The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-05-29
LETTER VITO THE ED|TOR|
THE CONSULTATIONS OF A CON
VERT.
Finlayson, MINI, May %, 1915.

/ D6dT rdLu6F RGarQOn.
1t is Sunday, the first anniversary
of my reception into the Church and
am here in this little county town
with no Mass to attend, so | shall use
a part of my time in writing to you
and through you to the readers Of
your good paper, who am sure will
not be ayerse to hearing something of
Church conditions in this little, and 4
think, typical town in the Northeast
of Minnesota.
We have here a little chapel dedi-
Gated to Saint Joseph, crude and al
together too small building. There is
no sacristy and the priest has to vest
in sight of the people. The server has
no vestments at all and the Sanctusl
bell is a simple dinner bell. There
| is no cover for the Fair Altar cloth
and the beautiful and significant ac-
cessories that make your city
churches SO complete are conspicuous
| by their absence, but, you will be glad
| to hear that whenever the pastor
comes it is full to overlooking. There
has only been one Sunday Mass in
the three weeks | have been here
and that day every seat was occupied
and many standing, so you see there
is great need of greater accommodate
tons and we all hope ere long to
either enlarge the present building or
build an entirely new church. 1t is
| Just a year since | received the Holy
L Communion fpnVon TihhnVan ct
Saint Luke's Church and / had earnest
! ly hoped | might be in Saint Paul to-
day to commemorate the dear event,
and that failing, / had hoped to be
! where / might at least receive. But
the blessed privilege has been denied
me SO | must be content to make a
Spiritual Communion. Presently /
shall go up to the little chapel and
kneel and give thanks for His in
estimable gifts to me and shall have
an added and most blessed cause for
thanksgiving; and | think that right
here will be good place to tell you
what it is.
Sometime in December of last year
a few months after my reception,
came into contact with young man
who belonged to the body of Chris
| tianS in which | had been minister
for. so many years. Soon after our
acquaintance began he found out that
such had been the case and on several
occasions expressed his regret that
had taken step that took me out of
a calling, of which he, of course, had
a high opinion, and which, as he had
heard me say, was almost my very
life. He never demonstrated Gas do
so many Protestants when they know
a man has become a Catholic). The
closest he ever came to it was one
day when we were dining together
and he leaned across the little table
and said in his earnest fashion, DR.,
tell me if you don't mind, why you
think the Roman Church is more truly
/ Catholic than the one to which you
used to, and to which still, belong?"
was truly glad to have him ask and
to give him my reasons. So sending
up little prayer to God for guidance
told him as concisely as possible.
From having been so closely identi-
fed for SO many years with the Epis-
copal Church | was able to compare
the relative claims of the two bodies.
never speak with bitterness, | could
not for it is the church in which |
served many years of my life, there
i finding many opportunities for joyous
service of Our Lord. 7 remember so
well how that when | had finished my
little talk with him he said, Eyes, ]
understand you, | think butt am
lawfully sorry you gave up. your min
fstry. 1t makes my heart ache That
! was all and presently we passed out
and on our various ways to work.
For several weeks we were associated
fmore or less intimately. We were
both musical and together we sang the
Igood old hymns, many of them COM
mon to both the Anglican and the
Catholic Churches. Once he came out
on Sunday and went to Mass with me
lat my parish church of Saint Luke on
Victoria Street But not a word more
was said about church matters. There
was always On my lips the prayer that
Our Lord would lead him to His Holy
Spouse, the Church, but | said not a
, WORD. In February the young man was
sent by his firm to Harrisburg, Penn
! Esylvania, to open a branch house for
them and we correspondent regularly.
After several weeks in one of his let
tiers he wrote, 'sYou will no doubt be
} surprised when / tell you that since
coming here / have attended the serv-
ices of the Roman Catholic Church
almost altogether have thought
many times of the little talk we had
that day at the table and have about
come to the conclusion that the rea-
lsons you gave were very good ones, SO
am asking you to tell me at once
how to proceed in order to be in
Istructed, for / have an earnest desire
to know the Holy Church as you do
and to belong to it. Please write me
soon what to do in order to be in
structed." You, dear Father Reardon,
will remember am sure how | came
into your Office that day and asked to
look over your Catholic Directory to
find the name of some priest in that
diocese to whom I might commend
my friend. And how you and de-
cided that Mons. Hassett, v. e. and
Rector of the Cathedral, would be a
good one to send my friend, Robert
IC Hills To 7 ;ronndiatp1y wrote FIR