The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-02-17

the sacrifice of Calvary as the source
of all supernatural grace, the Sacra
ments as the channels of that grace;
the precepts of Christ and of His
Church, the practical duties resulting
from our relations to God and to the
Saviour; the soul of man in it's life
through time and in eternity-volumes
upon volumes are needed to set intelli-
gently the Christian faith before our
minds, to bring our wills into conform
ity with it: and shall we, its disciples
is penned of it in a child's primer
even should we still hold in memory
the contents of the catechism of our
early years.
And, then, living as we do in an at
mosphere of unbelief, of fierce opposi-
ton to the tenets of the faith, to the
very foundations upon which it re-
poses, we are under obligation to learn
well the arguments that uphold it, so
that, with the faith firm and mistaken
within ourselves, we be able to scatter
to the winds the objections raised
against it, and enlighten as to it's truth
the many around us, who revile 1t be-
cherish it if they but knew it as it
really is. The counsels of St. Paul to
his disciple Titus may be repeated to-
day to every Catholic: Embracing
that faithful word which is according
to doctrine that we may be able to ex-
hort in sound doctrine, and to convince
the gainsayers." BY vocation every
Catholic is defender of Christ and of
the Church: it were cowardly in him
not to defend the faith when it is at
tackled: it were pitiable in him were
he not able to defend it whenever and
wherever it is attacked within his
hearing. But to this end the Catholic
should be we'll Instructed in all the be-
longings of the faith-the tenets of it's
creeds, the precepts it enjoins, the
foundations upon which it reposes, the
story of it's career through the ages,
the battles it fought, the saints and
heroes it numbered upon its muster
rolls. Nothing short of most serious
and long-continued study will develop
the scholar and the soldier of religion,
such as the needs of the times demand,
such as every loyal Catholic should as
pire to be, to the greater glory of God
and his own eternal salvation.
The Hearing of Sermons.
The chief means of obtaining in
struction in the faith is the hearing of
the sermon on Sundays and on other
occasions when the Church prescribes
to it's priests the preaching of the Cos
pei. The priest in the pulpit is the Of
fetal spokesman of the faith. Sunday
after Sunday he unfolds to his hearers
dogmas and precepts, history and ar
gument; and this in a consecutive, log
ical order, so that year in and year
out the whole Gospel is retold, in its
integral purity and power, according to
special needs, and special circumstan-
ces of time and place. To preach the
Gospel is the imperative duty laid
upon the priest: the duty laid upon the
priest implies the correlative duty on
the part of the people to listen and to
appropriate the spoken words into
their minds and hearts. Right here I
must make complaint: Many, though
faithful to the obligation of hearing
mass, shirk the hearing of the sermon.
An early mass is sought where at most
a hrief exhortation takes the place of
the regular Sunday sermon: and thus
men and women who otherwise could
and should have been present at the
sermon exclude themselves from the
beginning: to the end of the year from
the official instruction provided by
holy Church. In city parishes, where
for one reason or another several
masses must be said each Sunday
there is visible a regretful falling off
from attendance at the mass during
which the sermon is preached. This
does not happen without serious dam
age to those guilty of this abstention.
We entreat our Catholic people to see
to it that they do not continue in this
habit: we entreat pastors to do all in
their power to see to it, that there be
gathered around their pulpit on all
Sundays large concourse of the faith
full Sometimes the length of the serv-
ices is given as an excuse for staying
away from the mass at which the SER
mon is preached. That there be no
room for the excuse, the ordinary SER
mon should not exceed half hour in
duration: and the part of the choir
should be strictly confined to rubrical
limitations.
Catholic Literature.
Next to the hearing of sermons
and as a most useful, if not an alto
gether necessary supplement- put
the reading of Catholic literature. No
Catholic household should be without
it's Catholic newspaper: where means
permit, there should be Catholic peri
odical: everywhere there should be the
publications of Catholic Truth Socie-
ties" and in smaller or larger degree,
according to the Intellectual ability to