The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-03-24

head wisely and says, Funny thing,
but
All people when they come under
stern discipline and are obliged to
practise obedience are as children
again, and Thu at is why soldiers and
sailors Away show peculiar and
charming simplicity of heart, why
there is a pat hos about them that APP
peals to all who stop at home, to
women, and which makes them loved
of children. And so the ground is
ready made for new religious feeling,
for belief in the miraculous, for the
desire for S omething tangible, for
some comfort to hold to in times of
trouble, and above all for hope.
1t was the desire for hope and COM
fort that made the whole French ma
ton turn to Joan of Arc during the
first days of the Hun invasion. Their
firm belief in the guardian angel pow
ers of the Maid" helped them through
many bad days. She appeared above
Nancy, she led the troops in their sue
cessful attacks in Alsace, she stood
between the advancing Germans and
the retreating Allies, and the stories
OF her protection of the martyred
towns, of which Gerbeviller is the
best known, have been accepted by
bishops as absolutely authentic. Then
came the miracle of the preservation
of her statue outside Rheims Cathe-
dral. While shells destroyed all
around, the gilded figure on the horse
remained untouched, and the French
struck the tricolour on her outstretch-
ed sword
Who first started the belief that the
fall of the statue of the Virgin and
Child from the Cathedral at Albert
would come about on the day when
peace was proclaimed nobody in
France cares, but all France believes,
and so the recent threatened prema-
ture fall has been prevented by arti-
fetal devices. Most significant of all
signs from the British soldiers point
of view is the preservation of the way
side crosses and crucifXes. Praying
places on the roads were before this
war looked upon as wholly Catholic,
and as likely as not to prove danger
Gus snares for the souls Of earnest
protesters.
Now they have become part Of the
universal religion apart from all polit-
ical and artificial divisions. The Allied
soldiers laugh at the power OF the
good old German god and as proof
of the folly of the Kaiser in quoting
his powers point to the continued OK
istence of their own shrine, to up
standing crosses, or to figures of
Christ though torn from their sur
roundings still left intact or recog-
nizable.
And marvellous stories are told of
the preservation of women and chill
dren and wounded soldiers. who have
gone to the shrines for sanctuary.
And it is primarily and wholly be-
cause of the repetition of these stor-
les in soldiers letters home and their
half-shy suggestions when home on
leave that it would not be half bad
thing to see one hereabouts, SO that
you could find bit of comfort think
ing of us, that has led to the erection
of shrines in the streets Of London
and all over England. The support
given by the readers of the London
Evening News to its scheme of erect
ing war shrines in the metropolis is
evidence of the remarkable spreading
Of this movement. 1t is the men on
the battlcfields of France who have
sent the comfort of religion into the
streets of England.
Other things have come, too Wom-
en- when they receive the effects of
their sons and husbands have found
little crosses, a rosary, or perhaps a
sanity relic, the gift of some sympa-
thetic French peasant or Red Cross
nurse; little bits Of religion which
ing helped some soldier through many
bad hours have now come to his rela-
ton with the message of some spir-
itual life, of some belief in world
where all is not destruction.
Men who have seen their comrades
Win o"SiA ASiiSo navy "IlIISh
asking for rosaries to be sent to them,
and three or four weeks ago two SYM
pathetic civilians sent out ten thou
sand of these little beaded chains,
blessed before they went on their mis-
sion.
A doctor working at aSbase hospital
told me the other day that he person.
ally had great belief in the miracles of
faith-healing due to the possession of
some treasured mascot He had sew
eral Instances to quote when wounded
men had said: "a sister in a French
hospital gave me this; it's a mascot;
give it to me in my hand,' and when
belief in the treasures had given just
that stimulus to the mind which was
necessary for recovery.
Clergy of the Church of England
say that men from their parishes come
to them to confession during the time
when they are home on leave, and say
that they have previously made con-
fessions to padres by the wayside and
in trenches before going into action.
AS a very tough specimen of regu-
lar professional soldier said to me
the other day.: 1T makes you want
to do your duty, just to put yourself
right. YOU know. na'3m"