The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-06
0N-CATH0LIC MISSIONS
AND THEIR RESULTS
(Bv Rev. A. r DovleN

Ihere are very few who come to the
church by conversion who have not
some bitter trials to undergo. A min
lister who had been received into the
church in England few years ago
recently informed me that his wife
Keeps up a bitter opposition. "She
threatens to steal away the children
and send them to her folks in Eng
land, and latterly she is devising ways
and means of having me declared in
sane, so that my charge of the chill
dren may be destroyed, and my in
nuence over them may be Weakened
story came from Los Angeles A
young lady of good family and some
social distinction, after due instruc-
uon, was received into the church at
a mission by the Paulist fathers
Though the young lady was of age,
yet, nevertheless, she sought and Sc
cured the consent of her mother Her
father was so bitterly opposed to the
step that she knew it was useless to
consult him in the matter at all.
While she made no concealment of
her reception in the church. yet she
did not go out of her way to inform
him of it, because she knew it would
cause a scene. Her conversion finally
came to his knowledge. One morning
at breakfast she found under her plate
statement from her father as fol-
lows: Il have my will made, under
which you are a beneficiary to the ex-
tent of $4,000. If you will renounce
the Catholic church it will stand If
you do not by this day week, it will
be so modified that at my death you
will be homeless and penniless." 1t
trio fn 20
The step to the church had not been
made thoughtlessly. The young con-
vert was mindful of the consequences,
and the sudden precipitation of the
calamity did not shake her steadfast
purpose. When the appointed time
came around she gave her father a
quiet, determined answer Father -
said she, my soul is worth more than
$4,000 / would not do what you ask
for all the wealth of the world
While l was giving some non Cath
Ole missions in a western state,'' said
missionary of our acquaintance, II
received a long letter from a young
lady, school teacher in a small coun-
try town. She said she was deeply in
terested in the Catholic church. but
much troubled about certain obiec-
tons, which she had been anxiously
studying for over year; she had seen
reports of my lectures in the newspa-
perS, and so wrote to me. She then
gave list of her difficulties. adding
that there was no priest in her town
and very few Catholics, none whom
she could consult. l prepared care
fully an elaborate answer to her OBJ
jections and mailed it. But her reply.
which came. Immediately, surprised me.
She said that the moment she had
mailed her first letter to me she felt
ashamed of herself, for she then per-
ceived plainly that her difficulties were
not rooted in her intelligence, but were
only the evidence other timidity. And
then she informed me that she had
gone at once to neighboring town,
called on the parish priest, and placed
herself under instruction.
Then her troubles began, or rather
thickened, for she had encountered
bitter opposition all along. Her parents
insisted that she should wait till she
was of age, for she lacked a year of
being her own mistress. They brought
against her the village minister, but
she assured me that she had vanquish-
ed them all. At last she was received
into the church, and God granted her
the usual consultations and spiritual
joys of newly received converts, per-
haps even more. And certainly her
fortitude was specially rewarded,
when, after a few years of waiting,
her soul was stirred with Gods call
to a life of prayer, seclusion and chant
in the Order of the Good Shepherd.