The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-10-24

olicism were simply indisputable. The
man in search of an authoritative
Church may not hesitate; once let him
assume that a visible and audible
authority is of the essence of religion,
and he has no choice; he must be-
come or get himself reckoned a Cath
Ollie ....
THE Roman Church assails his un-
Outstanding with inyincible charms.
Her sons proudly say to him; She
alone is Catholic, continuous, veneer
able, august, the very Church Christ
founded, and His apostles Instituted
and organized. She possesses all the
attributes and notes of Catholicfty-
an unbroken apostolic succession, an
infallible chair, unity, sanctity, truth,
an inviolable priesthood, a holy sacri-
fee and efficacious sacraments!
THE Protestant Churches are but
of yesterday, without authority, the
truth of the MINISTRIES that can recon
cile man to God; they are only a null
titude of warning sects, whose con-
fused voices but protest their own in
sufficiency, whose impotence almost
atones for their own sin of schism by
the way it sets off the might, the ma
| jesty and the unity of Rome. LIN con-
trast the Catholic Church stands
where her Master placed her on the
rock, endowed with the prerogatives
and powers He gave her, and against
her the gates of hell shall not prevail.
| Supernatural grace is hers; it
watched over her cradle, has followed
her in all her ways through all her
centuries, and has not forsaken her
yet. She is not, like Professionalism,
a concession to the negative spirit.
an unholy compromise with natural
ism. Everything about her is posi-
tive and transcendant; she, is the
bearer of divine truth, the representa-
tive of divine order, the supernatural
| living in the very heart, and before
the very face of the natural. The
| saints, too, are hers, and the man she
receives, joins their communion, en-
! joys their godly fellowship, feels their
! influence, participates in their merit
and the blessing they distribute.
! Their earthly life made the past of
the Church illustrious, their heavenly
activity binds the visible and the in
visible into unity, and lifts time into
eternity. To honor the saints is to
honor sanctity; the Church which
teaches man to love the holy, helps
him to love holiness. And the Fathers
are hers their .laborings, sufferings,
| martyrdoms, were for her sake; she
treasures their words and their works:
her sons alone are able to say:
''Athanasius and Chrysostom, Thomas
Aquinas and Duns Scotus, Cyprian
and Augustine, Anselm and Bernard
are ours; their wealth is our inherit
ance, at their feet we learn flial rev.
erence and divine wisdom.
But rich as she is in persons, she
! is richer in truth; her worship is a
great deep. Hidden sanctities and
meanings surround man; the sacra.
mental principle invests the simplest
things, acts and rites with an awful
yet blissfuI Significance. turns. all
worship into a divine parable, (which
speaks the deep things of God, now
into a medium of His gracious. and
consolatory approach to. man, land
mans awed and contrite, hopeful and
prevailing approach to Him. Symbols
are deeper than words; speak when
words become silent; gain where
words lose in meaning; and SO in
hours of hottest worship the Church
teaches by symbols truths language
may not UTTER