The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-08-06
LEO ON COLU MBUS.
Continued from First Page.
INSPIRED BEYOND HUMAN INTEREST.

! lNSPlRED BEYOND HUMAN INTEREST,".
Also, it he had not inspired himself
from a cause superior to human inter-
ests, where then would he have drawn
the constancy and the strength of SOIL!
| to support what he was obliged to the
end to endure and to submit to; chat is
| to say, the unpropitious advice Of this
learned people, the repulses Of Princes,
the tempests of the furious ocean, the
| continual watches, during which he more
! than once risked losing his sight. !
TO that add the combats sustained
against the barbarians, the infde]ities OF
his friends, of his companions, the VII
famous conspiracies, the Righteousness
of the envious, the calumnies OF the ira
ducers, the chains with which, after all,
though innocent, he was loaded. 1t was
inevitable that g. man overwhelmed with
| burden of trials SO great and SO lntenss
would have succumbed had he not GUS
tanned himself by the consciousness OF
fulfilling very noble enterprise which
he conjectured would be glorious for
| the Christian name and salutary for an
| infuite multitude.
| And the enterprise so carried out is
admirably illustrated by the events of
that time. In effect, Columbus discov-
cred America at about the period when
a great tempest was going to unchain
itself against the Church. Inasmuch as
it is permitted by the course of events to
appreciate the ways of Divine Provi-
dence, it really seems that the man for
whom the Liguria honors herself was
destined by special plan of God to COM
pensate Cath. licism for the injury which
it was gong to suffer in Europe.
To call the Indian race to Christianity
this was without doubt the mission
and the work of the Church in this mis-
sion. From the beginning she continued
to fulfill it with an uninterrupted course
of charity, and she still continues it,
having advanced herself recently SO far
as the extremities of Patagonia, As to
Columbus, certain as he was to tracing
out and of preparing the ways of the
gospel, and, fully absorbed in this
thought, causing all his actions to con-
verge to it, not undertaking anything of
any kind but under the shield of reli-
gion and with the escort of piety, we re-
call in this, in reality, things which are
we'll known, but which are not less re-
narkable, in order to show forth the
mind and heart of this great man,
MATURED THE PLAN IN CONVENT.
Thus, when compelled by the Portu-
guese, by the Genoese, to leave without
having obtained any result, he went to
lSpain. He matured the grand plan of
the projected discovery in the midst of
the walls of a convent, with the knowl-
edge of and with the advice of q Monk
Of the order of st. Francis d'Assissi after
seven years had revolved. When at last
he goes to dare the ocean he takes care
that the expedition shall comply with
the acts OF spiritual expiation; he prays
to the Queen of Heaven to assist the
enterprise and to direct it's course, and
before giving the order to make sail he
invokes the august Divine Trinity.
Then, once fairly at sea, while the waters
agitate themselves, while the crew muir
. murs, he maintains under Gods care g
calm constancy Of mind.
His plan manifests itself in the yery
names which he imposes on the new i'll