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Show ; " CburcD Universal ? i , . CHURCH CALENDAR. ' - s Passion Sunday. St. Vincent ' ri-F Heb. ix. 11-15: G. John x'.Jl, f'rr ,01677 for Local Centres. 6 m "'1- Jullana 207'037 for Direc- ,r',r5:,T pt. John Bapt. de la Salle. 203,- j -on for Promoters. I- t. Perpetuus. 344,418 for the I ,lrr'T!KdS'- Mary Cleophas. 310,822 for" ! ' F'ven Dolors B. V. M.-S44,25C i f,,r the young. j S. St. To he Great.- 3S6.391 for f rirt' Communions. - c Palm .Sunday. St. Sa'oas. E. rlii 'if. vl1: - Matt- xxi 110 ar,d I rh'ppF x'xvi. xxvii. 314,647 for parents. THE GENERAL INTENTION I Recommended by His Holiness, J Piux X. THE INTEGRITY OF THE FAITH, f The Holy Father, the Guardian of the 1 full truth committed by our Blessed I Lord to His Church, recommends the integrity of that faith to the prayers of f ilie ApoFtleship. While the faith of I rhure!) can never fail, for Christ j lias promised that "the gates of hell j j-'gj never prevail against her," still i individuals may weaken in the faith pud even lose it entirely, i This precious cift received in han- tim is tlie very root and foundation i of !i merit and good works. Without j. St. Paul tells us we cannot please ' God. cannot be acceptable in His stent. : n wan without faith is as blind in 1 - j,f spiritual order and as dark to heav- )' fW things a was the blind man out- f'jf of Jericho till Our Lord touched ' ffc py1? and he saw. j i This great blessing we can weaken 5 1 jn our souls and even lose completely. 1 r. every day life the atmosphere we f lireathe is so tainted in the miasmic i vapors of unbelief, that unless we are ) on our guard we soon inhale the pois- onous air and our faith in readily tar- I nished. The men and women we meet I are so imbued with tenets opposed to 1 I the supernatural that the purity of 'ur ! faith is easily blurred by daily con- I i tact with ihem. Books, papers and f magazines so reek with doubt and in- I J feet ions teachings that if Ve are not I vigilant we too run great risk of be- j I coming: mentally soiled and of having I our nerccption of supernatural tr-.uh ; dimmed. Hence this month we are to f i pray earnestly for the preservation -of . ilits most precious gift unsullied in our I hearts in the hearts of the faithful. 1 ! Y'e shall not forget also to offer up i our prayers for those who do not see j I the truth, that God may open their I eye? and hearts to its light and strength. j THE POWER AND INFLUENCE j I OF THE CATHOLIC PRESS i I In his Lenten pastoral to the clergy j snd laity of his diocese the Rt. Rev. r I Bishop McFaul of Trenton, X. J.. says: . 1 In a former pastoral letter we en- i favored to show the influence of fiod literature on the family. We may V permit red to repeat here, what we 5' i then wrote: "In our day. everybody ' ; t'sds. Periodicals, pamphlets and i ' frspapers are the literature of the ri'kns. Tt is the daily newspaper, fewer, that enjoys the largest pat-wage. pat-wage. We must have the news warm i s; our breakfast table, every morning. No doubt, a newspaper Is a potent fao- i Mr for good or evil: and .America put-' I lishes some excellent secular news- I I'Spcrs, which may be safely intro- ;' riured into the family. Our religious ! - vp'klies are performing a very ben-; I I ficia! work, and should receive a move ; ; I gfnerous support. Every Catholic fim- I I iiy -should subscribe for a Catholic; t t newspaper and a Catholic magazine,! j I i-opspss a small library of religious I I nni.ks. .nd such other works as will ii'strjft and interest. "Hut. what about those purveyors of tiifioanness. the 'vulgar sheets reek in.? t villi nsstiness. so largely read by s.11 : . ssfs? Ueorove them for their vile-; j !". and the reply is: We print the ir-ws. Ts, they do. and such news: j i !!"d sw-h advertisements! Let us re- j J .: aii thn words of St.Paul to the Gen- j i ii!s: Rut all uncleanness. .... )n it not so much as be named among J ' you. ks become th saints; or obscen- f ity. or fnoiish talking, or scurrility, ! vhi'h is to no purpose. - "Every on" will admit that some of our newspapers are a disgrace. It is : ''orking to witness the harm which ; ihese disreputable journals do by pan-cerir.g pan-cerir.g to the lower passions of the I iv.ttltiiude. They educate in crime, de- I firoy purity, in a v.ord. sow immoral- I Tiiy are so many foul demons entering the family for its defilement and ruin. Perhaps the most terrible indictment that can be brought against America is that the public demand for the filth supplied by the 'yellow journals' jour-nals' is so great as to render rich and prosperous and unscrupulous editors writers and publishers who catr to debased appetites. : "We desire to employ all the pow.-r of our holy office to stem this flood of corruption, and we, therefore, most earnestly beseech parents to banish all such newspapers and books from their firesides. O fathers and mothers, never nev-er permit them to contaminate your homes I" . Within the past year a wave of crime has swept through some of our large cities, extending even Into country coun-try districts. In several instances, the deeds committed have been most revoltingmodest re-voltingmodest young women, and even innocent children have been the victims of unbridled lust. While the fear of publicity may occasionally defer de-fer from the commission of crime, we fear that the manner in which many of our newspapers picture these horrible hor-rible occurrences Is a grave incentive to their perpetuation, by inflaming the passions and the sensual cravings of depraved minds.. The newspaper is a great moral force, which should be conducted aa to make the home sweeter and brighter, bright-er, to inform and elevate the individual and society. The daily publication of the crimes of men and women, with their prurient, salacious details brought out in courts of justice, enlarges en-larges and sows the field of vice. ' Xo better example of the power and influence of the press can be given than the results achieved in Germany. It was due to public opinion, created by the Catholic press, that the center party remained undivided and steadfast, stead-fast, triumphed over Kulturkampf, sent Bismarck to Canossa, and organized the Catholics of Germany so that they present an unbroken front to their enemies. en-emies. Listen to the eloquent words of Dr. Barth, spoken at the Catholic congress of Ratisbon: "The Catholic Germans had behind them a gift inspired in-spired by heaven, which was granted to the Catholic people of Germany as an auspicious sign of better days, through their firm and faithful union among themselves, and their unwavering unwaver-ing constancy in the conflict for the defense of the highest welfare of the people and of humanity. Such a gift was the vigorous, able, aggressive Catholic press. In quality and quantity quanti-ty it developed into a power that could not be ignored in public life. Among its enemies and among the Catholics of other countries, although enjoying far better circumstances, it excited ad miration and envy. "In the course of fifty years, the number of newspapers, resolutely Catholic, Cath-olic, Increased from five or six to nearly near-ly S30 The subscriptions, which down to 1860 were not more than 50,000 or 60,000, and were distributed among about twenty newspapers, have since increased to hundreds of thousands, even to millions. "The Catholic press suffered and fought, ever increasing in number, always al-ways with more ardent zeal, with an inflexible and untiring spirit of sacrifice sacri-fice for the rights of Catholics. It sustained sus-tained a mortal combat with Bismarck, Bis-marck, the powerful Goliah. who nevertheless nev-ertheless was a champion that feared the pen; it rendered fruitless and harmless the weight of his words: it frightened and drove out of their dark hiding places the disreputable sheets of the reptiles, and impressed indelibly indel-ibly upon their followers the ruinous brand of Cain. ... In the Kulturkampf, Kul-turkampf, it followed the confessors, the priests and the bishops into chains and imprisonment. . . . It saved the Catholic people from the moral imbecility im-becility of religious indifference, it armed and elevated their aspirations toward the imperishable goods of j heaven), toward faith and virtue, which live forever, even if the world fall into ruin." Michigan Catholic. Do Catholics Want a Catholic Paper? Sometimes we doubt it. And it is not without reason we doubt it. We look around us and we see the welcome accorded the secular press; we cannot help but notice how eagerly Catholic people purchase the daily papers. We glance through these papers, and, alas, we find many of them but a tissua of scandals, sensations, gross exaggera-i exaggera-i tions, evil suggestions, false principles Some of them are so unclean that they are not fit reading for any Christian eyes; some of them are deliberately designed to carry their foul message into the hearts and homes of the people. peo-ple. Most of them are not proper reading to put into the hands of children. chil-dren. And jret our Catholic people eagerly buy them, read them, carry them to their. homes, hand them to their little ones, spread their contagion, inoculate thir friends and associates with their virus. But when it comes to subscribing for a Catholic paper, how slow those erstwhile eager hands are to pay the price. It is for the most part dry reading; read-ing; it has none of the exaggerate! flavor of the scandal or the crime; it does not flatter with silly praise or pander to self-love or foolishly dismiss all responsibility and open the door Ja ease, to pleasure, to wilfulness, to sin. It tells of things that are sweet and pure. It teaches the beauty of self-repression; it speaks holy doctrines with becoming gravity. It daresMo e'l the truth; it protests against the wild opinions and false principles that men eagerly drink in because they excuse or palliate human wickedness. But under present conditions in our country, is it twn simply a duty for a Catholic to take into his home a Catholic Cath-olic paper? A Catholic paper is a whiff of the pure fresh air of heaven, rt brings with ic life and health. What better missionary labor may any Catholic Cath-olic do than to spread Catholic papers? They are the most practical antidot-s to the poison of the daily press. The danger to Catholic faith and morals is not from sectarian pulpits. That day is past. The biggest pulpit of our time is the press; the danger is from the press. Every Catholic that buys a secular sec-ular paper erects a pulpft In his home: for the papers are not satisfied with giving us the news and corresponding comment: but they insist on giving us our theology and our creed. They take our conscience into their keeping. Time and eternity belong to them. Every issue is a. new creed. And the creed changes with every edition. Who can doubt the absolute neces-clty neces-clty of the Catholic press? What home is secure without a Catholic paper? We must meet pulpit with pulpit. We must meet paper with paper. We must pow truth without ceasing, for the missions of error are loveless. Newark New-ark Monitor. . k w vt MW j , - - - 4& : ft i f SW 1 Group of a few little folks who appeared in the recent concert for St. Ann's Orphanage. f Talk Down Their Business. Some men are pitched to a minor key. They probably do not realize it; but there is a downward tendency in their thought and conversation. Everything is down business poor, prospects dark. They are always seeing snags ahead. They see tendencies in American Ameri-can life which are sure to undermine our democracy and end in revolution. Nothing is as it used to be when they were young. Everything..in in a deplorable de-plorable condition. It is a most unfortunate thing to get into such a mental habit. I know some of these people. Their letters are always pessimistic. They go through like a tornado cloud, carrying blackness and threatening disaster wherever they go. Everything depends upon the way we look at things. Xear these calamity howlern we find people living practically under the same conditions. vho see beauty and increasing goodness, and an upward trend iu civilization everywhere. every-where. What an untold blessing to form early ear-ly in life the optimistic habit of seeing the best instead of the worst! Think how much more thos-e get out of life who" are always courageous, hopeful, always grateful for every good thing that comes to them, and who have a great faith in the goodness of human nature and in the honesty of most' peo-ole! God's Temples. In brave array of tender green the woods are decked And for the blessed Easter day are flower flecked. All perfumes of the early spring hang on the air. Throughout the woods cathedral peace rc-igns everywhere. The Shadow of Failure. The terror of failure and the fear of coming to want keep multitudes of people from obtaining the very things they desire, by sapping their vitality, by incapacitating them through worry and anxiety, for the effective, creative work necessary to give them success. Wherever we go, this fear-ghost, this terror-specter stands between men and their goal; no person is in a position to do good work while haunted by it. There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what v e undertake. The mind always full of doubts, fears, forebodings, is not in a condition condi-tion to do effective creative work, but is perpetually handicapped by this unfortunate un-fortunate attitude. - Nothing will so completely paralyze the creative power of the mind and body as a dark, gloomy, discouraged mental attitude. Xo great - creative work can be done by a man who is not an optimist. The human mind cannot accomplish great work unless the banner of hope goes in advance. A man will follow this banner when money, friends, reputation, rep-utation, everything else has gone. Origin of Ancient Words. That some of our everyday words and phrases have a very ancient origin is shown by a student of folklore. "Take," he says, "the phrase 'helter-skelter.' 'helter-skelter.' This dates back to the defeat de-feat of tlie Spanish Armada, some of the vessels of which, driven by stress of weather, took refuge north to the river Helder, and south to the river Skelter (or Scheldt). " 'Where the shoe pinches' is one of the oldest phrases. In its Latin form the old Romans used it, the story being be-ing that a Roman who had divorced his wife was taken to task by his friends, who protested that they could see no fault in the woman. The object ob-ject of their criticism responded by taking oft' his shoe. 'Itt seems a good shoe,' said he. 'You will see no fault in it but none of you can teil where it pinches me.' "To 'dun' aman for debt arose from the name of a bailiff of Lincoln, Joseph Jo-seph Dun, a champion debt-collector; , while 'hurrah!' or 'hurray!' is a corruption cor-ruption of 'tur aie!' the war cry o fthe old Xorse sea rovers." A Thought of the Week. I like the man who faces what he must With step triumphant, and a heart of cheer. Who fights the daily battles without fear; Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering unfalter-ing trust. That God is God; that somehow, true and just. His plans work out for mortals; not a tear Is shed when fortune which the world holds dear. Falls from his grasp; better, with love a crust Than living in dishonor: envies not. Nor loses faith in man; but does his best; Nor ever murmurs at his humble lot, But with a smile and words of hope, gives zest To every toiler: he alone is great. Who by a life heroic, conquers fate. A Memory Gem for the Children. Live in the brightness, and take thi.? to heart. The world will be gayer if you'll do your art. Live on the housetop, not iriAhe tell; C'pen-air Christians live nobly and well. Live where the joys are, and, scorning defeat. Have a good morrow to all whom you meet. Live as the victor, and triumphing go Through this queer world, beating down every foe. Live in the sunshine. God meant it for you ! Live as the robins and sing the day through. Margaret E. Sangster. |