The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-10-28


THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT WILDLY
PERsoNlFIED.
Lifelong Penance Of the Man on
Molokai.
1.-THE Isles Of Peaee'-How They Were
Attained.
Hawaii and things Hawaiian are
very popular in the United States-at
least for the present moment. The
fear of the Japanese peril has turned
the eyes of statesmen and of warriors
to that little group of islands, we'll
called indeed "The Key to the Pacific"
Their strategic Importance in naval
warfare is we'll recognized, and the
progress of our work on the station at
Pearl Harbor is viewed with visible
satisfaction. The songs and stories
and colOring of the islands are also
coming to us from many channels.
The plaintive tones of the ukelele can
be heard in many Of our homes, and
the importation of these instruments
is daily increasing. Our libraries are
being filled with books telling of the
glories of the South Sea Paradise;
on our public stage are plays pro-
duced telling of the allurements of
life on the archipelago.
But Hawaii, with all it's earthly
beauty and earthly attractiveness, Is
ever inseparable from that which
seems its very antithesis-Molokai.
The thought of the two-one sugges-
tive of the pleasures of the senses and
the other of the repression of the
same-go hand in hand, from the
writings of Stevenson and Stoddard
to the last article of Katherine Ger
rould. 1t is therefore not surprising
that in a magazine devoted to the
spread of knowledge in regard to the
beauties and opportunities of the
islands we find this connection deli
cately revealed. Brother Joseph Dut-
ton, the companion of Father Damien
in his work among the lepers, writes
in an issue of that magazine (The
Paradise of the Pacific, Volume
XVIII, No. 12) beautifully simple
little article on 1.-THE Isles of Peace,
telling what those regions have meant
for him. Incidentally do we see in
his life-story, as briefly recited there,
vivid personification of the spirit
of Catholic Christianity, with it's old
lesson of renewal through reparation
In speaking of the evils and de.
structiveness of impurity, Brother
Dutton writes: Am ashamed to say
that may be counted as an expert in
these questions. gave way in 1866
While On the surface Ostensibly de
cent and busy, was living also sort
of submarine life with the people OF
the night until about 1880. For over
thirty-f1ve years have been trying to
do penance. 1t required hard fight
ing at first. So now may say there
is peace with me, and wish like hap
piness may be the portion of every
inhabitant of these peaceful isles.
hold that the greatest possible peace
is peace of SOUL"
Thirty-five years of penance for
fourteen years of sin! And more still
to come. How like breath from the
Middle Ages comes this narration;
from those times of which Francis
Thompson says: There were giants
in those days." This was the great
mark of the medieval period, which
showed so intensely its Christian
character: it's deep repentance for its
sins. The men of those days dashed
themselves with chains; they went
about in the most frightful forms OF
hair shirt, which grew stiffened with
their blood; and yet were unrestingly
energetic. They turned anchorites in
the English country, the English fens
among the English fogs and raw
blasts; they exposed themselves de-
fenseless to all the horrors of an Eng
lish summer" (Health and Holiness
p. 23.) And thus was penance deeply
practiced for deep SHINING all
over the continent of Europe and
wherever Christianity held sway.
So do we see the great historic
mark of Christianity. Not as homily
or sermon is it mentioned here. 1t
is not even said that today, in our
devitalized civilization and with our
weakened physiques, that we can lit.
orally initiate the example of our fore.
fathers. The important point is that
. Christianity teaches penance and ever
produces penance in those who live
closest to her ideals. And it is this
very thing which gives to Catholicism
that character which proclaims it as
the only religion which can meet the
4 natural needs of man. For it holds
out to him, aloof before him in this
teaching Of penance, the principle of
4 hope and of regeneration, saving him
from that morbid pessimism which
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