The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-05-01

4 Friends could always and every
where, semper Unique, count upon, and
ITO the end, the only one. Here at
last was the vital force to sustain
u when all else should fail; here the
Eternal Spring to make a desert earth
4 blossom like the rose!
The Blessed Sacrament, the idea of
I it, thus electrified my whole being
and took possession Of it. How won
derful. how sublime-and how prepos
/ ferrous to my Protestant tendency of
thinking it all away by the light (?)
OF sophisticated reason. Had 1 not
Tread Mr.. Herbert Spencer? So momen-
]. tarily dazed and thrilled as 1 was, 1
i believed not at ALL But in spite OF
! everything. could not help but want
sSto believe: except Of course becom-
ling "Romanist," which was quite
II out of the question:; that was. even
: more absurd than swallowing Tran
subs tantiation, if one did not imply
the other: thus with the average man
do racial and social prejudice out
I weigh theological difficulties. Besides
the Anglican Church solved the cues
ton beautifully SO I began attending
\ Mass as one of English stock should
Edo, in English at very high Ritua-
.lfstic Church. But almost from the
start 1t seemed too tentative, too anna
"a n
I fill my spiritual needs; at best it
twas a refined thing at st. Patrick's
Cathedral.
Il had a real hunger and thirst for
Christ really Present, Body and Blood,
Soul and Divinity, in the Sacrament
of His Love. This was an appetite
to be fed alone through faith, which
faith. to be of the certitude necessary
for real religious faith in anything.
must be founded upon something
deeper and stronger than the mere
: opinion of few. I soon saw in the
Episcopal Church that belief in the
Real Presence was practically nothing
more than favorite opinion, at least
one not officially and publicly ex-
pressed by the Bishop; it was but a
. matter of taste for a relatively small
number Of EpiscopaIians who liked
(! that sort Of thing" T demanded a
greater gertrude than this. The
whole question was too important to
doubt about one way or the other. n
was either true or false. I wished It
to be true. such was the attitude of
my will; most important condition.
: by-the-way, as in the mysteries of
faith the assent of the intellect to
what is true is predetermined by the
consent of the will to what is good.
l." But Is it true?" I asked. Nobody
seemed to be sure but Rome. She
alone gave clear definite positive
answer. And finally I believed Her.
for She spoke AS no ono else ever
5 speaks in religious matters, as one
teaching with authority.
~ If Christ be the redeemer of men, I
thought, and if He founded a Church
at all (rathcr than Churches, which
. is absurtD to represent Him, to an
4. ply to all men. collectively and indi-
.fvidually, the fruits OF Ills Redemption.
that Church is the Blessed Sacrament.
lit did not take mo long to find that
Rome knew what she was talking
about on this subject, so dear to her
heart; nor was she less sure and OK
plicit about anything else I wanted
to know concerning God and my own
soul.
TO go ahead one must first be sure
that he is right. For me to be any
thing at all religiously must, have
some basis of gertrude outside of, and
above myself, for my belief. Is 1t not
true that outside the rock OF Peter.
4 in matters Of faith and consequently
of morals, all else is shifting sand?
Il speak of system not OF persons. Take
tho Roman Catholic Church out Of the
ecclesiastical world and what have we
left? There remains. to confine our
+ selves to this country. besides much
that is nondescript. many eager earn
est men and women trying everything
4 in the religious line but the right
thing, people who because Of their
4 American nerves and energy, with a
a passion for modernlty. are acting upon
/ the plan that the latest thing is tho
best, because the latest, a. false prin-
ciple it is, and a dangerous thing in
Y theology. without Rome the very
idea of Visible Universal and Per-
Z: manent Church of Christ disappears
* altogether. What then is fundamen-
tally necessary to the history, ancient
and modern, Of Christianity, I de-
cided was also vitality necessary for
my soul individually, If was to be a
christian at ALL
NH