The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-06-01
TRIBUTE TO HEROES
Rev. j. L. O'C0nnor Delivers an Able
and Patriotic Sermon to the
Veterans of 1S6I-'65.
Memorial Services at the Catholic
Church Impressive and Musi-
cal Numbers Inspiring.

Ouuuay morning memorial services
we're held in honor of our soldier
dead. The veterans in attendance
numbered Is and the congregation
was large one. A musical program
of rare excellence was rendered, and
the floral decorations, together with
the standard of the Grand Army of
the Republic and Old Glory, pro-
duced very pleasing effect. Rev. J..
Lawrence O'Connor of Chicago de-
livered the address and it was a
masterpiece in oratory which held the
audience spellbound from beginning to
end-it was an address which not
only appealed to the old soldiers but
to the entire congregation. It is sell
dom that the people of Princeton have
an opportunity of listening to so able
a speaker as Father O'Connor. In
substance the address was as follows:
Text: "The patient man is better
than the valiant, and he that ruleth
his spirit than he that taketh cities.n
Proverbs 1, 6-32.
It is natural for the human heart to
appreciate and honor those who have
won for themselves distinction and
eminence in the various walks of life.
The world regards such men as
heroes. 1t looks up to them as men
and women blessed in an especial
manner by nature and set apart as
ideals, types and patterns to be kept
continually before the eye of man in
his progress towards racial BETTER
ment. Hence, we see their names en-
blazoned on the scrolls of history in
letters of gold and their memories
kept fresh in the minds of succeeding
generations.
Ii. however, the greatness of hero
should be in proportion to the glory
OF his victory and the reward of
victory according to the measure of
the struggle in which it was gained,
then these worldly heroes are not to
be compared with those men of God
whose victory was over self, who wres-
tie, as St. Paul told the Ephesians,
mot against flesh and blood but
against principalities and powers,
against the rulers of this world of
darkness, against the spirits of
wickedness in the high places" For
the greatest of all victories is to over
come the passions of our own heart
in its spiritual combat-man's con-
tinual warfare upon earth. Speaking
of this victory the book of Proverbs,
1882, tells US that it is greater than
any worldly victory. For the patient
man is better than the valiant, and he
that ruleth his spirit than he that
taketh cities, and of the reward at
taches to it we may say with wisdom:
1.-The glory thereof is immortal"
For in truth it lives not in time or on
tables of stone, but God and his an
gels remember it forevermore.
Since it is strife in which we are
all engaged it will certainly not be
out of place to reflect a moment today
and see in what this victory over self
consists and how it is attained. And
first, in what does victory consist? It
consists in overcoming the evil in
clinations of your heart, whose
"imaginations and inclinations are
prone to evil from your youth" 1t
is not the struggle of the combatant
in the arena, nor the effort of the
student to master his thesis, nor the
mortal combat Of gallant army
fighting for home and country. Its
field of battle is the human heart, it's
mighty foes are those evil passions
and inclinations and corrupt desires.
1t is the struggle to conquer the
carnal man, the victory. over self.
- This is the nature OF, the contest,
and I say that the victory is the .
greatest of all victories; first, be- I
cause of the hard struggle. For, in
deed, this battle with our own heart is
an arduous struggle. Concupiscence
is a powerful enemy. st. Paul de-
sired to die because of this evil incli-
nation. ST see," he says to the Ro-
mans, ''another law in my members
fighting against the law of my mind
and captivating me in the law of my
sin that is in my members. Unhappy
man that am, who will deliver me
from the body of this death?"
How many of the heroes of this
world were slaves of their own vicious
inclinations? Alexander subiugated
the then known world of his day but,
together with his brave old warriors,
he went down to defeat before low and
brutal passion. And was it not con-
cupiscence that humbled the great
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