The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-04-19
Religious Spirit in Germany and Bavaria

The services in the churches are yerv
very touching, and in true and SINCERE
fervor cannot be surpassed in any lana
The interior of the churches are not tA as
ranged as ours, having no pews and brit few
seats. In the oldest and largest churches
there are many chapels around the briId1
ings containing small affairs and q grand
altar toward one end. Several masses ara
often being celebrated at the same TIM
which cause the people to stream in and
out all the morning, some departing for
home after having heard a mass finished
at this or that altar whilst others are iust
beginning. At High Mass the cathedral ia
crowded, the entire space being filed with
kneeling worshippers. About one half Of
the congregation follow the mass in song,
The effect is truly wonderful when sud.
denly a thousand voices burst forth in
canticles of praise and thanks to God.
waiting the soul from the scenes of earth
to the throne of mercy on high. Here one
fully realizes being in o temple of worship.
where no distinction is made, the rich and
poor bowling together in sincere alteration
and singing in like praise with the same
earnest heart felt love.
The German congregations are not com.
posed of women alone as Herbert Spencer
would have us believe, but fully one half
are men. There is the soldier in his uni.
form and the officer with his epaulet. By his
side bend the laborer, lie his coarse dress
and the merchant and professional man in
costly apparel. Here is the servant-maid
with her white cap and the dame of higher
pretentions in her velvets. Freedom of
opinion and the churches are not much re-
garded now in some parts of Germany,
but there lives, Notwithstanding, in the
breasts of these quiet transformations PEG.
pie a true and genuine fervor for religion
and the Church. They love Germany, and
will do nothing to disturb the civil power
or bring trouble on their government, but
such thing as yielding one single dogma
of their church CT abandoning her teach.
ings, has never entered their minds or
crossed their souls. There is not to-day
on earth, people who would more quickly
spurn every idea of yielding their Church
to any king or sovereign, aud well do the
Old Catholics will absolutely die out with.
out making single pervert aud leave no
fame behind but the shame of having at.
tempted something without name or
success.
The spirit that led these people through
blood and desolation, through suffering
and death, amidst destroyed homes and
burnt villages and cities for thirty years. to
battle against the Swedes under their great
captain and king, still lives, and when the
day arrives the sovereign who attempts it
will find as stubborn a spirit still alive az
ever existed in the breasts of their fore.
fathers. A people who have chapels on
their mountain sides, who climb to dizzy
heights and boldly push their way to lonely
crags over perilous icefelds to erect an
emblem of their faith. who place ehrines
in their fields and work from day to day
through summers sun or q winters frost
with an ensign before them ever reminding
them of their Church and their God, area
not to be changed to suit the whims of any|
patient, as their religion teaches them to
be, but they are as firm and steadfast as
their faith and the Church. have never
heard a murmur from one in regard to-
Church affairs, and I have never seen a.
more edifyipg display Of piety and true
devotion, than in Germany. On entering
Bavaria it is easy to perceive that one is
from the church tops, and is by the road
! side an the shrine, is in the field and on
| the mountains cragg. The matin bell,
| calling to mass, awakens you frem your
| morning slumbers, and the pealing of tho
| vesper notes at eve tell of departing day
titude hurryipg to prayer. There stands
quantity rooted old building, strange
beyond description ; the moss of age hangs
on the walls and covers the roof-stone;
tombs and ancient figures surround it,.
Here is one with an inscription in Latin,
there one in old German. They date far
back in the past, and many of them are
illegible from the wear of years, but you
read enough to see that they come up from
the time of st. Bonifacius, almost from the
days of the Druids and forest-g gods, the
days of legends and the pagan Romans,
through all these years have come here,
generation after generation, to worship IN
the same faith, hope and love. War, op-
preston, violence and wrong have come
and passed, and still they hurry to this
spot to breathe a holy prayer. They have
never doubted or dreamed of deserving tins
old church, and never wiil.-Cerrsspondea'
Louisville ADVOCATE.
WOOD, Coal BRICKS, SAND, ETC Those OF