The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-05-24
ADVENTURE.

His eyes had first opened on the
smoke-d immed light of a big city.
The Fairgrounds of his boyhood had
been stone-fagged sidewalks and gut
ter-bound streets. The horizons Of his
young manhood were constructed of
brick-though latterly they had be-
come, to some extent, of reinforced
concrete. He sincerely believed the
public park of his city to the Just
like the country" and called an ex-
cursion on a Sound steamboat an
Ocean Trip" to distinguish it from
the milder venture of a journey on
the River craft. He knew something
of books, something of the existence
of world which began, presumably,
beyond the last Station on the latest
far-fung Subway Line. He knew that
there were other cities than Ibis own"
but he politely yawned over these I'M
interesting facts because, you see, he
was metropolitan. He possessed i'm
agination, quick, receptive, creative,
but it was of a peculiar kind. Wars
and raiding and faring forth on mist
grey seas did not appeal to him, nor
the following of "red-blooded" Fiction
Heroes through Alaskan hardships of
preternatural severity. "All those fell
lows in the books" he had decided
gravely and definitely for himself one
night, "are either dead-or else they
have never lived. Why should worry
through their troubles?" So the lure
and those of his friends who made OF
character analysis a hobby, catologued
him as a product, singularly true to
type: of the Undertaking. influence of
the urban civilization of our day.
And yet this young man, in secret,
lived a very romantic life. In the
first place, he was Roman Catholic
and in the next he had caught the
knack, if you. will, of what is termed
in the Spiritual Life "Contemplative
Meditation" He did not call it that,
or know that the operation had name.
To him it was simply the act of
thinking about God instead of thinking
about manor woman. Not that he
did this all the time. The routine of
his daily life was scarcely productive
of monastic prerogatives. 1t included
eight hours of clerical work in the
very unspiritual atmosphere OF a
downtown Office, with mundane
scramble for an "L'' seat at it's be-
ginning, and end. Also there was an
Evening Paper to be read and Scores
and Averages to be narrowly watched
and a Home Life, complex and oppos-
ed to seclusion, to be courteously
maintained. But somehow he managed
adroitly to balance these interests and
over and above them all, to spend a
great deal of ''time with God''-as he
} used to call it when composing his
mind for it's supernal voyagings. Most
. often, indeed, his meditation environ
| ment was painfully far from being de
votional The windswept platform OF
: car that is careening through tree
tops and ground bedroom windows
would not be. for the most of us, ar
ideal prie-dieu, nor would a car-seat
/ itself, for that matter, since the Texts
: that invariably confront Tor affront)
ones vision therefrom are avowedly
and Intentionally distracting and un
} scriptural. But singleness OF purpose
/. and a delight in the work land some
} times even discreet dropping Of eye
: lids) comprised for this youth jus
r such external difficulties until Ions
4 practice had rendered the shutting on
: of the world for him an easy matter
He meditated without books, without
e spiritual direction and PRACTICAL,
e without method-in none of which
( could he be lauded had he not beel
0 totally unconscious Of the existenc
: and grave need of blazed trails i
5 ascetics His custom was to thin
r about the life of our Lord as it wa