The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-03-29

charities were impossible, if we had
not our Catholic Sisterhoods. Our
schools were impossible, because
without the disinterestedness of our
Sisterhoods, laboring day after day,
until years have benumbed lip and
hand, for the pittance of humble
raiment and parsimonious meal, our
school-houses were void of teachers
and of pupils Impossible, no less,
our charities, because here too dis
interestedness is imperative, and be-
cause the lustre of those charities is
due to that supernal sweetness of
service, issuing from divine grace,
which enrobes our Sisterhoods in
peerless attractiveness, unpurchase-
able by the richest gifts of earth.
Vacations to Our sisterhoods An
Urgent Need of the Church.
The idealism of the Supernatural!
Fair and rapturous it is in vision:
vet fairer, yet more rapturous, as it's
living exemplars walk and work on
earth. A duty is incumbent upon us.
1t is, that we pray and labor that our
Catholic Sisterhoods be multiplied the
hundred-fold.
| plead for vocations to our Catholic
Sisterhoods. In so pleading, I plead
for an increase in the supernatural
life within the Church, for an in
crease in the outward exhibitions of
this life in the works of Christian
education and of Christian charity.
Speaking more directly of the North
west, the need of our vocations is
urgent. With our rapid growth in
population, we must widen our works
of charity, we must multiply our Cath
Ole schools if we keep pace with
needs and opportunities. To this end
we must bend our best energies in
giving increase to the membership of
our Sisterhoods.
If the increase is not given the
fault lies with ourselves. God does
His share. The arm of His might is
not shortened: the flow of His grace
| is not slackened. His love for the
Church is ever the same: where needs
and opportunities occur, He is ready
with aid. But cooperation is
required God acts with us, not with
out us.
To the Catholic maiden, in the
silence of prayer and meditation there
comes the vision of ideal service: her
heart impels her to higher and better
things than the mere observances OF
the common precept: it is the voice
once spoken in Palestine-"Come, and
follow me-" But she makes delay;
and delay is fatal. Meanwhile the
world unfolds it's allurements: false
friends picture false charms: Heaven,
impatient of repulse, ceases its call.
A vocation is lost, because no heed is
given to the divine invitation
The maiden tells father and mother
that she has heard the voice of the
Master, that her soul burns with am
bition to be altogether the daughter
of His love. But, father and mother,
poor themselves in generosity, do not
brook generosity in their child.
Worldly consideration dominate their
thoughts. Little to them the welfare
of religion; little, even, the deep and
lasting happiness the religious life
holds in store for the child. To the
mirage of the worlds ventures they
will yield her: not to God and to His
Church A vocation is lost, because
of the lack of strong faith in parents.
Frequently-shall I dare say it
where vocations do not terminate and
thrive, blame belongs to the priest,
who fails to lend keen eye to the
discovery of vocations; who, when the
discovery is made, fails to give them
increment and direction. So busted
are we, Reverend Fathers, with the
affairs of the multitude, SO busted in
holding the many to the common road
of the commandments, that we lose
sight of the few, from whom God
demands higher things, and find nc
time to watch the throbbings OF
special piety in their hearts and to
aid them in their ascensions towards
special union with God. And yet il
all this is not done, the plannings OF
divine grace are thwarted; souls are
held to lower planes, which should
have risen to the more exalted; the
Church suffers in it's general welfare;
and our own parishes never see, never
!, taste the full sweetness of the
idealism of the supernatural. AL
things said, the work of fostering
| vocations to the Sisterhoods falls
} primarily and prominently, to the
pastor. It is his word that brings te
the maiden the consciousness of he1
vocation: it is his hand that props il
: up in it's subsequent efflorescenses
. it is his advice, given in season, tha
) wards off opposition of father ano
mother. And what is far more i'm
t portant than all else, it is the ministr!
} of the priest that creates in the parish
7 the rich supernatural atmosphere
: where vocations, so to speak, are a
: home, and by native instinct bloom
3 and reach maturity. It is not to b.
i presumed that where the ministry il
duly fruitful such atmosphere has no
been created, and that there now AM
) then souls do not arise to exceptiona
e heights in aspirations, of holiness
r even unto those of the most exaltei
d counsels of the Gospel. The garden
c producing only the common plant an
d the low-siZed shrub, has not been dull
l. titled and fortified. With the prope
g skill and diligence, here and there, a