The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-11
CATHOLIC MISSION ATTRACTS CROWDS Pope's Blessing Was Bestowed
 Upon Many Catholics IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES Solemn High Mass at St. PauI's Standardization to Catholics
 Closes Lectures This Week.
 Father McDavid.
IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES

last night with the papal blessing. Th' church was filled to its utmost capacity Lectures on the doctrines and practice of the Catholic church will be delivered thls week at St. Paul by the visiting mis- sloners, the exercises beginning ever. l night at 8 o'clock. Non-Catholics are es pecialy invited to hear the lectures. Th pastor states that there will be no con troversial matter in the lectures. At 10:30 a. m. a solemn high mass wa; sung at St. Paurs. The Rev. Father Elan ngan was celebrant, the Rev. Father Duff | fly was deacon and the Rev. Father Coyle was sub-deacon. Father Mcdonald of tho congregation of missions, occupied tho pulpit. The attendance was very large. In the afternoon at 3:3O o'clock tn, children of the parish assembled in tho ritual.
 At solemn high mass Father McDonalt spoke as follows:
 Missioner's Sermon.
 If any man have not regard of hi, own, especially those of his house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse thar an infidel."
 Both God and nature impose the great. est responsi bilities; strict obligations ant sacred duties upon parents. Holding His place over their children, and subject tc Him alone in the exercise of authority over them. God expects that they qualify themselves well for their noble charge and fit themselves well for that sacred duty
 The physical development, the mora taining, the moulding of the child's char acter Its the greatest work under heaver | given to parents by God, and therefore they should study the worN they art | to perform, they should realize the bene- | fits that will accrue from it, and they l should know how to perform that worl | well.
 My friends, when chilfren arc seut tt | school by their parents, the parents OK | pect that those who nave been appointed | to teach the children shall have fitte' 1 themselves by a long course of culture | and education for so high and noble ; | duty. And if the teachers of the chil | dren are expected to be so well qualified | for the great work, how much more II | the natural order and how much more il | reason should be expected from the pa | rents themselves, who are the first edu cators of the children, and whose plac, | no one else can fulfill.
 l EarCnIS SnOnlu De well impressed WILL l the nobility and dignity of their state | The world praises the genius that throw | symmetry and beauty into the temple into the work of sculpture into the paint l ing into the poem but the genius of pa | renthood far surpasses such geniuses, be
 cause when the marble that all -bu
 breathes shall have crumbled, and tn
 pillars of the temple shall be broken | when the painting shall have faded ant l fa1 fnto n VI tba | thought shall lie buried In their vellur pride, the work of parental genius shal | he only in it's freshness and it's mora
 beauty and goodness The soul of the chil that has been moulded to morality ant goodness shall be an eternal honor to tn | name and the memory of the parents, wh' | have so 1abored upon their greatest slf | that God can bestow upon man-the sou | of the child.
 Child's Education.
 Therefore. parents should be carefu
 to start properly in the education of tn
 child. They should first see that its pow ! CTS and faculties are unfolded in Sucl | way that 1t will realize, first of all, tn
 reason of Its existence. It may not knoy
 why it exists, but the parent should thin
 for the chlio and impress it as its year
 go on m the tender times of childhoo
 and youth, should impress 1t with wha
 it was made for. and why it is here, an
 whither it is going. The first birthrigh
 of every human being coming into thi | heknowledgeofwhence abgkq 1 world is the knowledge of whence 1t cam
 and whlther 1t must go. The first knowl
 edge by which man knows the meanin | of his life, knows what he has to liv for; and secondly how he should live.
 Therefore, the parents in unfolding tn child's soul should teach it first of all c God and of heaven, and teach it of tn | way to live for God and the way to g | to heaven This beautiful young soul. s | lmpressionable, so susceptible to the les
 sons that the parents teach 1t by wor
 and example. Is the most precious thin | In the sight of heaven, and therefore
 by parental love should be most careful
 guarded and taught.
 l And how will the parent teach the child | First of all by example, and secondly b
 word. That is the way that Jesus Chris
 taught humanity. That is the way tha
 God teaches us. He sent His Son int
 the world to teach us by the example c
 His life, how we should live, and H
 sends children to parents. and at tn
 same time imposes on the parents tn
 duty % teaching them by their lives hoy
 to live The life of the parent therefore
 is the example and mould tfohQYl
 Is the example and mould of the child.
 Clean Ancestry.
 In order that parents lives may b
 what they should be in the ligh of the Christian doctrine of the ,gospe | of Jesus Christ and of the state of mat
 rimony, they should begin their qualif1 cations, not indeed at the moment tha they enter into the marriage state. be cause there is no material change i 1 matrimony-it can never render unfitnes 1 fit, and therefore. if people assume tn responsibilities of the marriage state an 1 the training of children. in the days |
 which they prospect that state, that the time in which they should begin t
 qualify themselves for its noble an
 high duties And when they assume 1t
 practice then they will be properl
 trained. both morally and physically, t
 go through with it. Too often-too ofte | children come into this world under a least physical curse, the criminal inner | itance that a parent has left them. To
 often on their physical form is stampe
 the sorrow of parental crminalty.
 The French philosopher has well stated l Tn the blood of ancestry we see tn
 child of progeny" and the Irish prover
 has 1t also well. but perhaps more plain ly expressed. when it says "the child the chip of the old block" and a cer
 tain American writer says that if vol
 want to reform the child, reform hi
 grandfather. So ply friends, if we lool for moral. healthy and clean progeny
 we must look before all for moral
 healthy and a clean ancestry. You, m friends, are the fathers and mothers O | future generations, and what will thes | generations be? They will be, in all prob | ability, just what you are. If you ar | Christian parents in reality, if you talk | upon yourself the burdens and responsi | tY, iStt tot of al,