The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-03-11

EX-GOVERNOR
Heaven majestic canticles of praise
and alteration, passionate cries of love
and supplication, which have only
been surpassed in grandeur and pa
thos by the psalms of David. Where
in any modern literature do we find
the equal of the religious poetry of
Munster and Connacht?
The fourth and last distinguishing
trait of the Gaels' Catholicism-name-
ly, grasp of essentials, is a product
of historic causes, for Temperament
tally we, Gaels, are rather prone to
fly off at tangent, and dissipate our
energies over trivialties and side-is-
sues instead of keeping resolutely to
the main issue. The same Providence
which has always protected the chill
dren of st. Patrick from drifting into
heresy or schism despite their unfor-
tunate tendency to split up into fac
tions on every conceivable subject ex-
cept religion, has made them realize
and sever what is essential in their
religion, while the conditions under
which they lived for so long have
obliged them to dispense with all nom
essentials. "It is the Mass that mat
| ters," to use favorite phrase of a
good and gifted Englishman, Mgr.
Benson. 90
1t was natural for our people at
tending, at peril of their lives, the
Holy Sacrifice, celebrated by priest
on whose head was set the same price
as that on the head of a wolf, to dis
pense with the trimmings" of relig-
ion which people in more favored
climes INDUCED in. 1T is the Mass
that matters" our ancestors said
through their cenched teeth as they
knelt in driving rain and wind around
the Mass Rock on some bleak hill
side or in some mud Smelling such as
that described by Montalembert so
touchingly in his account of his visit
to Ireland, or that painted by Lady
! Butler in her picture, IA Chapel of
Ease" in the West of Ireland.
While all over Europe the Church's
majestic liturgy was being celebrated
in its entirety and brought year by
year to greater perfection, in Ireland
the Sacramento and the Mass were
all that could be achieved, and after
all, they were "all that mattered."
There have been advantages and dis
advantages of this whiting down of
our religious observances to essen
tials.
The advantage is that we have been
spared lot of trivial new devotions,
and, in the Gaeltacht at any rate, we
are spared the pain of seeing wor-
shippers deserving the Blessed Sacra-
ment to pray before favorite Saints
image or picture Devotion to the
Blessed Sacrament has ever been, and
please God will ever be, the hallmark
of Irish Catholicism.
The disadvantage is that we are at
present the most unliturgical of Cath
Ollie nations. With few exceptions we
are all the products of heredity and
environment, and it is impossible to
understand our Saints Tor our sinners
for that matter) without first inform
ing ourselves of the causes which in
fluenced their careers. Rene Balm
says of French religious: "They are
the flower of a plant long nourished
in pious SOIL"
1t is true we sometimes see moral
beauty emerging from the most un-
likely quarters, but, as rule, beau
tiful results spring from like causes.
1t takes usually several generations
to make Saint. Do not most Of our
Irish priests and religious and others
whose lives are admirable come from
holy homes, and spring from a stock
which has given countless confessors
to the Faith? To use a homely
phrase: "They are a chip of the old
block" To my mind the chef d'oeuvre
Of hagiology is Montalembert's Life
of st. Elizabeth of Hungary"
1t is really delicious book which
makes the reader absolutely enam-
cured of the subject of the biography.
Before beginning the actual biography
Montalembert describes in a lengthy
Introduction the state of Europe dur
ing st. Elizabeth's time. This com.
prehensive introduction helps one to
understand st. Elizabeth's mental