The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-11-02


 Who can gaze upon the artistic treasures collected in the medieval cathedrals. even now, after all the abuse, without a sentiment of ad- miration? Piety, holy gravity, hu- man tenderness, unaffected simplicity, ardent childlike devotion breathe yet from their ancient paintings and statues, announcing that Christianity had in itself the secret of the highest art and purest morality, just as 1t had evolved a superb literature and aid from organism or the empire. One art, at least, is purely the Church's own, the divinest art Of mu- sic, and we owe it to her anxiety to enliven the spaces of the city of God among men that we possess today the thrilling music of the Improperia, the mystic: dithyrambs of the Te -Deam l and the Exultet, the majestic and soulful Prefaces-than which no | holier, sublimer note ever echoed among mortal men-the glad sweep the fearful piercing chant of the Libera, and the almost countless can ticles like the Pange Lingua, the Vexil1a Regis, the Lauda Sion, the l exhaust the gamut of human feeling, and evoke for us all that is tragic or tender in human experience and all that is sacred and sublime in divine l S l this magic gift not alone to the city of God on earth, but to the city of man, | for she alone preserved it's secrets and gave it rules, and breathed new life into it and gave it a place among the tuneful sisters. Alas for the ingrati- tude, the ignorance, and the calumnies which paint her as an | enemy of the natural feelings of man, when every line of her history shows l that she has cherished, elevated, puri- i fled, and sanctified all the finer in l stincts of our nature! Nor could she do otherwise. For by her calling and | nature, by her own confession, she is the architect of the city of God among men; human souls are the liv- ing blocks which she hews and sets; humanity is the spiritual quarry from | which she draws all her resources.
 We would gravely mistake the in l tention of the Church if we saw in the beautiful her only aim, her suff1- | cient end. Her chief purpose is a spiritual one and while she builds up i a visible city of God on earth, it is with regularity and security, the mis- | sion conf1ded to her by her founder
 Jesus Christ. Long before Our Lord
 came upon earth it had dawned on
 some choice intellects that mere ex- | ternal beauty was not the highest good for men; that in the scale of ex- 1stence there was a supreme some
 thing, personal and knowable, which
 beauty; that the true duty of man was to rise ever higher and higher in
 contemplation of this supreme good
 until he reaches its fruition. Such is the teaching of Plato, and we seem
 to see in it profound intimations oi
 Christ and His divine philosophy
 even as the rising sun f1ushes some
 high mountain n-peak with dim rosy light ere it bursts complete upon ou1
 vision. But these sublime heights
 wefe trodden by a few, and theil
 mixed with much error. Today the lspeculatio1s of Plato are the common
 property of every Christian, who is
 aware, without admixture of error
 serve God, with whom he will one
 day reign if he be faithful to His
 simple and easy law. The sp1endiG
 dream tse of of the Greek philosoPher. i'
 catechism; the child and the savage
 have been elevated by Jesus Christ tc
 greater insight into truth than wa.
 gained by all the schools of Hella.
 in centuries of mental gymnastics
 They knew, what the Greek saw
 only in a darkling vision, that tht
 highest and chief duty of man is tn,
 loving service of the Supreme God
 as to carry on the work of our re
 demption, to apply it's graces, and tt
 bring home to all men the fruits O
 the passion of Christ that Hol. | surrounds their solemn opening witt
 significant pomp and ceremony II
 the venerable books which the ChurcI
 uses today she insists on the pur
 poses for which the temple is built She recalls to her ministers and tn, , faithful people that the House of Gol
 IS house of prayer. that it is tn,
 Judgment-seat of God, the home O
 men, the gate of heaven. It is tn house of prayer, a place set apar
 from the busy turmoil of men an, rom the manifold. Babel of the out . side world, where the soul may retir,
 and recognize that intimate bond O
 union which unites 1t with it's Creator and in which consists the essence O
 reiIg1on-that childlike, loving, trust
 ful dependence upon the Heavenl, Father, that spirit of submission t, His holy will in all things that H : has revealed for our benefit, tha
 nope1uI longing for the final reward ! poses in time and in eternity
 The Church is above all a hous or prayer. It is the place where tn lndlvrdual prayers of each soul ar offered up, where the anguish and tn torture of the spirit are forgotten il } the presence of the Divine Consoler } where the burdens of life are cast a the feet of Jesus and the soul move : in untrammelled intercourse with it ' Trend and Saviour. Oh, how oftel 7 will you enter these holy precincts , nylng from the noise and the con : fusion of the outside world, to com mune with the loving and patien } bishop of your souls, to pour into Hi l sacred heart the story of your woe and your joys, your trials and you ? hopes, and to experience that dee glad calm of spirit of which Chris 5 alone has the secret, a boon equaIl removed from the se1f-sufticfency O the agnostic and the proud tranquil ity of the stoic!
 Ii But the House of God is a nlaca n l prayer in a still higher sense It i l the theatre in which the ChurcI offers up her solemn applications il the name of the people. Every publi l act of hers, the Mass, the Vespers, tn public devotions, is an admirabl prayer, breathing in every detail tn = purest faith and hope and love- lad I with the aspirations and the yearn e lngs of ages, venerable in form an 2 expression, saturated with alvin f grace which has flowed so lnnn an