The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-05-06
REVIVAL DUE TO THE
WARM THE CHURCHES, THE
CAMPS, TRENCHES AND ROAD
SIDE SHRINES - FRANCE, HAS
BEEN CALLED ATHElsTlc, BUT
Is, IN REALITY, CATHOLIC.

| The religious revival in France: is
it thing the alien, who is not part
| of it, can see or touch or feel? Pos
| sibly there is no better way to find
an answer than by questioning it and
standing in the current of the move
ment. In that position one can
| judge, lat least, if it is an emotional
freshet let loose by war or a mighty
| spiritual food sweeping through the
soul of France, writes Victor Muir
dock in Golfers Weekly.
began my Investigations in a
Paris depot of supplies, in the midst
of piles of woolen stockings and
blollses, the forbidding bulkiness of
which nncomfortably spelled charity.
| put my question on the religious re-
Vival to charity worker: a woman,
a Protestant.
Il am told that the war has brought
a religious revival in France" | said.
rs it one of the temporary fantasies
of the war delirium or is it a lasting
thing and real?'
1T is real" she cried; "the most
real tangible, pondering thing in the
war;"
Others have told me that, said.
| Where shall | find proof?"
Proof" she cried in an emotional
| explosion which seemed to include a
wrathful accusation against myself
Proof? If you have rose and it's
perfume, and you tear the rose apart
to find the perfume, you will have
neither the rose nor the perfume
II will tear the rose apart" | said,
ito find the perfume. Where is it?"
Everywhere" she replied. I'm the
peoples faces, in their eyes, in their
voices. You will find it in high, in
low, in everybody. Only this morning
stopped at the little kiosk at the
corner, and the woman there halted
in the sale of the newspapers and
| cried: Listen, madame There was
silence between us and all about The
air was vibrant with omen. 1t was
/ the brush of angel wings, sir: a por-
tent. 1t is the good God, the
woman said to me, and we under
stood"
Mysticism, I said. Where shall
|, an alien, find proof?"
Go to the churches, then" she an
swered. go to Notre Dame for
! vespers. Go to the Madeleine. Go
to Holy Trinity. Leave Paris and
traverse France. Visit Chartres and
see the forest of candles aflame be-
fore the altar Pro Patria. Watch the
crowds of worshipers everywhere,
crowds the livelong day, not alone for
Mass and vespers, but all day long"
"Women?" l said.
NO." she cried. Men, soldiers,
thousands upon thousands of them.
| Upon their knees. 1t is the new
| France!"
The Churches Crowded.
The suggestion of a view of the
churches as point of entry to a sur.
vey of the situation appealed to me-
and | followed it first by attending
vespers at Notre Dame.
1t was a gray December Sunday
just before Christmas. A fitful, slant
ing shower, degree this side oil
sleet, had left the black front of the
ancient Cathedral glistening. The
stony angels and the scaly demons
that face one another over the recess
ed portals cleaned brightly, and q
liberty, equality, fraternity" legend
done in black paint by the Commune
nearly half century ago, dim enough
when dry, now freshened by the rain
stood out boldly among them.
Standing beneath them, | watched
the long procession of worshipers a!
they filed through the doors of tn,
Virgin. / wanted to see the congrega
tion out of doors where | could stud,
| it.
Divided into three general groups
there were soldiers, widows, ant
civilians. There were no tourists
Apparently was the only spectator.
Among the soldiers the cripple
struck me first. They came mostl.
in groups. The soldiers who have los
arms band together. Those who hav
lost legs do the same.
Fl This classification starts in the hos
pitals and is continued afterward, fo
those who are similarly disable,
must meet common problem. Their
are many cripples, but they do no
, dominate the picture
But the faces of all of them Dor
the same look, the look which to m
mind unlocks the whole situation i
France: a look of abstraction, c
\ placid detachment; the look of me
who had forsworn the workada
world, its smiles and fears, its JOY
4 and sorrows.
The second group was compose
of women, all in the black democrac
= bof Grape or in dark raiment equiv;
lent thereto. The great majority (
these were young and slender, an
d even in deep mourning suggesting
n scrupulous attention to the mod
n Taken together as they passed noS
e they made a striking picture, but M
il so much because OF their weeds &
10 from the look in their faces. For her
It too, was an absence of sorrow, hel
the abstraction ! had seen In II