| OCR Text |
Show J - n ; I MONTH OF THE HOLY, SOULS. I The month of the Angels has left us ! Sweet thoufihts o its bright mo- ments 11ed, I And greet with its sorrowful mes- j November, the month of our dead. I Oh. sacred to love's fondest memories ; -Each moment, though hallowed bv pain,' As we. sorrowing sigh for our dear ones, i And list to their moaning refrain: j As, from the drear land of their exile, ' Conies to us love's pitiful civ, j 'Have merry upon me, have mercy! j In the depths of my prison I sigh j Tor ihc prayer that will comfort my i anguish, f For the alms that will bring me re- 1 lease, j rr ,h 'ay of the Cross that will; soothe me, j I For the Mass, that my exile may i cease." j Oh. let us give ear to their pleading, J ,.Toth''so suffering souls in their woe, j f Mayhap, from the gloom, there may i reach us !f ' Some voice whose sad accents we know. j Perhaps, in her drear, darksome prison, A mother, in anguish, mav sigh 5 r"r 1 -h prayer of the child she so cher- ! ished j "While life's fleeting hours sped by. i i A father may wait, all forsaken I fV th child he loved and caressed, j While a prayer or an alms would pe J to him Tlie portals of peace, light and rest. i i us give ear to their pleadings, ! J Our sainted and surf-ring dead. j I Liel them know that our true hearts r- I member I Their love in the years that have j fled. iAnd then, when our own souls are sigh-In sigh-In the torture of fire and of pnin, 1 The pitying heart of another I Will list to our own sad refrain. I CHURCH CALENDAR. j I November, month of the Holv Souls. I I Sunday, 12 Twenty-third after Pen- itfv-ost, SI. Elizabeth of Hungarv. 1 Monday. 20 St. Felix le Volois. j Tuesday. 21 Presentation of the Blessed Viririn Mai-x- i Wednesday, 22 St. Cecilia. Thursday. 23 St. Clement I. Friday, 24 St. John of the Cross. Saturday, 25 St. Catherine. Petition for prayers from associates of League of the Sacred Heart: Sunday for vocations, Monday for j parishes, Tuesday for schools. Wedne- I day for superiors, Thursday for mis- I f 10ns and retreats, Friday for societies I and works, Saturday for conversions. HOLY SOULS. We Assist God to Help Free the Souls in Purgatory. (Bishop Cotton in Catholic Union and Times.) We need not enter into the doctrine of purgatory-, which has always been taught by the Holy. Church and which Is proven by the Scriptures, old and new, and which is so reawnahle in it- !self, despite what opposing sects may say; nor need we. enter into any detailed de-tailed account of . what the Fatheis have said with regard to it, but merely accept the fact that it is Catholic teaching and give to it our ready belk'f '.unci let it inspire the. thoughts in mind , -and heart which are proper to it. What ijr" these thoughts? They are surely . thoughts of sympathy for the suffering souls and determination to help them all we can. 1. We assist God to help free the souls in purgatory. God loves those souls with an indescribable love. He loved them in life because of their "Iose, and, in some cases, almost perfect per-fect union with Him. and He loved thein in death still more because their salvation was secured. And love goes on with impatient and increasing force, the longer they are separated from Him. If there be anything more than another that we can do to please God it must, be to shorten their sufferings and liberate the souls in purgatory, for of all His children outside His heavenly heaven-ly home these surely are the most beloved, be-loved, since they are the nearest, when we consider the uncertainties of salvation salva-tion for all in life nearest and dearest, because with Hii toner or later, they "will enjoy the df"-lu- --f paradise. Let us then show o. . !-- God by giving Him what we c.n . o .r merits to return re-turn 3.nd bring- ti H mself souls so precious and dea: .- f.im. r 2. We owe it to"; he suffering souls themselves to help them. It is a char- ' Ity we owe thorn bec; use they suffer. It is a. duty to relieve them because they are our brethren. They are our' kinsmen, our parents, relative; and friend?, and so justice as well as charity char-ity claims for them all the relief we ran give. Possibly some of ihese suf- !fer for our faults we caused them to commit, and hence, iFik-e of more than an ordinary degree demands that we hHr to release them. Some of these .ouls wh.-n they were in life did much for us. They are our parents, perhaps, who fondly watched orer us and provided pro-vided for our wants; our brothers and sisters, who brightened and swoet-I swoet-I rned our live.; kind relatives and I friends, who gave us a helping hand I :md whose goodness and friendship we J did not adequately re.-fit We are I debtors to all these and can more than J repay all by giving them the offering I of our prayers and good works. How j often we place flower? upon the graves j I of our loved ones, there to fade and I -wither before another sun has set. and j how senseless these for Catholics, un- I less accompanied by the prayer's of I thope who give them. Let us twine the I memories of the departed around our 1 minds and hearts and keep them ever Ijrcfii ana green Dy tne dews of Goo'-'s grace falling gently on them in response re-sponse to our -prayers in their behalf. . 3. It is a duty v.e owe ourselves 10 1 pray for the faithful departed. In helping them we shall help ourselves. Their relyas-e will serve powerfully (. save us. Their happiness attained "wnl be the forerunner of our own. They I will return our soodness a hundred- ! fold. Our Lord and tb- whole heavenly j oiart will show their gratitude for the ! souls we add to the number of the eie t j 7y greater graces for ourselves. Our ; liarity will be doubly blessed and the j justice-we satisfy for others will justify jus-tify us before God and make us pleas- I a'ng in His sight. Whilst praying for j the dear departed, we will be nv.t.d i i fully conscious of our own sad stale J which, after all, is in one respect, i t.amely. the uncertain!, v of our end. I sadder even than theirs. But we will 1 le the more mindful to prepare for Jia-ppy d,aath. if we help thope who have j died well to enter iheir glory. The frequent 'remembrance of the souls in purgatory will keep us mindful that soon we must be numbered with the j dead, and this thought will prepare us j to meet our God rind our Judge, who ! -will reward our charity to them by' all j the greater charily to us. Let us then I do all we can for the souls in puiva- tory. and unite with Holy Church in j Her . never-ceasing prayer: "May the j souls of the faithful departed, through ! j the mercy of God. rest in peace." I j In the ppirit of Holy Church let us never tire of praying for the faithlul departed. This month of Xovember is f specially consecrated to their memory. ' v'n.i-'"" : How many have been called away these last few years. Fatheis and mothers, brothers and sisters are missed at the family board, and we have only the recollection of them to comfort "us in our loss. But though absent in body they are still with us in spirit, for their souls commune with, ours, and we hear their plaintive voices, calling out to help them reach their God. Who that loved them in life will forget them in death? Let us give them the help of our prayers, pray-ers, that God's justice be. satisfied and then they f-i2al0 with Him the joys and happiness of heaven. Let us always I remember them, but remember them I especially in this their month, and by our prayers and manner bring thun to God, and they will remember u? at His i throne, and gain for us many graces 'and blessing-p. "It is a holy and wholo-Homo wholo-Homo thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins." The Society of Good Example. An argument against the church, convincing con-vincing to non-Catholics and difficult to refute, is that of insincerity of some Catholics towards their religion. The writer in a conversation with a non-Catholic, non-Catholic, once experienced this difficulty. diffi-culty. Diseusisng the claims" of the Catholic church, the" non-Catholic said in part: "Indeed the services are beautiful and ' sublime; the priests herocially zealous and untiring; bt Catholics themselves show, by their lives, little appreciation ! of th value which you claim to be attached at-tached to the confession of sins, to the real presence, and to the benefits of the so-calied mass. It seems to me that if the religious exereiees of your church ' were beneficial, and your claims true, 1 Cathalics whom I know would live bet- ter than they do. I know some Catholics Catho-lics who, though they attend church often, are yet insincere in their daily lives. Your church claims to be. the only true teacher; but my observations prove that your church's teaching cannot can-not be very convincing, since Catholics, themselves do not show it." That many Catholics do not live up to the requirements of their religion is. alas! too true. What a powerful missionary mis-sionary is the example of Catholic men and women! Le the practical test of your religious convictions convince those outside the one fold of Christ. Let your religious sentiments draw men. not only to you. but through you, to the Truth. The Missionary. A Valuable Suggestion. A priest in Ohio has a good scheme of presenting the teaching of the church to the farmers of his county. He has had a conference with one of the editors of the weekly county paper and an arrangement has been made whereby the paper sells him ten inches of space in each issue at its regular advertising rates or $40 a year. This is his to use as he desires. He proposes to print each week some pointed statements state-ments of Catholic doctrine, giving them a human interest, so that then- will be eagerly read, and he hopes through the fifty weeks of the year to get before the farmers a. very full exposition of the church's doctrien and policy. This service will cost him $40. There are unlimited possibilities in this scheme if properly handled, and the wonder is that it has not been hit on long before this. The Missionary, j Pope's Pacific Policy. (Catholic Citizen, Milwaukee.) For the first time since the .breach occurred between the Vatican authorities author-ities and the officials of .the French government, nearly two years ago. Pius X has issifed a document embodying his personal views regarding the legislation leg-islation now under discussion in the French senate, aiming at?.. the separation separa-tion of the church from the state. For many months an expression of opinion was expected from the holy see. and several French bishops recently remonstrated re-monstrated with the pone because of his long-lasting silence about the situation situ-ation of the church in France. In fact, it was said that the. pope was hard at. work prepaiing an encyclical letter of protest which, in the opinion of prominent prom-inent prelates, would have so affected those of the French legislators, who stHl nourish a kindly feeling toward church and religion, that the tables would have been turned on the government govern-ment and the bill now under consideration consider-ation would have been rejected by the senate. 1 Notwithstanding all these - expectations, expecta-tions, it is now found that the papal document just issued is a disappointment disappoint-ment to ever?" one in Rome, who expected ex-pected the pope to act as his predecessor predeces-sor would have done in similar circum-I circum-I stances. Pius X has sent a letter to Caidinal Richard, archbishop of Paris, in which, although very serious reflections reflec-tions arc aimed at the existing religious re-ligious conditions in France, not a word of protest or animosity is uttered, and the only f.dvioe the pope seems inclined in-clined to give to the French Catholics is that of placing, the whole matter in the hands of God and praying earnestly earnest-ly to him for a betterment of conditions.' condi-tions.' Xo better expression of the mild and religious spirit ' of Puis X could he found than in this document. At .1 j moment when the whole ecclesiastical j position in France is to be turned upside up-side down, and a solemn contract entered en-tered into between the .holy . see rind the French government a century ago is about to be rescinded. Pius X does not find a. word' of direct criticism re- I garding the doings of the enemies qf ! the church and limits his exhortations to the French Catholics to purely religious re-ligious grounds. . His. only retaliation against the actions of those Mho are trying to unset both the material and the spin'mal interest.: of tlv church in France ? np exhortation to prayer: the nana! diplomacy of centuries is cast aside txiiii -the pope of the twentieth twen-tieth century becomes -once more like! the pontiffs of the early church who did not oppose to the persecution of! the Homan emperors- anv other' arms j than the prayers , of the. faithful. . j ' - 1 German Catholics Strong. Wlrle the Catholics of France are making no prog-ress numerically, or at least are growing apathetic, the Catholics Cath-olics in the;, "Fatherland" are steadily on the increase, evincing more and more the greatest loyally to the holy see. From statistics which have been published pub-lished for the present year, it aopears that the r.jnibfr of Catholics in the German empire is 20,1Si'.2C6. They are distributed as follows: Bavaria. 4.449.-Oi'O: 4.449.-Oi'O: Prussia. I2.147.fiDS: Saxony. 197.0CP: Wurtcmborg. Cii.331: Baden, 1.123,673; Alsace-Lorraine. 1,279.630. , The hierarchy consists of five archbishops., arch-bishops., one of whom is a cardinal, twenty bishops, including: the prinee-b'shop. prinee-b'shop. Cardinal Kopp. and one viesr-iipr.titolic. viesr-iipr.titolic. Ten sees have auxiliary bishops. Two bishops belong to relig- j ious orders. Bishop Beilzler i- a Bene - j diotine. Bishop Willi, a .Cistercian. I There are 20.0')r diocesan priests, and 1.363 priests who are members of relig- ! ions orders. In ail, 2!,!."S. j Fro.vj the-latest-census reooits the proportion f Catholics to the entire I population is reckoned at 37 per cent. ; In AUace-Lon-aine the proportion is ; 7j 2, in Bavoria 70.6. in Baden I't.C. In; ail the other states Catholics are in a f minority; in Prussia they make up ?.S pei' cent, though in some provinces, as in Posen and KhineJaud. the proportion is much bipheiv Considering the. relative rel-ative numbers of tho Oatbolk-s and the non-Catholics, the dominant power which the Catholics have so long exercised exer-cised in public life is a notable proof of their unanimity and their organizing i skill. ' - ' '"--- ---t.-: - - - - ,- - jn wit -1 ".ninm.mmiiMii 1 wjwaiii' - fumtm |
