The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-12-17
CELEBRATION At ST. PAUL SEMINARY
CONTINUED from Page H.

T..
Socrates; but it is the high duty Of
every protesting Christian to mind
the things that are above and to
seek in the imitation OF Christ the
images of supernal beauty. The mind
feeds upon whatever food is given it,
If il, is given wholesome food, it will
develop and grow strong. If it is
given unhealthy food, it will grow NOR
bid and sickly. We hear so much Of
Iure food for the body-we have les
sons, diagrams, measurements, expert
ments, analyses. galore. How many
study the pure food for the soul, the
calories OF the Christian life?
My question is not new, but l think
it never was so pathetic. The per-
ishables are ousting the imperishables.
There is not only a shifting but an
Inversion of human values. Conven-
tional well-being is taking the place of
spiritual cultivation Felicity is to he
The result of goods, not of goodness;
of will-power, not of goodwill Pow
ertys is an economic crime, and no
longer spiritual trial, much less
beatitude. Holy Writ on the contrary,
says it is beatitude; and even the
profane historian can linger over its
religious romance.
Romance of the Poor.
Religion, writes Lecky, is the one
romance of the poor. 1t alone extends
the narrow horizon of their thoughts,
supplies the images of their dreams,
allures them to the supersensuous and
the. ideal. The graceful beings with
which the creative fancy of paganism
peopled the universe shed a poetic
glow. on the peasants toll. But it is
The popularity of the Christian types
that while they have fascinated the
imagination, they have also purified
the heart. Associated with the fond
est recollections Of childhood, with the
music of church bells, with the clGs-
tered lights and the tinseled splendor
that seem to the peasant the very idea
of majesty; painted over the altar
where he received the companion OF
his life. around the cemetery where so
many he had loved were laid; ON the
stations of the mountain, on the por-
tai of the vineyard. in the chapel
where the storm-tossed mariner full
fills his grateful vow, keeping guard
over his cottage door and looking
down upon his humble bed-forms of
tender beauty and gentle pathos haunt
the poor mans fancy and silently win
their way into the depths of his being.
More than any spoken eloquence or
more than any dogmatic teaching,
they transform and subdue his char
acter, till he learns to realize the sane
tity of meekness and suffering, the
supreme majesty of gentleness and
compassion.
Such description, of course, IN
wolves the sweet omnipresent figure
of the Virgin Mary. If humanity is
deeper than modernity, Catholicism is
deeper than the Reformation. 1t ap-
peals to the, more deeply elemental
which is always with u.s. And what
is more deeply elemental than the in
stinct Of motherhood? What more
profound idea can religion have than
the synthesis of Virgin and Mother?
No wonder that the same writer ac-
anowledges that the Catholic rever-
ence for the Virgin has done much to
purify and elevate the ideal of WON.
an and to soften the manners of men
1t has had an influence which the wor
ship of the pagan goddesses could
never possess, for these had been al
most destitute of moral beauty, and
especially of that Kind of moral beau
ty which is essentially feminine II
supplied, in a great measure, the re
deeming and ennobling element in the
strange amaIgam of feeling which was
formed around women in the age OF
chiyalry, and which no succeeding
change of habit or belief has wholly
destroyed.
Nations Call Her Blessed.
SO far this writer's acknowledg
ment. The age of chivalry passed
Professionalism came in. What hap
pened? The throne of Mary was rock
ed, not wrecked at the Reformation
BY the blue Danube in its varied
course; on the broad territory water
ed by the Vistula; along the olive-san
dailed Apennines; under the dark 81
erras of Old Spain; alike in the
vineyards of pleasant France and thu
glens OF green Innisfail Sloyak and
Pole and Latin and Frank and Gel
stood by 1t; and today 1t is in ever,