The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-10-16

the long watches of the night, during
the cold stay in the trenches, aye,
even on the march. The Rosary has
been found entwined in the fingers of
dead soldiers. In a temporary llospi-
tai, a chapel was improvised which
could be reached only by flight of
siXty-three stairs. One soldier, whose
right foot was badly crushed, climbed
these stairs daily on one foot to say
his Rosary in that chapel. He laugh.
ingly said that it took only twenty
minutes to get up. But coming down,
he admitted, was a trife harder.
Examples might be multiplied, and
pages might be filled to describe the
workings Of Gods grace amid the
bloody havoc Of war. These instances
do not exhaust, but only partially in
dictate, the extent of the living faith
that burns in patriotic hearts. Who
can count the prayers breathed up to
the throne of heaven, through the
smoke of battle?
The religious awakening has affect
ed not only those at the front, but
also those at home. They who do
not sacrifice their own lives, but the
lives of their husbands and sons, dear
er. perhaps, than their own, bear the
strain of war also, and need help to
persevere. At how many firesides,
where stands vacant chair, is not
the Rosary nightly offered up for the
loved one! German pastors tell of
the remarkable increase of daily COM
municants, though the population has
become smaller.
One Socialist paper of Freiburg COM
plains that the wives of the comrades
called to arms, have suddenly become
most pious. Women who before had
Church, go now not only twice on
Sundays, but daily to early Mass, and
to Rosary in the evening, and this
in spite of the little ones at home,
and the chores on the farm, now that
the man is gone. On the other hand,
men of whom one thought it impos-
sible, send back the most touching
and literally faithful letters to their
families and pastors
Have all the Germans become
saints? No, but the grace of God has
touched many a heart. Many home
stead, where the name of God was
never heard, save perhaps in ridicule,
has become little house of prayer.
Many home where the fires of faith
had died out, is again lighted and
warmed by the influence of religion.
And better still: many a hardened
heart has melted with contrition in
the hour of death. The war has been
the salvation of souls that might |
otherwise have persisted. It is con-
soling thought According to the tes-
timony of many secular and religious |
priests, the dying soldiers confess that
tthe whole world looks altogether
different" All barriers of sin and in.
fidelity are broken down in the hour
of death. With the order Attack at
Midnight" there comes tears into the
eyes of others, as they repeat the long
forgotten Act of Contrition learned
from their catechism. The same
priest quoted above, says that in all
his ministrations to the sound, the
wounded and the dying soldiers, the
deepest well-spring of their sacrifice
and heroic courage, was their holy
faith.
Appalled, ~ the loss of life, of for
tune, of prosperity, and sickened by
the amount of suffering and misery
in the wake of ruthless war, we, the
onlookers, must confess that the war
is not devoid of blessings. If we con-
slider that all earthly pain and sorrow
could not yield adequate recompense
for the eternal salvation of a single
soul, ought we not rejoice at the sal
walton Of hundreds of souls? Are we
not forced to admit that, after all,
war, in all it's horror, is but small
price for the gain? Man unsheathed
flaming sword, and God turned it to
His own unfathomable purpose.