The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-11-16
BRAVE MEN.
Continued from mage IL

NCohtlhued from page ID
lshed their instructions had penetrated into tn
obtuse brains of their swarthy hearers, LODGED
there and were partially at least understood Il
the beginning and to attract them to the divine of
ices and instructions they fed them after the serv
ices were over They were dealing with "beardet
children" of the fathers wrote and as there
was only childs intellect in mans body the,
were compelled to appeal to their imagination
their emotions and affections rather than to their
minds. Having In measure won their good will
they began to teach the children, singing reading
and writing. They composed catechisms in the
native dialects, insisted on the children memoriz-
ing the chapters which the fathers with heroic pa
thence explained and unfolded
They now established children's choir. intro
duced into the services lights incense professions
genuhexions. beautiful vestments. the use of ban
ners and flowers for the purpose of decoration.
They brought from Mexico, sacred paintings and
the stations of the cross which they used not alone
as incentives to devotion but as object lessons in
religion. The rude and simple chapels which they
built with the help of their newly made converts
were not only temples where the holy sacrifice was
offered and prayers said, but they became conse-
Grated kindergartens where the altar the crucifix
the way of the cross and the painting of the Last
Judgment taught their own lessons BY pictures
by music by art and song, and symbolic represen-
tations they developed the stupid minds and won
over the caous hearts of these benighted children
of the desert. The fathers in time choose from
their converts assistants known as Temastranes
who taught catechism to the children, acted as
sacristans and explained from time to time the
rudiments of religion to the pagan Indians. They
appointed for every congregation a choir master
known the maestro, who could read and write
was commissioned to lead the singers, male and
female, and teach others to play on musical in
struments. In time they became enamoured with
their work and the progress they were making so
much so indeed that one of the fathers writes:
at is wonderful how these Indians who can Meth
read nor write, learn and retain two, three or
four different masses, psalms, chants of the Office
of the dead, chants for Holy Week. vespers for
festivals, ETC." Then when the fathers succeeded
in gathering them into communities and the chill
dren, under their fostering care grown into young
men and women they taught them different me-
chanical trades and many of the Indians became
tailors carpenters ters of the soil, blacksmiths,
butchers, stone cutters and masons. 81 know"
writes the author of the "Rudo Ensayo," Several
Opates and Eudebes who can work at all these
trades and who play musical instruments
with no little skill" It has always taken centuries
to graft upon savagery anything approaching a
high civilization, yet in thirty years these devout
priests had changed these children of the desert
and the mountain from eaters of raw meat, stone
tool users and grinders of acorn meal in rock
bowls to tillers of the soil weavers of cloth, work
Il,
singers of sacred hymns.
THE AMBASSADORS OF THE CRUCIFIED
The 'consecrated man who entered upon the ter.
ritory of savage tribe to make to the owners of
the soil proclamation of the will of Jesus Christ
knew from the history of the past that he might be
murdered while delivering his message. His mis-
sion demanded from him unfinching courage, good
health living consciousness that the eye of GOD
was upon him; demanded, in fact, that he clothe
himself in the garments of the hero and the mar
tyr We must remember that by nature the mis-
sionares were men like others of our race; swaved
by the same impulses; animated by human hopes;
agitated by the same fears; subject to the same
passions But the practice of daily self-denlal and
self sacrifice: the cruci6xion of the flesh with all
its earthly appetites and desires; indifference to
worldly honors and worldly rewards, contempt for
the vanities of society, life of hourly intercourse
with heaven, and supreme purity of intention
raised them in time unto the plane of the super
natural. Outside of the immediate companions
of their order they were unknown they coveted OBJ
security and were satisfied to be forgotten of men.
at is possible" writes Marcus Aurelius Eat once
to be divine man. yet a man unknown to all. the