The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-04-05

IND CATHOLIC MESSENGER. S
day erect a gorgeous temple upon the sight
of the shanty in which now he celebrates
the rites of his church in the presence OF a
few railroad laborers.
While these successive multitudes have
been gathering and dispensing, something
has been going on in the basement OF st.
Stephen's-a long, low room extending from
street to street, and fitted up for a children,s
chapel and Sunday school room. The Pro-
testant reader, it is safe to say, has never
attended Catholic Sunday school, but he
shall now have the pleasure of doing 3d.
1t ought to be n pleasure only to see two or
three thousand children gathered together;
but there is n particular reason why Pro-
testant should be pleased at Catholic Sun
day school. Imitation is the sincerest hon.
age. The notion of the Sunday school is
one of several which our Roman Catholic
brethren have Borrowed from us. This
church, hoary and wrinkled with age, does
not disdain to learn from the young and
bustling churches to which>it has given all
they have The Catholic Church, however,
claims share in the invention, since for
many ages, it has employed boys in the. Gel
ebration of it's worship, and has given those
boys q certain training to enable them to
fulfill their vocation. Still, the Sunday
school, as now constituted, is essentially OF
Protestant origin. Indeed, the energetic
and truly catholic superintendent of ST.
Stephens school, Mr.. Thomas =. 5. Dwyer,'
informed me that, before the beginning OF
this school, he visited all the noted Sunday
schools in New York, Protestant, Catholic,
and Jewish, and endeavored to get from
each whatever he found in it suitable to his
purpose.
At one end of this exceedingly long base
ment room is a small, plain altar, with the
usual candles and other appnrtenances; and
on one side of the room, about midway, Is
a large cabinet organ, with an enclosure
about it for the choir of children who chant
the responses and psalms of the mass. On
the walls between each window are the
snowy pictures usually found in Catholic
institutions. At nine o'clock, when took
my seat in one of the pews OF this long, low
apartment, children with the reddest cheeks
and the warmest comforters were thunder
ing in, and diffusing themselves over the
floor-the girls taking one side of the room
and the boys the other. When MIR. Dwyer
began this school q few years ago, only two
hundred children attended, mere handful
in Catholic parish-but every teacher
! bound himself to visit each of his pupils
once Il month, and so endeavor to interest
the people in the school. The effect was
magical. Children came pouring IN, until
now the average attendance Is two thou
| sand, and there have been i'll the school at
enc session three thousand three hundred
and forty.
| The noise continued to increase till ten
minutes past nine, when nearly every pew
| was filled, and the side extensions follow
ing the cruciform plan of the church were
also crowded with the younger children,
seated upon benches, each bench having IL
teacher ut one end. Meanwhile, the can
dies of the altar had been lighted, the choir
had assembled, and the organ had been
opened. a bell tinkles. a priest is ut the
altar, attended by two boys, who had come
in unobservcd amid the confusion. The
knees, and every adult also, except the
lonely heather before mentioned. 1t was u
truly affecting spectacle-the rows of little
boys, with tall teacher at the head of each
row, all kneeling in the candid, upright
1 manner in which our Roman Catholic breth-
ever, IL great noise of boys coming i'll and
kneeling, and it was some minutes before
there was any general approach to silence.
This mass, like the early one in the church,
was performed without the priests uttering
, one audible word. The responses and the
/ psalm-like portions of the mass were sung
by the choir, which consisted of one man
one woman, and about twenty children
who sang very we'll, and very appropriate
music AS the priest said nothing, and the
: choir could not be understood, the children
were thrown, as it We're, upon their own re-
+ sources and those resources, it must be
owned, were insufficient. Many of the boys
f followed the service in their little prayer
books and most of them refrained from
' conversation There were always some
however, who kept up sly whispering il
4 the ears of their neighbors, and the eorn-
$ tenanccs of very large number were eX.
v pressive of-nothing.
n The supreme moment of the mass, an
c nounced by the ringing of the bell, is at the
L elevation of the Host. Now, for the frs
/, time during the service, there was silence
G in the room; and every head was bowed
+ while the priest said inaudibly, in Latin
: "Accept o Holy Father, Almighty, Eterna
e God, this Immaculate Host, which 1, Th,
$ unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my Ev'