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Lea diagrammea suivants illuatrent la mAthoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TIST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CliART No. 2) la 12.8 tmm u LI M22 Hi 1^ OjO ■UH /1PPLIED IIVHGE teSJ EosI Main StrW Rochtsltr, N«w rork (716) «2-0300- (716) 288-5989 -Fox '9 USA CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ESSAYS AND DIALOGUES ON SUBJECTS SACERDOTAL BT ARTHUR BARRY O'NEILL. CSC LI n oardotal Ba/tguardt," tto. Third Edition (TIfth Thouund) UNIVERSITY PRESS p. o. BOX ata NOTRE DAM^. INDIANA PttmHtn 9ttpctionim OILBERTUS PRANCAI8, t Bupt, Oen. Conpr. a f. Ormet. mw •bitat J. B. 8CHEIBR, C. B. C. Ctnaer Daputatu: fmptlituittic lil H*. J. ALERDINO, BUhop of Fort Wavnt oopyniOHT, iti«, •T A. B. O'NCILI. HAMItCHD »(•• ». •. eOHIIET OOHMNT OHioaao TO IN MEMORY OP THE VALIANT WOMAN WHO GAVE ME EAm HLY LIFE, AND IN HONOR OP THE IMMACULATE QUEEN THROUGH WHOSE POTENT INTERCESSION I HOPE POR UPE ETERNAL, THIS BO IS CONTENTS OBAtTMB Foreword - I Minor Devotions of the Priestly Day n II. The Priest a Gentlonan 28 IIL Fatter Tom Says the Dry Mass (A Rubrical I>»logao) 42 IV. The Priest and the Press gj V. A Clerio's Correspondence 7g VL Clerical Wit and Humor 92 Vn. Our Queen and Mother ]jl Vin. The Priesf 8 Visits (A Conference Discussion) . . 128 IX. The Priest in the Sick-Eoom 145 X. Spiritual Outings igo XL The Longevi^ of Priests Igl XIL Priestly Loyalty to Mother Church 198 XnL TheTiokt Stole 214 XIV. At the Clerical Club 231 XV. The Print's Exemplar 2« H I FOREWORD TJ^HEN a performer on the public or private ▼V stage, having sung his song, delivered his monologue, or played his solo on piano or violin, makes his bow to his audience and retires behind the scenes, he is naturally interested in the quan- tity and quality of the plaudits tiiat greet his ef- fort His wish being fattier to his thought, it sometimes happens tiiat he mistakes a brief round of perfunctory applause for a genuine recall, and forthwith responds with an unsolicited encore. In much tiie same way an author may misinterpret the generous praise lavished on his first work as a demand on the part of his readers for tiie pub- lication of a second one; and I am possibly pre- sumptuous in calling this book a sort of encore more or less justified by the critical handclap- pings which greeted a volume of similar scope published in 1914\ Yet tiie assurances received from scores of ecclesiastictl dignitaries, that tiie volume in question is really wortii while and cal- culated to do not a littie good, may well excuse ones ambition to make anotfier venture in the same field, especially as these assurances have been corroborated by tiie Catholic press in re- views, of which the following extracts— the first from America, the second from the London Tab- let-are typical: «. . . The Mn^ of book of which you say at once that no one can afford to be without it; certainly no priest or clerical stu- dent. A nice combination of humor and com- mon se nse and the wisdom of experience. . . .** *"Prtertly Praetlo*.'' ! I'i 8 POBEWOBD A thoroughly saUsfactory work. Priests in search of a really good book on priestly life and duUes. full of sound advice conveyed in an ^t- tracbve form, should lose no time in procuring a copy of this publication." * Unlike the former work, the present volume contams only two essays that are reprints. "The p"fi I GenUeman" and "The Priest and the P^w «• ?^^"F^^'■^*^ ^° '•«^^°t "sues of the fcclenasUcal Review, and are reproduced with the gracious permission of that periodical's rev- erend editor. The author's purpose in those two chapters, as in all the others. h7s been to f urnhh r^^cSn^' ",7«r.'^'?K^*'?'"^ ^*^ «°°^^ >i"t"al ^!?^ ♦ u""*'"?"' **'^* " practical and helpful, without being dull, prosy, heavy, or ultra-ascetk .Jr"\'^'''^^^ ^' «^^^^ in reference to such tTereTthlf^n''"^ '^""^ ""^ ^PP^^'^ ^-« -^ here m the following pages. I disclaim any pre- tension whatever to pose as an exemplar^ Td authontative censor of my clerical brethren, and if fhV«' .^"^?r *° ^^^^^^^ that there is nothing It fK ^"^' *^^* ^P"' humility^ in the statement that the severest strictures in the book are ad- dressed, primarily and principally, to the one Zf ,1?*' tr P— ^"ty^and'^'habits I 7r^ most thoroughly conversant,-myself To Z quite candid,' while the most censorious para ^aphs m the volume were being written mv typewriter s keys seemed to be contin^Ily di^k"^ raV"^^lV'"^"'*''^« iteration, the one t hrihy-s^:^- -- 'r^oVrrr Feast of the Epiphany. 1916. * PREFACE (To Third Edition) 'T'HE first edition of this book was disposed of so A rapidly tliat, when the second edition .was published, only a few Catholic periodicals had en- joyed the opportunity of pronouncing on the work's merits or defects. Since that time, how- ever, the book has been welcomed in the majority of Catholic editorial rooms in this country, Can- ada, Great Britain, Australia. South Africa, and India; and to the appreciative reviews and noUces which it has received is no doubt ? e in great measure the present necessity of issuing yet an- other edition. Typical instances of the kindly nature of these reviews or notices may prove not uninteresUng to new readers of the volume. The London Catholic Times says, in part: "This book, intended for the pnesthood, is one of the most delightful books of Its class that have come under our notice for many a year. It is a gathering of essays and dia- lo^es, varying considerably one from another, and of such keen interest for pastors of souls that when the fifteen chapters have all been carefully perused we rise from the literary banquet with an appetite for more!" Not less interesting, perhaps, IS this extract from the late Joyce Kilmer's review of the book in the New York Times: "The au- thors touch is so light and sure, his knowledge so comprehensive, and his style so charming that it oft !k ^P^*^.*^^* ^^ ^"* ^"^**^^'- develop some of the themes m this book and put his cross-sec- tions of clerical life into the form of short stories and noveh. Solemnity of St. Joseph, 1920. 9 HI I MINOR DEVOTIONS OF THE PRIESTLY DAY oiwcujr, and do the most to advanee us in Derfeetion Mw-^t IN view of the insistence with which the prophets 1 and sages, ttie philosophers and poets, the es- sayisto and publicists, the preachers and teachers of all ages have dwelt on the importance of lit- tle ttangs, b-ifles, details, it is somewhat surpris- ing ttiat so large a number of men in every walk of hfe have failed to learn the lesson. That the theory of the sages has been verified by practical expenence throughout the centuries should prove a sufficient reason, it would seem, why we should fJLT ^'f *° ^^ apparently little things of bin ''""?''^? °° ^^ ^^^^^""^^ «f vision, the broadnew of mind, the elevation of spirit which disregards as unworthy of our attention mltter^ ^olv^'' T^"^ ''"""^^ ™i°ds, Uie "pean^ pohhaans- of the world around us. consider em^- 11 18 CLERICAL COLLOQ JIBS nenUy worth while. In this disregard of any other Uian the big things of life (or the thi^ we look upon as big), we are simply proving iSS our perspective is false, our sense of proportion erroneous. As Fenelon has wisely ^emXd! of htUe things "It is. ou the contrary, from Too naiTow views that we consider those things of m° cl^q^urceT' "'^^' ''^^^^ ^° ^«^*' -^^ -»-^- «„v"n*Sfr 1°°^ ^°°*"° ^° ^^^*^^' n>ore than 'n 'n^L • *^^ P^'^^'' *°^ significance of litUe ^mn^ compel attention, it may well be the spirit- n";^u?tha7 °' *'^ "*"^°' ^^^- " " P-- There is no great and no small To the Soul that maketh all; and no one who has taken to heart the lesson of the widow's mite and the cup of cold water gfven in the name of Christ can logically flout tiie im- tant these acts may appear to be. Now, in the daily hfe of the priest there are duties, functions! and employments of varying degrees of impor' tance. one of them (the oifice) bifding fub^Zi others subleui. while yet oUiers are merely be- coming and commendable rather than in any de- me obhgatonr. In Uiis last-mentioned categonr may perhaps be placed the greater number of °h^ of these exercises constitute his major, and which his mmor. devotions may be a matter of opinion; MINOR DEVOTIONS 18 this or that author's division is safe to be charac- terized by a good many as inexact, and indeed from the nature of the case can hardly be con- sidered as other than arbitrary and purely per- sonal. The majority of priests will probably de- clare that their major devotions are properly only two: the celebration of daily Mass and the obliga- tory recitaUon of their OiBce. A respectable mmonty can at need advance forceful arguments Tfruu"!?^"* *P **»««« *wo a third, daily meditaUon. With this minority the present writer ranges him- self, all the more readily as he has In a former volume treated each of these exercises at some '1:, The present essay accordingly has to do with daily devotions other than meditation, the Mass, and the Office. The first of tiiese minor devotions to chaUenge attention and invite comment is one which at first blush may seem scarcely separable from the sec- ond of the major exercises mentioned above, the celebration of the adorable Sacrifice; yet thanks- pvmg after Mass is. both in theory and in prac- tice, so widely different from the Mass itself that it may well call for comments all its own. That It IS a devotion as thoroughly fruitful of benefi- cent results as it is not infrequently minimized and occasionally neglected, is a truth susceptible of tiie fullest demonstration, if indeed it be not m,» T^f r *° ''^°'*^'' demonstration superflu- ous. That the most precious and most favorable of all moments for strengthening our union wiUi tK»d, as for tendering Him our worship and praise appeasing Him for our manifold offences, &: 14 CLBMOAL COLLOQUTBB I i toj Him for Hit mulUtudfaout put graeo uid •». ^»MH !a J.ur he.rto.-lhlf surely .dnUlTofno queeUon. The moet tepid « rea^ u fte mil JJ^^wiU perliep. di«»u«e mo.1 eloquent^ InteUeclual apprehendon of a truth, however^ is one thine: and the effective wUl to ttm^^^l £■»*«• ^ 'feorjlmce with the obVtoul cSSt laries of th„t truth is quite another. If priestoto- Uefs. if th.j, uniformly practiced what they prei^ Mcerdotal retreats, and sUU less of bookriUte Tr-T, fcS'","^'*""'^- y'lJort-'nately. is almost f Jk^' "V?* **'' ""y brethren. To be thor- oughly consfateni about this devotion of whSi through the whole forenoon, just as the whSe ^em«,n .hould be mainly detotcd" o^ p„t f^ o? ft. ti*!"" "^ ** '°"»'*^ -y nZ lew of the Saints, whose example we are •■••>. posed to imitate, so regarded thefr w^i4^*J^ of^r,! •''' Tu "" '" *«°" abundant sh^^ moSS^ ™« ** ""«''"" harvest-Ume of early One consideration which affected the thanb- MINOB DBVOnCNS 18 giving of tuch of the Saints u were prieiU ap- peals to tlie intelligence and common sense of all of us as strongly perhaps as it did to theirs: we, not less whole-heart< y than they, believe that the Mass is incomparably the greatest, sublimest, most excellent action performable on earth. The- oretically, we admit without any reserve what- ever that no other act, function, business, con- cern, affair, work, task, or duty that can possibly be scheduled for our day possesses anything like the inherent importance of the morning Sacrifice; yet in practice how ofien do we not apparently regard it as a mere preliminary exercise to be gone through in more or lesi perfunci>ry fash- ion before the real business of the day logins? The special sermon we have to preach, the lec- ture or poem we have to read, the address we have to deliver before a distinguished auditory, the prominent role we have to play in an ecclesi- astical function, the supervision we have to give to the building of church or rectory or school or convent or hall, the financial scheme we have to promote for the good of religion, the social affair we have to organize in the interests of charity, the outing we have genuinely earned and really need,— of how little moment is any of these mat- ters when compared with the tremendous import of our daily Mass; but how many of us can truth- fully say that someUmes, if not often, some such relatively trivial affair has not loomed up in our consciousness with fictitious magnitude, has not practicaUy overshadowed and superseded our morning renewal of the Sacrif*"^ of Calvary? 16 CLEBICAL COLLOQUIBfl I It if eany of coune to characterise .••..k -*#i tioni as the foreflolnii in term?«# !i "f ** "* aualifv them -? « ? ^f ®' depreciaUon, Dietv "h^Lh K >**1**' VWtuality. virion fh! n, *'/'*:*»«»^ enlhusiatm too elevated the pract I needi of the every-dav Drie.t l ti^tirand'i T''""'' '^^^'^ -knoUdi:^' ffrolL***'!! ""? ""ra-pracUcal cleric on his ov S^^ t^'"T''!r'>"« « P^"°d »houJd be devoted i'»ajci» marKed in missal and hrpvio^, •« MINOB DBVOTIONa 17 etc.. indicales with •uRIcient cIcnrncM Ihal the liter luJl""'":- ""^ "•« "■«« «"'«ta. are rather obhgaiory ihan optional. coMtitutinu what may be .tyled ,ho official thanl^.givi„g wh" c.,^ cXU;. -"'""=" *'""»" •»- -"- '" a au«l"er'!?f"'"'r''' l''""'»8'*"'«i' reatricted to a quarter of an hour, had one belter recite the.e lairL^t';:'^ °V""'" •""" '"^ «""'"'"- nmaie. heart to heart communion with the Divine Gueat preaenl within one", inmoat .anctuary ? Glv™ any degree of ,c„.ible devoHon. or even tee .pIrM penence. is not always at command; and Hcnu- nri^!.? f "°' mvariabiy preoccupy the : noly Socriflce; and accordingly the ontion.l prayera are often advisable. OneVbest pTan "n t^' " """T '" ""'''' " « P^ctice to red?; «.o,e prayers habilually, and to supplement ?hem wuh^our own as often as oar devot^n p~ u" One consideraUon that may well determine a If 18 OLEBICAL COLLOQUIES priest to adopt this practice is the fact that these prayers and hymns and aspirations "pro oppor- tunitate dicendae" are richly indulgence^ A con- siderable number of priests are apparenUy far more concerned with getting theu- people to gain indulgences than with the personal task of gain- ing some for themselves. Neglecting to store their own treasuries with such heavenly currency is a lamentable mistake, the tragic import of which will be fully disclosed only when, in Purgatory, the opportunity of remedying it will have passed forever. Only a very tiioughUess or an unduly presumptuous cleric can flatter himself Uiat he does not need as many indulgences, plenary and partial, as he can possibly gain, and a glance at the favors attached to the recitation of Uie "Gra- tias tibi ago," tiie "Transfige. dulcissin^^ e Domine Jesu, the "Adoro te devote," tiie "Anima Christi," the Suscipe, Domine," the prayers to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, and especially the "En eco" and Uie "Obsecro te" wiU suffice to convince the ordinary priest that nothing but inexcusable care- lessness prevents him from garnering, as often as he celebrates Mass, a veritable harvest of wealth incomparably better worth while than that con- tained in his office safe, or represented by his account wiUi the local bank. Of the practice of those priests whose thanks- giving after Mass consists of the recitation of a part of their Office,-Uttie Hours or Matins and 1-auds, but titUe need be said, and that HtUe can scarcely be other than censorious. There are no doubt occasions in life when that economy of time MINOR DEVOTIONS 19 and effort which is called "killing two birds with one stone" is commendable; but the period imme- diately following the celebration of Mass is em- phatically not one of them. To begrudge the Di- vine Guest who has given us His all a few min- utes of hospitable entertainment, consecrated to Him alone, is essentially nothing more or less than base, mean ingratitude. 'Tis better of course even to say one's Office than to leave the church alto- gether within a minute or two of taking off the vestments, but this is so merely because the lat- ter procedure is the greater irreverence. Yet even this practice, hurriedly leaving the sanc- tuary just as soon as the Mass is completed, is not altogether a phenomenal one in priestly life today, any more than it was in the time of the Father Avila who administered a fittingly stem rebuke to a cleric guilty of this patent irrev- erence. The priest having left the church imme- diately after he had finished his Mass, Father Avila sent two ecclesiastics with lighted torches to accompany him. When asked by the priest why they followed him, they replied: "We ac- company the Lord of Heaven and earth Whom you carry in your breast." The present-day imi- tator of that graceless cleric probably has no Father Avila to teach him a much needed lesson, but it is tolerably safe to say that many of his flock, witnessing the utter lack of reverence mani- fest in his conduct, characterize him in their own minds in terms the reverse of flattering. Another practice of piety to which the priest should endeavor to devote at least a quarter or 20 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES half an hour daily is spiritual reading. At the outset it may be worth while to differentiate the devotional exercise called spiritual reading from what may easily be confounded therewith, the reading of spiritual books. If the mere perusal, for any purpose, of volumes treat- ing of spiritual matters constituted the prac- tice m question, it would scarcely be neces- sary to comment on it at any length; for there are no priests who do not daily spend over some such volumes, if only the missal and the breviary, more time than has just been sug- gested for this specific exercise. The reading o^ Holy Scripture, or of apologetic, catechetical, o. ascetical works for the purpose of preparing a sermon, a conference paper, or a magazine article; reading theological treatises with the view of increasing or refreshing our knowledge of sacerdotal science; reading sermon books, the biographies of Saints, or expositions of the con- templative life to the end that we may write ade- quate reviews thereof,-all this is doubtiess an excellent employment of our time, but it does not constitute the spiritual reading which is a distinct exercise of devotion in all religious orders, and amo ^g all exemplary clerics, religious or secular. Ihe real nature of the exercise, and its purpose as well, are admirably indicated in St. Bernard's words: "He who sets himself to read does not ^n ^^""t.!^^^ *° *^^™' «« *o *«ste the things of Ood. That we do learn much from spiritual reading is of course indubitable, but this increase of knowledge is incidental; 'tis not the predeter- MINOR DEVOTIONS 21 mined end and purpose for which the reading is undertaken. To insist at great length on the excellence of this exercise would be in all proba- bility a superfluous task since all graduates of ecclesiastical seminaries have heard that excel- lence exhaustively dwelt upon in their student days. A mere reminder will convince them that spiritual reading ranks second only to prayer as a means of advancing in virtue and maintaining the congruous standard of sacerdotal piety. "Spir- itual reading," says St. Francis de Sales, "is to prayer what oil is to a lamp. Alas! how many lamps are extinguished, morning after morning, for want of oil !" What St. Isadore says of Chris- tians generally is particularly applicable to the clergy: "Whoever wishes to walk with God must often pray and read. When we pray, we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us. All our progress in virtue depends on meditation and spiritual reading." On one notable benefit to be d™-*ind. of p,.rion calm the temvesi ^IVvJa^ ^" disciples to wic lempest and bid the waves be still? est workaday priest Tn «»oi;*L °""' abundantly shoS^ h i« » ^f^^*. "' experience »,.•«», * x^ ■""^*» " w a stand{>rd not at all #«« h.^ for the ordinary lay Catholic Many W wrought the redempUon of mankind.'^ S^ T' heal Man-God. Jesu. Chri,t who heate^ft* '.1T gave sight to the blind and speech to th^^ k' who wept with the .i,t», „» i '™ '*""''>• »on to tL h *rt*X"™-dowTl?ain t"*! "" ly pardoned the repentant Mr«dalet°'nr°r" won.a„ taken in a'dulte^y "/af/ed " ""l™ *« MINOR DEVOTIONS S7 sentence: "Go in peace." To seek in our daily need this most loving of all possible friends is simply an exercise of Catholic common sense, is a practice to which all pastors should excite their flecks by earnest word and especially by habitual example. Other minor devotions, more or less regular in the daily life of exemplary clerics, are the par- ticular examen, the beads, and the Way of the Cross. Only a word or two can be given to each in the present paper. The examination of con- science, whether made during the day or as a part of night prayer, is a practice which cannot be omitted without serious spiritual loss. The beads, the universal Catholic devotion, are espe- cially congruous in the hands of a priest; and the Stations furnish an excellent opportunity, not only of gaining unnumbered indulgences, but of be- wailing the many faults and imperfections that clothe the best of us as a garment. There is sure- ly strong ground for expecting the renewal of fervor on the part of the most tepid priest who daily follows in spirit his thorn-crowned Lord along the road to Golgotha, who cries to that Man of Sorrows: Behold me prostrate at Thy feet today, I who, alas! "another Christ" should be: Ah, Lord, vouchsafe Thy grace whilst I essay Thine only function that befltteth me,— To bear Thy Cross along this doleful way, And weep my sins that built Thy Calvary. II THE PRIEST A GE>fTLEMAN Tl«t .'.r wore -rth .bout hi., J^^'T^ttiL^'' ThfJL"!"*''' P'^f"*' »""»K tr.nqull .pirlt ' The flnt true genUeman that ever breiffi! —Thomat Decker (1641). Tfulokeray *"•" ^" ***• "*** «'*««'"J oStward manner-- of your teal, that it may Mt ^ t^ 11***°?^ '*?<"' **»• **»• P*tfent, and' m of "omp^\oS^ *?**[?; T '^'^' •**»*"»»• conatituted that by riaw iThL-om.. k. l*"* u""*" "«"' *• •<> A NY one who has ever pursued, either as a «^r ^TV"- " *• "^'^y* *^*^ «*"^y °f word J! !?^m ^ • derivation, structure, history, and significance-must have noticed how witi, the lapse of tmie many terms once honorableTave be! come debased, and many others once mean or degraded have attained decorum and dT^ity or two. the original meanings of such words are forgotten, have grown obsolete; but ilthe Tn enm they are expressive of varying degrees o^ maTco^:t/°fH*'f ^^^"^^^^ signilcatSn and may connote either honor or infamv. A eood in stance of a word still undergoing 'the pro^l'^f" 28 THE PRIEST A GENTLEMAN deterioration is the last term in the title of this article. "Perhaps no honorable word in the lan- guage." writes an American essayist, "has been more debased than gentleman." His statement is of course exaggerated. "Gentleman" is not yet a term of reproach, as is the once unobjectionable "villain," and the essayist himself would prob- ably resent the imputation of being "no gentle- man"; but in present-day usage the term is un- doubtedly very loosely and at times rather gro- tesquely employed. The "gentlemen electors" whom the political candidate addresses so unctuously at a ward meeting in the city's slums scarcely conform to the definition of the sixteenth-century chron- icler, Holinshed: "Gentlemen be those whom their race and bloud, or at least their vertues do make noble and knowne." The vakt, or body- servant, who is dowered with the title of "gen- tleman's gentleman" probably claims no special nobihty of birth, exceptionally acute sense of honor, or even a plethoric purse. No more, pre- sumably, did the American hack-driver who something more than half a century ago, asked the visiting Duke of Saxe-Weimar: "Are you the man that's going to ride with me, for I'm the gentleman that's going to drive?" If a reductio ad absurdum be required, it may well be found m the reply of the colored chicken-thief to the magistrate's question : "Are you the defendant in this case? -"N-no, sah, I'se de gen'leman what stole de chickens." The cheapening of the word has been accelerated rather than retarded dur- i CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ing the last half-century, and even in 1850 the English laureate sang of his dead friend : And thus he bore without sbuM The grand old name of gentlemen, Debaaed by every ebarlatan, And aoUed with ell ignoble uae. Notwithstanding such ignoble use, however, there are several senses in which the word "gen- tleman** remains a title of honor and respect. In a democratic country such as ours the historic meaning of the word is of course archaic if not obsolete; but. even on this side of the Atlantic, the following definitions still hold good: "In a loose sense, any man whose breeding, education, occupation, or income raises him above menial service or an ordinary trade,** and "A man of good breeding, courtesy, and kindness; hence, a man distinguished for fine sense of ^onor, strict regard for his cbligations, and consuieration for the rights and feelings of others.'* As employed by persons of genuine Christian culture, the word does not necessarily connote either "gentle birth,** or wealth, or the abundant leisure which wealth permits. As to this last point, the American idea was rather graphically expressed a few years ago by a New York barrister who, in reply to a trans- atlantic visitor*s comment, "You don't seem to have any gentry in this country,** inquired, "Pray, just what do you mean by gentry?**— "Oh, well; gentry, don*t you know, are persons who don*t do anything themselves, and whose fathers before them never did anything, either."— "In that case,** THE PRIEST A GENTLEMAN 81 laid the barrister, "we have lots of gentry in this country; but we don't call them by that name: we call them tramps." It is hardly necessary to remark that one's being, or not being, a gentleman in the best sense of the word is a matter dependent, like the sal- vation of one's soul, entirely upon oneself. Were it otherwise, this article's title would be a fallacy and iU purpose a futility. No more than other persons have priests any control over the acci- dent of their birth in this or that social grade, in the leisure or the working class, in the lap of luxury or in approximate indigence. A consid- erable number of us in this country can probably say, with a charming Southern authoress, that we "were bom of poor but Irish parents"; and un- less we are snobs or cads instead of genUemen, we feel no call to apologize for the fact. It is worth while remarking thai Ih Newman's cele- brated (and often misunderstood) portrait of "the ethical character which the cultivated intellect will form, apart from religious principle," he pretermits any reference to birth, family, ances- tors, heredity, or other circumstances over which his "gentleman" has, and can have, no con- trolhng inHuence. As a classic is always new, it will perhaps be permissible to reproduce once more the oft-quoted passage from his Idea of a University: «.„n!°*^^ "* " ^^^1 ^* ," «*"»ost a definition of p genUeman to say that he is one who never inflie. pam. . He is mainly occupied in merely re- moving the obstacles which hinder the free and 32 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES manner carefully avoids whatever m^ycSise a ifn^*^ J° f '^ % "»i°ds of those wHhVhom he Jeelfni'7lli.'/f ^?« **^ °P/°i°°' oT colHsfon of :!?♦ ^* r u^.^®*'^^^^*' or suspicion, or cloom or re on^^f^K-' ^' «^^^i ^«««^™ being to make eve^ «n hll *"'" ^^'^ ^°? «* *^on^e. He**has his eves o^ ?.,i « company; he is tender towards the bLh" i« ««ool- absurd; he can recollect to whom he SsK or tn^' «"k^'1^ ^S^^'*^* unseasorbk al! lusions, or topics which may irritate- hp i^ «pM^« SI™? dSs^lSSf ^«''" w^ef e"m>e"d ears for sLndpr ^, 5 '''^ "•""'* «■•='<"■'• he has no adl^°n£y:'i'eVer„;!sfeprsra^Vet'„rsSlt sayings for arguments, or Linuates IvH S 5l''"T "?' '"y °>"- Prom a long-sighted Sru dence, he observes the maxim of the ardent saae enlL.^asiJh'i" '"-"uct ourselves towards o?.r feeSr ai^ L° i„l!{enrtM XtS patient, forbearing, and resignecfon^hilosopWeal THE PRIEST A GENTLEMAN 33 principles; he submits to pain because it is inevita- ble, to bereavement because it is irreparable, and to death berri..^^' il is his destiny. An attra tjvo porfn.it, the foregoing; and it is scarcely to b.^ wondered at that many a reader of Characteristics of Newman or Extracts from Newman should mistake it for a picture of what the great Cardinal never intended it to be, and expressly states it is not— the Christian gentle- man. The lineaments he has so accurately drawn are seen, he tells us, "within the pale of the Church and without it, in holy men and in profli- gates; they form the beau-ideal of the world; they partly assist and partly distort the devel- opment of the Catholic." As for the essential char- acteristics of Christian, and especially sacerdotal, gentlemanliness, we find them admirably set forth in an etching drawn by a greater than Newman. The gentlemanliness of the true priest is, if not identical with charity, at least so near akin there- to that "it is patient, is kind, envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoice th not in iniquity but re- joiceth with the truth, beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."' There is one fallacy about this matter of being a gentleman which, although not perhaps so prevalent among priests as among their lay breth- ren, is yet sufficiently common to merit exposure. It is undue insistence on the scriptural truth that "aH th e beauty of the king's daughter is from 11 Cor. lS:4-7. 34 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES within," undue straining of Tennyson's "kind hearts are more than coronets," and Burns's 'The rank is but the guinea stamp, the man's the gowd for a' that." Obviously what one is matters a great deal more than what one appears to be, and a "good heart" is a more precious possession than the most polished manners; b'lt to conclude that appearances therefore count for little or nothing, and that politeness and conventional good form are negUgible appurtenances of the priestly character is a capital mistake. Even if we question Paley's dictum, that "manners are minor morals," we can hardly doubt Bartol's, that "good manners and good morals are sworn friends and fast alhes." Until human nature be- comes radically transformed, the exterior of a man, priest or layman, will count for a great deal, not only in the estimate formed of him by his fel- lows, but in the extent and force of the influence which he exerts on the world around him. "No doubt," says Mathews, "there are a few men who can look beyond the husk or shell of a fellow- being— his angularities, awkwardness, or eccen- tricity—to the hidden qualities within; who can discern the diamond however encrusted; but the majority are neither so sharp-eyed nor so tolerant, and judge a person by his appearance and his de- meanor more than by his substantial qualities." It is nothing to the purpose to object that con- ventional politeness may coexist with a corrupt heart, that Newman's philosophical gentleman may be a profligate, that "one may smile and smile and be a villain;" the fact remains that good THE PRIEST A GENTLEMAN 35 manners are essential to him who would exert the most beneficent possible influence on the circle in which he habitually moves. Moreover, while genui. i politeness, it is true, comes from within, from the heart, still, as John Hall shrewdly re- marks, "if the forms of politeness are dispensed with, the spirit and the thing itself soon die away." Another consideration worth thinking about is thus phrased by Lord Chesterfield: "A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners. It cames along with it a dignity that is respected by the most petulant. Ill-breeding invites and authorizes the familiarity of the most timid. No man ever said a pert thing to the Duke of Marlborough. No man ever said a civil one to Sir Robert Walpole." The reader's memory will readily supply more than a fp-^ clerical names which might well re- place in .1 ■ . xtract that of the courteous Duke, and it is f, > ..ule that he can also recall a Father X or Father Z who would have made in the same connexion a fairly good substitute for Sir Robert. Enough of generalizing: let us enter into some details as to the priest's oractical exemplification of the fact that hi is in very deed and truth a gen- tleman. If he really deserves the name, his right thereto will be made evident by his dress; by his ordinary deportment; by his deference to social conventions in such matters as table etiquette; by his everyday relations with those of his household and the various classes of his parishioners; by his language in the sacristy, the pulpit, the confes- sional, in the company of his brother-clerics, and c z 36 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES in his intercourse with his fellow-citizens, Catholic and non-Catholic; and especially by his conduct, not merely in matters of moment, but in those minor ones which, according to Wordsworth, con- stitute the best portion of a good man's life,— His little, nameless, onremembered acts Of kindness and of love. To dress as a gentleman is to be inconspicuous in the matter of attire among other gentlemen of one's age and profession. "A gentleman's taste in dress," says Bulwer, "is upon principle the avoid- ance of all things extravagant. ... It consists in the quiet simplicity of exquisite neatness." This quality of simplicity, it is needless to remark, is especially congruous to the priestly garb. The cleric whose clothes, in material and style, are much the same as those of his clerical brethren throughout his diocese or his country is probably preserving the just mean between foppishness on the one hand and slovenliness on the other. As between the fop and the sloven there is not per- haps much choice. If the occasional young priest who apparently aspires to be "the glass of fash- ion and the mould of form" is an incongruous figure, the occasional middle-aged or old one who rather affects threadbare, untidy, slouchy gar- ments is not invariably an edifying spectacle. Even the vow of poverty which religious take does not militate against cleanliness and neatness of apparel; and in the writer's personal experience, the most slovenly, ill-dressed priests he has ever met were so far from being straitened by pov- THE PRIEST A GENTLEMAN 37 erty's vow that they had very respectable bank accounts. To have done with this part of our sub- ject: an essayist who probably wrote for others than clerics has expressed upon it an cpinion with which many a priest will agree : "The perfection of dress is in the union of three requisites— in its being comfortable, serviceable, and tasteful." As for the multiform points of social behavior, the conventional requirements of eveiyday inter- course with others, the proprieties of conduct which prescriptive usage makes obligatory on all who aspire to pass for gentlemen— good manners, in a word— it is well to remember that, as the author of Spare Hours declares : "Etiquette, with all its littlenesses and niceties, is founded upon a central idea of right and wrong." While there may be occasions when the deliberate neglect of such niceties is a manifestation of more genuine politeness than would be their observance, these fine points of etiquette do not, as a rule, conflict with any higher duty or quasi-obligation, and con- sequently are not to be disregarded. If Father Paiiick, taking dinner with one of his parishioners out in the country, conforms to the local custom of drinking his coflFee from his saucer and eating his peas with his knife, his kindly motive deprives his action of all boorishness or "bad form"; but he certainly should not acquire the habit of do- ing so. Nor need he, even on the score of kindli- ness, imitate the manners of his rural entertainer so closely as to sit down to the table in his shirt sleeves. And so of all the other httle acts and courtesies and civilities and observances which CLERICAL COLLOQUIES constitute the rites and ceremonies of social life- they may not be infallible indexes of the truest politeness, but at the same time they are so far from being incompatible therewith that the pre- sumption is in favor of those who observe them. In the matter of his words— in conversation, sermons, inslrucUon to penitents, and every other form of discourse— a prime consideration for the pnest to bear in mind is that, whatever else a genUeman may or may not be, he must at any rate show himself a gentle man. If there is any one characteristic of "the first true gentleman that ever breathed^' which should distinguish him who has so many claims to the appellation alter Chnstus, it is assuredly His loving-kindness that was ever mild, sympathetic, tender, courteous, and merciful. There is abundant material for fre- quent sacerdotal meditation in this counsel of St Francis of Sales: "Whoever has the direction of souls should deal \tith them as God and the angels do— with admonitions, suggestions, en- treaties, and 'wiUi all patience and doctrine.* He must knock at Uie door of the heart Uke the Spouse and try gently to open it: if he succeeds, he must mtroduce salvation with gladness; but if a refusal comes, he must bear it patiently. It is thus that our Lord acts. Though He is Master of all. He bears with our long resistance to His hghts, and our many rebellions against His in- spirations; and even if He be forced to withdraw from those who will not walk in His Way, He does not cease to renew His inspirations and invita- tions.** THE PRIEST A GENTLEMAN 39 This suggested method of procedure is to be recommended not merely in the pulpit, the con- fessional, and the sick-room where the priest is professedly acting in his pastoral capacity, but in the whole tenor of his normal life. The gentle- manly priest must, in a word, possess and habitu- ally practice a goodly store of what the same St. Francis of Sales calls "the little virtuea— humility, patience, meekness, benignity, bearing one another's burdens, condescension, softness of heart, cheerfulness, cordiality, compassion, for- giving injuries, simplicity, and candor." The pre- cepts of true gentlemanliness oblige semper et pro semper, and no cleric can afford to give even a shadow of pretext for such criticism as was once passed on an English statesman: "Canning can never be a gentleman for more than three hours at a time." To be courteous abroad and curt at home; genial, affable, and polite to strangers and acquaintances, but gruff, stem, peevish, testy, or surly to house-keeper and servants, assistants, altar-boys, and teachers, is to proclaim oneself a churl in spirit, and a fit subject for the admoni- tion of Ecclesiasticus: "Be not as a lion in thy house, terrifying them of thy household, and op'- pressing them that are under thee" (4:35). A moralist who resembled a good many of us in that he did not always practice what he preached, Dr. Johnson, said on a certain occasion: "Sir, a man has no more right to «ay an uncivil thing than to act one; no more rig»-t to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down." Apropos of altar-boys, the wise cleric considers S 7i n ?; ■!£ H ,■< r * 40 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES and treats each of them an a potential priest. Fc renects that the apparently mighty distance whi^h separates the pastor of thirty from his server of thirteen will undergo very notable shrinkage in the course of two or three decades, and that the Father Charies of the future, his old-Ume pastor's full equal in dignity, will probably retain very vivid memories of how that pastor treated the lit- tle Charlie of the present. One altar-boy of the late sixties of the last century sUU joys in recall- ing the invariable kindness and courtesy of his first pastor, a gentlemanly priest of the old school —Father John Quinn, of St George, New Bruns- wick, long a^o gone to his reward; and not the least grateful of my memories of that far-off period is of Father John's detaining his altar- boys in the sacristy on the morning of the "great day" of the summer, and giving us fifty cents apiece, with the injunction to be sure to go to the circus and eat plenty of peanuts. It may perhaps be objected that such a priestly character as has been imperfectly sketched in the foregoing paragraphs is likely to have the defects of his qualities; that after all there are occasions when gentleness ceases to be a virtue; and that even our incomparable Exemplar sternly rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees and "cast out them that bought and sold in the temple." Very true; and moreover St. Paul says, "Be angry and sin not;" but the trouble is that we are all as apt to neglect the second part of the great Apostle's advice as we are to obey its first part, and to attribute to pure priestly zeal the harsh words and occasion- THE PRIEST A GENTLEMAN 41 ally harsher actions which are really ebullitions of sinful ill-temper. The most gentlemanly priest may, nay, at times must, display indignation and even inflict pain; but the times are perhaps fewer than some of us like to believe, and in any case there i" co valid excuse for such action's being quasi-habitual. Say what he will, the sacerdotal bully or scold — in church or home or elsewhere — can find no justification of hl3 conduct in either the Gospel of our Lord or the Lives of His Saints. in FATHER TOM SAYS THE DRY MASS A BUBBICAL DIALOGUE pirce~rt !.*»'■'' f*t^o\of the biennial Sctreai. Pl^e.-The chapel of Hughe, Hall, at. Bartholomew^, College. PABTICIPANT8 ViCA* Gendul Toban, chairman. FATHiB Thomas Majui, celebrant. Fathee O'Beikn, rubrical censor. Father Sohearis, ") vrectore, irremovable. •curates, irrepressible. Fatueb Oi , miT, FatHKuP. < .ITT, Fathib McTavish,' Pathkb Launat, Fathib Bobxbts, j Other pastors and assistants of the archdiocese of Talis. Having recited the Veni, Sancte Spiritus, all take their seats. Fr. Toban. As you are all aware, Reverend fathers, we have assembled for our usual ru- brical session. I feel that there is no need of my dwelling at any length on the impor- tance, not to say the necessity, of our review- ing from time to time the ceremonies of low Mass; and most of us know from experience that the "moot," or "rehearsal," or dry Mass furnishes us with an excellent means of de- tecting the errors into which we are apt to fall m the celebration of the adorable Sacrifice I shall ask our diocesan Master of Ceremonies FATHER TOM SAYS DRY MASS 48 to suggest which one of you be requested to act as celebrant for this afternoon. Fr. Conners. I have to suggest, Mr. Chairman, that both the celebrant and the rubrical cen- sor, or critic, for the afternoon be elected by the vote of the assembly. Father O'Brien has been speaking to me about the matter, and I like his idea so well that I hope to see it adopted. What that idea is he himself can best tell you. Fr, O'Brien. My suggestion, Mr. Chairman, is that we depart on this occasion from our old-time custom of appointing as celebrant one of the recently ordained priests, and elect instead one of the senior clergy. As I personally know, a young priest in apt to be a little nervous in celebrating before so large a number " critics and is liable to make a good many more mistakes than is habitual with him. Our seniors are free from such handicap. Let us, for a change, have the dry Mass said by a competent rubricist whose celebrating will emphasize rather what we should do than what we should avoid. We all know how acute, if occasionally severe, a rubrical critic one of those seniors has often shown him- self; so, without further ado, I nominate as celebrant Father Tom Marr. Fr. Roberts. I have much pleasure, Mr. Chairman, in seconding the motion. Fr. Toban. Tis moved and seconded that Father Marr be the celebrant of the dry Mass. Are you r^'ady for the question? Fr. Marr. Not all of us, Mr. Chairman. I beg to i: i- 2 It (,: •< r ' 44 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES decUnc the nomination which my brilliant young friend ha. proposed. While notTrhope ina^h^ 17°^^, "I ^^"'"""y' ' object to VC ing the rdle of the "horrible example/' Be my knowledge of rubrics thorough or the re- verse, my motto is: Do as I sav not a. I Z Several QuesUonl QuesUon^ ^^ ^ "***' ^''' rri""I; ^''"'" '"^d^^^^y. Father Marr. is ap- parently not going to serve you. GentlemeS Tit :;![» 'r'^ *'^ '"""^^ ^hose in fTv"; of a will please say "aye." ll" great majority. Aye. aye. aye! «y -no." °*"'°" *' '"°"''" *"' P'*"" Pr.Marrandieueraloldtten. No' f r. rofcan. The "ayes" have it. Father Marr vo., are (he official celebrant of the dry M«. inZn'"- ^\Z •"•^ "^«"«'' ft^owllyle in one respect. Mr. Chairman, perhaps we had better continue the process. I accordindy nominate as rubrical censor Father O'Brien fta If no one objects. I shall save Ume by dedanng your moUon carried I thouahl ^r, ".?" ?™™' y"" «« *<= rubricates sor for the afternoon. "'■■ F?,h,TT ' .'I". ^•"' ^""^ provided for Father Tom's bem« more sinned against than «nmng; but. as the criUc's duties this ate" ^rjr f"'^ """"'«'>'• I """Pt. Tob" ffn with, I suggest that we divide the Mass Xh ^ r P^™^ '""-inating respecUvely with the Creed, the Consecration and the last FATHER TOM SAYS DRY MASS 45 Gospel. The celebrant will proceed without interruption throughout each period and the comments of the censor will be made only at the end of such period. This plan will, I think, economize lime and moreover lessen the fa- tigue of the celebrant who may sit during the criticism. I should like to hear the opinion of Father Conners on this modification of our usual procedure. Fr. Conners. I think it an admirable plan. In any case, it will do no harm to try it for once. What do you think of it, Mr. Chairman? Fr. Toban. Quite as you do; by all means let us give it a trial. Fr. O'Brien. In that case, Father Marr, I shall ask you to accompany me to the sacristy, be- hind the altar there, to prepare to say the Mass of St. Bartholomew, and to proceed with the Mass up to the conclusion of the Creed. [Exeunt Frs. Marr and O'Brien. Fr. Gormmey (sotto voce to Fr. Harnett). Poor Tom! He's in for it! That young O'Brien is too smooth; he means mischief, or I lose my guess. Fr. Harnett. Yes; I'm afraid I made a mistake in nominating him as censor. Fr. Launay (aside to Fr. McTavish). Has O'Brien been specializing on the rubrics recently? Fr. McTavish. As old Father Murphy said about saying Mass in green on St. Patrick's Day, just you watch him. [Enter Father Marr, vested, and Father O'Brien. The latter beckons to Father Rob- ! HP H pi I < n 3; L 46 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES IV erts, to act as server and the Mass begins. As it proceeds, the censor is seen to jot down oc- casional notes in a memorandum book: Father Conners raised his eyebrows at times; and the Vicar General shakes his head more than once. All follow the movements of the cele- brant ivith marked attention until the end of the Creed. Fr. O'Brien. Now, Father Marr, if you will kindly take a seat, we shall discuss the rubrics of this first period. (The celebrant descends and sits down.) At the outset I wish to retract a state- ment which I made in good faith in our pre- liminary talk,— that our senior clerics would not be handicapped by nervousness. Nothing else than nervousness, I feel sure, can account for the numerous points in which our worthy celebrant has departed from the ritum, modum, ac normam prescribed by the Bull prefixed to the missal of Pius V. For instance, 'twas his ner- vousness, no doubt, that made him forget to prepare the missal before leaving the sacristy. Fr. Marr. Not at all. I found the Mass, as I al- ways do, before descending to begin the Judica me, Deus. The rubrics distinctly say this should be done. Fr. O'Brien. Quite so; but a previous rubric just as distinctly states that, in the sacristy, before vesting, the priest "takes the missal, finds out and looks over the Mass to be said and the prayers prescribed; and arranges the registers of the missal in their proper places, so as to avoid mistakes or loss of time at the altar." FATHER TOM SAYS DRY MASS 47 Fr. Tohan. An excellent reason for a wise pre- scription. I have seen priests spend fully six or seven minutes hunting up, at the altar, the Mass that should have been found before they left the sacristy. Such delay is an annoyance and a disedification to the faithful. Fr. Schetris. But, after all, the rubric cited by the censor is rather directive than precep- tive, — is it not? Fr. O'Brien. Neither more directive nor less pre- ceptive than that which prescribes the wash- ing of the hands before vesting. The one rubric is on all fours with the other. To be consistent one should conform to both, or neither. T get on: you probably noticed that our celeb.ta.nt carried his handkerchief and reading-glasses on the Burse over the Chalice. That is of course forbidden: not even the key of the tabernacle may be placed there. Apro- pos of carrying the Chalice, you were doubt- less surprised to see that while Father Marr correctly held its knob with his left hand, his right arm was swinging. The rubrics pre- scribe that the right hand be placed upon the Burse, quite naturally to prevent the tipping over of Burse, Veil, and Paten. I have noted in my memorandum here that the celebrant's inclinations or reverences call for comment. If Father Marr will pardon me for saying so, I should like to state that he is neither so long-armed nor so broad-shouldered as he evidently thinks he is. His inclinations or bows, on arriving at the altar, before begin- 48 CLEBICAL COLLOQUIES li I' i I 4 mng the Judica me, Deus, during the ConfUeor, and throughout the Munda cor meum were moderate, rather than profound as they should have been. To bow profoundly, in the ru- brical sense, is to bend so low that one can touch the knees with one's hands, or even, ac- cording to some rubricists, with crossed hands. Father Marr's hands, had he lowered them, would not have come within six or eight inches of his knees. So, too, with his extend- mg his hands. "The hands, when extended, should not be farther apart or nearer together than the width of the shoulders; when ele- vated they should not be raised higher than the shoulders; and in both positions they should be so held that the palms shall face each other." Our celebrant's hands, as you have seen, were both farther apart than the breadth of his shoulders and raised to the height of his ears, to say nothing of the fact that his pahns faced the altar rather than each other. Fr Launay. You have said nothing, Mr. Censor, of the celebrant's having come out to the altar by the EpisUe, instead of the Gospel side. Are we to infer that y«ur silence ton that point means you think him right? ^'iu^/^r"!!"" ^°' necessarily. It means rather that I don't think him indisputably wrong, as he was on the points to which I have called your attention. I have purposely avoided mentioning controverted matters, as they usuaUy take up a good deal of time, ind leave FATHER TOM SAYS DRY MASS 49 us just about where we are at the start. Per- sonally for instance, I think Father Marr should have approached the altar from the Gospel side; but. as he could at need quote authority for his action, I said nothing Pr-Marr Thereby showing your discretion. Wapelhorst declares that when the sacristy is directly behind the altar, the latter should be approached from the EpisUe side. ^O'Brien. Not quite accurate. Father Marr. Wapelhorst used to say that, but in his later editions he declares the opposite Zualdi and OCallaghan, however, in "The Sacred Cere- monies of Low Mass" (seventh edition, 1909) do uphold your contention, as does also Fathe^ Uoyle, S. J., in his excellent little brochure, Synopsis of the Rubrics and Ceremonies of Holy Mass," published as late as 1914 To mention something else for which, so far as 1 am aware, you can cite the authority of no rubricist, you began the Kyrie Eleison before you reached the middle of the altar. That's a very common fault which rubricists very commonly condemn. Fr Toban. Pardon me. Father O'Brien, but I've been waiting for your comment on the height at which the celebrant carried Uie Chalice in coming to tiie altar. Fr. O'Brien. Rather stupid of me not to have in^ ?,'*^ -^^^ ^' "^""^^^ ^* altogether too Z' * ^^''^^^^^^i mentions the point as one about which mistakes are often made. Some il fc f I' r i 50 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES i? ! carry the Chalice, as our celebrant has done, in front of the waist; others in front of the shoulders. The proper position for it is, of course, in front of the breast. Fr. Scherris. Five or six inches lower or higher than the breast would not, I suppose, consti- tute a grievous offense. Fr. O'Brien. Not in itself; but I need not tell so sound a theologian as the last speaker that the frame of mind indicated by habitual mini- mizing of the binding force of the rubrics, the guofi-contempt of the multifarious details of the ceremonies of the Holy Sacrifice, and the tendency to ridicule those who carefully ob- serve even the most minute prescriptions laid down for its celebration, does constitute an offense considerably more grievous than a good priest should like to have on his con- science. Even as regards particular points, such as the one we have been speaking of, the carrying of the Chalice, it is well to re- member the declaration of the Roman Synod, in 1725, that these rites of the Mass "in mini- mis etiam sine peccato negligi, omitti, aut mutari baud possunt." Fr. McTavish (aside to Fr. Roberts). What did I tell you? I guess we'll have no further re- marks from Scherris. Fr. O'Brien. To economize time, I'm afraid we shall have to be content with the briefest men- tion of the other points I have noted in my memorandum. In kissing the altar, Father Marr neglected to place his hands outside the FATHER TOM SAYS DRY MA SS 61 corporal; he twisted his body and turned his neck; and, moreover, he kissed it rather at the side than in the centre. All these defects arose from his standing too close to the altar, mstead of drawing back from it a little before bowing to give the kiss. Another matter which calls for a word of comment: the cele- brant's different tones of voice. We all know that the rubrics prescribe three separate tones- the clear, audible by those at some distance from the altar— by all of us, I should think, in a chapel no larger than this one; the mod- erate, that can be heard by the server and those quite near the altar; and the low or se- cret, audible only to the celebrant himself. Now, the portion of the Mass through which we have gone rarely calls for any other than the first tone, the clear; yet Father Marr, in his reading of the Gloria and the Credo, has given us all three. As you cannot have failed to notice, his voice repeatedly ran the gamut from a high and disUnct tone, through a grad- ually sinking one, to a faint and inaudible murmur. Not even Father Roberts, the server could distinguish, I venture to say, more than two-thirds the words in either the Gloria or the Symbol. Fr. Roberts. Hardly that many; but I did dis- tinctly hear him introduce a superfluous Et when repeating the antiphon at the end of the psalm Judica me. Deus,—Et introibo, instead of Introibo. Fr. O'Brien. The point is weU taken; the Et was 'I: r!?J' 'i < 1:1 r ""■■ ;i !i 5f CLERICAL COLLOQUIES wrong. And now, unless some one has further remarks to make, perhaps we ma- ask Father Marr to continue the Mass. [The celebrant ascends the altar, says the Dominus vohiscum and proceeds until the con- secration of the Chalice is completed, when he again takes his seat] Fr. Toban. If you will permit me, Mr. Censor, I should like to suggest that you limit your criti- cism of this second period to the more notable errors or blunders of the celebrant, assuming that he has made any. While I find this ses- sion extremely interesting, as I am sure do all the Reverend Fathers, I must not forget that we have a conference by the retreat-master at five o'clock. Fr. O'Brien. Very well, Mr. Chairman. I shall endeavor to be as brief as possible. To begin with, our celebrant, while pouring the wine and water into the Chalice, held the Puriflcator with the thumb of his left hand on the cup of the Chalice, instead of on its knob. At the Oflfertory, he raised both the Paten and the Chalice too high; the former should not be lifted higher than the breast, and the top of the latter should not be above the eyes. In making the sign of the cross with the Chalice he made it pass over the Host, which is for- bidden, and his crosses, made with both Paten and Chalice, were hardly of the prescribed length. Fr. McTavish. What is that length, may I ask? Fr. O'Brien. O'Callaghan says the sign should be FATHER TOM SAYS DRY MASS 58 made "in straight and equal Unes, about nine inches long," and Doyle, a litUe more definite- ly, says: "Form sign of cross, each arm nine mches long." The arms of our celebrant's crosses to which I have referred were scarce- ly four inches in length. At the Lavabo Father Marr washed, I noticed, two or three fingers of each hand, whereas the rubrics call for the washing of only the Ups of the thumb and forefinger of each. Fr. Roberts. I don't know whether you remarked It, Mr. Censor, but the celebrant, after saying the Orate, fratres, answered Amen before I had half finished the Suscipiat Dominus. Is that right? Fr. O'Brien. Decidedly not; nor should the cele- brant have said the Orate, fratres, in the same clear tone in which he said the Dominus vobia- cum. Those two words, like the Sanctus to excelsif inclusively, the three words Nobis quoque peccatoribus, and the four words Dom- ine, non sum dignus should be said in the mod- erate tone audible to those only who are near the altar. Fr. Launay. Apropos of tones, what is to be said of the practice some priests have of pronounc- mg the words of the consecration in a loud whisper audible a good distance from the altar? Fr. O'Brien. It is condemnable, and, so far as I know, is actually condemned by all rubricists of repute. You are probably aware that St. Alphonsus says it would be a mortal sin to pro^ lilJ \ 'II 64 CLEBIGAL COLLOQUIES i i nounce them so loud as to be heard at a dis- tance of forty paces or yards from ♦he altar. Father Marr's tone at the Consecration was properly secret; but his inclinations during that part of the Canon left something to be de- sired. Even those rubricists who think that an inclination of the head may accompany the genuflections made from the Consecration to Communion, do not authorize the simultane- ous bending of the shoulders. It is not quite certain, I think, that the expressions *genu- flexus Sacranientum adorat," **genuflexus eum adorat," "genuflexus sanguinem reverenter adorat" mean even that the head should be bowed: they may well refer merely to one's mental attitude, advising that our genuflections to the Blessed Sacrament actually before us on the altar be made with greater gravity and devotion, without prescribing our depart- ing from the general rule, which is that, as the major reverence includes the minor, the genu- flection is made without any inclination of the head or body. In any case, the ungraceful stooping of both head and shoulders while one is genuflecting is certainly not enjoined bv the rubrics. Fr. Launay. While we are on the subject of in- clinations I should Jike to know whether the celebrant bowed profoundly, or moderately, while he was saying the Te igitur. Fr. O'Brien. Only moderately, though he should have bowed profoundly. . Fr. Scherris. Excuse me, but in that case how could he have read the prayer? FATHER TOM SAYS DRY MASS 55 Fr.OBnen. He is not supposed to read it. The rubrics take it for granted that he knows it by heaH. These, Mr. Chairman, are the prin- cipal comments which seem to be calJed for by the celebrant's performance of the second portion of the Mass, although it is quite pos- sible that I have omitted some of more impor- tance than those I have made. I shaU be glad to have any such omissions supplied by your- self. Father Conners, or any tother priest present. Fr. Toban. No, I have nothing to add in the mat- ter of criticism. Have you. Father Conners? t^r.Lonners. Just a word on one departure from the rubrics which in my experience I have found as common as it is ungraceful, not to say irreverent. I noUced that, when leaving the middle of the altar, after oflFering the Host, to go to the EpisUe side for the purpose of putting the wine and water in.o the Chalice, Uie celebrant at once took up tiie Chalice and proceeded to wipe it with the Furificator while moving over to the Epistle coiner. That is in- correct. The rubrics expressly state that he should go to the Epistle comer with his hands joined, and, only when there, take the Chalice and wipe it. It may be well to add that some rubricists advise the holding of the Chalice at Its cup rather than its knob while it is being wiped, in order to avoid straining or breaking Fr. Toban. Any further remarks? No? Then Father Marr may proceed to finish the Mass. IS yiL I fc < i 56 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES i;ii P'!i I [The celebrant ascendt the altar, begins at the Unde et memores and continuet until, at the end of the last Gospel, he takes the Chalice and descends to the foot of the altar and kneels.] Fr. O'Brien. That will do, Father Marr; we will dispense with the players. Father Roberts, kindly take the Chalice into the sacristy. (Father Roberts does so and Father Marr sits down.) To take up the last point first, let me say that, while it is possibly authorized, or at least condoled, by a few rubricists, the cus- tom of saying the prayers after Mass with the Chalice in one's hands is not a laudable one. Any decisions on the matter, so far as I know, declare that th^-je prayers should be said with the hands joined, and that prescription presup- poses that the Chalice is left on * ». altar un- til the conclusion of the prayers. Fr. Conners. Quite right, Mr. Cei or, it should be left there. The contrary practice is at most tolerated, not approved. Fr. Gormmey. Granting that the ChaUce should be left on the ajtar, may one say those prayers on the top st p, or shouJd they be said on the lowest one? Fr. O' -ien. In that respect, I believe that prac- tice f»«nd bow made by Se pl^eTrt^lV' *■'<'"' "«« -«» a^ me Hiaceat Ttbi before giving the ble«i„.. and, if I remember well, WapeU,o„t s^y. Sf the^ pr^er should be said with only ftThtd '^''d?'^"'"- Wapelhorst therein agrees with th. Rifu. celebrandi. but the Ordo ut^ae^^ys^, inclmat which seems to imply a moderate in D^rihe ^H*' "^Z"- O'Cal'aghan and Doy?; prescribe this moderate inclinaUon- Martinnr c. says to bow the head; and the oily a^Z' •o far as I know, that justiHes Father S FATHEB TOM SAYS DRY MASS W profound bow is Devine in hi. "H^a: the Mmb." Ordii.ary of \c^Irf\ ^T' ''"y «"»»»««• J"«tifv genu. j?J JJ.n . "^ *^°"**^ o' *he altar? edao a\ *''°"*^ **^ ^»'«"» I have any knowl- has not blinded me tn VkL « ? . '^"**"<^ celebration In X ^i^L^^A^^H*' '" ''^ the flravitv nf hi- ^ ^ °^ *•" demeanor celebratinff woulrf hnv. • * **'* '"anner of that, if Father Man- pra^totert h" "°,/""'" inff thp r«n«* prostrated himself dur- ing tiie Confitcor or said the O^rfo «„ k- knees with his arms outstretched «thpf -elf 0.e piou, .an,? Wh^^rt5;™.'t« ; r 60 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES to remember is that, just as not all who say "Lord, Lord!" shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of the Father; so not all who edify the faithful by their reverent exterior and their deliberation while at the altar, but those only who know and carry out every detail of the rubrics, cele- brate Mass worthily. We shall now say the Sub tuum. I 4I IS I if ' i ■ THE PRIEST AND THE PRESS fem^ **""*'^ ^ "*»* priert-ridden, but p««-ridd«a._Long. F. Thomas, S. T.L ^ failure.— T»« Bev. C. by those whom Cf stian^Saritr ^.^Z. 5l*v' "S* ^-P^d^J from the poisonous ^ou^^T^i&^KjJ^^lp^jfp^^. T'TnH 'J^'"* °^ *^' P^P"^ " »o hackneyed, sflf JSin ^T^^^ ""^^^^"^ ^^ *^ hook has him- self wntten and said, or at least read and heard so much about it. that it is perhaps somewhat rash to attempt any further discussion of ireven if one hop^ to exemplify in its treatment thl^e advocated by Benedict XV. in his first Encycli^l' Old thmgs. but in a new way.- Yet, trite as Tre ^i^ff^^fh *" T ™"'*' °^ the^onsiderations tSIt proflfer themselves to a writer on the press L ?^JL ,k' °°^ °^ '""^^ perennial importance t^t m reahty no more apology should be needed for another exposition of some of its phases th-ni^ needed by a preacher for another LiSon^n the annually recurring Gospel of the S^day It i! a matter as to which one may weU annlv th! reviaed verdon of an old prov^f "vauW 61 if!: A i 62 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES r not only strike the ii^on while 'tis hot, but should keep on striking the cold iron till it gets hot.*' As an advisable preliminary to the present writer's statement of his views on the correlative duties of the clergy and the press, he may be par- doned for showing the credentials which will per- haps acquit him of impertinence in discussing the question at all. For the past quarter of a century, then, I have been connected, either as editorial contributor or as associate-editor, with a Catholic weekly. Dm*ing the greater portion of that period, pbrt of my daily work has been to examine carefully successive issues of the ma- jority of Catholic periodicals published through- out the English-speaking world, and a more lim- ited number of French papers and magazines as well. The convictions formed as a result of that experience may or may not be correct, but they are tolerably definite and settled. In any case, they are convictions, strong beliefs held on satis- factory evidence, not mere opinions loosely enter- tained and readily changed, still less momentary impressions as variable as the lights and shadows that play over a summer lake. In its widest, most general sense, "the press" denotes the sum total of printed literature; and even in its most specific sense, that in which it is applied to newspapers and other periodical pub' • cations, it is a multifarious entity subject to almost indefinite classification. For the purposes of the present article a brief division will be suf- ficient. The press with which the ordinary priest in this country has, or may have, to do comprises THE PRIEST AND THE PRESS 63 IvT/h- n, r"* periodicals that are: professed- ular Ih 'J^'^' "^"-Catholic, but reli^ous; sec- ular and ultra-8ensatioiial-«yellow journals"- secular and reputable; and citholic. WiT .el pnest. both m his personal and his pastoral ca- whafinVf '.\''^'^**^ ^*«°^' *° det^ermLe just what attitude is his congruous one. and to carrj out m practice the line of conduct which in th "5^ he recognizes as right and proper. ^ aartl ^" "' ^^ ^"* *''° °^ *^«« of these cate- gones are concerned, his duty is fairly obvious CathnlT'''f^*7 '""^^ *° *«y that *e lels a Cathohc clerical or lay. has to do with^uch papers, the better. Concerning anti-CathoUc and sectanan periodicals, indeed, one's con^uous at titude IS unmistakably clear. Such publications UDon ''thn *'** ""^ ^^' ^^^^' ^^^^ »«y« its ban upon Uiose newspapers and periodicals which not only now and Uien. but re^larly andTset' gatT^ti CatL'r""^°°/°' Hitrali^.Tr'p^i;:! seemTo fn 1^ ' "^r"' '^^^^ *««t clause woSld seem to include not only such papers as the Menace tiie Peril, etc. but the sectarian week lies which professed!, defend heresies and ^abt" obhgaUons. In the first place, he hims, a, a rule, and without the due authorizaUon of his ecclesiashcal superiors must not read ttiem- in Ihe second, he must instruct hi, people tha"fte I. I I i: i ^ I: 64 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES reading of them is sinful, and, according to the theologians, mortally so. It may be well in this connexion to remind the clergy, and more espe- cially the younger portion ihereof, that the brief of Leo XIII, prefixed to the edition of the Index revised by his authority, states that it is binding "on all the faithful of the universe, regardless of race or language, nationality or country, educa- tion, learning or station in life." It is to be feared that there is a tendency among the younger priests of this country to consider that their ordinatiou exempted them ipso facto from obedience to the prescriptions of the Index; and we have even heard clerics flippantly assert that "such legislation was never meant to apply in this country, anyway." That is a serious mistake, and may easily be productive of disastrous conse- quences to even the most brilliant ecclesiastic. The common sense of the matter is well set forth in this paragraph from the little treatise of Father Betten, S.J.: Suppose a person were so well grounded in faith and virtue, so thoroughly versed in theology, philosophy, and the natural sciences that the reading of books, e. g. on Christian Science or the works of Voltaire, would not harm him. The Index prohibits these books; would he whom they could not harm be allowed to read them? As we put the case, he would not, by reading them, com- mit the sin of seriously endangering his soul. Yet he would sin by disregarding a positive law of the Church. These laws are like the precautionary measures taken by the civil authorities in times of epidemic; if they are to have the desired ef- THE PRIEST AND THE PRESS m antf?»^hl?r"' T? ^P"*- **»• «•' ««<>»« of ?or anv cl hT •"r'='»"'"' periodical, is a ,i„ lor any Catliolic, pnest or layman, wlio has nni previously obtained due permission .pread them from the ordinary or other properly defeated r^u'.^?',,'"'"""'"^- ™^ overage pastor''m:y do well to talce account of tliis truth himself, and as occasion serves, to expound it to his p;ople: In hi, own case, at least, ignorance of the law •atrdSe"""" ''"'""'"«'' '"""-""-nol As for the line of action to be talcen by a pas- tor whose parish is being flooded with copfes XZ.I ,u f'"^'-«°« of opinion concerning the best methods to be pursued. Perhaps the safest course for the individual priest to follow « to d«cuss the whole .juestion wHh his ordinal explaming the effects of this vile propaganda on lus particular Hock, and then adont (h„ which the bishop advises Is The mtt expedTem Diversity of circumstances will of couS^neces: filate, or at least jusUfy, variety of aXn b„ m general it may he said th,t the "silen^Vn! blX fs'^or, '""'/"« '"^'^ "-ifesttls'o"; Ther; .r °^°'<=^'"'- «■"' ought to be obsolete There_should surely be sufficient dynamic foree ■pr 66 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES I : , ■[' --'1 resident in the Catholic body of this country to prevent the dissemination of these blasphemous and calumniously vituperative periodicals through the agency of the U. S. mails, and there appears to be no good reason why the clergy should not use their influence in bringing about so desirable a consummation. The periodicals which we have classed as sec- ular and ultra-sensational deserve from the priest much the same treatment as those forbidden by the Index. Some of these yellow journals indeed constructively come under the same prohibition as forbidden books; and not a few of them are condemned, independently of any positive decree of authority, by the natural law which obliges us to guard our souls from serious danger. No spiritual guide who is also a sane observer of the times needs to be told that to peruse habitually, or even occasionally, certain popular newspapers is deliberately to seek the occasion of sin. It goes without saying that priests should eschew such perusal in their own case and protest against it in the case of their people. As for reputable secular papers, a wide-awake, energetic pastor may well utilize them in further- ing both his own personal work and the larger interests of the Church. The editors of such papers will, as a rule, welcome brief letters or pithy communications in which priests well known to their readers give the Catholic view of questions of the moment, or correct the false im- pressions produced by some quoted lecturer or preacher. In most of our cities and towns the THE PRIEST AND THE PRESS 67 S*^"*/ worm ™7.rr"^ "^«-^«'> " • orX?«h car -r > '^' "-^ «''"^' occasion profferai'^'lf' J"*c.ou,ly used a« the contributed toX? ™^^ r^* communicaUons late Dr. McSweenv ^''^P°''«»° l""™"' by the and other pSenJh """• '^''*" Stanley. Of the .culnTLlt ^^.Vl'ZT '■"*•"" lar daily less n«f«^ .u ?,^ °°° it in a secu- a city In^'Zut IZ y:.%"„r'T^ ■? reported a sermon delivered .h. ^' ''"'y ning. in one of the citv^ P^,., ""f f"™"' «*«- Of U.e preacher•,^Sfe4e'^t^.°^f'■'^ V"* Utterances deal heaw hlnJ- ♦ fu / , * ' ^^^ letter from a pri«t, t l?r T'""" ' •"*«' forgoing a^erro'^e^wlSt toXr ""« *^ men?^?^^'^ fa''goSStltf'',?»'^«8«ou, ,tate- charit^R, preSuSeSftat ?; v" """• todeed be borne fabe\ritness aoaini. Sf '"'? JJ"* wittingly Uie same he enSteS i^„5". "cghbors; but Ifl he taken the pStoa4touMi'f5°5""'- Had i» the Catholli doSriM abSS .L' k""** "H* "hat the Blessed Virgin, he wo^3'h*«'»onor given to so easily attaindjle a biM* .. n^t *scovered, in catego/c demTo? fe1,S^«g,^':' ^^^IIS 91 it 68 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES do not believe that the Blessed Virdn is in any way equal or even comparable to God, for she, being a creature, although the most hi^ly fa- vored, is infinitely less than God." Had he re- flected for a moment on the import of the com- monest Catholic prayer to the Blessed Virgin, the "Hail Mary," he could not but have recognized that his statement was not only untrue but utter- ly absurd. "Holy Mary, Mother of God," pleads the Catholic, "pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." Whv ask her to pray for us, if we consider her "equal with, if not superior to, the Deity?" Such apologetic work as this, a mission in min- iature to non-Catholics, is often possible, and, in our day especially, is surely worth while doing. Of other relations which the priest may well have with reputable secular newspapers, much might be said, but there is probably no necessity of dwelling upon them here. To come to the last of our divisions of "the press," Catholic papers and magazines: these, above all, merit the serious consideration and the many-sided active support of the clergy, and it is with respect to such periodicals that the average priest of the land is perhi«ys doing something less than his full duty. Unfortunately, indeed, there are clerics not a few who seem to imagir- that their principal, if not their sole, obligatio ivith regard to the Catholic press is to speak of ^. dis- paragingly, to emphasize its alleged inferiority to its non-Catholic competitors, and to harp coatin- ually on its supposed limitations and consequent inefficiency. In the expressive, if not very ele- WS^: THE PRIEST AND THE PRESS gant. vernacular of the man in the street, alto- gether too many priests in this country are knock- ers rather than boosters of our Catholic papers, censorious critics, rather Uian generous helpers. Not that censorious criUcism is always out of place, either concerning occasional issues of normally excellent periodicals, or concerning the habitual pohcy of some few self-styled Catholic journals; but the clerical atUtude of passive indif- ference, or more or less active opposiUon, to the Catholic press generally is clearly wrong and in- defensible. !.♦ ^^u^^^l **P°^ "* °°*^^ ^*^ exceptional cases, let It be admitted that the editor of the Ecclesi- astical Review has as much reason now as he had some years ago for declaring: "Of the large num- ber of Cathohc exchanges received by us. there are several that we could not allow to be read by TlT^H^ f non-Catholics or young persons, from a legitimate fear of injuring the Catholic name or weakemng the Catholic faith." In conversaUon wilh an American archbishop a year or two ago, the present writer mentioned among Catholic journal a paper pubhshed in the prelate's own cay and edited by one of his own priests, and Ts not a httle edifi. .1 at the archbishop's peremptZ comment: "That is not a Catholic paper '^S a few weeks ago I heard a well known cleric, the samty of whose judgm.nl is very generally recog' ni^ed. state his deliberate opinion that a^certefn famous (or notorious) American weekly has done fTtle\* : '^'h* '7 ^T^'' *" lessen'^reverence for the hierarchy, to undermine ecclesiasUcal au- 1^ . '•* 1! ■I r ill 70 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES thority, and wantonly to antagonize respectaMe non-Catholics than any other one agency in the country. Yet the editor of the weekly in ques- tion is a priest, and he doubtless fondly imagines that his is a model Catholic paper. Now. while it is no doubt deplorable that there should be even two or three so-^^alled Catholic papers utterly unworthy of that name and of Catholic support, there is no use in exaggerating the evil or in making the vices of the exceptional few a pretext for ignoring the virtues of the over- whelming majorihr. As a rule, our papers stand fairly well what the Rev. Dr. Heuser once stated to be the essential test of a Catholic journal: **orthodoxy in maiiers of faith, an elevated and elevating manner of treating all questions that have a moral aspect, and loyalty to legitimate au- thority in Church and State." With reasonable completeness they supply what Bishop Hedley de- clares should make up the contents of a really Catholic paper: *'the true statement of all pub- lic information affecting the Church and the Catholic religion; the Catholic version of the con- stantly recurring 'scandals,' as they are called, and of stories tending to injure Catholicism; the prompt contradiction and refutation of lies and slanders; comments of the right sort on the do- ings of politicians and on current history and crime; sound and religious views on matters social, industrial, and municipal; and the con- stant prominence of distinctively Catholic topics. Besides this, we should have general literature and art treated with wisdom and with due re- THE PRIEST AND THE PBE88 71 Handled with reverence and knowledge." In stating that our papers are fairly efficient with respect to these major requirements of true Catholic journalism. I have no desire to mint m^ke.L; vat? /^ T""' -«**««-mechanical well oZrIS H «*V"^*'''^"^- *°P^^«^ timeliness, mfnw M departmente, judicious selection of hea« so""«: ^^«*^*^*»'«°«"' «^tc.. etc.. which one censor, nf? ^«m™ented upon by clerical Z Th^- ?''*"Ji'.'""*~P°"*«"' ^'^ cosmopoli- tan penodicals. These defects exist, although not perhaps m such superabundance as the hype? critical censor endeavors to make out; and thev sTedeven ^h" ^^^^'^'^^^^ »>^ mat^riaUy les' sened even if the present editors yielded up their ScTp r In tis'"""; ^'^"^ *he'average"tt of So I T"*^ "'^y °°* *»« «° exemplar of perfect journalism, it is probably conducted 7olT''^-'f^^ "^°^^ «*>"^ *han would, tr could, be disp ayed in the editorial sanctum by the average pnest who condemns it as "no g^d /^ Such condemnation is perhaps at bottom merely an effort to tranquilize the priesHy eo^ orn"! ^^'l*^ P'°*^^*' ^^^^^''t ««<^«rdota negle"; of duty m the matter of worthily supporting the Cathohc press. That there i, such a dSty devolv! lew 1,!^^ ^ °^ no question whatever. Un- S^s^ rS^ provincial synods. Catholic con- gresses. Roman Congregations, and Sovereign i^ri I" n CLERICAL COLLOQUIES kl Pontiffs base been talking at random and coun- seling unadvisedly for the past balf-century, Catb- olic priests and Catbolic people under modem con- ditions are bound in conscience to foster Catholic journalism. No thoughtful ecclesiastic will con- tradict the statement that the obligation presses primarily upon the clergy rather than the laity, if for no other reason than this, that the specific business of the clergy is the extension of God's work and the furtherance of those religious ends which the apostolate of the press has in view. It would be easy, werfe it necessary, to fill page upon page of this' volume with wise words from the greatest churchmen of the age on a clerical duty which Leo XIII thus formulated: "Let the clergy foster these (Catholic) journals with all zeal, and aid them with their learning; and wherever they find men truly Catholic who are active in this work, let them give to these most generous sup- port and favor." The explanation of the all too common failure of American clerics to follow this advice is not any doubt of its abstract justice and expediency, but the thoroughly human, if reprehensible, tendency to shirk, as individuals, obligations which are ad- mittedly incumbent upon us as a body. The para- mount need of the times, so far as our Catholic press is concerned, is perhaps the vivid realiza- tion by the individual priest— the concrete Father John, or Tom, or Maurice, who is reading these pages — that to him personally is addressed this other papal utterance: "In vain will you build churches, give missions, found schools— all your THE PRIEST AND THE PRESS 73 efforts will be futile if you are not able to wield the defensive and offensive weapon of a loyal and wncerc Catholic press;" and that for all practical purposes "Catholic press" means for him. pri- marily the duly authorized and accredited paper of his diocese or archdiocese. His possible con- tention that the success or failure, the flourishlnii growth or gradual decadence, the living or dying of the journal io .jt.o.tion is no concern of his! none of his business, .>- a gross iullacy, the very reverse of the fcuth The aiaintcnance of a^ organ for the diffusio.i and Ihe defense of the Cath- oac truth, as for the f)'uuioiion of Catholic in- terests generally, emphatically /, in some degree his business, a business which of course he is free to neglect but not without forfeiting his clahr. o the Utle of an enlightened, zealous, or ev^. thoroughly honest priest of God nf h^'T^'^l* 7j'"°««*^s8 fully to acquit hims '' of his duty to the home paper which has the fl. l claim upon him and his parishioners, how can he accomplish it? By earnest and persevering en! deavors as an individual and as a pastor, to en- hance its efficiency and increase its circulaUon U wort wh' '' ''" .'"^*^"*^^ ^^^ ^»' -«d it. -nd t worth-whi e news items, "aid it with his learn- sketchLTn"^ ^^^ '' (biographical or historical ettes. book reviews, doctrinal explanations etc^ advertise in its columns, patronize its other ad.* vertisers. speak well of it to personal friends ay an occasional word of kindly encouragement' to Its editor, and pray that it may become a sS f S r > 74 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES more effective agency for the propagation of the faith, the defense of religious truth, and the pro- motion of Christian morality. As pastor he can instruct his people in season and out of sea^'^n on the absolute necessity of their taking Catholic papers as the only practical antidote to the poison of evil literature which is the outstanding dan- ger of the day; he can advise them in passably strong terms not only to subscribe and pay for, but to read, the paper or papers approved and encouraged by the ordinary of the diocese; he can promote the organization of clubs of sub- scribers; he can urge the needs and claims of the Catholic press upon the members of his vari- ous societies; he can mould a Catholic public opinion that will brand as un-Catholic the home that does not receive at least one Catholic paper; he can introduce the pape< < >to his school or at least can interest his school children in its con- tents; and he can secure the prayers of both chil- dren and adults for God's blessing on one of the most conspicuously important Catholic works of our time — the religious press. It would be superfluous to insist on the point that, in the case of generous, energetic priestly service to the Catholic paper, virtue is emphatic- ally its own reward. Should the selfish consid- eration. What is there in it for me? occur to the cleric who has hitherto been ignobly delinquent in this respect, the experience of all pastors who have manifested zeal where he has shown indif- ference may be cited to assure him that his fol- lowing their example is, even on selfish grounds. THE PBIEST AND THE PEES8 76 fpintual interests of his people at heart at all it ln^\^ "l ""!' ■■' *"■ «•=' '""» 'he Wei much ^erhaX t*.lf '"■ '""' " becomes a habit little less than criminal If half the priests who, three or four decades ago, copied in their writing-books "Procrastination is the thief of time*' had taken that lesson to heart, and exemplified from the outset of their clerical careers their aversion to this time-thief in the matter of their letter-writing, a good many of us would have fewer mistakes to deplore, fewer A CLEHIC'S COBBESPOWnByP., 79 mjuries to repair, and fewer lowes to make aood Who ha8 not known a dilatory prie8t who« f^f ' u« to acknowledge a gift ,o 7neotZ.c^Hlt male thatUrK'",'* '" "" "<"«»'» decis™ bills wfre Z,?»^ ^ ^r'"/*"" before their ea.,^ ;:narxij eiropU" M whirh r"' .1 '•" -f '^'" »»»te or a bSw- hetie^ st^f 1^""'' """•"<'• «° P"" Wm by un- needed simply because his habit of delavin« ini to-morrow what nnithi •„ u j """ymg nil ^- ».™nge;'thannis\t„X r^Lttg^ As for the structure or comDosition r.f « k • abou. rhtratt^oJi: i":^:j:''/:^n'iT" ^he 1^" tubf' '-'-^ -' '!^e •>- '-s%„: asa^p^Tb^^-^fmlrcrn'o^f^tr' rs-trenW'a^'rs^^^^^^^^ to the hterary accomphshment of the c er J be H said, they are qualities less common thfn I ether generally supposed or at all^rrable A slovenly style is much more likely than tt to I t z < h 5; pi I r 80 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES characterize the letters of a cleric who writes comparatively little, and, excusable as such slovenliness may be in social communications to one's friends, it is condemnable and condemned in business documents. Just as the average grad- uate of the high school might proBtably spend an additional term in mastering the difficulties of English orthography, so might many a graiiuate of the seminary advantageously devote hours not a few to the prosaic task of learning how to con- struct with thorough propriety an English sen- tence> Spiritual letters, properly so called, are per- haps the least frequent epistles written by the ordinary, everyday priest, although at first blush one might fancy that they should be the most common of all his writings. The othei-worldli- ness so consonant to his priestly character does no doubt crop out from Ume to time even m his »a tu^- on other, because, a8 a rule, they have favf^,^ greater amount of leisure to devote thereto and ■"no. a ptas'uT 'kT""'"]' "'' " ^''"='' " .till alive fhrnri. « * " ^"*" <"■ ■no*" « oldfnt, ".t"' ''""• ^"^^^^ U" hearts of th" S pnt^rtTnaTw °i LttSr^ ZT^ {^rSiJSrr^er^-Sr^f:; one's father or mother when ftey are frr 3" A h-tl'e-m-ot tlToXVnr aTd T^ ^~ *is point on .he%irra''«^7:^n:H«" 84 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES II H "'/i ' f i would notably increase the happiness of their parents while still here below, and save them- selves considerable unavailing regret or remorse when God at length calls those parents home. And what is true in the case of father and mother is in a measure also true of a priest's brothers and sisters and other near relatives. All these have a quasi-right to hear from the Father John, or Edward, or Maurice who has long been the ob- ject of their care and prayer and love and pride. Another species of social letter which a gen- tleman of culture, such as his profession supposes a priest to be, cannot well forego writing is the occasional epistle, — of congratulation, condolence, etc. There is a whole apostolate of kindly service embodied in the judicious penning of such letters; and the occasions which juLiify them arc far more numerous perhaps than we are willing to ac- knowledge. "Two in distress make sorrow less," says the proverb, and no one who has had his own grief assuaged and lessened by a sympathetic message from friend or acquaintance can doubt that the inditing of such missives is eminently worth while, or that the comfort they give more than repays the trouble they cost. So, too, with letters of congratulation. We are assured by Dr. Johnson that "the applause of a single human being is of great consequence," and when the hu- man being is a priest the applause does not as- suredly lose anything of its magnitude. A few words of kindly felicitation penned to a friend, an acquaintance, or even a stranger, who has done something exceptionally good, — how inconsider- A CLERIC'S CORRii!flPnvT.p,T.Trr 86 ^i^.f^'f ff^'*."'^^' °*^^«"°» «h« writer, yet how favor of giving prai.e where prai.e » due The ultra-cautious .piril that refrain, from expressing approval of another's achievement, or e?prr«ef forsooth the achiever's vanity may be .ct ablaze rehen.*iht"""- -I '''""' "' "•<=«'"<'mania. h a rep! rehensib e spint, not a commendable one E, Z™"" ""'" "P"'- " '' »"'« '" «»»ume thai ^IT" rKr""' "'"• •'«» 'he abiJily to do any For eve,y gilly h„d by pU„diu turned, There p™ . hundred hearts for prai« „e|| .>„«,. In good sooth, the failure to give neneron, ..„ quabfled approbaUon to those who dese^e it i^ due not infrequently to the miserable and ^on temptible passion of envy or jealousy, loudly a, p«acher or writer, his popularity as a confessor hi. effectiveness as a convert-maker etc Zv render h m proud and prove his ulUmateuZ^ ing; but it may not be amiss to go toThe roo, tf" •waocorr rbowtion tbt chart (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) A ^'PPLIED IfVMGE 1653 EqjI Moin Str«t RochMler n«» York 14609 US* (716) 482 - 0300 - Phon* (716) 288- 5989 -Fa» it t ' ■;»■: 86 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES our "damning with faint praise," and see whether it is not the base envy which withers at another's joy And hates that excellence it cannot reach. One of the most gratifying letters which the pres- ent writer has ever received came to him a good many years ago from a total stranger who won my lasting gratitude by telling me of five or six conversions which, to his personal knowledge, had been brought about by an article of mine, on Our Lady, contributed to the Ave Maria. And such swelling as I experienced on reading the kindly epistle was entirely of the heart, not the head. "Occasional" letters may be sent quite congru- ously to mere acquaintances, or even, as in tiie case just mentioned, to strangers, but most social epistles are of course exchanged between friends, in the specific sense of that word, — those who en- tertain for each other feelings of personal regard and preference. Does the average priest write a sufficient number of these friendly missives? Does he practice the kindness involved therein as often as he reasonably can and should? That he has friends enough among his brother-clerics is abundantly clear at the time of his annual or biennial retreat. The commonest of excuses made at that period for the breaking of the silence rec- ommended by the retreat-master and the bishop is: "Well, you know; the fellows haven't seen one another for so long that they naturally want to have a chat." And how many of them have employed, since their previous meeting, the best A CLERIC'S CORRESPONDENCE 87 possible substitute for a chat.— the friendly, free- and-easy, genial letter? It is quite possible that a sensible increase of clerical inter-correspond- ence during the year would promote a better observance of at least "the grand silence" during the retreat-period. No priest who seriously reflects on the com- fort and consolation and encouragement, on the hvely satisfacUon, the sensible pleasure, the gen- ume delight that have sometimes, if not often, come to himself personally through timely let- ters from friendly correspondents can fail to ac- knowledge that a genial letter may weU rank among the most kindly of acts. Who has Eot, at least occasionally, discovered that a few Iright, chatty pages from a distant friend are a more sovereign cure for drooping spirits, sickness of heart, and weariness of brain than are all the rem- edies to be found in the doctor's prescription book or on the druggist's shelves? Who has not been spun-ed at times to renewed energy, confirmed in good and noble purposes, or stimulated to Uie per- formance of arduous duty by merely a dozen lines of intelligent approval from a sympathetic well- wisher? Yes; social letters afford an excellent means for exercising kindness, and kindness is a quahty pre-eminenUy fitting in the priest who fol- lows, at however great a distance, the model Hich Priest who "went about doing good." Of the excuses generally given for failing to wnte to friends perhaps the most common, as well as tiie most flimsy, is that one "has no time " Very many who aUege that reason have doubtiess I G r r 88 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES j. iO persuaded themselves that it is true; but the in- stances in which it really is true are probably far less numerous than is generally believed. Of the eighteen thousand priests resident in these United States, are there eighteen hundred, or a hundred and eighty, or even eighteen who in downright earnestness can truthfully affirm that they are so habitually busy with more important matters that a monthly letter to an intimate friend is quite im- practicable? Is it not a matter both of personal record and of general experience that the busiest of men have the most leisure? It is altogether doubtful that the ordinary priest of our day and country is as gen^uinely busy, now that he is "on the mission," as he was throughout his college and seminary days. If he found ample time, as a stu- dent, for letter-writing, and cannot apparently find it now, may not the real explanation be that, as a student and a seminarian, his hours and their employment were regulated by intelligent system, and that at present they are subject to haphazard and unmethodical whims and caprices? One cleric in a hundred is possibly as overworked as all the hundred profess to be; but if half the energy wasted in killing time were devoted to utilizing it, the average cleric would discover abundant leisure for much more extensive cor- respondence than he conducts at present. A less frequent excuse for abstention from let- ter-writing, and one fully as hollow as the fore- going, is inability,— "I can't write a letter." In the mouth of a professional man such an assertion is little less than absurd. Given the ability to i_5!!55I£;L52^RESPONDENCE 89 friends a, n stare"" T "'"'"• '''"^'''' •"» son cannot trite „ I' -i "'''''°'"' """ " P''- 'ered a., Li:X:iXLZ\r.Zt a'nd S" by people'^ Xt-ZSTh "™-'™7 ""^ unity, mass «nH Jk **^^ principles of sition Td who wouT" '' f PP"^' *° ^^"'P- work under the TZ f^''^^^^ recognize their ence. NoT tnat we Ui^'d:*'^'^ ^^^^^P^"^" tention to orthoJanr ill '"^ reasonable at- requisite to theTritinl' Jl/i T ^"^ °»her certainly have thl^ J^^ ^^^"^ ^°«^^«^- These piece o? Xo3i oS^^^^^ a^TttTr "hef^^n^ closest friends Im„.^ f . ' between the requisites does no T»' """"^'^dg^ of such reason for v^thhoUi„»7. "■• '°f """«' « ™«<' aoularlcindr^sof w^?h raT '"%"'" '"' P^ deus Stevens may h* ve be '^f. .P/!,'".'"^- ^had- to recommend an appUca ,1"? '" """'"« Point because, as he put »" 41 fj"'* "' ^*" appointment to any bfasted fi,. i! " ""' *™ "» with two Il-s and "Uir v^th „t •• W '"" ' '""'''' no doubt received in o«r li^r I"* '""^'^ «" Which it wea^iltrd^fio-r^d/ress't' hi 90 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES it ii t . are intolerable snobs, the variation aff«>'**ed us but lightly, if at all. Literary excellence is good thing in any piece of composition; some degree of it may be considered practically essential in busi- ness letters and printed correspondence; but the man or woman who does not prize beyond all graces of style the true kindness, sincerity, sym- pathy, and affection embodied in a genuine let- ter of friendship has surely distorted the relative values of foi> and substance, and doesn't deserve to receive anything more closely resembling a real letter than the stilted treatises in miniature which, a few centuries ago, authors used to indite, not for private perusAl, but for the public press. The universality of the liking for letters, and the very common neglect to write as many of them as is desirable were made evident to the author about a decade ago by the vogue enjoyed by a little rondel of his that went the rounds of the press, often eaou^ without tiie credit which is herewith properly assigned to if: Could absent friends but know What joy their letters bring, How like a breath of spiing They set our hearts aglow, They'd write more oft, I trow, And give their pens full swing, — Could absent friends but know What joy their letters bring. Time's stream would smoother flow, Our little griefs take wing, And great ones lose their sting,— All life would gladder grow, Could absent friends but know What joy their letters bring. A CLEBIC'S COHBEaPnTsmi;.vnp, 91 power, and, despite hi, prit«. ,h. ,i """ ""^ to gladden or m.mf„T.. P""*"- *« lime as well, frieSd by a uLT^rtl r ?«°""8« «" absent 'ere,ung'^jis,ii7rw,'''::r"^'?''«--.-- assurances of continued rL?T"" '"I-Wm. teem, and all those UWe "'?f"'''™''«» and es- to o.he„ so incak"laW;^o«r„'i"' "' "»'"■ selves. Don-t postpone the ki^t 7 ?" °"'- book; and si. ^^Tont\^':^'^^ ^Z 5X.""' ■I K rn i 1 I VI CLERICAL WIT AND HUMOR A joyful mind maketh age flourishing; a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones. — Proverbi : xvii, tt. Wit loses its respect with the good when it is seen in com- pany with malice; and to smile at the jest which places a thorn m another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief. — Sheridan. As the non-humorous and unwitty constitute the overwholra- ing majority, they have succeeded, partially at least, by dint of ceaseless iteration, in propagating the idea that mental dry- ness is indicative of wisdom and that a wit or humorist is lack- in;' in the substantial qualities of mind — all of which is mere moonshine.— -Ckoflip Clarlc. ONCE upon a time the word "wit" was uni- versally accepted as being identical in meaning with wisdom; nowadays, in the vocabu- lary of many a peremptory sobersides, it figures as a synonym for wisdom's absence, folly. When Swift wrote 'Tis an old maxim in the schools That flattery's the food of fools, Yet now and then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit,— he evidently used the word to signify knowledge, sagacity, intelligence, judgment, good sense; while these very lines of his furnish an example of that intellectual dexterity for which in modem usage the word has come to stand. Not that the original meaning of the term is even now obsolete in either the singular or the plural form, as is clear from 92 .£Il!2i5^LWlTAND HUMOR 93 !ote'1r-,t '~"'r'. "'•• "'"' •■«» not the wit .^ea.'°:H?:h^TaCXL'"=':lr '''V" nmusemeni; and "a wii" i. u •" ^'Pe^aUy quality, or often. « o„e „°r,h?''l ''°"''"" "■'' puis it, "a person whn h. ■ '^^'eoSraphers the incongrSoror tdie™„: a„7 """P""" "' amusement and freonlnM "'"'"»" " for tlie otliers." frequently at Uie expense of flnd. or thTfac„rnf «"!.'"''= '."" ""'P^iUon to or suggestions! ,o,„i,o""?^f '""'T'" "'P"" has been graphicairXZ/f *"■ "°"''"'- Wit and PerhapsTgood :„ n,;iT"" "*"""«• given of tl,e relatCship ^^ ™be°aV? T "^ « to say that hrjmor is the elee ri„f ", '° ''""«"• and wit the flash "h, electrical atmosphere dulges in breath of rf^n""""' '"y» Landor" "in- and'briUian;;"* ^li^r l^.^'her '"an in play humor spring^ upSeram^^'TroA ?? '"t'^' and runs on." The n.,.rf»- i! ^ / " " fountain ant evening w ha part^ „",%°-"" '-"*""' P'eas- «everal honors in a^eS I'^Z'L^lrT' change of st>ries and drolleries^., h '".'"■ merriment and hilaritv hJ. Ji . ''""'e excited a word the genial at^spt^oTZ'''^ '"'^""' '" yet. when called upon the n«fdi.°"T°''= «'"' Of Oie mirth-pro/o^^-rd'ent 1.^1:^^^ If ,!i:L,_ 94 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES I ! able to specify anything in particular. In such a case, the evening was probably a humorous rather than a witty one. If, on the contrary, on the fol- lowing day you button-holed a friend, and, in- forming him that "So-and-so said a very good thing last night," proceeded to repeat the saying, it is safe to afllrm that t' ough the circumamhieFt atmosphere of congenial humor there flash oc- casionally the shooting-stars of wit. Another distinction between the two qualities is that wit is purely intellectual, while humo^ may be expressed by. a smile, a grimace, or an attitude. The fun of a humorous story, for instance, may consist principally, or even wholly, in mimicry, in reproducing 'lie peculiarities of tone, accent, emphasis, gesture, or general action of an eccen- tric chiirfacter; while a witty story or sally de- pends not at all on such accessories: it$ whole value lies in the thought, and the brilliancy of its point is only slightly affected by the presence or absence of histrionic ability^ in the narrator. Humor may be coexistent, it is needless to say, with the gentlest and deepest pathos; and is in- deed sr generally kindly that Thackeray ubcd to call it a mixture of love and wit Having thus deflrir! our terms, snd so elim- inated one common ^ource of misunderstanding and futile disputation, let us see what is the con- gruous attitude of clerics towards thef.e condi- ments of human intercourse. It is scarcely neces- sary to remark that wit and humor are in themselves indifferent, unmoral. They are not tabooed, debarred, condemned, or forbidden, ■ — ""•" wo "Xf^Hi^'cS'sfr ;• "IP"""- •» "••• p- ">« great and goid of .u ...'1'"'* """"on" <"' «"« that haf ^^VaM*.!?'/?;,"'* """'""n djwn of creation d™„ •"„,•,!" "' "?* '""" ">» Were ii worth wWIl. ?„ w '"e.. 'eth century Walo.Ari.toUe. St Thoma,*";""" •"'<"" O""^' I«»«c Barrow, and a h«? of „.h ^"'"f" ' ^"™'". 'aud wit and humor in no [un^'f celebritie, who •hem under .uch nam« a. , '"'•*""•• P"'"-* drolleiy. gaiety, amenii^ „, i*''*'""»»«»». easy a ' Baal: "Ci, •>« i. talking ortTn °^ il'* " ''"'^ »'«' P"rl'api Perhap, he fa a.leVp and ™? Tu"" " J°''™«y: of now, after the forego?n» h.k ' ""f ""^ ^•" And «he innocency of wf°a„rt i '"'* "'"ai^aUon of •ome cru,ty readl .. '"""'"'• " "•ere be .till Chri.Uan,l^r^fea.,Tnc°:r'''=™"» """• «» "»- ™«y be pardoned for .rvi3T '" " P''"". one Dr. Johnson once ..m ,*'*"'" *''«'8n'ff old ponent: "Sir. I have fiid " '"'"'-''"•'ed op- am not obliged to find you ^^ ^a '" «'»""enl: I . « i. « »"P».amanofmider.tanding" and I '!i| ml 98 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES I It is quite conceivable indeed that the ultra- serious Rector of a Seminary, counseling his fourth-year students as to their post-ordination deportment, should give them the advice which Governor Corwin once gave to the members of his law-class: "Young men, if you desire a repu- tation for wisdom, never joke; be as solemn as an ass;" but it is inconceivable that the average young American ecclesiastic, of normal level- headedness, should act upon the advice, or look upon it as other than as a pretty good joke in itself. It has been said above that, of the two quali- ties, wit is perhaps the more likely to be abused. As a matter of historical record, and of everyday experience as well, the brilliant wit, lay or clerical, is far more liable than his merely humorous brother to inflict unnecessary pain, to provoke anger and resentment, and to become guilty of sundry other sins against charity, even supposing that he avoids, as he occasionally does not, of- fenses against justice. It requires no slight de- gree of holiness as well as gentlemanliness to re- frain from uttering a witty retort that would sure- ly discomfit an opponent and delight the by- standers; and it is probable that most readers of this essay can count among their clerical friends and acquaintances more wits than saints. Tom Moore was very likely guilty of considerable, if excusable, exaggeration when, after Sheridan's death, he wrote of his friend as one Whose wit in the combat as gentle as bright Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade,— and, in any case, it is worth while for everybody CLERICAL -fflT AND HUMOR 99 whom God has endowed with intellectual keen ratStrulTor "-'•f —><••» did/ -The fte mart " Wh" T"'""?""* "" '» "> 8° beyond i.^Xa.e:^1 r/ 'ure^:\r-erpt- century: Harrow in the seventeenth lighl^iVthH&Tt'^b^^rod^^^ ^^^" " «"- jocular exprSn^ when*?f lr°'^ conveved in rehcion char^ «;/,• ^- * *°f"nges neither on it nfaimains iS;d huiinr''^ "°/ °" P^«^^' ^^en and make^hf^ndearren^, nft*^'^^ vating; when'it ex^os^s wLt is vn?^a^^^^ contempt; when it rerlaim« ♦>! • • ^°^ ^"^e to them into virtue- whin W ***^ '''"°"? »"*^ laughs ^SSS&n5"i i|rV«' -» " hT„"n^Mre=Bp3! {raf ? season, or to a dangerous end. '*''* The foregoing field for wifs legitimate acUvi- hes „ surely ample enough to safefy even STe who are most abundanUy provided there^S. and tia n'»v h" '" '"■r """ "» ""» «e^ many •hat It may be exercised quite sufficiently in Der lus'grSLT' rr"' "^'"s -"--d :,":; "IS graUfying, too, to know that, while "wit" ia ZllTu '?™°y"°"» ^«h "wisdom," neitter , the latter's antonym or opposite, -fis weuThaJ •t « not. for. as Scott says: "Though wit be ve^ McMASTER UNIVERSITY LIBRARVT ft " 100 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES It! |t useful, yet unless a wise man has the keeping of it, that knows when, where, and how to apply it, it is like wild-fire, that runs hissing about, and blows up every thing that comes in its way." Let it be said for the encouragement of younger priests of brilliant parts, and for the honor of the cloth generally, that, neither in the case of such witty clerics as have achievcu international fame, —Father Arthur O'Leary, for instance, or "Father Prout," Father Tom Burke, O.P., or Father Healy of Bray— nor in that of such of their intellectual peers as have ever come under the observation of the present writer, could it be said with truth that they had less judgment than wit, more sail than ballast. And, that exceptional wittiness is no handicap to the Americaii priest, and no bar to his ecclesiastical preferment, is abundantly clear to any one who enjoys even a limited acquaint- ance among the members of the American hier- archy. The fact is that, in nine cases out of ten, brilliant wit implies the possession, rather than the want, of notable understanding, sound judg- ment, and abundant conmion sense. Notwithstanding all this, however, perhaps a young cleric might do worse than pray, in a para- phrase of, "Give me neither beggary, nor riches: give me only the necessaries of life" — Give me neither stupidity, nor wit: give me only a saving sense of humor. Exaggeration may characterize this statement cf an American essayist: "There is certainly no defense against adverse fortune which is, on the whole, so effectual as an habitual sense of humor;" but it is indubitably true that CLERICAL WIT AND HUMOR 101 such a sense is well caUed "a modulating and re- straining balance-wheel," and that this power of perceiving relaUons of a mirth-provoking kind, this capacity of being affected by the ludicrous aspects of various matters and occurrences in the lives ot others and in our own as well, is a provi- denUal gift for which to be thankful. It helps to give us a true perspective, to prevent our taking ourselves and others too seriously, to make us recognize our li.-nitations, to lessen the jar of everyday disturbances, and to flood our daily life with salutary mental sunshine. It may sound paradoxical in the statement, but It IS true, nevertheless, that a keener, more genu- ine sense of humor would restrain many a pseudo- humorist from conversational excesses and ex- travagances which make the judicious grieve It would moderate, for instance, the activities of the confirmed inveterate story-teller or anecdotist,— a character more or less common in all clerical circles. Oliver Wendell Holmes is authority for the dictum that "a thought is often original though you have uttered it a hundred times;" but, how- ever orthodox the saying may be when restricted to thoughts. It IS certainly heterodox when applied to anecdotes. The story tiiat you have told a hun- dred times is unmistakably trite so far as you are concerned, and in all probability is thoroughly stale to your auditors as well. It is a risky ex- periment to take it for granted that even an anec- dote comparatively new to ourselves has not been heard by Uie majority of tiie company to whom we narrate it; and to monopolize the attention V L 103 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES i ■hi' I \ ! i I: I li * 1 ^^: 1 1 I . 1 ■ of a social gathering by our long-drawn-out nar- ration of stories which reiterated repetitions have made as commonplace as remarks upon the weather is to display unpardonable want of tact and an utter absence of a true sense of humor. There is nothing surer, I.owever, than that just such absence of tact will often be shown by the humorist, clerical or lay, who has allowed him- self to become dominated by the anecdote habit. Without any preliminary inquiry as to whether or not his heareirs are already acquainted with the story he has in mind, he proceeds to inflict it upon them with far less regard for any entertainment they may derive from his narrative than for his own delight in hearing himself talk. The need of the "chestnut bell" has unfortunately survived its use; and in its absence perhaps the only ade- quate punishment for the inveterate raconteur who persists in serving up the mildewed remains of long-deceased witticisms is to greet the conclu-' sion of his tale with a chorus of groans instead of a peal of laughter. The cleric who is more or less the slave of the anecdote, or story-telling, habit is evidently af- flicted with too much of a good thing. **No sane person," says Champ Clark, "would elect to be continually cooped up with another who is witty and humorous on all occasions, any more than he would desire to dwell in a land of perpetual day; but sunshine is a good thing, nevertheless." We may very well admit, with Charles Lamb, that "a laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market," without committing ourselves to the sen- CLERICAL WIT AND HUMOR 103 tinient that the normal expression of the human countenance, even during hours of relaxation and ninTI-' . r? 'i?^ *^" perpetual grinning of the proverbial Cheshire cat. To have in one's mem- ory a goodly store of brilliant epigrams, happy Illustrations mirth-provoking jesS. ludicrous bulls, pointed repartees, humorous tales, and »Tnn^»»ff '"^"^f ' " *° ^^ P''«^i*^«<' ^ith ammuni- tion that IS safe to come into legitimate play often enough on the platform, in the smoking room, a" social functions and clerical gatheringsl but^t is sa"b titi'th' ''''''^r''' ^*p'°^^"« '-''' -r»>«' squibs with the reckless profusion of the Yankee S^eFlu^Th;fJy ^"""™^^°"' «— ^- on « Jn.f, ^T^ '' **""* ^^ P"^«* ^*»o has achieved a reputation as a good story-teller is very apt to have what our French friends call "the defects of his qualities." With the lapse of tfrne and the strengthening of his habit, he grows prone to re! sent compeution in his particular role. To take his turn with the rest of the company at telUrg a story becomes a sacrifice beyond his achieve: ZTn^ I" "*"',' *^°'^ *^^ "oo'-^or an indeSe penod. the applause that greets one anecdote set! ting him off forthwith upon another, and the p^- sibly perfunctory laughter called forth bv this second serving merely as an excuse to begira third He forgets, in a word, one of the charaC tenstics which, according to Newman. dLote the vewaUon, and never wearisome." Now. be it ever so brilliant, monologue inevitably becomes weari- SI in 104 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES i ii some, especially when the speaker's auditors arc anxious to substitute dialogue therefor. Another danger into which the confirmed lay anecdotist is very apt to fall, and one from which his clerical counterpart is by no means immune, is the tendency to indulge his propensity even at the cost of violating the rules of reverence and decorum, not to say those of common decency. The desire to raise a laugh becomes, when habitu- ally and excessively catered to, a species of mania that will attempt to gratify itseh* at risks quite in- compatible with a due sense of gentlemanly self- respect, to say nothing of saceruotal dignity. While it is quite true that vulgarity or coarse- ness of language does not always connote im- modesty of thought, and that there may be anec- dotes in which the incidental grossness is lost in the sparkling wit, the judicious cleric is rather prudish than ultra-free in narrating such anec- dotes himself, or in applauding their narration by others. Lay friends of priests should have noth- ing to learn, on the score of clean conversation, from soldiers; yet an incident told of General Grant is worth proffering to their attention. At a military dinner in the early seventies a certain major noted for the broadness or nastiness of his stories began one with his usual formula : "Well, as there are no ladies present, . . . .»*_ "No, in- terrupted Grant, "but there are gentlemen." This mention of ladies suggests yet another danger to be sedulously avoided by the clergy, that of disedifying, not to say scandalizing, their housekeepers or servant maids by the undue fi^ !:l CLERICAL WIT AND HUMOB lOS fn^ whU ^ " "T'"' ^ *■•''• A dining-room ."n. i^ ^fPhaHcally no place loi- stories border- vulgar. S>UU less is it the proper place for IIip narrouon of ludicrous incident, coSne?ted ,^m file confessional,-if indeed ana place be flf '„r .ucl, narratives. In baac Bair^w^enumer^tir quoted on « former page, of the occasiorand d"' t^ZZV'^l *"j' "'•"""■""able, he men. «L n ** majority of experienced eccl«,i. ashes will, we Uiink. endorse the statemenrtSLt the sacrament of penance, and all that appertaiL thereto, is clearly such a subject Apart from a^ consideration of a danger, however reSe of violating in the slightest degree the ./ffi/Sm the S^^f-lr^K "" "' «'"'«''"» experience *„ Zli^r t *'"* "^ ™«'» "it or humor is a" t^^^.f """'.."""■ l-^-Uon^We taste. Co„" fessional stones-thc best and most innocent of them-are not particularly edifying even ta denes themselves; and to narrate t^em or en courage their narration in the pre enS of Z laity may well be styled, in TalleyranS" piase as wo«e than a crime,-it is a blunder." ^ In view of what has been said about takino if for granted that a story new to one's , el? is io ous to cite here many, if any, concrete instances of clerical wit and humor. Such citing would aU 106 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES too probably elicit from the average reader some such criticism as the oldtime reviewer's caustic comment on a volume now forgotten : There are some good things and some new things; but the good things are not new, and the new things are not good." And yet, in the present writer's experi- ence, so many hoary anecdotes that were ancient even in his boyhood have be'^n rejuvenated of late years, that one is tempted to aHopt Bacon's prin- ciple in compiling his "CollecUon of Apothegms. New and Old." .He says he fanned (winnowed) the old, omitting none because they were vulgar (familiar), for many vulgar ones are excellent good." Lincoln once said to Noah Brooks, "I re- member a good story when I hear it, but I never invented anything original; I am only a retail dealer." That is probably true of the great ma- jority of story-tellers, clerical or lay; and hence the danger of one s good things turning out to be "not D«»w." StiU, when one sees such up-to-date newspapers as the New York Sun, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post reprinting anecdotes which one remembers having told a quarter of a century ago, there is perhaps some excuse for venturing the recital of one or two. even though one cannot, in print, take the judi- cious preliminary precaution of inquiring "Have you ever heard, etc." The witty retort that "replies to obloquy," con- founds impertinence, or silences a bore, is uni- versally a,,preciated; and such retorts have been innumerable in the history of jest, from the time when Father O'Leary told a dissenting parson II: CLEBICAI, WIT AND HUMOE 107 who had aggrewlvely informed him: "Sir I could never .«ept Purg.toor."-"Faift, you m«y inM It • ' '" ■" evoIuUoni.1, and I want *"T ** "I"*'""" «ilh you. I am aLT an "J,1'«' "<""»'• I beUeve that whenTdl tha" ^ be Uie end of me/'-Thanlc God for that •' devouUy exciaimed Father M. a. he resumed h'« mlerrupted wailc. A pedeatrian frieTd "f o^l twelve miles f. day, was being chalTed bv > brother cleric who ha. a long-ItanZ« reouta Uo„ fo, ,„<,„.eity. "Some of u * ■ .aidTe chafflr" have to work; we can't alTotd to apend Sie dav on the road."-"Thaf. aU right" ~n|i«i .S^ pedestrian, -but if my pedome£.^ere'^att^ch*d to your lower jaw. it would record at L «d of tte day a good many more mUes than I w.Sk"- Muiphy-s reply to the inquiry of a friend. "Father did you ever stand at the church door after vour sermon and listen to what the people said aLuUt a. they pa«ed out?" Said Father Mun,^ "I itlg^'r " """" '"" " "«*• "•»■' "' -ver do the''<^r^l:if3»'f''« " '"'*°^'y ">' o-,- • ^ ® lollowing instance of humnp*« am.ng from a veri,al mann<.-<3m. The forTr born rector of a Western seminary had devd oped, m his acquisition of Ihs Fn.ii.i, V an especial fon^dness frL^^l^ttf'ToS "' He rather overworiced the phitase in his orSy I pirn m 108 CLBB OAL COLLOQUIES ■\ conversation; but did not tlioroughly realize the fact until he found himself one morning begin- ning the prayers in common — **In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of course of the Holy Ghost.** Apropos of bishops, an Anglican prelate is credited with what a punster might style a handy illustration. He had been remon- strating with a young rector of sporting tendencies for driving tandem, to the scandal of the pious and the discredit of the church. "But,** pi^tested the rector, "your' lordship also drives two horses, and the only difference between us is that your lordship drives them side by side and I drive them one in front of the other.*'— 'That scarcely covers the case,'* replied the bishop: "when I place my hands thus [palm touching pah., as in prayer], you will perceive that I place them in an attitude becoming a Christian and a bkhop; but when I place them thus [extending the fingers of both hands one in front of the other and applying his thumb to his nose] you will admit that the con- notation is not quite the same.** Not so victorious in the matter of repartee was the Irish bishop who, a good many years ago, ex- amined Mike Sullivnn in catechism. Mike, a big, good-natured gossoon of sixteen or seventeen, having finished the course of studies in the Brothers' school in his native Ballyna — something or other, had journeyed to the episcopal residence to consult his lordship about entering the pre- paratory seminary. Being shown into the recep- tion room Mike seated himself in the easiest chair he could find, crossed one leg over the other, and CLERICAL WIT AND HUMOR 109 leiiurely awaited the bithop'8 entrance. FUi » i. I»2 ."^"fu *i "'''"^'^*'"* dignified, ceremoniou. Su i!^ ^^ '■■* °' '"*'° ^*'> ^hom to take a llDcrty On entering the room he began walkina up and down its length, interrogating Mike as he mv JlL..^.^u' y°"'' nanier_"Mike Sullivan, my lord. -- Where are you from?"-From Bal- fiS*«**^;* "? yonder."-"What do you wantr_ The biihop cast a withering glance at the lad as he replied, icily. "I suppose a man may do as he Mikp '.Mf °T ^P^t^-'-Oh. of course." said Mike, if your lordsh'p doesn't want to sit down fl^h"!.'^??; ^""' ' ^"» «°*"8 *° »«y that IVe ff !n^f. 1 J^'k;®''^*^""' '"^°°' "P ho"^^. and that i«^" -n***^'' ';'"""' ^'^ "^'^ *° «° t« the semi- nary. — Do you know your catechism ?"-."To be sure, my lord; at least I think I do." The Bishoo mf«f«T.K ^^^^"^ ^'^ ^^ ^"* chapter of Butler, putting the opening questions, "Who made the world? etc.. the candidate for the seminary giv- ing the correct replies. When, however, to the question. "Where is God?" the boy give the answer of the book. "God is everywhere, but is said principally to be in Heaven, where he mani- fests Himself to the blessed." the prelate sudden- ly switched oflf from the text and inquired: "And what does God do in Heaven ?"-"Faith," replied Mike, with just the suggestion of a twinkle in his roguish Imh eye. "faith. I suppose He does as He entVriJ!t"thr '^""•" ^°' '^ ^^«'"^-«- It is perhaps unnecessary to remind would-be '- m n: i no <■■» Mi' 11 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES Mtion. not the food.** and that Chesterfield hai wi.ety .aid: "It i. by vivacity and wit that man I S company; but trite Jokes and loud IZ^aV^^T ***?" *° '• buffoon/' Young cleri ^ whil Y. I" """** '**■* ■ '*'"■'•>' or a retort which would be men witty if addressed to their coevals or equals may well become an imperw ttnence when addressed to their seniors or su- periors; old prieste and ecclesiasUcal dignitaries need reminding that in a contest of wits the recog- niscd law is "give and take.** and that if they coni descend to crack jokes af the expense of their uniors or inferior in rank, they have no riSl to stand on their dignity and complain if they every grade should remember that the ephemeral story IS all too dearly purchased if ,ally or story has offended modesty or reverence, jusUce or fra- temal charity. r .. vu OUR QUEEN AND MOTHER ti.l%r2ith't«^5L"£;ji.. ^sKi "S^* Sn ««• Aft*' »i»,iet7. ««wpw. Bcbold thjr moikmt,—at. Jokm: ««. JraltA«w, 0^ y^ "" •»*•' *"*• »»»• kingdom 0/ lie.ven.-. tWftS S5£.lV*floJl #,T"".I!!2»**^ *• »»"• world hM • M« »irgw to m.—at. Bemardine of Siena O"" chT.!^ ^""^'u '' ""« • C..hoUc pulpit l.r.cll*'n'.t'.7''r.?"« • "cLH"'"' "* "" wid«» tvnfM "mere a Catholic rectorv the TcuZ'^ 1:7 j^:, tfi ""«"'"'""' '• mn.» I. .1. w«nne»'• "eoause povrer we n.?i 8'°'7 «nd prestige and power, we .aally possess that real and true de- vouon to her which alone will prove of g^nufne eneSel „/ '" °" "*"."'""'" "™8«'«= ««»'»»' *« enemies of our salvation, of powerful aid to us rercHoT"* *' """'"°"' •"»'«'='- 'o »«"d"ta! ill. " "^.^ •" '""^'' ''''"« «» "!•">««. just here an illuminaUve paragraph written by a transaUanHc priest for his clerical fellow-countomen^ requ°re*we m^ust^S"!,*" "^7 ""<='' <>" «ves Catholic life Itl. il^^„ J " '*""'. *"<' effect our thaf wl a„ no',' Z'ti,t ?«t ofrn'^"' S ?<;" «^"'' H Pi r 5' 116 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES HI ;i fear; that where He has loved we may follow humbly, loving too. Is not ours sometimes a love which weighs its service and counts its acts? Love such as this. j(iven grudgingly, and in scant weight and measure, is the fruit of Protestant sur- roundings. The atmosphere of heresy has in- fected us, and we, all Caiholics though wo be in faith, do not bring forth flowers like the sons of other lands. In Italy, in Spain, in Ireland, love of the Mother of God is drunlk in by the little ones with their own mother's milk. The street comers tell the childrei) of her power, the very hills pro- claim her name; the niches, the wayside lamp, the rude inscriptions on their country-roads, an tell the same tale of a love strong as death, of a love almost born with them, the love of the children of the land for God's dear Mother.^ While religious conditions on this side of the Atlantic are not identical with those in England, they are sufficiently alike to render the foregoing reflections and warning of practical rather than purely academic interest to all of us. The preva- lent attitude of the great bulk of non-Catholic Americans is not perhaps one of aggressive heresy so much as of virtual nothingarianism or re- ligious indiff'erentism; but their reaction on our- selves is hardly less deleterious on that account. And that they do react more or less even on the clergy is scarcely questionable. Consciously, or unconsciously, we are all affected by the atmos- phere bj which we are surrounded. We can no more live in a non-Catholic or mixed community, converse habitually with non-Catholic friends and neighbors, read habitually non-Catholic books 1 OMoa KeatiBSe ia 7*** Priest: His Char net tr and Work, OUR QUEEN AND MOTHER 117 and papers, without being in some way affected by non-Catholic views and sentiments than we can travel a thousand miles on a railway train with- out having our clothes and pei-son" soiled with dust and soot. Imperceptibly, it may be, but none the less certainly, the indevotion of others tends to the gradual weakening of our own piety, un- less we take positive means constantly to keep our devoti»."ii vivid, warm, and living. One such means, available enough to our fel- low-priests of an older day, is less called for in our time, save perhaps in certain environments,— vigorous defense against incessant attacks. One of the most striking facts in connection with the de- velopment of Catholic devotion to Our Lady that is constantly going on from decade to decade and century to century, is a notable diminution of the insistence with which the oldtime charge of Mariolatry is preferred against us by those out- side the fold. It would seem that the more multi- plied become the manifestations of our confiding love and engrossing veneration for our Mother Mary, the less do non-Catholics feel called upon to protest against our attributing to her powers and privileges inherent in Our Savior alone. Whether it be that the gross ignorance formerly displayed by our separated brethrpn as to Cath- olic doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin is be- coming dispelled in an appreciable measure, or that many of themselves have come to entertain sounder and more ration views as i Mary's place in the scheme of ^ -world's redemption and sanctification, certain .. is that Our Lady's 0) i"! n 118 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ||i!: |i i-|f: «:*;• cult as the years go by evokes fewer and fewer Urades of abuse from those who are wont to boast of their freedom from the "superstiUons of Rome." The change is probably due in part to both these causes. No fairly educated Protestant, how- ever inimical he may be to the Church and her tenets, will stultify himself nowadays by main- taining that we consider the Blessed Virgin equal or in any way comparable to God, or that we be- lieve her other than entirely dependent on God for her existence, her privileges, her grace, and her glory. It is evident, also, that in at least one of the multitudinous sects Uie t. je Catiiolic idea of Our Lady is rapidly gaining ground, and Uiat the adherents of that sect not only appreciate, but imitate, the strong and fervid expressions with which, in Uie impassioned ardor of genuine love, we sometimes address the immaculate Queen of Heaven. Not that, even among the educated or in the ranks of the Anglican Ritualists, dissent has al- togeUier died away or criticism been silenced. We are still accused of paying too lavish homage to the Virgin Mary, of dwelling too constantly on her privileges and of enhancing them beyond just bounds, of invoking her too assiduously, and of according to her in our public services and litur- gcal prayers titles befitting the Son rather tiian His Mother. We are told, in a word, that the prominence enjoyed by the Blessed Virgin in the liturgy of Uie Church and in the spiritual life of the Church's children is a prominence for which OUB QUEEN AND MOTHER 119 neither Scripture nor apostolic tradiUon furnishes sufficient warrant. It is obvious of course that those who make such statements can neither have studied Holy Writ to much purpose, nor have traced with any- thing approaching scienUflc accuracy the mighty stream of Marian devotion back to its origin and source. As all of us know, Scripture fairly teems with references to the grandeur and power and beauty of our Heavenly Mother,-from Genesis wherein Almighty God declares that she shall crush the serpent's head, to the Apocalypse with its eulogy of "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." In the Old Testament, the master-intellects of all time-a St. Augustine, v.v«- ?T^' ^ ^*- Bernard-have discerned the Vir^n of Nazareth beneath reiterated figures and symbols, have seen her prerogaUves and her glory shadowed forth in every chapter and on eve^ page. As for the New Testament, no special su- penority of intelligence is required to discover therein ample warrant for all the honor paid to Mary by even the most enthusiasUc of her devo- tees; and It argues a positive perversion of ordi- nary common sense to assert that Our Ladv's obscure" ^^^ ^""^^^^ " ^'^^"^ insignificant or Mary? We priests especially are familiar with the tale, but it will harm none of us to read its summary once again. The Gospel tells of a Vir- gin greeted by an Angel in the name of God of ni 70 c f M 120 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES H^ a maiden chosen from among all women and de- clared "full of grace," of a creature deliberating with the Creator concerning the salvaiion of the world and giving the consent awaited by Heaven and earth, "Be it done unto me according to thy word." The Gospel shows us a Virgin-Mother— virgin while becoming a mother, mother while re- maining a virgin, perhaps the greatest of all prodigies effected by the Most High in His deal- ings with mankind. It shows us John the Bap- Ust sanctified in his mother's womb on the occa- sion of Mary's visit: and shall we be told that Mary does not cooperate in the sanctiflcation of souls? Or, having before our eyes the account of Our Lord's first miracle wrought at His Mother's request, shall we be censured for hold- mg that Mary's prayers are most powerful? FmaUy, the inspired narrative of the Evangelists shows us Mary living for thirty years in daily and intimate intercourse with Jesus,— not only receiv- ing His caresses, profiting by his instrucUons and example, drinking full draughts at the very source and fountain of grace, but also exercising author- ity over the Son of God, giving Him orders to which He was ever obedient— e/ erat subditus illis. What panegyric is comparable to this simple recital? Or in what can we exalt our Blessed Mother more than she is exalted here? On the very face of it the Gospel attributes to Mary a glory congruous to no other created being, places her on a plane of immeasurable grandeur lower only than that whereon the Godhead reigns su- preme. So, too, with tradition. So far as the OUR QUEEN AND MOTHER 121 Apoitles are concerned, we have in their Creed, or Symbol of faith, a more than suinclent reason for all the honor wc pay Our Lady, if not for greater honor still. In that necessarily brief sum- mary of Christian dogmas the Blessed Virgin and her place in the Divine economy are not left un- noticed. She is there, prominently there, asso- ciated with the three persons of the adorable Trinity, taking active part in the regeneration of mankind, sharing with God the Father the privi- lege of engendering the Word; because the Word conceived eternally in the bosom of the Father was conceived in time in the womb of Mary bv the operation of the Holy Ghost. "Conceived by he Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." says the Apostles' Creed of Jesus Christ, affirming the two privileges to which our Blessed Mother owes all others, and justifying superabundantly the veneration due and given to her above every other created being on earth or in heaven. «f tu Vt^ * u^ Apostles, so with all the Fathers ot tue Church in every century of the Christian era. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is the theme of their most eloquent eulogies, the subject of their continuous praise and homage. Listen to St. Epiphamus. a bishop of the fourth century, when heretics would have us believe that Mary's cult had scarce begun :-"What shall I say," he be- holy Virgin? God alone excepted, she is above all beings. More beautiful than the Cherubim and Seraphim and all the angelical army, an earthly voice or even that of an angel is too weak 1 122 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES fittingly to praise her. O Blessed Virgin, purest dove, celestial spouse, O Mary, heaven, temple, and throne of the Divinity, you possess the Sun which illumines heaven and earth, Jesus Christ. . . . The angels accused Eve, but now they glorify Mary who has rehabilitated fallen Eve and opened heaven to Adam expelled from Eden. For Mary is the mediatrix of heaven and earth, uniting these two extremes. . . .'» And so on, in a strain of glowing panegyric unsurpassed by the most devoted servants of Our Lady in any subsequent age. Thus, in both he written and the unwritten Word of God, in Holy Scripture and Tradition, we have the fullest and most ample warrant for all we believe and teach concerning God's Immaculate Mother, and have moreover a steadfast guarantee that the devotion by which we honor her is acceptable and agreeable in the sight of her Incarnate Son. No; there is nothing of Mariolatry about our attitude towards the Blessed Virgin, and one is almost tempted to add— more's the pity! It would assuredly be an excellent thing for many of us priests if our personal devotion to Our Lady were so pronounced and so fervent as to suggest that in our whole-heaHed, childlike dependence on our heavenly Mother we were sinning by ex- cess rather than defect. Given our clear and ade- quate comprehension of her real place in God's creation and her undoubted office in the economy of our own as well as the world's redemption and sanctification, it is well nigh impossible for us to increase our devotion to her beyond due boun OUR QUEEN AND MOTHER 123 and measure. Gr*inted that we have long cher- ished some degree of such devotion, and that it daily finds expression in one or another of many modes, can not our love and invocation and imi- tation of Mary be safely practiced in a measure far fuller than that which they have yet attained? Our love for Our Lady ! Is it as deep, as ten- der, as intense as it ou^t to be aud as we are capable of makiiig it? She is our Mother, mother of us priests in a fuller sense than of the rest of men: it was to a priest that Christ directly said, **Son, behold thy mother;" and His omnipotent word constituted her all that is implied in that gracious name, the touching and universal syn- onym of goodness and gentleness and devotion and sacrifice. In virtue of her motherhood and our sonship, she is our refuge in misery, our un- failing help in time of need, our counselor in suf- fering, and our ceaseless advocate at the throne of Divine Justice. We love her, it may be; but- is our love for her stronger than that for self, than our longing for fame or honor or wealth or ease? Do we love her to the extent of making genuine sacrifices for her sake, of manifesting ardent zeal for her devotion, of enkindling a similar love in the hearts of our people? Do we take especial pains to celebrate with all due solemnity her major festivals and her month-long feasts of May and October? Have we established her Sodality in our parish, and do we assiduously endeavor to gather our young people t'^^der her protecting mantle? Do we sufficiently often advocate in sermons, familiar instructions, and ordinary cou- M T-i I- .. I, 124 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES venation the wearing of the Scapular and Uie re- cital of Uie Rosary? Nay, in our personal con- duct, do we gain all the indulgences we reason- ably can through these last-mentioned practices of piety? Or, rather, is not our love for Mary nebulous instead of well deHned, inconstant in its expression, transient in its acts, ephemeral in its glow? If so, one of our most pressing duties and urgent needs is to intensify and fix in our hearts the flame of love for the Mother we have received from our great High Priest, to render it fuller and brighter than as yet it has shone, to feed it with thought and word and act until its beneficent light illumes and irradiates our whole existence. We invoke our Mother every day; but is noth- ing wanting to the invocation? Is it as earnest, as fervent, as whole-souled as are the petitions of ordinary clients to earthly benefactors of whom they seek precious favors? as thoroughly confi- dent as used to be our own entreaties to our lov- ing natural mothers? Is it as frequent as. in view of our needs, our duties, our ti-ials, and our temp- tations, it should be? Nay, are our prayers to the Blessed Virgin invariably real prayers, vivified with genuine intention and uttered with due ad- vertence and heed to what we are saying; or are they not sometimes the mere recitations of a memory-lesson, almost as mechanical as Uie rec- ords of a phonograph? We are probably insistent enough m admonishing our parishioners as to quatities which their prayers should possess in order to be eiUier reverent or effective: may we OUR QUEEN AND MOTHER 186 not occasionally take to heart our own counselt and endue our petitions to Our Lady with an actuality, a force, an energy, and especially a con- fidence of which hitherto perhaps they have too often been devoid? Listless, half-hearted, per- functory recital of the Beads, the Utany of Loret- to, or other prayers to the Mother of God are so far from being, especially in a priest, adequate and laudible acts of piety, that one is tempted to call them an impertinence rather than a tribute of respect and homage. Say what we will, and reason as we may, if our prayers to Mary are neither so frequent nor so fervent as in all conscience they should be, the lack is due to the fundamental defect that we fail to regard her in the congruous light of a personal mother, loving ourself individuaUy with an af- fection immeasurably surpassing the most in- tense maternal love to be found on earth; and fail to behave towards her as a fond and frank and penitent child. Where is the little one in any household, rich or poor, who does not un- derstand, who does not feel, who does not every day of its life and every hour of the day, act on «ie truth that a mother is one in whom to con- fide? What one of us that has ever been clasped to the loving bosom of that being who in our eyes was the most beauUful. the kindest, and the best of all earth's women,— that has had his childish tears kissed away by a mother's soothing lips, his boyish care dispelled by a mother's tender em- brace, his youthful woes assuaged by a mother's gentle sympathy, can doubt for an instant that i 1^ 126 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ■ii& a mother's love for her children is without meas- ure, her desire to relieve them from all distress unbounded, and her wish to do them all good lim- ited only by her power? This is what we all un- derstand by that sweet word, mother, and this is undoubtedly what God desires us to understand of the Blessed Virgin, else Jesus had never said to St. John standing with Mary at the foot of the Cross: "Son, behold thy Mother." Now, if Mary is indeed our Mother, she must be as perfect in that capacity as in every other. Smce she is without exception the most richly en- dowed of all created beings that ever blessed earth or graced Heaven with her presence, she must likewise be the most loving, the kindest and sweetest and best mother ever looked up to and cherished and trusted by earthly child. It is ac- cordingly nothing more than ordinary, practical Catholic common sense to have unbounded con- fidence in her willingness to exert in our behalf all her power, and, as we can hardly doubt, that power is all but unlimited. Priests as weU as lay- men, no doubt, should bear in mind St. Peter's warning: "Be sober and watch : because your ad- versary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seekmg whom he may devour;" but it is the part of priestly wisdom to remember that there is in- terested in our salvation another personage more perfect than ever the devil was even before his fall, one who stands next the throne of God in Heaven and is immeasurably more anxious and more able to save us than is the devil to destroy. She IS the Woman who of old crushed the ser- OUR QUEEN AND MOT iER T27 pents head and who still defeats, ovexmruv.5 and put^to disastrous rout the enemy of our souls. To conclude with the thought with which we began: priests are seldom perhaps derelict in the duty of rendering due homage to Mary our Queen- but many of us, it is to be feared, are altogethe; too unlike little children in our personal defotfon to Mary our Mother. uevouon J,. ■p VIII THE PRIEST'S VISITS A CONFERENCE DISCUSSION SOME two dozen priests, pastors and curates had assembled in the library of Dean Patter- son's Parish I^all to attend the quarterly ecclesi- astical conference. The Veni, Sancte Spiritus hav- ing been recited, and the minutes of the previous conference having been read and adopted, the Reverend Dean congratulated the members on the exceptionally large attendance. The only ab- sentees were Father John Conlan, laid up in Mt. Carmel Hospital with a broken leg, and Father William Ellis, who had been summoned to the death-bed of his mother. "The Bishop," continued the Dean, "will be particularly pleased to learn that we have all profited by the advice he gave us at our last re- treat as to the genuine importance of these con- ferences, the necessity of every one's being pres- ent thereat, and the advisability of making them really worth while by carefully preparing and judicioysly discussing the different papers as- signed for each meeting. As for the thorough preparation given to the first of our papers to be read to-day, I need say no more than that the eminently practical subject. The Priest's Visits, has been entrusted to the venerable pastor of Maryville. Father Ferguson, you have the floor." 128 is' U'. THE PRIEST'S VISITS 129 Father Ferguson .—Wery ^.everend Dean and Reverend Fathers : One of our privileges (or pun- ishments) of advancing years is, I suppose, the Iiabihty to be called on for a display of that wis- dom with which maturity is popularly believed to dower the man who has left the half-century mark of hfe more than a decade behind him. and is ap- proachmg all too rapidly for his own taste the scriptural limit of three score and ten. That the popular belief is not always correct, that wisdom does not invariably accompany grey hairs, most of you do not need to be told; and if any of my young friends, these curates here, do still cherish that belief, the present paper will, I fear, afford tliem convincing proof to the cc' '-v. Just why the paper has bee gned to me I don t know unless it be that n j experience as curate in large parishes and small, as rural priest and finally as city pastor, has been thought suf- ficienUy varied to allow me to speak with some tirst-hand knowledge of the subject in its entir - ty, to read to you from the book of actual life a lesson or two on the duty and the pleasure, the advantages, and the occasional dangers, of priest- ly visiting. If, as the proverb has it, the warn- ings of age are the weapons of youth, such ex- perience as I have gone through may possibly fur- nish you younger men with a few practical hints on which it may be worth your while to act as occasion offers; and in the improbable case that there are any among you so wise in your own con- ceit that you disdain the advice of your seniors i V- ',1 L t: if 130 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES you may profitably reflect on another proverb the truth of which is not so patent to you now as it will be later on : "Young men think old men are fools, and old men know young men to be so." At the outset, let me say that I do not purpose discussing what is perhaps the commonest form of a priest's visiting, the sick-call. Apart from the fact that we listened a few months ago to Father Riordan's excellent paper on "The Priest and His Sick," there is less danger perhaps of our going astray or making mistakes in that form of visit than in most others; and in any case the others will afford us matter enough for discussion this afternoon. I have known in my time priests who maintained that the sick-caiJ is the only visit really obligatory on a pastor, and that the "well- call," his visiting parishioners or others not sick or afflicted, is a purely social function inde- pendent of his pastoral duty, and amenable only to his individual, personal preference and inclina- tion. Now, that contention can hardly be made good. Waiving such finer points of the matter as might be involved in the question whether or not a parish has been canonically erected, it appears to me that the position is quite untenable because it conflicts with the whole conception and import of ihe pastoral idea. In the opinion of his people, and in the mind of the Church as well, the pastor is the spiritual father of his flock, and it is obviously incom- patible with one's notion of genuinely paternal care and love for him to hold himself aloof from that flock, or to limit his intercourse with them, THE PRIEST'S VISITS 131 outside of church services, sodality meetings, etc.. to those occasions on which he is sent for io at- 1?^ J'f l^ *^^ **y^"«- ^«*he^ly interest is. and ought to be, displayed in a mulUplicity of other conjunctures and circumstances; and the pnest who is desirous of doing his full duty to tiiose entrusted to his spiritual care and guidance may well feel that sick-calls, in the strict sense of that phrase, should be the least frequent of his visits to his parishioners. I say sick-calls in the strict sense of the word, for it is susceptible of a far broader signification than that commonly as- signed to It. The sickest members of a pastor's flock are not always, or even generally, those who nrPv?°K"^M 'V'' «ck-room, bed-ridden, the prey to bodily disease, and who solicit the pres- ence of their spiritual father: but rather ttiose who are dangerously ill. far advanced, in mala- dies^of the soul, and who have no thought of call- ing .or the priest and no desire to see and con- verse with him about the ailments for which he hP^ n/E?°«°^^ physician. To leave such mem- bers of his flock to themselves, to make no effort towards awakening them to a sense of their peril- ous condition, to remain unconcerned as to their temporal and eternal welfare, is very surely to act m a manner diametrically opposed to that of our model priest, Jesus Christ, the good shepherd who gave his liie for his flock. wh.^!'" J*T •* *?" *° '*y *^^* °°« performs one's whcle duty m this matter when one is faithful in preaching frequently and fervently on the de- lay of conversion, on the eternal ^ iiths, on death I 1-t| •'"J 4 '4] K 132 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES . ^|l m and the necessity of being prepared therefor. Such preaching is excellent, no doubt; but it not infrequently happens that those who need it most do not hear it at all. One not uncommon result of spiritual illness is the neglect of the Mass, or, at least of the last Mass, at which these sermons are usually given. Personal contact with the care- less, the fallen-away, the ought-to-be Catholic is the only practicable method by which the priest may hope to bring about, gradually it may be and very slowly, the reform of his erring spiritual child; and a truly zealous pastor will submit to many a rebuff, many an unpleasant interview, man} an affront even, before telling himself that he has done all in his power to win the obstinate sinner back to God. Unvarying kindness, cordial interest shown in the "black sheep's" children, a word in season slipped into an ordinary chat on topics of the day, constant prayer for his conver- sion, — these and the like means will be found most commonly to be eventually effective in bringing the unfaithful son of the Church to a recognition of his danger and to a return to his duty. Apart from these sick-calls in the wider sense, there are of course other visits which are quasi- pastoral rather than purely social. In some dioceses it is customary for each pastor to take a yearly census of his parish, personally visiting every family committed to his spiritual charge; and, so far as my experience goes, I am inclined to think the custom a thoroughly good one. It ensures at any rate an annual individual en- THE PRIEST'S VISITS 133 counter of priest and people, a consummation de- voutly to be wistied but not aJ'V'ays achieved in parishes where the custom does not exist. Re- placing, or supplementing, such yearly visits are the calls paid on any one of a score of different occasions in the routine of ordinary life, — occa- sions of joy or sorrow, of good or bad fortune, of averted danger and preservation from acci- dents, of honor won or courage displayed, of glad- some or saddening anniversaries, and others equally freighted with vibrant emotion. The visit of the pastor on such an occasion is not only thoroughly congruous; it is little less than obliga- tory in one who is called by the tender name of "Father." Come we now to social visits pure and sim- ple, visits that we pay, not as pastors, but as friends or acquaintances, visits the determining motive of which is, not the spiritual assistance or edification of those on whom we call, but the gratification of our own personal tastes and in- clinations. It need hardly be said that such visits are per se perfectly legitimate. Only an unduly severe and rigorous censor of the clergy would think of condemning them as derogatory to priest- ly dignity or destructive of priestly piety. That they are liable to abuse (peculiarly liable in the estimation of some clerical counsellors), is a con- dition which they share with a large number of other excellent things, and does not constitute a valid reason for their condemnation. After all, priests are men, not angels; and social intercourse with their fellow human beings, lay as well as K| ■ -I 1- "i| as c) Ul 184 CLEBICAL COLLOQTTTiBH Which J8 most nrnnilr , °** »Pintual sanity eh«ge of S aSuXut %TZ ."^ are ceHainly not tabooprf in ii. ^FnencWiips more Uian in *e or^a "cm.h"'''"'''' '"" ""y a. we all know. "par^cu7ar M^dr"^^ y"- demned in tho ..»i«- "*"*^ '"enasmps are con- Now. wJe we are nnf ?'•""«*•"" *"«'"■"". do w^we in Z mailer .h"'"?"";.'' ** """y <='»"y a. our monalten ^r ^ '~? "P°" "•"• P^^ih pari,IUone« " 7e eLmnT""- ""f ''*'" »" brethren. .h<,^„« JfT'^'T ■"'"''' •«»•» hi, notable kingTor ^me^"; '•"" '" "»«'• «han averrion to oU,e« "'' ' """=«'> """cealed may very proDerr^T *'J''"°« »'""'« and ference", «,"" As to .ht'^T'' '" ""='' » con- ing tlie reciSt, of ou?!,- •?" "'"*'°"- <='»'«™- ion coincid^ ^VLTof Th ' "^ ^"'"""al opi„. pastor', social calls sL^Lr "'"' '«'■'' *«• a parishione Ji/none ,, „ -' ■""?' '"' "" "'" of coarse to^ oaal„»i * °.'™' ™'*' »•*!«' no rule is exS^nMhan? ""Pfo"' from which and sane ,tanZd or „n ^T'V° "*• '» a safe cleric may profltlv -ill' ^ J''''''' " J"*"'""' oretically.^h^rSe Lm?? J '"" ""''"'=«• The- or none; bui J7„ /m"'," "' '" altemaBve, all tf any. prieslno Xt P"f « "^^ -"^ '«"• ■tpl^^^os^LTrS^^^^^^^^^ or '-"«««iarlTa«rorrth\'^mfmt»- THE PRIEST'S VISITS 135 ^e^H,'^- ?■ •"' ~""""»« "■> be .aid for the when we'a" S Yot,r?i°" '»«"■'•«''» for "ocial inle" -n^ar""-" """'"'"'y «■" ^-'-f'thSr Father pliril;* *'?!"' •"^"'^'P'* '"^ down by one-. nariT "• ""'* f ''»'""« «" " -one of DractiM AMh. .?*'"^ ""<' »«' "Pon it in k^™ ' ""' """' ""' ' ""»' "y that I have nature and temperament Sociable L^alLl/"' perfm,cto,y call, upon hi, yJoTZi^^" P^r.S^.rX^--p=-he?f ilie. or himself. No one likes'to play tSe „k o^ THE PRIEST'S VISITS ■ wet hlanket. and I can readily understand why sonic good priests entirely eliminate the social visit from their personal practice. There are one or two other matters on which I could say a few words; but they will probably be mentioned by my fellow-critic or some other member of the Conference; so, beyond congratu- lating Father Ferguson on his judicious treatment of the general subject. I need say no more. The Dea/i.-Father Harris, your observations are now in order. As one of the younger clergv-. representing the curates in a manner, you wHl, I feel assured, be listened to with interest and pleasure. P'other Harri$:-Vm inclined to think. Mr. Chairman that I might plead my comparative youth and mexperience as a reason for not tak- mg any part save that of a listener in this dis- cussion. It can hardly be expected that we curates can add anything of practical utility to the elucidation of a subject so ably treated by our seniors who have already spoken. If I were to offer any suggesUon at all to our elders among the clergy as to the matter of social visiting by their juniors, it would be that a good many of what a pastor may consider the superfluous visits of h's curate could be done away with if the pas- tor took a really fatherly interest in that curate and endeavored to make his home life pleasant and genial. While my own lot during my eight years as assistant has been a happv one in this respect. I know fellow- curates who spend much perhaps too much, of their Ume with lay friends i> ' In 140 CLEBICAL COLLOQUIES .. i for the same reason that some husbands pass a --the unattractiveness of their home life. Young men need sympathy more than do their elders and If they don't find it in the rectory [hey a"' very apt to look for it elsewhere. This cravfna and particularly young priests, are men rathe^ e^emr''*' """f ' ""^ ^' **^^ °P^°*°° «^«*. ^^ 'ome exemplary pastors would look at the matter from toeir assistants' viewpoint, and take a little W fo'whichT'*' *'f '"°^'^°^«^ - discouragement o which the assistants may occasionally be sub- he^.?r '^^"i**/' "** ^P'-^^^d atmosphere in the rectory, and fewer useless, not to say danger- ous, visits paid to parishioners * to thoL"!.? ^^ permitted to proffer a bit of advice to hose of my own age, I should counsel them to ITlTL""'^ "" f ' '^™"^« -' *« parish hi' mother a^'tH °^ '"'^ ^'P'^^*^ family.-fa'ther. mother, and the younger children, as well as my":;"n^^^^^^ Brief as hrieen my personal experience it has sufficed to con- 2Z SVe'be' Sood-looking young priesir e^^t cialiy ,f he be a fine singer or a skilled pianist needs an excepUonal amount of the circumspec- tion counselled by Father Downey. And the un- round of Visits is no guarantee that an intercourse begun perhaps by a conversation about spTrS matters, will not eventually degenerate fnto «n mhmacy so devoid of spiritu'alit/tSaTitVwLlly of the earth, earthy." Those of us whos^ THE PRIEST'S VISITS 141 physical comeliness is, like my own, conspicuous- ly non-existent, may thank our stars, or our plain- featured forbears, that we have fewer temptations to surmount than have some of our handsome fellow-priests. Let me say in conclusion that I enjoyed Father Ferguson's paper very much, and hope to profit by its wise counsels. The Dean:~The appointed commentators hav- ing spoken, the question is now open for discus- sion by any member of the Conference. I shall be pleased to hear from any one who has sugges- tions to make or questions to ask. Father Moran.—I should like, Mr. Chairman, to hear Father Ferguson's opinion on he proper pnestly practice as regards visiting two categories of fnends,— one's brother-priests, and Sisters. T ♦1,^''/^^'' ^^''fl'"**'"-— As for one's fellow-priests, 1 think that, as a rule, once a week is not too often and once a month is not often enough. Apart from considerations of warm friendship, con- geniahty of tastes, etc., one should bear in mind that a visit paid to a neigboring pastor or curate IS very often a veritable act of charity worth a good deal more to the recipient than tiie visitor may ever realize. With regards to Sisters, my own practice wiUi the dozen devoted Religious who teach m my school is to pay them a friendly call m their recreation-room once a week, if at all pos- sible. I like to think tiiat my presence among them IS welcomed and that the interest I show in their work and my appreciation of their self-sac- rifice constitute one of the very few pleasures available to Uiem in their unworldly lives. So m I? (A " 'H (v.. 142 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES I 1; far as visits to particular Sisters are concerned, their rules very generally prohibit the solus cum sola interview; and where exceptional cases oc- cur, it is a wise plan, to my mind, to make the call a brief one, and while it lasts to do and say nothing that would render incongruous the Sis- ter's asking at its close: "Pray, give me your blessing. Father." Father Doyle:— While I quite agree with the last speaker in his estimate of our Sisters in gen- eral, and while I have no doubt that the Purga- tory of the least perfect among them will be con- siderably briefer than my own, I think it is worth while to remark that Sisters, no more than priests, are angels. They themselves would be the first to acknowledge that they are subject to human frailties, and to deprecate the notion that they have abeady attained the perfection towards which they are merely tending. Now, one of the points as to which an occasional Sister, or, better, an exceptional Reverend Mother, shows herself to be thoroughly human is her failure to recog- nize the fact that her position, exalted as it may be in her community, is emphaticaUy and rad- ically inferior to tiiat of the youngest and least brilliant of God's anointed priests. We older men have personally known one or two such MoUiers who, while perfectly willing in the ab- stract to admit witii St. Theresa tiiat, as between an angel and a priest, Uie latter merits tiie greater reverence, nevertheless in tiieir concrete treat- ment of some younger members of Uie clergy as- sumed an attitude of superiority and condescen- THE PRIEST'S VISITS 143 sion that would have been out of place even in an archbishop or a cardinal. I mention the matter simply to emphasize the admirable sanity of another Reverend Mother, a typical religious Superioress, who caused to be printed and distributed among her subjects a striking paragraph from a sermon on the dignity of the priest,— a paragraph which contains a les- son for all of us in connection with our general demeanor when visiUng. I have a copy of the clipping in my breviary here, and with your pre- sumed permission I purpose reading it:— u V^ wondrous dignity of priests, in whose hands the Son of God is incarnated,' says St. C^ypnan. Wondrous, indeed, my dear brethren; and. If dignity is to be gauged by the nature and extent of the power of which it is the concomitant, where on earth, let me ask, is to be found a difl- nitary so exalted as is the humblest and lowliest recipient of Holy Orders? If you ever visit a great mountain range— the Alps, the Appenines, the Alleghenies, or the Rockies— you will see 'Alps on Alps arise, peak towering above peak in long succession till the snow-clad summit of the top- niost is lost far up in the environing clouds. The altitudes of these peaks vary one from another 'by some hundreds of feet; but the least lofty of them 18 thousands of feet higher than the minor eleva- tions that form the foothills at their base, or than the mounds and hillocks that break the dead-level of the plain. So with the range of dignities at- tainable on earth. Kings and queens, emperors and presidents; commanders-in-chief and gen- erals of armies, admirals and commodores of navies; financial, political, literary, and social magnates; Brother-Generals and Mother-Generals J? 144 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES we*hifl&nHlp^^^e^°"* commuiiitie8.-aIl these are niffner indeed than people on the level nlnin l"pri°^"S^ !!i^d ^iSV*^^^ a?e W Sift towe?^bo^P f?^^,^— P' *°f* archbishops who lower afiove them m increasing altitudes till fhp ?mr5?*;°«xr^"'"°H; » reache/in the Pope thi S^^wl*^ .y^^^S'' °^ J^esus Christ. In the matter of dignity, the Pope differs from the Smple^riest as mountainM)eak from mountain-peak the^aS fiLw^n^'^* ^^"" ^'•°°» ^^ grealSt^mortal notTn fJ? L?ow/" "' ™o»°tain-peak from the foothills That, I think, is something for us to remember habitually m our mtn course with others, be they brother-priests Sisters, or the laity committed to our spiritual charge. The Dean:-An excellent comment. Father Ooyle, and an appropriate last word in this inter- esting discussion. I trust tha^ we shall all carry away with us an intensified resolve never to com- promise. ,n any degree, by the number, the nature, or the circumstances of our visits, the priestly dig- nity with which we have all been invested IX THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-ROOM be ^j:l£z 1^^^^%,%."^ *»"- *^-«» t»>o« ^t OINCE the supreme moment of life is its last »^ one, and the supreme need of the departing soul IS the assurance that it is in the grace of Ood, the supreme function of the pastor may well be considered by his spiritual children to be his admmistering the Last Sacraments and helping the dying to die well. The death of an unbapUzed infant IS rightly looked upon as a sad misfortune, but that of an unabsolved adult may be an in- comparably sadder one. The child will at least enjoy natural happiness throughout the endless cycles of eternity; the adult may be doomed to spend those cycles in the woeful abode of the reprobate Even in the case of a good, practical Catholic, to die without receiving the graces and helps and consolations which the Church has ap- pointed for her departing children is deemed an irreparable hardship; and, while it is right and wise to comfort the surviving relaUves with the assurance of God's infinite mercy, and to ex- 10 145 «# m i I, 146 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES I i rfi:i ■3 patiate on the obvious meaning of the text, "As a man lives, so shall he die," the pastor whose neg- lect has been the cause of the hardship can scarcely fail to say to himself: "Yes, 'as a man lives, so shall he die;' this child of the Church lived in the regular reception of her sacraments, and woe unto me through whose fault he died without them I" In prefacing what we have to say about the priest in the sick-room with the foregoing consid- erations, we have no intecMon whatever of sug- gesting that neglecting the sick and allowing one's parishioners to die without the sacraments is at all common or other than quite exceptional. We merely wish to emphasize at the outset the major importance of a priestly duty which, as it is an ordinary, almost everyday, occurrence, may pos- sibly become in the course of time affected by the routinism to be guarded against in the per- formance of all functions habitually exercised. To assert indeed that the Catholic sick are com- monly or even frequently neglected by their pas- tors would be not only glaringly to misrepresent actual conditions, but to run counter to the com- mon opinion of the world at large. Catholic and non-Catholic. The care and solicitude and de- votedness and, on occasion, the heroism displayed by the priest in attending to the sick or dying members of his flock, — this is a commonplace of conversation and of literature in these United States, as in every other country where due heed is taken of the counsel of St. James : "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests w§,\ I ' THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-ROOM 147 of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him" (v. 14, 15). To state that here and there throughout the country may be found occasional pastors who are more or less remiss in the matter of sick-calls, and even a few whose remissness has actually brought about the catastrophe of death without the sacra- ments, is merely to note the exceptions to a rule very generally prevailing; and the more seriously the average pastor reflects on the disastrous con- sequences of such remissness to himself as well as others, the less likelihood will there be of his becoming yet another exception to the rule. It is perhaps an obvious reflection to make on this subject, that very much of the work of sick- calls may be, and should be, performed long prior to the actual summons to the sick-room. If there be anything of wisdom in the advice, "In time of peace prepare for war," there is assuredly still more good sense in the counsel, "In time of health prepare for sickness." Even as regards the ma- terial preparation of the sick-room for the ad- ministration of Extreme Unction, the pastor who assumes that all his people are thoroughly con- versant with the various details of that prepara- tion is very probably taking altogether too much for granted. In the course of his instructions on Extreme Unction, given, presumably, at least once a year, he need not consider it at all superfluous to inform his flock that in the chamber where the !'V cr-'-a 148 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES :twh sacrament is to be administered there should be a table covered with a white linen cloth and hav- ing upon It a crucifix, two lighted candles, a bowl o[h.r f f'"^ ^°"t«i"in« holy water, a twig or other msU-ument with which the priest mav sprinkle both the room and t) . bvstand^M another dish containing unblessed wateTltotS; and some cotton wool. It is a great deal beUer to ZrT^'^H^'^*'.^*^"^' instrucUons from Zl luZ ? **".' P"uP** °" ^'•°»" ^^' «"«*• than to be obliged to give them just prior to administering riedTuT"""** """^ *^'° *° "^"^ ""*" '^^y "« "«"- ♦^^* ^^'i. ***® ''^'"***^ spiritual preparaUon. this. ^. can be effectively attended^o in plaJi ser^ mons or catechetical instructions. The man or woman who has heard time and Ume again 7t Uon o F ?"* '\^^^^'^ of postponing the%ecep. ram.n,^ ™! ^"^*^°" "°"* *^ l«t^ for the sa^- rrZ »^ ?'°**"^^ ^*' ^"" ^ff^^*' ^ho has been frequently impressed by the consideration tha" when received in due time, the sacrament not in-' frequently restores the bodily health; who has been repeatedly warned that in case of serious llness the presence of the spiritual physician is immeasurably more necessary than ^Iha of the family doctor.-such a man or woman is far more th„„^- 'V °° *^' P""^^P^^' "«oul.safety fi^' hams the average Catholic who. from year's "nd to years end. never hears a word on the pre-em^ ?rV°;r'*^f^ °^ *^" immediate preparatSn ^r death. Apart from specific instrucUons on the last sacraments, occasional sermons on the THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-BOOM 149 eternal truths are also of immense help in facili- tatmg the pastor's work in his actual ministra- Uons to the sick and the dying. Let it be added, incidentally, that, as a rule, insistence on these ter- rifying truths may more congruously characterize the pnests sermons in church than his instruc- Uons at the death-bed. It is tolerably safe to sup- pose that the devil will not fail to suggest to the dying Christian every consideration calculated to make him despair of God's mercy: the pastor's office is to thwart satan's designs and to set forth the infinitude of goodness resident in that Heaven- ly Father who wills not the death of the sinner, tout rather that he be converted and live There may of course be cases in which the attitude of the dying person is more nearly allied to pre- sumption than to despair; and then, reference to the enormity of sin and the dread consequences of unrepented sin may well find its place. 11 !? ***^ ^^'^^ ^^°*^' " ^^^^ scarcely be stated, ail the sermons and instrucUons of the pastor, as well as all his activities in culUvaUng the spiritu- ahty of his flock,-his organizing sodalities and confraternities, his fostering special devotions, his promotion of attendance at daily Mass and fre- quent or daily Communion, etc.— are in reality a senes of remote preparations for the last hour of each and every parishioner's life; and, obviously, the more multiplied are these activities and the more zeal he evinces in persuading his people to subordinate the natural to the supernatural and hve by faith raUier than by sight, the less diffi- culty will he experience in getting them to pre- 'X} ■■ •if i Bi m ■ iiiP ! $■■ ■ii'- 150 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES serve the proper attitude and take the proper pre- cautions in time of sickness, and the more blessed will be his ministraUon when the sickness be- comes mortal. It is axiomatic indeed that the most consoling and most adequately effective sick- calls are those made by a thoroughly pious and xealous pastor on spiritual children who have learned to reverence and love him as a veritable father, a priest after Christ's own heart. The bet- ter the priest and the more efficient his general ministry, the easier his sick-calls. To turn to the more practical and concrete side of the priest's attendance on his sict: to begin with, if he is to do them fuU justice, his services must be attainable whenever they are needed: and, as they may be needed at any time, it fol- lows that at all Umes the pastor should be acces- sible, gettable, or, as the modem locution has it, get-at-able. An obvious corollary of this princi- ple is that the pastor is bound in conscience not to leave his parish for an unknown destination without previously arranging with some brother priest that the latter will attend to such calls as may occur during his absence, and without noti- fying his parishioners of the arrangements made To the neglect of this self-evidently - se precau- tion is beyond doubt due the greater number of such deaUis without tiie sacraments as do occur from time to time. The occurrence of even one of tiiem among his flock should serve as an en- tirely effective warning to any pastor not to run Uie risk of letting so deplorable an event happen again through any ne^gence on his part; pnd THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-ROOM 151 ■hould accordingly either lessen the number of his absences from home or ensure his replace- ment by another priest. To object that, after all, a pastor is not a slave or a prisoner to be re- stricted to the narrow confines of his pastoral dis- trict, is clearly to beg the question. He is a pas- tor, not for his own benefit or comfort, but for the service of his flock; attendance on them in their spiritual need is the very raison d'itre of his being a pastor at all; and no flippant ignoring of his duty towards them will avail to rid him of his responsibility before God, or, presumably, ex- cuse him in the eyes of his ordinary. Even when at home, however, not all pastors are so readily accessible as they night well show themselves to be. Housekeepers of priests, whether coached for the purpose or not, ure oc- '^asionally prone to minimize the seriousness of a sick-call that comes at a time when the priest is enjoying a meal or a smoke or a siesta, and take it upon themselves to postpone notifying him of the call until he is quite disengaged. As is evi- dent, such action may readily result in the pas- tor's arriving in the sick-room too late to be of genuine service. While it is doubtless true that many a call upon the priest exposes him to in- convenience and fatigue and broken sleep with- out the slightest real necessity, it is equally true that the judicious pastor never assumes that be- cause nine sick-calls have proven to be unneces- sary, the tenth can safely be allowed to wait upon his greater convenience. Present discomfort may be acute, but it is a good deal more bearable than 'il Si: .. •X i 1 - !<- ■ f ri 'A n ■; i ■ s l\i 152 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES the future rcmowc that may well result from the discomfort's being avoided. It if nothing to the credit of a pastor that an ailing member of his flock, on being urged to send for the priest." can truthfully allege a^ a reason for declining to do so: "You know how Father Blank dislikes to be called unless there is real necessity." The more lax and negligent among Catholics, and hence those who have most need of their pastor's ministr ions, are precisely those who are least willing to admit the gravity of their illness; and it woi '.j be supremely regret- table if that pastor's w ul-known impatience and Irritability and ill-huiiior at being summoned to cases not really dangerous should give some color of reason to their refusal to have him called in. As between undue hastiness and inordinate de- lay in sending for the priest, the former is as- suredly the lesser evil; and an exemplary father of souls will be chary of showing that he considers It an evil at all. Many a priest who is striving heroically to imbue his indifferent people with the true religious sense would be only too happy to have Ihem insUnctively turn to him whenever the hand of sickness or pain arrests, or deflects, the normal tenor of their careless lives. As a matter of actual practice, truly zealous and devoted parish priests are so far from ob- jecting to the frequency with which they are sum- moned to the sick-room that they habitually make their appearance there of their own initiative without waiUng for a summons. And, given that a priest in charge of souls is reaUy their spiritual THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-ROOM 163 father, it can hardly be urged that such acUon U at all abnormal or sirange. He would indeed be rather an abnormal father were he to act other- wise. In ordinary Christian households the father of the family assuredly docs not wait until one of his children is in danger of death before pay- ing it a visit and testifying his love and sym- pathy; and surely Catholics who habitually call their pastor "Father*' may reasonably expect from him some measure of the like paternal solicitude and care. We have sometimes thought that a not undesirable feature of a man's training for the office of pastor might well be a sickness almost unto death. Personal experience of the pain and languor and weakness and weariness that accom- pany serious illness would beyond doubt prove an excellent preparative for one of his most com- mon and most important pastoral functions. Wanting such experience, he should at least ex- ercise his imagination to the extent of following the homely advice, "put yourself in his place." His doing so would materially affect both the fre- quency of his visits to the afflicted ones of his flock and the tenor of his conduct and conversation when sitting by their bedside. Apropos of sympathy for the sick, it is scarce- ly too much to say that in our day some c*" those who have most need of it get little or none, even from their well-meaning pastors. Within the last few decades nervous diseases in an ever-increas- ing variety of forms have become alarmingly com- mon, and outside of the medical profession are very little understood. In all probability the mis- 4*1 ^ ■ 154 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES take of diagnosing all neurasthenics as hypo- chondriacs, a custom rather general even among physicians thirty or forty years ago, is still made by the majority of such priests as are unfamiliar with works on pastoral medicine; and the mistake may work sad havoc in the spiritual life of the nervously afflicted. Father Ansehn Ricker, O.S.B., puts the matter mildly when he says, in his "Pas- toral Psychiatry": "A priest who has gained psychiatric knowledge will be kind and prudent in dealing with the mentally afflicted, and will save many a man [and, a fortiori, many a woman] from great misfortune." So, too, Dr. A. E. San- ford, in his "Pastoral Medicine": *That a knowl- edge of morbid conditions growing out of neuras- thenia is highly valuable not only to the physi- cian, but also to the educator, teacher, lawyer, and not in the lowest degree to the priest, goes with- out saying." There are unfortunately spiritual as well as material pills, of the prescription of which one may say, with Felix Holt in one of George Eliot's novels, "Ignorance is not so dam- nable as humbug, but when it prescribes pills it may happen to do more harm." The inference to be drawn from the foregoing is not, of course, that the ordinary priest should possess all the knowledge congruous to a compe- tent physician; but rather that he should either make some study of pastoral medicine, or else show exceptional kindness and patience with such of his sick as suffer from mental troubles which he cannot understand. It is pertinent to add that what the Church forbids to her clergy in this mat- THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-ROOM 155 ter is the practice of medicine, not its knowledge. The fact is that, without at least some medical knowledge, various problems of moral theology cannot be adequately solved; and hence medico- theological subjects are discussed with reason- able thoroughness in many seminaries, not to say all of them. As regards mental maladies, how- ever, medical science has made many strides since the middle-aged reader of this page completed his seminary course; and if he has not supplemented that course by subsequent study or reading on the various forms of neurosis, he probably Incks the full equipment of a thoroughly competent con- fessor and a prudent adviser of some at least of his sick. The subject is so practical, and withal so interesting, that we make no apology for quot- ing here several lengthy passages dealing there- with. Speaking of the mental suffering to be found in compulsory thoughts, compulsory notions, and compulsory conditions in general, Dr. Sanford says: "Hansjakob, a German author, has forcefully described the power exercised by the compulsory images over the morbidly irritable soul. We may believe what he tells of it in his book, 'Days of 2»ickness, for he is relating his own personal ex- penence: *Let him who has never been aflOicted with compulsory notions thank God and his good nerves for not knowing these furies, against whom will and reason are equally powerless. Compul- sory noUons are for soul and mind what lashes are for the body, only lashes are as balm com- pared with those illusions, because mental suf- " '1 k > ■ i Ill 156 OLERICAL COLLOQUIES :t\'. ilk I' ■ 1 Hi ferings, mental tortures are in general more hurt- ful and tantalizing than physical pains.* "Of course, he who has never had occasion to observe this ailment in its entire depth and broad- ness, and to watch it in its course, will be readily at hand with judgment that can only be wrong, or with advice that fails to help. At best the un- initiated will counsel the a£Dicted to try to ban- ish those stupid, silly, ridiculous thoughts. The unfeeling ignoramus will make the cutting re- mark. That man is crazv and oug^t to be m an asylum.* Ano.ther will find it incomprehensible why those thoughts, together with the impulse they give to perverse actions, might not be over- come by exerting the will-power. The well- meaning spiritual adviser who, though well-mean- ing, is unacquainted with this condition, will say, perhaps. These are nothing but temptations and distractions, which ought to be despised.* The latter view is the more readily formed, because these compulsory notions often present them- selves in the false garb of temptations, and prove the more irritating, confusing, and alarming the more they concern themselves with vital questions of religious life and the more they harass moral Qotions.** Such language as this, coming from a physi- cian of acknowledged competency and prestige, may well give pause to the inconsiderate clergy- man who disposes of all such cases with the oracular, if offhand, remark tb^.t a little com- mon sense is all that is needed in treating them. He will best display his common sense by dis- trusting his ability to diagnose such cases cor- rectly, and by consulting authoritative works deal- ing with neurosis and its multifarious ramifica- THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-ROOM 157 tions. One such work with which the reader is possibly unacquainted was published, with the Westmister imprimatur, two or three years ago, "Spiritual Director and Physician." It is a trans- lation, by Dom Aloysius Smith, C.R.L., from the French of Father V. Raymond, O.P., and deals with the spiritual treatment of suflFerers from nerves and scruples. A circumstance which gives notable value to the work is that its author knows at first hand whereof he speaks. Dr. Masquin testifies: "When I first met Father Raymond in Germany, he was in a most critical state of neuro- sis, and he is consequently well able to under- stand the physical^ and moral torture which fills with despair those unfortunate people who are so affected." Apart from his personal experience. Father Raymond, as chaplain to the Kneipp In- stitute at Woerishofen (Bavaria) for a decade and a half of years, has received the confidences of thousands of nervous patients who have trav- eled from all parts of Uie world to take the Woerishofen treatinent. Obviously, therefore, he is fairly competent to discuss nervous ailment} with something more than a dilettante's scioJ:-:.n; and it is not extravagant to affirm that the aver- age confessor or spiritual director will learn something new from an attentive perusal of his pages,— sometiiing new and thoroughly useful as well. One declaration of this Dominican priest- physician it may be worth while to reproduce, as U is really of wider scope than he assigns to it: "It may be said tiiat if psychoUierapy is Uie basis > i: ill: 158 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES |l w fir of the correct treatment of neurosis, kindness is the basis of psychotherapy. It holds the place of humility among the viHues; it is the founda- tion, and as there is no real virtue without hu- mility, neither is there any system of treatment of these ailments without kindness." That prin- ciple may very properly be acted upon by a pas- tor in all sorts of sickness, whether of mind or body. Kindness is the one quasi-remedy with which we may all, be our medical knowledge great or little, bring solace to the sufferers whom it is our duty to attend. Kindness in visiting them frequently, genUeness and patience in supporting their ofttimes wayward humors, unfailing ten- derness in winning them to resignation to the holy will of God, and an unmistakable desire to do them all the good in our power,— this is within the competency of every pastor and should sure- ly characterize them aU. It is weU-nigh superflu- ous to add that virtue is never more manifestly its own reward than in the case of priestly kind- ness to the sick. It is the experience of all who have reached middle life or old age that this specific form of charity does indeed cover a mul- titude of sins. Manifold as may be a pastor's im- perfections,— harshness, impatience, irritability, or other faults of temper in the ordinary affairs of life; an autocratic or domineering spirit in the government of his parish; partiality or favoritism m his treatment of his flock; continual nagging about money; want of punctuality in keeping church or social ippointinents; unbusinesslike habits; or even unpriestiy fondness for comforts THE PRIEST IN THE SICK-ROOM 159 ■,'H and luxuries,-all Uiese are apparently oflfset and M^^^°C^1 'f '^ '* ^«° truthfuUy be said of oim: Well, there's one thing about Father X- no priest could possibly be kinder than he is to his To revert for a moment to the nervously af- fected, here is an interesUng and somewhat sur- L™;:fthinir °' '"" ^^- ^«^'' « ^'^^-^^^ - «„^*I^®r°"2.^f®J'°®*« " '*>und under an aoDear- H^no'l^^''^*'* ^^«"**- P««ents get venPSftUe sympathy on account of their ii?itabilitv the tZ'^^^^^^^'T «°d various aspectsTf their symp- S^^cti^r.'VE-* ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^" «°d show pTe™?sr oi activity: their appearance is healthv rohiwY twiVSS'^"'- " "»«y J>e that they Sow stout Th^y*a?eTnSS;rr*~"^*^ ^ws ^mSrserioSs. iney are known to increase in weight whilsi nil J:ouble of the digestive organs chaLges to an at fliction of the brain or the%>inrffie changes itfeive everybody, including the doctS^ and i5s? fr *«y °eed most sympathy the? g?t'th? leist A doctor who once came fo viJit me faDDened to pass through the patients* waiting-rooTlSd rl marked that all my patients looked Ske Sante" As a matter of fact. I then had some seriouf casei of nervous prostration. It cannot be toi Xn Ifr^^fl ^ '"^^ ™«y ^^ °f robust^n^itStioS and yet his nervous system may be as weak as slSj-bed/n '*^'*'"'"^ ^'^ ^*^° " always^on he? Is it too much to say Uiat such statements as this may well determine confessors and priestly ™to« of the sick to be slow in deciding th"^ » SpirihMl Direetor and Pkyticiam. p. 30*. leo CLERICAL COLLOQUIES II the lUs of some of their penitents are purely im- toul7' J'yf^^^'^^^l^^dSe of nervouT maladies would probably result in an increase of priestly kindness and sympathy, and a consequent nota- ble amelioraUon m the condiUon of the sufferers. facahty to parish priests, and about which there fhli^" *°T ^^^°«^ ^ ">^ opinions of sound theolo^ans ->f late years, is the question of real life and apparent death. Just when life actually ceases and death actually supervenes is obviously a matter of prime importance to the priest who attends sick-calls, because, according to the com- mon opinion of Catholic moralists, the slightest probabihty of the presence of life warrantV the administering of the sacraments to a dying per- son. The basis of the opinion is of course that «ie probability of life means the possibHity o being saved, and the moribund has a right to what IS necessary for salvation. It is a cas! L wWch one may safely act on the theological adage Sacramenta sunt propter homines, non homines propter sacramenta. Now. ever since the Span- ish Jesmt. Father Ferreres. something more «ian a decade ago. asked the Catholic medical society of Barcelona the Academy of Saints Cosmas and Damian. to give him its opinion as to the differ DubLhir'^J'"^ r*'. '^PP"^^"* ^^^*»»' «°d then pubhshed m the ecclesiastical review, Razon u Fe both «ie society's answer and the results of his own study of the subject, it has been ver^ ge„e logians as well that the moment of real death^ THE PRIEST IN THR SICK-ROOM 161 c^nriderably later than it was formerly supposed The limits of the present essay preclude any- thing more than a very brief summa?y of the con- DeaS "^n^* • ""^^f . '*"^y' '"r**^ Moment of Death forms an appendix to Sanford's "Pastoral Medicine"; but the reader will find the matter dis o^Ihl l^Tr«J>^^^-gth in a former volume Of the Am. Eccl. Review. For our oresent n..r I«»e i, will perhaps suffice .o state ,C he only really certain sign of death is decomposition of the whole body, and a somewhat advanced staBe of decomposition at that. Partial decomplsft^^t! It s pomted out, may be caused by gMiirene which precedes death. The stoppage Tthe breatt, and of the beart-beats gives no assurance that there is no latent life in the body: centuriM «go Galen taught thai there could be a bJaZ of the heart and a respiration so slight as noi to be perceptible, yet strong enough sUlI to preserve life. Livid spoU on the body may be due to asphyxia operating prior to de':,th. "^The change ant ;1""k'""=\"">' ^ ""^ '<• ™dden irreSS! lanty m the heart-beaU. Even the rigidity ofX body IS not a certain sign that life is quite ext net such rigidity precedes the death of those aHaSed Jy »P«™»- '«*jaw, and asphyxia. As for the oldUme tests of the candle or mirror placed near mey are of httle importance nowadays. Pre- mising that the period of latent life is probablv longer m the case of sudden deaths than'^n those .'1 M ie2 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES following a lengthy illness, let us quote the con- clusion of the writer just mentioned: "So long as we have any douht about the presence of total decomposition, it is probable that we should ad- mmister conditionally tiie sacraments which may be the only possible means of bringing Uie subject to heaven.'* ' As a cuhninating reflection on this whole theme ttiat we have been treating: Happy tiie pastor whose conscience gives him the assurance toat the hours of his own last ilhiess wiU not be disturbed by terrifying memories of want of sym- pathy for the afflicted in mind or body, of sick- calls neglected, and of inadequate or perfunctory service rendered in Uie sick-room! SPIRITUAL OUTINGS P-op;r light M"di„^.,'^a,M te^ ?■* f^ •■ »^' world ud ita «Uoremmr whSh\?^TS " '.?" '""» o« Ikio ^3?„« .K "^ ?"''' «">«"ne»«»k • el sense it is apUy de«^p?iVrn„t on?y ^f °S t '" cepuonal religious exe«ises a, the' annua' or Itl 1*1 164 CLERICAL COLLOQUiEfl f ■t^.' »<{■ him vt.'tS V J^- '''*'^** "' """"S "»' enjoy. conrideraMe come bv i^«':'.""= weekend, a phra.e whS, h.. dav^iS, ,'»'"? '° '"""' ""^ P^'^od from Fri- fM^i^^M "?''' ■"""■'"ft Businew and pro- H?.m » "'" "'"' *°"«'> '» increasing numbwi length of Ume from .tore or office, leave the noi« and turmo,! of the city behind them. «,d be,.k" lhem.elve. to country house, or mountain W let. or Ma.ide resort for change of air and , «,« •nd .de« and people. A cleric'" spW?u.l wee^ doe. not. last so long as does the worldUna'. In *e'we°eLilTo„'r"f''r 'V' "-'^ "ntS wi me weekly hour of adoration. Obligatorv on •••rh ™1*? V.'k'"'°''« •° ** EucharisUc LeZe a. on munine^ this exercise of devotion mav wpII ...- f-'at whoVst^'erl^ T'^ mini^t'erTu:;!:?: .ace'j;,:^a? "^^'^1 trvi^if tl^t^^B^.S Sacrament is to the day, U,e hour of adorfu^^ been ".""f Z""*"" "' "» twentytfour houiThave may ti,a, week be tiiough, inad%U:?;™t;b" which has not witnessed U,e "riesf, Citg . SPIBITOAL 0CTINQ3 ,95 rSall: "" '""""" "-" "">"''■ ChH.. in .e./'fa!.htt'''„,'';h!'.'L' "T! " 'o "'O"" Wn- .0 ij a P'^&U'tTt.tX'^.Trl'S one's self durinfl u rr.»..«„» Tu . u ^^^ ^^ *«*' .ureiy .pen7arhrur:'we:L''r„":;:r';""' *'" s:7'ar„r^irtrv^"««^^^^^^ ■cheme of We 'Evr^hr""".'" """ •='"'■=•' prie.to occasionally And » -<»°". '"«"'<><«cal of •riomatic to declare th«i hli ■ I " "'""»• oflener than no, "aru llW% ""'rK*^"' *'""*'" and fervent »„h .^. 1. ! T '°°' ** '•'^ devout becomr. the 1« H "'k'' " ■""" """^ hin«elf by a ,wf ™ie7o at le«l ^h " •"'. "• "'"'' *"•»"=" •anctuary when hi. h "^ ^r"' P'"'^'«'"«« '° «he The lack^orseLbl 1 .•°' ^'''"■'"'<"' "ri''«. valid rea,o°n rne^^et^th"; efriri't^" difonal argument against omatinsTj,'! °",f''- Lord when on earth declared thf.H u /' "'"" to call sinners rather Uian^h^ * . ."* '""' '^"'"'^ and that it was the .U 1.1 "i" '" "P'nlance, need of theThysicir.' °* ""' '""'"'y' »"•» had from the TabeS • »h : ""^ ."^"'^ «' «"» the most ferve^™^: .rm::f ::;fd '"ofHisT- "?' to come to Him that thev mav h. «ii I ' P"^"» «ith the burning Are of S Ive ' °"" """' H 4 1 108 CLBBICAL C0LL0QUIB8 ill* Without being actually tepid, however, a priMt may conceivably asacH that he finds the hour of adoration a tedious, onerous exercUe. un- less indeed he utilizes the time in reciUng his of- ..?K m ? 'T"* ^^^ ™*"'^- A» *»«*^«e° these two subsUtutes for genuine communing with Jesus in me Blessed Sacrament, saying the beads is per- haps the less objectionable, if only because it looks MS like construcUvely cheaUng Our Lord out of u jupposed to be devoted to Himself per- i?^^ ^'.u ^J" recitation of the office at some time during the day is obligatory, whether or not one makes on that day his hour of adoraUon; saying • f ^!S " f " optional devotion, and it is at least intelligible that a man may be so spiritually dry that he feels driven to adore and worship Our Lord by proxy reciUng the rosary with the intent HhnTh! /»** ^r ^^^r »**°"'*' graciously proffer !lif n^ "!\f.« *?'°PJ«»<^ homage which he him- self finds It difficult, if not impracticable, to ren- der. Such a course is, we say, intelligible, and in the case of a layman is perhaps excusable enough; but surely there is litUe or no excuse for its^adoption by an ordained priest, by "another Why should there be anything of the nature of tediuin or weariness involved in one's passing a short hour m the presence of Our Lord? Whv should we not find the hour as delightful and as bnef as we have sometimes perhaps found it irk- some and interminable? Given that wo are in the J!LL i,f "^'^u^^u *^onsequenUy enjoying Christ's friendship, why should our conversing wiUi Him SPIRITUAL OUTINOS ler b€ (to demand only the minimum) less enjoyable Wen/ H^'" ''• "*>""* '^"«**» P«*«* »<> • »^uman S!n5 u*"" ^^ ^**^'''" «"^ '°^«^ To the earthlv friend who enjoys our confidence and of whose iHunL'^V^ "?" """'•"^ ^« »P^«»' »♦ no lit- tle length of our hopes and fears, our jovs «n cesses and failures, our trials and consolMion^. What prevents us from doing likewise in the case alrniiam ,^^"i?* ««"««>"•• •ympathetic ai.d un- derstanding of all possible friends? Who indeed among our earthly friends, even the closest of those to whom we unbosom ourselves most un- reservedly, can know and appreciate as He does T^.«5J1'"of *»»«"«»^*«« desires, and affections? To speak to Him with the simplicity of a child about those matters that form fhe steple of our daily thought and action can assured^ not L other than agreeable to One who has pronounced ?eaufs!?e'f *^ *° '""^ ^*^"'^^" «" indispensable hnK^l"Al"'"^t'* *^"* unfortunately many of our habitual thoughts and affections and actions ar' not of a character pleasing to our Divine Friend we are simply giving a reason for varying the tenor of our discourse with Him during our hour's audience, and not at all furnishing a valid ex- cuse for neglecUng that audience. If we have reTtep'at^rH- *" **'" "^-'^ "«'°° ^^y ^^ should reiterate to Him our penitential regrets, being en- brelyconvmced that "a humble and contrite heart He will not despise." Possibly, however.-and 5-)» ^.| 168 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES iur shSc L^'^'T"^^^ '^"^ paramount cause of Ourl^rH ^ a heart-to-heart communion with no imenti^n^^^ ^° "°* ''^'^' °^' «»<» have Tve Ldullr °'' P,""'""" ""' habit in which we .^A * 'ru^^^ our8elve8.-unworthy of our sac- cr^tr dtt, Jk *!'!***" ^° *he closet, which se- « hoLfi i/^' ^^"^ *^°"^^**^*^ happiness of many a household joyous and tranquil to outward an^ pearance. sometimes finds ite counte^Irt in ^a rece'ss^s :? "I T'""'^ '°l'^^ ^^^^ « *he inner recesses of a pnesUy heart, and resolutplv shunned as often as protesUng conscienre ,eS^ IrJ!"*- " '° "*' "'"' ""^^ i^ true native and moral import thoroughly investigated Now ftere IS no possible hiding such a fkeleton Zm *e all-seemg eye of Jesus; and the Icnowled," that an inUmate personal communing wX Mm wouW necessitate some plain ,peakin| rnJsom" detenmned acUon about the matter may well T plam why we occasionally dislike to ™]I! • . »-'"»««• "/-ourse with^Hlm'ct rX th": the soul • ■"""' "" *°"'' ^h"*- *« 'hf-rof whi^rwe-i-^-iiK^^^^^ Planataon of the irksomeuess wWch s J cot aaoration. Where no such lack of generositv as much^r''"""" 'P*'""-* »' 'he Cr™"^ as much pleasure as profit should prove ».,r prnungly easy to a true priest, and that.'^too, v^^I SPIRITUAL OUTINGS 169 out his having recourse to books of any kind. One has only to follow the counsel of the psalnus% quoted as a foreword to this essay: "Come let to Gnr '"'l'''^''' "'^^ J°y= ''' us joyfully sing to God our Saviour. Let us come into his pres- w^^' nl^, thanksgiving: and rejoice before H7m with psalms." Supposing that a priest, clad in n«^ V"?/****" «"** ^"^^^'°« before the Taber" nacle. should spend the full hour in reciting over dren7/„.T? *^' ^?°*^'*' °' '^^ Three Chil- etc of r'f " ', T"'^ ^^^'•'^ ^^"'^^'' domino. etc.. or psalm cl. Laudate Dominum in Sanctis fi"''f* ;' J*""* ^h^" ^ay **^«* he has not worthilv acquitted himself of his weekly debt to Him whom •Hn?v hT V*;°'" ""' perpetually greeUng with. Holy, holy, holy: Lord God in the highest?" nH. ^*!;^^ip'"*""* ^^^^^^y «"«"« ^wch the pnest should never neglect, supposing that he does not make it. as many exemplary clerics do adaUy exercise of piety, is the Way^f the Cross' No pastor needs to be instructed on the manS advantages accruing to the devout performance of this most excellent visual following of ouT cru! cified Redeemer along the doleful journey "o Cat S to" t H V"^'"' :'«* «°y ^«*her of soub neg- lects to tell his people from time to time of the unnumbered indulgences, applicable to the soLls the cl^r*^;^."^" ^^ *^ *^^ "-»« membe" o Som^ no . • **"!* ^'' ""^'hed to "the Stations." Some pastors, however, may well be reminded Uiat such meditation on the Passion and D^aSi of rent ^* k' ^'^ ""avoidably forms a concur- rent activity of our going around the Stations is ^'na 1 m 170 CLERICAL COLLOQUiEa J, a ittW hil°?' "' """^ """' "' -other "id" deri/ "oh .h,TT' •" "•""^ ineonsiderat ^?f^^ ^sa^j«..v- .■j»> f>^^' SPIRITUAL OUTINGS 171 phasizes the point in this extract from The Eternal Priesthood: "First, interior perfection is required before ordination as a prerequisite con- dition to Sacred Orders; second, the priesthood IS the state of perfecUon; and third, a priest is bound to sustain himself in that state and to per- severe in it to the end of life." Manning's doc- tnne is only a corollary of that of St. Thomas; They who are appointed to divine ministries at- tain to a royal dignity, and ought to be perfect m virtue." As a monthly spiritual outing, then, a retreat of one day may be warmly urged on every one who has received Holy Orders. Such an outing has the game end or purpose as mental prayer in general, of which, says Father Gtiermann, it is only an extraordinary e rcise. "We make a re- tr««t in order to be enhghtened; to know, purify, and correct ourselves; to be united with God and to pray to Him; to renew our spirit; to maintain ourselves in virtue and to increase in fervor." To allege that one has no time to devote to such an exercise, that parish business must be looked after, sick-calls attended to, the school visited, etc., etc., is to urge pretexts really too puerile to merit serious refutation. How does the parish manage to get along when we absent ourselves for a day or two to attend the funeral of a brother priest, to go to the quarterly conference, to take a pleasure trip, to assist at this or that ecclesi- astical, educational, or social function? Our monthly retreat does not necessitate our absenci from our parish at all, nor, for that matter, does 1?2 CLERICAL COLLOorrrga poses ol interior recoll#»ptirt« =^ir . *^ will have ample itoeTrT;/ "•""'.' """""e "» fec^°e ^ve"t', '"' ^P""*"'- of interior, ef- Many go o?ten oThe V "'«'" °' P'^^tion love of vanitiM f„ii «f • f. "^™' earnest in K^atlale'Sat J^'* V^«°- ■» press purpose of -'eonsidering in 2 htrP- 2' voting several hours of ,ha. lay ,o a .tCs and" mm^i^^MMMM-. SPIRITUAL OUTINGS 173 .ystematic examination of our interior life and lhe""^oT'orG';rd""^ ""''"r "' «-"'"eyea,T? nah,~?^ , "• "'■ '™P'y ""e result of our lake, tlie retreat will abundantly justify itself It should never be lost sight of by the cler„ ,h„ sacerdotal work done from purely naurfl m^ tives looks so much like that accomplished ^,h supernatural purity of intention thaTSlr t:t ma* readily be confounded even by the natural Trt" cSv= r*- ^r "' """'^ »''"" "„Z ^ ° ""'"'• no matter how strenu- Tizj;"' ''-•"' '■™»^« '" '"e -'ivitferof Not the least beneficial of the exercisp, ^«n dea h is^o' nirh ' °^ *»^^/verage priest towards nrHl„ , P^'^'^^Ps very dissimilar to that of the ordinary layman, different as their poinis of view might reasonably be expected to be Nav Z greater familiarity of the priest w^^h 1^'kk^ solution less impressive to him than to the Der son whose actual contact with death is an even i ou of he common, a relatively rare experience Both pnest and layman are prone to think of fat.i matters' V'' ^"'"'^^°« °^ "^^'^ final spa/k a matters qmte impersonal, of speculative and pure! 'jr.-'S 174 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES f ,ii"n 4 \ . ly academic, rather than practical, interest so far as they are individually concerned. Putting one's self in another's place by force of imagination, discernmg insight, or sympathetic interest is never an easy task; putting one's self in a dying man's place IS a peculiarly difficult one. Any one can readily enough philosophize on the Inevitability of death, the certainty of its coming to each of us some time and the possibility of its coming soon; the preacher can moralize by tiie hour wisely and eloquently on the folly of living even for a day m a state in ,which we would not wish to die, and on tiie consequent wisdom of being always pre- pared to leave this world and meet one's eternal Judge; but the fact remains tiiat both philosopher and morahst sometimes, if not habitually, fail to take their own lessons to heart, and tfiat mentally to envisage one's self on the bed of death, antici- pating by the power of the imagination the thoughts, reflections, regret?. .;ad fears and hopes of life s last supreme hour, is a process as difficult as It is unquestionably salutary. Like otiier diffi- cult processes, ho—ver, it becomes easier with repetition; and ti.. --^st who seriously under- takes it once a month will probably discover that as an aid to spiritual progress, it is more effective than a dozen sick-calls to the dying or a dozen funerals of departed brother priests. The spiritual outings thus far considered arc purely optional, and while it is tolerably safe to say that they form regular features in the life of the thoroughly exemplary and devout cleric it would be rash to characterize the neglect of any SPIRITUAL OUTINGS 175 tenidTfv^^TK *!'T "' **"" h^M-niark of sacerdotal lepidity. That they are commendable exercises, however, few priests, fervent or tepid, will be in- in°nl n ?.?• ^i ^^ P"°*^*P^^ «Pi"*"«» outing in pnesUy life, and the one that is not optional- but compulsory.-the annual or biennial diocesan retreat— it is scarcely too much to say that it is quasi-essenUal to genuine healthiness of soul If a vacation of a few weeks or months is often help- ful and someUmes necessary to the preservation of mental or physical well-being, there can be no possible doubt that a retreat of five or six days, at intervals of two years at most, cannot well be dispensed with by men entrusted with functions so sublime and burdened with responsibilities so great as are priests charged with the care of souls It IS of course a commonplace of ascetical the- 1°^ u^\u ""^^^^^ '^ ^ "^«°^* g^^^^' «nd it is n« J'^tK . i^ conviction of every reader of this page that the grace not only may be in theory, but at times actually is in practice, abused. Com- paratively few of us indeed are likely to claim that we ourselves have profited to the fullest pos- sible extent by all or most of the retreats which we have personally attended, and both the utter- ances and the actions of some of our clerical con- freres have indicated that our lack of requisite fervor has not been unique. It is entirely possi- hL ♦ , . ^ '''*''^^* ^" *°« "8*»tly, possible in- deed to look upon it as though it were in realitv what the reporter of our initial paragraph pro'- nfT'** '*'/ '^'"*^^^" «"""« i° the literal sense of the word, and to go through its various exer- 'H\ I 1 »• ...1 t- '1 -11 If "1 ' ' ' ^ "- 1 i ,' 176 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES cises in a purely perfunctory fashion with no more than a semi-occasional moment of earnest thought and a half-formed evanescent purpose of amend- nient The priest who, since his last retreat or since his ordination, has so lowered his standards from the ideals which he once cherished that he is not only imperfect and tepid but wholly con- tent to remain so, is in dire neevi of an immense initial grace,— the real will to reform. Wanting that grace, either because he does not earnestly pray for it or because he rejects it when gratui- tously proffered, he is safe to go through the re- treat not only with absolutely no profit to him- self but in all probability with considerable detri- ment to others. In the important matter of observing silence, for instance, such a cleric will assuredly not set an example worthy of imitation, yet his example is safe to be followed by one or more of his friends who would just as readily imitate his fervor, had he the grace to show any. Hypocrisy is an unlovely policy even though it be called "the homage which vice pays to virtue," but one is tempted to wish that such priests as attend re- treats without any well-defined and serious pur- pose of profiting by the manifold precious graces placed at their disposition, would act the hypo- crite to the extent of veiling their interior dissipa- tion under a decorous and reverent exterior. Such action would at least lessen the danger of their becoming veritable stumbling-blocks to their brethren. Given the periods of recreation during whkh talking is permitted at clerical retreats in '^SSSf '•-*■-■ 'SS*"'.*! SPIRITUAL OUTINGS 177 this country, what excuse is there, in downright sober earnestness, for visiting one another's rooms outside such periods, and violating the silence without which the really important part of tiie work of the retreat is impossible? Only the veriest novice in spirituality needs to be told that the determinant factor in the suc- cess of -x priest's retreat is tbe priest himself,— his personal activity in self-examination and mental prayer, and his personal passivity as well, in that quiet, undistracted recollectedness which best fits Uie soul for the reception of the inspira- tions of the Holy Ghost. Other and external fac- tors,— tiie exhortations of the preacher, the con- ference of the bishop or archbishop, listening to Uie reading of good books, devotional exercises in common, tfie example of thoroughly devout broUier priests— these are aids, always helpful and sometimes perhaps necessary; but, if I am to make a truly profitable, a good and holy retreat, I must act on tiie principle that its essential work canuol be transferred or turned over to any one else, but must of necessity be done by myself. The stage-settings may be more or less elaborate, and other figures may appear in the different scenes; but the dominant characters in this real soul- drama are only two: God and myself. The preacher may be able, persuasive, brilliantly elo- quent, full of force and fervor and unction, yet at best he is merely an assistant-insti'uctor; the real retreat-master is none other than the Holy Spirit. And as that Spirit communicates His les- sons in their fullness to those only whose hearts 'iSiMa IS 178 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ■jiii •re as "enclosed gardens," His docile pupils must shun levity and idle talk and discursive thought and interior dissipation of any and every kind. It is hardly necessary to remark that a priest who habitually enjoys the weekly and monthly outings of which we have spoken, the hour of adoration and the monthly retreat of one day, will presumably be better prepared than others to avail himself of all the multifarious graces which God pours out so lavishly on the occasion of the annual retreat in common. Quite naturally, he wiU have l^ss difficulty in ridding his mind at the outset of all extraneous considerations and enter- ing at once into the proper spirit. His passably frequent meditations during the year on death and the eternal truths connected therewith have so habituated him to the genuinely supernatural atmosphere of the interior life that he finds him- self quite at home and at his ease in his present environment, thereby presenting a marked con- trast to his brother cleric (exceptional perhaps, but existent) whose quasi-habitual neglect of mental prayer and whose living on the surface rather than in the depths of his soul have so de- spiritualized his views that the atmosphere of the retreat oppresses him as the natural uir oppresses a fish out of water. Lest such plain speaking as the foregoing be set down as gross exaggeration, let there be quoted here a few sentences from "The Interior Life," edited by Father Tissot, Superior General of the Salesian Missionaries. From chapter viii., bearing the title "For Priests," we select the following: SPIRITUAL OUTINGS 179 All dav the priest, devoted to his ministrv is given up to the service of God, and occuoied wifh •upcrnatural work. The normal effecTofthis^m fite"* '*^S"*** ^^ *° "»i*« the pries deeply. S nappen that it keeps him at a distance? For it 8 impossible to disguise the fact that such is the too common result of his work to-day Whence SrMn*.*!!' r*?^"^'"'-^ ^" «»>«"» o say this fii i? *^? deatfi-between exercises of piety and the ministry, the one killing the othc?? ^ wnat. in fact, does the priest whose nietv U h*. * coming paralyzed look fo^r in hirmTnisS^*/ WhaJ The fl«fY.T- What does he love? Toothings hin^-oi^i ".*»»mself He sees, loves, and seels himself far too much. He is far too Aiuch in thi front rank in many of his intenUons. How many nf M." S^"°°"* *^^H^"8« «» any cleric that in his character of an officer in the Church's army, he should set the rank and flic a splendid ex- ample of ready obedience to his superior officers, whether their commands be issued verbally, are included in the orders of the day, or are a con- stituent part of the army code. Nay, more, it should be patent to him that his obedience should not only be such as to show forth his fidelity to his obligations, but should possess that additional ingredient of loving service which raises fidelity to the higher plane of loyalty. In the world of politics or that of commerce, as in the army or the navy, one of the highest compliments that can be paid to a suborainate or adjutant or lieutenant is to say of him that he is distinguished by "a fine sense of loyalty" to his cliief or chiefs. What then should not be the habitual attitude of a priest of God towards the Church which has dowered him with such power and dignity, to f^- spiritual Mother who has J 204 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES J,; •■ll treated him ai her child of special predilection I Surely nothing less than the most grateful devo- tion, the readiest acquiescence in her decisions, the promptest submission to her demands, and the keenest se. !ivcncss to anything reflecting on her honor and repute. If there was ever a case in which the adage nobleue oblige could be ap- positely cited to enforce honorable conduct, as- suredly the essential nobility of our priestly char- acter imposes on us the obligation of being more intensely and whole-heartedly loyal to the Church and her supreme head, the Sovereign Fontiflf, than is the strongest partisan to his political chief, the most devoted patriot to his country, or the most affectionate son to his parents. In just that de- gree in which the joul outranks the body and the eternal transcends the temporal, priestly loyalty to our Mother the Church and to our Holy Father le Pope should ctrank and transcend any other allegiance, fealty, devotedness, or love to be found on earth. As a matter of contemporary fact, is our loy- ty of this high charar'ter and standard? Do we habitually look upon devotion to the Church as one of those primal duties that "shine aloft like stars" and will not be ignored? And is our de- votion of the practical, unvisionary kind that translates itself into concrete acts? Is there no danger of our lapsing into a state of mind in which the Church t^kes on the vague and nebu- lous form of a mere abstraction, a more or less glorious entity, but an ideal one to which in actual everyday life there corresponds no tangible real- LOYALTY TO MOTHER CHURCH 205 ity? Do we oufflclently often meditate on the Church and endeavor to get a just and fairly ade- quate conception of what she is, and what she means to the world at large and to ourselves indi- vidually? Would it not come to us in the nature of a surprise to learn that, far from being uni- formly loyul to her and to the Pop we not infre- quently manifest the most ungrateiul disloyalty and constructive treason to both? One may be disloyal without breaking out into open rebellion. It is possible to incur the stigma without proclaim- ing one's self a Modernist or advocating, in pre- posterous pride of intellect, opinions verging on downright heresy. It is possible even to profess unshaken loyalty lo Mother Church in the verj' breath in which one equivalently questions her authority, her jurisdiction, her power, or her prudence. Is it loyalty to the Church, or the reverse of that quality, to lay such stress on the human side of her organization and adn-inistration as to sug- gest that she is no more the., a man-made society subject to all the weaknesses of other political or social bodies? Does the truly loyal priest talk about ecclesiastical appointments or the confer- ring of ecclesiastical honors and dignities as if they were nothing more or less than the entirely natural results of astute wire-pulling and the judi- cious outlay of benefactions that call for a quid pro quo? Does he think of the election of a new Pope as of a matter in which the preponderant influence and the determining factor is the na- tionality of the majority of the cardinals who cast 206 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES i I: 1 ir- their votes? Does he think and speak of these and such like matters as if the Holy Ghost had nothing more to do with them than with the be- stowal of an honorary collegiate degree or the election of a congressman to the House of Repre- sentatives? Again, in the matter of dogmas, decisions, and discipline, is it consistent with genuine priestly loyalty to be forever drawing fine-spun distinc- tions between points on which the Church or the Pope is, or is not, infallible? Apart from loyalty altogether, does the ordinary priest who permits himself a good deal o^ loose talk about such topics take sufficient heed of a consideration which Father Joyce, S.J., thus calls attention to: "More- over, theologians are agreed that the gift of m- fallibility in regard to the deposit (of the faith) must, by necessary consequence, carry with it in- fallibility as to certain matters intimately related to the Faith. There are questions bearing so near- ly on the preservation of the Faith that, could the Church err in these, her infallibility would not suffice to guard the flock from false doctrine. Such, for instance, is the decision whether a given book does or does not contain teaching con- demned as heretical." To take a concrete case or two occurring within recent years, have the com- ments which the reader of this page has heard from priestly lips (or, it may be, has himself made) on Pius X.'s Motu propria on plain chant or his decree Sacra Tridentina Synodus on fre- quent and daily Communion, been invariably ex- pressions of unquestioning loyalty to the Holy LOYALTY TO MOTHER CHURCH 207 Father? Have they not sometimes rather been censorious criUcisms on the Pope's acUon, pre- sumptuous declarations as to the want of wisdom or expediency or prudence shown in the papal de- sires or commands, and (to qualify them as they really deserve to be qualified) thoroughly imperti- nent animadversions on matters beyond the com- petency of the speakers to decide? Only two or three years ago the present writer found himself rather unexpectedly called upon to take the side of the Pope in an after-dinner dis- cussion about the Holy Father's allowing children to go to Communion much earlier than had hitherto been the general practice. My opponent in the discussion was my senior in years and my superior in rank— he wore the purple; so it be- hooved me to be guarded in my expression of dissent from his views. Somebody having broached the subject of the Pope's recent action concerning the Communion of children; the man with the purple remarked: "Well, I don't see any necessity of going into hysterics about the matter. Personally, I shall continue to let my children make their First Communion at the age of twelve or thereabouts." Some measure of surprise hav- ing been manifested at this avowed opposition to the wishes of tiie Sovereign Pontiff, he explained that opposition, the gist of his argument being contained, apparently, in the rhetorical interroga- tion, "What can children of seven or eight under- stand of the Blessed Eucharist and the mystery of Transubstantiation?" The rather obvious re- ply was: "If it comes to that, what can we under- 208 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES stand of the mystery? You and I take it on faith, and so will the children." The incident was rather forcibly impressed on my memory by the action of a third person, a venerable cleric who nodded wise approval and ejaculated many a "Just so" while my opponent was talking, and who, the very next day, in conversation with a foreign Monsignor, a member of the Roman Rota, gave the same tokens of approbation to that dig- nitary's diarneti-ically opposite argument on the same question. "It is always best on these occa- sions," said the immortal Mr. Pickwick, to do what the mob does."-"But suppose there are wo mobs?"-"Shout witl^ the largest," rephed ir. Pickwick. If we read "nob" instead of mob in the foregoing, we will have the explanation of not a litUe disloyalty manifested by some clerics to tfie Church and the Holy See. , , ^ , One too familiar instance of the lack of true loyalty to all that Rome and the Vatican stand for in Catholic thought is tiie question, What do the Pope and the heads of those Roman Congre- gations understand about conditions in this coun- try?" The suggestion is, of course, that there can be only one answer, "Littie or nothing." Equally of course, tiie answer is grotesquely incorrect. It is tolerably certain that, nine times out of ten, or rather ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the conditions in this Country are both far better known and immeasurably better understood by the Church authorities in Rome than by the not too reverent cleric who more or less flippanUy asks Uie question. After all, the man seated on LOYALTY TO MOTHER CHURCH 209 the summit of a lofty tower may reasonably be credited with a somewhat wider outlook than that of the sitter in a valley or a well; and if the com- paratively obscure parish priest imagines that the White Shepherd of Christiandom ignores the cur- rents of ecclesiastical, or even political, social, and industrial thought in the United States, he is less conversant with the universality of the Church and the universal character of the information reaching the Holy Father than is at all to his credit. It is not impossible indeed that Rome may know considerably more about the critic's own personality than he is aware of or can conceive to be likely. To broach another phase of our subject: thoroughgoing loyalty is due to the Church not only when she is exercising her potestas magis- terii, — preaching Christ's doctrines, denouncing heresies, and settling disputes on matters of faith; not only when she is showing forth her potestas jurisdictionis,— in governing the faithful, in lay- ing down laws and watchidg over the manner in which they are observed, and in punishing trans- gressors; but 'Iso when she is exercising her potestas ordinis in offering the holy sacrifice of the Mass, in administering sacraments and using sacramentals. Discussing the Liturgy, the Rev. Dr. Scannell (in "The Pnest's Studies") says : "I take it for granted that a priest will say his Mass, recite his Office, and administer the Sacraments with due attention to all the regulations pre- scribed by the Church." Is it uncharitable to sug- gest that there are some priests concerning whom 14 210 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES i ■ mm m J e m he is taking too much for granted? "All the regu- lations prescribed by the Church" is a compre- hensive phrase, and includes a number of minor points and niceties of rubrical requirements, be- lief in the universal carrying out of which implies an unusually optimistic temperament. If we sup- pose a priest to be thoroughly loyal to the Church, obeying her every behest not merely with fidelity but with superadded love, then indeed we may look for the most exact observance of all her rites and ceremonies ordained by her, and look, too, for a full knowkdge of the history and syml lism of those rites and ceremonies, as for an adequate appreciation of their meaning and their beauty. Can it be truthfully affirmed that such loyalty is the rule, rather than the exception, among the priests of our acquaintance? Does the average cleric with whom we habitually come in contact manifest almost scrupulous care in obeying the least of the rubrics, in observing the minor de- tails of the multipUed rites and ceremonies in- volved in the celebration of Mass or in the ad- ministration of the Sacraments? And can he give you offhand either an illuminating explanation of their significance or an intelligent summary of their history? Yet to ask this much from a com- missioned officer in the Church's army is surely not to make an exorbitant demand on his time or good-will. "Wherever," writes Father Miiller, "there are love and reverence, we may feel as- sured, not only of a perfect acquaintance with the symbolism of the holy rites and holy vestments, but of that profound attention and devotion which ^-'Mi LOYALTY TO MOTHER CHURCH 211 the august Sacrifice should demand and inspire." And the same author asks the entirely pertinent questions: "Have I entertained for the rubrics and ceremonies the respect due to the divine au- thority from which they emanate and to the ob- ject for which they have been ordained? Have I shown this respect by studying them and com- mitting them to memory and by observing them faithfully? If it is a shame for a soldier not to know the rules of military drill; if it is a disgrace for a person of high standing not to be acquainted with the rules of etiquette, it is certainly a greater shame for a priest not to know the rubrics re- specting the proper behavior in the sanctuary, and the dispensation of the divine mysteries." If ignorance of the rubrics be, as the author just quoted says with truth, shameful in a priest, non-observance of rubrics which he knows is as- suredly not less reprehensible. Yet it is hardly a phenomenal occurrence for a priest to neglect a minor, or supposedly minor, prescription of the rubrics, on the plea ofttimes that it is purely di- rective, and consequently does not oblige under pain of sin. Needless to say such a plan elim- inates at once any question of loyalty to the Church. If love of cur Spiritual Mother enters, as we have said, into our conception of priestly loyalty to her and to her ordinances, there can be no degree of the noble quality in him who grudgingly gives her only that amount of serv- ice which he cannot withhold without incurring the displeasure of God. What would be said of the loyalty of a mere human friend whose af- 212 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES I* fection or esteem was measured by a similar scale, whose friendliness bore a direct proportion to his own interest, and ceased when that inter- est was in any degree endangered? Genuine love does not act in this calculating manner; it gives unstintedly of its service, and joys in the giving. And not until we love the Church in verity and in deed, envisaging her as our most lovable and gracious Mother who is forever lavishing upon us, her chosen sons, the choicest favors and blessings, shall we acquit ourselves with even approximate worthiness of the various daily duties she assigns to us in virtue of her potestas ordin's, not until then shall we perform \he august functions of cel- ebrating her adorable Sacrifice and administer- ing her grace-laden Sacraments with congruous reverence, completeness, and exactitude. Mere lip-loyalty to Mother Church and her visible head on earth is as easy as it is inadequate. Any one of us can sound their praises in grandilo- quent phraseology in a special sermon on the feast of Pentecost or at a corner-stone laying or a dedication, just as we can expatiate at length on their glorious prerogatives and their magnifi- cent services to humanity, should we be called on to respond to a toast in their honor, or to prepare a conference-paper on the subject; but heart- loyalty implies far more than such occasional ex- pressions of fidelity and allegiance. It is a perma- nent fire illuming and warming our habitual everyday existence, permeating each of our priest- ly activities, and radiating its beneficent influ- ence on all with whom we come in contact. It LOYALTY TO MOTHER CHURCH 213 manifests itself in a hundred diverse ways, — in the interest we express in all that relates to the Church's larger affairs, and in the pains we take to have our people contribute generously to the Peter's Pence and collections for the seminary and the missions; in the protests we voice against unjust encroachments on the rights of the Vatican, and in the zeal we display in fostering the growth of the Catholic press; in the building of church or school or convent for the extension of religious work, and in the care with which we observe each little rubric in saying Mass or reciting the office; in our public denunciation of professed enemies of the Faith, and in our private remonstrance to a brother priest who speaks with undue levity of Rome's policy and tactics; in our untiring efforts to make our parishioners genuinely worthy chil- dren of Holy Church, and especially in our per- severing daily and hourly endeavors to intensify our personal interior life and attain a more and more intimate union with God. XIII y THE VIOLET STOLE Wiiose sins you ibftU forgive, thoy are forgiven them.— St. John: XX, tS. If we had good confeuora everywhere, we would soon aee a complete reform in the world. — Pope Piu» V. Aa when a cautious mother deems her boy In peril of a fall, she loudly chides, Yet when he falls full quickly lifts him up, Prompt pardon grants unto the weeping child, And fondly kisses all his tears away; So let the priest rebuke each erring one, Yet kindly lift the sinner fallen low. To fall but human is; to rise, divine: Who stretches forth in love a helping hand To raise the prostrate doth an angers part. So wish, BO order I, the clergy's Queen, That pastors ever greet with kindly yearning Eaeh truant member to the 'old returning. — From the Latin 0/ Father Alieeri, C. M. NO man cares to be told that in the estimation of his fellows he is inclined to take himself too seriously. The implicatiou that he cherishes an altogether exaggerated sense of his own im- portance and deems himself a considerably more potent factor in the effective control and smooth running of the world in general and his own town, city, or State in particular than is really the case is a blow to his vanity, that unlovely qual- ity or character which a contemporary essayist declares to be as common as fingers. It is ques- tionable, however, whether taking one's self too seriously is on the whole eithe so grave or so prevalent a fault as is the opposx characteristic 214 THE VIOLET STOLE 215 of taking one's self too flippantly. There can be no doubt indeed that most men do not take seri- ously enough into consideration the influence, good or bad, of their individual example among those with whom they habitually come in con- tact And it is equally indubitable that some men are endowed with powers so extraordinary and entrusted with functions so sublime that it is difficult to conceive of their attaching undue im- portance to their responsibilities. In so far as the clergy are concerned, it is probable that the aver- age priest is so little prone to take himself and his various duties too seriously that he may well be reminded from time to time of the incompara- ble dignity of his calling and the danger of his taking all too lightly the various tremendously important duties connected therewith. In the matter of the violet stole, for instance, does the ordinary pastor who spends a consider- able number of hours per week, if not per day, in the confessional, habitually take thought of the transcendant import of the function of which he acquits himself as often as he puts that stole upon his shoulders and sits down to listen to the penitent sinners who come to him as the direct and divinely delegated representative of God Himself? Does he sufficiently often recall the awful reverence and impressive solemnity of his sentiments on that fateful morning when he felt the ordaining bishop's hands upon his head and heard the prelate say: "Receive the Ho?y Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained?" Does he, occasionally, at least, divest 216 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ".J his mind of routinism or automatism, dip below the surface of his more or less frivolous thoughts, and meditate in all serio >css his prerogative of forgiving sins? His exert* sing the prerogative is an ordinary, everyday, commonplace occurrence; and for that very reason he is all the more apt to minimize its gravity and lose sight of the fact that it is not less marvelous *Van it is common. The more one ponders over the absolving power vested in the priest and weighs its full im- port and extent, the more one is impressed with the magnitude of the responsibility as well as the dignity of our vocation, and the less danger one runs of incurring the anathema, Maledictus qui facit opus Dei negligenter. Small wonder that the unbelieving Scribes, when they saw that power exercised by the first Christian Priest in favor of the man sick with the palsy, exclaimed : "He blasphemethi Who can forgive sins, but God only?" If one of us, by merely raising his hand in blessing, could transform a dreary tract of sodden quagmire or marsh into a flower garden of surpassing loveliness, or change with equal fa- cility a foul cesspool into a sparkling fountain of living water, there is no question that we our- selves and all who might witness our act would be stupendously impressed by the sight; yet we are fully aware that such a transformation would be incomparably less wonderful than the change actually wrought in the sinner when the priest pronounces the words of absolution, and the soul, blacker than ebony or coal, is forthwith made whiter than the lily or the driven snow. The beneficiary of a powerful agent is per- THE VIOLET STOLE 217 haps more likely to appreciate the power at its proper worth than is the agent himself, who ex- ercises it as a matter of course and in a manner possibly more perfunctory than earnest; and ac- cordingly the average priest may more accurate- ly estimate the surpassing value of absolution in the r61e of penitent than in that of confessc r. Let us take a concrete case. Suppose the reader of this page, a priest, has the misfortune to fall a victim within the next twenty-four hours to a serious accident or a fatal epidemic. You are taker to a hospital, are examined, and are told as mercifully as may be that your course is run, that your life is rapidly ebbing away, that in an hour or two at the latest you will have breathed your last. Fast on that terrifying information there comes (to suppose the improbable) the ap- palling thought that you are guilty of at least one mortal sin. Now, more than ever before in life, you need the exercise of some beneficent power to relieve the anguish of your soul. Who will supply it? Who, be its agent? In the estimation of our twentieth-century world, the pre-eminent power on earth is wealth. Well, let there come to your bedside the moneyed men of your district, the millionaires of your State, or the multi-millionaires,— Rothschilds, Camegies, and Rockefellers,— of international re- nown. And what can they do for you? Remove, it may be, some minor care by assuring you that some dependent of yours will be provided for; but in the matter of your one overwhelming woe! they can do absolutely nothing. What of the civil power of organized society? Let there be II '■ ■>? 218 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES brought into your chamber of death the mayor of your city, the governor of your State, the pre»- ident of the Republic: and what can they do for you? The governor and president have, it it true, in certain conjunctures, the power of life and death. They can pardon the perpetrators of death-deserving crimes against State or federal laws; but with regard to the pardon for which you are longing with an agony of desire, they are as impotent as a babe in arms. **Knowledge is power,** declare the advocates of human learning. So be it. Let there come to your death -bed the most erudite scholars, the most eminent scientists, the subtlest philosophers, the sub- limest poets, the very master-minds of the world in literature, art, and science,— and what can they do for you? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Let there enter representatives of a different class,— pious. God-fearing neighbors, venerable Religious Brothers many of wnose faith-ruled, unobtrusive, hidden lives are among the sweetest poems that humanity sings to its Maker; or the most saintly of those holy Sisters whose virginal hearts are so often crystal chalices brimming over with the consecrated nectar of love divine, — and what can these do for you? Something at least. They can pray for you, can beg God's mercy on your terrified soul; but that is all. The one tre- mendous burden of sin under which you are weighed down they are utterly powerless to re- move. Turn from earth to Heaven. Let the miraculous occur, saints and angels entering your chamber. Let your eyes behold the great pre- THE VIOLBT STOLE 319 cunor of Our Lord, him of whom ChrUt Hlm- ■elf said : **Ameii, I lay to you, amongst those that are bom of woman, there is not a greater than John the BapUst." Near him let there stand the foster-father of Jesus, the patron of a happy death. St. Joseph. Near him again let there be the mightiest of the angeUc hosts, the Archangels Michael and Gabriel and Raphael. Once more, what can these do for you? Nothing diflferent in kind from what your earthly friends can do. They can pray that your sins may be forgiven, but to forgive them is beyond the power of the greatest of them all. Nay, let there join the group around your death-couch the peerless Queen of saints and angels, the Immaculate Mother of God, herself. Not even she can do more than pray, than inter- cede for your pardon. Powerful, almost all- powerful as is her intercession, sUll it is inter- cession only: she cannot remit your sins. And now, mto that "h amber where the repre- sentatives of all this varied power and might stand helpless to render you the one service of which you are in such awful need, let there come one of your brother priests. Let him be, if you will, the youngest in years, the least prepossessing in features, the most deficient in culture, the most wanUng in natural ability and acquired science, and even the least noted for piety of all the eighteen thousand clerics scattered through this country,— and what can he do for you? Ah rather, what can he not do for you? With the light of hope transfiguring your visage, vo , whis- per a few words into his ear; and raising nis hand 220 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES above you, he says, not "I will pray God to remit your sins," not "I will beseech our Heavenly Father to pardon your transgressions;" but, with the tranquil assurance of conscious power: "I ab- solve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." At his wondrous word your burden vanishes, death is robbed of its terrors, and your soul goes confident- ly forth to meet its Judge, for you know that your sins are as certainly forgiven as if that very Judge, Jesus Christ Himself, stood at your side, and per- sonally assured you of His pardon. Yes, this power ovet the mystic body of Our Lord which we exercise in the confessional is a truly marvelous one, and there is little danger of our exaggerating the care and attention and earnestness with which we habitually acquit our- selves of so really Godlike a function. The genu- ine danger is all the other way; that we may come to regard the hearing of confessions simply as an unavoidable and unwelcome part of our day's work, may perform the work in a hurried, per- functory, or careless fashion, may even neglect to take the proper means of fitting ourselves for the adequate and effective administration of the sacrament of penance. And just here it may be well to remark that the mere fact of our having passed successful examinations in moral theology before we were ordained and annually for five years after our ordination, or our having pos- sessed "faculties" and exercised the ministry of the stole for fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years, do not of themselves constitute unimpeachable THE VIOLET STOLE 221 guaraHoes that we are as well versed in theo- be /?' ^'"? ' P""^^P^es «f moral theology may dDlertn ',^"* '^' application of thosfprin^ causes iVn? """f/ ^°^"^*' "«"^»y «f Particular cases IS not a matter to be mastered by an ordi- na^ mmd m a three, four, or six years' cou^e Th: rariHhrt''" r 't °"^'^ ^'^'y *-"«- studv n / ? ' .""^^'' *^^ P"^«t keeps up his study not only of moral theology itself but of other branches of theological sciLe as well h. ycardefeT- "'^^V° '^^""'^ ^ *^ ^ «"- o knowlpdf ' ""^^^'^ **^«° proficient in the tent. To °^ experience in hearing peni- Ihot- ^ 7^^ "^"^ ^"^r^^^e one's aptitude in theology IS merely a matter of common sensTan o any reader who peruses a few pages of nnm!^ ter what volume of "Cases of ConsSe " "'*" Instead of relying on the store of theological knowledge acquired in the seminarv the iudirl.? clmc. and more especially the cle^i whrhtbUu! f7 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ally exercises the ministry of the stole, does as does the conscientious physician or lawyer,— he keeps himself posted on the latest developm nts of his special science. He not only re-reads old theologies and new, but he subscribes for and at- tentively peruses such periodicals as professedly deal with sacerdotal science in general and moral questions in particular. We all know the dictum of St. Alphonsus, "Nullus confessarius intermit- tere debet theologiae moralis studium," and mort priests who follow his advice will acknowledge that such study is necessary not only to learn what we have never known but to recall what we may have forgotten. In declaring, a few moments ago, that the judicious cleric reads and re-reads old theologies and new, we had in mind a reflec- tion made by a writer whose long years on the mission entitle him to some prestige as a prac- tical adviser on priestly topics. Canon Keatinge. He says: "The most recent books appeal to us most strongly. The more nearly a book ap- proaches our own time the more readily is it like- ly to appreciate the particular form of difficulty which besets us, and its answer tends to satisfy us, not necessarily because it is more lax, but be- cause it grasps better a situation that did not ex- ist when the older theologians wrote. Hence, while I should take my principles from the giants of theology— De Lugo, St. Thomas, Suarez— I am inclined to seek at the lips of the latest of their disciples who can get an imprimatur the practical application of these principles to our present needs.** THE VIOLET STOLE 223 aged confessor u needed to convince him that . m today which in their present specific form did not e„st when he left the seminary; and wlule It IS true that their solution evei ually waf tht '"«** «'"«"" P"-'?'- in which he was then proficient, he would he perhaps rather rash than prudent to trust to his peLnaTappUc" Uon of those principles instead of consulUng an- ?n« The h.^ "'"' ""?? «""•<=<• "y '"eir tfach- n.t 7 . •""'"«» wo'ld. for instance, with its new developments in speculation, its dealings in options and '-futures;" the complicated quesUons involved m fire and life insu^nce; the many! aided issues arising from the ever-varying re"a- mat. , need specialized treatoient by a thorough- "y ' ! theological expert in order that thev r„7. V -'^V'"'- to the ordinary priest whols ?e«ionarVh"" ""•"*' '" "» °°«« ""he con! fessional. There are, too, new Bulls and Decrees by Sovereign PonUfTs, decisions by Roman Co^ e^run^^re't r"' "'■""'""^ »'an?rn"ed°o"; expert mtei^jretation-recent matrimonial leaisla- hon for instance-and as the confessor is oSd in conscience to know their correct meanin. h. must obviously seek the sources, ieXoZcal periodicals, in which that meaning 1, set fort* «„„ r"!? f /"=*"' ••«««»• «h« Sacra 7n-den. Una Synodui of the Sacred Congregation of ih,. uecember, 1905. is perhaps as revoluUonar^ a ?,; M iff 224 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES piece of legislation affecting the confessor as has been enacted in centuries. Its declarations con- cerning frequent and daily Communion, with the subsequent provisions regarding the Communion of children, postulate a somewhat radical de- parture from the practice hitherto advocated by pastors or obtaining among their parishioners. It is not at all surprising that, among the first re- flections made by the parochial clergy on reading the decree was the thought: "That means an enormous increase in my work;" nor will it be considered very uncharitable to suggest that pos- sibly that same consideration explains why not all pastors evince noticeably zeal in adviting their flocks to accede to the desire of the Sovereign Pontiff by approaching the Holy Table several times a week if not every day. That multiplied Communions presuppose multiplied confessions, necessitating a considerable number of hours daily in the confessional, may seem at first blush a mere truism, but in reality it is merely a specious fallacy. The zealous pastor who is never weary of counselling his people to acquire the habit of daily Communion may very properly ac- company his counsel with the correct doctrine and practice as to the preliminary confession re- quired therefor. By dint of reiterating the truth that sacramental confession is necessary only when the penitent is guilty of a mortal sin, and that one may congruously approach the Holy Table every day while going to confession only every week, or even more rarely, he will ultimate- ly impress upon their mintls the fact that their THE VIOLET STOLE 225 previous noUons on the subject were quite .s ror/lacTor" *'"^ ^'^^^ eoncerni„,rsu;! posed lack of reverence manifested in the fre- quent reception of Holy Communion. To object that "You can't cet it into fs« .. pie's heads that it is right to U to th^r'^ munion rail without havifg that'Lln'; or X" evening b fore at the furthest, paid a visif to nh o? :*., 'J? "''''"'^ *^^ "^^d people of a degree t^m« f t? ""^y °^ *^°"rs" take some little habU o' T"i *' "^ *^^™^^^^^« «^ th-^- form r ?ust as U h«f rT°* P"^" *° ^^^^ Communion! ie over their r^ ?' '' *"^^"« '^' ^°^ ^^em to freoulmiv thl '°'" *° communicate more irequently than once a month or once a week- rl *^f^^«° ^^ no question that whe^ the Church's docti-ine on the matter is cllarlv ex cond t^ *" *^'™ "^**^ «"^^ insistence as Ve^' conduct seems to call for. they will make the r practice conform thereto. At the samTtime the ^ea 0U3 pastor should make it abundant^ clear 226 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES (, i ■' :■!;■ , to say that of all offices the office of confessor is the most important as well as the most difficult. And yet there are times when the personal equation should be taken account of, even if, on the surface, the confessor appears to be consult- ing his own comfort and ease rather than the need or convenience of his people. Every priest knows, and every writer on the priesthood admits, that to remain in the confessional listening uninter- ruptedly to penitents for five or six consecutive hours, or longer, is a wearisome ordeal for both mind and body. Those priests who give missions in large parishes can best testify to the genuine hardship of the work; and > most clerics have had sufficient experience with Christmas, Easter, First Friday, and Forty Hours confessions to cor- roborate their testimony. Now, while there may be no particular reason why priests should not have occasional periods of hard work, there is nothing gained by such a prolongation of ex- haustive labor as lessens their efficiency in the performance of that work. With all due submis- sion to older and wiser heads, the present writer ventures the opinion that, in the interests of the penitents themselves, however great the crowd of them may be, the confessor should, at inter- vals of two and a half or three hours, interrupt his work for the space of fifteen or twenty min- utes in order to go outside and take a welcome dose of fresh air. The apparent loss of time re- sulting from such a practice would be apparent only; in reality the quantity of his work would be very little, if at all, diminished, and its quality would very certainly be considerably improved. i f I I THE VIOLET STOLE 227 ^^nu^7 °-^*^ ^^^^ ^^ «°y ^^«'' *h«t the people would misunderstand such action or attribute nsX^sr If*th" f'^" ^ «^°"^°^ -°*-"'^^ inspires it If the leader of the missionary band d[v and^'n?' fit' P^"^*^ "°"^^ announce s^^ ply and plainly that, in order to secure the best possible results and give thoroughly efficient se^ ice. the confessors would limit their continuous hearing to two or three hours and resume t after aTr iorTJ °' «"-^--tes spent in the open illness andT^^r/^ preventing headaches L dullness and lassitude, the innovation would prob- f m^n Fp J philosophy of the matter is that hn?.T' ^^ confessor or other intellectual la- borer, can do more and better work when he is wherh'e ir t're^ ^^' T' ^"^^«°^«*^^' '^- wnen he is tired and nearly exhausted. Applied on a smaller scale, it is the philosophy of The dfs ^nguished physician who declares" "It is poS^ ble to do a year's work in ten months, and^pe^- twelve" aTL'"* i* ^^":* P^^^^^^y b^ ^ o-^n iweiye. As against such philosophv and thp prac ical application we have maSe of "t th pastor 17rZZl''' '^"'"P^^ °^ th«t ^-emplary ekrMJ:n I""^ ^ ^'^' ""^^ ^^^"^^ confessions fZ eighteen or twenty hours daily; but the Vener able Vianney was an exceptional pastor in a flood fessional. and which is more imitable by toe con^ !l 228 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES fessors of our day than is his practically continu- ous wearing of the violet stole, was his gentle- ness and patience with his penitents. If there is one place in the church wherein, more than in any other, the priest should show himself in very deed and truth "another Christ,"— kind and merciful and benignant and long-suffering — it is assuredly the confessional. There, if anywhere, he should appear in the character or guise (even if it has to be assumed) of a veritable man of God, the direct and specific representative of God Himself. Clothed with the violet stole, the pastor who may be, by nature, of an irascible, harsh, un- sympathetic temperament, is bound to do violence to his nature and, for the nonce at least, manifest unvarying amiability and patience. It is gratify- ing to know that, in actual practice, such curb- ing of one's natural propensities is common. Many a pastor has the reputation of being rather forbidding and stern in all other circumstances, but kind and gentle to his penitents, — a lion in the house or ofiBce, a lamb in the confessional. Obviously there may be extremes of compla- cency, even to penitents; firmness as well as kindness must be shown; but one point of which the confessor should never lose sight is that, ultra- exceptional cases apart, the verj' presence of the penitent in the confessional is presumptive evi- dence of the worthiness, or at least the quasi- worthiness, of his dispositions. The average sinner who kneels at the feet of a priest is in very truth a bruised reed, and the priest may well remember that it was prophesied of Christ, whose place he THE VIOLET STOLE 229 is taking and whose power he is wielding- "The bruised reed he shall not break." Not bruised reeds, however, but rather up- right and sweet-scented grass-blades form thn bulk of the material with which the ordinary con- fessor has to do, especially in these days of fre- quent a Id duily Communion. Confessions of de- voUon rather than of necessity were always com- mon m the history of the Church, and henceforth presumably will be even more multiplied than ever. One obvious reflection which accordinclv presents itself is that the words of instruction or encouragement given to the individual penitent in these devotional confessions should be brief much briefer as a rule than those addressed to the penitent who has accused himself of grievous sms. It may perhaps be imprudent to make a pracUce of merely giving absolution and impos- mg a penance, but on the other hand there is wisdom m this counsel of a writer whom we have already quoted: "At all times mere common- places of piety are useless. Let us speak by all means if we have something to say. but not mere- ly to say something." In declaring that our words on such occasions should be briefer than to peni- tents who have confessed grievous sins, we used above the qualifying phrase "as a rule." for it must be borne in mind that some purely devo- tional penitents look for. and have a right to ex- pect, fuller advice or instruction or admonition !h?M " "^u ° **"" '^"''"°" '"" o^ o"r spiritual children They are those who are making dis- tmct and energetic eflForts to advance in the way -II H 3,; 280 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES of Christian perfection and who consequently seek skilled guidance along the various avenues of the interior life. Properly to aid such souls the confessor needs to be conversant with the principles of ascetical theology and to have at least a fair working- knowledge of the manner in which those princi- ples should be applied to concrete cases. And here we touch again on the competency of the priest adequately to exercise the function of the violet stole. Is the average reader of these pages so thoroughly versed in ascetical theology that it would be a mere waste of time for him to devote an occasional hour or two to a review of its prin- ciples? Possibly he in. If indeed there be no exagg&:aMon in the statement, regarding the con- fessor'., iitness, which I find in a brochure pub- lished four or five years ago, our "possibly" may be replaced by "probably." Of the confessor in general the brochure says: "He spends many years in preparation for his priestly office. He studies philosophy, dogmatic, scientific, and moral theology; but, above and beyond all this, he studies mystic and ascetical theology, which evr ry confessor must know according to the spiritual wants of his penitents." Let us trust that the lat- ter half of the foregoing sentence is literally true of present-day theological students, and that those of us whose knowledge of ascetics has been ac- quired rather incidentally than otherwise may avow ourselves not too old to learn and forthwith set about attaining quantum sufficit for the intelligent direction of souls w^henever we don the violet stole. XIV AT THE CLERICAL CLUB -C?S/?XrJ. '"*'■ ^ "•" "^ «««'' "•" y«»'" «-»Jft.. .V- J^i^'U* "y J«y. th»t you be of one mind, havins the iune «h«rity. being of one Mcord. agreeing i„ «e'ntiment.-P«Wp IN more than one respect the Dors club is a t somewhat peculiar association. To begin wth membershp therein is restricted not only to pnests but to such priests as actually are, or formerly have been, pastors or assistants at St. Joseph s Church in an American city whose name really doesn't matter, although readers who like definite termmology may call it. if they will Anyopolis. In the second place, the association has no fixed and determined club-house or club- rooms; its meetings are held in any one of half a dozen dilTerent rectories. Its favorite habitat, to be sure, is Father John Regan's smoking-room m M. Josephs parish-house; out a majority vote of the members at one meeting may decide that the next one shall be held in the rectory of either PvpILi ^'".l' ^^*^'" ^^"^ "«««"' Consignor Eversley. Father Larry Dempsey. or any other member resident in the city. There are no initia- tion fees, and no annual or monthly dues; there IS no written constitution and no fixed by-law, if 231 III 232 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES i! we except a custom that has come to have a quasi-legal force: any member may, without vio- lation of "good form," contribute from time to time to the common stock of smoking material a box of his favorite brand of cigars or a tin of his best-loved mixture,— Craven. Arcadia, or other. As for the name of the Club, invidious out- siders have been known to suggest that Dors is merely an inflection of the French verb dormir, to sleep, and add that it is peculiarly significant of the Club's principal business. Others derive the word from dorsal or dorse, and assert that it is indicative of the bacjcward or reactionary tendency of the Club's members. Neither ex- planation, 'tis needless to say, is correct. When the charter members of the association were de- liberating as to the specific name that should be given to it. Father Dempsey had urged the adop- tion of as comprehensive a designation as pos- sible, one that would cover all topics that might come up for discussion,— theological, philosoph- ical, literary, scientific, artistic, political, com- mercial, or any other kind. "In that case," com- mented Father John, "we had better call it the De Omni Re Scibili Club;" and forthwith the title which Pico of Mirandola gave to one of his multi- tudinous theses became the accepted cognomen of the associated clerics of St. Joseph's. Being rather cumbersome for common use, the title was speedily reduced to the "D.O.R.S. Club," and this in turn gave way to the present simplified form, the Dors Club. Conformably to its name, the AT THE CLERICAL CLUB 233 Club considers no subject foreign to its delibera- tions; but as the main purpose of the association is recreaUve, it was unanimously resolved, in ihe autumn of 1914. that all war-talk should be tat)ooed at its meetings. These useful preliminary notions being given, the reader is invited to attend a session of the Uub in Father John's smoking-room,-or part of a session, rather, as conversation has been going on for some time already when we make our en- trance. The direct dialogue form is adopted as toeing clearer and more vivacious than the indi- rect narrative style. ^''l^F?^'"'*':' ^° y°" ''^^"y **»»nk. Father Larry, that the slogan. "See America first," may well be disregarded by priests who have an oppor- tunity to travel. ^^ Fr. Dempsey. Most decidedly I do. The great objecUve point of young priests who have a vacaUon a month or two long should be Rome. Evei7 cleric who has the opportunity to do so should visit the Eternal City as soon after his ordination as possible. Several weeks spent there will, if at all judiciously employed, teach him more things about the Church-intangible, undefinable things that you simply can't cet out of books or through oral instruction, than he will acquire in a dozen vacations spent in pZf''^ ii'°™ ^"^°*« *** ^^««^«' or from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon L^ir^'n"*'- '. «™,^"i*« of your opinion, Larry Rome is really the home-citv of all ^athoU , and a priest's first visit to St. Peter's 234 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES and the Vatican is something more than a mere event,— it is a veritable epoch. As you say, too, one imbibes there knowledge unat- tainable elsewhere. The atmosphere of the city of the Popes defies analysis, but it is an atmosphere that is both singularly fascinating and wonderfully illuminative. One's mind and heart receive ineffaceable impressions, and ever afterwards the inestimable worth of our Christian heritage, the matchless sub- hmity of the one true faitii, the magnificently triumphant career of the Church throughout the centuries, and sometiiing of the significance of Uie role played by Chrises Vicars in Uie de- velopment of civilization, appeal to one wiUi a force and a vividness practicaUy unknown to those who have never visited the Eternal City. Fr. Lavers. Say, Monsignor, have another cigar. Was that spiel quoted from an old lecture or a fortiicoming book? If the latter, put me down for a copy; 'tis good stuff. Fr. John. Tommy, boy, close your irreverent lips, and have some respect for your elders. As one of them, let me add my advice to all you younger men who as yet are strangers to Rome : get there as soon as you can. Fr. Galligan. Like a whole lot of advice, Father John, that counsel is a good deal easier for you pastors to give than for us assistants to follow. Unless there is a notable— and altogether un- expected—rise in my salary, I fail to see how It will be practicable for me to make a trip to Rome for a dozen years to come. AT THE CLERICAL CLUB 235 a^Zt ^- 7'"' ^ ^'"* ^" °^y ^°"'* year as assistant; and our salaries twenty years ago were even less than you fellows get to-day todar'**' ^"* *^^''^'' ""^ ^'*^^'* ''''* ^"^ ^^"^^"^ Fr.Dempsey. Which is nullified by your in- creased salaries; and there's the cost of higher hvmg which it is quite within your compScy to cut down very considerably. Dean O'Reilly. Even so, Father Dempsey. it a^- pea« to me that you must have been phe- nomenally economical to save, in three or four years as assistant, enough to defray the expenses of a European trip. May I ask how you managed it? ''J «»«^ now \^^"^P'ey Quite simply, and without depriv- iolJ"^'' ^rS^ f°y °^ ^'^^'^ essentials, or even comfor.. To begin with, instead of invesJng half or quarter of my salary in a private H sS^cTThi^dM,"^"^ r°'* ^^^^ «*"^"^- since I had the ran of good old Father Mc- Govera-^God rest his charitable soullll de- posited every quarter at least some amount in a Savings Bank. Instead of paying five or . SIX dollar a pair for the latest fting fn shoe" I paid only two or three for foot-gear norDer- haps so styUsh but quite decent, fully as com- fortable, and considerably more se'^iceab" A^for In.ol,-''" "■;<•. «'°^«- 'hirts and sock l' As for smokmg, a briar pipe and ordinary to- bacco formed the rule; cigars were th7et cepUon. and when I did buy a box, they were of the nickel variety, not the ten-cMt braTd? 1 If' ■■• 1 1 i i 236 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES •>'!i t .1 These and the like economies, — ^saving car- fare, for instance, by habitual walking, mount up more rapidly than you may imagine. In any case, in three years and a half my Bank account was amply large enough to allow me a two months' sojourn in Europe,— and I didn't go across in the steerage, either. Fr. Lavers. Bully for you. Father Larry! Here's a lad who is going to do likewise. Dean, if you are still fortunate enough to have me as one of your assistants three years from now, will you kindly make a note of it that I expect two months oflF in June, 1923, for a trip to Rome? Dean O'Reilly. If the Bishop hasn't compassion on me before that date. Father Tom, I'll wel- come the opportunity to send you oh your travels, never fear. Fr. O'Connor. You had an audience with Leo XIII. on the occasion of that first visit of yours, hadn't you. Father Larry? Fr. Dempsey. Yes; but that's an old story and a long one, too. I'm not going to monopolize the conversation this evening. Fr. Lavers. That reminds me of a saying of Dean Swift's that I saw quoted the other day. Apro- pos of conversation, he said: 'Take as many half minutes as you can get, but never talk more than half a minute without pausing and giving others an opportunity to strike in." Fr. John. Very good, Tommy, and, as your half minute is up, allow me to strike in by asking Father Dempsey what language he spoke in conversing with the Holy Father. AT THE CLERICAL CLUB 237 Fr Dempsey. I feU back on my French, such of It as I had picked up during my seminary days in Montreal. Twas a good thing I did. too; for Uie experience of two young pastors from Pittsburg who had just preceded me at the feet of the Pope showed pretty clearly that Amer- icanized Latin was practically unintelligible at the Vatican. Mgr. Eversley. I had just the same experience; and ever since, I have been a firm advocate of the teaching of the Italian pronunciation of Latin m our seminaries. Dean O'Reilly. But hasn't it h-en proved that the really correct pronunciation of that language 18 the "old Roman," with the hard g's and c's,- Prokedamus in pake, Sancta Kikilia, etc ? Mgr. Eversley, As for the historical, gram- mabcal, or logical correctness of the pronun- ciation. I don't profess any competency to judge; but as for the expediency of teaching our young clerics the only pronunciation like- ly to be of use to them if they are ever called upon to speak Latin at all, it seems to me that the case for the Italian method is self-evident. JT^"""' Your view is coincided in by some Mn M ^^^^*'' ?{^^' *^°"°*^ «°d Canada, m«d!^?hTT ^ ^^""^ ^'^'■^ *«* '^^'^^^ have made the Itahan pronunciation compulsory in their seminaries. ^ ^'J^aZ' ^f"«^^°« °^ boots-yoaV/ under- stand the allusion, Dempsey-have any of you chaps heard of the good joke played on our new Monsignor, Charlie Bradley. 238 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES 11 ''J •■: f ' 1^ 1 i Ik. Fr. John. I haven't, for one; what is it? Fr. Hogan. Well, the morning the papers pub- lished the news of the distinction that had come to Bradley, his friend Father Kevin, President of St. Isidore's, sent him a wire. Kevin wrote the message: "Cordial congratu- lations. You adorn the purple," and the in- spired Western Union operator sent it: "Cor- dial congratulations. You adore the purple.** Not bad, eh? Fr. McGarrigle. Has it ever occurred to any of you reverend gentlemen that, if Rome keeps up the present rate of multiplying Monsignors, a black cassock will be a parity in the course of tv.ro or three decades? It isn't considered good form nowadays, apparently, for an ordi- nary to visit the Holy See without recommend- ing three or four of his pastors for the purple. Fr. havers. That's right, George. It looks as though it will soon be in order to say of U.S. piiests and the Monsignorship what Mark Twain said of Frenchmen and the Cross of the Legion of Honor: "Very few of them escape it." Fr. John. Well, neither of you two need enter- tain any serious fear of being obliged to change your cassock's color. Given that our Bishop retains his normal good sense, both of you may consider yourselves immune. Dean O'Reilly.. Seriously though, Father John; don't you think that the purple is becoming so common that a good deal of the prestige once attached to it is vanishing? It certainly AT THE CLERICAL .CLUB 239 doesn t mean to me nowadays as much as it did fifteen years ago when our friend Eversley here was invested with it. Fr. John. Seriously, then, I don't think it has be- come a bit too common. I have heard some disgruntled clerics make the statement that not one in twelve of the recent recipients of the honor possesses any genuine disUnction of character or conduct to justify his being set aside and above his brother priests; but I can- didly doubt whether there be one in twelve of them who lacks such distinction. As for the men who tell you— of course I don't count you among them, O'ReiUy-that, since every clerical Tom. Dick, and Harry is becoming a Monsignor. tiiey wouldn't accept tiie titie if proffered them, I question whether one in a hundred is really sincere. In any case the most of them would jump at the chance to accept tiie purple, and I think I know one or two whose delight in Uie honor would be so unfeigned that they'd not only wear the pur- ple cassock by day, but would don purple pajamas at night. Fr. Hogan. A spectacle for men and angels, that: outdoing the show of Father Laurier. Fr. Dempsey. What was Uiat, Tim? I don't re- member hearing about it. Fr. Hogan. Just an announcement that a French pnest, doing duty in an English parish, made one Sunday at high Mass. It was about a Holy Name parade in which he himself was to take part. He urged all the members of Uie Society % 240 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES . J t '.I to be present; and, waxing eloquent as he pro- ceeded, exclaimed: "Yes, my friends, we will make one grand show, one magnificent show; we will make one holy show of ourselves." Fr. Lavers. It must have been Fat er Laurier who as a boy in college, in replj to a class- mate's threat that he'd knock his block oflf, pas- sionately declared: "You can't do it; that'g what you are !" Fr. Hogan. Well! well! Talk about the associa- tion of ideas and the peculiarities of the fac- ulty we call memory: do you know, that in- stance of broken English has dragged up from the bottom of the well of my memory, or "for- gettery," an incident I haVen't thought of con- sciously for twenty-five years. As you all know, I attended a Canadian college whose Superior's command of English wasn't exactly perfect. The choicest specimen of it that ever amused me in those days was his remark to Dan McCabe at a Christmas midnight Mass. Dan was a big awkward omadhaun of a fellow in Minor Orders, who was serving as Sub- deacon. I was master of ceremonies, and dur- ing the Canon was congratulating myself that McCabe hadn't made any bad breaks as yet, when all at once my bold Dan (who was in his proper position, in piano), took it into his head that he ought to be alongside the cele- brant, the Superior; so up he marched, paten and all. The celebrant just glanced at him sideways, and then said in a demi-tone quite audible to all in the sanctuary: "What you AT THE CLERICAL CLUB 241 want? Go down stair." I had to take a strangle hold on my risibiliUes to keep from laughing outright. Mgr. Everstey. I remember a case in which even a strangle hold could not restrain a laugh in church. At St. Michael's college in my Ume we carried out all the ceremonies of Holy Sat- urday. The chanting of the Prophecies by the members of the staff, including seminarians or ecclesiastics," was always safe to provide a respite from the monotony of the long service; and on one occasion came near getting one of my chums, Frank Laferty, into a serious scrape. The third Prophecy had just been splendidly chanted by Mr. Lafond, a slim lit- tle fellow not more than five feet two in height, but with a fine, powerful bass voice that might have congruously come from a giant. The next chanter was a Mr. MeUott, six feet three m his vamps, and proportionately bulky. His ordinary speaking voice was of the thinnest, and his tone in chanting proved to be the merest squeak, like the cry of a captured mouse, or tfie sound of escaping gas. Accord- ingly, his In diehus illis was greeted with a broad smile from Uie students generally, and Laferty simply exploded in a veritable guffaw Fr. GalUgan. Say, FaUier John, before this tide of reminiscences becomes irresistible, I'd like you to advise me on a point about which I've been thinking a good deal of late. I have re- centiy been reading about the advantages at- tached to having a hobby; and I'd like to have If 14 9 242 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ,.f- your opinion concerning a good one to choose. Fr. John. Father Charlie, my son, if I were as young as you, I should not hesitate a moment about making my choice; my hobby would be writing. I'd write all my sermons to begin with; and then I'd try sketches, essays, ser- monettes, stories, and what not for the dioce- san paper. If they were accepted by the editor of that journal, I should offer something to more ambitious periodicals, such as our Cath- olic family magazines; and in case I made good with them, I should be emboldened to proffer an article once in a while to the ec- clesiastical monthlies. If I had the knack of rhyming, I should folloyr Silas Wegg's plan and drop into poetry occasionally, if only to increase my vocabulary. Yes; let me advise you to take up writing. Even if you have no particular taste for it, and have no style to speak of, still "go to it" One learns to write by writing; and a priest need look for no bet- ter hobby on which to spend his hours of leisure. Fr. Dempgey. Well said. Father John. I've often envied the fellows who could wield a facile and a graceful pen. Just think of the consolation one could draw from the thought that, even when the body has fallen into "the sere and yellow leaf," when a man is physically in- capable of general pastoral work, he can still profitably pass his time in writing for others from the garnered stores of his long and va- ried experience. AT THE CLERICAL CLUB 243 Dean O'ReiUy. Do you know, I've often thought that an ideal life for an old priest, one who has reached, let us say, his three score years and twenty, would be, supposing him a writer, a chaplaincy in some small convent. With only a minimum of clerical work to vary the monot- ony of life, what an amount of leisure he would have to devote to literary labors! Our old pastor is right. Father CharUe; you can't do better than make a hobby of writing. Fr. Lauers. If you genttemen will permit me to interject a purely frivolous question into your grave discourse, I should like to know which misguided member of the Club is responsible for the introduction here of this cylindrical bit of disguised alfalfa and mildewed mucilage that I've been trying to smoke for the past ten minutes. I see the legend on the box from which I took it reads "RadeUa." Who may its sponsor be? Fr. Hogan. Poor Lavers! You have so vitiated your taste with those Wiltville stogies you are accustomed to, that you can no longer recog- nize a good cigar when yo.i get one. The RadeUa is distinctly all right Ask McGarrigle if it isn't. He has embaliried its virtues in song. Fr. Lavers. He has, eh? WeU, this one tastes as though somebody had embahned it in lim- burger cheese. However, Mac, let's have the song. Fr. McGarrigle. Father Tim used "song" in the generic sense. My tribute was a limerick. i t^' 344 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES t Here it is: A cigar is nuieh like an umbrella : Till you try it, you can't always tell a Ck>od from a bad; But the best to be bad For its price is, dead sure, the Radella. Fr. Lavera. 1 see. "For its price." What i< its price, Father Tim? A dollar a thousand? Fr. John. Have done with your nonsense, Tcmmy. The cigar is a fine one: I tested it, myself. To get back to writing,— tell us, Mon- signor, you who are an author, yourself, what you consider the prime requisites for the formation of a good style. Mgr. Evertley. An exhaus^ve knowledge of Eng- lish grammar, a prolonged drilling in the con- struction of English sentences, and a wide and studious reading of the classic English authors. Fr. Dempsey. Grammar! Surely every man who has gone thro; ^ a college and a seminary knows his grammar. Mgr. Evertley. Possibly he does; bu' -i that case he occasionally fails to apply his lowledge in his speaking and writing. He .plits his in- finitives, mixes up his pronouns, misplaces his qualifying words, uses "and which" to connect one clause witii a former one that is minus any "which," and commits many another verbal crime Jiat jars on the cultural ear. Dean O'Reilly. Right you are, Monsignor. There are ore violations of grammar in the average sermon Uian is at all creditable to our clotii. Not very gross vioL-^tions, perhaps, but sole- AT THE CLERICAL CLUB 245 duns and improprieties altogether out of place in the speech of an educated man. ik^^'^k""*!'"- Oh. I don't know. It strikes me that there s not a little exaggeraUon in all this kowtowing to the arbitrary rules of gram- marians. Provided there's no possible mistak- ing a man's meaning, the main purpose of lan- guage IS served, and whether or not the hun- dred and one requirements of grammar are ob- served is. or ought to be. a negligible consider- ation. Mgr Evenley. Absurd, my dear fellow! You're talkmg nonsense. If you make clearness, or perfect lucidity, the sole requisite of speech you authorize such utterly barbarous English as. Them there cigars is certainly fine." Iheres no possible mistaking the meaning of that sentence; yet I presume you'd hardly jus- tify Ks use m the mouth of a genUeman. Pr-ffogan- Nor would O'Connor, in all proba- T S^« *"* imprimatur to the locution of good old Father Mercier who. finding the can- dles unlit just as he was going to begin Mass. hunted through aU his pockets and then turned to his congregation with the thoroughly lucid inquiry: "Nobody don't got some match?" tr. O Connor. Oh. of course you fellows have to go to extremes. Mgr. Eversley. Not at all. my dear Father. Tis your own principle that is extreme. More- over, there's a fallacy in your phrase, "the arbitrary rules of gammarians." Those rules are not the dictates of any one man or body of men; they are njerely condensed statements i 846 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES * ;.. f > ■: of the mage of educated, reputable speakers and writers. The rules were deduced from the usage, not the usage from the rules. Fr. Galligan. But, say. What about this split in- finitive business? Why isn't it just as correct to say, *To thoroughly understand the ques- tion** as to say *Thorc-^hly to understand the question?" The latter form sounds to me much stiffer, rather Mffected, in fact. Fr. John. In tlml case, you had better say, *To understpud the question thoroughly." The only reason why your first form isn't correct is that good usage condemns it, just as in another sphere it condepins blowing your nose with your fingers instead of with your hand- kerchief. Fr. Lauert. Whai will you bet me. Father John, that I can't find the split infinitive in Newman? Fr. John. Nothing doing, Tommy. I wouldn't bet, even, that Newman never used his fingers instead of his handkerchief, in a sudden emer- gency. But your question is an instance of another fallacy in the matter of good English. The fact that some construction, generally con- demned, may be found, perhaps once or twice, in Newman or Macaulay or Burke or Ruskin is no proof that the author in question consid- ered the construction good; it shows merely that "Homer sometimes nods." If you can show me that Newman habitually, or even quasi-habitually, uses the split infinitive, then indeed you will have made your point. Iso- lated cases have no argumentative value: par- um pro nihilo reputatur. AT THE CLERICAL CLUB M7 Fr. McGarrigte. Tis a good thing Father Ruddy Isn t here. If he were, we'd have nothing but grammar for the rest of the session. By the way, how is he? Has any one heard? Dean OReilly. Very poorly, I understand. Hie Chicago specialist says he has Bright's disease in a fairly advanced stagp, and 'tis doubtful whether hr will live another year. Poor Ruddy! God is ceHainly trying him. ?r- ^^^''fl'y- Why throw the responsibility on God? Granted that Ruddy is a delightful fel- low whom we all like and with whom we naturally sympathLe, there's no blinking tlit- fact that his illness i» simply the inevitable elfect of causes for which he himself i.s sole- ly responsible. How often during the past :< n yeara have we not told him that his manner Of life would surely shorten his dajw* m» physician warned him long ago that be could not with impunity continue to eat three heartv meals a day and neglect to take a fair amount of physical exercise; yet Harry kept on saUs- fymg his appetite to the full whilr remaining almost as inactive as if he were atflictod with paralysis or locomotor ataxia. Hi. present condition is surely not so much a r al from God as the unfailing punishment thai follows violation of the laws of health. This may sound rather harsh and unfeeling, but I don't mean it to be so. I like Father Ruddy very much and he has all my sympathy; but we priests are perhaps a litUe too fond of blam- ing on God all sorts of trials fitat are really 248 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES only the perfectly natural results of our own imprudence. But there: I didn't intend to preach. Father Lavers, I guess I have ex- ceeded my half minute. Hadn't you better break in? Fr. John. We had better be thinking of break- ing up. Do you see what time it is? I haven't changed my retiring hour since you boys grad- uated from St. Joseph's; so Fm going to pack the whole crowd of you oflf without further ceremony. Tommy, help yourself to the Radellas; and good-night, all. ! ' r BHti -^1 XV THE PRIEST'S EXEMPLAR «n'S"(^S.i,^.t//,! ^ y« 'o"'*-"- of me « I al«. fAJS?"*^'*!.'**^**™^' >» "^"o predeetined to bo made con- formable to the image of hU Son.— iom. viii. i9. i^v^^v* ^° J»^ *ad power-friend, 'tis meet ihat thou the fair resemblance shouldst complete. Be ttine His patient pity, love, and zeal; ae thine the wounds of aching hearts to heal- Be thine to foUow whither lost sheep roam. And bear them kindly on thy shoulders home: Be thme the Mwter's Cross with love to bear, And thine in endless life His Crown to wearl —From "Between WhUee." I T is a rather curious anomaly that the proverb, 1 "practice makes perfect,'* which we find so generally verified in the various arts of life should apparentiy altogether fail of application in the supreme art of living. Preliminary instruction, drill, and training, foUowed by years spent in the continuous exercise of any ordinary profession, busmess, or handicraft almost invariably produce both increased facility in doing one's work and notable skiU in doing it well. If an elderly law- yer or physician or artist or banker or writer or carpenter or shoemaker achieves results that im- press us as exceptionally good, a not unusual ccm- ment is: "SmaU blame to him; he's been at it all his lifel** On the oUier hand, tiie youUi and in- experience of a tyro in a profession, business, or trade we accept as a valid excuse for partial fail- 249 ? I f 5i f iiil:' f^ ^ r. .. I ^SJ^..• *' 1^^ 250 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ure in achievement. In the case of life itself, how- ever, and more specifically in the case of the in- tenor, spiritual life, a good many of us adopt a diametrically opposite standard of criticism. In the matter of piety, fervor, devotedness to duty, and exact performance of religious exercises, we often talk as if it were quite natural and alto- gether reasonable ttiat the youngest should be the best,— as if indeed the oldtime proverb needed revision and should run, "pracUce makes im- perfect" Who has not heard the zeal and enthusiasm of a youthful cleric ridicule^ and scoflfed at by an elderly brother priest ?-«Yes, yes, my dear fel- low; you are fresh from the seminary and all these lofty aims and grand ideals are doubUess very fine; but you'll soon discover that in the actual wear and tear of daily life they will prove quite too visionary and quite impracticable. Tis all very well to gaze on the mountain-tops, or to hitch your wagon to a star; but before long you will learn that after aU you have to keep your feet on the ground, and your daydreams will dissolve in the prosaic atmosphere of hard work." In much the same spirit an elderly religious has been heard to say: "When Brother Blank came out of the novitiate two or tiiree years ago, he was scandal- ized by the least infraction of silence or any want of punctuality in attending spiritual exercises; but nr w he's just as bad as tiie rest of us." The pity or it is ttiat such remarks are made with an air of superior wisdom as if they were merely tiie expression of undeniable truths taught by experi- THE PR-TEST'S EXEMPLAR 251 s*^: r;r ^vr rx' ^:^ evp?«H *!°"^"^i« **•"« e'lough that one seldom if ever attains to the ideals of one's youth, and ttiat t IS characteristic of human nature, in priest^ «* in othew. to be inclined to lower one's pristine standard especially if a was set at a notaBk height; but to maintain that one cannot even an pro^mate Uie ideals cnce cherished, or that one must, willy-nilly, forsuke the heights of fervor ^ descend to the dead-level of perfLtor n^7or to tiie depths of tepidity.-this is palpably absurd I cannot logically contend that becLse in my own case, and possibly in that of some of myTrienls former zeal and pkty have been replaced by ^resl ent negligence and lukewarmness. therefore such replacement is the invariable experience of all rttiir ?^°'^ "'^^"- ^^P^-'^'y *« state or ndt rectiy to imply, that thorough attention to the most strenuous activities of the pastoral ministry S a all mcompatible with a genuinely full and dTep in- tenor life. IS not only to give Uie lie to the records of innumerable saints, but is to accuse tiie Toty Ghost of demai^aing impossibilities. ^ Ihere can be no possible doubt that God does demand sanctity or holiness of His nriests Th! r^* ^-r^ examination of Hofy Vrit ^hetler ^e Old Testament or the New. sWs to ^ke this fact superabundp"**" -»-— '" - "laxe , - ^ -r ^^^auuj Clear, "i u shall h*» holy nnto me, because I the Lord am holy anJ have separated you Irom aU other pei^t ftal 252 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES you should be mine." Lev. xx, 26. *They shaU be holy to their God, and shall not profane His name: for they offer the burnt offering of the Lord and the bread of their God, and therefore they shall be holy.** Lev. xxi, 6. "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins. . . . Neither doth any man take the honor to himself, but he that is called b> God, as Aaron was.** Heb. V, 1, 4. "Be ye therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect** Matt, v, A8. "You have not chosen me: but J have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain.** John, XV, 16. "You call me master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am. If then I, being your Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another*s feet; for I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also.'* John, xiii, 12. Similar pas- sages might be multiplied almost indefinitely, and the burden of them all is that it is incumbent upon the priest, over and above all other men, to walk circumspectly in the way of the Lord, to practice perfection, to live holily,-~in brief, to be a faithful imitator of the sacerdotal Exemplar, Christ Jesus Our Lord. All this, presumably, is trite to the ordinary pastor of souls. He has very often preached sim- ilar, not to say identical, doctrine to his people, in- structing them that in order to reach heaven each of them must, in at least some measure and de- THE PRIEST'S EXEMPLAR 253 "ImitaUon of Christ" and are in fact among the gree, follow Christ **foUowing Christ" most commonplace phrases in the Christian preacher's vocabulary,— which is quite a differ- ent thing, it is needless to say, from exemplifying the meaning of the phrases in the multitudinous thoughts and words and actions of ordinary life. It is possible indeed that even a priest may reach a point where these expressions are mere empty words, philosophical abstractions to which neither in his habitual thought nor in his daily activities are there any corresponding concrete realities. Without going to that extreme, it is still more possible for a cleric to look upon our great Ex- emplar as a model utterly beyond imitation, at least by himself, and to forego any really serious efforts to conform his life to that of Our Lord. Now, such an attitude is condemnable in a spiritual man, just as a similar frame of mind is condemnable in an ordinary man of the world. "Aim at perfection in everything," says Chester- field, "even though in most things it is unattain- able. However, they who aim at it, and perse- vere, will come mjch nearer to it than t ose whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as beyond them." It is an age-old lesson that the archer whose arrow is to hit the mark must aim at a point above that mark, and the masters of the interior life repeat the lesson in a hundred varying forms. The Christian who limits his aspirations and his efforts simply to the rivoidance of mortal sin sel- dom in the long run achieves even that; and the 254 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES ■11 priest who remains quiescent and supine in a' state of tepidity can hardly escape the commis- sion of unnumbered deliberate venial sins alto- gether incongruous in one of his sacred calling. The failure of such a priest to follow Christ in positive and energetic fashion is not so much a matter, as he may affect to consider it, of his at- taining a lower or a higher degree of glory in heaven, as it is a matter of his getting to heaven at all. Lukewarmness, clearly recognized and complacently indulged in, is assuredly no pass- port to the Kingdom whose Ruler has said: "I would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." Apoc. Hi, 15, 16. No latitudinarian concept of priestly obligations, no tolerant theory that is the offspring of habitual negligence and laxity and listlessness, will avail to alter the truth which sooner or later the most im- perfect cleric will be obliged to face, — that in en- tering the priesthood he embraced a state of per- fection, and that one of his prime and inescapable liabilities therein is the leading of a holy life, the imitation of Christ. It is obvious of course that this imitation, even in the best of us, will be sadly imperfect; that our greatest efforts will enable us to follow Christ only at a long, long distance; but there is no ridding ourselves of the responsibility of mak- ing those efforts, and no prospect, either, that there will ever come a time when it will be easier to make them than it is at present. On the contrary, the Itmger we put off remodeling THE PRIEST'S EXEMPLAR 255 our life in downright earnestness on the pattern of Our Divine Lord's, the harder will we find it to begin the necessary work, and the slighter will be the probability of our persevering therein. Procrastination is not only the avowed thief of time, but the sworn enemy of spiritual conver- sion. If our lives have any need of reforming in order that we may "be made conformable to the image of His Son," we cannot too speedily set about beginning the reformation. Assuming that we do stand in need of at least some measure of reform, how is it to be effected? How can we verily and indeed imitate Christ, and what shaU we do to follow Him? In the first place we can do the preUminary work by re- calling, meditating, and thoroughly saturating our minds with the fundamental principles on which our whole life, aU that we are and do should be based. God's glory is the essential end aud purpose of our existence; it is the very raison d'itre of our lives. "For none of us liveth to himself; and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. There- fore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." Rom. xiv, 7, 8. "And every one that caUeth upon My name (saith the Lord) I have created him for My glory, for this I have formed him and made him." Is. xliii, 7. Commenting on the words of Ecclesiastes, "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is all man," St Augustine asks: How can we put a more wholesome truth into fewer words? Fear God 256 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES g*w»i and keep His commandments: thif is all man. All man, indeed, is there : This is true of every- one; he is a keeper of God's commandments; if he is not that, he is nothing. The image of the truth cannot be refashioned in him in whom dwells the likeness of vanity." God's commandments are the expression of His will; and, if we are ever to imitate Christ in any real and effective sense, we must clearly go to the root of the matter and conform our will to God's. Following Christ is doing the will of His Father, as is evident from dozens of passages in the Gospels, notably ih these from St. John: "Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His work." — "Because I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." — "My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man will do the will of Him, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." — "And he that sent Me is with Me, and He hath not left Me alone: for I do always the things that please Him." Obviously, therefore, the first essential step in any endeavor to r> model our life so that it may bear some genuine resemblance to that of our Exemplar, is to bring our wn will into thorough conformity with God's. iless we habitaally, and as it were, instinctively, pat God's glory, God's interest above every otiier consid- eration in all our varied activities, our ^111 is not conformable to His, and we are not following Christ but abandoning Him. If our will centres THE PRIEST'S EXEMPLAR 257 upon creatures (using the word in its most ab- solute sense) rather than upon the Creator, if it chooses self-seeking, ambition, worldly posses- sions, fame, popularity, personal ease and com- fort, luxurious apartments, dress, food and drink, human friendships, social pleasures, etc., rather than **the things that please Him,** then the needle of our compass is deflected and our life is being steered astray. It requires no very lengthy examination of conscience to determine whether or not God's glory is our principal aim in life, and God's will our habitual guide. If we are thoroughly in earnest in conducting the examination, we read- ily discover what it is that occupies the principal place in our thoughts day after day and month after month, what affection reigns supreme in our hearts, what aspirations or ambitions claim the innermost longings of our souls. The mere fact that on the surface, in the eyes of our peo- ple and of the world generally, we are leading exemplary priestly lives, apparently zealous in performing all the duties of our sacred ministry, will not blind us to the everlasting truth that ex- ternal activities are the mere shell of good works, and that unless they hold within them the kernel of a pure intention, unless they are undertaken and carried out solely for the honor and glory of God, they are worthl«u for eternal life. "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within;" and all the value of my priestly labors, however multiplied and atreiiunus they may be, depends upon the -interior motive that inspires them. 368 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES turns on the question whether they are per- formed, primarily and principally, if not solely and entirely, for God's glory, — or my own. Supposing that we have finished the founda- tion of all true imitation of Christ, h-ive con- formed our will to that of the Father, in what specific external ways may we exemplify our re- semblance to the Priest of priests who is our model? To enumerate them all would be to write another Life of Christ; let us content ourselves with the mention of only a few. In the estima- tion of the great mass of those who saw Our Lord during His sojourn on earth, as in that of the bulk of mankind from His day to ours, the outstand- ing characteristic the dominant note of His per- sonality was perhaps His kindness, gentleness, benignity. As emphasizing this quality. His whole life has been compressed into five words: *'He went about doing good." Hence, the priest who wishes really to imitate his incomparable Mas- ter must do likewise. He must be a good man, not only in the sense that he is irreproachable in morals, is virtuous and pious, but also in the sense that he habitually does good deeds, is uni- formly kind and obliging, delights in rendering service to others, is constant in doing good turns to his fellows, is gracious and charitable to the poor and needy, is sympathetic with the sick and sorrowing, is indulgent to the young, accom- modating to the old, and affable to all. The priestly follower of Christ, in a word, radiates kindness and sympathy just as the sun radiates heat and light. THE PRIEST'S EXEMPLAR 259 The AposUes* estimate of their Master's pre- dominant quality would probably so far differ from that of the world at large as to give that name, not to His goodness, but to His zeal. And assuredly not without warrant. To Him in all their fulness apply the words of the Royal Psalm- ist: "For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." His passionate ardor for the glory of His Father is manifest on every page of the Gospel narrative. "I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled?"— "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, thac he send forth laborers into his harvest."— "And he saith to them: Let us go into the neighboring towns and cities, that I may preach there also; for this purpose am I come." —"And His mother said to Him : Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them—. How is that you sought me? Did you not l»t «r as the Good Shepherd. Surely no cleric to whom has been confided the cure of souls needs a stronger incentive to spend himself in recalling to their duty the negligent, indifferent, or recalcitrant members of his Jlock than is furnished by a perusal of that deathless idyl, the Parable of the Lost Sheep. "What man of you that hath a hun- dred sheep: unrl if he shall lose one of them, doth he not l^uvo fhe ninety nine in the desert, and go after tliat / hicli >^..6 UsU until he find it? And when he hath touud it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing: /vnri oming home, call to- gether his friends iin paratively few, if any, pastors who have noi • quent, not to say daily, occasion to display ^^ im- ine Christ-like zeal in going after hardened t,,i,~ ners, or fallen away Catholics; and the measuie of the tenderness and patience and longanimity which the priest displays in his untiring efforts to win such souls back to God may well be looked on as the measure in which he imitates our Divine Model. The supreme Good Shepherd gave His very life for His sheep, and His zealous fol- lower will put up with much before abandoning even the most reckless and stubborn of his wan- dering flock. Another respect in which the priest who is a 262 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES true follower of Christ may appropriately show his zeal is indicated by the Gospel account of Our Saviour's action when he found in the tem- ple them that sold oxen and sheep and do^' ;s, and the changers of money. "And when he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, he drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also, and the oxen, and the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. And to them that sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not the house of my Father a house of traffic." John ii, U-16. The Church in whose tabernacle reposep the Real Presence of Jesus Christ Himself is far and away holier than was the temple of the Old Law, and the zealous priest will see to it that nothing derogatory to that holiness is visible within its walls. Cleanli- ness and neatness w • characterize every por- tion of it, not excepting the sacristy; and the care given to the sacred vessels, as to the altar-linen and the vestments, will be commensurate with the reverence he entertains for the sublime rites and ceremonies in which they are used. Scrupu- lous attention to the multiplied details of those rites and ceremonies, from the adorable Sacrifice of the Mass down to the blessing of a sacramental, is one sign by which to discern a priest after Christ's own heart, a minister of the altar who can not only say with the Psalmist, "I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of thy house; and the place where thy glory dwelleth," but can at need tes- tify that he has obeyed St Paul's admonition, "Let all things be done decently, and according to order." THE PRIEST'S EXEMPLAR 263 As for the purely personal devotions of the priestly imitator of Uic Priest Divine, his knowl- edge of the Life of Our Lord teaches him that prayer, — earnest ar"! frequent, not to say inces- sant, prayer, — is a iluty from which he cannot with impunity dispense himself. By many a weighty word, and by His still weightier and more persuasive example. He has taught us to turn to our Heavenly Father in any and all conjunctures, — in peace and calm as in storm and stress, in sorrow and care as in joy and consolation, in time of danger as in the not less distressing peri- ods of spiritual dryness, in every possible crisis that may confront us here below. Needless to say, the prayer of a real follower of Christ will be prayer indeed, the expression of veritable heart-yearnings, not mere verbal formulas per- functorily recited and interrupted by a thousand and one more or less wilful distractions. "But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." James i, 5-6. "And this is the confidence which we have towards him: That whatsoever we shall ask according to his will, he heareth us." 1 John v, 14. As has been said on a former page, the es- sence of the imitation of Christ is the doing of God's will; and this is only another expression of the thought, "Fear God and keep His com- mandments: for this is all man." What God's will is with regard to His priests, what specific commandments or laws He would have them 264 CLERICAL COLLOQUIES keep, is succinctly yet comprehensibly and ade- quately set fiMTth in a modem treatise on the spiritual life, a few passages from which will prove not unwekome to our readers. "The truly pious priest tdkes great pleasive in knowing, studying, and getting a mastery of the laws of his state in life. Does he not find everything in his litur^al and disciplinary laws? Seeking God, forgetting self: this is the whole of piety. Does he iiot find that seeking God is admirably marked out for him by the liturgical laws? and forget- fulness of self by disciplinary laws? Here he has the entire form of his ' piety. . , . The good priest knows what a wonderful treasure he has in these grand laws of the Church his mother. Moreover, he makes them the favorite sublet of his meditations, spiritual reading and silent studies. Therefrom he draws instructive illumi- nation and abundance of strength. Th« books of the Church are the books of his choice : their of- ficial ♦ext is the favorite food of his mind. And where could l»e find anything more beautiful or more wholesome? Above all, where could he find the voice and will of God better expressed? ... The priest should make the liturgy so far enter into his relations with God, and canon law into his relations with men, that he comes at last to get into the spirit of them. Only the spirit is liv- ing, for the letter is dead Liturgy and canon law, taken in the letter and in the spirit, mean sacerdotal life in its fullness of form, the pHpst raised above the human and brought near to vjod, the ministry of holy things lifted above THE PRIEST'S EXEMPLAR 265 the lower conditions of humanity and established in the region of things divine; in a word, it means that the priest has entered into the fullness of the truth and power of his vocation.'*^ The soundness of the foregoing doctrine will hardly be questioned. Even the most ardent fol- lower of Christ, the most painstaking imitator of the priestly Exemplar, can scarcely choose a bet- ter way of pleasing Him than to obey His Spouse, the Church, in the minor as well as the major affairs of life. Whoever listens to her voice and heeds her counsels need have no doubt as to the conformity of his will with God's. And whoso- ever, prie«l or layman, makes the will of God his own, has no other will than the Father's, he is in very deed and truth a follower of Christ, close- ly Md lovingly imitating Him in this present life, and destined to see Him face to face forever in the life to come. 1 "The Interior Life.' Si -sfe f&v^fi^fl- ^i^i^v..: INDEX Pa«e Adoration, The hour of 164 Tepidity and 166 by proxy 166 BhlrlUnflr lU reaily easy 169 Alphonsus, St., on tone at Conaecratlon 6S Altar-boys 39 Altar. Approach to the 48 How not to kiss it 60 Anecdotlst. The lOl Angel's part. An 214 "Angry and aln not, Be" 40 Anti-CathoHc periodicals 66 Apologetic work la the press 67 Ascetic theology 81 Booltson 81 Study of 2S0 Avtla, Father, on Thanks- giving 19 Barrow, on wit 99 Beads, The 27 Beard, Dr., on nervous weak- ness 169 Bellarmine, Card., on mental prayer 172 Bernard, St., on spiritual reading 20 Betten, 8.J., Father, quoted. 64 Blair on letters 89 Blessed Sacrament, Visiting the 24 Why we should visit the, 25, 26 Blessed Virgin, The, and priests 103 Devotion to m and priests in England 116 in the Gospel 119 in tradition 121 Childlike trust in 126 Bodily resistance 194 267 Page Bows at Mass, Profound 48 Breviary at thanksgiving... 18 Broad-shouldered 47 Broken English 246 Bruised reeds 228 Bulwer on dress 86 Business letters 78 Businesslike system 24 Canon Law 264 Canning's gentlemanliness.. . 39 Care of church and sacristy. .262 Catholic papers and maga- slnes 68 Proper contents of 70 Defects in 71 Centenarianism 186 Centenarians in Ehirope 187 Chalice, How to carry the 47 At what height to hold it.. 49 At offertory 52, 66 At end of Mass 66 Chesterfield, on good-breed- ing 36 on letters 76 Christ in rank, A 249 Church, The, defined 19» Human side of 2O6 Loyalty to 198 Clark, Champ, on wit 92 Cleric, the ultra-practical... 16 Clerical Club, At the 281 Clerical Wit and Humor 92 Cleric's Correspondence, A. . . 76 Common sense 226 Confessional, Too long hours «n 226 Stories of the 106 Confessions, Multiplied 284 Confessor needs to study 222 Conformity to God's will 266 Consecration, Voice-tone at.. 63 268 INDEX '0: I Converaation, Bwlft (m U9 Correapondence, A aerlc'a... 76 Corwln, Oovernor, on Jokes . . M Courteous abroad, curt at home 39 Creatures, Instead of Creator »67 Crosses at Mass, Sise of... 63 Cur« d'Ars as confessor J27 Dally Conimunion and loyal- ty S0« Daily meditation 13 Dsath, without the sacra- ments 145 Real and apparent I6O Uncertain signs of 161 Meditation on 173 Death-rate of pr-ests. . . .189, 190 Decker, Thomas, quoted.... 28 Devotion to Our Lady in to the sick and dyingr 146 Devotions, Minor 11 Major 18 Dialogrue, A Rubrical 42 Dignity of the priest 14S Dining-room stories 106 Disloyal query, A 2O8 Dress, of a gentleman S6 and vow of poverty S6 Foppish and slovenly 36 Perfection of 37 Drum, S. J., Father, quoted.. 162 Dry Mass, Fr. Tom Says the 42 Duration of life. Average. . .188 £2atlng and exercise 247 Eccl. Review quoted 69 Economy, Clerical 236 Bdincation and rubrics 69 EJnvy restricts praise 86 Epiphanius. St.,on Our Lady 121 Et, A superfluous 51 Etiquette 37 Elxemplar, the Priest's. ..!. 249 Bxtreme Unction, Prepara- tion for 147 Fatalinn 132 F*nelon, on little things 12 Pa«« Fops and slov«is M Forgiving sins til FormaUsts and their oppo- ■"•• M Francis de Bales. St., on mildness tt on direction of souls tt on little virtues ]§ on spiritual reading U Gentleman, The Priest a M Defined n Newman's n Oentlemanllness, and charity tS A fallacy about St Gentry gg Genuflecting after the Con- ' secration m At last Gospel n God's will and His permls- ■«<»» m Grammar, Violations of 244 Grant, Oen., on broad storiM 104 Growth In Holinssa a Hands, extended 4g at Pater Noster 17 Handy illustration, A lOS Hansjakob. on neurosis ISS Hay, Bishop, on obedience. ..2M Hedley, Bishop, on Catholic press 7f Heuser, Rev. Dr., quoted VO "High-brow" enthusiasm 14 Hobby, A good 241 Holiness demanded in priests 20 Homer nodding 24t Hour of adoration. The 144 How to aid Cath. press 7| Humor, defined tt a sense