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Show 1 Cburclr Universal CHURCH CALENDNAR. i 1. M. St. Ignatius (of Antioeh). 1,- ST3.457 for thanksgivings. 2. T. Purification. B. V. M. Candlemas. Candle-mas. 2,158,355 for the afflicted. 3. "W. St. Blase. 405,186 for the sick infirm. 4. Th. St. Andrew Corslni. 405,145 i I for dead associates. j ' 5. F. First Friday. SS. Paul, John and James, S. J., MM. 350,092 for local I centers. T 6. S. St. Titus. St. Dorothy. 226,509 v . for directors. THE GENERAL INTENTION. Recommended by His Holiness, Pius X. THE SACRED LITURGY. Catholic liturgy is the public service of God, and embraces all those ceremonies ceremo-nies wherein priest and people unite in prayer to the Most High. But pre-eminently, sacred liturgy is identified with the Holy Sacrifice of the mass. In the beginning: the word "liturgy" meant nothing else: and for the saints and doctors of the early ages, the liturgy was the one awful act. symbolic yet real, whereby "the whole round world was bound by gold chains to the throne ; of God." ; t But how has the present day departed ; . from that first charity! Holy mass is i! the same now as then: it is offered on myriad altars from the rising to the petting of the sun: but where are the myriads who should be pathered round those altars? Tet upon the people rests : the solemn obligation of honoring God publicly as a people, in addition to the ! promptings of private devotion. Our intention, therefore, and the aim of our actions this month should be that the sacred liturgy become in reality real-ity what its name signifies, the prayer of the people: and that presence at daily mass may be not the exception, but the rule. Do we sometimes complain com-plain that we ask God for so much, yet f , receive so little? Perhaps it is that we ask alone; perhaps it is that we have I never tested the efficacy of prayer per- feveringly poured out not where two or : three are gathered in Christ's name, but a wholf people and Christ in the ;i midst of them! Do we feel that "our l faith is weak, and that at its command I the mountainous difficulties in our way -r do not remove themselves? The Eu-iXJ-P charist is the sacrament of faith, and its liturgy the voice of the faithful. We see everywhere today the need there is of Catholic spirit: yet how is Catholic Cath-olic ppirit to grow, unless the source of )its growth be the Catholic altar? The language of the liturgy is itself a bond of union and stability, venerable In its age, honored in its origin, glorious in its memories. I Let us pray, then, that the sacred lit- j nrgy may be known and valued better by p.l! Catholics; that devout attendance attend-ance at mass may crow in frequency, ' and that, far from being a mere per- i formance of duty, it may mark the be- pinning on earth of those divine praises i which eternity will make familiar. Rest. My feet are wearied, and my hands are ; ? tired. My soul oppressed I And I desire, what I have long desired Rest only rest. 'Tis hard to toil when toil is almost vain j 1 - " In barren ways: 'Tis hard to sow and never garner j grain ! In harvest days. The burden of my day is hard to bear, ! But God knows best; And T have prayed but vain have j been my prayers, j For rest sweet rest. I 'Tis hard to plant in spring and never reap The autumn yield: 'Tis hard to till, and when 'tis tilled to weep O'er fruitless field. And so I cry a weak and human cry, So heart oppressed: And so T sigh a weak human sigh, For rest sweet rest. j Y My way has wound across the desert : i iL years. ! ' Y And cares infest j : E My path, and through the flowing of ' ' hot tears, j M 1 pine for rest. f I' ! jf 'Tis always so: when but a child I laid j On mother's breast Mj- worried little head; e'en then I! prayed 1 As now for rest. And I am restless still! 'twill soon be I o'er: t , Far down the west f i. '. Life's sun is setting, and I see the r7 7 shore 'Where I shall rest. y.-. By Father Ryan. 'i BOURKE COCKRAN TO A CRITIC. I Eloquent New Yorker Hands Reverend Rever-end Professor Dau, Lutheran, a Few Choice Nuts to Crack . Wonders Discovered in a Pretty Brochure. (February Extension.) Washington, D. C Jan. 7, 1909. Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated Dec. 29, and of the brochure wherein according to you "the Rev. Froressor W. H. T. Dau politely points out some of the inaccuracies inac-curacies in 'my' recent Chicago speech." That speech was delivered on Nov. IS. The letter which it discussed appeared 1 on Monday, the 16th. while I was in New York. There was, therefore, no opportunity to writ? out in advance S. what I proposed to say. It was reported verbatim as delivered, but I have not revised any copy of it. except one which V vas corrected for-insertion in ,an ac- count shortly to be published of the Missionary Congress and its proceed - ings. The extracts quoted in the bro- I chure must therefore have been taken from some stenographic notes which I . ir"' hav5 never seen. Although they be tray many offenses against style and grammar, for which I cannot acknowledge acknowl-edge responsibility, they are substantially substan-tially correct a most creditable display of skill in shorthand writing on which I beg to offer the author my congratulations. congratu-lations. It is, I"hope. quite unnecessary to add that I stand by even' word uttered by me during that conference. I I Inaccuracies of logic are of course I 1 rarely, if ever, established to the satis-I satis-I faction of the person charged with ! v j 'N ' .... .. , them. The critic and the author of a statement criticized, usually remain firmly convinced each of the other's inaccuracies, in-accuracies, and my speech evidently furnishes no exception eo this rule. I must confess, however, that I am at a loss to discover any historical inaccuracy inac-curacy which this brochure points out or any which it even imputes to me. If the author really intended to charge me with error of statement, I assume he had reference to my discussion of the conflict between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip the Handsome, or the Fair of France, which I stated was based not on the narrative of any Catholic writer, but of Guizot, a Protestant historian. I did not. of course, profess to give the language employed by Guiozt, but merely its substance in my own word3, as I was speaking entirely from memory. mem-ory. The extracts from a translation of Gulzot's work given in the brochure (p. 24) far from impeding confirm the substantial accuracy of my statement. While I cannot admit the authority of the reverend professor as an exponent expon-ent of inaccuracies, logical or historical his "politeness" is beyond all question. ques-tion. So also is his courage. This indeed, in-deed, is not only beyond question, it is beyond comprehension. Few men wro are either reverend or learned would venture to describe the violent assault on the person as well as the authority of Pope Boniface VIII by few of his own subjects, instigated and encouraged "financed" we .would say nowadays by Philip the Handsome as an invasion of the papal states by a French army (p. 23). The reverend professor's pro-fessor's expansion of Nogaret. the French king's agent and his purse filled with corruption funds into an army, might be considered a brilliant display of enterprise in that field of journalism know as "yellow." As a specimen of historical statement it is, to speak mildly, bold in the extreme. It requires no little courage to speak gently, almost approvingly as does the reverend professor, of the ruthless violence vio-lence with which Philip, to satisfy an unbridled rapacity, butchered the Knights Templar, seized property admittedly ad-mittedly belonging to the church, and completely paralyzed the commerce on his own subjects by clipping the coins current in his kingdom a course which won for him the title "Philip the Counterfeiter," Coun-terfeiter," under which he is known to tliis day while at the same time condemning con-demning in vehement terms the language lan-guage in which the pope protests against some of these enormities. The reverend professor boasts that he possesses a translation of Guizot's work In which practically all the charges ever made against Pope Baniface are collected col-lected and considered. Assuming him to have read it, he must know that Pope' Boniface stands accused of no offense except extreme energy in maintaining the prerogatives of his office. Arrogance Arro-gance in asserting papal pretensions is perhaps how the , reverend professor would describe it. Philip, on the other hand, is acknowledged ac-knowledged by everyone to have been a murderer of peculiar atrocity, a counterfeiter coun-terfeiter who debased the entire coinage of a great country, a pillager of property prop-erty wherever he could seize it on any pretext. And these crimes were perpetrated per-petrated not under the influence of misguided mis-guided fervor or perverted patriotic instinct, but to gratify the basest and most sordid avarice. Yet the reverend professor says (I quote his exact words) "The Lutheran ministers have only a negative interest in the moral character of Boniface VIII and Philip the Handsome, Hand-some, but in a choice between the two, they would regard Boniface VIII as the villain of the deeper dye." His authority author-ity to speak for all the Lutheran ministers minis-ters is perhaps open to question. His j right to speak for himself cannot be doubted. This surely is an astounding spectacle. specta-cle. Here is a man avowedly reverend and presumably learned, capable at least of writing coherently, who has obviously read something concerning the reign of a king, which through all the intervening interven-ing centuries has remained a sinister monument of unbridled violence and prostituted power, ministering to human-depravity, and yet has nothing but expressions of toleration for stupendous stupen-dous crimes that have cast a dark shadow over the age in which they were committed, and words of actual approval for gross personal outrages perpetrated upon a man over 80 years old who (whatever may be thought of i the papacy as a religious institution) occupied what was universally considered consid-ered at the time the most exalted place in Christendom! Even for the brutal blow which Sciara Colonna struck him in the face, this reverend professor has not a word of condemnation, or even of criticism. But he Iras abundant expressions expres-sions of contempt and denunciation for the venerable pontiff, who, though, unarmed, un-armed, deserted. helpless, captive, threatened, beaten, yet disdained to surrender the great office to which he had been chosen to abase its dignity or compromise its independence at the demand of a tyrant enforced -by the fist of a ruffian. And stranger still, other men enjoy-' ing equal advantages of education and association appear willing to approve openly this attitude of the reverend professor. W. H. T. Dau. If it be a sound maxim pf conduct that a man shall be judged by the com-i com-i pany which he keeps, it is equally sound to judge him by the historical characters whom he honors. This reverend professor who declares that he prefers Philip the Handsome to Boniface VIII must therefore be held to proclaim that in his judgment wholesale whole-sale torture and butchery of human beings, be-ings, innocent of any offense except the possession of treasure coveted by their murderer, and the perpetration of robbery rob-bery on a gigantic scale through violence vio-lence and fraud by a ruler whos sworn duty it was to protect these limbs that he mangled, these lives that he .destroyed, .de-stroyed, this property that he seized, are less heinous and therefore less objectionable ob-jectionable than energy, zeal, "arrogance" "arro-gance" (if you will), in asserting with absolute sincerity and" maintaining with unconquerable courage the powers, rights, claims, "pretensions" (call them what you choose), of his sacred office by a pope who at the time was the only spiritual force in Christendom capable of protesting with any effect against the wrongs perpetrated or contemplated contemplat-ed by royal authority. This certainly is self-revelation which leaves nothing to be desired on the score of candor or of courage. Thus revealed, I leave the reverend professor to enjoy the eneoniums of those who by circulating this production produc-tion of his pen announce that they share the views which It embodies, j These views I cannot undertake to dis- cuss. I cannot even claim to under-! stand them. I have ventured to de- I scribe them only that I might express ! my wonder at them, and at the men j who appear willing to acknowledge them. Yours very' sincerely, W. BOURKE COCKRAN. To Mr. Edmund Seuel, Concordia Publishing Pub-lishing House. St. Louis, Mo. AN IDEAL CATHOLIC. Gabriel Garcia Morena, Regenerator of Ecuador. It is now about twenty-five years since Lady Herbert first introduced to the English reading world the career of a man who has been unique in all the annals of modern history. The interest aroused at that date in the life of Garcia Gar-cia Morena has gone on growing apace, until today he is known to all the Catholic Cath-olic world as the type of true manhood, the ideal statesman, the knight without with-out fear or reproach. The present book contains little that is not already well known in that regard, re-gard, though it has the merit of placing its matter in a clearer and more readable read-able setting than usual. " The Ideal Christian Layman. The young Catholic man about to embark em-bark upon liis career in the world has need of ideals, made concrete in the rush and hurry of modern life; nor is he at a loss to find such either in his ,own country or in those more sorely tried fields of Catholic activity across the ocean. France itself, the very prison house of Catholic hope, has produced a legion of men who rose to eminence even in the face of appalling evidences of hostility, and by their very loyalty to the principles princi-ples which reflected their faith have compelled the admiration of an unbelieving unbe-lieving worlds Such were Ozanan. Montalembert, Vicullot, the Count do Mun. Germany presents ardent spirits like Overbeok. and his companions, and later Malincrodf and Windhorst. Ireland Ire-land has her O'Conncll and her Lord Russell of Killowen. America her Taw-neys. Taw-neys. Bronsons. O'Reillys. South America Amer-ica possessed that one who if not the prince of them all, possessed qualities that go to make up the Catholic ideal. The Qualities of the Ideal Catholic. At the very foundation of all ' true Catholic life lies the spirit of living faith. This faith Morena possessed in a heroic degree. In the midst of honors and triumphs that might have turned the heads of lesser characters, he possessed pos-sessed his faith in all the simplicity and candor of childhood. There was a moment mo-ment when he seemed to have wavered: it was during his stay in Paris, in 1S59, when the atmosphere of that capital was heavily laden with the soporific of anti-Christian ism. Under its influence his soul slept for a while: but when the honor of his beloved faith was questioned, ques-tioned, his soul awoke, and his faith remained bright and living until the very moment of death. To a childlike faith he added a deep knowledge of the theology, thus giving ,a form and substance to his belief that called for the respect and reverence of all who came under its influence. Nor was he one who trusted in slothful su-pineness su-pineness to justification through the mere possession of faith; for as God had given him a strong body and a powerful pow-erful mind, he believed it a duty to use them to their utmost extent "in those good works whereb that faith might be diffused and made operative for God's honor and the welfare of the church. He was one well fitted to meet any antagonism an-tagonism that a hostile world might bring against him in his capacity as a Catholic gentleman. His education gave him a peculiar refinement that im-j im-j pressed an opposition continually decrying decry-ing the church as the mother of ignorance; ignor-ance; he was a man of scientific culture, cul-ture, and an adept in the art of literature, liter-ature, besides possessed of a magnetic gift which gave to his oratory a power for conviction. In a word, to form himself as a true Catholic gentleman, he embellished all the subtle qualities of his faith with those accomplishments which would make it possible for Jiim to command the respect of the world. His Activities. The state of Ecuador, which Morena found just emerging from a barbaric servitude, owes "ta him more than to any other among men. In a political way he found her harassed by the maladministration mal-administration of politicians of the brigand bri-gand order, who had reduced their country to a condition similar to that which afflicts the unhappy land of Hayti. Revolution was the order of the day; anarchy took the place of rightful authority. Religion was persecuted; laws were trampled under foot, and the people were taught to tremble at the very mention of the word government. It was to Morena that Ecuador owed the final establishment of a government inspiring confidence, of laws that protected pro-tected the humble as well as the powerful, pow-erful, of an educational system where the forces of "modernism" had permitted permit-ted the blackest ignorance, of good roads, where his predecessors and opponents op-ponents were content with impassable bogs, quagmires, forests or mountains. It was to him the country owed the beauty of its cities, and the safety of its harbor at Guayaquil. Before his advent ad-vent congress was only a name for a gathering of adventurers who plundered plun-dered the people and murdered their protectors. Morena made it a governmental govern-mental body engaged in questions of public finance, a power for' economy in state expenditures, and a bulwark for popular liberty. And these services the state recognized recog-nized publicly not only during his lifetime, life-time, when it called him again and again, despite his own protestations, to office, but also in the great time of national na-tional calamity, when the hero -was stricken down by the hands of his cowardly cow-ardly enemies. But it is in his services as a Catholic champion that we are most interested. Ecuador was. and is today, a distinctively distinct-ively Catholic country. As such, her only salvation from anarchy and social disorder lies in her complete acceptance of Catholic life not only in the private home, but also, and especially in the public and political order of her existence. exist-ence. We cannot judge of such a countrv by the standards of a land like our own wherein the religious idea is varied in the uost multiplied and divergent Conns. in the United States there is libertv that accords best with the peculiar nature of its people, and no citizen more than the American Catholic recognizes rec-ognizes this and begs God's blessing upon our land. In Ecuador there was no diversity of religion; and if the Catholic faith had there its foes they were the foes as well of all Christianity. Christi-anity. Morena knew this better than his contemporaries, and knew also that it was only by attaching his people whole and entire to the honor of the church, that popular liberty and enlightenment enlighten-ment could be safeguarded against the incursions of barbarity and anarchy. anar-chy. Thus it was that he brought his country to conclude the concordat with Pope Pius IX, at the very time when the cowardly monarchs of Europe, like dogs with their tails between their s legs, were flying before the assaults of revolution. Thus, too, it was that he induced his country and his government to consecratj itself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He felt in his utmost soul the need of a good, solid. Catholic education edu-cation for a Catholic people, and therefore he would not quail before the anger of secret associations, when he called the Jesuit Fathers to that task in the acquirement of which they had spent centuries of study. Therefore, too, he dared to open the freedom of humanity to the missionary mission-ary spirit of the Redemptorists, and welcomed the charitable zeal of the good orders of Nuns. Under his fostering care Ecuador became a garden of peace, prosperity and beauty, such as it never was before, be-fore, and such as it never has been since. Hounded by the Cellar Gangs. All these noble works could not go unchallenged by these bearers of the dark lantern, to whom anything that savors of virtue or goodness is like the flaring of a red rag in the eyes of a bull. The word had gone forth from the dens 6f conspiracy that the hero must die. .The word Mas brought to Morena more than ence. but with that innate nobility which ever characterized -him he refused to order his actions in any way that might seem like timidity. He went about the streets of Quito as calmly as if he had never an enemy in the world. Yet all the time he was preparing for the coming of a tragedy which ho felt was inevitable. It was on Aug. 6, the Feast of the Transfiguration, and the first Friday of the month, that President Morena. newly re-elected, was to read his speecli to the congress at the government house. That morning he heard mass and received Holy Communion Com-munion at the Church, of St. Dominic. After breakfasting at homo, he was on his way to the government building: build-ing: as he cntrred the square he went for a short visit into the cathedral. On emerging thence he was set upon by six ruffians, who, after mortally mor-tally wounding him. cried out: "Die destroyer of liberty!" "God never dies." murmured the hero. This is, then, the man who comes before the Catholic world today as its ideal, its hero, its knight. Pius IX eulogized hitnas "a victim to his faith and Christian charity." Later still, when Pope Leo XIII was presented pre-sented with his last speech, . still stained with his blood, he said: "We shall religiously preserve it as a touching remembrance of a man who was the champion of the Catholic faith, and to whom may justly be applied the words made use of by the church to celebrate the memory of the holy marty.'3. St. Thomas of Canterbury Can-terbury and St. Stanislas of Poland, 'Pro Ecclesia gladia impiorum oceu-buit.' oceu-buit.' " "In the cause of the church he fell benath the swords of the impious." im-pious." Boston Pilot. |