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Show j . - I burcb Universal I , CHURCH CALENDAR. 13. S. Second afior Epiphanv. Holy "r ym; xii.- 6-i6: q. John . l-n. C24.540 for families. ; 14. M. St. Hilary. 531,692 for reeon-Tiliationp. reeon-Tiliationp. 1.r. T. St. Paul, Hermit. S0S.r.S9 for v.ork, moans. ? 1fi- Av- St. Marelius. T38.925 for the t-lergy. 17. St. St. Anthony. 704,353 for religious. re-ligious. V IS. F. St. Peter's Chair at Horr.c.--352".4o4 for seminarists, novic.??. 19. S. SS. Marir.um and Comp. 533.-J,!'! 533.-J,!'! for vocations. 20. S. Third afwv Epiphany . Hoiv aa mi I y. SS. Fabian and Sebastian. D:p. Rom., xiii. 1C-21; G. Matt., viii, 1-12. !J ir6.:'J6 for parishes. THE CONVERSION OF JAPAN. The General Intention Recommended by His Holiness, Pius X. The recent events in the far r"rst jjiavr- drawn the eyes of the whole iiv-jj'izori iiv-jj'izori woild on J;nan. In materia! things this people has made rapid vroe,-jess vroe,-jess during The course of the last fe years; bin unhappily. Christian civili-r.atior. civili-r.atior. adv.nnos very slowly in the Hnd of 1he Rising Sun. I,. The reason for this is not far to se k. ;TVe need not mention, the Immorality gu-pvailin? in The country; in this vie ho Japanese hardly differ from other U'apan nations. But a certain rride I" Ii'-v.upiu among tr-o people, which rrvents its "Uupi-ati"' from onenin ;thcir cye to the i;ht nT religious t ruth. Resides, the number of Catholic Catho-lic missionaries and catechists Is extremely ex-tremely MiiaH. an,; the znl and the Jabor of ihcsc f?v are rendered more i '' less useless nv the missionarv e:i- i Ueavors of. the Protestant vans-eiists i 3nd The Russian po;es. Add to Ibis Hhnt Japan has taken irom the west not S'tijy its i.ilitical institutions and us ;j cier.tific discoveries, but alpo its fiec-j fiec-j thought and its svKm of secret socie- Hob. botli of which find an extreme:y fertile soil in this tlepraved, peo.ile. ; And whal is to be the future of Ja-jrin? Ja-jrin? Mpr Val d Ysga has studied 3jli" o.uesti..n on its native soil. "This Venvle." he writes, "is now 'n its ado-3'scence. ado-3'scence. Later on. no doubt very soon. fS:s prohb ins and crises will arise: at Hint juncture, it will come to know that I the glory f nations is in the hand ot Hod Almighty, and it will recognize iho absolute need of seeking the eternal rutiis." El 1S 11 r'"'v incumbent on the Apostle- it-hip of Prayer to hasten this happy Time? 11? members should not oniy I "make their Mormng Offering for this Jr.: em inn: they should also frequently recite the nrayer for St. Francis Xav-ier. Xav-ier. which begins: "Eternal God. Cre-atfi' Cre-atfi' of all Things, remember that the Muis of infidel.!, weie drawn by yiu out ;"f nothing, and rh:t you have made) ,ihem after your image inrJ likeness.! 1 'Heboid, o Lord, how to your dishonor. I hell is fill.d with these poor souir. Ke- I member ti.;.t Jesus, your Son. has sur- I ten d a v.u-st cruel death for th-.-ir sal- I vatbm. IA New Year Thought. ;"Vhcn wtary one night from the toil of the day. My heart with its burden east down, r . - Alone and unaided on life's barren way, - - I 1 And all the world wearing a frown; I 3 heard the quaint, tones, beating I measured and slow, J f the "lock, from its shelf on the "-'- J wall; And. as the staid pendulum swung to j and fro. In rhythm these words seemed to I fall: j . "Never give up. Never give up. I ! Time will be given you. ' I - Never give up." j ! ;"The past is gone, with its sorrows and I faults. Then leave it and build you anew. The past is dead, locked in memory's vaults: . And all living hopes beckon to you. ;For brave is the pathway of life. Can i you climb? ! Then turn from the years that are i I dead. ;"ViTh your eyes on the piomise that's ; shining sublime In Hie years that are lying ahead. Never give up. Never give up." IThe great misty future says. "Never give up" J. A. Kdgerton. An Open Confession. ' The one daily paper That we have seen giving some signs of an under-standing under-standing of the French situation is the I Oeveiand Leader which says: "Ameri- I cans do not, as a rule, understand The I frll import of the rupture between the ; government of France and the j jchurches. They suppose that the state Ms fleeing itself from fetters which j ;i"und it to one church only the ;'hurch of Rome. They take the" crisis I now reached to be the culmination of I a movement for religious liberty and '-quality such a this country has I known from the birth of the nation, i ; 'n the contrary. France i going far j ibeyond American ideas and practice. I i'l'bere is more of the spirit of The Reign I TT Terror in the attitude of Clemenceau I -ministry than of the imperial govern- mental friendship toward all religious t hodies that obey the general civil laws, ' which is universal in America." j . The Oldest Sister of Mercy. ih Of the S.rjors of Mercy who were in t J."1"''1 ,vitn sainted foundress of the S !'der. Mother Mary Otherlno McCau- 55"V. who ::ude her nrofession in 1531. I'i ?-fr'Uy one is living :!: r Mary Agnes S 3icCaffry. the oldest Sis-tcr of Mercy in "The world, i-he remeir.lx rs Mother Mc- 'auley as visiting her convent school in j' 'arl"v, Ireland, and has still a vivk" ' Recollect ion of her face and manners. V 2'bis vener-ible religituse is spending Y? r declininT years at St. Navier's aca-'.iJemy. aca-'.iJemy. BeaUy. Pa., where she does duty i spite of her adViinrcd age as mis-! fess of the morning practice hour. j lit was ii 1843 the first Sisters fj t.lercy. seven in number, came to America and settled in Pittsburg. j ) The first American lady who joined j be order ir worthy of special notice, j 3he was Miss Eliza .T..ne Tiernan. of I jfn old and wealthy Piitsburg family, he told lior spiritual guide. Dr. M'ch-ael M'ch-ael O't'onnor. That "be was determined i" go to Ireland to become a Sister of Mercy. Dr. 0'Conhor was delighted, hut said rather indifferently: "Oh. don't h" in too great a hu'-ry. we inay have iristej-s of Mercy in America yet." Mis? JS'krnan began to pray very fervently, imagine her delight when long after ! this, in 1843. just as she finished a mo- ji ;vena. she lead in her favorite Tablet "ihat Rishon O'Connor and seven Sisters f Mercy had left Liverpool and were billing for America, and would soon be in Pittsburg. One of the first visttors in the yours: community ,vas Miss Tiei nan. and a month later she pre-s-' nted herself as the first postulant. t -v On the Threshold. Lord of the unknown year appointed me. Maker of every day and every night. Still in its place, biding its time to be Keep Thru Thv hand upon the nivs- tery. Lift not the veil a moment from my ! sight: Tet, rtep by step, as slow Thou leadest me. Let there be Light! Nancy Byrd Turner. When Ministers Are Silent. The Sacred HeartReview calls attention atten-tion to an omission not necular to the Hub when it says: "Our good friends, I the Protestant preachers of Boston, are seldom silent on matters of world-wide importance. The oppression of the Jews in Russia gave them a theme which they took advantage of. The exclusion of the Japanese from public schools in San Francisco served as a text whereon to hang lectures on lib- j erty. The Congo Free State and its alleged cruelties to the blacks was a subject of which they availed themselves. them-selves. Yet last Sunday, so far as we eould see from the daily press, not one liberty-loving Protestant minister in Boston had even one little word to say on the great crime against liberty committed in France by the French Government. The reason is shamefully shame-fully obvious. It is the Catholic Church which is the victim of French peiseeunor. jneretoie not a word was said. If a Protestant sect in anv country on earth nay, if any religious sect. Christian or pagan were oppressed op-pressed as Catholics of France are oppressed op-pressed at present, we way be sure that the Protestant pulpits of Boston would ring with indignation.' Historical Coincidences. Looking over a file of old newspapers the other day. a well-known missionary priest found the following item in The Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati) of December 1.1, 1S49: "The Observateur Beige' shows that since the year 1789, all the revolutions m France have been effected under Popes bearing the name of Pius . Louis Lou-is XVI was dethroned and decapitated under Pius VI.: the Directory was overthrown ov-erthrown under Pius VIT,; Charles X. was dethroned and driven into hopeless exile under Pius VIII., and. finally, Louis Philippel. was deposed and banished ban-ished under Pius IX. Some may suppose sup-pose that the world will come to end under Pius X." A Christian Observance by Catholic Indians. "Writing in the Ladies' Home Journal." Jour-nal." Francis E. Leupp, United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs, gives a pleasing picture of Christmas among the Nez Perces Indians. He says: "Some of the customs of the Indians who have learned what Christmas is end stands for are decidedl.v picturesque pictur-esque at St. Joseph's mission antang I the Nez Perces. for instance. For ?v-eral ?v-eral days before CHristinas the Indians rome in from the surrounding couifry and camp around the mission, where they attend services twice a dav, reciting recit-ing their prayers and catechism" hrtr?h own language aloud and in common! 'I with a musical rhythm. Throughout thl , last dav and evening lwfAro ih I itself their confessions are 'heard iif the church, and about 11 o'clock in thoA night the bell summons to midnight Mass. A bonfire is thereupon built in front of the church, and th Indians form a circle around it. The chief men. in turn, address the rest pn the nature and significance of the Christmas festival, and exhort them to celebrate it in a becoming manner. (At midnight the hell is again rung, andall enter the church, where the priest, yt ith his assistants and altar bovs. begins "ign :uass. me Indians singing in Latin Lat-in the parts appointed for the choir, and in the intervals singing and praying- in their own tongue. Another Mass follows, and then the Sisters and The children sing English hymns till 2 a. in., when all let ire quietly." Vestments of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The vestments in use at St. Patrick's cathedral. New York, compare very favorably with those in many of the famous cathedrals in Europe, and they are the finest in any cathedral in America. Amer-ica. Archbishop Corrigan presented to the cathedral the only complete set of Holy Thursday vestments in the world They are valued at $20,000. In the set are thirteen chasubles, ten dalmatics, nine tunics, two copes and lace albs amies and other vestments to correspond corre-spond 1o the Holy Thursday service , alone. j These vestments are of the finest white satin, embroidered with gold 90 per cent fine. The principal ornaments are the passion flower, wheat sheaf and grapes, embroidered in silk and gold emblematic of Holy Week. The body of the vestment is worked with sprays of fuchsias. The remainder of the vestments vest-ments in this set are made of the finest moire antique, embroidered in the finest fin-est silk and gold to correspond. This magnificent set of vestments was made by the Dominican Sisters at Hunt's Point. It took fifteen nuns an entire year, working eight hours a day. The chasubles are studded with pearls and rubies. The archiepiscopal sets, worn when the archbishop pontificates! are of the finest red silk velvet. There are eight sets, which cost $3,000" each. They are embroidered in pure gold. Pius X to German Catholics. Here is a passage from the letter which the Holy Father sent to Cardinal Fischer, of Cologne, on the occasion of the German Catholic Congress at Essen: "The view we have long held as to the sedate character of our ons in Germany was strengthened bv the i-', . v vii.-euftsions wnicn took place at the congress at Essen. Nor did we derive less pleasure from the oft-repeated declaration of the German Catholics that they desired religious potion subject to the authority of the Holy Sec. Daily experience proves that this obedience, although some elsewhere may rail at it in ignorance, leaves each one complete and most ample freedom in thos things that have no concern with reason, and therefore That it begets that concord between individual minds which, passing from individuals To society, secures the social so-cial welfare, having a double effect, religious re-ligious and civil. Of this your august emperor showed his hearty approval by his grateful and kinly reply to those subjects of his by birth and of ours by religious creed who offered their ! homage to him and to us as soon as they had met at Essen." j |