting

public and private support to remedy these

situations. Due to his untiring efforts, his

autobiography entitled "A Mind That Found

Itself" finally appeared and it added a long

list of impressive and illustrious adherents to

the Cause he started. The book itself went

into countless reprints, and made a profound

world impression, while the movement he had

begun went on to become the AMERICAN

FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC.,

which sought to remedy the whole basic ap-

proach to the curing and tending of those

afflicted with mental disorders. What its final

status is can be judged from this, that today

it has a branch or representative in almost

every civilized country.

If after being freed Beers had given up, and

considered his own plight as having achieved

a fortunate ending, what untold misery would

78



probably still be going on in all the various

institutions all over the world!

By making his own illness a stepping-stone

for others, he guaranteed himself against a

recurrence of his own mental disorder, and

at the same time paved the way for the re-

stored health of countless unfortunates for

whom better ways of succor would never have

been found.

For those who have lived and loved as

best they could, death is no ringing down of

a curtain, but rather the rising of a curtain

upon a scene immortal and divine.

On his bed of pain, when he knew that

death was come, the Little Poor Man of Assisi

sang his hymn to the Sun. I wonder what

you will do! Will you think or say, in the

words of the Preface of the "Black Mass,"

"It is truly meet and just, right and available

to salvation that we should always, and in all

places give thanks to Thee, O Almighty,
eternal God — for to Thy faithful, O Lord,
life is changed, not taken away. — And there-
fore with the angels and archangels, with the

thrones and dominations and with al^ the

heavenly hosts, we sing an everlasting hymn

to Thy glory saying — 'Three cheers for
God!'"

These last words are the ones 1 hope to say

— as I have tried always to say them —
when death knocks at my door. — Lift up
your hearts!

THREE CHEERS FOR GOD!

^

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TE DEUM
Thanks be to God for

His love and mercy.

Thanks be to God for

His boundless grace.

Thanks be to God for the

hearts that love us.

Thanks be to God for each

friendly face.

Thanks be to God for strength

in suffering.

Thanks be to God for joys weVe

known.

Thanks be to God for the hope

He gives us

O rest eternal beside His Throne.

I live — nor ever know how long;
I die — not knowing when or where;

I go an unknown road along.

Amazed — how free I am from care

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