The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1868-05-03
A votive Mass at St. Joseph's.

pilgrimages, ETC., are of frequent occur
renee, offered in moments of>great peril OF
other extremity; and performed after sue
cessful issue from such situations. Along
the coast many a church and chapel is en-
bellished with statues, paintings, and jew
elry offered by the gratitudeof of shipwrecked
msriners in honor of the Maris Stella, or
81. Joseph, OF ST. Iannarins, after a deliver
ance through their intercession apparently,
from impending death. Among the Alpine
crags, travellers constantly meet with little
shrines containing rude image of the
Holy Mother, before which there is fresh
garland of flowers ever renewed, or a lamp
ever burning. These commemorate some
escape from an avalanche, or wolves, OF rob-
bers, and are the fulflment of vows made
by faith when human hope had failed.
In our country, people generally live
without much thought of God. His constant
consciousness with them, an essential ele-
ment of their inner life, as with the Catholic
populations of older countries. We do
not habitually place our houses under the
protection of one saint, our crops under
that of another, and our cattle of third.
We do not apply to one of the holy
denizens of heaven to protect us from mid
night robbers, and to another to help us
find a lost pocketbook or pencil.
Not having, then, habitually, this intimate
sense of the presence of God, and the pro-
lection of his saints, when the moment of
extreme peril comes, when he stands face
to face with death in his angry mood, the
American may utter the name of God with
that instinct which never leaves the human
heart, but only as the widest expression of
despair. Under similar circumstances the
Italian or the Spaniard turns to Him with
hope founded on thousands of recognized
mercies, and still looks for assistance to
those saints whom he has known as friends
and protectors from childhood.
We will not stop here to inquire if this
devotion of the Catholic gives him any
greater temporal security than he wo1ld
have without it. The storm RACES his
vessel is about to perish he makes a vow
to the Virgin that if she will bring him
safely to port, he viii place q coronet of
gold at the feet of her statue in the first
chapel he can reach. Will this calm the
wild waves, or Tighten the sinking ship Z?
At any rate, the thousands of shrines splen-
didly decorated in fulfilment of such vows,
attest the belief, on that subject, of the
parties most interested. Men of all climes.
colors, dispositions, and conditions, have
given their testimony on this question,
often at great cost to themselves, both of
treasure and of personal Inconvenience.
Have all these men been totally mistaken,
when they asserted that the interpretations
in their favor were too marked to be called
accidents
AS the spirit of faith overspreads this
country, it, too, will become a land of hope
in the supernatural, of vows, and shrines
Already instances have occurred among us of
religious acts performed in accomplishment
OF vows made in peril of life. In fact, these
reflections have been suggested by votive
high mass which was offered up, last Mon
day, in st. Joseph's Church, of this city, in
thankfulness for the preservation of some
sailors on a recent occasion.
During the storms which ragged along our
coast a week or two since, q schooner be-
longing to this city, was caught by the
tempest in an exposed position on the Gulf
We have all read of the destruction wrought
by that gale where wharves, shipping, or
houses were exposed to it's violence. This
schooner was tossed about in it's fury, until
her condition became such that her crew
despaired of their lives. One of their num-
Der was already swept off by the waves and
drowned. Finally, when nothing more
could be done by human agency, the re-
naming men, six or seven in number,
asked of st. Joseph to obtain their deliver
ance from their fearful danger, pledging