The Irish standard., 1915-05-29

cision need never fear, however, that
they will not be met with sympathy
and fatherly affection. They may not
always be helped, for few boys can
explain their difficulties clearly
enough for others to help them; but
sympathy they will always receive,
and sympathy which scars far above
that of father, mother or worldly coun-
sellor.
Perhaps the most accurate method
for testing the priestly desire is
through the second of Archbishop Ry-
ans divisions-that of the adaptable
ity a boy must possess in order to
become priest. Archbishop Ryan
said to us that such adaptability was
of three kinds-physical, moral and
intellectual. Physical soundness and
strength are more necessary in the
preparation for the priesthood than
for any of the professions. The regu-
larity of seminary life, it's discipline,
its lack in many cases of the means
which develop bodily strength and the
constant application the studies de-
mand make the years in the seminary
hard test for the aspirant to Gods
holy altar. By moral adaptability is
usually meant the capability of the
young levite to keep intact his priestly
vows. Obedience is without doubt the
keynote to a boys power in this re-
spect, and not only exterior obedience
in conforming to the laws of God and
of the church, but the internal spirit
of obedience which makes the young
priest recognize in his superiors the
person of Jesus Christ, who is the
head of the whole church. An es-
pecially difficult problem is that of
the intellectual capability necessary to
enter the ranks of the priesthood.
Success in parochial school days may
be an indication of mental powers of
sufficient strength to carry one
through the long arduous studies pre-
paratory to ordination; but it is not
always trustworthy sign. In fact,
many students who have made bril-
liant classical studies become quite
mediocre in philosophy and theology;
and many student to whom mathe-
mates and Greek will always be a
closed book has become leader in
his theological studies. So that just
as the desire cannot be adequately
judged apart from the adaptability, so
the different elements of the latter
cannot be judged separately. In no
other walk of life does so much de.
pend upon the whole man, and in no
other calling are the demands for fit
ness and perfection greater or higher
than in the ranks of the priesthood.
But to return to Tejedor's master
piece. One hardly knows where to
look for the greatest happiness in the
scene he has painted for us-whether
it is in the mothers heart, full of Joy
almost to breaking, or in the heart of
the father, who knows, but who can
never express in all it's ecstacy the
blessing which has descended upon
his home that day of his sons first
Mass. Or, again, whether it is in the
heart of the old pastor who fostered
that vocation, saw it fructify and come
into full life and bloom under his
care, or in the heart of the young
priest himself, in whose soul since
yestermorn are marvels being per-
formed to which all around him must
forever remain strangers. Perhaps,
after all, in his innocence of the re-
sponsibility the priesthood brings
with it, responsibility to God and
to his fellowman ever present and
ever heavy in the priests soul, the
heart that is beating the swiftest in
Tejedor's painting and is leaping with
greater love than them all is the heart
of the boy at Our Lady's altar, who
has indeed quenched the candles of
one ceremony to set ablaze others in
his soul which will burn steadily and
purely until the self-same happiness
Of ascending the altar of God, priest,
comes at last to him.
REV. JOHN FLANDERS, Phi. D.