The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-07-17
rA,uAn1,s LOVE or so1lfuDx.


city, and bad related what they had seen and
4 heard, in the high-c olored language of en-
thusiasm they awakened in the excited peo
would ssl n nos be 81 ress they had
, and heard also this strange and mysterioui
parsonage. Fns very Same day, therefore, they
left the city and undertook, guided by thu
through brambles, through sssp6s and en-
tangled creepers-leading to the distant and
lone Dwelling of the old philosopher.
footed, as if some great purpose had taken bold
of his whole being, and he had resolved to
execute Some bold project, such a. might en-
tirely free him from the uneongenial throng OF
} importunate intruders, and throw forever be-
tween him and them the passless immensely
of the most barren wilderness. He was grow
;ad s 30
sought and found in the safe remoteness of the
primeval wastes Standing on tip-toe, statue
like, listful and breathless he looked like the
frightened buffalo that has just heard the re-
sounding stroke of the axe and the crack of the
/ ride, and Is ready to bound, and, in his rapid
tight, disappear behind the vast horizon of the
setting sun, never again to be seen grazing in
I his native savannah. Tammany's practised
ear had caught the distant sound of fast
coming steps and confused voices
| At that moment all around, nature seemed
sad and stormy, as though she felt the heavings
| of that great soul, which knew SO well how to
read in her least atom the disclosures of God /;
| she seemed to await some unwonted event,
l
| spot at the horizon. The aged anchoret's head
| was reclining against the trunk of q large lau-
rel rel tree and he could be heard giving vent to
ingly, and as if speaking to some invisible
friend, from whom he had not a secret in his
hearts very core, thus revealing the Utmost
ed solitariness: [" Can, then, there be no peace
on earth, no safety anywhere, no undsturbed
| solitude, no impossible abyss, no craggy bull
wa1k aga;1st in99isitive intrusion and tire
| of the dove, or that was dweller with the
eagle on some inaccessible, Appalachian rock!
On, that were become like to the pelican of
bounded freedom! Oh, that could be graded
in the bosom Of the remotest solitude, not
chafed evermore by the crowding of uncon-
Of the saints, who had cut all ties and snapped
all bonds asunder, that they might fly away
and be with God alonew
Thus was he soliloquizing, when, environed
by the multitude, he turned to ards them and
began his farewell homily, which has in it so
much of the wild fragrance of the desert, by
which it was inspired:
ctv Sa men o. the the and
universe. The form of visible things is but q |
picture of things invisible. God can be read |
ana understood in nature, as in book. Omnis |
natura Deum loqnitur, omnis natura homiaem /
docee. All inferior animals with their families,
shapes, colors, cries, manners and peculiarities,
represent ideas in the divine mind, and are
IL
is mystic sympathy between the souls of
saints and all parts of creation. All things in
nature and grace are beautiful as well wise,
beautiful because the beauty Of God clines to
them in virtue of their origin, and to the very
last there is something worshipfnl in the least
of them, because that cliDging beauty never |
altogether leaves them.
In the kingdom of grace, the law which has
the fewest exceptions, is the one which rules
that supernatural things shall graft themselves
rEo 70 <hofa ..
devotional attraction is for the most part con-
genial to his natural turn of mind. Nature
and grace act in concert
Every man, doubtless, has q vocation 80 |
every spiritual man has devotional attrac-
ton, or q succession of them. It would be sad
to miss so choice grace by inattention, sadder
stead of heavenly reality. Let, then, each
man look well to see if he has not within him !
self q leading from God; and if he has, let
follow it. +.
He who misses his vocation, is like fainting
traveller who has lost sight of the caravan in
who has fallen overheard, and is left behind .
BY the swift vessel, soon to sink down and be
entombed amidst the enguling waves: ]
God intends each of us for particular work |
and gives MS the number and kind of graces
requisite to fit US for that work. He gives us I
lght up to given point and no further, grace ,
'ne sort, not of another. He has dispositions {
about us, both in reference to natural 2
and to our supernatural correspond
'nce to His grace. It is of Immense importance I
% us to know what Gods particular DISPOSE q
ions are about yourselves. 1t would be diff
ult to exaggerate the fearfulness of hinderinR Q
vocation, especially when we consider how r
'ften, not the perfection only, but the actual
aviation OF the soul is compromised by it's
Iisobedfence to the call. God has absolute /
light to us. 1t is our business to be tohere He ,
wants us, and occupied in the corE He specifies y
nd we have no right to be anywhere else, or n
sherwise engaged. r
A secluded life, far from men, may cover the
Ehole earth with it's activity, if it be life of
Vorshlp, while the conqueror, the statesman, l,
r the man of letters have at most but circle
Vhich they only influence partially, and in U
Vhich their influence is but one of many in
uences. Worship alone is power, intellectual O.
hapge and all benefcent revolution. The C
oul of love is prayer. Prayer reaches every ~
here. Neither time nor place bound it. Yet :
he age is against prayer. Oh, for faith in 1
rayeri But, we must not be sur n
rised, says st. Bonaventura when we see
ersons well engaged in active life marmuring 81
gainst their brother who is devoted to the
ontemplative; for we read in the Gospel that
D did Martha against Mary but that Mary v
,urmured against Martha, because she would o
OF initiate her actions, we find nowhere. :.
The love of God brings many new instincts "
ito the heart. Heavenly and noble as they ii
re, they bear no resemblance to what we =,
Tould call the finer and more heroic develop ~
lent of character. A spiritual discernment is 81
ecessary to their right appreciation. They h
re- SO unlike the growths OF earth, that they :,
xpect to meet with only suspicion, misunder- u