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ST. AGNES. 
 
 St. Agnes, the virgin martyr, overcame the cruelty of the tyrant and the tenderness of 
 her age. She died under the persecution of Diocletian, in the early years of the fourth cen- 
 tury, when only in her thirteenth year, rather than violate the consecration of her virginity 
 to her heavenly spouse. She is usually represented with a lamb, the emblem of inuoceuce, 
 and in her hand the palm of martyrdom. 
 
ST. BUUNARD. 
 
 St. Bernard, of Clairvaux, the prodigy and great ornament of the eleventh century, was 
 born in 1091, near Dijon, France, of a noble family. From his very birth, his mother conse- 
 crated him to the service of God. He became the oracle of the Church and the reformer of 
 discipline^ and his pious and learned writings still instruct the devout and edify all. 
 
sr. Ti;iti:s.v. 
 
 Of the holy women whose names are enshrined in the Calendar of Saints, there are few, 
 if any, more remarkable than St. Teresa. She was born in Castile, Spain, 1515. Her won- 
 derful success in her enterprises undertaken for the divine honor she attributed to the divine 
 light and aid she received by the spirit of holy pi-ayer. Her Life, written by herself, is held 
 in high esteem. 
 
ST. ALOYSIVS, OR I.OUIS OF GONZAGA. 
 
 St. Aloysius was born in Brescia, Italy, in 1568. Having resigned his title and patrimony 
 in favor of his brother, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and died in his 
 twenty-fourth year. His favorite devotion was contemplation of the sufferings of our Lord, 
 with crucifix in hand. The cord of self-chastisement and the rosary were his companions in. 
 life, and the crown at his feet his reward after death. 
 
THE 
 
 Faith That Never Dies 
 
 OR 
 
 THE PRIEST OF GOD 
 
 IN 
 
 THE CATHOLIC HOME 
 
 How to Live an Meal Gbristlan Life as a True Follower of Gbrist 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 INSXRUCTIONS AND DKVOTIONS 
 
 IN 
 
 The Holy Catholic Faith 
 
 With Glorious Lessons from the Light of the Cross 
 
 FROM THE PENS OF MONSEIGNEUR DE S^GUR, THOMAS A KEMPIS 
 
 REV. JOSEPH DEHARBE, SJ., AND "A MONK OF THE 
 
 ORDER OF SAINT BENEDICT" 
 
 —PREFACED WITH AN ADDRESS BY— 
 
 Arehbishop Feehan on the Catholic Education of Youth 
 
 THE WHOLE WRITTEN IN SIMPLE LANGUAGE AND BEAUTIFULLY 
 ILLUSTRATED FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF 
 
 The Catholic Child at Mother's Knee 
 
 The Catholic Youth in the Steps of Jesus 
 
 and The Catholic Parent in Defense of the Faith 
 
 Published with the Approval of Many Dignitaries of the Church, 
 
 CATHOLIC BOOK AND PICTURE COMPANY 
 NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 
 
D 
 
 LOAN STACK 
 
 Co ?atl)er$ and iKotfters. 
 
 HE heart of a child is as wax, capable of receiving any impression, good 
 or bad ; it is as plain white linen, upon which all colors may be stamped. 
 It is to parents that God has intrusted the care of impressing on these 
 young, pure hearts all true and virtuous feelings — those first impres- 
 sions which are never completely effaced. If they are careful to inculcate in 
 their children the sentiment of duty, the love and fear of God, a horror of sin, 
 and the necessity of religion, they lay the foundation of the future happiness of 
 these little ones whom the providence of God has confided to their care. 
 
 9 9*9 
 
 How often the sorrow and trouble by which fathers and mothers are over- 
 whelmed toward the close of their lives is trouble which they have entirely 
 brought upon themselves ! They reap what they have sown by their neglect, their 
 want of faith, and by the few good examples with which they surrounded the 
 early youth of their son, or of their daughter. But, on the other hand, how 
 happy and peaceful are the closing years of life to the father and mother who 
 have spent their days in one lifelong endeavor to make their children true and 
 earnest Christians I They, too, shall reap what they have sown ; fruits of peace 
 and joy and love, of which death itself shall not be able to deprive them, and 
 which shall follow them even unto the bosom of their God. — From Monseigneur 
 De SSgur. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1900, by J. C. Cubtin. 
 
 Notice.— This book is not for sale in book-stores, and can only be obtained through authorized 
 agents at the published price. 
 
C32 
 
 3Kicir»i^l 
 
 ^jw^wsitinusj 
 
 Dei ef Apostolicae ^^ Sedis Gratia 
 
 SOLIO PONTIFICIO A88I8TEN8 
 
 ^~y>^^^-yt.-<xH,^^ 
 
 ,^y^<^c^^ r^^^ 
 
 C'C-i^Ou^'i^ ^^'^ Y !^U^o^^t^(!L^S 
 
 \ 968 
 
TESTIMONIALS 
 
 FROM THE CATHOLIC HIERARCHY FOR MONSEIGNEUR DE SCOUR'S 
 
 GREAT WORK 
 
 From His Excellency Archbishop Maf tinetli» 
 
 Apostolic Delegate: J;_ '^ o^ 
 
 I have received the new volume which you published. I am very 
 thankful to you for your kindness in sending it, and I hope it will be 
 very useful for the people. With esteem I remain, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 83 SEBASTIAN, Archbishop of Eph^sus, 
 Apostolic Delegate. 
 
 From the Right Rev« Bishop of Denver ; 
 
 . . . The fact that it bears the Imprimatur of His Grace of New 
 York and comes from the powerful pen of Monseigneur de S^gur is 
 enough to open the door of every Catholic American for its reception. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 gg N. C. MATZ. 
 
 From the Right Rev* Bishop of Ogdensbur g x 
 
 The name of Monseigneur de S^gur, some of whose writings nearly 
 fill it, vouches for the solidity of the contents. I trust it will be 
 scattered widely among the people and produce abundant fruits of 
 enlightenment and edification. 
 
 Sincerely yours in Jesus Christ, 
 
 88 H. GABRIELS. 
 
 From the Right Rev« Bishop of Newark ; 
 
 It is a very good and useful book, that can be read with profit by 
 both Catholic and non-Catholic. 
 
 With best wishes, I am, yours very sincerely, 
 
 © W. M. WIGGER. 
 
 From the Right Rev, Bishop of La Crosse : 
 
 It is indeed an excellent book for instruction and edification. It 
 ought to be in every Catholic family of the land. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 © JAMES SCHWEBACH. 
 
 From the Right Rev« Bishop of Boise t 
 
 I have perused it as carefully as I could. I am well pleased with 
 it, and recommend it very highly, especially to the laity. 
 Yours truly, in Christ, 
 
 gB A. J. GLORIEUX. 
 
From the Right Rev> Bishop of Natchez t 
 
 It seems to present a variety of good reading in doctrinal and plooS 
 matters, and the illustrations appear very good, unusually so. . . . 
 Thanking you, and wishing you every success, 
 
 Yours faithfully, gg T. HESI/IN. 
 
 From the Right Rev« Bishop of Cleveland : 
 
 The compilation is good. De S^gur's works I know well, having 
 read them in the original years ago. Truly yours, 
 
 ® IGN. F. HORSTMANN. 
 
 From the Right "Rev* Bishop of Vheeling: 
 
 I was pleased with it, and think and hope that it will accomplish 
 good. May it have a large circulation. 
 
 ■Yours faithfully in Christ, 
 
 88 p. J. DONAHUE. 
 
 From the Right Rev* Bishop of Lotiisvillet 
 
 For the young it will be an instructive supplementary, so to say, to 
 their Catechism and First Communion exercises ; for adults it helps 
 to bring back vividly before their minds what they have forgotten of 
 sound Catholic doctrine, and thus serve to renew in their hearts 
 principles, which should never be allowed to be long absent from the 
 memory, — and in some sense disappear from Catholic life and practice. 
 
 Blending, as the work does, so easily and so naturally instructions 
 on the Sacraments, the Commandments, short Lives of the Saints, 
 extracts from Thomas k Kempis and bits of Church History, it forms 
 a Compendium of useful reading which, it could be wished, might, 
 find a place in every Catholic household. 
 
 ® W. G. McCLOSKBY. 
 
 From the Right Rev« Bishop of Leavenwor th» Kansas t 
 
 I must say that it is a beautiful book, serviceable to both priest and 
 layman, which cannot be read without great spiritual benefit and 
 great pleasure, and I most heartily recommend it to the priests and 
 people of my diocese. Yours very respectfully, 
 
 88 ly. N. FINK. 
 
 From the Right Rev« Bishop of Davenpof t» Iowa s 
 
 I consider it an excellent work for popular use, and would like to 
 see it in every Catholic family in the diocese. 
 
 I remain very sincerely yours, 
 
 88 HENRY COSGROVE. 
 
 From the Right Rev* Bishop of Wichita» Kansas t 
 
 From a glance at the volume and considering the well known 
 merits of the works of Abbe De S^gur, I am confident it will be a 
 welcome visitor in many families. I fuUy recommend the book. 
 
 Sincerely yours, gg JOHN J. HENNESSY. 
 
Ffom the Diocese of London^ Ontar io : 
 
 It is full of most important matter, beautifully presented. I take 
 very much pleasure in subscribing for it, as I believe this work should 
 be in the library of every priest as well as found in every Catholic 
 family of this country. Yours most respectfully, 
 
 St. Peter's Palace, London, Ontario. REV. M. J. BRADY. 
 
 From the Right Rev« Vicar Apostolic of 
 North Carolina i ^ J^ ^ 
 
 The volume forms a very useful little library in itself, and deserves 
 to be recommended to all who desire to know something of Catholic 
 doctrine and practice. 
 Wishing you a very extended sale, 
 
 I am, sincerely yours, 
 
 )5( LEO HAID, O. S. B. 
 
 From the Very Rev, President of Augostin- 
 ian College of St» Thomas of Villannoa: 
 
 . . . I believe it will be most acceptable to all concerned, and 
 should have a large circulation. Yours ver)' gratefully, 
 
 L. A. DELUREY, O. S. A. 
 
 From the Right Rev* Bishop of San Antonio t 
 
 The Right Rev. Bishop of San Antonio lays on me the pleasant 
 duty of returning you his most sincere thanks for the work you were 
 so kind to send him. His Lordship prays to Almighty God that He 
 may bless and reward the generous endeavor you make to spread the 
 wholesome Truth. Yours very sincerely, 
 
 J. B. E. AUDET, Chancellor. 
 
 From the Most Rev» Archbishop of Toronto : 
 
 . . . Your late publication is a very important work, and calcu- 
 lated to do a great deal of good. . . . With best wishes. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 ® JOHN WALSH. 
 
 From the Right Rev* Bishop of Sacramento ; 
 
 It is a very useful and comprehensive work and must be very profit- 
 able among the people. Yours sincerely, 
 
 © THOMAS GRAU. 
 
 From the Right Rev. Bishop of Duluth ; 
 
 I can certainly recommend so excellent a work for family reading. 
 I hope that the practical instructions contained in the book may 
 become ■widely known to all our people. Yours sincerely, 
 
 88 JAMES McGOLRICK. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 «<The Faith That Never Dies; or, The Priest of God in the Catholic 
 Home," is the work of able and zealous men of God — men whose lives were 
 consecrated to the upbuilding of the Faith and the saving of Souls. 
 
 The present volume is peculiarly designed to carry the lamp of Faith to the 
 very fireside of the Catholic home. The work furnishes a course of Christian 
 instruction for every member of the family circle, in order that all shall be 
 tlioroughly grounded in the teachings of the Church. 
 
 As the family is the unit of the community and of the State, so is it also of 
 the Church. Hence it is the earnest object of the Priest, as the guide and 
 guardian of the Catholic home, to foster and inculcate the practice of home 
 teaching in religious truths, and in the preparation of the minds of children for 
 the fuller and more complete reception of the doctrines of the Church at a later 
 period. It is the duty of parents to assist the Priest in his sacred mission ; to 
 prepare the minds and souls of their children for the mysterious seed that will 
 be sown through the grace of the Sacraments. In this pious duty they may be 
 truly said to share in the salvation of souls with the Priest — "alter Christus ; " 
 and, in the words of St. Augustine, predestine the salvation of their own souls 
 by saving those of others. 
 
 The religious influences experienced in early life amid home associations at 
 the mother's knee are never or rarely eradicated. When the mind is plastic and 
 the heart pure, impressions are not only more readily received, but longer 
 retained. And the memory of the instruction received from the parent is 
 identified with such tender emotions and recollections as never wholly to be- 
 come effaced in after life, even though it may be partially forgotten for a time. 
 Hence, the grave responsibility resting on parents, in regard to home religious 
 education and teaching for their children, with whose spiritual and temporal 
 welfare they are charged by Providence, and for which they will be held 
 accountable. 
 
 It is by the holy education of their children, says a learned and pious 
 author, that parents perpetuate on earth the honor of their Creator to future 
 ages, and sanctify their own souls. And St. Paul says that it is by the educa- 
 tion of their children that parents are to be saved. Nevertheless, we often see 
 parents unduly solicitous to procure for their children an establishment in the 
 world ; yet supinely careless in fortifying them in virtue, in which alone true 
 happiness consists. 
 
 The subsequent teaching of the pastor, and the instruction in the parochial 
 school cannot bear adequate results, if the early religious home teaching is 
 
 ill 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 neglected or omitted. His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons aptly observes, in this 
 relation, '<that while home life would not, as a rule, be sufficient to supply the 
 absence of good or counteract the evil of dangerous influences in the school, it is 
 equally true that all that the Christian school could accomplish would be inade. 
 quate without the cooperation of the Christian home. Christian schools sow the 
 seed, but Christian homes must first prepare the soil, and afterwards foster the 
 seed and bring it to maturity." 
 
 The only sure and practical method of building a Christian community, 
 obedient to the teachings of the Church and loyal in duty to the State, is to be 
 sought in the religious education of youth. 
 
 The first portion of this work is by Monseigneur de S^gur, the celebrated 
 expounder of Catholic faith and doctrine, whose works on these and kindred 
 subjects have been translated into most European languages. The writings of 
 this learned and captivating writer have been specially commended to Catholics 
 by the Holy Father. This portion of the volume comprises a full course of 
 Christian doctrine and practice, happily written in a most charming and enter- 
 taining style, with wonderful simplicity and directness, and withal a thorough- 
 ness adapted alike to. the simplest as well as to the most learned mind. In his 
 method of .presenting parables and miracles, and anecdotes or illustrations from 
 Christian life, the reader will find much to edify and to instruct. 
 
 The History of Religion from the Creation of the World, by that learned 
 Jesuit, Father Deharbe, embraces a special series of questions for the young ar- 
 ranged at the foot of each page, and numbered to correspond with the main 
 paragraphs. These questions afford a helpful method of grasping and mem- 
 orizing the substance of the contents. 
 
 The selections from St. Thomas i Kempis, whose writings, next to the in- 
 spired "Word of God, have been recommended by the Church, will furnish 
 admirable subjects for pious meditation and holy guidance. 
 
 An instructive address on the Catholic education of youth, from the pen of 
 the most Rev. Archbishop Feehan, of Chicago, appropriately prefaces the whole, 
 and will be found illustrative of the subject-matter of this volume, and shows 
 the great necessity of parental instruction in the Catholic home. 
 
 In short, the present work has been specially designed as a cyclopaedia of 
 household instruction in the doctrines and practice of religion for Catholic 
 families. As such, it is presented in a simple, charming, and beautiful form,, 
 suited to persons of every station and to both sexes — young and old. 
 
 The many high indorsements which these pages have already received, fromi 
 the authorities of the Church, bespeak for the work of these devoted Priests of 
 God a warm welcome in every Catholic home in our land. 
 
 Jeremiah C. Curtin.. 
 
 <«e«^^ 
 
THE FAITH THAT NEVER DIES 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Paob. 
 
 Preface, . . . . iii 
 
 Table of Contents, ......... v 
 
 Archbishop Feehan on Catholic Education of Youth, .... xiii 
 
 The Parental Blessing in the Christian Home, xvii 
 
 THE PRIEST OF GOD IN THE CATHOLIC HOME 
 
 FIRST PART. 
 
 True Knowledge, . . • • • ••• • • .5 
 
 On the Nature of Religion, , • • • 7 
 
 Death, ••••9 
 
 The Soul and the Body, 11 
 
 Religion, .......•••••12 
 
 A Brief Explanation of the Christian Religion, . • • • • 15 
 
 I Believe, • • • 16 
 
 Whether We must Believe what We Cannot Understand, • • .18 
 
 On the Existence of God, • . 20 
 
 God, 22 
 
 Divine Providence, ...•••••••24 
 
 An Anecdote of God's Provideace, •••••••26 
 
 The Devil, 27 
 
 The Blessed Virgin, 29 
 
 Mary Immaculate, •• .31 
 
 The Annunciation and the Incarnation, . • • • • • ,34 
 Bethlehem and the Child Jesus, .•••••••37 
 
 Nazareth, •••39 
 
 Jesus Christ, ••••••42 
 
 The Miracles of Jesus Christ, ••••••••44 
 
 Christ Crucified, ., ••••60 
 
 The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, .•••••••53 
 
 The Ascension of Our Lord, .,•••••••58 
 
 Pentecost and the Holy Spirit^ .••••••. 59 
 
 The Gospel, ....•••••• w . 61 
 
Ti TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Pack? 
 
 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, .••,,,, 65 
 
 The Church, 67 
 
 The Catholic Church, , , , ,69 
 
 Organization of the Church, ...•.,,,,71 
 
 The Pope, 73 
 
 Which is the True Church of Jesus Christ? .,,,,, 76 
 
 In What Sense the Church is Holy, , . 77 
 
 On Miracles, ••,78 
 
 Truth and Error, 81 
 
 Catholic and Protestant, • , , 82 
 
 A Few Further Eemarks upon Protestantism, 84 
 
 Angels and Saints, , • , 86 
 
 The Souls in Purgatory, ....,,,,. 90 
 
 The Judgment, • • , 93 
 
 Life Eternal, •••,95 
 
 SECOND PAET. 
 
 The Sacraments, .•.,..,,,,,98 
 
 Baptism, •••. 101 
 
 Confirmation, 103 
 
 Holy Eucharist, 105 
 
 Figures Prophetic of the Holy Eucharist^ . , , . , . 107 
 
 Institution of the Eucharist, . 108 
 
 On the Keal Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, . 110 
 
 The Blessed Sacrament^ 112 
 
 Penance, 114 
 
 The Two Tribunals, 116 
 
 The Safety Valve, 121 
 
 Pastor Atger and Confession, , • , 124 
 
 Extreme Unction, ..•••••«,. 125 
 
 The Fear of Extreme Unction, ,••••••• 127 
 
 Holy Orders, 131 
 
 The Priest, ' 133 
 
 The Ecclesiastical Vocation, .•••••••• 135 
 
 Matrimony, ••••.. 139 
 
 Before Marriage, ••••,. 141 
 
 The Marriage Day, .,.••,•••• 144 
 
 After Marriage, .••,*. 147 
 
 THIED PAET. 
 
 What It Is to be a Christian, 150 
 
 Why so Many Upright People Fail to Fulfil Their Eeligious Duties, . 152 
 
 The Eeligion of the Honest Man, 153 
 
 Fear of Human Opinion, .,.....•• 155 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. VU 
 
 Paoh 
 
 Negligence, ••*.«. 156 
 
 "I Have no Time," 157 
 
 Business Before All Things, *•• 160 
 
 On the Folly of Delay, 162 
 
 Christian Morality, ., 164 
 
 Concerning Conscience, •••• 166 
 
 The Grace of God, 168 
 
 The Best State, 169 
 
 Christian Life and Christian Virtues, 171 
 
 Sin and Vices, -173 
 
 The Decalogue, ••••.. 176 
 
 The Commandments of the Church, .•••.*. 177 
 
 Moses and the Ten Commandments of God, 179 
 
 The First Commandment of God, 181 
 
 Prayer, •.•• 183 
 
 Faith and Patience in Prayer, , • • • • • • • 186 
 
 The Great Mission of Prayer, 187 
 
 The Second Commandment of God, ••••«.. 189 
 
 The Third Commandment of God, 192 
 
 The Fourth Commandment of God, ..••••• 194 
 
 To Fathers and Mothers, . 197 
 
 Early Education, • • • . . 199 
 
 The Second Education, 201 
 
 The Fifth Commandment of God, . 202 
 
 Suicide, 205 
 
 Scandal, 208 
 
 The Sixth Commandment of God, .••••«.. 210 
 Drunkenness, ...••••»••. 212 
 
 The Seventh Commandment of God, ••••... 214 
 
 Theft, 217 
 
 The Eighth Commandment of God, •••••.. 220 
 
 The Ninth Commandment of God, . 222 
 
 The Tenth Commandment of God, 224 
 
 The Commandments of the Church, .••••.. 226 
 
 First Commandment of the Church, 226 
 
 Second Commandment of the Church, . 228 
 
 Lent, 230 
 
 The Third and Fourth Commandments of the Church, .... 232 
 
 The Easter Communion, 234 
 
 The Fifth and Sixth Commandments of the Church, .... 236 
 
 The Enigma of Life, 236 
 
 The Secret of Happiness, . . . . • • • « . 239 
 
 Pleasure and Happiness, 240 
 
 To Those Who Suffer, 242 
 
Viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PaoC 
 What Have I Done that God should Send Me so Much Suffering? . , 244 
 
 On Patience in Sickness, 246 
 
 Compensations, •. 248 
 
 In What True Happiness Consists, ••••••. 249 
 
 Little Virtues, • . 261 
 
 Meekness, •••••. 252 
 
 Humility, ••••••. 255 
 
 " Blessed are the Poor in Spirit," 258 
 
 FOUETH PART. 
 
 The Sign of the Cross, • • • « 260 
 
 On Eeverence for the Sign of the Cross, •••••. 262 
 
 The Pater Noster, 263 
 
 The Ave Maria, ...••••••.. 269 
 
 The Credo, 274 
 
 The Confiteor, , , , . 276 
 
 The Rosary, 278 
 
 The Mass, 280 
 
 The Ceremonies of the Church, .••.••.. 282 
 
 The Churches , , . 285 
 
 The Altars and Sacred Vessels, ........ 266 
 
 Explanation of the Ceremonies of the Mass: 
 
 The Sacred Vestments, . . .288 
 
 From the Commencement to the Epistle, 290 
 
 From the Epistle to the Canon, .••.... 293 
 
 From the Canon to the End, 295 
 
 The Ceremonies of High Mass, 298 
 
 The Gloria in Excelsis; Gloria in Excelsis Deo^ 301 
 
 Vespers and Benediction, 302 
 
 The Psalms, 306 
 
 The Dixit Dominus, 309 
 
 Laudate, Pueri, Dominum, 313 
 
 The De Profundis, 315 
 
 The Magnificat, 318 
 
 The Lamps of the Blessed Sacramenl^ ....... 323 
 
 Indulgences and Jubilees, • . 325 
 
 The Scapular, 327 
 
 The Third Order of St. Francis, 329 
 
 FIFTH PAET. 
 
 The Resurrection of Lazarus, ........ 336 
 
 The Blind Man of Jericho, • • 337 
 
 The Man Born Blind, 339 
 
 The Risen Jesus and Mary Magdalen, • • 342 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 
 
 Paob 
 
 Zachens, ••. 843 
 
 The Eepentance of Magdalen, • . 345 
 
 The Widow's Mite, . 347 
 
 The Father of a Family, ......... 349 
 
 The Prodigal Son, . 351 
 
 The Field and the Good Seed, 354 
 
 The Parable of the Samaritan, ........ 357 
 
 Lazarus and the Eich Man, ......... 359 
 
 St. Peter Delivered by the Angel, 361 
 
 Miraculous Conversion of St. Paul, . • , . , . , 862 
 
 SIXTH PART. 
 
 Pierre, the Apprentice, ......,««. 866 
 
 Conversion and Death of a Young Protestant^ 369 
 
 The Regeneration of a Parish, 374 
 
 Execution of the Carabineer Guth, ....... 377 
 
 The Biter Bitten, 379 
 
 General Cambronne, .......... 382 
 
 The History of an Old Beggar—The Old Man, .... 385, 387 
 
 The Caliph, the Shepherd, and Happiness, ...... 390 
 
 The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia, St. Valerian, and St. Tibnrtiua, . . 394 
 
 The Catacombs of Eome, 400 
 
 Souvenirs of Rome — St. Peter's, 403, 410 
 
 The Daily Life of the Pope, ,..,,.... 413 
 
 The Pretended Scandals of Eome, ........ 416 
 
 Two Jubilees — The Propagation of the Faith, .... 419, 420 
 
 The Work of the Holy Infancy, 423 
 
 The Catholic Association of St. Francis of Sales, ..... 423 
 
 The Little Savoyards — Fenelon and Poor Pierot, 426, 423 
 
 Saved by the Memory of His First Communion, ..... 431 
 Martyrdom of the Soldiers Processus and Martinian, .... 433 
 
 The Martyr Gironimo, . 436 
 
 The Last Moments and Death of St. Charles Borromeo, .... 439 
 
 A Convict's Letter, . . . . . . . . . . 444 
 
 The Admirable Martyrdom of the Venerable Auguste Chapdelaine and Two 
 
 Other Cbristians of China, ........ 448 
 
 Martyrdom of the Young Polish Priest Stanislaus Iszora, . . . 454 
 
 Kind Actions are Never Unrewarded, 458 
 
 A Little Candle to Mary— The Little Euchology, .... 461, 462 
 
 A Mistake, 464 
 
 False Piety, 467 
 
 First Communion, ......•••. 468 
 
 Have Confidence in Mary, .....•••. 470 
 
 Our Lady of Victories, .•«..»••.. 473 
 
SEVENTH PART. 
 
 A CONQSE AND COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY 
 
 OF RELIGION 
 
 Pagk 
 The History Before Christ. 
 
 I. From the Creation of the World to Moses : 1 . From the Crea- 
 tion of the World to Abraham. 2. From Abraham to Moses. 
 
 II. From Moses to Christ : 1. From Moses to Saul. 2. From 
 Saul to the End of the Babylonian Captivity — The Expecta- 
 tion of a Redeemer of Mankind, ...... 475-483 
 
 The History op Christ. 
 
 1. The Birth of Jesus Christ — His Hidden Life — His Public 
 Ministry. 2. The Institution of the Sacrament of the Altar — 
 The Passion and Death of Jesus. 3. The Burial — The Resur- 
 rection — The Ascension, ....... 484-488 
 
 The History After Christ. 
 
 I. From the Ascension of Christ to the Conversion of Constantine : 
 
 1. The Apostles Preach the Gospel. 2. The Triumph of the 
 Church over Paganism throughout the Roman Empire, . . 488-492 
 
 . II. From the Conversion of Constantine to the Rise of Protes- 
 tantism in the Sixteenth Century : 1. The Church Triumphs 
 over Heresies — The Fathers of the Church — The Hermits. 
 
 2. The Church Triumphs over the Barbarians of the North — 
 Christianity in Germany-^The Church in the East — Mohammed 
 
 3. The Crusades. 4. Ecclesiastical Studies — The Religious 
 Orders — Heresies — The Investiture Controversy, . . . 492-500 
 
 III. From the Rise of Protestantism in the Sixteenth Century to 
 Our Time : 1. Innovations in Religio^ — Divisions among 
 Those who Promoted Them. 2. The Efforts of the Church in 
 Favor of Peace Rejected by the False Teachers — Religious 
 Wars — Civil Wars. 3. Extension of the Church among Pagans 
 — Persecutions — Martyrs. 4. Religious Orders and Congrega- 
 tions — Saints in the Church. 5. The Spread of Infidelity — 
 The French Revolution. 6. The Influence of the French Revo- 
 lutions in Other Countries — The Revival in the Church, . 503-511 
 
 Concluding Remarks on the Historical Argument for the Truth 
 
 OF Christianity, ......... 512-515 
 
 Chronological Succession op the Popes, ..... 516-518 
 The Story of the Passion of Our Blessed Lord and Master, . 519-534 
 
EIGHTH PART. 
 
 GLORIOUS LESSONS FROM THE LIGHT OF 
 THE CROSS* 
 
 Page 
 Introduction, 535 
 
 Prayer for the Grace of Devotion, . . . . . . . ,536 
 
 Examples of the Holy Fathers, . . . . . . . .536 
 
 "He that Followeth Me Not Walketh in Darkness," . . . .537 
 
 Of the Doctrine of Truth, 538 
 
 On Reading the Holy Scriptures, . . . . . . . 54 1 
 
 Of Avoiding Vain Hope and Arrogance, . . . . . .541 
 
 Of Obedience and Subjection, . . . . . . . .542 
 
 Of Avoiding Superfluity of "Words, ....... 543 
 
 Of Acquiring Peace and Zeal for Our Spiritual Progress, . . . 544 
 
 Of Resisting Temptations, . . . . . . . .545 
 
 Of Avoiding Rash Judgment, . . . . . . . .547 
 
 Of Works Done Out of Charity, 548 
 
 Of Bearing the Defects of Others, . . . . . . .549 
 
 Of the Thoughts of Death, 550 
 
 Of Judgment, and the Punishments of Sinners, .... 553 
 
 Of the Fervent Amendment of Our Whole Life, . . . .556 
 
 Of the Royal Road of the Holy Cross, ...... 559 
 
 Of the Obedience of a Humble Subject — The Example of Jesus 
 
 Christ, 564 
 
 That there is No Being Secure from Temptation in This Life, . .565 
 Of the Good Government of Ourselves in Outward Things, and of 
 
 Having Recourse to God in Danger, . . . . . .566 
 
 Of the Day of Eternity and of the Distresses of This Life, . .567 
 That "We Ought to Deny Ourselves, and Imitate Christ by the Cross, . 570 
 
 The Voice of Christ, 571 
 
 "With How Great Reverence Christ Ought to be Received, . .572 
 
 That the Great Goodness and Love of God are Shown to Man in This 
 
 Sacrament, .......... 576 
 
 That it is Profitable to Communicate Often, ..... 578 
 
 Many Benefits Bestowed on Those "Who Communicate Devoutly, . 580 
 
 Of the Dignity of the Sacrament, and of the Priestly State, . .582 
 
 A Self- interrogation Concerning Proper Exercise Before Communion, 584 
 Of the Examination of Our Own Conscience, and of a Resolution of 
 
 Amendment, .......... 584 
 
 Of the Oblation of Christ on the Cross, and of the Resignation of 
 
 Ourselves, .......... 586 
 
 That We Must OfEer Ourselves, and All that is Ours, to God and 
 
 Pray for All, 587 
 
 That the Holy Communion is Not Lightly to Be Forborne, . .589 
 
 zi 
 
The Example of Our Blessed Lord 
 
 ND they brought to Him young children, that He might 
 touch them. And the disciples rebuked them that brought 
 them. 
 
 And when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and 
 said to them : Suffer the little children to come to Me, and forbid 
 them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. — St. Mark x. 13-16. 
 
 On the Duty of the Christian Mother 
 
 St. Monica, before the birth of the great St. Augustine, dedicated 
 him by frequent oblations to the Christian religion, and to the ser- 
 vice and glory of God, as he himself witnesses, saying : " That he 
 hath already tasted the salt of God in his mother's womb." This is 
 a great lesson for Christian women to offer up to His Divine Majesty 
 the fruit of their wombs, even before they come into the world ; for 
 God, who accepts the offerings of an humble and willing heart, com- 
 monly at that time seconds the affections of mothers; witness 
 Samuel, St. Thomas of Aquin, St. Andrew of Fiesola, and divers 
 others. The mother of St. Bernard, a mother worthy of such a son, 
 as soon as her children were born, took them in her arms, and offered 
 them up to Jesus Christ, and from thenceforward loved them with 
 respect, as things consecrated and entrusted to her by God ; which 
 succeeded so happily to her that in the end the whole seven became 
 very holy. But when children begin to have the use of reason, both 
 their fathers and mothers ought to take great care to imprint the 
 fear of God in tbeir hearts. The good Queen Blanche performed this 
 oflfice fervently with regard to the King St. Louis, her son ; she often 
 said to him: "I had -much rather, my dear child, see you die before 
 my eyes, than see you commit even one mortal sin ;" which caution 
 remained so deeply engraved on his soul that, as he himself related, 
 not one day of his life passed in which he did not remember it, and 
 take all possible care strictly to observe it. Families and generations 
 in our language are called houses ; and even the Hebrews called the 
 generations of children the building up of a house; for it is in this 
 sense it is said that God built houses for the midwives of Egypt. 
 Now, this is to show that the raising of a house or family consists 
 not in storing up a quantity of worldly goods, but in the good edu- 
 cation of children in the fear of God, and in virtue, in which no 
 pains or labors ought to be spared, for children are the crown of their 
 parents. — St, Francis de Sales. 
 
On tbe... 
 
 CatDollc education of youti) 
 
 ... Bp ... 
 
 Cbe FRost Reo. Patrick R. f ecbati 
 
 Jlrcl)bi$l>op of Cbicago 
 
 ♦: :♦: :♦: :♦: :♦: :♦: :♦: :♦: :♦: :♦ 
 
 We are assembled to-day, ladies and gentlemen, in a very noble 
 cause. We are come together as Catholics, and as good citizens 
 also. We are assembled as Catholics, deeply and earnestly interested 
 in that great cause — and I may say one of the greatest of causes, — 
 that of the Catholic education of youth. And because we are inter- 
 ested in the matter of education in its great, grand, true sense, there- 
 fore are we also assembled as good citizens of the Eepublic ; because 
 we believe most thoroughly that the more perfect the education of 
 the young in every true sense, the more perfect will be the order of 
 citizenship in this great country. 
 
 As we know that the stream coming from the mountain bears 
 with it its own purity and freshness, so this great intellectual train- 
 ing and education of the young, coming from the first fountain and 
 the purest of all knowledge — that fountain of Eeligion — we believe 
 must give to the young its own freshness, its own holiness, its own 
 beauty, its own completion and finish. 
 
 Within a few months there has arisen here this wonderful exhi- 
 bition of man's enterprise and genius. Men come from every clime 
 to see it, not only with pleasure, but with wonder. And when we 
 look around and see these wonderful material things, indicating the 
 material progress of the world up to the time of our era, we are 
 pleased, also, to understand and to know that there are signs and 
 proofs of a higher development and of a nobler work than that merely 
 material one, and that is, that during this great Exposition there are 
 
 Note.— This address was delivered upon the opening of the World's Catholic Columbian 
 Exhibit. 
 
CDri$t Blessing Cittle CDiiaren. 
 
 St. Luke xviii. 15, 16, 17. 
 
 And they brought unto him also infants, that he might touch them. 
 Which when the disciples saw, they rebuked them. 
 
 But Jesus calling them together said : Suffer children to come to me and 
 forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God. 
 
 Amen I say to you : Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a 
 child, shall not enter into it. 
 
 Co Become as Cittle CDildren. 
 
 St. Matthew xviii. 2, 3, 4, 5. 
 
 And Jesus calling unto hira a little child, set him in the midst of them, 
 
 And said : Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as 
 little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the 
 greater in the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me ; 
 
 XTl 
 
THE 
 
 PARENTAL BLESSING 
 
 IN A 
 
 CHRISTIAN HOME . . 
 
 BY A 
 
 MONK OF THE HOLY ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT 
 
 Endorsement of Archbishop Ullathorne. 
 
 My Dear Father van Volckxsom : 
 
 I thank you for your interestiog little essay and instruction on Parental blessings 
 It is a subject on which I have preached all my life, and especially at visitations. H 
 parents would but consider the sanctity of their office, and sanctify themselves for it, 
 the houses of Catholic families would be like chapels. 
 I pray God to bless you, and am, Rev. and dear Father, 
 
 Your devoted servant in Christ, 
 
 * W, B. Ullathorne. 
 
 Can anything in a Christian family equal in beauty the sight of 
 children who, from the youngest to the oldest, present themselves 
 each night with reverence before their father and mother to receive 
 their blessing before retiring to rest? This touching ceremony en- 
 nobles a family, and consecrates authority ; natural affection ignites 
 a spark of the love of God, and the domestic hearth becomes a thresh- 
 old of Heaven! God grant that this pious custom may be ever 
 maintained where it already exists, and be adopted where, either 
 through neglect, or the chilling effect of a Protestant atmosphere, it 
 has hitherto not been practised ! 
 
 A blessing imparted in the name of God is more than a good 
 wish: it is also a prayer. Such a solemn invocation of the authority 
 of God, made by a parent for his children, cannot fail to be effica- 
 cious. The Holy Ghost Himself makes Ecclesiasticus say: The 
 father's blessing establisheth the houses of the children (ch. ii. 11). 
 
 The sign of the Cross was still unknown in the time of the Patri- 
 archs. 
 
 The day had not yet dawned when the Man-God, by dying the 
 ignominious death on the Cross, was thereby to change that sign 
 of foolishness into one in which the great St. Paul, and all Christians 
 after him, were to glory. The Patriarchs of old, in blessing their 
 children, extended their hands over their heads. With such a rite 
 
The Priest of God 
 
 IN THE CATHOLIC HOME 
 
 By Monseigneur De S^gur 
 
 
 There are people who know many things, and yet are strangers 
 to the only necessary knowledge ; there are others who know little, 
 and are looked upon as ignorant, while in reality they possess this 
 one true knowledge. 
 
 The first are men, too numerous, alas! who do not wish to ac- 
 quaint themselves with that knowledge which leads to eternal salva- 
 tion — the knowledge of religion; they know much of which they 
 might safely be ignorant, and are ignorant of that which every man 
 m this world must know, or risk the loss of his own soul. 
 
 The second are true Christians, who place before all things God 
 and their salvation ; these have that true knowledge for which noth- 
 mg will suffice, and which is beyond all. 
 
 Our first duty is to know God, and to be well instructed in relig- 
 ion. 
 
 Why do so many fail in this? 
 
 I. Because, they say, people must be educated, and have numerous 
 books, to be able to study religion. It is all very well for the priest 
 who knows Latin, and for the rich, who have received education, 
 but with the poor it is very different, and the study of religion was 
 never intended for them. 
 
 Those who speak thus do not understand what religion is. God 
 gives it principally to the poor and insignificant, who are His most 
 privileged children. In order to know Him, to love Him, and to 
 serve Him, it is not necessary to be learned, nor to know Greek and 
 Latin, it is not even necessary to know how to read. It is sufficient 
 to listen with a willing mind, and in an honest and sincere spirit, to 
 the teaching of the Church brought to us by her pastors. 
 
 The priests are charged by the Bishops, the shepherds of the Catholic 
 Church and the ministers of Jesus Christ, — to teach all Christians, 
 rich and poor, learned and ignorant, what they must believe, and 
 what they must do to serve God and to gain heaven. Being them- 
 selves directed and led by the Pope — the Vicar of Jesus Christ and 
 
THE HEAVENL.Y GUARDIAN. 
 
 The sleeping infant in its cradle, unconscious of lurking danger, and the stealthy ser- 
 pent stealing on it, symbolize but too clearly the wiles of the evil one to ensnare the sinless 
 soul. But in the moment of danger help is often nearest. In the words of the Psalmist, 
 the angels of the Lord shall encamp around about them and shall deliver them. 
 
HIS HEAVENLY PKOTECTOR. 
 
 " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels 
 in heaven always see the face of My Father who is in heaven." (St. Matthew xviii. 8.) The 
 child reaching for the water-lilies, protected by its heavenly guardian, affords us the lesson 
 that in all dangers, trials, or temptations we have ever a Helper near. 
 
ST. ANNE. 
 
 The mother of the Blessed Virgin was signally favored by God in being chosen to give to 
 a lost world the Advocate of Mercy. But it was a greater happiness to be, under God, the 
 greatest instrument of her virtue, and to be spiritually her mother by a holy education in 
 perfect innocence and sanctity. Her pious care remains a lesson to Christian parents for all 
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 ffi^ III liiilitfirMriiii 1 
 
 OUR liADY OF GOO0 COINSEL.. 
 
 This is the picture of Our Lady of Good Couasel that miraculously appeared to the 
 assembled multitude, April 25, 1467, at Genzauo, Italy. No artist has ever been able to 
 adequately copy it. The devotion to the Virgin Mother of Good Counsel has since become 
 universal. Pope Leo XIII. became a member of the Pious Union, and urged all the faith- 
 ful to become children of Mary of Good Counsel. 
 
the: H0L¥ FAMIIi¥. 
 
 Here we see illustrated the interior life of the Holj^ Family. How precious must have 
 been those years to Mary and Joseph 1 We can fancy their tender veneration and happiness, 
 ever contemplating the virtues of Jesus, and closely imitating them. Should not we, too, 
 endeavor to follow them in this, and profit by this means of drawing nearer to God ? 
 
XHS: MOTHER OF SORRO^VS. 
 
 Here we behold the Body of the Saviour, after being taken down from the Cross. His 
 sufferings were at an end at last, and His Sacred Body found its resting-place again in the 
 arms that had been the first to clasp it. But, oh ! the contrast for His afflicted Mother ! 
 Yet her sorrow was temijcred by resignation, for in His death humanity attained eternal life. 
 
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 
 
 The Apostle of the indies was born in Spain in 1506. He was one of the six companions 
 who joined St. Ignatius, the founder of the great Jesuit order. The record of his missionary 
 labors in the Orient is unprecedented since the age of the Apostles. The Saint is here repre- 
 .sented in his characteristic attitude, with his missionary staff and crucifix, and heavenly 
 light shining thereon. 
 
ST. AUGUSTINE. 
 
 St. Augustine was born at Tagaste, North Africa, in 354. In his youth he fell into a 
 frightful gulf of vice and spiritual miseries ; but, through the prayers and tears of his 
 mother, St. Monica, he finally was turned from his evil ways. His ardor in the love of God 
 was subsequently so marked that he is usually represented with the symbol of the flaming 
 heart. 
 
ST. VINCENT FERRER. 
 
 St. Vincent Ferrer was born in Valentia, Spain, in 1357. In his eighteenth year he joined 
 the Order of St. Dominic. Kings and rulers besought him to visit their dominions and preach 
 to their people. His success in converting heretics, Jevrs, and Mohammedans w^as marvelous. 
 He died, worn out by his zeal and labors, in his sixty-second year, at Vannes, France. 
 
ST. MARTIN, BISHOP OF TOURS, OAUIi. 
 
 St. Martin was born in Hungary, in 316. He began life as a soldier. One cold day, 
 while on the march, he drew his sword, and cutting his cloalc in two, gave one-half to a 
 shivering beggar. The following night, in his sleep, our Blessed Lord appeared to him in 
 the half-garment, and told him it was to Himself he had given it. 
 
ST. DOMINIC. 
 
 St. Dominic was born in Spain in 1170. He was the founder of the Order of Preachers, 
 and also instituted the holy devotion of the Rosary. The dog with the flaming torch in its 
 mouth, and the globe and cross, relate to a dream of the Saint's mother, pre%ious to his birth, 
 typifying how her son would one day rekindle the faith throughout the world. 
 
niADONNA OF CARAVAGGIO. 
 
 This excellent picture is from the brush of the celebrated Italian painter Caravaggio, 
 who lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century. It depicts the Blessed Virgin as 
 appearing to a peasant maiden amid a rural scene. Besides the present work, the "En- 
 tombment of Christ" and the "Holy Family" are among the most admired productions of 
 this eminent artist. 
 
ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA. 
 
 The Seraphic Doctor, of the Order of St. Francis, and renowned miracle-worker, was 
 born of noble parentage at Lisbon, Portugal, 1195. His preaching and missionary labors 
 were among the marvels of the age. Before his death the Blessed Virgin appeared to him 
 and placed the Child Jesus in his arms. The lily, emblematic of his purity, and his favorite 
 book, the Holy Scriptures, are associated with the picture of the Saint. 
 
BENEATH THE CKOSS. 
 
 Here we see the desolation of Mai-y, after the Sacred Botly had been taken down from the 
 Cross. Around are the cruel instruments of His sufferings — the nails, hammer, and crown 
 of thorns ; also the water-bowl and cloth with which she washed the great wounds on His 
 Sacred Person. And the swords of anguish pierce her heart, while the angels keep watch 
 over their Immaculate Queen. 
 
ST. MARV MA«»AL,EN. 
 
 Our Saint's perseverance in virtue after her conversion at the feet of her Redeemer shone 
 all the brighter in the shadow of her reprehensible past. She not only remained faithful to 
 Jesus and tlie grace He bestowed on her, but followed Him to the foot of the Cross, and to 
 His tomb, to weep over and embalm His Sacred Body. "Many sins were forgiven her, because 
 she loved much." 
 
THE ANNUNCIATIOIV. 
 
 To the heavenly greeting, " Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee : blessed art 
 thou among women," Our Lady, as the divine decree was revealed to her, answered in the 
 depth of her humility and obedience : " Behold, the handmaid of the Lord." Thus the great- 
 est of all mysteries was accomplished, and the prophecy fulfilled, "For henceforth all geneiv 
 ations shall call me blessed." 
 
THE CARJDEN OF OIiIV£S. 
 
 After taking leave of His disciples, Jesus entered tiie Garden, and there, in the shadows of 
 trees, began to pray. The scene of ail the torments and ignominies He was about to suffer 
 were present to Him, and, as we read in the gospel of St. Matthew, "He began to fear and 
 to be heavy, saying, ' My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. Nevertheless, 
 let Thy will, not Mine, be doue.' " 
 
THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 "WTien the disciples and apostles had fled, three women, with the courage begotten of 
 divine love, accompanied Jesus even to the toot of the Cross — Mary, His Motlier, Mary 
 Magdalen, and the sister of His Mother, Mary Cleophas. These alone did not abandon Him 
 in His sufferings and ignominy, and did not leave Him until He was laid in the sepulcher. 
 
THE GUARUIAIV ANGEL,. 
 
 There is no more beautiful or consoling teaching of the Catholic Church than that of an 
 angel being appointed by our Heavenly Father to watch over us during life, inspiring us to 
 the practice of virtue and shielding us against temptation and danger. In the present illus- 
 tration, we see a type of the watchfulness of the heavenly guardian over his innocent charge. 
 
TO HEAVEN. 
 
 In the present illustration we behold a beautiful picture of the final reward of a virtuous 
 life — a Christian maiden borne to heaven in tlie arms of her Guardian Angel. The garland 
 of flowers on her head tyjiifies the sweetness of the virtues she practised in life, and tlie cru- 
 cifix the troubles and sufferings which, in imitation of ber Saviour, she bore with patience. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELiaiON. 15 
 
 simple, good, and worthy of God and man. Happy he who knows 
 this holy religion; but far happier he who practises it, and makes it 
 the rule of his life ; he accomplishes the will of God ; he walks in the 
 narrow way ; he knows his Creator, serves, and loves Him, and after 
 the trials of this life shall reap a glorious reward ! . . . 
 
 A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 There are many people, otherwise good and upright, who live 
 without religion, and resemble pagans in the midst of Christian so- 
 ciety ; because they have no real knowledge of religion. Having no 
 knowledge of it, or only a very superficial knowledge, they do not 
 appreciate it; having no appreciation of it, they cannot love it; hav- 
 ing no love for it, they do not dream of practising it. There is often 
 a very false idea of religion in the world, and it is in accordance with 
 this idea that it is judged, condemned, and criticised. This is a de- 
 plorably thoughtless age, and it is with the intention that you may 
 avoid this common failing that I desire to explain to you briefly this 
 holy and glorious Christian faith. 
 
 Religion is that bond by which God is united to His creature, and 
 the creature to his God. Religion is that sacred and necessary science 
 which teaches us what God is, what He has, done for us; what we 
 are, what we must do for God ; what life is, and what awaits us 
 when life is ended. 
 
 There is one true religion, because there is one true God. 
 
 There is only one, because there is only one true God ; and to know 
 Him, to love Him, and to serve Him constitutes religion; and this 
 one true religion is the Christian or Catholic religion, in which you 
 and I have had the happiness to be born. It is called Christian, be- 
 cause the divine centre of all its mysteries is Jesus Christ, the Son 
 of God made man ; Catholic, which means Universal, because it em- 
 braces all times, all people, and all places. 
 
 Religion, considered as a whole, may be classed under three great 
 divisions: The first contains the truths that we must believe, be- 
 cause God has revealed them to us ; the second contains the duties 
 that we must practise, shows forth virtue and vice, and is called 
 Christian morality; the third contains those means of sanctification 
 and salvation which God presents to us, treats of the sacraments, of 
 prayer, and of Divine worship. 
 
 The first part of these instructions is addressed more especially to 
 
20 ON THE EXISTENCE OP GOD. 
 
 sion we call a reasonable faith. The man who refused to believe in 
 the mj'steries of nature would be a fool ; the man who refuses to be- 
 lieve in the mysteries of faith is not only senseless but impious also. 
 Let us be neither one nor the other. Let us believe with our whole 
 heart in the teaching of God through His works, even though we do 
 not always understand it. Let us rejoice that we can thus prove 
 that we recognize Him gladly as our all-wise and all-wonderful 
 Lord. He has Himself told us that there are three Persons in one 
 God; that the second of these Persons, the Son of God, was made 
 man under the name of Jesus Christ; that the Church is the mes- 
 senger of Jesus Christ to save men ; He has told us that there is an 
 eternal heaven and an eternal hell. Let us then believe it as firmly 
 as though we saw it with our eyes; and let us remember the words 
 of Our Lord after His resurrection : " Blessed are they that have not 
 seen, and have believed !" 
 
 ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 
 
 Fen^loN, the great and good Archbishop of Cambray, whose name 
 is honored even by the irreligious, was walking one evening with a 
 child confided to his fatherly care. 
 
 The heavens glittered with a thousand stars. The horizon showed 
 a faint gleam from the rays of the setting sun. All nature was at 
 rest, beautiful and sublime. The child asking what hour it was, 
 he drew out his watch." "What a beautiful watch, Monseigneur!" 
 said his young pupil; "will you allow me to look at it?" The Arch- 
 bishop gave it to him, and as the child examined it closely, "It is a 
 very singular thing, my dear Louis," said Fenelon calmly, "that 
 that watch made itself." "Made itself!" repeated the child, looking 
 at his master with a smile. "Yes, entirely alone. A traveller 
 found it in some desert, and it is quite certain that it made itself." 
 "That is impossible!" young Louis answered; "Monseigneur is 
 laughing at me?" "No, my child, I am not laughing at you. 
 What is there impossible in what I have said?" "But, Monseig- 
 neur, a watch could never make itself!" "And why?" "Because 
 so much precision is needed in the arrangement of the thousand little 
 wheels which cause its motion and make the hands keep time that 
 it requires great intelligence to organize it; 'and even then, very few 
 men really succeed in spite of all their pains. That such a thing 
 could make itself is absolutely impossible; I shall never believe it; 
 you have been deceived, Monseigneur," 
 
THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 3d 
 
 tempt us to assume the reverse, and to become irritated against God 
 when we suffer, as if it were God who was doing us harm. The 
 Holy Scripture shows us clearly the disastrous influence that the devil 
 has over us in the well-known history of Job. Hordes of robbers 
 carried off in one day all the flocks and possessions of this holy man ; 
 a violent wind came from the desert and overthrew the house in 
 which his children lived, depriving him thus of all his family; a 
 frightful sickness struck him, covering him with a grievous leprosy, 
 burning his blood and withering his bones; lastly, poverty over- 
 whelmed him with its horrible privations, and he took refuge on a 
 dunghill, where his friends, and even his wife, came to insult him, 
 and to persuade him to curse God. 
 
 What was the real secret cause of all these evils? God teaches 
 us Himself: it was Satan, it was the devil, who obtained from the 
 Lord permission to try Job. 
 
 But God, who brings good out of evil, makes use of the wicked- 
 ness of Lucifer and the rebellious angels to sanctify His servants. 
 Devils, like men, have then the power to do evil ; but God makes 
 use of the wickedness of Satan and the other devils to make us ex- 
 piate our sins by many different trials, and also to cause us to prac- 
 tise very excellent virtues, which prepare for us in heaven an incom- 
 parable increase of happiness. One of the greatest misfortunes of 
 the age is that, in practice at least, people believe no longer in the 
 devil. And thus he sports with victims who desire to believe no 
 longer in the existence of their tormentor. 
 
 THE BLESSED VIRGIN, 
 
 The devil has no adversary more formidable than the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, Mother of the Saviour, and Queen of the Church. 
 
 An error sufficiently common in these 'days is to regard devotion 
 to the Blessed Virgin as among those religious practices which are 
 undoubtedly good, but not essential to Christianity. This indiffer- 
 ence toward the Mother of God proceeds from an indifference very 
 common and still more deplorable — an indifference, alas! to the 
 Son of God Himself, even our Lord Jesus Christ; and this does not 
 usually arise from wickedness or evil intentions, but simply from 
 ignorance. 
 
 The Christian religion is the knowledge, love, and service of God, 
 taught to men by Jesus Christ, God made man ; and Jesus Christ is 
 „Tian only through the agency of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is 
 
M: THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE INCARNATION. 
 
 It is not by such means as these that we can show devotion to the 
 Mother of God ; but let us try with our whole heart to prove it, in 
 every way we can. We will always keep her image in our rooms^ 
 and let it be more precious to us than anything except the crucifix. 
 We will always wear a medal representing Mary, conceived without 
 sin; and we will never allow a day to pass without entreating the 
 help of our powerful Protectress and most merciful Mother. Let us 
 love the Blessed Virgin as Jesus loved her first. Yet this will be no 
 easy task, for we can never love her, can never honor her, so much 
 as He did. Let us imitate the sanctity of our dear Mother, her pur- 
 ity, her humility, her sweetness, her life of laborious poverty, her 
 faithfulness in little things; but more than all, let us imitate her in- 
 tense and unutterable love for Jesus, and let us so live that when our 
 race is run she shall know us for her children, and conduct us to an 
 eternal rest in the glorious paradise of the redeemed. 
 
 THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE INCARNATION. 
 
 On a certain 25th of March, 4,004 years after the creation of Adam 
 and Eve, 2,967 years after the Deluge, 1,610 years since Moses de- 
 livered the people of God, 1,032 years after the consecration of the 
 royalty of David, 752 years after the foundation of Eome, and on the 
 anniversary of the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, the Lord God, 
 Almighty and All-merciful, sent the Archangel Gabriel to a virgin 
 of the name of Mary, living in the little town of Nazareth in Galilee, 
 to announce to her the Incarnation of the Son of God. 
 
 Mary was then about fourteen, and was betrothed to Joseph, her 
 near relation, descended like herself from the royal race of David, 
 and of the tribe of Juda. Immaculate and purer than the angels, 
 sweet and full of humility, the Blessed Virgin awaited, with the 
 whole of Israel, the coming of the Divine Redeemer announced from 
 the foundation of the world. She knew not that she was destined to 
 be the Mother of the King of Heaven ; and in her loving humility 
 she prayed that she might even be the handmaid of her who should 
 be blessed among women. 
 
 According to ancient tradition it was at noonday, on the 25th of 
 March, that the Archangel Gabriel, clothed in human form and ra- 
 diant with the light of heaven, appeared to Mary, who was praying 
 at the time in a grotto hewn from the solid rock of the hill at the 
 foot of which her house was built, as were all the houses of Naza- 
 
BETHLEHEM AND THE CHILD JESUS. 3l 
 
 BETHLEHEM AND THE CHILD JESUS. 
 
 From the hour of the Annunciation, Mary bore within her sacred 
 womb our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God. A living 
 ciborium, Mary contained and bore among men the body and the 
 blood, the soul and the divinity, of the Saviour. She enclosed the 
 whole world, the God of heaven. He whom seraphims and angels 
 continually adore! 
 
 Nine months after, on the 24th of December, Joseph and Mary 
 reached the little town of Bethlehem, the city of David, there to be 
 enrolled, according to the decree of Caesar Augustus, who then com- 
 manded the whole world. 
 
 The divine prophecies were thus unconsciously fulfilled by Augus- 
 tus, and it was an unquestioned fact among the Jews that the Christ, 
 the Messias, should be born at Bethlehem and descended from King 
 David. On arriving at Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary found that 
 there was no room for them in the inn; the night was approaching, 
 and they found themselves obliged to go out of the town and to seek 
 shelter in a grotto, which for many centuries had been a place of 
 refuge for shepherds and their flocks. According to ancient relig- 
 ious traditions, David, Abraham, and Noe had frequently sought 
 an asylum in this grotto, and at the very beginning of the human 
 race Seth, the son of Adam, who had filled the place of Abel, had 
 taken refuge there to pray. 
 
 Toward midnight the Blessed Virgin was warned by God that the 
 moment was come in which the Word Incarnate should appear to the 
 eyes of His creatures. Then she clothed herself in the white raiment 
 she had brought for that hour, and prepared, with St. Joseph, a lit- 
 tle hay and straw in a manger, and the swaddling-clothes upon the 
 straw. There Mary, kneeling, lifted up her arms to heaven, and be 
 came absorbed in a blissful ecstasy — all holy and divine she knelt, the 
 Virgin Mother of God. 
 
 A heavenly light enveloped her, and suddenly in the midst of this 
 light there appeared to her enraptured vision the holy infant Jesus, 
 all radiant with glory; He looked at her with love, and stretched out 
 His little arras. Then Mary, full of joy, adored Him as her God, 
 and, taking Him in her arms, she held Him to her heart, and covered 
 Him with tears and kisses. Then she wrapped Him in swaddling- 
 clothes and laid Him in the manger ; Joseph on one side and Mary 
 on the other, kneeling and prostrate before the Lord, were as the two 
 
4S JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 these luminous shadows, in the arms of Jesus and Mary, tenderly 
 watched and cared for by Him who is "the resurrection and the life." 
 Happy he who falls asleep like Joseph in the love of Jesus and Mary, 
 after a pure and simple life passed in prayer and work, in penance 
 and obscurity. Saint Joseph, we can well understand, is the patron 
 of a happy death. 
 
 Let us think of Nazareth when work grows hard and wearisome, 
 when the yoke of a simple, unassuming life becomes galling to our 
 pride, when we are carried away by foolish gusts of worldly vanity, 
 when self-love urges us to seek distinction, and especially when the 
 spirit of independence whispers in our ears the seductive theories of 
 false liberty. . . . Jesus! save us from these insidious tempta- 
 tions; and help us to comprehend still more clearly the sanctifying 
 mystery of Thy hidden life at Nazareth I 
 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 We have seen what faith truly is; we have seen how entirely 
 worthy of God and of ourselves is that idea which Christianity gives 
 us of our Creator, the almighty and eternal Lord, infinite and su- 
 preme; one God in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 
 But this infinite God would have been utterly unknown to us if 
 He had not, in His love, revealed Himself. This is what He has 
 been doing ever since the commencement of the world, by the minis- 
 try of His angels, by the inspiration of patriarchs and prophets, and 
 more than all by the incarnation of His own beloved Son, Our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary about 
 forty centuries after the fall of Adam. The coming of Our Lord is 
 the central point to which all ages tend, and round that one event 
 all the past and future hopes and. possibilities of the human race 
 eternally revolve. 
 
 To say all that Jesus Christ is would be beyond the possibilities 
 of human speech. 
 
 He is the invisible God become visible, and appearing in the midst 
 of His creatures; He is the infinite, eternal, and almighty Creator, 
 clothed with a humanity like unto ours, and become, for love of us, 
 mortal, passible, subject to time and to all human miseries save sin. 
 Jesus is the only God, Creator of all things, Creator of angels and 
 of men, our first principle and our last end, whose knowledge is true 
 light, whose service is true joy, whose love is the only true happi 
 ness. 
 
44 THE MIRACI-ES OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 will come hereafter to judge us according to our works, and to cast out 
 of His presence, into hell, the devil and all the wicked, and to gather 
 together in a glorious eternity His own most faithful servants. 
 
 We shall soon see how we are all united by means of His Church, 
 which is the depository of all the treasures of His love. 
 
 THE MIRACLES OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 A MIRACLE is a visible fact, entirely above and beyond the natural 
 order of things; it is the unusual exercise of God's almighty power. 
 
 To deny the possibility of miracles is also to deny the power of God, 
 or rather His existence. 
 
 Miracles being the seal of divinity, if Jesus Christ were God, He 
 was, in a manner, bound to work miracles, undoubted miracles, mir- 
 acles by His own power, bearing the impress of His Godhead ; and 
 we have, like the Jews of Capharnaum, a right to ask of Him : 
 What sign dost Thou show unto us that we may believe? 
 
 Jesus Christ does in no way shrink from this trial. His acts speak 
 even more clearly than His words. 
 
 The second time that He went up to Jerusalem for the feast of the 
 tabernacles, Jesus, followed by His disciples, met a poor beggar, 
 blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who 
 hath sinned — this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" 
 Jesus answered, "Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents; but 
 that the works of God should be made manifest in him. As long as 
 I am in the world, I am the Light of the world." When He had 
 said these things, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spit- 
 tle, and spread the clay upon his eyes, and said to him, " Go, wash 
 in the pool of Siloe. " The blind man went therefore, and washed, 
 and came seeing. 
 
 But his neighbors would not recognize him. "This is not he," 
 they said, "but a man who is hke him." But he said, "I am he." 
 They said therefore to him, "How were thy eyes opened?" He an- 
 swered, " That man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my 
 eyes, and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloe, and wash.' And I 
 went, I washed, and I see." They bring him to the Pharisees, who 
 were met together in the Temple, for it was the Sabbath. The 
 Pharisees were confounded. They questioned the blind man, who 
 told them simply what had passed. "What sayest thou," they 
 asked, "of Him that hath opened thy eyes?" And he said, "He is a 
 prophet." 
 
50 CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 
 
 Jesus Christ said that He was God ; and to this, the chief proof of 
 His divinity, no answer can be made. He confirmed His words by 
 His miracles; and this second proof is as clear and as unquestionable 
 as the first. 
 
 There is no need of lengthy arguments to explain how powerful is 
 the proof afforded by such miracles. Those worked by Our Lord are 
 of a special nature peculiar to Himself alone ; He worked them by 
 His own power, and without invoking any power beyond His own. 
 ■ — "I will; be thou healed." — "Young man, I say to thee, arise." — ■ 
 "Lazarus, come forth." Saints and prophets have performed mira- 
 cles, and great miracles, but it has been always in the name of the 
 Lord their God. "In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ," said St. 
 Peter to the lame man, whom he cured when entering the temple, 
 "rise up and walk." 
 
 The Apostles, the martyrs, and the saints, from the very origin of 
 Christianity, even down to the present time, have worked and have 
 only been able to work miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, and by 
 a power beyond their own. 
 
 It is impossible to deny the divine miracles of Jesus ; to attempt to 
 do so would show a will more hardened than that of Caiphasand the 
 Pharisees — those clear-sighted and inveterate enemies of the Sa- 
 viour. Let us hear their testimony, "This man works miracles, and 
 we cannot deny it." 
 
 If we will only hold fast, in all integrity of purpose, to that love 
 of truth of which passion had deprived the Jews, we shall draw from 
 the miracles of Jesus the only logical and evident conclusion, and 
 we shall cast ourselves in spirit at His sacred feet, repeating with all 
 the faculties of our nature the words of him who was born blind : 
 Credo Domine — "Lord, I believe." 
 
 CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 
 
 After the three years of His public life, the Son of God made man 
 desired to consummate by death — by the death of the cross — the mer- 
 ciful work of our redemption. 
 
 By sin we had deserved death; Jesus took this death upon Him- 
 self, and in exchange restored eternal life to all sinners who unite 
 themselves to Him by ardent faith and true love, by unquestioning 
 obedience and sincere repentance. 
 
 Innocent, and more than innocent, Jesus made satisfaction for the 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST. 63 
 
 angels, adore Our Lord and Saviour, "Jesus Christ, infinitely holy and 
 infinitely beloved ! May His cross recall to us incessantly His love, 
 and may His sacred Blood, so freely shed, penetrate to the inmost 
 recesses of our hearts, through a frequent reception of the Sacrament 
 of the Holy Eucharist, in which He dwells, perfect God and perfect 
 Man, thus enabling us to participate in all the merits of His glorious 
 redemption. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST* 
 
 Fourteen times during the course of His preaching, Jesus Christ 
 liad announced that after His suffering and His death He would rise 
 a.";.iin on the third day, and He had clearly pointed out His resurrec- 
 tion as the sure sign by which not only His Apostles but the faithless 
 Jews should hereafter acknowledge that He was truly the Son of 
 God. "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign, and a 
 sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For 
 as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, so 
 shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of 
 the earth." "The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of 
 sinful men. and be crucified, and the third day rise again." 
 
 This prophecy was so well known to the enemies of Jesus, and they 
 so thoroughly understood its great importance, that their first care, 
 after the descent from the cross, was to watch the Holy Sepulchre, 
 to send soldiers to guard it, and to aflBx the public seal on the open- 
 ing to the grave. This vindictive foresight, with the incredulity of 
 the Apostles, and especially of Thomas, have all turned to our profit; 
 but still, the resurrection of Our Lord being for us the miracle of 
 miracles, the proof beyond all proofs, it is of extreme importance that 
 we should thoroughly know the details, and should rest our belief 
 upon the evidence. 
 
 Divine Providence has, as it were, provided for this by surrounding 
 the resurrection of the Saviour with circumstances so clear and con- 
 cise as to strike conviction to the heart of any reasonable man. 
 
 After the death of Jesus, St. Peter and St. John had rejoined Mary, 
 and had retired with her to weep and pray. 
 
 St. John himself acknowledges in his Gospel that they had all for 
 gotten the prophetic words of the Saviour touching the resurrection. 
 The Blessed Virgin alone, being initiated into the mysteries of Christ, 
 knew what would happen, but hid this knowledge in her heart. 
 
 As to the Apostles, they had all dispersed on the Friday evening, 
 
68 THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD. 
 
 ing, the truth affirmed by the Gospel, by the holy Apostles and mar 
 tyrs; let us believe, love, and adore our risen Lord. "He who be- 
 lieves shall be saved; he who believes not shall be condemned." 
 
 THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD, 
 
 Forty days after Easter Our Lord appeared for the last time to 
 His disciples, near to Jerusalem. The eleven Apostles, and more than 
 five hundred disciples, were present. It was noonday when He ap- 
 peared to them, and He led them to the Mount of Olives, and to a 
 place of which the exact spot is still preserved in the tradition of the 
 holy places. 
 
 "Behold," He said, "I send the promise of My Father upon you, 
 and you shall be endued with power from on high." Then lifting up 
 His hands to bless them. He added, " All power is given to Me in 
 heaven and in earth. Go ye into the whole world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature ; and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Je- 
 rusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and even to the utter- 
 most part of the earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations, bap ■ 
 tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost. And behold, I am with you all days, even to the con- 
 summation of the world." 
 
 And even as our divine Lord was speaking to His Apostles this last 
 solemn farewell. He rose in unspeakable majesty above all the pros- 
 trate crowd, and soon a bright cloud received Him out of their sight. 
 
 Since then, the glorified body of Jesus Christ has been in a super- 
 natural and ineffable condition, of which nothing on earth could give 
 us any idea. Although having a body truly human. He is invisible 
 to our earthly eyes; our hands cannot touch Him, our senses cannot 
 attain to Him. He deigns, in His great love, still to dwell among us 
 by means of the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar, where He is truly 
 present, though veiled under the appearances of bread and wine. 
 
 Jesus waits for us in heaven ; and those who serve Him faithfully, 
 who hate sin, obey the Church, and frequent the Sacraments, have 
 a sure and certain hope of meeting their Lord in heaven when their 
 earthly pilgrimage is done. His glorious Ascension is the pledge of 
 our own entrance into paradise. It is the last and most wonderful 
 of those miracles by which He deigned to confirm our faith and to 
 render us absolutely certain of the divine nature of the Christian re- 
 ligion. This Ascension, at the full noonday, in the clear daylight, 
 in the presence of more than five hundred witnesses, is a fact that it 
 
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 65 
 
 Let US never read those holy pages but with faith, reverence, and 
 love; and with an earnest desire to become hoher each day by con- 
 forming our lives more nearly to the life of Jesus Christ, our divine 
 Master, and our great Example. 
 
 THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 
 
 The word Assumption means lifting up to heaven, carrying away 
 from earth to heaven. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is the 
 mystery of the happy death of the Mother of God, of her miraculous 
 resurrection, and her assumption into heaven, where, being invested 
 with the glory of her divine Son, she reigns forever, Queen of heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 A poor and lowly virgin, Mary was born at Nazareth, four thou- 
 sand years after the fall of Eve, and about fifteen years before the 
 Incarnation of the Saviour. She lived at first in the temple at Je- 
 rusalem with holy women consecrated to God. Her life was passed 
 in prayer, in work, and in innocence. Espoused to St. Joseph, her 
 relation, and the descendant, like herself, of David, Abraham, and 
 Noah, she and her betrothed husband both lived in perfect conti* 
 nence ; both had taken a vow of perpetual virginity. 
 
 We have already relate^ how the Angel Gabriel appeared to her at 
 Nazareth. In a poor stable at Bethlehem, she brought into the 
 world Jesus, her Son and her God. 
 
 She passed thirty years with Jesus and St. Joseph in prayer and 
 poverty and daily work. The model of interior souls, Mary made 
 no outward show; all her life, all her glory was hidden in Jesus 
 Christ. She passed her days and nights in closest communion 
 with Him ; she listened to Him, she talked with Him, but, more than 
 all, she loved Him. She followed Him during His three years of 
 teaching, and she was with Him through all the phases of His dolor- 
 ous Passion, even unto Calvarj', where she received His last sigh. 
 
 Before His death, Jesus bequeathed her to St. John, His much- 
 loved Apostle, as His dearest possession and most sacred heritage. 
 "Behold thy mother," He said to St. John, and turned His dying 
 eyes to Mary. 
 
 All true Christians, being themselves the well- beloved disciples of 
 Jesus, were represented on Mount Calvary by St. John ; and at that 
 supreme moment they received the Blessed Virgin for their mother; 
 and Mary loves them all as her adopted children, by reason of the 
 love she bears to Jesus, who dwells within them. 
 5 
 
THE CHURCH. 67 
 
 Virgin who had become their Queen by tne glory of her divme 
 maternity. For even as the mother of a king is infinitely above his 
 servants, so Mary, the Mother of God, is infinitely above all saints 
 and angels and archangels — above all the cherubim and seraphim 
 of heaven. Immediately beneath Jesus Christ, she reigns with 
 Him, and by Him, over all His creatures. 
 
 The Assumption is the crowing glory of the Mother of God. 
 Christians celebrate it by a solemn festival. It is a day of joy, for 
 it is the day on which the Queen of Christians died, and death to the 
 Christian is not the gloomy end of all things, but the happy deliver- 
 ance from the sorrows of life, the joyful entrance into the unutter- 
 able gladness, which on earth they could only hope for and desire. 
 It is the day on which Mary triumphed over death ; it is the day on 
 which our Mother was eternally crowned. Happy shall we be if we 
 are the true children of this most holy Mother; happy, if by a faith- 
 ful following of Jesus Christ, we deserve that she should regard us 
 as her children. 
 
 Let us ask her to bless us, to obtain for us a happy death, and to 
 conduct us, after the sorrows of life, to that blessed country where 
 she reigns with Jesus Christ throughout eternal ages. 
 
 THE CHURCH, 
 
 God is known to us through Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is 
 known to us through the Church. The Church leads us to the Son 
 of God our Saviour, and He leads us to God His Father. Without 
 Jesus Christ there is no true God ; without the Church there is no 
 true Christianity. 
 
 By the term Church three distinct things may be understood, 
 although these three are all expressed in the one word. 
 
 I. The great society of all reasonable creatures who know the one 
 true God, and are in close relations with Him by means of religion, 
 whether in heaven, on earth, or in purgatory. In this sense we are 
 all members of the Church. 
 
 II. The government established by Jesus Christ to preserve His 
 children in true faith, unity, peace, and holiness ; in this sense the 
 Church signifies the Pope and the bishops, assisted by such coadjutors 
 as they themselves provide. 
 
 III. The material Temple, where the members of the Church 
 meet upon certain days, under the direction of their legitimate 
 pastors, to honor God by public worship, and to receive religious in* 
 
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 69 
 
 administering to them the sacraments, and celebrating in their midst 
 the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and other offices of public worship. 
 
 Such is the Church — the great and holy family of God, the ark of 
 salvation, the peaceful and invincible army which wages warfare 
 with the powers of hell, and marches on through all the centuries-^ 
 ever on, to the conquest of paradise. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 It is most needful to insist upon one great and fundamental truth, 
 viz., the divinity of the Catholic Church. This is the name given to 
 the great society of Christians, or disciples of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We have already seen that the only true religion is the Christian 
 religion, so called because Jesus Christ is its Head, its Master, and 
 its God. 
 
 During His life on earth, Jesus Christ chose twelve disciples, whom 
 He called Apostles, which means simply envoys, and He appointed 
 one among them, the Apostle St. Peter, to be their head, when He 
 should Himself have left the earth. Hence it was to the Apostles, 
 and especially to St. Peter, their supreme head, that He entrusted 
 the care of religion. He invested them with His spiritual authority, 
 commanded them to preach the Christian faith throughout the world, 
 and to bring all men under His dominion; and He promised to them, 
 and to their successors. His perpetual assistance even unto the end 
 of the world. 
 
 In fulfilment of this promise, ten days after His ascension into 
 heaven, He sent to them His Holy Spirit to remain with them and 
 their successors throughout all ages ; the Spirit of Truth, who pre- 
 serves the pastors of the Christian people from all error in the teach- 
 ing of the Faith; the Spirit of Holiness, who gives to them the 
 means of becoming holy themselves, and of making all men holy, if 
 obedient to their voice ; the Spirit of wisdom and power, who pre- 
 serves the work of Jesus Christ, and makes His Church triumphant 
 over all the powers of earth and hell. 
 
 St. Peter and the Apostles, obedient to the command of Jesus 
 Christ, dispersed over all the world, preaching the true religion 
 All died martyrs ; they were the first Catholic bishops, and in every 
 country where they preached they consecrated bishops and priests, 
 of whom Catholic bishops and priests are alone the actual successors 
 
 St. Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, at which city he was cru- 
 cified, during the first persecution of the Christians, in the reign of 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 71 
 
 God for his Father who is not willing to have the Church for his 
 mother" — the words of St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr, sixteen 
 hundred years ago. 
 
 Let us then reverence the priests of the Church as the ambassadors 
 of God ; let us be ever ready to condemn the attacks directed against 
 them by irreligious men ; let us listen to their voice, and be obedient 
 to their teaching; such was the command of Jesus Christ: "Go," 
 said their divine Master to them, " Go ye into the whole world, and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature. 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 There is on earth a great army which attacks no one, which 
 wounds no one, which kills no one, and yet it fights incessantly, and 
 has marched unshaken during nineteen centuries against the same 
 enemy, through the same perils, on to the same conquest. It is 
 everywere, yet few people recognize its presence. It is a thousand 
 times more numerous than the armies of the most powerful em- 
 perors, and it numbers more heroes in its ranks. It fights against 
 far more fearful foes, and the cross of honor with which it rewards 
 its bravest men is of immeasurably greater value than the decoration 
 of the battlefield. 
 
 This army is the Catholic Church. Its great Leader and Com- 
 mander, already crowned with glory, is Jesus Christ, who reigns in 
 heaven. But its divine Leader has entrusted the entire command of 
 His array upon earth to one man, who commands all the rest, and 
 leads them on to victory. This is the Pope, successor of St. Peter, 
 to whom the Son of God declared, that upon him the Church should 
 be established, and the gates of hell should never prevail against it. 
 God Himself has organized this great army, of which all Catholics 
 form a part. And to those who are faithful to their standard the 
 reward is nothing less than the happiness and the eternal rest of 
 heaven. Nothing is more strange than the ignorance of many with 
 regard to a subject which so closely concerns them. A Christian 
 may not be ignorant of such things, any more than a soldier may be 
 ignorant of the different grades of general, colonel, captain, ser- 
 geant, and soldier, in the hierarchy of the army. 
 
 Our leader, to whom we all, without exception, owe obedience, is 
 the Pope. This cannot be too often repeated, or too strongly en- 
 forced. His spiritual power extends over the whole world. No one 
 is excepted from the great rule of obedience ; and cardinals, bishops. 
 
THE POPE. 73 
 
 relates to the general government of the Church; and thus they 
 form around him an august senate always ready to assist with advice 
 and most zealous support. 
 
 The Pope is always dressed in white ; cardinals in red, which is 
 called the Eoman purple ; archbishops, bishops, and other prelates in 
 violet. All other ecclesiastics wear black. 
 
 These different degrees of the sacred authority of the Church 
 should be ever regarded with the greatest respect. Whatever hap- 
 pens, and in spite of the plausible tone assumed by infidel writers, 
 and in mischievous journals, all reasonable men should reader a glad 
 and ready obedience to the voice of the Pope, the bishop, and the 
 priest; such obedience is ennobled by the fact that it is rendered 
 unto Jesus Christ Himself, since the priests of His Church were fully 
 invested with His sacred authority by the might of His own infalli- 
 ble words. 
 
 THE POPE. 
 
 The first Pope, the first Vicar of Jesus Christ, was the Apostle St. 
 Peter. 
 
 Who cannot recall the memorable passages of the Gospel in which 
 Jesus Christ first promised and afterward conferred upon him the 
 sovereignty of the universe? Our Lord was in Judea, in the coun- 
 try bordering upon the town of Cesarea. To try the faith of His 
 disciples, He asked what men thought concerning Him. They an- 
 swered, " Some believe that Thou art John the Baptist, others Elias, 
 and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets risen from the dead." 
 Jesus said to them, "But whom do you say that I am?" And imme- 
 diately St. Peter, falling on his knees, exclaimed, "Thou art Christ, 
 the Son of the living God." Then it was that the Saviour allowed 
 to fall from His lips the words which have travelled down the cen- 
 turies with such marvellous fertility, and which still shine resplen- 
 dently at Rome, graven in gigantic characters above the tomb of the 
 Apostle — " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood 
 hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven. And 
 I say to thee, That thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I will build 
 My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 
 I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And what- 
 soever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven ; 
 and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in 
 heaven." 
 
 You have doubtless often heard this passage of the Gospel read, 
 
76 WHICH IS THE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST? 
 
 honor and obedience of his children because he is their fatherj 
 although they may know that, as a man, he has been guilty of many 
 blamable actions. There are two persons in the Pope : the Pope and 
 the man — as a man, he is more or less estimable, according to the 
 virtues that he possesses ; as a Pope, he is always worthy of all our 
 reverence, and has a right to our entire and unquestioning obedience. 
 It is not the man, it is the Pope who is always guided by the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 There have been two hundred and fifty-nine popes, from St. Peter 
 to the time of our Holy Father Leo XIII. now reigning. Of this 
 number more than eighty have either borne the palm of martyrdom, 
 or have led lives of such eminent holiness that they are numbered 
 among the saints. Scarcely two or three have soiled the chair of 
 St. Peter by notorious vice. The greater part have been men emi- 
 nent either for their capacity, their piety, or their benevolence. But 
 it may safely be afiSrmed that not one among them has possessed 
 more of the charm of virtue than our present Pontiff, Leo XIII. 
 
 The peace of God shines from his face. The well-known charac- 
 teristics of his calm and equable nature are goodness and benevo- 
 lence — a clear intellect, and a constant cheerfulness. His regular 
 features, his eyes of an undefinable expression, and the calm dignity 
 of his manner, are in him the visible signs and outward revelations 
 of the beauty of holiness. He is at once the sovereign Pontiff and 
 the good Father. It is a great happiness to receive the blessing of 
 the Pope, and especially of such a Pope. It is a great happiness to 
 be able to make a pilgrimage to Rome, and to see the successor of 
 St. Peter celebrating the Holy Sacrifice upon the very tomb of the 
 Apostle, and offering to the adoration of the faithful the hidden God 
 of whom he is the Pontiff and the Vicar.* 
 
 WHICH IS THE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST? 
 
 Among the religious communities which all claim to be considered 
 the true Church, it is of the highest importance to distinguish the 
 one which speaks truly from the rest who are deceived. 
 
 Our Lord gives us in His Gospel an infallible means, a sure and 
 evident sign by which we may recognize His Church. And is it not 
 an historical fact, clear as the day, and quite beyond the reach of 
 contradiction, that the one Catholic Apostolic Roman Church is 
 founded upon St. Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, the first Pope? 
 *See "Infallibility of the Pope," vol. i., p. 315. 
 
TRUTH AND ERROR. " 81 
 
 could be to the early Christians. I mean the prophecies of the 
 Gospel and their accomplishment in the world. The early Christians 
 saw the miracles of Jesus Christ and of His Apostles, but they did 
 not see the accomplishment of their prophecies. They were, never- 
 theless, obliged to believe in them firmly, because of the miracles 
 they saw. Just as a miracle was a decisive proof to the first Chris- 
 tians, so is prophecy a decisive proof to us, who have clear evidence 
 of the divine fact of its accomplishment. 
 
 And let us observe, in conclusion, that the evidence gathered from 
 the fulfilment of the prophecies is perhaps still more decisive than 
 that which is gathered from miracles, for this reason, that time adds 
 to its force, day after day. For instance, the stability of the Seat of 
 St. Peter, the preservation of the Jewish people, though cursed and 
 scattered all over the world, are far more striking facts now than 
 they could have been four or five hundred years ago. And how 
 much more will this be the case four or five thousand years hence, if 
 the world last so long (which is more than doubtful) ? 
 
 Therefore, there are miracles, though fewer than formerly, be- 
 cause the occasion has greatly ceased ; and they are sent no longer 
 as an evidence of the truth, but are given as divine consolations. 
 The miracle which fills the world is the Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 TRUTH AND ERROR. 
 
 There is but one true religion, as we have continually repeated. 
 In all centuries the spirit of falsehood and error has raised up in 
 opposition to this holy religion many contrary beliefs which are only 
 human inventions. To all such we give the name of hereby, which 
 means simply a false faith. All have one marked char.Jicteristic. 
 Man alone has been their originator, and they do not descend from 
 the Apostles. Separated from the truth, which is nowhere to be 
 found in its completeness but in the Catholic Church, these false re- 
 ligions endure for a time, then, perish, having first ruined the souls of 
 men, and brought forth the fruits of indifference and irreligion. In 
 the midst of all the dissension and confusion which ever accompanies 
 mistaken creeds, the ancient Church of God remains ever the same, 
 teaching ever the same true doctrine, preaching ever the same pure 
 morality, and producing ever in the hearts of her children the same 
 sublime virtues. This difference need not cause astonishment ; the 
 work of God does not resemble the works of men, and Jasus Christ, 
 the divine Founder of the Church, will not suffer it to 1 1 shakea. 
 
 6 
 
86 ANGELS AND SAINTS. 
 
 The Bible is no longer the word of God, because it is no longei 
 according to the mind of God. Every Protestant — every Protestant 
 clergyman — interprets the sacred words according to the ever-chang- 
 ing tenor of his mind, and often forces them into a false subservience 
 to his own unfounded opinions. This mode of interpretation, carried 
 to an extreme, will even provide its adherents with a cloak for wrong 
 doing, and enable them to say, By following my inclinations I am 
 not only exempt from sin, but I am doing the will of God ! This 
 subject recalls to us the slightly stinging answer made by a good 
 and holy prelate (Monsignor de Cheverus, Archbishop of Bordeaux) 
 to a Protestant clergyman who had engaged in a discussion with 
 him, and had cited in opposition to his remarks a number of texts 
 from the Bible — texts both misunderstood and misapplied, and hav- 
 ing, besides, no possible connection with each other. 
 
 "Is it not written in the Gospel, my dear sir," said the prelate 
 calmly, when the minister had ended his quotations — "is it not 
 written that Judas hanged himself?" "Certainly," answered the 
 minister, slightly surprised. "And is it not also written, 'Go, and 
 do thou in like manner?' Why, then, have you not yet hanged 
 yourself?" The minister retired from the conflict, ensnared and 
 much confused. 
 
 Thus it follows that by constantly applying the Bible illogically, 
 unconnectedly, and according to fancy, men are able to gather from 
 the most sublime of books the most absurd and dangerous ideas. 
 For this reason, a living and infallible interpreter is needed too ex- 
 plain this book, just as a judge and a tribunal are needed to expound 
 and declare a law. This interpreter is the Catholic Church. 
 
 ANGELS AND SAINTS. 
 
 We are here on earth only that we may hereafter attain to heaven. 
 There is no exception to this rule, and whoever fails to reach heaven 
 is eternally lost — eternally condemned to the flames of hell. The 
 irreligious and the unbelieving may say what they will; the fact 
 remains the same, and no words of theirs will alter it. 
 
 This present life is the time for work ; the future life is the time 
 of rest and reward. Those who have already gained this rest and 
 this reward are angels and saints. The angels are pure spirits, who 
 at the moment of their creation, in the beginning of time, adored 
 Jesus Christ, incarnate upon earth, and revealed to them by God 
 from afar, and thus merited by this act of faith, submission, and 
 
90 THE SOULS IN PURGATORY. 
 
 THE SOULS IN PURGATORY. 
 
 On the 2d of November the Church celebrates a feast which is at 
 the same time most solemn and most touching. This is the com- 
 memoration (or remembrance) of the faithful departed. 
 
 This feast does not concern the souls of all those who have gone 
 before us on this earth. Many are already in the enjoyment of the 
 eternal rest of heaven, and their feast is celebrated the day before, 
 on November 1st, the day of All Saints. These are the souls of 
 those who, when their earthly probation was over, were found in a 
 state of grace at the moment of death, and also of those whose puri- 
 fication from sin in the flames of purgatory is already ended. These 
 holy souls have no further need of our suffrages. They can only 
 receive our homage and our prayers; they have for ever entered into 
 joy and into perfect gladness. . . . 
 
 There are other souls, alas! and in great numbers, with whom 
 this sacred commemoration has no connection : these are the souls of 
 those who are eternally and irrevocably condemned to the torments 
 of hell because they rejected God, and separated themselves from 
 His love, during that time when they were able to choose between 
 good and evil, between the love of God and the love of sin. There 
 is no feast, there are no prayers for them, neither in the Church 
 which is still militant on earth, nor in the Church which already 
 reigns in heaven. For them there is nothing but an eternal remorse, 
 an eternal despair, an eternal void, nothing but these eternally re- 
 venging flames, which devour without consuming — those flames of 
 which Jesus Christ speaks so often in His Gospel as the certain doom 
 of sinners. "They shall be cast," He says, "into everlasting fire, 
 into the fire which is not extinguished, where the victims shall be 
 salted with fire [that is to say, preserved and yet penetrated], and 
 where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ..." 
 
 The feast of All Souls relates, therefore, to the souls in purgatory 
 alone. Purgatory is a state of suffering in which those souls who 
 were found at the time of death in a state of grace, but who had not 
 sufficiently expiated their sins by repentance, are perfectly purified 
 that they may be worthy to appear among the saints. 
 
 Purgatory is that formidable future in which we are destined to 
 pay all that we owe to divine justice. Purgatory presents the dark- 
 ness and the desolation, the grief and the remorse of hell. There is 
 the same terrible fire, there are the same torments; everything is 
 
^SECOND PART^ 
 
 THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 Jesus Christ Our Lord, the Son of God made man, chose and in- 
 stituted certain outward signs to transmit His grace to men, and it 
 is these outward signs that Christians call the sacraments. Just as 
 God communicated Himself to us, in the mystery of the Incarnation, 
 under a visible form, and by means of that sacred humanity to which 
 He united His own divine Person, so He continues to unite Himself 
 to our souls under visible forms, and by means of the holy sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 The sacraments are the outward and visible part of religion ; they 
 answer the same end as the humanity of Jesus Christ in the Incarna- 
 tion. They are to the Holy Spirit what the body is to the soul; the 
 Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, and is given to her by the sac- 
 raments: they are, therefore, the instruments or outward channels 
 of God's grace, and are to the Church what the bark is to the tree. 
 Jesus Christ instituted them as the necessary means of our sanctifi- 
 cation. And, although they are only means, we are all obliged to 
 have recourse to them in order to attain true holiness. 
 
 The sacraments, we have said, are outward signs. An outward 
 sign is an external thing which can be grasped or apprehended by 
 the senses, and which signifies some other thing which the senses 
 cannot apprehend. Thus, if I clench my hand, and confront my 
 neighbor, I make use of an outward sign. My gesture is outward, 
 because it appeals to the sense of sight ; and it is a sign, because it 
 signifies something that cannot be seen, namely, the threat I would 
 convey to my neighbor, and the resentment that I feel toward him. 
 
 All words are outward signs ; they are outward, because in being 
 heard they affect the sense of hearing; and they are signs, because 
 the different sounds which they form express and signify our 
 thoughts, which are invisible, and are hidden in the depths of the 
 mind. The Christian sacraments are all outward signs; they may 
 all be apprehended by one or other of the five senses ; they consist 
 
BAPTISM. 101 
 
 sin, in order to receive these sacraments worthily. If any one re- 
 ceived knowingly either of these sacraments in a state of mortal sin, 
 he would not only forfeit the grace bestowed through the indwelling 
 of the Holy Spirit in the heart, but would moreover commit a horri- 
 ble sacrilege, and would trample underfoot the merits of Jesus 
 Christ, from whom all the efi&cacy of the sacraments springs. 
 
 Woe unto him who commits the sin of sacrilege; woe to the un- 
 worthy Christian who dares to communicate, or to receive confirma- 
 tion, or to be married in a state of mortal sin, without having first 
 obtained the pardon of his sins by the means of a good confession I 
 The Son of God shall return to him once more, at the day of judg- 
 ment ; and for that unhappy man the greatness of His mercy shall be 
 forever obliterated in the greatness of His justice. 
 
 But, on the other hand, how great is the joy, how inexhaustible 
 the source of consolation for the true Qhristian who beholds his God 
 ever ready to assist him in all his weak endeavors. He can every 
 day, and at any moment in his life, drink plentifully at these life- 
 giving fountains, which are the sources of all grace, and whose 
 "waters," said Our Lord Jesus Christ, "spring forth unto ever- 
 lasting life." 
 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 There are, as we have just said, seven sacraments in the Christian 
 religion — that is to say, there are seven rites or external signs 
 chosen by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself to sanctify our souls, by 
 transmitting to them the divine grace to supply our various spiritual 
 requirements. 
 
 The life of the soul may be compared to the life of the body. In 
 order to grow, to develop, to receive nourishment, and to accom- 
 plish all its functions, the body must first of all be filled with the 
 breath of life. It is the same with the soul. It must first of all re 
 ceive life by its union with Jesus Christ ; and if it does not receive 
 this life it can do no Christian deeds, nor attain true sanctification. 
 Therefore, Baptism is that external ceremony which has been or- 
 dained by God to give life to the soul, and to enable us to be born of 
 the spirit, and to become the children of God and of His Church. 
 For this reason we call Baptism the first and most fundamental of 
 the sacraments, without which no one can be a Christian, or have 
 any part with Jesus Christ. 
 
 Baptism is given by taking water and pouring it upon the head of 
 the man or child who presents himself to be made a Christian, while 
 
CONFIRMATION. 103 
 
 like the taper, which, as it gradually consumes, becomes nothing else 
 but light. 
 
 The day of our baptism is the day of our true birth — that is, of 
 our birth to the true life. For we are not destined to live on earth 
 even like sheep and oxen which have no souls, but are created for 
 the life eternal — are created to know God, to love Him, and to serve 
 Him with an undivided heart all through the probation of this mor- 
 tal life, that we may thus reach our heavenly home, heirs to the hap- 
 piness that knows no end. 
 
 We must faithfully keep the sacred promises of our baptism, and 
 must take great care in causing them to be observed by those who 
 depend upon us. Children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, let us 
 prove ourselves worthy of the grace bestowed on us in our baptism. 
 To do this, we must avoid sin, fight against temptation, and be fre- 
 quent in prayer ; we must attend religious instructions (especially on 
 Sundays and on festivals), and constantly observe the command- 
 ments of God and the laws of the Church. In one word, we must in 
 all things strive to follow Christ. Earth has nothing more truly 
 great and noble than the Christian whose life does no dishonor to the 
 sacred name he bears. 
 
 CONFIRMATIOR 
 
 Baptism is the first sacrament of the Christian religion ; Confirma- 
 tion is the second. Confirmation is, in respect to Baptism, just what 
 the development of youth and manhood is to the simple birth. By 
 birth we become men, but we are not men yet in every sense of the 
 term — men capable of speaking, acting, working, and fighting. To 
 become perfect men, we must grow and acquire strength, and gradu- 
 ally develop into manhood. So it is with the soul, of which the body 
 is only the symbol and visible image. Our soul is spiritually united 
 to Jesus Christ by baptism, and thus becomes a living soul in the 
 sight of God. But the sacrament of Confirmation is needed to de- 
 velop and bring to perfection the grace given in baptism, and to 
 make the Christian a perfect Christian. 
 
 We do not mean by this that all those who are confirmed are per- 
 fect ; alas ! the devil and human weakness ever remain. But in Con- 
 firmation, the Christian receives from God all the strength he needs 
 to become and to continue a perfect Christian — that is to say, a 
 saint. 
 
 Our Lord gives us this assistance once for all, and for this reasoif 
 
HOLY EUCHARIST. 106 
 
 consoling for the true Christian, so terrible for the unworthy — "He 
 who shall be ashamed of Me before men, of him will I also be 
 ashamed before My Father at the last day. He who perseveres unto 
 the end shall be saved." 
 
 HOLY EUCHARIST. 
 
 Holy Eucharist is the third sacrament of the Christian religion. 
 If Baptism give life to the soul by uniting us spiritually to Jesus 
 Christ, if Confirmation develop and complete this life-giving union, 
 the Holy Eucharist is destined to preserve and nourish it. 
 
 Holy Eucharist is a sacrament instituted by Our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and contains our adorable Saviour Himself, under the ap- 
 pearances of bread and wine. The day before His Passion, Jesus 
 Christ took bread into His sacred hands, blessed it, and changed it 
 by His almighty power into His own Body and Blood. "Take," said 
 He to His Apostles, "take and eat ye all of this; for this is my 
 BODY." And when they had communicated, He took a chalice of 
 wine, blessed it in the same manner, and changed it into His pre- 
 cious blood, saying, "Take and drink ye all of this; for this is my 
 BLOOD, the blood of the new and eternal testament, which shall be 
 shed for you and for many, to the remission of sins." Then He gave 
 to His Apostles, who thus became the first priests, the command and 
 the power to do what He Himself had done, to change bread and 
 wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. "And you," he 
 added, " as often as ye do these things, ye shall do them in remem- 
 brance of Me." Ever since that time, the Apostles, and their legiti- 
 mate successors, the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church, have 
 every day, when celebrating Mass, consecrated bread and wine; and 
 it is this bread and wine, miraculously changed into the Body and 
 Blood of Our Lord, that we call the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, or 
 the Blessed Sacrament. To communicate is to receive the sacrament 
 of Holy Eucharist, or, in other words, it is to receive the Body and 
 Blood of Jesus Christ, really present, though hidden beneath the 
 veils of the sacred Host. This Body is verily the same Body that 
 was once upon this earth, but it is not under the same conditions. 
 In the Holy Eucharist it is in a glorified condition, and is thus im- 
 measurably removed from the grossness of the natural and earthly 
 body. To make a good communion is to receive Jesus Christ with 
 right dispositions; to make a bad communion is to receive Him with 
 evil dispositions. The first, the noblest, holiest, and most sublime 
 
110 BEAIi PRESENCE OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 
 
 ON THE REAL PRESENCE OF OUR LORD JESUS 
 CHRIST IN THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 
 
 The Eucharist is a sacrament (viz., an outward sign), which con- 
 tains Our Lord Jesus Christ living and concealed under the appear- 
 ances of bread and wine. 
 
 The Church teaches us that the bread and wine are changed in the 
 hands of the priest during Mass into the Body and the Blood of Jesus 
 Christ. It is this mysterious bread, Jesus Christ Himself, that 
 Christians call the Eucharist or the Blessed Sacrament. Behold! 
 how deep a mystery! glorious, unfathomable, and divine! But are 
 we perfectly sure that we are not mistaken ? is it a certain fact that 
 Jesus Christ is really present in the Blessed Sacrament? yes, it is 
 very certain, very sure, and we desire no other proof than the divine 
 words of Jesus Himself. 
 
 The more impenetrable this mystery, the more implicit and abso- 
 lute the faith required of us by the Son of God, so much the more 
 distinct and unmistakable would have been the teaching that He 
 gave us concerning it. And such that teaching is; and His words 
 on the subject of the real presence are so perfectly plain, so clear 
 and positive, that for three hundred years Protestants have turned 
 and twisted in vain in a useless endeavor to evade the full force and 
 meaning of words they cannot deny. The evidence remains, and 
 overwhelms them. 
 
 Let them, for instance, open the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
 speaks twice of the Holy Eucharist; the first time to promise it, 
 about a year before His death ; the second time to institute it. The 
 promise is related by the Apostle St. John, in the sixth chapter of 
 his Gospel. Our Lord was by the Sea of Galilee. He had just mi- 
 raculously fed five thousand persons with five loaves. Multiplied in 
 the hands of the Apostles who distributed them to the people by the 
 command of their Master, these miraculous loaves were a symbol and 
 an acted prophecy of that living bread, far more mysterious, which 
 these same Apostles, and the priests, their successors, should be one 
 day charged to distribute to all Christian people. Overcome with 
 admiration at the sight of this great miracle, they said among them- 
 selves, "This is of a truth the Messias whom we look for." "Labor 
 not," said the Lord to them, "for the meat which perisheth, but for 
 that which endureth unto life everlasting, which the Son of Man 
 
THE PRIEST. 133 
 
 is called the Mass. The breviary or divine office is that daily prayer 
 to which all priests are bound, and which they recite, not only on 
 their own account, but in the name of all Christians and of the whole 
 world. Thence they draw that holiness, charity, and self-devotion 
 which they need, in order to fulfil efficaciously the second of their 
 duties, viz., the sanctification of souls. For it is to sanctify and to 
 save men that priests, in the name of Jesus Christ, teach religion, 
 make known to all the law of God, administer the sacraments, remit 
 sins, and fulfil all other offices of the sacerdotal ministry. He that 
 heareth them, heareth Jesus Christ; he that rejects them, rejects 
 salvation and eternal life. 
 
 Let us pray to God to send us good priests. A good priest is like 
 Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ the saviour and benefactor of all 
 who approach him. The sacrament of Holy Order is thus useful to 
 ourselves ; and it is through this sacrament that we have the knowl- 
 edge of God, and are able to practise His holy law, and that we are 
 not deprived, like so many unhappy souls, of the light and the peace 
 of the true religion. 
 
 THE PRIEST. 
 
 There is in the midst of us a man little appreciated, too often 
 little loved, and sometimes frightfully calumniated, and yet who is, 
 nevertheless, just the one man who is most worthy of the reverence 
 and confidence of all. This man is the Christian priest — the con- 
 soler of all who suffer, and the friend of all the friendless ; and it is 
 against him that the scoffing and the irreligious, enemies of God and 
 of society, constantly endeavor to prejudice the minds of men. 
 
 The priest is attacked in this manner only because he is the 
 minister of God. The man who would have no God, would also 
 have no priest ; and, knowing that he is powerless to impose silence 
 upon this inconvenient preacher of the divine law, he seeks to expel 
 him, or at least to rob him of the confidence of men in order to para- 
 lyze his ministry. 
 
 The priest has been sent to his brethren by Jesus Christ, even 
 as He himself was sent. "Even as My Father hath sent Me," said 
 Jesus to the Apostles, His first priests, "I also send you!" Jesus 
 was sent to save the world by the sacrifice of Himself, to enlighten 
 it by His teaching, and to console it by His mercy. And thus He 
 sends His priests to save, instruct, console, and sanctify their 
 brethren; or rather, He Himself fulfils, by means of His priests, 
 
MATRIMONY. 139 
 
 the little elect. Let him choose without fear the hetter part. It is 
 the most sublime, and the sweetest ; it is the most Divine, and the 
 simplest; thus, where responsibilities abound, graces also abound, 
 and this vocation to a more perfect life is, essentially, only a voca- 
 tion to a nobler, truer, purer happiness; it is the mark of a more 
 tender love. 
 
 MATRIMONY. 
 
 Matrimony is a contract instituted by God from the beginning of 
 the world, by which a man and woman give themselves freely and 
 irrevocably to each other as husband and wife. Matrimony is there- 
 fore a sacred and a religious contract, and is of a far higher nature 
 than any other contract common among men. It is irrevocable when 
 a free consent has been once given upon both sides; it is beyond 
 recall, and the union is for life. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to sanctif}'' the world in order to 
 save it, did not forget marriage, the foundation of human society 
 and the basis of family life. This contract, already holy and sacred, 
 was raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament. Therefore, 
 among Christians, marriage is an essentially religious act, a source 
 of grace and sanctification for the faithful husband and wife, and 
 its violation is not only an injustice, but an undoubted sacrilege. 
 
 In the eyes of Christians and of the Church there is but one true 
 and legitimate marriage, that which is contracted according to the 
 law of God, in the presence of God's minister, and in obedience to 
 the rules laid down by the Church. 
 
 A marriage, to be valid, must be contracted in the presence of the 
 parish priest and of two witnesses. When the persons presenting 
 themselves to be itiarried have been interrogated by the priest as to 
 their free and voluntary consent to take each other mutually for 
 husband and wife, and have both answered in the affirmative, they 
 are forever united, they have received the sacrament of matrimony, 
 and commit a mortal sin if their hearts are not prepared for this 
 solemn religious act.* 
 
 In order to receive this sacrament aright, it is necessary to prepare 
 for it by prayer and by a good confession ; and in many countries 
 
 *In England and the United States, the contracting of marriage otherwise than 
 before the priest and two witnesses, though illicit and sinful is not necessarily invalid ; 
 for the Decree of the Council of Trent on Clandestine Marriages, not having been pub- 
 lished in those countries, is, therefore, by virtue of a provision in the Decree itself, 
 not binding upon persons living therein. 
 
BEFORE MARRIAGE. 141 
 
 the Church. In case one party is not even baptized, this should be 
 made known before, as it is an impediment that renders the mar- 
 riage null. 
 
 BEFORE MARRIAGE. 
 
 It is a very serious thing to marry. To a great many people mar- 
 riage resembles a kind of perpetual treadmill; they are in despair at 
 the dreary prospect of being forever bound to one another; they tear 
 their hair (figuratively speaking), and would give the whole world to 
 be able to recall the fatal Yes, and to utter in its place a distinct and 
 unhesitating No. . . . Vain regrets ! this union is for life. There- 
 fore, before entering into marriage, let us reflect very seriously on 
 what we are about to do, that we may not prepare for ourselves, like 
 so many others, a miserable future. 
 
 The following suggestions, if acted upon, are calculated to prevent 
 many bitter awakenings: they bear chiefly upon three important 
 questions- 1st, Shall I marry? 2d, Whom shall I marry? 3d, 
 When I have chosen, how shall I prepare for marriage? 
 
 1st, Shall I marry? Do not deceive yourself. The marriage state 
 is usually far more difiScult, and far harder than that of celibacy. 
 The unmarried are responsible only for their own acts, and there is 
 no one to share the burden of their troubles, failures, and mistakes. 
 Once married, this responsibility is extended to the husband or the 
 wife, who usually finds this burden slightly insupportable. Besides, 
 it is very diflQcult to find perfection in a husband or a wife ; the edu- 
 cation of each has been different, and their ideas are not the same; 
 "^M?^ aime le vinaigre, P autre prefere Vhuile," from all of which 
 spring tears, disputes, and constant discord. While unmarried, 
 everything went smoothly ; the daily requirement was simple enough, 
 but now there are more expenses, and hardly more receipts, hence 
 difficulties arise, and it is a question how to make the two ends 
 meet. 
 
 In short, the state of marriage is a difficult one; it brings great 
 duties and heavy burdens; it is a yoke which no one can shake off 
 who has once submitted to it ; all should reflect seriously before de- 
 ciding to accept it, but it is a source of much happiness, and some- 
 times of salvation. 
 
 Supposing that I have answered this question. Shall I marry, with 
 an affirmative, what is the next thing to be done? 
 
 Whom shall I marry? Ah! this is no trifling question I To 
 
AFTER MARRIAGE. 147 
 
 AFTER MARRIAGR 
 
 After the roses, thorns ; and on the rose-trees, how few the roses, 
 and how many the thorns; in this sense all marriages are, like 
 rose-trees, more or less garnished with thorns. What are these 
 thorns? What are the duties which fall so heavily upon married 
 people? 
 
 (1) Their common life and common cares. All husbands have 
 their faults, all wives have theirs. During the first few months 
 everything is perfection. "My husband is so kind and considerate!" 
 "My wife is an angel of goodness!" . . . But in time the perfection 
 of the husband evaporates, and only the husband " full of faults" 
 remains; the "angel" loses one by one the gilded plumes of her 
 wings, until the disappointed husband is finally brought face to face 
 with a woman, far from perfect, a woman exactly similar to other 
 women! What can he do then? Confronted by this hard reality, 
 must he grow angry, irritable, and despondent? No, indeed; he 
 must simply bear it. Understand this clearly: he must. It is a 
 duty, a conjugal duty; one of the first requirements in the yoke of 
 marriage. 
 
 " But my husband makes himself perfectly hateful ; he is unreason- 
 able, obstinate, and always ready for some dispute!" Bear with 
 him patiently ; you are his wife, and in spite of all his faults he is 
 your husband. Bear with him, and, still more, obey him in all that 
 wounds neither honor nor conscience. The wife, indeed, owes her 
 husband not help and sympathy alone, but deference, submission, 
 honor, and obedience. . . . "But my wife is the most trying of 
 women; my patience is all gone; she is ill-tempered, jealous, ab- 
 surd!" Bear with her. At the moment of your marriage you 
 entered into a religious engagement before God, and before her, to 
 bear with her whatever she might be. Live with her then as happily 
 as possible, show her all the affecfcion, all the kind consideration 
 which she has a right to expect from you. It is by gentleness and 
 not by violence that you may even yet derive much happiness from 
 your marriage. "A drop of honey," says St. Francis of Sales, "at- 
 tracts more flies than a cask of vinegar." 
 
 The every-day duties of life are not so simple as some appear to 
 think. People need no small amount of virtue to enable them to 
 adapt themselves willingly to each other in the thousand little details 
 of ordinary existence. It is, as a rule, more difficult for two persons 
 
^THIRD PART^ 
 
 WHAT IT IS TO BE A CHRISTIAR 
 
 Do my Christian readers clearly understand what it truly is to be 
 a Christian? 
 
 It certainly is not, as some people with slightly confused ideas ap- 
 pear to imagine, merely to abstain from murdering or plundering 
 your neighbor. To do this is just to escape being a villain, that is 
 all. 
 
 To be a Christian is not merely to be a good father, a good hus- 
 band, a good son, a good workman, an industrious and honorable 
 man, a good comrade, etc. ; that is only to be an honest man, and a 
 Christian is something more than an honest man. 
 
 To be a Christian is not merely to respect religion, to consider it 
 good and useful, to acknowledge that Christianity has inspired noble 
 deeds; that is simply to judge fairly, and to possess the good sense 
 of an intelligent man : in order to hold such opinions as these nothing 
 is needed but to rise above vulgar prejudices, and to despise the 
 pointless sneers of a shallow philosophy. 
 
 Lastly, to be a Christian is not merely to observe certain exterior 
 practices, such as to hear Mass regularly, to abstain, or even to go 
 to confession. These practices, although very excellent, are never- 
 theless only means by which to become and to remain a true Chris- 
 tian. Then what is the Christian life? and what is a true Chris- 
 tian? 
 
 A Christian is a baptized man, who believes with his whole heart 
 all that is taught, in the name of Jesus Christ, by the Pope and the 
 Bishops, who have been entrusted by the Saviour to spread the Chris- 
 tian religion throughout the world ; a man, moreover, who observes, 
 as far as human weakness will allow, all the commandments of God 
 and the laws of the Church ; and who earnestly strives to the best of 
 his power to imitate Jesus Christ, his God, his Saviour, and his great 
 example. 
 
 A Christian is a man who loves God before all things, who would 
 choose to suffer anything rather than offend Him, who detests sin 
 
152 WHY MANY UPRIGHT PEOPLE FAIL TO FULFIL RELIGIOUS DUTIES. 
 
 that is required of us by God; does He not deserve it from us? Life 
 passes quickly ! Let us work while it is day : blessed is that servant 
 whom He shall find watching; a few hours of weariness, a few 
 hours of brave and patient fighting, and then, to the passing trials 
 of this earthly probation succeeds the eternal rest, the unutterable 
 gladness promised by the Saviour. 
 
 WHY SO MANY UPRIGHT PEOPLE FAIL TO FUL- 
 FIL THEIR RELIGIOUS DUTIES. 
 
 It is a fact, and one which is much to be regretted, that there are 
 a great number of men and women of unblemished character, of 
 great goodness of heart, and who are leading correct and peaceful 
 lives, yet who do not fulfil their religious duties. They pray, in 
 some cases at all events, with a certain amount of regularity ; they 
 do not ridicule religion; they even defend it when there is need; 
 from time to time they hear Mass on Sunday ; they abstain on Good 
 Friday, and sometimes on all Fridays; they regard as of the highest 
 importance that religious care by which the education of their chil- 
 dren is surrounded ; their feelings are deeply touched at the time of 
 the first communion of their son or daughter ; they would not die 
 without the sacraments for any earthly consideration ; their life ap- 
 pears irreproachable. Only one thing is wanting : they neither go 
 to confession nor to holy communion. Is this a great evil when all 
 other duties are faithfully accomplished? Yes, a great evil. A 
 vessel fastened to the shore by an iron chain becomes, if a single link 
 of this chain chance to be broken, the mere sport of the waves, and 
 loses its only protection. God is our Saviour amidst all the perils of 
 human life and the storm of human passions; the chain which binds 
 us to Him, and consequently saves us, is religion; and even as a 
 chain is made up of a succession of links, so religion is made up of 
 a succession of obligations which form one complete whole, and are 
 closely attached one to another. To break one single link, to violate 
 one single precept of religion, is to separate ourselves from God, to 
 lose the life of the soul, and to jeopardize our eternal salvation. The 
 obligation for every Christian to confess regularly, and to communi- 
 cate at least once a year, is an absolute and rigorous law, the viola- 
 tion of which is a mortal sin. Therefore, however unbroken the rest 
 of the chain, if this double link is wanting, all is broken between 
 ourselves and God ; whatever the blamelessness, integrity, and mo- 
 rality of our lives in every other respect, this twofold duty being 
 
163 ON THE FOLLY OF DELAY. 
 
 ON THE FOLLY OF DELAY, 
 
 The past belongs to us no more; the future does not belong to ua 
 yet, and perhaps never will, the present only is ours. Therefore, 
 whenever we have anything of consequence to do, let us, if possible, 
 do it at once, and never put it off until that to-morrow which per- 
 haps may not arrive; above all should we fear to defer it until 
 some distant future. 
 
 An incident which happened recently in a prison at Paris will help 
 to show how wise and necessary this rule of conduct is. The prison 
 consists of two divisions; in one part the ordinary criminals are con- 
 fined, while the other is entirely allotted to more youthful offenders, 
 who, owing to their precocity in vice, have been condemned to a 
 certain length of imprisonment. Easter-time was drawing near. 
 The good chaplain of this prison, therefore, assembled all these 
 young men, and after speaking to them on the serious obligation of 
 fulfilling their Easter duties, he requested those who desired to pre- 
 pare themselves to give him their names that he might write them 
 down. All presented themselves, with only one exception. This 
 was a young man of seventeen. 
 
 The chaplain, troubled at his silence, which contrasted so forcibly 
 with the willing assent of the others, went the following day to see 
 him in his cell. "Well, my friend," he said to him kindly, "you 
 forgot, did you not, to have your name entered for the Easter 
 duties?" "No, sir," answered the young prisoner calmly; "I did 
 not forget, . . . but I have not decided; I am not prepared." . . . 
 " Oh, my child, that is nothing ! I will help yon to prepare yourself. 
 It is the simplest thing in the world. Let me enter your name with 
 the others in my list. I will make it my care to see that you per- 
 fectly fulfil your duty." "No, sir, no; not now; another time per- 
 haps.. Not this year; next year." . . . "What, next year? But, 
 my poor young friend, next year you will have just the same diffi- 
 culties. Why should you delay? You are not sure." . . . "Yes, 
 yes; T will do my Easter duties next year; this year I cannot." The 
 chaplain saw it would be useless to say anything more, and left him, 
 much distressed by such unhappy stubbornness. "Poor young 
 fellow," he said to himself, "he refuses the only comfort that is left 
 to him in his captivity. If he only knew what he rejects !" 
 
 The next morning he went down, according to his usual custom, 
 to the cells in the infirmary to see another young prisoner, who was 
 
CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. I7l 
 
 Let US therefore question our own hearts, and search our own con- 
 sciences. Are we in a state of grace? Since our last confession and 
 our last communion, have we served God well? Have we prayed 
 well? Have we kept the Sundays holy? Have we observed the 
 commandments of God, and of His Church? Have we not fallen 
 back weakly into certain serious sins, which we had promised our- 
 selves for the future to avoid? 
 
 If you only perceive a little dust, only a little human weakness, on 
 the white robe of your conscience, thank God with all your heart, 
 and renew your good resolutions to be ever pure and faithful. If, 
 on the contrary, the holy robe of innocence is torn and defiled, like 
 the prodigal son in the Gospel : call all your courage to your aid, 
 rise, and, full of confidence and true repentance, return unto your 
 Father: go, and confess your sins; go, and regain the white robe, 
 the holy robe of Christians, and then, with the help of God, strive 
 never again to abandon that best and noblest state of life — the 
 state of grace. 
 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHRISTIAN VIRTUES, 
 
 It is not enough to do the right ; it is also necessary to do the 
 right in the right way. In order to be a good Christian, to please 
 God, and to go to heaven, an outward observance of the Ten Com- 
 mandments of God, and the six commandments of the Church, is far 
 from sufficient ; it is also necessary to observe them with certain in- 
 terior dispositions which we call the Christian spirit, or Christian 
 virtue. No one is a Christian except upon this condition. The out- 
 ward observance of the commandments is like the body of the Chris- 
 tian life : the Christian spirit is the soul of this body. A body with- 
 out a soul is only a corpse and not a man. What, then, is this 
 Christian spirit without which no one can be truly a child of God? 
 It consists of certain dispositions or qualities which are called Chris- 
 tian virtues, and the possession of which renders men more and more 
 like to Jesus Christ. Among these virtues the principal and most 
 necessary are : 
 
 Humility, which consists in acknowledging willingly and thank- 
 fully that, since all the good we have comes from God, we cannot 
 glory in anything, but should remember constantly that, if others 
 seem to see in us any good or noble qualities, it is to God alone that 
 praise and honor are due. For this reason, a man who is truly 
 humble never esteems himself above others, but ever distinguishes 
 
THE COMMANDMENTS OP THE CHURCH. 177 
 
 could in any way tend to deprive our neighbor of that which lawfully 
 belongs to him. 
 
 The eighth commandment forbids all false testimony and lies. We 
 owe the truth to our neighbor just as we owe it to ourselves. Lies 
 that could injure our neighbors are the most serious of all. This sin 
 is called calumny. 
 
 The ninth commandment forbids all sinful desires in everything 
 that relates to purity ; and in this prohibition it goes still further 
 than the sixth. 
 
 Finally, the tenth and last commandment requires from us such a 
 perfect respect for justice, that even a single unjust desire for the 
 possessions of another should be banished from our heart. 
 
 Such are the ten great commandments which sum up the whole 
 of morality, and of which the law of the Gospel is but the perfect 
 development. "Keep the commandments, and you shall live," said 
 our divine Master to us all. ^'■Hocfac, et vives." 
 
 THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Tn a previous explanation of the Credo we defined the Church as 
 tie great society of Christians, governed and sanctified by Jesus 
 Christ, its divine Pastor, and by the Pope and the Catholic Bishops, 
 the visible representatives of this divine head. The commandments 
 of the Church are those religious laws by which the Church is gov- 
 erned. The lawful pastors of the Church have alone the right to 
 command us thus in the name of God, since they are the sole inheri- 
 tors of the ministry of St. Peter and the Apostles, and of the prom- 
 ises of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Pope and the Bishops are men, it is true, but they are men 
 invested with the divine and priestly power of Jesus Christ, and 
 therefore it is nothing but want of a right apprehension to say, as 
 is sometimes said by those who consider themselves wonderfully ad- 
 /anced and enlightened : " I am quite willing to obey God, but cer- 
 tainly not men like myself." 
 
 We are all obliged, under pain of disobedience, which is more or 
 less serious according to circumstances, to obey unquestioningly all 
 the laws laid down for us by the Pope and the Bishops of our dio- 
 cese. There are, however, six principal laws, which we are accus- 
 tomed to regard more particularly as the commandments of the 
 Church. These six regulate the sanctification of Sundays and holy 
 
 days of obligation, public penance, and the frequentation of the 
 Vol. II.— 13 
 
FAITH AND PATIENCE IN PRAYER. 186 
 
 cation. Lastly, among all supplications, properly so-called, there 
 is one with which none of us can dispense, and that is the supplica- 
 tion we offer up to God to obtain the pardon of our sins, through the 
 merits of Jesus Christ, our most merciful Saviour. 
 
 It is therefore necessary to pray, to think often of God, and often 
 to express the love and reverence with which our hearts are filled. 
 But it is especially needful to pray in the morning and in the even- 
 ing ; at the commencement of the day which God has given us, to 
 consecrate it all to Him, and at the end of the day, to thank Jesus 
 for the graces He has given us during the course of it, and to ask 
 His forgiveness of the sins we have perhaps committed. 
 
 And let us never forget to pray when we are tempted to do 
 wrong; prayer at such a time resembles the shield with which the 
 warrior arms himself in order to resist the attacks of the enemy. 
 Lastly, let us always pray with attention and reverence, with confi- 
 dence, humility, and perseverance. He who prays not thus prays 
 badly, and is not heard by God. When we are reciting prayers, the 
 rosary for instance, let us be very careful to pray with the spirit of 
 recollection, with the heart and mind ever lifted up to God, and not 
 merely with the movement of the lips. May our divine Lord and 
 Saviour grant you the grace of prayer, cause you to love it, and to 
 find the practice of it sweet and easy ! You will derive from it the 
 sanctification of your life, purity of heart, the secret of true joy, and 
 the only consolation in sorrow ; and, with the help of prayer, you 
 will become a true servant of God. 
 
 FAITH AND PATIENCE EST PRAYER. 
 
 We must pray ; it is the command of God ; it is the clearly ex- 
 pressed will of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The man who prays saves his 
 soul; he who does not pray lives without God, is no Christian, and 
 will assuredly be lost. 
 
 But it is not enough to pray ; we must pray with faith and perse- 
 verance. Sometimes men will begin to pray ; but being fully per- 
 suaded that divine things are governed by the same law as human 
 things, they immediately desire to find the answer to their prayer 
 close within their reach. Seeing no result, they imagine that their 
 prayer is useless, and thus fall into a state of discouragement. They 
 do not know that prayer is an act of faith, and requires before all 
 things that men should believe in its power, even when they perceive 
 no immediate effects. How many earnest prayers, fully heard by 
 
TO FATHERS AND MOTHERS. 197 
 
 rents in their old age, and who thus close their hearts to the truest 
 instincts of nature as well as to the teachings of religion ! 
 
 Let us render, therefore, a sacred reverence, a religious and per- 
 fect obedience, an unselfish and unbounded love to those to whom we 
 are united by this holy tie. Such is the law of God. Let us never 
 forget to pray for them each day, so that, by the mercy of God, we 
 may all be happily reunited in heaven. Our father and mother were 
 the instruments by which God created us, and brought us into this 
 world ; and He created us only that He might thus bestow upon us 
 an eternal happiness hereafter. It is there, even in the bosom of the 
 eternal Godhead, that our heavenly Father desires to gather the 
 whole family tpgether, when the labors of life are done ; it is there 
 that He desires to unite us to those who have gone before us ; and it 
 is there that He desires to bestow on us not only a long life, but an 
 eternal life — the life which He promises to those who keep the fourth 
 commandment. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days 
 may be long in the land." 
 
 TO FATHERS AND MOTHERS. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, you are the visible divinities of your chil- 
 dren. They see none greater than you, they see none so often as 
 you, they love no one so much as you. They often hear of God, of 
 the Pope, of the king, but they do not see them ; while tliey have 
 you every day before their eyes as the living models of their actions. 
 You are everything for them. The life which they have derived 
 from you they preserve only by your care, and you are their sole 
 dependence for the future. Now, a child has much of the monkey 
 in its nature ; it imitates, it repeats all that it sees, all that it hears. 
 This is especially the case with regard to its father and mother. Its 
 great ambition is to imitate them in all they do. From this fact 
 there arises for fathers and mothers a binding obligation to lead 
 good and holy lives themselves, that their children may thus follow 
 them in the right way. 
 
 The heart of a child is as wax, capable of receiving any impres- 
 sion, good or bad ; it is as plain white linen, upon which all colors 
 may be stamped. It is to parents that God has intrusted the care of 
 impressing on these young pure hearts all true and virtuous feelings 
 — those first impressions which are never completely effaced. If they 
 are careful to inculcate in their children the sentiment of duty, the 
 love and fear of God, a horror of sin, and the necessity of religion, 
 
EARLY EDUCATION. 19i» 
 
 her one day into her oratory, and kneeling before the crucifix prayed 
 silently ; then turning to her child, who was kneeling at her side, she 
 said, "God only knows how much I love you, my dear little one ; 
 you are my only treasure upon earth, and the only pledge of his 
 affection that your father left to me when dying; but if I believed 
 it possible that you could ever abandon Jesus Christ, or lose your in- 
 nocence, I would ask God to take you to Himself, to call you instantly 
 out of this world. Very far from weeping for you, I would array 
 myself as for a festival, and would esteem your death as a great bless- 
 ing and favor from God." 
 
 These words recall those spoken by Queen Blanche to St. Louis, her 
 son, during his childhood: "I would rather see you die before my 
 eyes, than see you commit a single sin." All Christian mothers 
 should constantly repeat them to their children. 
 • There are fathers and mothers who lose, and there are those who 
 save their children. Their loss or ruin will be their own loss, while 
 their salvation will surely prove their own also. 
 
 Like father, like son; and still more, like mother, like child. If 
 you love your children, fathers and mothers, if not for yourselves at 
 least for love of them, be good Christians, scrupulously observe the 
 laws of God and of His Church ; avoid sin, repress your passions, 
 consider your words, be constant in prayer, swear not, do not argue 
 and dispute, guard against anger; reverence all that relates to God, 
 His ministers, and His temple ; so live that your child may need 
 nothing but your daily example to guide him now in the path of 
 right, and that hereafter the memory of his childhood may be still a 
 pure and holy influence to draw him nearer heaven. 
 
 EARLY EDUCATION. 
 
 The bear's cub, when first brought into the world, is merely a 
 shapeless mass; neither head nor eyes can be distinguished. The 
 father and mother, impelled by the instinct God has given them, in- 
 stantly begin to lick their young one vigorously, and thus in a man- 
 ner they fashion this imperfect body, and through their care and 
 patience, little by little, the head, the eyes, and the claws of the cub 
 appear, and it begins to assume its natural shape. 
 
 If parents will pardon this comparison, we would propose this ex- 
 ample to them. When God gives them a child, He gives them at 
 the same time a mission to fashion, to form it for good, and to make 
 it in all things a Christian child. With b^ars, it is the tongue that 
 
THE SECOND EDUCATION. 201 
 
 education! All of which advice we offer to the consideration of 
 parents who really love their children, and truly desire to promote 
 their happiness. 
 
 THE SECOND EDUCATIOR 
 
 The duties of a father and mother with regard to their children 
 increase in proportion as the child grows older. It is the part of the 
 parents to instil into the heart of their child upright principles and 
 Christian feelings, and thus to form or build up his future character. 
 A good mother is, if not the first confessor, at least the first confi- 
 dant of the budding conscience of her son and of her daughter; and 
 when years shall render this ministry of affection insufficient, it is 
 still the mother's part to initiate the child to a still more solemn con- 
 fidence, and to prepare it with love and tenderness for the important 
 duty of a first confession. 
 
 All truly Christian parents should most carefully guard their 
 child's first steps in life; they should never leave him to venture 
 alone, without help or guidance, in the midst of innumerable dan- 
 gers which he must meet at every step; they should carefully choose 
 his friends and companions, and separate him from any who would 
 be likely to do him harm — from those who have been badly brought 
 up, and whose words and ideas might instil the first principles of 
 evil; also, as a general rule, from all who belong to parents of 
 doubtful reputation. How many poor children are first initiated in 
 vice and lose their childlike innocence for want of this much-needed 
 watchfulness! Nine out of ten may have been ruined by the influ-. 
 ence of bad companions. 
 
 At twelve or thirteen years of age, after the first communion, 
 parents should redouble their care, in order to urge their child to 
 persevere in that good path upon which he has now entered. For 
 now come the most dangerous and perhaps the most difficult years 
 of life. This age resembles that Cape of Storms which is notable for 
 so many shipwrecks; only the best-manned and best-directed vessels 
 escape the peril. This dangerous age of early youth, so charming 
 when it is pure and innocent, so disastrous when it is not, should en- 
 gross the entire care and thought of every good father and mother. 
 If it is necessary that the child should leave his own home and go 
 among strangers, before all things it is needful to provide for the 
 sacred interests of the soul, and to place him amid good influences, 
 and among such surroundings that the practice of religion, far from 
 
212 DRUNKENNESS. 
 
 cess of depravity, this infamous town was consumed with all its in- 
 hahitants by a miraculous and sulphurous fire which enveloped it by 
 the command of God. Reduced to ashes, and still visible in the 
 depths of the Dead Sea, it remains forever as a witness of divine 
 vengeance, as a warning to sinners, as an earthly manifestation of 
 the punishment of impurity by eternal fire, and lastly as the most 
 impressive confirmation of the sixth commandment of God: "Thou 
 Shalt not commit adultery." 
 
 DRUNKENNESS. 
 
 There is a certain fearful malady which ravages and devastates 
 the whole world. There is no country free from its inroads; it is to 
 be met with in France as in England, in Europe as in America, 
 among people who call themselves civilized just as among bar- 
 barians. For many centuries it has decimated humanity, and has 
 been the ruin of the working classes. 
 
 You will think, perhaps, that I am speaking of the plague, or of 
 cholera, or of some pestilence of this description ! But no, the sick- 
 ness to which I refer is much more to be dreaded I ... It is a far 
 more mortal sickness ; and it is doubly terrible, because it does not 
 only kill the body but even destroys the soul, and its lamentable in- 
 fluence extends beyond the grave! 
 
 It is called drunkenness. This it is which degrades and brutalizes 
 the miserable man who once jaelds to its fatal tyranny I It is this 
 which is the ruin of families, and which is thus most frequently the 
 cause of that frightful poverty which is to be witnessed in large 
 towns. 
 
 Drunkenness is the habit of drinking immoderately. Intoxication 
 when quite involuntary is not a sin. It is a sin more or less grie- 
 vous, as it is more or less wilful ; and also according to the extent 
 of the excess. It is always a grievous fault voluntarily to lose the 
 use of reason. 
 
 "Be not deceived," say the Holy Scriptures, "drunkards shall not 
 enter into the kingdom of God." 
 
 I. Drunkenness debases and degrades a man. What distinguishes 
 men from brutes? Is not reason his noblest prerogative? Now, 
 what does the drunkard do? How does he use his intelligence? 
 Does he not reduce himself to a state of stupidity in which he knows 
 no longer what he says nor what he does? His feet tremble beneath 
 him, his eyes grow dim, his tongue stammers foolishly; instead of 
 
THEFT. 217 
 
 an old coat, from a poor man might be a mortal sin. At the same 
 time, it is quite certain that, however great the fortune of the person 
 robbed, to steal a sum of four or five shillings would be committing 
 a mortal sin. 
 
 If we are forbidden to steal from others, we are equally forbidden 
 to retain stolen property. 
 
 If you perceive that you have in your possession something which 
 belongs to me, it is quite clear that you ought to restore it to me, 
 and that as soon as possible. This is simple justice. 
 
 To make restitution is to restore to others that which rightfully 
 belongs to them. 
 
 We are obliged to make restitution under pain of mortal sin, in 
 the case of an object of some value. No one is obliged, in making 
 restitution, to inform against themselves; it is even better to avoid 
 it. The money may be sent anonymously, or placed in the hands of 
 the priest or some person of confidence, so that it may reach its des- 
 tination safely and secretly. If it is impossible to restore to its own- 
 ers what has been wrongfully taken from them, it should be given 
 to the poor, or employed in some work of piety. But in everything 
 of this kind there is always one practical rule to give: consult your 
 confessor, and do exactly what he tells you. 
 
 I need not add that a man who does not pay his debts when he is 
 able to pay them wrongs his neighbor and breaks the seventh com- 
 mandment. 
 
 In this, as in everything which concerns honor, it is well to be ex- 
 cessively careful. This is the only case in which it may be good to 
 be scrupulous. How much less misery, how much less crime, there 
 would be in the world, if all men heard and faithfully kept the sev- 
 enth commandment. 
 
 THEFT. 
 
 Theft! what a sinister word! It causes the cheek to flush with 
 shame, and the heart to swell with a sense of indescribable scorn 
 and indignation ! 
 
 To steal is to take voluntarily something that belongs to another. 
 
 To take the property of another by mistake, thinking it is our 
 own, is not to steal but only to deceive one's self. The most honest 
 people might make such a mistake as this. But in such a case as 
 this there is this difference between an honest man and a thief; a 
 thief would keep his usurped property, while an honest man would 
 restore it directly he discovered his error. 
 
226 FIRST COMMANDMENT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 your souls. For My yoke is sweet and My burden light." She 
 points them to heaven, to an eternal joy, an unmingled happiness, 
 a perfect repose. 
 
 Behold what awaits you if you are faithful during your probation, 
 and if, following the example of your Master, you bear your cross 
 with patience day by day! 
 
 Set your supreme affections on the things above, and not on the 
 things of earth ; and if sometimes the prosperity of others excite you 
 to desire what, in your case, God has been pleased to withhold, let 
 these desires never be unjust ; let them never infringe upon the tenth 
 and last of the divine commandments. 
 
 THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 There are six commandments of the Church, namely : I. To rest 
 from servile work, and to hear Mass on all Sundays and Holy-days of 
 Obligation. 
 
 II. To fast and abstain on the days commanded. These embrace 
 Lent, the Ember Days, Fridays in Advent, the eves of certain festi- 
 vals ; and abstention from flesh-meat on Fridays and other appointed 
 days of abstinence. 
 
 III. To confess our sins at least once a year. 
 
 IV. To receive worthily the Blessed Eucharist at Easter or within 
 the time appointed. 
 
 V. To contribute to the support of our pastors. 
 
 VI. Not to marry within forbidden degrees of kindred, nor to 
 solemnize marriage within forbidden times. 
 
 These commandments are obligatory on all Catholics, as the 
 Church has power from her Founder, Jesus Christ, to give command- 
 ments. He having empowered her to guide and govern the faithful 
 in His name. Having their origin in Christ, therefore, they bind all 
 Catholics to submission and fidelity. 
 
 FIRST COMMANDMENT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 To rest from servile work, and to hear Mass on all Sundays and 
 Holy-days of Obligation. 
 
 Besides the fifty-two Sundays of the year, the Church commands 
 us, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to sanctify certain days 
 which we call Feasts, and which are intended to recall to the memory 
 of Christians the principal mysteries in the life of the Saviour and of 
 
230 LENT. 
 
 LENT. 
 
 Ah! this is quite a melancholy subject, and you would prefer that 
 it should not he forced upon your attention. It is unpleasant enough 
 when Lent comes, and in the mean time the less said about it the 
 better. Ever unwelcome is this holy season, and all, with the ex- 
 ception of a few fervent Christians, appear to regard the forty days 
 with a feeling of vexation which almost amounts to resentment. 
 
 But with our forefathers it was not so. Full of faith, they drew 
 from their firm belief powerful motives for energy, perseverance, and 
 good will. They rightly estimated duty; they recognized its gran- 
 deur; and they placed the sacred laws of God and of His Church far 
 above the vain pretexts to which our self-indulgence so often sacrifices 
 them. 
 
 Our forefathers observed in every detail the commands of the 
 Church with regard to fasting and abstinence ; every one abstained 
 on Fridays and Saturdays. Men did not study themselves and 
 pamper themselves as they do now ; this may be proved by the fact 
 that at Paris in the fifteenth century, in spite of a population of 
 hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, only one butcher sold meat 
 during Lent, and supplied all that was required by killing a single 
 ox a day. They fasted the whole of Lent, and no one died from 
 the effects. Neither did they suffer, for populations were far more 
 flourishing, and men taller and stronger than now. "But can it be," 
 you say, "that God reqTiires bodily mortification instead of heartfelt 
 repentance?" To which we answer simply that God requires both, 
 because heartfelt repentance is ever united to bodily mortification. 
 The soul influences the body, and the body reacts upon the soul, be- 
 cause of their intimate union ; a body that is indulged will sooner or 
 later impart its own feebleness to the soul, its constant companion ; 
 and a soul pure and upright, and victorious over its passions, will 
 necessarily hold the soul in perfect discipline and subjection. The 
 body, from the fatal results of original sin, is in constant rebellion 
 against the soul ; and the soul must therefore treat it almost as an 
 enemy, and be ever on its guard against it, in order to insure its 
 own independence, its fidelity to God, and its eternal salvation. 
 
 "But why should such a disagreeable means of doing penance be 
 chosen?" And Why should it not be chosen? The Church has chosen 
 it — 1st. Because it is sufficiently disagreeable to constitute a penance, 
 and not too hard to be practised by all Christians. 2d. Out of rever* 
 
232 THE THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 THE THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS 
 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Third Commandment of the Church. — To confess our sins at 
 least once a year. 
 
 Fourth Commandment op the Church. — To receive worthily the 
 Blessed Eucharist at Easter, or within the time appointed. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted confession in order to make re- 
 pentance easier for our weak human nature, and to assure us of the 
 pardon of our sins. He laid down no rule as to the times and seasons 
 at which sinners might have recourse to this sacrament of mercy; it 
 was to be an ever-open and inexhaustible source from which we 
 might incessantly obtain not only pardon, but peace of heart and 
 purity of conscience. 
 
 In the first century of the Church, Christians had recourse to the 
 sacrament of penance only when they had committed some serious 
 fault, and not at fixed and periodical times. The early Christians 
 had few grievous falls with which to reproach themselves: they 
 prayed constantly, kept the days of fasting and abstinence and all 
 holy vigils with the utmost care and devotion, meditated incessantly 
 on the Word of God, and went to Communion every day. It may 
 be easily understood that, to those who lived such lives, confession 
 was not as necessary as to the tepid Christians of the present day. 
 
 But, when the barbarous nations in great numbers received the 
 light of faith, certain negligences gradually crept into the practices 
 of religion, resulting from the ignorance of these new children of the 
 Church, and from the uncultured condition of their consciences. 
 This reached to such an extent that, in some countries, the service 
 of God was so greatly neglected that people lived almost without the 
 sacraments, or at least allowed long periods of time to pass without 
 receiving them. In order to remedy this abuse. Pope Innocent III., 
 at the General Lateran Council, held at Eome in J216, decreed that 
 henceforth all Christians having reached the age of reason should be 
 bound, under pain of mortal sin, of grave disobedience, and excom- 
 munication, to present themselves to the priest and confess their sins 
 at least once a year. Those who should dare to disobey this com- 
 mandment should be excluded from the great Catholic family, de- 
 prived of the public prayers and of permission to assist at the sacred 
 offices of the Church, and, finally, if they persevered in this state 
 until death, should be denied Christian burial. The Lateran Council 
 
234 THE EASTER COMMUNIOK. 
 
 US that life of grace which is the saoctifying union of our souls with 
 our Creator and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Every Christian who 
 seriously desires to labor for his own eternal salvation approaches 
 often to the Holy Communion, not only to obey the command of the 
 Church, but to co-operate in the merciful designs of God, who gives 
 Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament, and sustains us thus in 
 Christian holiness throughout our earthly pilgrimage. 
 
 The time assigned for the Easter Communion in the United States 
 extends from the first Sunday after Ash- Wednesday to Trinity Sun^ 
 day, unless it be otherwise ordered. At what age children should go 
 to Confession and Communion must be left to the decision of their 
 pastors. It is recommended, as a rule, to go to Confession, and, 
 with the permission of the pastor, to Holy Communion at least once 
 a month. 
 
 THE EASTER COMMUNION. 
 
 We shall not speak here of the real presence of Our Lord in the 
 Holy Eucharist. We have already discussed this great subject. 
 But if ever a doubt with regard to it should arise in our minds, let 
 it be sufBcient for us to remember that the Son of God Himself has 
 said, "He who believeth in Me hath everlasting life." "Take and 
 eat; this is My body. Drink ye all of this; this is My blood." 
 These words alone are sufficient to disperse every shadow of doubt. 
 But why does Jesus Christ come thus in the Holy Eucharist? Why 
 does He descend upon our altars? Why does He travel thus divinely 
 from heaven to earth? For one reason only. The Son of God, Our 
 Saviour, comes to take possession of a sanctuary — of a temple, a 
 thousand times more beautiful, a thousand times more worthy of 
 Him, than the Temple at Jerusalem. And what can this temple be? 
 It is your heart — your soul. Such is the temple that God has chosen. 
 It is there He desires to descend ; it is there that He loves to re- 
 pose. What value after all, in His most holy sight, have those 
 tabernacles and sacred vases in which He is sheltered by our faith 
 and love? He is the living God; and these temples, these ciboriums, 
 these altars — what are they but metal and stone? What He desires 
 is a temple, living even as He lives, capable of being enlightened 
 with His light, which is the spiritual and invisible light of truth, 
 capable of being enkindled with the sacred flame, which is no visible 
 fire, but the spiritual and immaterial fire of love. Such are the 
 worshippers that God desires, worshippers in spirit and in truth, as 
 He has said in the holy Gospel ; therefore reasonable creatures, capa- 
 
236 THE ENIGMA OF LIFE. 
 
 renew the crime of Judas, and to provoke the malediction of the 
 sacrilegious. 
 
 Therefore go to communion, but communicate well. You are 
 placed between three alternatives: 1st, to make a good communion; 
 2d, to make a bad communion ; 3d, not to go to communion at all. 
 
 And to make a bad communion is almost the same as not to com- 
 municate at all, for it is to kill the soul. To die because we do not 
 eat is almost the same thing as to die because we have swallowed 
 poison. The result is the same — death. 
 
 Of these three roads two lead to hell, one only leads to heaven. 
 Therefore choose. Communicate at Easter ; but, in order rightly to 
 fufill this great and holy duty, prepare yourself by prayer, by spiri- 
 tual reading, and by good works, as far as you are able. Go to con- 
 fession some time before, especially if you are of the number of those 
 who have delayed. Do all you can, and God will supply the rest. 
 "Peace to men of good will." 
 
 When you leave the holy altar after having fulfilled your Chris- 
 tian duty you will be perfectly happy, and your soul will be at peace ! 
 " Oh ' if I had only known how simple it was, and how happy it 
 makes you," said a poor workman who had stayed away from the 
 sacraments for twenty-nine years, "I would never have waited so 
 long." 
 
 THE FIFTH AND SIXTH COMMANDMENTS 
 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 By the Fifth Commandment the Church obliges us to contribute 
 willingly, according to our means, to the support of our pastors, 
 churches, Catholic schools, and religious institutions. 
 
 The Sixth Commandment prohibits marriage within the for- 
 bidden degree of kindred, or to solemnize marriage with those hav- 
 ing canonical impediments, with Protestants, or within the forbidden 
 times. {TJiis commandment is fully explained under the " Sacra- 
 ment of Matrimony, " page 139.) 
 
 THE ENIGMA OF LIFE. 
 
 There is a very strange thing in this world, or rather the world 
 itself is a very strange thing. On the one hand we are certain, abso- 
 lutely certain, that God is infinitely good, infinitely wise, and in- 
 finitely powerful; it is no less certain that it is He who created the 
 
HUMILITY. 255 
 
 faithful practice of religion. Experience teaches us that we are never 
 so charitable to others as when we are faithfully serving God. In 
 this as in everything, religion shows herself sole mistress of the hap- 
 piness of men ; and if life is hard and bitter, it is because they reject 
 and will not listen to her gentle voice. 
 
 HUMILITY. 
 
 In one of the most divine passages of the divine Gospel, Our Lord 
 Jesus Christ declares that Christian perfection consists in under- 
 standing and practising two words: humility and meekness. 
 "Come to me," He says to us, "all you that labor and are burdened, 
 and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of 
 me, because I am meek and humble of heart : and you shall find rest 
 to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light." 
 
 What, therefore, is humility, and what is meekness? Two excel- 
 lent subjects for meditation. 
 
 Humility is a Christian virtue, which enables us to perceive our 
 own misery and nothingness, and to render to God the glory and 
 honor of all the good we do; it subdues our foolish pride, and teaches 
 us never to exalt ourselves or to despise others. 
 
 Humility is a virtue, that is to say, a victory and a strength. 
 We are all inclined, by reason of original sin, to pride, vanity, and 
 vainglory. In order to repress this evil tendency, we need strength, 
 and must ever wage a constant and untiring combat. This strength 
 is no other than the virtue of humility. 
 
 Humility is a Christian virtue. The strength which is bestowed 
 on us in order to subdue our pride comes to us from Jesus Christ, 
 the only source of every grace. By baptism Jesus Our Saviour es- 
 tablished Himself in our soul as a king in His kingdom, as a master 
 in His house; and He imparts to us the spirit of holiness to commu- 
 nicate to us all His virtues, and, among others, His most holy and 
 most perfect humility. Jesus Christ is, therefore, the first principle 
 of the humility of His disciples; and the Holy Spirit, who unites us 
 to Our Saviour that we may be like unto Him, is the inexhaustible 
 source of humility. By the sacrament of confirmation this divine 
 Spirit communicates to us all the strength of Jesus, and thus be- 
 stows on us the most powerful means of triumphing over every vice, 
 and especially over pride. This strength is nourished and increased 
 by the Holy Eucharist and by constant prayer, and by these means 
 alone can we possess the secret of perseverance in Christian humility. 
 
^FOURTH PART^ 
 
 THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. 
 
 In all the works of God there is nothing that is worthless or insig- 
 nificant. The smallest flower, a grain of dust, the tiniest insect, 
 each and all reveal the wisdom, the omnipotence, the infinite great- 
 ness of their Creator, as clearly as the sun itself and all the glories 
 of the starlit heavens. 
 
 And thus it is with the Christian religion ; it has come forth, like 
 the great world of nature, from the hands of God Himself; or, rather, 
 it is that manifestation, that revelation, which God has made of 
 Himself to the reasonable creatures whom He has deigned to create. 
 And therefore we may discover, even in the smallest details of the 
 faith we hold, a depth and beauty no less wonderful than the loveli- 
 ness of nature; and in contemplating both we may truly exclaim, 
 God alone could work such wonders ; the finger of God is there ! Let 
 us take, for example, the sign of the Cross, that simple religious act 
 which is so universal and so frequently practised during the course 
 of the day. We all make this holy sign, but how many of us give 
 any thought to the mysteries it signifies ! It is thus that the ox and 
 the horse browse on the sweet flowers hidden in the meadow grass, 
 unconscious that they are there. 
 
 From want of reflection, we fail to attach to the sign of the Cross 
 the importance that it merits. It was first instituted by the Apos- 
 tles themselves, who, invested with the authority of Jesus Christ, 
 taught this religious practice to the first disciples of the Gospel. 
 
 The sign of the Cross is the sign of the Christian, that is to say, it 
 is the outward sign which distinguishes the Christian from other 
 men. And why is this? 
 
 1st. Because it recalls to him who makes it, and to those who see 
 it made, that Jesus Christ is the God of Christians and the Lord of 
 their whole lives. Because it reminds us that God has loved us so 
 much as to give Himself up for our sakes to suffer on the Cross, and 
 that we must love Him with our whole hearts. It places incessantly 
 before our eyes Jesus Christ crucified ; and Jesus crucified is the di- 
 
278 THE ROSARY. 
 
 Pardon follows the humble confession of our sins, and the Church, 
 who knows the loving mercy of God, teaches us to say, " May Al- 
 mighty God have mercy on us, and forgive us our sins, and bring us 
 to everlasting life! May the almighty and merciful God grant us 
 pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins! Amen." 
 
 Every Christian should know the Confiteor in Latin as well as in 
 English. When he commits any sin he may recite it with much 
 fruit, and he should never omit it from his morning and evening 
 prayers. 
 
 THE ROSARY. 
 
 It was an ancient custom in the East to offer crowns of roses to 
 distinguished persons, and the early Christians loved to honor in this 
 way the images of the Blessed Virgin and the relics of the martyrs. 
 
 An illustrious bishop, St. Gregory of Naziazum, full of devotion 
 toward the Mother of God, was inspired to substitute for the ma- 
 terial crown of roses a spiritual crown of prayers, persuaded that it 
 would be more acceptable to the Blessed Queen of the Church. With 
 this idea he composed a long series or crown of prayers, which com- 
 prehended the most glorious titles, the sweetest praises, and the most 
 excellent prerogatives of Mary. In the seventh century St. Bridget, 
 one of the patron Saints of Ireland, brought this pious thought to a 
 greater perfection. She made the devotion introduced by St. Greg- 
 ory available to all by substituting for the beautiful prayers he had 
 composed the most popular and still more beautiful prayers of the 
 Creed, the Our Father, and the Hail Mary. And in order to know 
 by some material indication how many prayers had been recited, she 
 adopted the custom of the Anchorites of Thebaid, and threaded beads 
 of wood or stone in the form of a crown. Eosary signifies crown of 
 roses ; and the prayers we daily recite form a wreath of spiritual 
 roses with which in love we crown our Mother and our Queen. 
 
 The word chaplet means little crown. The Eosary of the Blessed 
 Virgin is composed of five decades, each of which consists of ten Hail 
 Marys, preceded by one Our Father. St. Dominic, one of the great- 
 est Saints of Christianity, and one of the most devoted servants of 
 the Blessed Virgin, was specially instructed in this devotion by the 
 Mother of God herself. 
 
 In saying the Eosary we repeat the Hail Mary more often than 
 the Our Father, not, as has been said, because we honor the Blessed 
 Virgin more than God, but because, being a devotion instituted in 
 her honor, it is quite natural that the prayers it contains should be 
 
280 THE MASS. 
 
 administered the last sacraments. Not knowing to what his conver« 
 sion was to be attributed, he questioned him as to the cause. 
 "Father," he answered, "I can only attribute this grace to the 
 fervor of your prayers and to those of my dear mother. When she 
 was dying, she called me, and, speaking to me of the dangers by 
 which my youth would be surrounded, she said, 'My only consola- 
 tion, my son, is that I leave you under the protection of the Blessed 
 Virgin ; promise me to say the Eosary every day. ' I promised, and 
 I acknowledge that for ten years this has been the only religious act 
 which I have practised." On hearing this the confessor recognized 
 the visible protection of the Blessed Virgin, which was clearly mani- 
 fested in this most consoling death-bed, nor ceased until the sick man 
 had breathed his last sigh. 
 
 THE MASS. 
 
 Of all the points of Christian doctrine there is perhaps not one 
 which it is more necessary to know, yet of which many are more 
 ignorant, than that of which we must now speak. The practice of 
 it is so frequent, and the fruits to be drawn from it are, if rightly 
 appreciated, so abundant, that it may be called the soul of Christian- 
 ity, the centre and abridgement of the Christian faith. 
 
 I mean the Mass. 
 
 The Mass is not a prayer like other prayers. Some think that 
 vespers or some other devotion may well fill the place of Mass, but 
 this is a great error ; the service of vespers forms a very excellent 
 religious exercise, but vespers are only prayers. The Mass is indeed 
 a prayer, but it is something higher still ; it is a sacrifice, and what 
 a sacrifice ! A sacrifice in which God renders Himself present to His 
 people ! A sacrifice in which God Himself descends upon the altar 
 as the victim ! 
 
 A sacrifice is the most holy act in the worship of the one true God ; 
 it is an offering made to God of the life of a victim, as an acknowl- 
 edgment that He is the sovereign Lord of every creature He has 
 made. The more excellent the victim the more acceptable the sac- 
 rifice, since it draws its value from the victim which is immolated. 
 
 Let us judge from this the infinite holiness of the sacrifice of the 
 Cross, in which Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the living God, the 
 Second Person of the Adorable Trinity made man, offered His own 
 life to God His Father, to render Him a homage that is worthy of 
 Him, that is to say, infinite, and to atone by an expiation equally 
 
2&2 THE CEREMONIES OP THE CHTJROH. 
 
 Nothing could be more solemn than all of these ceremonies. The 
 greater part come down to us from the earliest ages. 
 
 In the first and second centuries, the sacred mysteries commenced, 
 as now, by the singing of psalms and by prayers, which the priest 
 recited aloud, and to which the faithful answered Amen. On the 
 altar, which was usually raised above the relics of some martyr, 
 were placed candles or lighted lamps. Incense was burned. The 
 priest turned to the faithful then, as now, with the Dominus vohis- 
 cum. Then they read the letters (or epistles) of the Apostles or some 
 passage by the Prophets of the Old Testament. Every one stood 
 during the reading of the Gospel, which the priest or celebrant bishop 
 explained in a homily or exhortation. After this the Credo was re- 
 cited, and next the bread, wine, wax, and oil necessary for the sac- 
 rifice and worship were offered to the priest. Before the consecration 
 of the Host and of the Chalice, the priest sang the prayer called the 
 Preface (viz., the prayer which precedes) ; and a little after the con- 
 secration the Pater, absolutely the same as in our own days. Before 
 Communion the kiss of peace was given ; then followed a thanks- 
 giving; the priest gave the benediction with the sign of the Cross, 
 and the communicants retired from the altar bearing in their hearts 
 their Lord and their God. It is a great mistake to pretend that the 
 Mass is a modern institution. It was Our Lord Himself who first 
 offered the sacrifice of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday at the Last 
 Supper, when His Passion was about to begin. And from that time 
 apostles, bishops, and priests have said Mass everywhere and always. 
 
 Christians are obliged to hear Mass on Sundays and Feasts of 
 obligation, and no one who is able to do so on the week-days should 
 fail to fulfil this most important duty. No other religious practice 
 can be compared to this. How many might find time to go each 
 morning to receive the benediction of Jesus Christ, and yet deprive 
 themselves, from negligence, of graces which would render the day 
 that followed holy and happy, and would sanctify their lives! 
 
 THE CEREMONffiS OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 In all times religion has made use of outward ceremonies through 
 which to express by visible signs those sentiments of adoration, 
 thanksgiving, and praise which spring up beneath her holy influence 
 in the heart of man brought face to face with his Creator. 
 
 When these feelings cease to be concentrated in the depths of the 
 heart, when they find outward utterance and become visible to the 
 
^86 THE ALTARS AND SACRED VESSELS. 
 
 who are already in heaven, of Christians still fighting upon earth, 
 and of the holy souls who are awaiting their deliverance in purga- 
 tory; 80 the material churches are composed of the choir, where we 
 may see in the priests (as we shall presently explain) a figure of the 
 Saints and Angels; of the nave, filled by the faithful servants and 
 soldiers of Jesus Christ; and lastly of the churchyards, where the 
 bodies of departed Christians repose, and which should be, in accord- 
 ance with the true spirit of the liturgy, under the pavement of the 
 temples, or at least within the shadow of their walls. 
 
 There exists one other striking resemblance between the living 
 Church and the buildings in which we worship God. For even as in 
 the first Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, is the centre and prin- 
 ciple of all the glory of the Saints and Angels in heaven, of the holi- 
 ness of Christians upon earth, of the hope of the souls in purgatory; 
 so in our churches all Catholic worship and Catholic devotion centres 
 round the Blessed Sacrament, where the same Jesus ever dwells, 
 present in His own divine Person on our altars, to be the one sacred 
 object of our adoration and our Mediator with God. 
 
 Churches are usually surmounted by a high spire, at the summit 
 of which shines the Cross, the holy symbol of Christianity. Some- 
 times we see the image of a cock, signifying the vigilance with which 
 God should be served. In the steeple are the bells which, with their 
 soft chimes, summon the faithful to prayer. For fourteen centuries 
 bells have been used in the Christian Church. This custom was 
 established by St. Paulinus, a holy bishop of Nole in Italy. Until 
 that time Christians had been summoned to their meetings by less 
 convenient and less efficacious means, such as trumpets, rattles, and 
 even the human voice. 
 
 It is said that bells are baptized, but that means simply blessed, 
 so as to set them apart for their holy use. 
 
 We might give many more interesting details with regard to the 
 form and exterior of our churches, but we only desire to call the at- 
 tention of the reader to the most essential points. 
 
 THE ALTARS AND SACRED VESSELS. 
 
 The h^Hest part of the church is the altar, where the sacrifice of 
 the Mass is celebrated. The altar is so called from the Latin word 
 alius, high, because it ought to be raised by three steps, or at least 
 by one, above the pavement of the church. This elevation of the 
 altars signifies the holiness of the sacrifices and prayers which, 
 
288 EXPLANATION OF THE CEREMONIES OP THB MASS. 
 
 bol of charity ; and silver, from its whiteness, is the symbol of in* 
 nocence and purity. 
 
 Besides the three altar cloths of which we have spoken, and which 
 a bishop only has the right to bless, many other sacred linen cloths 
 are used for the celebration of the Mass. The most worthy of ven- 
 eration is the corporal, so called from the Latin corpus, because the 
 Sacred Body of Jesus Christ rests immediately upon it during the 
 Holy Sacrifice. In the tabernacle there is always a corporal under 
 the ciborium, and also under the monstrance in Benediction. The 
 linen cloth placed over the chalice, and intended to wipe it and to 
 purify it, is called a purificator. Only ecclesiastics are permitted to 
 touch these sacred vessels and corporals, because of the reverence 
 which must be paid to everything connected with the Holy Eucharist 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE CEREMONIES OF 
 THE MASS. 
 
 ^ The Sacred Vestments. 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity bishops and priests, when celebrat- 
 ing divine worship, did not wear vestments of a different shape from 
 the dress which was commonly worn. But it is certain that even in 
 the time of the Apostles very rich materials, often embroidered in 
 gold and silver, were worn at the altar in order to add to the majesty 
 of the sacred mysteries. 
 
 When the Church, after the persecutions were over, counted among 
 her children the Eoman emperors, and the great and noble of the 
 earth, she surrounded the worship of God with a splendor until then 
 unknown ; and her ministers, out of reverence for the Holy Sacrifice, 
 were vested for the altar in magnificent robes of gold, of silver, and 
 of silk. The shape of these antique vestments has been preserved 
 up to the present time, with the exception of some trifling alterations. 
 Formerly they consisted principally of a long white robe, with a stole 
 or band of purple worn round the neck, and falling in front to the 
 feet; of a large rich vestment over the white robe, called a chasuble; 
 and, lastly, of a golden circlet round the head. To these vestments 
 the Church has added, during the centuries, the girdle which draws 
 in the folds of the white robe called an alb, and the maniple, or em- 
 broidered band, which the priest wears on the left arm during the cele- 
 bration of the Mass ; for bishops the golden circlet has been replaced 
 by the mitre, which represents the divine royalty of Jesus Christ. 
 
298 THE CEREMONIES OP HIGH MASS. 
 
 After having communicated, the priest receives the ablutions, and 
 the server pours wine and water over his fingers which have touched 
 the Blessed Sacrament ; then he wipes the chalice and covers it over, 
 folds the corporal, and puts everything in its place. 
 
 During this the server removes the Missal from the right side to 
 the left, a symbol of the future conversion of the Jews, God's an- 
 cient people, who are also destined, before the end of the world, to 
 participate in the light of the Gospel. And just as the return of the 
 Jews will take place, according to the ancient prophecies, a little 
 time before the end of the world, so this simple ceremony, by which 
 it is prefigured, takes place a little before the end of the Mass. 
 
 The priest then turns to the congregation for the last time, dis- 
 misses them, and blesses them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by making over them the sign of eter- 
 nal salvation ; and at this moment he is truly a striking image of 
 Jesus Christ at His last coming, when He shall complete the work of 
 His Church by His supreme benediction: "Come, ye blessed of My 
 Father, possess ye the kingdom prepared for you from the founda- 
 tion of the world," *" 
 
 Formerly the Mass ended with this benediction, after which the 
 priest left the altar, reciting the first verses of the Gospel according 
 to St. John ; but the custom has now prevailed of reading this Gos- 
 pel at the altar itself. 
 
 We trust that the little that has been said may increase your rev- 
 erence for divine things and help you to assist with more devotion at 
 the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 
 THE CEREMONIES OF HIGH MASS. 
 
 The two different methods of celebrating Mass are distinguished 
 by the terms Low Mass and High Mass, or the Mass which is 
 sung. 
 
 As regards the respective excellence of the two, no difference ex- 
 ists, and the only distinction arises from the outward solemnity of 
 the ceremonies. The principal difference is expressed by the name. 
 Low Mass is said, and High Mass is sung. Christian services were 
 not always accompanied with singing, and it appears that during the 
 first three centuries of the Church the sacred prayers were simply 
 recited. But when the fury of the persecutions had ceased, and the 
 conversion of the Eoman empire permitted the Christians to cele- 
 brate the sacred mysteries without fear, they became eager to add 
 
302 VESPERS AND BENEDICTIONS. 
 
 whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the angels of heaven 
 continually adore. And this ia what we too must do, His Christian 
 children, at the invitation of our priests ; from the very depths of 
 our hearts we must say to our dear Lord, so soon to descend for us 
 upon the altar: "We bless Thee, we adore Thee, we give Thee 
 thanks, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, have mercy on us ; for Thou 
 only, O Jesus Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the 
 glory of God the Father." 
 
 The words of the Gloria, which follow the Canticle of the Angels, 
 belong to the first ages of the Church. Many learned writers attrib- 
 ute them to St. Telesphorus, one of the popes, martyred in the sec- 
 ond century ; many others to the great St. Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, 
 who lived in the fourth century. But it is certain that this beautiful 
 prayer clearly embodies the Catholic doctrine with regard to the mys- 
 tery of the Incarnation, attacked in the time of Hilary by the heresy 
 of the Arians, and energetically defended by that great bishop. The 
 Arians pretended that the Son of God was not equal in all things to 
 the Father and the Holy Ghost, and that thus Jesus Christ, who is 
 the Son of God made man, was inferior to His Father. The Gloria 
 gives a triumphant contradiction to this error by putting into our 
 lips these words to say to Jesus our divine Lord, who is perfect God 
 and perfect man : " We adore Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, the only- 
 begotten Son : O Lord God, Lamb of God, who takest away the sins 
 of the world, have mercy on us, receive our prayers. Have mercy 
 on us. Thou who sittest at the right hand of the Father (that is to 
 say, who art His equal and sharest His almighty power) ; For Thou 
 only art holy ; Thou only art the Lord ; Thou only, Jesus Christ, 
 with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father." 
 We must therefore always sing the Gloria with lively sentiments of 
 faith and love for Jesus Christ, and thus unite ourselves to the faith 
 and love of the angels, who invisibly assist the priest at the altar 
 while he celebrates the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. 
 
 VESPERS AND BENEDICTIONS. 
 
 The evening service usually consists of Vespers, Compline, and 
 Benediction. The word Vespers signifies evening prayers. No one 
 is positively obliged to be present at these offices, but good Catholics 
 consider it a duty. Formerly it was an obligation to assist at Ves- 
 pers as well as at Mass. 
 
806 THE PSALMS. 
 
 their hearts to prayer. May they join their voices when they can in 
 the music of the Church, and thus give to all the good example of 
 sanctifying those times and seasons which are consecrated to God. 
 
 THE PSALMS- 
 
 We have already spoken of the Psalms, but it is so important and 
 so practical a subject that we must return to it once more. 
 
 The Psalms are prophetic hymns and divinely inspired prayers, 
 and were almost all composed by the propbet-kings David and Solo- 
 mon. They form one of the most beautiful books of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and it is of faith that all the hundred and fifty are inspired. 
 
 The Psalms are all prophecies, in the sense that they all express 
 more or less clearly the adorable mysteries of our redemption. There 
 is a great number of which we are bound to believe this ; the Dixit 
 Dominus, for instance, which Our Lord Jesus Christ interprets by ap- 
 plying to Himself in the twenty-second chapter of the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew. The Fathers of the Church have all interpreted the 
 Psalms by applying them directly to Our Lord, and to all the mys- 
 teries of His divine kingdom from the beginning to the end of time. 
 These holy canticles relate equally to the second coming of Jesus 
 Christ and His final triumph both on earth and in heaven, and to His 
 first coming, followed by the terrible struggles of His militant Church. 
 In almost all the Psalms there is what may be called an outward and 
 historical meaning, which is only of passing interest, while their 
 real value consists in all that relates to the personages or events fig- 
 urative of the Messiah. David himself, like so many in the Old Tes- 
 tament, was indeed a prophetic figure of the Christ-King who was to 
 come hereafter; and the accounts of the greater part of the events 
 of his reign, and of the reign of Solomon, which gave occasion for 
 the composition of the Psalms, were only prophecies, only symbols of 
 great and divine mysteries, which Jesus Christ Himself was one day 
 to accomplish, as King of the true Israel, King of the Holy Church, 
 first militant, and then triumphant. The combats of David and the 
 glories of Solomon have comparatively little interest for us; but that 
 which does interest us, closely and personally, are the combats and 
 triumphs in which Jesus Christ, our King, engages and overcomes 
 with us, and in us, for the salvation of our souls and for the glory 
 of God. 
 
 We must, therefore, pierce through the outward and historical 
 meaning which lies upon the surface to reach the hidden spiritual and 
 
THE SCAPULAR. 327 
 
 We hope that all our readers sufficiently understand their own in^ 
 fcerest to gain their jubilee. What happiness at the moment of death 
 to have nothing more to pay to the infinite justice of God, and to 
 have nothing in perspective but the immediate enjoyment of the 
 happiness of heaven ! 
 
 THE SCAPULAR. 
 
 In Latin the word scapula means shoulder; and for many centu- 
 ries the garment which all workmen wore over their clothes to pre- 
 serve them from wear and from stains was called for this reason a 
 scapular. It was formed of two wide bands of stuff which joined on 
 the shoulders, and reached to the knees both back and front, leaving 
 a hole in the middle for the head to pass through. But it is very 
 long since this kind of garment was commonly worn, and the scapu- 
 lar has become a religious insignia established by the Carmelites in 
 the thirteenth century. The Carmelite Order, instituted in the ear- 
 lier ages of Christianity, and always characterized by a special devo- 
 tion to the Blessed Mother of God, was obliged to abandon the an- 
 cient monastery of Mount Carmel in Palestine to avoid the fury of 
 the Turks. 
 
 The Carmelite monks took refuge in Europe, where they met with 
 many difficulties, so much so that the Order seemed about to perish, 
 when St. Simon, their Superior, made a last appeal to Heaven to pre- 
 vent this catastrophe. Kedoubling his austerities and his prayers, 
 he offered himself anew with all his brethren to the glorious Queen 
 of heaven, entreating her to come to their aid. His confidence was 
 well founded, and in these words the holy religious related to his 
 brethren the result of his prayer: "My beloved brethren, blessed be 
 God, who never abandons those who hope in Him, and does not de- 
 spise the prayer of His servants ; and blessed be also the Most Holy 
 Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who, being mindful of His 
 mercy toward His people, makes haste to help us in the midst of the 
 great tribulations which surround us on all sides! To me who am 
 only dust and ashes, as I opened my heart in the presence of God, 
 and asked the Blessed Virgin to grant some unmistakable sign of 
 her protection and love to the ancient religious family of the Car- 
 melites, whom she herself had honored with the title of Brethren of 
 the Blessed Virgin Mary, ... to me the Holy Mother of God 
 deigned to appear, resplendent with glory, and holding in her hand 
 a mysterious scapular: 'Eeceive, my son,' she said to me, 'this vest' 
 
^ FIFTH PART^ 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. 
 
 A MIRACLE is an outward fact which evidently surpasses the forces 
 of nature. It is the extraordinary exercise of God's almighty power 
 in the world. 
 
 To deny the possibility of miracles is to deny the power of God, 
 and consequently His existence. 
 
 Miracles being the seal of divinity, if Jesus Christ were God, He 
 must have worked miracles. And we may ask of Him, like the 
 Jews of old: "What miracles doest Thou that we may believe?" 
 
 We need not fear to apply this test, for the public life of Our Lord 
 was an uninterrupted succession of miracles. 
 
 The divine recital of all His marvellous works constitutes the Gos- 
 pel ; and the most important and the most solemn of all is, perhaps, 
 the resurrection of Lazarus. 
 
 Lazarus was a rich man, much loved by Jesus, and the brother of 
 Martha and Mary Magdalen ; he lived at Bethania, which was fifteen 
 furlongs from Jerusalem, and often offered hospitality to the Sa- 
 viour and His Apostles. 
 
 Now, Lazarus fell seriously sick, and his sisters, seeing that his 
 life was in danger, sent to tell Jesus, who was then in Galilee, and 
 said to Him: "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick." Jesus 
 answered: "This sickness is not unto death, but that the Son of God 
 may be glorified by it." Notwithstanding the love that Our Lord 
 bore to Lazarus and his sisters. He remained in the same place two 
 days; then He said to His disciples: "Let us go into Judea again; 
 Lazarus our friend sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of 
 sleep." His disciples therefore said: "If he sleep, he shall do well;" 
 and Jesus answered: "Lazarus is dead; and I am glad for your 
 sakes that I was not there, that you may believe." 
 
 When Jesus arrived at Bethania, Lazarus had been dead for four 
 days, and was already laid in the tomb. Martha and Mary were 
 overwhelmed with grief, and were sitting at home and weeping. 
 Their friends and relations were still with them, trying to console 
 
84:3 THE RISEN JESUS AND MAKY MAGDALEN. 
 
 THE RISEN JESUS AND MARY MAGDALER 
 
 Mary Magdalen had left everything to follow her divine Master. 
 She had sold all her possessions, which were considerable, and had 
 distributed her wealth among the poor ; a holy and austere life had 
 succeeded the life of sinful pleasure which had been her ruin; and 
 in the pure companionship of the Blessed Virgin she had speedily 
 risen to a subhme degree of Christian sanctity. Mary had taken her 
 with her to Calvary, where Magdalen, more courageous than the 
 Apostles, intrepid in her fidelity, and unwavering in her faith, had 
 been present during the long hours of agony of Him who had come 
 down to earth to seek and to save the lost. She had helped the 
 Mother of Sorrows to receive the precious burden of the inanimate 
 body of Jesus, after the lance of Longinus had pierced His sacred 
 side; and lastly, she had been among the train of mourners who had 
 laid within the holy sepulchre the divine Conqueror of death. 
 
 After the funeral ceremony, the Jews, who knew well the solemn 
 prediction so often repeated of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, took 
 every means to guard His sacred Body with jealous care, hoping thus 
 to prove the imposture of the Crucified. The living rock in which 
 the sepulchre was hollowed had no outlet; they had closed the en- 
 trance by rolling before it an enormous stone, upon which they had 
 set the seal of the temple ; and chosen guards, relieved from hour to 
 hour, took away every fear of treachery. 
 
 On the third day, the day following the Sabbath, at the rising of 
 the sun, the rock was shaken, and an angel of light came down from 
 heaven, and rolled away the stone. . . . The terrified guards fell 
 back with fear, then speedily took flight. The Holy Sepulchre was 
 open and empty ; the Almighty Lord, Jesus, the Son of God, the 
 Eternal King, the Victorious Redeemer, had risen, and had conquered 
 Death and Hell! 
 
 Magdalen, overwhelmed by bitter grief, left her home at the dawn 
 of day, carrying with her precious perfumes, sweet spices, and aro- 
 matics to complete the embalming of the Sacred Body of her Master, 
 having as yet only a very vague idea of what Jesus Christ meant 
 when speaking of His resurrection. 
 
 When she reached the Holy Sepulchre she was astonished to find 
 it empty and unguarded. Putting down her perfumes, she leant 
 over the opening to the cave into which a few steps, cut out of the 
 rock, led down. The Body of Jesus was there no longer; the fine 
 
TIIE REPENTANCE OF MAGDALEN. 848 
 
 without using those means which He has placed in His goodness on 
 our pathway to supply what is wanting to our weakness. We must 
 have recourse to the ministry of the pastors of the Church ; we must 
 listen to their teaching, and be docile to their voice: it is to them 
 that we must confess our sins in deep humility ; we must follow their 
 religious guidance, and receive from their consecrated hands the 
 divine Communion, the Sacred Bread of eternal life. 
 
 Like Zacheus we must rejoice in being Christians, and the service 
 of our God must be our happiness and glory. We must fearlessly 
 observe not only the commandments of God and of the Church, but 
 the counsels of evangelical perfection ; we must love God and the 
 poor, and strive to merit from our just and merciful Creator the 
 benediction which Zacheus received: "This day is salvation come to 
 thee. . . . This day I must abide in thy house I" 
 
 THE REPENTANCE OF MAGDALEN. 
 
 Mary, surnamed Magdalen (from the name of some property she 
 possessed in the town of Magdala, upon the borders of the Sea of 
 Galilee), was the youngest sister of Lazarus and Martha, who are 
 ever to be honored and remembered for the holy friendship which 
 bound them to Our Lord. Lazarus and Martha had always faith- 
 fully obeyed the laws of God ; but their young sister had yielded to 
 temptation, and fallen miserably into sin. 
 
 One day, in the midst of a life of depravity, she heard speak of 
 Jesus, of His miracles, of His goodness, of His perfect holiness, of 
 His mercy to sinners. Attracted by curiosity and by an undefinable 
 feeling of repentance, the poor sinner drew near to the Saviour, lis- 
 tened to His stern, sweet words, and received from Him a benedic- 
 tion which prepared the way for her conversion. Some time after, 
 Our Lord arrived at Capharnaum, near to Magdala, and remained 
 there for man)'' days, preaching to the people those sacred and divine 
 truths which are summed up in the Gospel under the name of the 
 Sermon on the Mount. The Blessed Virgin, St. Martha, and the 
 other holy women who followed Jesus and provided for His necessi- 
 ties brought Mary Magdalen a second time to the Source of life. 
 The jBrst words of Jesus had made her tremble and yet filled her with 
 hope, and these humbled her to the dust. But she dared not cast 
 herself yet at His feet, but, returning to her house, she dismissed all 
 the sinful and worldly companions by whom she had been sur- 
 
THE FATHER OF A FAMILY. 349 
 
 years of their life. This is the widow's mite; this is the charity Our 
 Lord declares to be the greatest. 
 
 Dear children of God who will read, perhaps, these lines, if it has 
 been the will of your Father in heaven to cast your lot among the 
 poor He loves and cares for, act thus unto your brethren, and you 
 shall be rich in God's most holy sight — rich for all eternity. 
 
 THE FATHER OF A FAMILY. 
 
 The Gospel forcibly represents God to our minds under the figure 
 of the father of a family. And, indeed, a lesson too often unheeded 
 is hidden beneath this name. It belongs to God, not only because 
 He is the Father, the Principle, the Creator of all things, but be- 
 cause the manner in which we are governed by His Providence is 
 entirely justified by the conduct of a good father of a family here be- 
 low. Every one knows what constitutes this character: a constant 
 vigilance over his children, an untiring care for their welfare, true 
 affection united to perfect justice, patience with their faults, and, 
 more than all, a generous, earnest love. Every one admires a man 
 who brings up his children upon such a principle as this, and no one 
 would be so unreasonable as to blame him when he sees necessity to 
 mingle severity with tenderness, punishments with rewards. 
 
 But if it is thus, how can we ever be so unjust as to murmur 
 against God when He acts with regard to us just as we ourselves 
 act with regard to our children? Why do we do in respect to God, 
 the Father of all men, exactly that which we condemn in our own 
 children, who, less wise than their father and ignorant of his rea- 
 sons, misjudge their parents, murmur against them, and sometimes 
 even doubt their tenderness? Let us consider a little how an earthly 
 father acts if he is good and wise, and we shall clearly see that God, 
 against whom during the course of our life we often dare to murmur, 
 acts toward us exactly in the manner that we esteem so highly in an 
 earthly father. 
 
 First of all, the father gives life to his children, who think little of 
 this fundamental benefit, the basis of their existence and of all their 
 happiness. This is the first resemblance, for we are nothing but 
 children grown, and we forget each day that God is our Creator, 
 that life is a benefit which He has bestowed upon us in pure mercy 
 and goodness, and we never thank Him that He has sent us into the 
 world. 
 
 Our love for our children is always greater and more disinterested 
 
THE PRODIGAL SON. 851 
 
 their safeguard. When they transgress our commands, and we 
 cause them to suffer for their disobedience, the child, beating against 
 the bars of wholesome discipline, regards firmness as tyranny, and 
 its parents as persecutors. Do we not act in tha same way when we 
 murmur against the justice of God, when we resist His holy law, 
 and refuse to understand the punishments due to our sins? Lastly, 
 when the erring child repents and throws itself weeping into its fa- 
 ther's arms, does he not pardon it, whatever its fault may be? does 
 not the repentance of a child always efface the guilty past? And 
 God also pardons everything to repentance when He sees it comes 
 from the heart; but when the sinner is incorrigible, God acts like the 
 father of a family, who disinherits and curses his unnatural child, 
 after having exhausted every means of mercy, entreaty, and forbear- 
 ance; He curses him eternally, disinherits him from celestial happi- 
 ness, and counts him no longer among His children. 
 
 This striking resemblance might be carried still further. If we 
 reflected a little sometimes on that standard of right which God 
 Himself has given us as the guide of our own conduct, we should 
 understand more clearly His dealings with ourselves; we should 
 see that in this, as in all things, God has created us in His own 
 image, and learn humbly to accept this justification of that divine 
 Providence of which our best and highest instincts are only a pale 
 reflection. 
 
 THE PRODIGAL SON, 
 
 Such is the title of one of the most touching parables of Our 
 Lord. 
 
 A parable is an allegorical story which embodies for those who 
 hear it some moral lesson. Our Lord Jesus Christ was accustomed 
 by this means to instruct the people who gathered round Him. 
 
 The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most beautiful in the 
 Gospel, and one which is most fraught with the lessons that we 
 need. 
 
 Sinners, won by the mercj'' and compassion of Jesus Christ, often 
 approached to listen to Him, and the Gospel tells us how the Phari- 
 sees murmured against Him, saying: "This man receiveth sinners 
 and eateth with them." Jesus, who knew their thoughts, spoke to 
 them this parable : 
 
 " A certain man had two sons : 
 
 "And the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the 
 
LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN". 859 
 
 LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN. 
 
 There are still to be seen at Jerusalem the ruins of a splendid 
 house, which tradition relates to have been that of the rich man of 
 the Gospel. For some believe that this celebrated parable was not a 
 simple allegory made use of by Our Lord for the teaching of a truth, 
 but the real history of men who had existed. 
 
 However that may be, let us carefully consider the divine words, 
 and derive from them instruction. 
 
 "There was a certain rich man," said Our Lord one day to His 
 disciples and the Jews gathered round Him, It is indeed no sin to 
 be rich, and often it is a great grace from God. What good may 
 not be done with riches? And how many of the poor and unfortu- 
 nate have reason to thank Heaven for having bestowed fortunes 
 upon those who have charitable hearts and are ever ready to assist 
 them. At the same time we must reflect upon these words of Our 
 Saviour, since He never uttered useless words. Therefore: "There 
 was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen." 
 Here we have a most serious fact, and one which indicates the first 
 danger of riches. It is no evil to be rich, but it is a danger to those 
 who have not the true Christian spirit and a compassionate heart ; 
 and it is easier for a rich man to become proud and egotistical than 
 it is for a poor man. 
 
 "The rich man feasted sumptuously every day." This is the sec- 
 ond danger of riches when not counterbalanced by piety : sensuality, 
 volupt "ousness, and love of pleasure. Indeed, experience proves 
 that it is infinitely less difficult to resign one's self to privations than 
 to restrain one's self in the midst of enjoyment. 
 
 Such was the life of this rich man, entirely filled with feasting, 
 amusement, and all those pleasures which the world regards as per- 
 fectly innocent. According to human judgment, he was a happy 
 man. It also appears that he led what is socially considered a 
 blameless life, for we do not read in the Gospel of any wrong that 
 he had done. 
 
 " And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who lay at his 
 gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell 
 from the rich man's table, and no one did give him." The rich man 
 did not refuse him ; he simply forgot the beggar. . . . 
 
 And dogs, more pitiful than the man of pleasure, seemed to fur- 
 nish the lesson he needed, for, gathering round poor Lazarus, they 
 
ST. PETER DELIVERED BY THE ANGEL. 361 
 
 Suffer with patience and with Christian fortitude the sorrows of this 
 present life, and, like unto the poor and holy Lazarus, do not mur- 
 mur, but bear your cross with love I 
 
 ST. PETER DELIVERED BY THE ANGEL. 
 
 St. Peter, being elected by Jesus Christ to be the chief of the 
 Apostles and the head of the Church, commenced to preach the divine 
 law upon Mount Sion on the day of Pentecost. The Apostles and 
 disciples, priests and deacons, preached with him under his direction. 
 The Jews of Jerusalem and of the cities and villages round, having 
 been witnesses of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and of the won- 
 derful miracles of those whom He had sent, were converted in great 
 numbers, and asked to be baptized, so that a considerable society of 
 Christians was very speedily formed. Herod, the enemy of Christ, 
 was alarmed at the rapid propagation of the Christian faith, and, 
 desiring tc please the unbelieving Jews, he set on foot a violent per- 
 secution. St. James the Greater, brother of St. John, had the hap- 
 piness to suffer martyrdom upon this occasion ; and thus the Church 
 of Jerusalem was the first to gain, by the martyrdom of her first 
 bishop, the crown of the glorious victory which is sealed by the blood 
 of the saints. 
 
 But Herod, in order to disperse the little flock, desired to reach 
 higher still, and struck the Sovereign Pastor. He seized St. Peter, 
 and put him in prison, intending after the Easter festival to have 
 him put to death in the presence of all the people. Therefore four 
 bands of soldiers guarded the holy captive day and night. And the 
 whole Church prayed without ceasing for her Pontiff and her Father. 
 
 On the very night preceding the day fixed for his suffering, Peter 
 slept in his prison, bound b}'" a double chain and with a soldier at 
 each side. And other guards were watching before the prison door. 
 
 And suddenly an Angel of God stood by him, under a human 
 form, but surrounded by heavenly radiance, and the prison was filled 
 with light. The Angel touched Peter and awoke him. "Arise 
 quickly," he said, and immediately the chains fell from his hands. 
 And the Angel said to him, "Gird thyself, and put on thy sandals, 
 and follow me." Peter obeyed, and going out from the prison he 
 followed the Angel, hardly conscious whether it were all a dream or 
 a reality. 
 
 They passed the first and second body of guards, and came to thei 
 iron gate which leads to the city, which of itself opened to them. 
 
^SIXTH PART^ 
 
 PIERRE THE APPRENTICE. 
 
 One Sunday in the February of 1858, a poor boy about fifteen of 
 sixteen years old came to my house at Paris and asked to see me. 
 He was exceedingly pale and delicate looking, and was very meanly 
 dressed. His large blue eyes were full of candor, and his gentle, 
 subdued manner pleaded in his favor. He told me that his name 
 was Pierre Sazy, and that he was an orphan apprenticed to a gilder, 
 and had come to me to seek refuge and protection. I made him sit 
 down, and he told me his story. 
 
 His father had been a workman, and a very indifferent Catholic, 
 and his mother, who had died when he was a little child, was a Prot- 
 estant. Owing to the care of Sister G , one of the good sisters 
 
 of St. Vincent de Paul, who knew his family, the two children^ 
 Pierre and Auguste, had been brought up in the Catholic religioUj 
 and the poor mother, before she died, had embraced the true faith. 
 When Pierre was thirteen, and Auguste six or seven years old, they 
 lost their father. They were received by one of their aunts, who left 
 no means untried to induce the children to become Protestants. 
 
 Pierre resolutely resisted, and although he was deprived of all 
 communication with any Catholic priests, and forbidden to go to 
 Mass on Sunday, to confession, or communion, the poor little fellow 
 preserved intact the treasure of his holy faith. It was in vain that 
 his aunt took him to three Protestant pastors in succession; the 
 child held firm, and remained faithful. 
 
 At last his aunt grew angry, and on the 4th of January she told 
 him, as a kind of New Year's greeting perhaps, that he must either 
 become a Protestant or leave her house at once. The poor appren- 
 tice had no other home. His employers gave him board and lodging 
 all the week, but on Sundays they went into the country, the house 
 was shut up, and the apprentice was obliged to go where he could. 
 Pierre, being now forced to renounce his faith or to remain without 
 food or shelter for twenty-four hours, did not hesitate an instant. 
 
 865 
 
CONVERSION AND DEATH OF A YOUNG PROTESTANT. 369 
 
 and which he had worn round his neck night and day, and had 
 kissed frequently, saying: "My Jesus, I love TheeT' 
 
 The next day, the 19th of July, many of those who had known 
 and loved him accompanied his coffin first to the church, then to the 
 cemetery of Montparnasse ; very poor and simple was that coffin in 
 the eyes of men, but very rich, I doubt not, in the sight of God and 
 of His angels. . . . Upon his grave I had a white cross placed, with 
 this simple inscription : " Here rests, in the peace of God, and in the 
 eternal love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Pierre Sazy, His faithful ser- 
 vant, who lived sixteen years, and died on the eighteenth of July, 
 eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, in the conression of the Catholic 
 faith." 
 
 CONVERSION AND DEATH OF A YOUNG 
 PROTESTANT, 
 
 A POOR sempstress of Paris, Mademoiselle P , who was wholly 
 
 devoted to God and to good works, heard one day in the month of 
 November, 1850, that a young Swiss artist, a Protestant, dying of 
 consumption, had been reduced by poverty to enter the hospital to 
 be nursed through his last illness. 
 
 The thought of the lonely, friendless condition of this young man, 
 who had lost both his fortune and his health, and, still more, a desire 
 to save his soul, inspired Mademoiselle P with the idea — a sin- 
 gular one perhaps, but, at all events, most Christian — of going to 
 the hospital to see M. Gabriel CEdmann, and of trying to impart to 
 him, if possible, the only true consolation. 
 
 According to the Christian rule, Mademoiselle P commenced 
 
 by prayer. She cast herself at the feet of the Mother of God, and 
 promised her to spend for the poor sick man all that she could gain 
 up to the time of his conversion ; she asked many to join her in pray- 
 ers for this intention, she had a Mass said for the success of her good 
 work, and then, under the protection of Mary, she entered the hospi- 
 tal of Beaujon. 
 
 Gabriel CEdmann was thirty years old. He was dying of con- 
 sumption. Death was already written upon his wasted face. 
 
 He received Mademoiselle P at first with astonishment, then 
 
 with pleasure. To those who are suffering, any kindly, friendly face 
 does good. His visitor spoke to him of his illness, of his circum- 
 stances, of anything that would be likely to interest him. She asked 
 if she might come and see him again. "Yes, indeed, gladly," ex- 
 Vol. II.— 24 
 
880 THE BITER BITTEN. 
 
 "And what is more, that I will confess to him?" 
 
 "I bet you will not." 
 
 "I bet that I will. Come, what do you bet?" 
 
 "A good dinner." 
 
 "With champagne?" 
 
 " With champagne." 
 
 "Done I . . . Agreed I . . . Wait for me, and watch the manoeu 
 vre." 
 
 And the foolish young fellow advances boldly to the priest of God. 
 He whispers to him, and he rises immediately, enters the confes- 
 sional ; then the officer goes in at one of the sides and kneels down, 
 just as is always done. 
 
 " Will he ever have the effrontery?" thought the other. And with 
 a smile of admiration on his lips, he sat down to wait for the impro- 
 vised penitent. 
 
 This went on for about seven or eight minutes, at the end of which 
 he thought the joke had lasted a little too long. At length, after 
 more than a quarter of an hour, the officer rose, came out of the con- 
 fessional, and left the church after making a sign to his friend. His 
 face was serious, and he seemed deeply moved. However, he 
 laughed about the adventure with his companion, but would not tell 
 him why he had remained so long. Upon the first excuse he left 
 him and returned home. Two days after, he again entered the As- 
 sumption, and, after having prayed for a long time, approached the 
 same conJ'essional where the same priest had just gone in. 
 
 This time he remained for half an hour ; there were tears in his 
 eyes when he came out. . . . Peace and joy were written in his 
 face. . . . He had just received the pardon of his sins. . . . And 
 what was the meaning of this? and what had happened to him two 
 days before? It happened as follows, and I tell it in the officer's 
 own words: 
 
 The priest to whom he addressed himself very quickly perceived, 
 by the tone of his penitent, that he was listening to no serious con- 
 fession. 
 
 "This is all in mockery, monsieur," he said gently, interrupting 
 him. "You are doing wrong; you must not scoff at the things of 
 God nor at His appointed ministers. But I pardon you from my 
 heart, and I pray God to do the same." 
 
 The officer, a little disconcerted, tried to excuse himself. 
 
 "No, no," said the good priest, smiling. "You have done wrong; 
 let us say no more about it. Still, since you have sought me out, 
 
THE BITER BITTEN. 881 
 
 allow me to speak to you for a minute, to ask you what you are- . 
 what is your calling?'* 
 
 "Willingly, father," replied the young man; "I am an ofiQcer." 
 
 "Ah I that is a ver}'' fine calling. And what is your grade?" 
 
 "I am a sub-lieutenant; I come from Saint-Cyr." 
 
 "And after that what will you become?" 
 
 "I shall be a lieutenant." 
 
 "And afterward?" 
 
 "Afterward a captain." 
 
 "And afterward?" 
 
 "A commander; then lieutenant-colonel, then colonel, then gen- 
 eral, then lieutenant-general, perhaps." 
 
 "And what age will you be then?" 
 
 " Well, if I have good luck, and if I go to Africa, about forty or 
 forty-five." 
 
 "And do you not intend to marry?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, I shall marry." 
 
 " Well, then, you will be a general and married ; and after that 
 what will you become?" 
 
 "After that? why there is nothing left but the grade of a mar- 
 shal." 
 
 " And supposing that you should obtain that, what would you do 
 afterward?" 
 
 " Upon my word, I should do nothing more. I should rest with 
 my wife and my children." 
 
 "And afterward?" 
 
 "How afterward?" 
 
 The serious tone of the priest troubled the young officer, 
 
 "Ah, well! I shall die afterward." 
 
 "And afterward?" 
 
 The young man shuddered. Of this afterward he never thought. 
 
 "You give me no answer, monsieur," said the confessor gravely. 
 "You are ignorant, perhaps, of what will come to pass afterward. 
 You have told me only of what will happen before. But now I will 
 tell you, in my turn, what will happen afterward. After your 
 death, your soul will appear before Jesus Christ, and will be judged, 
 not according to that human glory which will have vanished like a 
 dream, but according to the good or evil it has done. If you have 
 been virtuous, a faithful observer of the laws of God, and of His 
 Church ; if you have been humble, pure, chaste, just, and merciful 
 to others, — in a word, if you have been a good and faithful Christian, 
 
THE HISTORY OF AN OLD BEGGAR. 386 
 
 he added, "Why, General, I assure you it is excellent; just taste it, 
 and you" 
 
 "And my vrord of honor, colonel, my word of honor!" exclaimed 
 Cambronne, striking the table. " And Nantes ! and the prison ! and 
 the pardon I Have you forgotten it all, my good friend? For whom 
 do you take Cambronne? From that very day a drop of wine 
 has never touched my lips. I swore to you, and I have kept my 
 word." 
 
 The colonel, full of admiration for such unfaltering fidelity, pressed 
 his wine no longer, but commended himself anew for having pre- 
 served such a man to France. 
 
 Men correct their vices when they desire to do so. The word im- 
 possible is not in our language. Still less is it a Christian word. A 
 firm resolution and an earnest desire overcome all obstacles. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AN OLD BEGGAR. 
 
 At the door of one of the churches of Paris an old beggar, known 
 by the name of Jacques, came every day, for many years, to sit on 
 one of the steps of the temple and ask for alms. He seemed a 
 downcast, miserable old man. He scarcely ever spoke, but contented 
 himself with bending his head when anything was given to him. A 
 gold cross might be seen upon his breast, only partially hidden by his 
 tattered garments. 
 
 A young ecclesiastic, M. I'Abbe Paulin de , celebrated Mass 
 
 habitually at this church, and never omitted, as he entered, to give 
 some small offering to poor Jacques. 
 
 Belonging to a rich and noble family, M. Paulin de had con- 
 secrated himself to God in the priesthood, and spent all his posses- 
 sions among the poor. Without knowing him, old Jacques grew to 
 love the good young priest. 
 
 One day the Abbe Paulin missed old Jacques from his accustomed 
 place; and, as he remarked that his absence was prolonged, he grew 
 uneasy about the old man and made inquiries as to where he lived ; 
 and having learned his address, one morning, after Mass, he turned 
 his steps toward the dwelling of old Jacques. 
 
 He knocked at the door of an attic on the sixth floor. A feeble 
 voice answer.ed from within, and he entered. 
 
 Jacques was lying stretched upon a miserable pallet; his face was 
 pale as death, his eyes were dull and heavy. 
 
 "Ah! it is you, Monsieur I'Abbe," he said to the priest, when he 
 Vol. II.— 25 
 
394: ST. CECILIA, ST. VALERIAN, AND ST. TIBURTIUS. 
 
 THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. CECILIA, ST. VALERIAN^ 
 AND ST. TIBURTIUS. 
 
 In the reign of the Emperor Alexander Severus, under the Pon- 
 tificate of St. Urban, in the year 230 of the Christian era, there lived 
 at Rome a young virgin named CeciHa. 
 
 Rich, noble, and beautiful, Cecilia united to the choicest gifts of 
 nature the still more precious gifts of grace. She was a Christian, 
 though her family was heathen ; and the beautiful years of her early 
 youth were passed in prayer, in sweet meditation on the law of God, 
 in the austerities of penance, and in the indefatigable practice of all 
 good works. The book of the Gospels, hidden beneath her robe, 
 rested always on her breast; and, burning with a pure and holy love 
 for Our Lord Jesus Christ, Cecilia had solemnly vowed to have no 
 other spouse than He. Nevertheless, the time approached when the 
 Christian maiden would have to contend for the power to keep her 
 promise. Incapable of understanding the sublime love which at* 
 tached the heart of their child to heaven, her parents had sought a 
 husband for her, and the spouse of Christ had been constrained to 
 receive a suitor among men. 
 
 Valerian was the name of the young Roman destined, in the eyes 
 of the world, to obtain the hand of Cecilia. His nobility, his beauty, 
 the qualities of his mind and heart all rendered him worthy of such 
 an honor. He had a brother named Tiburtius, and rejoiced with this 
 brother, whom he tenderly loved, over the happiness in store for him. 
 Neither understood the divine nature and the eternal duration of 
 that happiness which Cecilia was to bring to them. 
 
 The virgin saw with fear the day of her bridal approaching, but 
 also with that superhuman calm which faith alone can give to Chris- 
 tians. She had redoubled her prayers, her alms, and her penances. 
 She wore haircloth beneath the rich embroideries of her sumptuous 
 robe, and thus chastised her delicate flesh, and prepared herself for 
 the terrible combats that she would doubtless soon have to sustain 
 for Jesus Christ. Our Lord came to her Himself, and, in order to 
 give her more courage, He allowed her guardian angel to become 
 visible to her eyes, and to promise her, in the name of God, a contin- 
 ual assistance. 
 
 Nevertheless the fatal day arrived; the heart of Valerian beat 
 high with joy, and the whole nobility of Rome assisted at the nup- 
 tials of the daughter of Cecilius. 
 
400 THE CATACOMBS OF ROME. 
 
 Jesus Christ to them with her dying breath. The Pope St. Urban 
 received her last sighs. Before now, she had given her house to the 
 Roman Church, desiring that it should be changed into a Christian 
 sanctuary. 
 
 The Pope, out of respect for this holy body, would not allow any- 
 one to touch it, but placed it himself in a coffin of cypress, in the 
 same posture in which it had been left by the blessed soul of the 
 virgin martyr when it had taken its flight to the bosom of God. It 
 was carried with due solemnity to the Catacombs, and laid near to 
 the bodies of St. Valerian, St. Tiburtius, and St. Maximus. 
 
 About three hundred years after, during the Pontificate of Clement 
 VIII., it was found intact; it was lying on the right side, the hands 
 clasped and near to the knees, the head cut by the sword and turned 
 to the ground. It was clothed in a white robe richly embroidered in 
 gold. Cloths stained with blood were at the feet of the virgin 
 martyr. Her precious relics were then united to those of her hus- 
 band, his brother, St. Maximus, and St. Urban, and transported to 
 the basilica of St. Cecilia (at Rome) ; it is the very house in which 
 Cecilia died. They are venerated beneath the high altar of this 
 celebrated church, and forty lamps burn night and day before 
 them. 
 
 The 22d of November is the feast of St. Cecilia. 
 
 May this holy virgin deign to pray for our country, and obtain for 
 it the grace of faith, of conversion, and of final perseverance. 
 
 THE CATACOMBS OF ROME. 
 
 The name of Catacombs (Greek kata, kumhos) has been given to 
 the immense subterranean vaults which the Christians excavated all 
 round the city during the three first centuries of the Church, in order 
 that they might religiously bury their dead, and might celebrate the 
 holy mysteries without fear, and also as a place of refuge during the 
 fury of persecution. 
 
 It is impossible to give any idea of the immensity of this subter- 
 ranean city, composed of long narrow corridors cut out of the soft 
 sandy rock, and intersecting one another to such an extent that no 
 one could fail to lose their way who attempted to traverse them 
 without the help of a guide or of a very long experience. 
 
 There are about thirty catacombs known to us. The largest and 
 most celebrated is the Catacomb (or cemetery) of St. Calixtus, so 
 called from the name of the Pope whose body was laid there in 222, 
 
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE POPE. 413 
 
 The four pillars which sustain the cupola are of such proportions 
 that an architect has been able, by an ingenious thought, to con- 
 struct in another part of Rome a vast chapel and a small monastery 
 in the same space of ground which only one of these pillars occupies. 
 In each of them precious relics are enclosed. In one the body of St. 
 Veronica rests, and the cloth with which she wiped the face of Our 
 Lord as He ascended to Mount Calvary. In another is venerated 
 the entire body of St. Longinus, a Roman soldier who, after the 
 Saviour's death, pierced His Sacred Heart with a lance, and a frag- 
 ment of this lance is preserved in a shrine which is opened on Good 
 Friday, and which is framed in two magnificent columns from the 
 temple of Jerusalem. In the third pillar is preserved a noted relic 
 of the true cross, and in the fourth the head of St. Andrew, the 
 eldest brother of St. Peter. 
 
 But what can be said of the feelings of faith and of gratitude 
 which fill the heart of the Christian when, upon the day of grand 
 pontifical ceremonies, he sees the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, 
 the depositary of his power, the heir of his promises, offer to God, 
 over the body of the Apostle, the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist, 
 which St. Peter himself celebrated in the cenaculum upon the Day 
 of Pentecost, and which, for eighteen centuries, all Pontiffs and 
 priests have offered in their turn. It seems as if the most divine 
 spectacle that it has been given to man to contemplate upon earth is 
 the Sacred Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, veiled beneath the Holy 
 Eucharist, and offered to the adoration of the faithful by the hands 
 of the Sovereign Pontiff over the altar of St. Peter. How sad it is 
 that there should be any who could witness this great religious act 
 and yet be incapable of comprehending all its beauty and its glory. 
 
 THE DAILY LIFE OF THE POPE. 
 
 As a rule, the higher the dignity to which a man is raised the 
 more weighty and difficult are the duties which his position involves. 
 I know that this is not generally believed or understood, but it is none 
 the less true. Life is often a weary burden to those of high estate, 
 and there is less liberty in the palaces of princes than in the humble 
 dwellings of the poor. 
 
 The greatest dignitary in the world is undoubtedly the Pope, the 
 supreme head of religion upon earth, the High Priest of God, the 
 bishop and pastor of all the faithful, the spiritual father of mon- 
 archs as well as of their subjects. There is also no man in the world 
 
420 THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH. 
 
 of the Cardinal Grand Penitentiary a silver hammer, strikes the first 
 blow on the wall, which is then pulled down, as has been already ex- 
 plained, and thus gives the signal for the opening of the holy year. 
 
 Castiglione, having become a Bishop and a Cardinal, was promoted 
 to the office of Grand Penitentiary of the Eoman Church ; the honor 
 of presenting the silver hammer of the Jubilee to the Pope therefore 
 came to him of right. On returning it to him, Leo XII. said in a 
 low voice with a mischievous smile : 
 
 " Monsignore il Cardinale, it is just fifty years ago to-day that, 
 under similar circumstances, you offered me another silver instru- 
 ment in a somewhat less gracious manner." 
 
 "I remember, Holy Father," replied the Cardinal a little discon- 
 certed, "and I trust your Holiness pardoned me long ago." 
 
 Four years later, after a reign, alas! too short, Leo XII. died, and 
 Cardinal Castiglione succeeded him under the name of Pius VIII. 
 
 How greatly astonished would have been the witnesses of the pro- 
 cession and stormy encounter of 1775 could they have foreseen the 
 future ! 
 
 Bad beginnings may make good endings, and we should never de- 
 spair of anything. 
 
 THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH. 
 
 All the nations of the earth have not received from heaven the 
 inestimable gift of the one true Faith. 
 
 All have not, like the poorest villagers in a Catholic country, a 
 priest to receive and baptize their new-born children, to teach them 
 to know God and to know themselves — a kind and sympathizing 
 pastor to comfort them in trouble and sickness, to help and console 
 them at the terrible moment of death, and to pray for them when 
 they are no more. Out of the immense number of men living on the 
 earth, many hundreds of millions are still deprived of these the 
 greatest of all benefits. 
 
 Therefore, in pagan countries the most terrible crimes dishonor 
 humanity, so terrible that we are almost tempted to ask if those who 
 act thus can be men and not rather monsters in human form. Thus 
 in China, a country so celebrated for its riches, its arts, its civiliza- 
 tion, hundreds of thousands of children are destroyed every year by 
 the most horrible and unnatural means. In Africa, in Oceanica, in 
 Central America, there are tribes among whom cannibalism is the 
 practice, and who follow up each conquest by feasting on their van- 
 
SAVED BY THE MEMORY OF HIS FmST COMMUNION. 43t 
 
 SAVED BY THE MEMORY OF HIS FIRST COM- 
 MUNION, 
 
 In the year 1841 I was at Paris and taking part in the Conference 
 of St. Vincent de Paul. 
 
 Some of the young people who composed it had the habit of visit- 
 ing the sick in the hospital once or twice a week. 
 
 The Hospital Necker, in the Eue de Sevres, had fallen to my 
 share. I always commenced my visits with the chapel, going there 
 to ask God to bless the work which for love of Him I was about to 
 accomplish, and to accompany the words and counsel I was going to 
 give to my sick people with His benediction ; and then, when I had 
 finished my visit to the wards, I returned to lay the fruits at the 
 sacred feet of our divine Master. 
 
 I was obliged to leave Paris in the spring, but I always remember 
 one touching incident of which I was the witness upon my last visit 
 to the sick of Necker. The ward I had to visit that day was en- 
 trusted to the care of a sister of charity who had grown old in this 
 holy ministry, and who was no less indefatigable in allaying the 
 sufferings of her patients than she was zealous for the salvation of 
 their souls. On arriving I went, according to my custom, to receive 
 the orders of this good sister. She especially recommended to me 
 six or seven sick people: one newly arrived and still unknown to 
 her; another in a dying state, and needing to be strengthened and 
 comforted ; another already moved to repentance, and on the point 
 of conversion, etc. 
 
 "And then," she added, "go to No. 39; you will find there a man 
 of thirty- two or thirty -three years of age in the last stage of con- 
 sumption, and who cannot live more than two or three days. I have 
 tried in vain to get him to listen to me or speak to me, but he has 
 driven me away from him three or four times, and has only received 
 the chaplain with rough, ungracious words. One of your confreres 
 of St. Vincent de Paul has visited him many times with no better 
 success. He will probably receive you in the same way, but no 
 trouble must be spared. We must only consider the glory of God, 
 and the poor soul to be saved." 
 
 "Well, my good sister," I replied, "if he dismisses me, why, then, 
 I shall be dismissed, that is all ; I shall be none the worse for that. 
 But say a Hail Mary for the poor man while I go and speak to him." 
 
 I went my rounds, and, going from bed to bed, I arrived at No 
 
A. LITTLE CANDLE TO MARY. 461 
 
 A LITTLE CANDLE TO MARY. 
 
 Two poor old people, husband and wife, lived with much difficulty 
 in a miserable little garret, for which they paid twenty francs a 
 year. They often went to bed without any supper, and their break- 
 fast very often consisted of a few hard crusts soaked in water. They 
 could not bear to make their poverty known and ask for relief. Once 
 they had lived in comfort, but little by little they had sold every- 
 thiijg. One Saturday they found themselves left without a penny, 
 without a morsel of bread or food of any description. The wife was 
 very infirm, the husband was sick and obliged to keep his bed. The 
 day was passed in suffering, and when the night came they had 
 eaten nothing. They wept and they prayed. The Sunday which 
 followed was still more terrible. In the evening positive want drove 
 the poor old woman forth with the intention of asking help ; but 
 when she tried to speak shame prevented her, and she returned to 
 her room more exhausted and discouraged than before. For forty- 
 eight hours they had eaten nothing. Their faces were pale and 
 wan, their strength was almost gone. 
 
 " We must die, my poor wife," said the old man; "God has for- 
 saken us." 
 
 The poor old woman did not answer. But a little time after she 
 raised her head, and cried, as though struck with a sudden inspira- 
 tion: 
 
 " Let us invoke the Blessed Virgin ! She is the comforter of the 
 afflicted and the refuge of those who suffer. She will deliver us. 
 Wait," she added, "I have one little candle left. We will light it 
 before hor image; Mary will come to our aid." 
 
 The unfortunate people, reanimated by this last hope, rose with 
 difficulty, and in the mid^it of the darkness of the night they found 
 the candle, lighted it, a^id, placing it before a little statue of the 
 Blessed Virgin, which had found no purchasers because it had no 
 material value, they kn'^slt down, and, leaning against each other, 
 called to their aid her who is never, we are told, invoked in vain. 
 
 They wept bitterly. . . . 
 
 A workwoman who liv^d opposite, in the same street, had a sick 
 child. She got up in the middle of the night to give it something to 
 drink, and looking out of the window perceived the light in the little 
 window of her two poor neighbors. She knew them a little, as 
 they always spoke to each other when they met. 
 
FILIAL PIETY. 467 
 
 address of the sick person who had sent for him, and found that in- 
 stead of being No. 18 it was No. 28. While thanking God for 
 this happy mistake, he hastened to the other house, where he found 
 the sick woman who was really expecting him. He heard her con- 
 fession, then without loss of time went to wake the sacristan of the 
 parish, and, taking the Blessed Sacrament with the holy oils, re- 
 turned to his two sick penitents ; but when he reached No. 18 the 
 poor woman had just expired. She had received the pardon of her 
 sins in sacramental absolution, and the fervor of her good will had, 
 doubtless, supplied in the eyes of a God of mercy for those other aids 
 which the priest was bringing her. 
 
 Full of faith and gratitude toward the Blessed Virgin the refuge 
 of sinners, the consolatrix of the afl9icted, the priest of God admin- 
 istered to his other sick penitent the last sacraments of the Church ; 
 and it was he who himself related to me this touching adventure. 
 It is but another instance which helps to prove how great are the 
 treasures of benediction which spring from devotion to Mary, and 
 how merciful Jesus is to those who love His Mother. 
 
 FE.IAL PIETY. 
 
 In a very small house in a poor neighborhood of Paris lived a 
 family deserving of interest from their poverty and misfortunes. 
 It consisted of five persons, the father and mother and three boys, of 
 whom the eldest was scarcely fifteen. He was a young apprentice. 
 I shall not give his name nor the calling in which he had been em- 
 ployed for three years, but shall merely saj" that at the workshops 
 where he was engaged every one loved him ; not only his companions, 
 but his master, because he was kind and obliging to the former, re- 
 spectful and submissive to the latter. At the patronage* he was cited 
 as a model of goodness ; while in his own home he seemed like the 
 guardian angel of the house. But it yet remained to be seen to hovr 
 great an extent his filial piety would carry him. 
 
 For three months the father of our young apprentice had been ill 
 and out of work; the little savings of the summer were gradually 
 dwindling away ; at last they were left without even a penny in the 
 house. 
 
 This was during the long days of winter. One evening at five 
 o'clock, the young apprentice, returning from the workshop, found 
 
 •Tlie patronage is a house where the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul 
 receive a certain number of apprentices and young workmen every Sunday. 
 
470 HAVE CONFIDENCE IN MARY. 
 
 HAVE CONFIDENCE IN MARY. 
 
 While I was at Rome, in 1845, I had the happiness of making 
 the acquaintance of a good and holy priest named Don Biaggio. He 
 had just succeeded as Superior of the Society of the Missionaries of 
 the Precious Blood to the venerable founder of the society, Gaspard 
 del Bufalo, who had died in 1839, after a life which had been not 
 only holy and apostolic, but resplendent with the glory of miracles. 
 
 Among other wonders which Don Biaggio related to me, and of 
 which he had been the eye-witness and sometimes even the happy 
 instrument, the following would doubtless interest my readers. I 
 will relate it, as far as possible, in his own words; 
 
 "I was then twenty-three years of age," he said tome, "and it 
 was in the year 1814. Pius VII. had just returned in triumph to 
 his beloved Rome. From my childhood I Lad desired to become a 
 priest, but work and study had insensibly impaired my health. I 
 had, nevertheless, been able to ascend the first steps of the sanctuary ; 
 I was a deacon. The disease of the lungs from which I suffered had 
 now rapidly developed ; I was subject to an intermittent fever, and 
 the doctors spoke most seriously of my case. I did not deceive my- 
 self as to the decline of my health, and with the probability of an 
 early death I sought and obtained the favor of being ordained a 
 priest one year before the canonical age. The fatigues of the ex- 
 amination and the retreat preparatory to my ordination exhausted 
 the little strength which remained to me. I became seriously ill, 
 and the doctors called in consultation informed me, after a careful 
 examination, that I had reached the third degree of pulmonary 
 consumption, that it was not possible I should recover, and that I 
 had better make all necessary arrangements without delay. The 
 Roman physicians are men of faith and do not follow the deplorable 
 custom, prevalent in some countries, of letting people die without 
 knowing that they are dying, and consequently without being able 
 to prepare themselves to appear before God. 
 
 " I decided to go to Loretto and to die there under the eyes of the 
 Blessed Virgin beneath the shadow of the Santa Casa. The voyage 
 was painful, but for a dying man a little suffering more or less is of 
 small consequence. Arrived at Loretto, I dragged myself to the 
 Holy House, fervently entreating the Madonna to assist me in my 
 last agony. I had been there a few days; my illness was increasing; 
 one morning when I was feeling weaker than usual, I went early to 
 
SAINT RITA OF CASCIA 
 
 p HIS holy woman was the daughter of pious parents, Anto- 
 nio and Amata (Fersi) Mancini, and was born at Eocca Pa- 
 rana, near Cascia, in Umbria. She was their only child. 
 Four days after her birth, a.d. 1381, she was baptized 
 in the parish church. An exquisite legend relates that the day after 
 her baptism a swarm of beautiful snow-white bees — symbols of her 
 purity and innocence, and of the irresistible sweetness of her words, 
 which drew so many souls to God — was seen issuing from the child's 
 mouth, where they had left behind them a comb filled with luscious 
 honey. 
 
 Under the zealous and watchful care of her parents, she grew up 
 in sanctity, and at an early age evinced a leaning for a conventual 
 life. Tenderly devoted to the Cross and to Our Blessed Lady, her 
 early life was passed in works of piety and penance. Her aged par- 
 ents, desiring to see her provided for before their death, constrained 
 her to marry. In this they were grossly deceived, for, as it; turned 
 out, she had been committed to the keeping of a brutal savage. 
 For eighteen years she suffered persecution and outrage, but grew 
 more exalted and spiritualized under the fierce pressure of affliction. 
 But, like St. Monica, she had the supreme consolation of seeing him 
 at the last hour, in answer to her prayers, die a death of fervent and 
 sincere repentance. At the age of thirty, having lost her two sons, 
 she found death had severed the last tie that bound her to the world, 
 and her pure heart, so long enchained, entered its true home, the 
 convent. For forty-four years she passed a life of physical suffering, 
 prayer, and penance within the convent walls. After nearly five 
 hundred years, it is said, her body is to-day incorrupt without the aid 
 of embalming or other human bar to dissolution. This saintly wo- 
 man was beatified by Pope Urban VIII., July 16th, 1627. 
 
 Blessed Rita was canonized May 24, 1900, by Pope Leo XIII. 
 Her picture shows her contemplating the crucifix with an angel 
 hovering above her head lifting a crown of thorns, one of which can 
 be seen pierced in her forehead. 
 
 O most compassionate Jesus! Thou alone art our salvation, our 
 life, and our resurrection. We implore Thee, therefore, do not 
 forsake us in our needs and our afflictions, but by the agony of Thy 
 most sacred heart, and by the sorrows of Thy immaculate Mother, 
 succor Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy most precious 
 blood. Amen. 
 
* SEVENTH PART* 
 
 A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGION 
 
 WITH A SERIES OF QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNQ 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. JOSEPH DEHARBE, S.J. 
 
 THE HISTORY BEFORE CHRIST. 
 
 I. From the Creation of the World to Moses. 
 
 2, From the Creation of the World to Abraham (about 
 4-000-1920 B.C.). 
 
 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. He said : " Let 
 them be made," and they were made. In six days God created the 
 whole world — the sun, moon, and stars; the plants, trees, and ani- 
 mals; and, last of all. He created man to His own image. The first 
 man was called Adam, and the first woman Eve. They were just 
 and holy, and beloved of God. They lived happy in a delicious gar- 
 den called Paradise, and they and their descendants were exempt 
 from death. 
 
 2. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the 
 tree that stood in the midst of the garden under the penalty of death. 
 But the serpent said to them : " If you eat thereof you shall be as 
 gods." Adam and Eve believed the serpent, and disobeyed God. 
 For this sin of disobedience, punishment immediately came upon 
 them and all their descendants. They were driven from Paradise, 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 1. How did God create heaven and earth ? In how many days did He create all 
 things? When did He create man? How did He distinguish man from the other 
 creatures? What were the names of the first man and woman ? Were they sin- 
 ful, as we are? Where did they live? Were they and their children ever to die? 
 
 2. What commandment did God give to Adam and Eve ? What did the serpent 
 tell them? What did Adajii and Eve do? Were they punished for it? Were 
 they alone punished? Wliat piniislimeut came upon them? Did God then 
 abandon them? What did He promise tliem ? 
 
484 A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGION FOR OLD AND YOUNG. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF CHEIST. 
 
 Jt. The Birth of Jesus Christ. — His Hidden Life. — His PuDlic Min* 
 
 istry. {1-3 J^ A.D.) 
 
 21. The world was at peace; Augustus was Emperor of Eorae, 
 and Herod, the Idumean, King of Judea, when the promise of God 
 and the predictions of the prophets were accomplished. Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world, was born, in a stable 
 at Bethlehem, of Mary, a virgin, descended from the royal family of 
 David. His birth was announced by angels to the shepherds at 
 Bethlehem, and by a star to the Wise Men in the East. The monster 
 Herod made every effort to discover the Divine Infant, that he might 
 put Him to death; but by God's command, Joseph, the foster-father 
 of Jesus, fled with Him and His mother to Egypt, and did not return 
 till after the death of Herod. Jesus then led a retired life at Nazareth 
 in Galilee, was subject to His parents, and "advanced in wisdom, 
 and age, and grace with God and men" (Luke ii, 52). When Ho 
 was twelve years old, He went with His parents to Jerusalem to 
 celebrate the Pasch, or Passover, and remained there three days in 
 the temple, astonishing even the Doctors of the Law by His wise 
 questions and answers. At the age of thirty. He went to the River 
 Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. When He came out of 
 the water, the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the shape of a 
 dove, and a voice came from Heaven, saying: "This is My Beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt, iii., 17). 
 
 22. Jesus then retired into the desert, and, having fasted and 
 prayed there forty days and forty nights. He began to preach the 
 gospel, that is, the good tidings of the kingdom of God on earth. 
 He travelled through the towns and villages, and proved His divine 
 mission and the truth of His doctrine by His holy life, by miracles 
 and prophecies. Those who heard Him were filled with wonder and 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 21. Under what emperor and what king was the Redeemer bom ? Where, and 
 of whom, was He born ? Who was first told of His birth, and by whom ? How 
 did King Herod receive Him ? What did St. Joseph do ? Where did Jesus spend 
 His childhood after His return from Egypt ? How did He live there ? What did 
 He do when He was twelve years old ? What did He do when He was thirty ? 
 What happened at His baptism ? 
 
 22. What did Jesus do after His baptism ? What does the word gospel mean ? 
 How did Jesus prove His Divine mission ? What impression did he make upon 
 the people ? How aaany apostles did He choose ? How many other disciples diu 
 
492 A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGION FOR OLD AND YOUNG. 
 
 deeper root, and spread more and more over the world. The signs 
 and wonders which the confessors of Christ worked, and, above all, 
 the imperturbable serenity of mind and cheerfulness of heart with 
 which they suffered the most cruel torments and the most painful of 
 deaths, convinced the Pagans that only the God of the Christians 
 could be the true God. It even often happened that, while the 
 Christians were suffering the most horrible tortures, many of the 
 Pagan spectators were heard to cry out : " We also are Christians ; 
 kill us together with them !" and thus the blood of the martyrs was 
 the fruitful seed from which new Christians continually sprang up. 
 
 34. By permitting these persecutions, God had sufficiently shown 
 to the world that the establishment of the Church was His work, 
 and that all the powers of the earth could not prevail against her. 
 He now bestowed peace on her by calling Constantino the Great to 
 be the protector of Christianity. This emperor, while yet a Pagan, 
 was at war with Maxentius, Seeing that his enemy's army was far 
 greater than his, Constantino prayed fervently to the true God for 
 assistance ; and behold, a bright cross appeared in the sky to him and 
 to his whole army showing the following inscription : " In this sign 
 thou shalt conquer." Constantino ordered a banner to be made in 
 imitation of this cross, and had it carried before his army in battle. 
 He then bravely attacked the superior forces of Maxentius, and over- 
 came them; and from that moment (a.d. 312) Constantino became 
 the champion and protector of Christianity. 
 
 II. From the Conversion of Constantine to the Eise of Prot- 
 estantism IN the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 1. The Church Triumphs over Heresies. — The Fathers of the 
 
 Church. — The Hermits. 
 
 35. The cross, that had hitherto been the sign of the greatest ig- 
 nominy, now became a sign of honor and victory. It glittered orj 
 the imperial crown of Constantine, and was displayed in Eome — ■ 
 till then the principal seat of Paganism — on the Capitol ; thus to an- 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 34. Why did God permit these persecutions ? Wliom did he call to put an end 
 to them ? Who was Constantine, and what can you relate concerning his victory ? 
 In what year did Constantine gain the battle and become the protector of Christian- 
 ity? 
 
 35. How was the cross glorified ? What did Constantine do for the Christian 
 rehgioii ? Wliat effect had his example ? 
 
A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGION FOR OLD AND YOUNG. 501 
 
 rn. From the Rise of Protestantism, in the Sixteenth Cen- 
 tury, TO OUR Time. 
 
 1. Innovations in Religion. — Divisions among Those who Pro- 
 moted Them. — Persecution of the Church. 
 
 43. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, a professor in the 
 University of Wittenberg, a man of a turbulent disposition, in 1517 
 at first, so at least he gave out, protested only against the pretended 
 abuses said to have been practised in the publication of the indul- 
 gences granted by Pope Leo X. to those who contributed to the re- 
 building of St. Peter's Church in Rome. But soon after he arbitra- 
 rily set himself up as a reformer of the Church, inveighed against the 
 ecclesiastical authorities, especially against the Pope, whose pastoral 
 supremacy he denounced as a usurpation and a tyranny, which he 
 said he would bring to a miserable end. Following up his false prin- 
 ciples, he rejected many articles of faith which the Church had re- 
 ceived from Christ and His apostles. He discarded the Holy Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass, fasting, confession, prayers for the dead, and many 
 other pious practices; he declared good works to be useless, and 
 taught that man is justified and saved by faith alone. Moreover, he 
 threw open monasteries and convents, and gave leave to the monks 
 and nuns to marry ; and he attributed to princes and sovereigns the 
 right of confiscating the property of churches and convents, and of 
 assigning it to any use they pleased. Finally, he broke the vow of 
 chastity which he had solemnly made as a monk and as a priest, and 
 committed the double sacrilege of taking a nun for his wife. Luther 
 boasted that he took his doctrine from the Bible only ; but, being mis- 
 led by the false rule of private judgment in its interpretation, he 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 43. Who was the author of the apostasy from the Church in the sixteenth century ? 
 What sort of a man was he ? When and how did he begin his conflict with the 
 Church ? Did he stop there ? How did he behave toward the Pope ? What inno- 
 vations did he introduce ? Whatjdid he do with regard to monasteries, monks, and 
 nuns ? What pretended right did he give to princes and sovereigns ? Was his 
 life holy ? Did he teach the pure Word of God ? Can you name any of his errors ? 
 How was his doctrine received by the people, and how by some princes ? What 
 did he do to gain the favor of the Landgrave of Hesse? Did any imitate 
 Luther's example? Where and what did Zvvinglius teach ? Where and what did 
 Calvin teach? What did the Anabaptists proclaim? What havoc did the Zwing- 
 lians and the Calvinists make ? Did the different sects agree among themselves ? 
 What measures did they contrive to propagate their principles ? What means did 
 they use in many places to make the Catholics renounce their faith i 
 
508 A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGION FOR OLD AND YOUNG. 
 
 5. The Spread of Infidelity. — The French Revolution. 
 
 47. Awful events, which make us shudder, remain yet to be re- 
 lated. We would fain pass them over in silence, if they were not 
 most instructive for us. As with all human productions, so it fared 
 with the doctrine of Luther; it became antiquated, it was altered 
 and changed. Sects upon sects arose: Baptists, Presbyterians, Epis- 
 copalians, Quakers, Methodists, Moravians, etc. Each one of these 
 sects claimed, after the example of Luther, to reform the faith. 
 Last of all, impious free-thinkers, first in England and afterward in 
 France, carried their presumption to the highest pitch, and conceived 
 the infernal purpose to abolish religion altogether and to exterminate 
 forever the belief in Christ. Under the pretence of enlightening 
 mankind, they deluged the world with writings in which they 
 scoffed at all holy things, grossly calumniated the Pope and the 
 clergy, and openly advocated the most shameful licentiousness. 
 Their books, written in most attractive language, and sparkling with 
 witticism and satire, found their way too readily among all classes 
 of people, and spread the spirit of profligacy and impiety with sur- 
 prising rapidity. The enemies of God felt themselves powerful 
 enough to attempt the execution of their horrible plan. They first 
 attacked the priesthood, that they might the more easily scatter the 
 sheep, after they had smitten the shepherd. The property of the 
 Church was confiscated and sold in France about the close of the 
 eighteenth century ; the monks and nuns were turned out of their 
 peaceable abodes by force, and the religious houses were plundered 
 and pulled down. Soon after, a sanguinary edict was issued against 
 all priests who should continue to discharge their duties. Every 
 priest convicted of so doing was cast into prison, or immediately 
 hanged up to the nearest lamp-post. The Christian era was annulled, 
 the celebration of the Sundays and festivals was abolished, the 
 churches were profaned and left in ruins. Everything that re- 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 47. What became, in process of time, of the doctrine of Luther ? What "was the 
 final result of its alterations and changes ? What did the free-thinkers contrive to 
 do ? What principal means did they make use of ? Whom did the infidels first 
 attack and why? What became of the ecclesiastical property, the monks and 
 nuns, and the religious houses? What edict was issued against the priests? Wliat 
 did the infidels do to destroy the very name of Christianity ? With what particular 
 infamy did they brand themselves in their madness? Why did prosperity and 
 public safety disappear ? What happened to Louis XVI. and his family ? What 
 
612 A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGION FOR OLD AND YOUNQ. 
 
 CONCLUDING KEMAEKS. 
 On the Historical Argument for the Truth of Christianity. 
 
 We have now, in a small compass, surveyed the History of our 
 Holy Eeligion, and considered the blessings it has conferred upon 
 mankind from Adam, our first parent, to Our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, and from Him, the Divine Head and Founder of our 
 Church, to His present Vicegerent, Leo XIII. , happily reigning since 
 February 20th, 1878. How sublime and beautiful is the religion we 
 profess! Everything connected with it calls out to us, "Only God 
 could give such a religion to mankind." 
 
 1. No: man has not invented it; God Himself has taught it to us, 
 and commanded us to embrace it. He revealed it by holy men in 
 the Old Testament (§§ 6, 11, Y); and in the New, precisely as the 
 prophecies of the Old Testament had foretold, His only-begotten 
 eternal Son appeared on earth, and most convincingly confirmed His 
 Divine doctrine by numerous miracles, especially by His resurrection 
 from the dead (§§ 21, 22, 23, 26, 27). God has spoken, and no one 
 has a right to be indifferent to His word ; to despise or reject it would 
 be to give one's self up to eternal perdition. 
 
 2. The religion to which we belong did not take its rise only a few 
 centuries ago; properly speaking, it dates from the beginning of the 
 world. For its first seeds were laid in Paradise, when God promised 
 a Redeemer to our first parents after their fall; and the whole of the 
 Old Law, with its sacrifices and wonderful events, was but a figure 
 of the New Law, which contains the fulfilment and accomplishment 
 of the Old (§§ 2, 7, 9, 12.) The Old Law believed in the Eedeemer 
 who was to come, and the New believes in Him who has come. But 
 it is the same belief in the same Eedeemer, and therefore the religion 
 is essentially the same. 
 
 3. Although the origin of our holy religion dates from the origin 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 What have we now surveyed ? What have we chiefly considered m the History 
 of our Religion ? 
 
 1. Whence does our religion come ? By whom has God revealed it to us ? How 
 did Jesus Christ confirm His Divine Doctrine ? Is it immaterial which religion we 
 profess ? 
 
 2. How old is our rehgion ? How do you explain and prove its great antiquity ? 
 
 3. Is the history of our religion perhaps uncertain, because it dates from the 
 origin of the world, and embraces so long a i)eriod ? Why not ? 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF THE POPES.* 
 
 
 
 
 
 FROM 
 
 
 St. Peter at Rome * . . . .43 
 
 St. Simplicius . 
 
 St. Linus . 
 
 
 
 . 67 
 
 St. Felix IL 
 
 St. CletuB (Anacletus) 
 
 
 
 
 St. Gelasius I. . 
 
 St. Clement 
 
 
 
 . 92 
 
 St. Anastasius II. 
 
 St. Evaristus 
 
 
 
 . 100 
 
 St. Symmachus 
 
 St. Alexander I. 
 
 
 
 . 109 
 
 St. Hormisdas . 
 
 St. Sixtus (Xystus) I. 
 
 
 
 . 119 
 
 St. John . 
 
 St. Telesphorus „ , 
 
 
 
 . 127 
 
 St. Felix IIL . 
 
 St. Hyginus . . , 
 
 
 
 . 139 
 
 Boniface II, 
 
 St. Pius I. 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 . 143 
 
 John IL . 
 
 St. Anicetus 
 
 • i 
 
 
 
 157 
 
 St. Agapetus I. 
 
 St. Soter . 
 
 , , 
 
 
 
 . 168 
 
 St. Silverius 
 
 St. Eleutherius 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 . 177 
 
 Vigilius 
 
 St. Victor I. 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 . 192 
 
 Pelagius I. . 
 
 St. Zephyrinus 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 . 303 
 
 John IIL . 
 
 St. Callistus (Ca 
 
 lixtus) I. 
 
 
 
 . 319 
 
 Benedict I. 
 
 St. Urban I. 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 . 323 
 
 Pelagius IT. . 
 
 St. Pontian 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 . 230 
 
 St. Gregory I. . 
 
 St. Antherus 
 
 « « 
 
 
 
 335 
 
 Sabinianus . 
 
 St. Fabian 
 
 • 1 
 
 
 
 336 
 
 Boniface III. 
 
 St. Cornelius 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 . 351 
 
 St. Boniface IV. 
 
 St. Luciuj 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 352 
 
 St. Deusdedit . 
 
 St. Stephen I. . 
 
 , , 
 
 
 
 253 
 
 Boniface V. 
 
 St. Sixtus IT. . 
 
 • 4 
 
 
 
 257 
 
 Honorius I. • 
 
 St. Dionysius . 
 
 • 4 
 
 
 
 359 
 
 Severinus . • 
 
 St. Felix I. 
 
 * I 
 
 
 
 269 
 
 John TV. . 
 
 St. Eutychian . 
 
 • , 
 
 
 
 274 
 
 Theodorus I. 
 
 St. Caius . 
 
 , , 
 
 
 
 283 
 
 St. Martin I. 
 
 St. Marcellinus . 
 
 
 
 . 296 
 
 St. Eugeniusl. . 
 
 St. Marcellus I. 
 
 
 
 308 
 
 St. Vitalian 
 
 St. Eusebius . . , 
 
 
 
 310 
 
 Adeodatus . 
 
 St. Melchiades , 
 
 
 
 
 311 
 
 Bonus or Domnus I 
 
 St. Sylvester . 
 
 
 
 
 314 
 
 St. Agatho 
 
 St. Marcus 
 
 
 
 
 336 
 
 St. Leo IT. . 
 
 St. Julius I. 
 
 
 
 
 337 
 
 St. Benedict II. 
 
 St. Liberius , 
 
 
 
 
 853 
 
 John V. . 
 
 St. DamasusL 
 
 
 
 
 . 366 
 
 Conon . . 
 
 St. Siricius . 
 
 
 
 
 385 
 
 St. Sergiusl. . 
 
 St Anastasius . 
 
 
 
 
 398 
 
 John VI. . 
 
 St. Innocent I. , 
 
 
 
 
 402 
 
 John VII. . 
 
 St. Zosimus 
 
 
 
 
 417 
 
 Sisinius . . 
 
 St. Boniface I. . 
 
 
 
 
 418 
 
 Constantino . 
 
 St. Celestine 
 
 
 
 
 423 
 
 St. Gregory IL . 
 
 St. Sixtus III. 
 
 
 
 
 433 
 
 St. Gregory III. 
 
 St. Leo I. . 
 
 
 
 
 440 
 
 St. Zachary 
 
 St Hilary . 
 
 
 
 
 481 
 
 Stephen IL 
 
 * The dates of the accession of the first popes cannot be accurately given. 
 
518 
 
 A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGION FOR OLD AND YOUNG. 
 
 FBOU 
 
 Innocent VL 1352 
 
 Urban V. 1862 
 
 Gregory XL 1370 
 
 Urban VL 1378 
 
 Boniface IX. 1389 
 
 Innocent VII , 1404 
 
 Gregory XIL . , • , . 1406 
 Alexander V. . , , . . 1409 
 
 John XXL 1410 
 
 Martin V. 1417 
 
 EugeniusIV 1431 
 
 Nicolas V 1447 
 
 Callistus (Calixtus) IIL . . . 1455 
 
 Pius II 1458 
 
 PaulusII 1464 
 
 SixtusIV 1471 
 
 Innocent VIII 1484 
 
 Alexander VL 1492 
 
 Pius III 1503 
 
 Julius II 1503 
 
 LeoX 1513 
 
 Adrian VI 1522 
 
 Clement VIL 1523 
 
 PaulusIIL ..... 1534 
 
 Julius IIL ..... 1550 
 
 MarcellusIL ..... 1555 
 
 PaulusIV 1555 
 
 Pius IV 1559 
 
 St. PiusV 1566 
 
 Gregory Zm. 1572 
 
 moM 
 
 SixtusV. 1585 
 
 Urban VIL 1590 
 
 Gregory XrV. . . . „ . 1590 
 Innocent IX. . • • , . 1591 
 
 Clement VIIL 1592 
 
 Leo XI 1605 
 
 PaulusV. ...... 1605 
 
 Gregory XV. 1621 
 
 Urban Vm 1623 
 
 Innocent X 1644 
 
 Alexander VIL 1655 
 
 Clement IX. 1667 
 
 Clement X. 1670 
 
 Innocent XI 1670 
 
 Alexander VIIL .... 1689 
 
 Innocent XII 1691 
 
 Clement XI 1700 
 
 Innocent XIIL 1721 
 
 Benedict XIIL 1724 
 
 Clement XII 1730 
 
 Benedict XIV 1740 
 
 Clement XIII 1758 
 
 Clement XIV. . . . . . 1769 
 
 Pius VI 1775 
 
 Pius VII 1800 
 
 LeoXn. . . , . . . 1823 
 
 Pius VIII 1829 
 
 Gregory XVL 1831 
 
 Pius IX 1840 
 
 Leo XIII 1887 
 
C^t ^ranefigura^ion 
 
 mm} 
 
 jND after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter, and James, 
 and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high 
 mountain apart: 
 
 And was transfigured before them. And his face did 
 shine as the sun : and his garments became white as snow. 
 
 And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with 
 him. 
 
 And Peter answering said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be 
 here; if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, 
 one for Moses, and one for Elias. 
 
 And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshaded 
 them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him. — >S^. Matthew xvii. 
 1-5. 
 
 ^be Hgonig in tbe (Barben 
 
 And when he was come to the place, he said to them : Pray, lest 
 ye enter into temptation. 
 
 And he was withdrawn away from them a stone's cast: and 
 kneeling down he prayed. 
 
 Saying: Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: But 
 yet not my will, but thine be done. 
 
 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening 
 him. And being in an agony, he prayed the longer. 
 
 And his sweat became as drops of bood trickling down upon the 
 ground. — *S^^. Luke xxii. J^O-J^lf,. 
 
r THE BETRAYAb -. 
 
 JS he yet spoke, behold Judas, one of the twelve, came, and 
 with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, sent 
 from the chief priests and the ancients of the people. 
 And he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying: Whomso- 
 ever I shall kiss, that is he, hold him fast. 
 
 And forthwith coming to Jesus he said : Hail, Rabbi. And he 
 kissed him. 
 
 And Jesus said to him: Friend, whereto art thou come? Then 
 they came up, and laid hands on Jesus, and held Him. — St. Matthew 
 xxvi. 4-7-50. 
 
 Before the Ibiob priest 
 
 ®®®®® 
 
 And the high priest, rising up, said to him: Answerest thou 
 nothing to the things which these witness against thee? 
 
 But Jesus held His peace. And the high priest said to Him : I 
 adjure Thee by the living God, that thou tell us if thou be the Christ 
 the Son of God. 
 
 Jesus saith to him: Thou hast said it; nevertheless I say to you, 
 hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of 
 the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 
 
 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying: He hath blas- 
 phemed, what further need have we of witnesses? Behold now you 
 have heard his blasphemy. — ^S*^. Matthew xxvi. 62-65. 
 
ND Herod and his army set him at naught : and mocked 
 him, putting on him a white garment, and sent him 
 back to Pilate. 
 
 And Herod and Pilate were made friends the same day : 
 for before they were enemies one to another. 
 
 And Pilate calling together the chief priests, and the magistrates 
 and the people, 
 
 Said to them : You have presented unto me this man, as one that 
 
 perverteth the people, and behold I, having examined him before you, 
 
 find no cause in this man in those things wherein you accuse him. 
 
 No, nor Herod neither: for I sent you to him, and behold, nothing 
 
 worthy of dieath is done to him. 
 
 I will chastise him therefore and release him. — St. Luke xxiiL 
 11-16.' 
 
 mm 
 
 Now of necessity he was to release unto them one upon the feast 
 day. 
 
 But the whole multitude together cried out, saying : Away with 
 this man, and release unto us Barabbas: 
 
 Who, for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder was 
 cast into prison. 
 
 And Pilate again spoke to them, desiring to release Jesus. 
 
 But they cried again, saying. Crucify him, crucify him. — St. Luke 
 gcxiii. 17-21. 
 
XLbc jflaQellation 
 
 ND so Pilate, being willing to satisfy the people, released to 
 them Barabbas, and delivered up Jesus, when he had 
 scourged him, to be crucified. 
 And the soldiers led him away into the court of the palace, and 
 they call together the whole band : 
 
 And they clothe him with purple, and platting a crown of thorns, 
 they put it upon him. 
 
 And they began to salute him : Hail, King of the Jews. — St. Mark 
 XV, 15-18. 
 
 "^ccz Tbomo— Bebolb the Hlban 
 
 — -w^®^ — 
 
 And the soldiers platting a crown of thorns, put it upon his head : 
 and they put on him a purple garment. 
 
 And they came to him, and said: Hail, King of the Jews; and 
 they gave him blows, 
 
 Pilate went forth again and saith to them : Behold, I bring him 
 forth unto you, that you may know that I find no cause in him. 
 
 (Jesus therefore came forth bearing the crown of thorns and the 
 purple garment.) And he said to them: Behold the man. 
 
 When the chief priests therefore and the servants had seen him, 
 they cried out, saying: Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith to 
 them : Take him you and crucify him : for I find no cause in him. 
 — Jdhnxix. 2-6. 
 
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 Passion of our Jord 
 
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 [ND going out they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon: 
 him they forced to take up his cross. — Matthew xxvii. 32. 
 And they forced one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by, 
 coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Eufus, to 
 take up his cross. — Mark xv. 21. 
 
 And as they led Him away they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene 
 coming from the country : and they laid the cross on him to carry 
 after Jesus, — Luke xxiii. 26. 
 
 DauglitBis of JemsalBm, "Wbbd Not for DIb" 
 
 And there followed him a great multitude of people, and of 
 women who bewailed and lamented him. 
 
 But Jesus turning to them said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep 
 not over me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 
 
 But behold the days shall come, wherein they shall say : Blessed 
 are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that 
 have not given suck. 
 
 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and 
 to the hills : Cover us. 
 
 For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done 
 in the dry? — Luke xxiii. 27-31. 
 
Christ Disrobed— His Garments Divided by Lot 
 
 ' !JIIIIIII(l(lll!in!!!lI(!IIIIIHlIlII!!II!!IIIIII!!ll 
 
 P^p^HE people, therefore, formed a circle round Him: the rude 
 i^w: soldiers pulled off His garments, which were adhering to 
 ^Hl His wounded and mangled body, and with the garments 
 quantities of the flesh, opening every wound again. They 
 then threw Him on the cross. Jesus stretched out His sacred hands, 
 and offered to the Eternal Father the great sacrifice of Himself for 
 our salvation. — From St. Alphonsus. 
 
 And Jesus said : Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do. But they dividing his garments, cast lots. — Luke xxiii. 34-, 
 The soldiers therefore when they had crucified him, took his gar- 
 ments (and they made four parts : to every soldier a part) and also 
 his coat. Now the coat was without seam woven from the top 
 throughout. 
 
 They said then one to another : Let us not cut it, but let us cast 
 lots for it whose it shall be. That the Scripture might be fulfilled, 
 saying : They have parted my garments among them : and upon my 
 vesture have they cast lots. And the soldiers indeed did these things. 
 —John xix, 2S, 24., 
 
 THE CRUCIFIXION 
 
 And they sat and watched him. 
 
 And they put over his head his cause written : This is Jesus the 
 King of the Jews. 
 
 Then were crucified with him two thieves : one on the right hand 
 and one on the left. — Matthew xxvii. 36-38. 
 
 And it was the third hour: and they crucified him. 
 
 And the inscription of his cause was written over: The King op 
 THE Jews. — Mark xv. ^5, 26. 
 
 And there was also a superscription written over him in letters of 
 Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew: This is the King of the Jews. — 
 Luke xxiii. 38. 
 
 Where they crucified him, and with him two others one on each 
 side, and Jesus in the midst. 
 
 And Pilate wrote a title also : and he put it upon the cross. And 
 the writing wasr Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. — 
 John, xix. 18 ^ 19, 
 
%}tj^ jP^gcjMxt ixom thi^ (^xoss 
 
 ®®«®®®®®#®9 
 
 ND when it was evening, there came a certain rich man of 
 Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of 
 Jesus. 
 
 He went to Pilate and asked the body of Jesus. Then 
 Pilate commanded that the body should be delivered. 
 
 And Joseph taking the body, wrapt it up in a clean linen cloth; 
 And laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in 
 a rock. — St. Matthew xxvii. 57-60. 
 
 And Nicodemus also came, he who at the first came to Jesus by 
 night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred 
 pounds weight. 
 
 They took therefore the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths 
 with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. — St. John xix. 
 39, JiO. 
 
 PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF SORROWS 
 
 "^^^^ 
 
 To be made before her Altar or linage^ immediately after performing 
 the Stations, or at any other time. 
 
 most holy Mother, Queen of Sorrows, who didst follow thy be- 
 loved Son through all the Way of the Cross, and whose heart was 
 pierced with a fresh sword of grief at all the stations of that most 
 sorrowful journey; obtain for us, we beseech thee, most loving 
 Mother, a perpetual remembrance of our blessed Saviour's Cross and 
 Death, and a true and tender devotion to all the mysteries of His 
 most holy Passion ; obtain for us the grace to hate sin, even as He 
 hated it in the agony in the garden ; to endure wrong and insult 
 with all patience, as He endured them in the judgment hall ; to be 
 meek and humble in all our trials, as He was before His judges ; to 
 love our enemies even as He loved His murderers, and prayed for 
 them upon the Cross; and to glorify God and do good to our neigh- 
 bors, even as He did in every mystery of His sufferings. O Queen 
 of Martyrs, who, by the dolors of thy immaculate heart on Calvary, 
 didst merit to share the Passion of our most dear Eedeemer, obtain 
 for us some portion of thy compassion, that, for the love of Jesus 
 crucified, we may be crucified to the world in this life ; and in the 
 life to come may, by His infinite merits and thy powerful interces- 
 sion, reign with Him in glory everlasting. Amen. 
 
* EIGHTH PART* 
 
 Glorious Lessons 555^;^ 
 
 Light of the Cross 
 
 FOR TRUE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST 
 
 From THOMAS A KEMPIS 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Thomas k Kempis was born in 1380, at Kemp, a village 
 situated at a small distance from Cologne. His surname was 
 Hammerlin, or Little Hammer^ translated into the word Mal- 
 leolus^ by his Latin biographers. His parents were of low con- 
 dition ; they were highly respected for their piety. 
 
 When he attained his sixth year, he was placed in one of 
 the houses belonging to the Society of Brothers and Sisters of 
 Common Life. It is remarkable that, in one of the schools of 
 this society, Erasmus received his first rudiments of learning. 
 
 The school in which Thomas k Kempis entered himself, was 
 in the town of Daventer, in West Friesland : where Florentius, 
 the immediate successor of Gerard de Groote^ the founder of the 
 society, was vicar of the principal church. 
 
 When he attained his nineteenth year, Thomas a Kempis de- 
 termined to enter the order of Saint Augustine. Tradition 
 deduces that order from the celebrated doctor of the church of 
 that name. Till the eleventh century, the monks of Saint Au- 
 gustine seem to have been little more than a voluntary associa- 
 tion of ecclesiastics ; about that time they were fixed in a perma- 
 nent order. They exercised a variety of ecclesiastical functions, 
 and their public schools for instruction of youth were particularly 
 esteemed. Florentius encouraged the Saint in his resolution to 
 enter among them. He continued a novice during five years. 
 
 From the time of his profession, till his decease, a period of 
 sixty-six years, Thomas a Kempis remained in the monastery of 
 Zwoll, and in the continual practice of every virtue of his state. 
 
PRECIOUS WORDS FROM THOMAS A KEMPIS. 537 
 
 ence, they walked in charity and patience ; and so every day 
 they advanced in spirit, and gained great favor with God. 
 
 They were given for an example to all religious ; and ought 
 more to excite us to advance in good, than the number of the 
 lukewarm induce us to grow remiss. 
 
 5. Oh, how great was the fervor of all religious in the begin- 
 ning of their holy institute ! 
 
 Oh, how great was their devotion in prayer ! how great their 
 zeal for virtue ! how vigorous the discipline that was kept up ! 
 what reverence and obedience, under the rule of the superior, 
 flourished in all ! 
 
 Their traces that remain still bear witness, that they were 
 truly holy and perfect men who did battle so stoutly, and 
 trampled the world under their feet. 
 
 Now he is thought great who is not a trangressor ; and who 
 can with patience endure what he hath undertaken. 
 
 6. Ah, the lukewarmness and negligence of our state ! that 
 we so soon fall away from our first fervor, and are even now 
 tired of life through slothfulness and tepidity. 
 
 Would to God that advancement in virtue were not quite 
 asleep in thee, who hast so often seen the manifold examples of 
 the devout ! 
 
 *' HE THAT FpLLOWETH ME, WALKLTH NOT IN DARKNESS." 
 
 1. These are the words of Christ, whereby we are admonished 
 how we must imitate His life and conversation, if we would be 
 truly enlightened and delivered from all blindness of heart. 
 
 Let it, then, be our chief study to meditate on the life of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. The teaching of Christ surpasseth all the teachings of 
 the Saints ; and he that hath His Spirit, will find therein 
 a hidden manna. 
 
 But it happeneth that many, from the frequent hearing of 
 the Gospel, feel little emotion ; because they have not the 
 spirit of Christ. 
 
 But he that would fully and with relish understand the words 
 of Christ, must study to conform his whole life to Him. 
 
PRECIOUS WORDS FROM THOMAS A KEMPIS. " 645 
 
 5. If every year we rooted out one vice, we should soon 
 become perfect men. 
 
 But now we often feel, on the contrary, that we have been 
 better and more pure in the beginning of our conversion, than 
 after many years of our profession. 
 
 Our fervor and progress ought to increase daily ; but now it is 
 esteemed a great thing if any one can retain something of his 
 first fervor. 
 
 If we would do ourselves a little violence in the beginning, 
 afterwards we should be able to do all things with ease and joy. 
 
 6. It is hard to give up what we are accustomed to, but 
 harder to .go contrary to our own will. 
 
 But if thou overcome not little and easy things, how wilt 
 thou surmount greater difficulties. 
 
 Resist thine inclination in the beginning, and break off evil 
 habits ; lest, by little and little, the difficulty increase upon thee. 
 
 Oh, if thou didst consider what peace thou wouldst procure 
 for thyself, and what joy for others, by well-doing, I think thou 
 wouldst be more soHcitous for thy spiritual progress. 
 
 OF RESISTING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 As long as we live in this world, we cannot be without tribu- 
 lation and temptation. 
 
 Hence it is written in Job, " Man's life on earth is a tempta- 
 tion." 
 
 Everyone, therefore, should be solicitous about his temp- 
 tations, and watch in prayer, lest the devil find opportunity to 
 catch him; who never sleepeth, but "goeth about, seeking 
 whom he may devour." 
 
 No one is so perfect and holy, as not sometimes to have 
 temptations ; and we never can be wholly free from them. 
 
 2. Nevertheless, temptations are often very profitable to a 
 man, troublesome and grievous though they be ; for in them a 
 man is humbled, purified, and instructed. 
 
 All the Saints passed through many tribulations and tempta- 
 tions, and profited by them. 
 
 And they that could not support temptations, became repro 
 bate, and fell away. 
 
PRECIOUS WORDS FROM THOMAS A KEMPIS. 649 
 
 He doth much who doth well what he doeth. 
 
 He doth well, who regardeth rather the common good than 
 his own will. 
 
 Oftentimes that seemeth to be charity which is rather of the 
 flesh ; for natural inclination, self-will, hope of reward, study of 
 our own interest, will seldom be absent. 
 
 3. He that hath true and perfect charity seeketh himself in 
 nothing, but only desireth God to be glorified in all things. 
 
 And he envieth no man, for he loveth no joy for himself alone. 
 
 Neither doth he desire to rejoice in himself, but above all 
 good things wisheth to find his blessedness in God. 
 
 He attributeth nothing of good to any man, but referreth it 
 all to God, from whom, as from their fountain, all things proceed, 
 and in whom as in their end, all the Saints repose in fruition. 
 
 Oh, if one had but a spark of real charity, truly would he feel 
 that all earthly things are full of vanity. 
 
 OF BEARING THE DEFECTS OF OTHERS. 
 
 Whatever a man cannot amend in himself or in others, h« 
 ought to bear with patience, until God ordain otherwise. 
 
 Reflect that perhaps it is better so for thy trial and patience, 
 without which our merits are little worth. 
 
 Nevertheless, it behoveth thee, under such hindra'ii'-es, to 
 pray, that God would vouchsafe to come and help ther. and thar 
 thou mayest be able to bear them in good part. 
 
 2. If any one once or twice admonished doth h^t comply, 
 contend not with him ; but leave it all to God, that K is will may 
 be done, and He be honored in all His servants, w'f^o knoweth 
 how to turn evil into good. 
 
 Study to be patient in bearing the defects anc* mfirmities oi: 
 others, of what kind soever ; for thou also hast many things^ 
 which others must bear with. 
 
 If thou canst not make thyself such as thou wouldst be, how 
 canst thou expect to have another exactly to thy mind ? 
 
 We would fain see others perfect, and yet our own faults we 
 amend not. 
 
 3. We would have others strictly corrected, and we will not 
 be corrected ourselves. 
 
PRECIOUS WORDS FROM THOMAS A KEMPIS. 669 
 
 little, but will commit himself wholly and confidingly to God. 
 who is to him all in all ; to whom nothing is lost nor dieth, but 
 for whom all things live, and at whose beck they instantly 
 obey. 
 
 1 1. Ever keep in mind thine end, and that time lost returneth 
 no more. 
 
 Without care and diligence thou shalt never acquire virtues. 
 
 If once thou beginnest to grow lukewarm, thou beginnest to 
 be in a bad state. 
 
 But if thou give thyself to fervor, thou shalt find great peace ; 
 and thou shalt feel thy labor light, through the grace of God 
 and for the love of virtue. 
 
 The fervent and diligent man is ready for all things. 
 
 It is harder labor to withstand our vices and passions than to 
 toil at bodily labors. 
 
 He that shunneth not small defects, by little and little falleth 
 into greater. 
 
 Thou wilt always rejoice in the evening, if thou spend the 
 day profitably. 
 
 Watch over thyself, stir up thyself, admonish thyself, and. 
 whatever may become of others, neglect not thyself. 
 
 In proportion as thou dost violence to thyself, the greater 
 progress wilt thou make. 
 
 OF THE ROYAL ROAD OF THE HOLY CROSS. 
 
 1. To many this seemeth a hard saying : " Deny thyself, take 
 up thy cross, and follow Jesus." 
 
 But it will be much harder to hear that last word : " Depart 
 from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." 
 
 For they who now love to hear and follow the word of the 
 Cross shall not then fear the sentence of eternal condemnation. 
 
 This sign of the Cross shall be in heaven when the Lord shall 
 come to judge. 
 
 Then all the servants of the Cross, who in their lifetime have 
 conformed themselves to Him that was crucified, shall come to 
 Christ their Judge with great confidence. 
 
 2. Why, then, art thou afraid to take up thy cross, which 
 leadeth to the kingdom ? 
 
664 THE GLORIOUS LIGHT OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 
 
 consolation ; because thou wouldst more resemble Christ, and 
 be more likened to all the Saints. 
 
 For our merit, and the advancement of our state, consists not 
 in having many sweetnesses and consolations ; but rather in 
 bearing great afflictions and tribulations. 
 
 If, indeed, there had been anything better, and more benefi- 
 cial to man's salvation, than suffering, Christ certainly would 
 have showed it by word and example. 
 
 For He manifestly exhorts both His disciples that followed 
 Him, and all that desire to follow Him, to bear the Cross, say- 
 ing, " If any one will come after Me, let him deny himself, and 
 take up his cross, and follow me." 
 
 So that when we have read and searched all, let this be the 
 final conclusion, that " through many tribulations we must enter 
 into the kingdom of God." 
 
 OF THE OBEDIENCE OF AN HUMBLE SUBJECT, AFTER THE EXAM- 
 PLE OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 Son, he who striveth to withdraw himself from obedience 
 withdraweth himself from grace ; and he that seeketh particular 
 privileges loseth such as are in common. 
 
 He who doth not freely and willingly submit himself to his 
 Superior, it is a sign that his flesh is not as yet perfectly obedi- 
 ent to him, but oftentimes rebelleth and murmureth. 
 
 Learn, then, to submit thyself readily to thy Superior, if thou 
 desire to subdue thy own flesh. 
 
 For sooner is the exterior enemy overcome, if the inward 
 man be not laid waste. 
 
 There is not a more troublesome or worst enemy to the soul 
 than thou thyself art when not well agreeing with the spirit. 
 
 Thou must in good earnest conceive a true contempt of thy- 
 self, if thou wilt prevail against flesh and blood. 
 
 Because thou lovest thyself as yet too inordinately, therefore 
 dost thou fear to resign thyself wholly to the will of others. 
 
 2. But what great matter is it, if thou, who art but dust and 
 a mere nothing, submit thyself to man for God's sake, when I, 
 the Almighty and the Most High, who created all things out of 
 nothing, have for thy sake humbly subjected Myself to man ? 
 
PRECIOUS WORDS FROM THOMAS 1 KEMPIS. " 67t 
 
 Whatever beside this I read or hear doth neither recreate noi 
 fully delight me. 
 
 4. Son, since thou knowest these things, and hast read them 
 all, happy shalt thou be if thou do them. 
 
 He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is 
 that loveth Me ; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself 
 unto him, and will make him sit with Me in the kingdom of My 
 Father. 
 
 5. Lord Jesus, as Thou hast said and hast promised, so let it 
 be indeed, and may it be my lot to merit it. 
 
 I have received, I have received from Thy hand, the Cross ; 
 I will bear it, and bear it even unto death, as Thou hast laid it 
 upon me. 
 
 Truly, the life of the good religious is a cross ; but it is also 
 the guide to paradise. 
 
 We have begun ; we may not go back, nor may we leave off. 
 
 6. Take courage, brethren ; let us go forward together ; 
 Jesus will be with us. 
 
 For the sake of Jesus, we have taken up this cross ; for Jesus' 
 sake, let us persevere in it. 
 
 He will be our Helper, who is our Captain and our Forerun- 
 ner. 
 
 Behold, our King marcheth before us, who will fight for us. 
 
 Let us follow Him manfully ; let no one fear terrors; let us 
 be ready to die valiantly in battle ; nor let us bring disgrace 
 ^pon our glory by flying from the Cross. 
 
 THE VOICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will 
 refresh you, saith the Lord. 
 
 The bread that I will give is My flesh, for the life of the 
 world. 
 
 Take ye and eat ; this is My body, which shall be delivered 
 for you ; this do for the commemoration of Me. 
 
 He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, abideth in 
 Me, and I in him. 
 
 The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 
 
584 THE GLORIOUS LIGHT OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 
 
 and behind, that through compassion he may lament the sins of 
 others, and know that he is placed in the midst, between God 
 and the sinner. 
 
 Neither ought he to grow weary of prayer and holy Obla 
 tion, until he deserve to obtain grace and mercy. 
 
 When a Priest celebrateth, he honoreth God, he rejolceth the 
 Angels, he edifieth the Church, he helpeth the living, he obtaineth 
 rest for the departed, and maketh himself partaker of all things. 
 
 A SELF-INTERROGATION CONCERNING THE EXERCISE PROPER BEFORE 
 
 COMMUNION. 
 
 The Voice of the Disciple. . 
 
 When I consider Thy dignity, O Lord, and my own vileness, 
 I am affrighted exceedingly, and am confounded within my- 
 self. 
 
 For if I do not approach Thee, I fly from life ; and if 1 
 intrude myself unworthily, I incur Thy displeasure. 
 
 What, then, shall 1 do, O my God, my Helper and Counsellor 
 in necessities ? 
 
 2. Do Thou teach rre the right way ; set before me some 
 short exercise suitable for the Holy Communion. 
 
 For it Is well to know after what manner, indeed, I ought 
 devoutly and reverently to prepare my heart for Thee, for the 
 profitable receiving of Thy Sacrament, as well as for celebrating 
 so great and divine a Sacrifice. 
 
 OF THE examination OF OUR OWN CONSCIENCE, AND OF A RES- 
 OLUTION OF AMENDMENT. 
 
 The Veice of the Beloved. 
 
 Above all things, It behooveth the Priest of God to come to 
 the celebrating, handling, and receiving this Sacrament with the 
 greatest humility of heart and lowly reverence ; with a full faith, 
 and a pious intention for the honor of God. 
 
 Examine diligently thy conscience, and to the best of thy 
 power cleanse and purify it by true contrition and humble con- 
 fession ; so that thou neither have nor know of anything 
 
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