The record-union., 1897-08-16
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN POLAND.
Intense Devotion and Piety of the
Common People.

| The amount of real fervor-for going
| to church here is not dreamed. of as a
thing that looks we'll; it is too COM
mon, too universal, too vulgar Qf l may
say so) to be in the slightest degree re-
| spectable-is, of course, a quantity
known to God alone Yet, if we may
! judge by certain exterior signs, luke
warmness is by no means the short
comings of Polish Catholics. Look at
that old woman, hobbling into church
She bears on her arm, l am sorry 20
say, her purchases from the market;
| sometimes a couple of fowls are heard
| cackling in her basket; sometimes a
! heavy thump on the pavement breaks
bottle of vinegar, or of sour beetroot
| juice for the barSZeZ at dinner. Put she
comes in, kneelS down, and lifts up both
hands in prayer in the attitude of a
priest saying the Collects Presently
sighs are heard; tears trickle down her
cheeks, she is so absorbed that she
does not hear the crowd passing to and
fro, and jostling her; for she has knelt
right in the middle of the passage up
the nave And now she bends down,
touching the pavement with her fore
head, in an ecstacy of devotion, and re-
mains in that posture till the end Of
mass. Her action is not at all extra
ordinary; you may count hundreds in
| the very same attitude. Sometimes a
peasant or a working man win stretch
himself PROSTATE on the pavement, with
his arms extended and his hands open,
as If crucified. I have a painful re-
membrance of one such case. The
church was crammed, and those who
wanted to get to the communion table
had to push and struggle, so dense was
the press. One of Them not noticing
the man lying on the ground, accident
ally set his foot upon the penitents
fingers 1 saw the lifted heel from a
distance, and, unable to prevent its
coming down, could hardly keep from
calling out in church. But the man
who lay there did not even stir.
At the moment of the elevation, and
often at any very striking passage i'm
a sermon, people will be heard to utter
a long "Ah-h-hi" of astonishment and
devotion. These simple, childish, out
bursts (Which, in truth, are the reverse
of extraordinary, if we remember that
all Catholics believe that Christ be-
comes really present on the altar at
that solemn momenD are rarer in towns
but very frequent in the country I
once was present at the opening ser
mon of mission preached by four
Jesuit fathers, at the rate of six ser
mons day. for a couple of weeks, to
a congregation of about twelve thous
and peasants, come from all the neigh
boring villages. The sermons were. of
course, delivered in the open air. out-
side the church. The father sp. IN
vigorous, homely language, and 4
louder and louder, more and mo .e-
hemently earnest as he went on. -ftsr
some time, / became aware of a strange,
thrilling tremulous sound, somewhat
like the many noises of a running
brook, that filled the pauses between
each sentence. 1t was the suppressed
weeping of the whole assembly, unable
to repress their emotion, and I saw
not only the women but the men with
big tears running down their rough
cheeks. 1t made a peculiar and quite
unexpected impression upon me, for the
stolid. heavy faces had seemed to de-
note anything but an impressionable
raee.-The New Review.