The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-09-28

EAUTIfyL ARE THE FEET OF THEM
NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY MO.
Before you set out, and for the last week, You
have been the subjects of no little censure, no
little ridicule Bless God for it. 1t is poor
Not only be content, but be thankful, that
your act of piety, which has about il the
tokens of faith, should receive these tokens Of
reality from the world that does not believe
And there are some other critics who are in
such haste to condemn that. like men who are
precipitate, not only their lips stammer, but
also their pens and their intellect It is not
sire to say, in few plain English words, what o
pilgrimage is, and what Your pilgrimage is,
and think you will let mo undertake to an
sTer for you, While you are gone First Of all,
sacred place: Pelgrimages began early in the
history of Christianity. They began with the
crucifxion of our Divine Master, and the first
multitudes Of those who believed in Him fock-
ed together to the spot where the seven last
words were spoken, where the precious blood
trickled upon the ground, and where Jesus
gave up the ghost and the world was redeemed.
Calvary, then " as the first place of pilgrimage,
and so great was the multitude that those who
hated Christianity stirred up the people, and
UulhO u AodOu0u toulpl6 lull Oh AUOInluaLlOu
upon the very spot where the Cross had stood,
to render it impossible that q Christian foot
should ever be set in that place. And what
the oty9 Of Their phI sg 1t
devotion to His kingdom: The place was
sacred for His sake. Bethlehem, and Bethany,
and NAZARETH, and Gethsemane, and Mount
and Palestine is the Holy Land, and men have
gone, from the beginning of Christianity and
in all ages, and 60 to this day, over those
roads which the feet of Jesus trod, to those
cities where Jesus rested. and to those places
sacred to His memory, drawn thither by the
vividness of faith and the fervor of alteration.
This, then, is q pilgrimage, aud its motive
asked, what has this to do with Paray-le-Mo-
NAL? At least it has this to do with it. It
shows that pilgrimage to q sacred place is q
natural and reasonable thing, worthy of all
Monial q sacred placef Brethren, will begin
with a fact which the world cannot deny, and
then will go on to an explanation which the
world may question. but cannot dlsprove. The
fact with which begin is the devotion of the
Sacred Heart. The loving veneration for the
human heart of jesus deifed by union with
His Divine Person is at this moment devotion
spread throughout the Universal Church; it
almost say in every parish. In every church
and in every san airy there is either an Altar
of the Sacred Heart, or q shrine, or picture,
or statue. There are treatises Of theology,
manuals of devotion, books for children, all
con tanning this devotion of the Sacred Heart
Next after devotion to the Holy Sacrament,
comes the devotion of the Sacred Heart, spread
east and west throughout the Catholic Church.
For two centuries it has been established in
the hearts of Catholics generation after gen.
GRAFTON. 1t pervades the faithful, from the
oldest to the youngest 1 ask whence did it
arise? From Paray -le- Monial. Here is world
vida fact which traces its origin to the spot to
which you are going. This the world cannot
IL n SiSihIa ia r. in histOrv a
visible fact of sense and reason, and is unde-
niable. The world may indeed deny the ex-
PLANTATION of the fact, and! those who utterly
disbelieve in supernatural order, and in the
revelation of Christianity, may deny it with
consistency but no Christian man can with
consistency deny the Interpretation which we
give. To explain this world wide fact, arising
from the meditation of poor, despised Sister
of the Visitation, by any natural reason or by
any natural causes, is q demand upon my Gre
dulity which goes beyond the bounds of my
faith; and to believe that the Church of God,
so Jealous of its truth, SO jealous of its piety,
so Jealous of the devotion of it's children, to
whom the rule of faith is the rule of prayer,
should have admitted, and sanctioned, And
taught, and spread abroad the devotion of the
Sacred Heart, if it had not been an inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, is thing that surpasses
my belief We therefore ascribe the rise of
this devotion to the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, and We therefore account the place
where the devotion had its origin as sacred.
We call the whole world to witness the fact.
PLANTATION. Further, in the history of Mar
Earet Mary we read that the mode in which
our Divine Master inspired her with this
devotion was by manifesting Himself to
her, and the way in which He SO manifest
ed himself was this: She saw Him suf-
fused by an intensity of light; she beheld His
sacred heart enveloped, as it were, in flame,
girdled with thorns, surmounted with cross,
and these words came to her" Behold the
heart that has loved man SO much, and has
been loved so little" Here is the origin of the
devotion of the Sacred Heart, and il any one
who believes in Christianity can coldly object
to what relate, will say, Do you believe
that Jesus appeared to Saul on the way to
Damascus in q light above the splendor of the
sum- Do You believe that Stephen saw the
glory of God and Jesus standing at the right
in the Temple, Jesus manifested Himself again
to Paul, and bade him go out from Jerusalem,
for they would not receive his testimony Do
You believe that the beloved disciple, as he
writes in the Apocalypse, saw the Son of Man
clothed in white garment, and girded about