Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1851-07-07
Correspondence of the Sentinel.

Cathedral and the ceremonies, SO solemn
and imposing, and to me singularly strange,
unique and SO exciting to my organ Of
wonder and marvellousness fancy others,
who like myself have not been used TO
Catholic ceremonies, who have not attend.
ed Catholic Church service oi,eh, may be
interested some by short description, i'm.
perfect though it may be. We had not
the benefit Of Catholic friend 10 introduce
US, bu, bent on seeing uLd hearing the
ceremonies, we walked in, assured that,
though the seats were rented as in some
other churches, we would find some one
polite enough to seat US. And we were
not disappointed. We had indeed, before,
many years ago attended catholic meetings
once or twice; but then the services were
in foreign language. This is the Irish
Catholic Church, called the cathedral, and
the English language was used, but the
house was so large that, although the
speaker appeared 10 be good orator, and
ar,iculated well, still it was difficult 10 hear
and comprehend oil. The building is |
judge about Ito feet long, and forty feet
wide, and correspondingly high with two
row Of pillars through the great room and
gallery on the one end-.he room sur
mounted with three elegant arches, on
arch between the two rows Of pillars, and
one on each side, between The pillars and
the outside Of the building. The pillars
are q, least feet in diameter, and some
thirty feet in height, and in form round,
and white as snow. There are many ina
ges about the spacious room, and many
beautiful paintings, descriptive probably of
bible history, say probably for we had
no ch once to examine them minutely.
As we entered, we found, on one side Of
the entrance way, before entering the
great room, bason of water, which | sup>
pose they call holy water, and into which
ever and anon the passers by, dipped finger,
and with it touched the forehead as they
kneeled quickly, and they hastily passed in.
We were few minutes too late 10 wit
ness the commencement Of the ceremonies;
and when we entered, we were ut once
struck with the sound Of the most delightful
music imaginable. Ii appeared like the
most beautiful variety Of the most fascina-
ting sounds that human nrt can make, or
human mind conceive. There was con.
spicious at times the delicate voice of wo.
man; again the varied voice Of man; and
often the soft melodious notes of the flute.
The organ too was conspicuous, the clairo-
net, also, should think, and sounds like
the Piano and me!odion, the violin and
some others that could not name, all
sounding in accord and harmony, as by
mngic. One sound conspicuous among the
choir, wns the grum bass of some insiru.
meni, sounding at times like the rooling Of
distant lhunder-rolling on and rooling
still, isolated and by itself-interrupted by
no other sound. Not even whisper or
movement in the house broke the solemn
stiffness except that solemn rumbling as Of
,hunder-ihen suddenly it WINS changed TO
the soft music Of the flute, and The vnrious
changes made by the setting in of other
voices and instruments, and the harmoni-
Gus thrilling OF concerts Of all kinds Of
pleasant sounds, until the mind seemed en-.
raptured to the highest pitch-when sud-
denly the music ceased, and the speaker
began his discourse.
said before be. vas eloquent. Ii was
the second anniversary Of the dedication OF
the church, and reference was rnade to the
progress of the church, from smnll be-
ginning, to its present prosperous s.ate -
! The speaker stated that, when this church
was organized, il was the smallest of any
church in the city, and now it was the
largest, and that they now numbered 1900
communicants. And should think near
tha, number were in actual attendance.-
And oil seemed so attentive TO the cere.
monies, and to the books which they were
holding iE their hands, that we presumed
the nudiance were principally communi.
cants, or certainly sincere catholics. -
Their manner of conducting the exercises
appeared to be by q we'll studied form,
which is described IN their books; and their
uniform manner Of kneeling rising and
sitting, ut set times, and together, indicated
that thew had their lessons we'll studied -
The speaker commenced by reading por.
tion Of scripture, commencing Matthew
XXI vl3, commented on it, and proceeded
TO preach charity sermon, exhorling his
hearers to give freely to relieve the poor
and distressed, saying that the rich should
give freely oftheir abundance 10 the church
for the poor, or they would not deserve to
be considered as christians. Nothing was
said Of other denominations or Of Their own
peculiar tenets, but much Of liberality 10
the poor. 1t was, in fact moral discourse,
though often referring to the examples Of
the apostles and early christians, and to
Christ as the head of the church.
The sermon was succeeded by the same
delightful music, which was continued un-
iii the close of the exercises, and until the
audiance withdrew.
There appeared to be some er 8 priests
and assistants, besides some s or 8 boys
apparently 10 Of II years old, Those
priests and boys were constantly, except
during the sermon, performing service
n r L.