The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-11-15
woRNIMG Star AID CATHOLIC lIESsxNGxR.1
z NEW oRLEANSs SUNDAY. NOVEMBER Is. 'ees
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WITH THE NUNS.
WITH THE MUNs.

a. much as am sorry ~ sssyS !.1huy o.AE0F.-
wise intelligent and fair minded Protestants
do for Knew that Papists did mot worship
images, or pray to saints as wo pray to
Christ; had NO urgent objection TO celiba-
cya on their part, was rather favorable than
Otherwise to 8 purgatory, on general pm
chapter Of the Gospel according to st. John.
Once we touched on the Catholic claim Of
miracles. have been nun" she said,
"for more than twenty years, have been q
great deal in different communities, some
Of them large ones, and I never saw Or knew
any one who had seen any thing Of the kind.
haze known, occasionally, those who sup
posed they had seen visions, and in theee
cases have generally called in the phyei-
clan, mot the priest, and under proper treat
naent they have usually disappeared. We
are taught not to anticipate such things
indeed, to suspect what appears at first to
look like them. But that God does, in
these. as in days gone by, in His own time
and way, miraculously attest the authority
Of His church and the efficacy OF PRAYER,
have no more question than have lii re.
gard to the reality of that usual order of
Providence which is the more common ex-
preston of His will. No new fact in sci
ence has to ran such O gauntlet OF criticism
and tests as o new miracle IN the CathoIic
Church but when, after the most careful
examination, it has been authenticated by
the Holy Father, we credit 1T as unreserv-
edly as we do those recorded i'll the New
Testament. And in this, we, as believers
in the Bible, are consistent-not you. Did
not Christ say that, when the Paraciete
was come. His disciples should do greater
things than he had donef Were not the
apostles, before commencing their ministry,
to wait at Jerusalem until they were endued
with poper from on highs You know how
that power was manifested on the day of
Pentecost. And at our S9ylo4r,s last mi
raculous appearance, before His ascension
into Heaven, did he not join with the very
obligation to perpetuate his religion the
promise of its perpetual dttestGtiOn by
catalogue of miracles as wonderful as any
You will find in Buffers Lives of the
Saints9'" And then she quoted the Douay
rendering of Mark xvi. Is, 20.
Among the nuns with whom I became
more or less acguainted-and there were
many of them-I did not see any one who
appeared dissatisfied or unhappy. There
was, of course, great diversity among them
start with-all ages, and all grades of the
intellectual scale. They did not all look
like madonnas, or talk like our mother SUI
perior; bat all did look as if they had found
their vocation, and were satisfied with 1t.
There certainly was no visible sign of re-
gret for the world, they had left behind.
That the means they employ, and the ends
they PROPOSE would not suit you, Protest
ant reader, is very far from being proof that
they may not be the best possible ones for
them. All over the G, ristian world there
are souls struggling for something above
the vulgar lows and sorrows of common
place existence, asking that their Lamp
of Sacrifice n-one of the deepest and d.
yinest principles that God has planted in
our clay, the one by which we are most
nearly His spiritual offspring, and, it may
be added, the one most IN need OF the
wisest human reason and the clearest hea-
venly guidance to trim and use aright-be
lighted by n noble enthusiasm and fed by
some transcendant mission, Such souls
usually make terrible shipwreck: this world
is no place for them its chill Is 1a1ai 10
flame, and the Promethean fire, once out,
is never lit again. There are those who
have struggled to accomplish such voca-
ton to the bearing of bitterer woes than
men will take for wealth. love, power or
fame No philosophy that ignores the spi-
ritual elements of humanity will explain
our many sided nature. Man does not 1--we
by bread alone.
Tt ia when he is clothed, and housed, and
fed, that he begins to be in want. He is
an animal, the king of animals, and some
of his rreatest mistakes arise from his lg-
noring this fundamental fact; but he il
something more. Bound up in his unsta-
bic mechanism are two warning natures
The harmonious indignation and develop
ment-the atone ent of these is the true
and final Office of science and religion.
Judging from the zeal of the Church IL
making proselytes, one might infer that il
was equally anxious to increase the mum
her of those who take upon them it's fina
VOWS. This, however, is not the case, ex
cept under important limitations. If, after
having been u lay member for a proper
time, one wishes to become nun, she mus
satisfy her spiritual director, and the supe
rior of the Convent to which she desires t.
attach herself, that she has true "voca
tion," as it is called, to such life. NJ
mere desire on her part to be nun, NJ
4 rNf
that NAV accrue to the order from her in
corporation in it, will determine even tn
first step in the process. The life is one o
complete seIf-abnegatiof and most arduou
labor. The postulant must be in soun'
health, body and mind, thoroughly devote'