The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-06-29
MY FIRST MISSION


and envy, and / knew he was thinking
| of his own jealous hopes and ardent
dreams, and of the end that had come
to them; but few years Of the active
missionary life had been given him
and now his pulpit was the paralytic
chair from which he would never rise,
| and his only apostolate that of mar
velous patience
| Yes, Father" l said, my first ser
mon will be on October at the
| Church of the Holy Name in Pierce
ton; and, Father" I fastened on to
the confession / had desperately de-
termined to make to him, Pm terribly
me there is so much at stake in mis-
| sion, and if prove a clumsy instru-
ment in the hands of God, shall have
| hindered those / want to help
After two years. of preparation, dur
| ing which in thoughtful moments my
mind had alternated between impa>
| tience for my entrance on the mission
| work, and frantic doubt as to my fit
ness for it, l was ready to begin
| ready? God help me! No! But the
time of preparation was over, and
now that the test was at hand, doubt
and encouragement were uppermost
in my feelings. In this trial / had
| turned to Father Edwards, my long
time friend and adviser.
| sit down, Frank, and give me a
| good visit, and we'll talk it all over.
| Now, you say you're afraid of your
first sermon, afraid you won't measure
up to your opportunities as mission
airy. Is that it,"
| Yes, Father"
| What about the dabitur vObis? 1t
shall be given yOu-not only what you
| shall say, but the JUNCTION with which
you shall say it, and the conviction
which it shall carry. But | know this
thought doesn't help you now. l re-
/ member just such misgiyings on the
eve of my own first mission, and no
amount of philosophy, even religious
| philosophy, gave me the slightest COM
| fort | think this is a trial that God
sends to you as the final touch to your
preparation, and that in His own good
time He will send you relief.
Tell me something about your first
mission, Father
| why, yes. | love TO think of 1t and
talk about it. Like good boy. push
that hassock a little farther under my
Sect Sect Tss, shat: ::: i"st right; now Tn
ready to talk you to sleep.
''My first appearance in the mission
pulpit was at the Church of the Good
Shepherd, in Brownsville. Father
Hartley of our Diocesan Apostolate,
had been booked for the mission, but
had been called home by the death of
his father. My sermons, of course,
had been preparing for months and
felt that they were as good as l. could
make them, but my morning iIisttTuc
tons of the Sacramento, on the Com
mandments, etc, were as yet I'm solu
ton. All | had toward them was a
batch of notes, taken at various times
and slowed away in my desk drawer
until such moments as l should feel
inspiration to develop them. AS re-
suit, nine o'clock each night OF the
1
instruction for the following morning
and in altogether novel posture. AS
I've said, my notes were on number
, less pieces of paper, and in NO particu
lar order; so my first task was to sort
them. | tried spreading them on the
t table, but that was entirely too small
, then / distributed them over the bed
, | off hnT
SO l took them all down onto the floor
r and laid them out, night by night
r drew my outlines from them, filled
5 these in with explanations and illus
9 trations, and made mp set of rather
2 respectable morning talks.
? "Well, the first night of the mission
r after ferVent Veni Creator, | entered
r the pulpit and looked over the church
4 It's ordinary seating capacity was near
: ly twelve hundred, ard tonight there
t were chairs in the Sanctuary, in thu
D side chapels and behind the pews-
e every seat was filled and people crowd
i ed the aisles, standing. There mus
f have been two thousand people in the
n church that night. And they were no
Il S0uSdIlOH S00h0ES, uFdVn IHeIC NY Cu
: riosity; they were the people whom
e had seen at the five early Masses OF
0 Sunday, many of them thronging tn,
Communion rail, and in and out of thu
church all day long on their visits t.
e the Blessed Sacrament As | though
n of this, and of their evident fervor,
t felt very genuine act of humility.
d am to speak to these people, thought
j. of fidelity to God, of the avoidance 0
s sin, and of the ideal Christian life, anC
Y they are in all likelihood more pleas
e ing to God than l. But what fairl!
e appalled, me was the certain fact tina
a hundreds before me were sinners
S hard sinners, too, and not a few o
e them abandoned wretches; my ser
s mon must help make them saints!
5. Il started my sermon, my voice
II sounding to me like mere echo il
e the big church. but as | went on, con
y fidence came to me, and the inten
d looks of the people (which at first hat
ir confused mel became an inspiration
e | preached on this subject: The Cruel
e fix the Price of Soul To begin with
n asked them to remember that as tn,
IS creation of this world of ours had add