The Irish standard., 1917-02-24

the greatest OF all stumbling blocks.
Why? The hardest thing for me, for
Cardinal Newman and for Cardinal
Manning and for all converts who come
into the church as we have done, in
our mature years, is to go to confess
sion. We are not, as you see, as it
were native to it. 1t is not part of
our nature as it is of the little Catholic
child. And so we have to take on. as
it were, an entirely new habit. But
after we have courageously, and it does
take courage, faced what to us is the
tremendous difficulty, and we have
been to confession and made a good
confession, and our first confession,
words fail every one of us who have
been through that experience to tell
you the happiness we must surely find.
1t is only then that we really know
what peace of mind really means. And
you can see the effects of confession
in the world today. If every one went
to confession how much that is done
even tonight would not be done. Can't
you see that it would deter numbers
of people from doing things they ought
not to do, knowing very we'll that if
they do them they would have to go
to confession. To us the glory of con-
fession is, of course, the forgiveness of
sin, but its added glory is that it de-
tiers us from committing sin. It would,
believe, be means-if we could only
have confession imposed upon the
world at large-I believe it would be
the means of reducing to an enormous
extent the amount of crime that dis
graces the country. never forgot my
first confession-I am not likely to.
| came into the church, because she
has all the marks of the true church.
Some of them l have given you this
evening. She has the very first mark
our Blessed Lord put on His church
persecution. l like to think of the
unity of the church. l like to think
of her cath0licity. l like to think of
her holiness, and like to think of her
apostolicity, but the very first mark of
our Blessed Lord put on His Church
was persecution. We Catholics carry
that mark, and it is true we are perse.
cuted. Christ at the very outset told
his apostles "blessed are We when men
shall revile and prosecute you and say
all manner of evil against you un-
truly" And say all manner of things
against you falsely. That is the word,
and it is said falsely, and it is printed
falsely, and it is written falsely, and
so we are prosecuted and we carry
the very first mark our Blessed Lord
put on His Church, it is prosecuted
But because it is divine it can never
be destroyed. That which is divine
cannot be divided or destroyed. Then
the church is Catholic because she is
for all time and for all lands, and you
find the Catholic Church in all lands,
and you find her existing in all times,
and she is the only church of which
that can be said. We can trace all the
others to the beginning and the be-
ginning was man in each case, and
all of them are of quite recent origin,
and so you see the Catholic Church
proves her catholicity. She is in all
lands and she has been here for all
time spreading the word of God
through her missionaries in all lands,
and you would be astonished to know
how far the missionaries of the middle
ages penetrated into the dense dark
ness of the so.called heather lands.
Now then, we find the church not
only catholic, she is also holy, con-
sisting of people who desire to be holy,
and she tells the means to make them