The Irish standard., 1915-01-09

LNA011 % xANOANO, SAx ONOA
answer, II do renounce him." Not
quite understanding, the priest put the
question again and received the almost
selt-same ready answer, Il do renounce
nim' Then the priest asked the ones.
ZION emphatically again and once again
came the pat, ready-made, reeled.off
reply Il do renounce him." Still I'm.
oaffled' the persevering, painstakine
perpiexed priest propounded the prom.
os..ioh once more. And now the cool.
coilected cause of the wonder came
out with refreshing, brand new re.
piy' i 90 believe" And then the
priest saw light. When he had given
the bridegroom the instruction book
saying 1T contained the marriage for.
'nula' the latter had thought that the
""oAe DOCK was about marriage. He
aau opened 1t at the beginning and
nad not bothered with titles of chan.
ters or with small print or with anv.
tnlng but the printed answers in large
type. There were six of these, the re-.
phes for the baptism service, and he
liao dutlfully and submissively learned
them all, the first three renouncine the
devll and all his works and pomns
ana the second three protesting faith
IN the church. 1t wasn't his fault that
the priest did not give him a chance
10 answer six times, but insisted. in.
stead' on his giving an answer he had
never studied. This story is one of
the numerous anecdotes in the mis-,
s1onary experience of Father p. r
rar'sot, U. M. l., now enjoying the
heavenly reward of great apostolic
career.
Amusing things happen when thew
shouldn't at other solemn times +hon
weddings. 1t is told that once in q
convent the Sisters who had swept the
chapel got a chair out of their way nv
putting it i'm the confessional and then
forgot to take it away. Soon after. a
newly received postulant entered the
Dox for her first experience of going
to confession in the Sisters chanel
she was dutifully ready to adapt her.
sell 10 any unexpected thing in her
new life and to express surprise At
notnlng. When she saw the chair she
quite properly concluded that to sit iu
1t While making her confession would
De altogether too free and easy an atti.
tude for an able bodied woman like
nerself. Nevertheless, she differen-
TALLY argued, the chair must be there
1or some purpose and she must nut II
10 That purpose. puzzling though that
might be. So she ended by kneeling
down In the chair to make her con-
fession, feeling that it was not for her
to question why her speech should
thus be brought high above the ear
shot OF her reverend listener, who was
himself, as she afterwards told at her
own expense, not little astounded at
recital of sins that seemingly came
from the clouds.
During an ocean trip some nuns
were passengers and one day the
weather was rough and the ship rock
ed considerably. The nuns were col.
lected for devotiors, led by the Mother
Superior, and were reciting litany,
with the refrain by the others, "Pray
for u.s. The nuns could not help hear
Ing the uncomfortable believing of
some cattle in the hold of the ship,
whose rocking and lurching terrified
them. Feeling compassion for the
frightened creatures the Mother Su.
perior interpolated the unconscious ex-
clamation, Poor beasts!" And all the
rest of the nuns promptly answered,
Pray for u.s."
Another anecdote comes in also re-
garding litany. At German Catho-
lie church an evening service was be.
Ing held which included a litany re-
cited, of course, in German. The
American mother of small boy who
was tnere with him was surprised to
hear him duly answering the litany as
readily as all of the German Worship
pers; which she could not help won
derins at, as neither she nor the boy
knew a word of German. So she lis.
tened closely to what he said. He
was certainly falling into line as we'll
as he could, saying the words exactly
as they sounded to him. The Ger
mans were repeating the refrain,
Bite fer uns." which the American
boy was turning, with much JUNCTION,
into the heartily uttered repetition,
Bully for U.S." And perhaps he
thought it was a very sensible prayer.
G. H. X.