The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-09-12
1roRErHa sTAz AND CAzH0LIc HESskNe GEE
- -,,Sc1T sTPTES1BER il, 1909.
-
Tho Growth Of Mission


,r.,,t,, veara ago. ON one winters evening.
- cerscns met together at the residence OF
one of their number in the principal etreec %
az PROVINCIAL town in England, which, not to be
= :P IA I will refer to as D.. They
rat for conference that was dessineu 10 leau
TO very important results, affecTing tne r en-
fbolics !: indeed the room where they had met /
contained all the avowed and practical adult
Catholics in B, with one exception: al,
that is to say, whose attachment to tneir reIl-
zion was sufficiently strong to cause them to
faire with anything like regularity the tnree
miles journey which was Indispensable before
+Le B--ites could assist at Mass or other
religious offices. 1t is true, on the great high
iiays and holy days of the year-notably, on
Cbristmas-day or Easter Sunday-three or tour
and performed the journey, in accordance with
:. custom very common with lax Catholics, es-
necially from the Sister Island. In giving in
vitations for the present meeting, tnese inter,
fhey were by no means forgotten, but often
spoken of during the conference as SO much
raw material that might be worked upon, t nor
yoracticability of revivinS che ancient worship
within B, a locality, as one OF the assem-
bly, remarked with pious pride, that was ffdi5
chung traditions of Catholic piety, ana OF that
warm, genial and uncalculating charity that
characterized 1nonhstic foundations OF by
zone age before the best impulses OF the heart
were systematized, and Gods poor We're trans
ferred from the loving care of religion to the
hard treatment of political economy.
Four of the six were females, to Tlfossi she
long tourney to Mass, to the nearest ehapel to
the town, was always irksome, and who were
absolutely precluded, except In the most ia
vorabIe weather, and during the long evenings
of summer, from attendance at Vespers. OF
the males who were present, one was aged and
performed the journey with difficulty. The
other MFR. Bichester, under whose roof and at
whose instance the meeting took place, was
not vet past the prime of life, and for him per-
sonaliy the distance had nothing repellant.
But he was q man of eminently unselfsh char
acter. Moreover, he was animated by an ear
nest reverence for his religion, and desire for
its extension. 1t was his proudest boast that
his ancestors, amid the blight of religion in
England, nay, even though the fire of perseeu-
ton had reached Rnds had not spared them,
never swerved from the ancient faith, in obe-
dienee to king or parliament; and throughout
life he had sighed to initiate, in a humble way,
their zeal and their sacrifices for the truth.
We have intimated that there was q notable
absence from n sss had a sss
fled about four years before in one of the
sg shs o Mrs M sSs Il q h al a ss
regular attendants at Mass, Notwithstanding
the length of the journey, and q concatenation
o. ha 1ne mere Sasaogae 81 nS r.
peating the entire catalogue-was almost I'M
endurable, TO say nothing of the infirmities
themselyes Nearly every Sunday morning, be
fore many signs of life were observable in
R=-, the good woman might have been
ssisl essIStsn her slow but sseady pFogrssss
ter's this evening rested with herself. She had
sent message BY one of the neighbors in re-
ply TO the invitation to be present, "that she
would excuse her having q touch of the sciati-
ca, and o very bad stroke of rheumatic in one
of her legs, and power of pains, all over her
thonght of q poor old creetnr such as her but
really it were impossible she could come out"
Between ourselves, the good soul magni6ed
her disorders on this occasion, if she never did
30 on any other. Her private reason for alb
se1ting herself, as she explained to the neigh
Dor who carried the message, was that she
lknowed hsr place, praised be the Lord, better
tho likes of her, indeed! 1t were hard lines
sometimes to go-al the way to chapel, special
~ in the wet, and great blessing it would be
surely If it could be brought higher; but they
could do that without her.
In truth, Mrs. Bridget Flanagan might have
spared her modesty, for Mr; Bichester had a
two others of the same class who were present
Tim Brady, the cobbler, and Mrs. Lucas, an
old lady who received weekly trifie from the
Union, and eked ont Subsistence by tho sale
of pins, stay-laces, and other feminine necessi-
4ies-+with as free welcome and profound n
respect rs If they were the highest mobiles of
the land. Mr. Bichester knew that they had
made sacrih for consciousness sake-had dared
being sent to Coventry, had lost customers !;
there were persons who had eyon declined to
they discovered that she was a Papist-and
sacrifices for conBcience's sake were TO him
true patents of nobility. Nor did he regard
such patents of nobility in the light in which
others are regarded, and value them tho more
for the generations they had run. On the con-
trary, while he regarded himself as ennebled
by his ancestors, safferings, he gave precedence
TO Tim Brady and % old Mrs. Lucas, because
their mobility was earned by their own person
al sacrifice and endurance.
When the little gathering separated that
night, resolution had been come to that If ii
could be procured they should hire q small
school-room abutting on the principal street
of B., and contiguous to the dwellings of
most of those present, and commence by reci-
ting night prayers and the Rosary together on
Sunday evenings and three times week dur
ing the then approaching Lent Mr. Bichester
had at first thought of Offering his own draw
ing-room for the purpose Of meeting, but a
little reflection convinced him that o larger
number OF persons were likely to come to n
more public place. The sohool-room was ac-
cordingly secured, though oven this.was not
accomplished without difficulty. A dirty lit
tie place it was, at the bottom of O dirty
little yard, where few dirty little children
received during the week little cheap eduoa-
tion; and q bill announcing IL to be let for
evening meetings had been so long exhibited.