The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-05-27
If man does not make his Easter
duty, is he accommodated

No; he is not accommodated, Dut
he sins against a precept OF the
Church and has to all practical pur-
poses abandoned his religion. One
has most peculiar notion of Cath
olicity who is satisfied with the
minimum performance of Catholic
duty, who<imagines he is Catholic
provided he is not communicated.
Sometimes a gardener will allow GER
tain dead branches to remain on the
tree; he does not cut them off; but
they are not living the life of the tree,
and sooner or later will he cast into
the fire. The making of ones Eas-
ter duty is not what the Church de-
sires; it is what the Church COM
mands. We are placed under grave
obligation to receive Holy Commun-
ion during the Easter time; we are
invited, urged, eXhorted to go to COM
munion frequently. He is a poor
soldier who will obey nothing but
. solemn commands, and ignores the
expressed wish of his superior.
If | find some money on the street,
must | advertise the fact and seek
to find the owner by other means, or
may | not keep the money in case the
owner doesn't advertise for it?
You are not obliged by justice to
pick up money or other lost articles.
But if you do pick them up you as
sumo the obligation of justice OF
seeking the owner, and in your
search you must use moral diligence
proportional to the value of the arti-
Gle found. If the article found is OF
considerable value, V. g., fifteen or
twenty dollars, then ii would not be
enough ordinarily to merely watch
the lost and found columns of the
paper, but you should put a notice OF
likely means to discover the loser. II
after a considerable time you are un
able to find the owner and there ap
pears no hope of ever discovering
him, you may keep the article you
found. In case you do find the own
er, he is of course obliged to reimburse
you for the expense you were put tC
in trying to find him.
When a soul first comes into the
world, does God know whether 1t will
be lost or saved?
Yes; God knows all things, past
present and future. In fact, there
is no past or future with God; al
things are present to His eternal eye
We know things successfully, one
after another: God knows all things
from eternity. Hence God know:
whether a certain soul shall be saveC
contingencies in the life of that soul
This knowledge, however, does no
deprive man of the exercise of free
will, and if man abuses this gift anC
rejects the means of salvation, the
fault must be attributed to man him
self and the responsibility can not be
shifted to God God knows whether
a man will follow this profession o.
that; but this does not force the man
the man remains free God know:
whether our life will be long or short
but this knowledge does not force III
to commit suicide. Gods knowledge
is eternal; but mans will is free, ant
if he is lost, it is because he has re
fused to be saved.
How soon after birth must bah.
be brought to Church to be baptized
AS soon as possible. The NOR
common and more probable opinion
of theologians teaches that for parent
to needlessly put off the baptism of
child for more than ten or eleven day
would be mortal sin.
Does not the practice of giving Rene
dctlons with relics imply a belief i
some supernatural virtue peculiar t
them2 How can such belief be rec
onciled with the supreme reverence
due to God?
All blessings are of the nature O
prayers to God on behalf of the perso
or persons blessed. Some blessing
are personal7-such as those of parent
or friends-and others official, bein
given by persons specially commits
stoned to bless in Gods name. Sue
are the blessings of the Pope, bishop
and priests. The difference is tina
the former kind depend on the charaC
ter and goodwill of the person VIII
blesses; in the latter case the answe
to the implied prayer is, so to speal
guaranteed by the official position
apart from the personal merit, of tn
person who makes it. Blessing wit
relic, in like manner, implies
prayer for Gods blessing through tn
fntercession of the Saint to whom tn
relic belongs, and partakes of tn
nature of both personal and officis
blessings. For by the Saints positio
in heaven we are assured that hi
prayer will be heard, and there ca
be no doubt of his personal merit an
goodwill OF course the benefit to b
derived from the blessing depends i
all cases on the persons fitness t
receive it.
Supernatural virtue does certainl
reside in the relic; but it is no NOR
than the extension of that which bt
longs to the Saint by reason of hi
sanctity, and that sanctity again
wholly due to the merits of Chris
Tho rnvnrouoo paid fo fbo Cainfc an