The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-03-25
WROUGHT BY PRAYER
(Contiaued from page 81

Breathing a prayer, she continued,
playfully, though her heart was beat
Ing wildly.
We'll, Daddy, you don't understand.
| am not seeking an earthly spouse,
but heavenly one"
what do you mean" he said, with
his eyes fixed upon her With tense
ness she had never seen.
''Why-I'm going to the convent"
WHAT he roared.
Reason with him she could not il
she would. She could only look at
him tearfully as he used argument
after argument, but when he saw by
the shake of her head that his words
were in vain, he did the usual, but
unmanly. thing-he ordered her from
the room.
The next morning at breakfast
Christmas Day-she had already
breakfasted on the Bread of the
Strong-he asked her tersely il she
had changed her mind AS she shook
her head, he rose from his untasted
meal and said: This house is mine
lit was yours took you literally
from the gutter-well, it is proverbial
that beggars are an ungrateful lot
say no more. I'll give you no more
chance to change your mind-that the
thought of leaving me should ever
have entered it is all the proof want
that I have kept you in opu1ence too
long-you can CO."
. The door slammed, and he was gone.
She followed, but not to seek him.
Those last cruel words, so undeserv-
ed, filed her soul with bitter grief.
F Alone on Christmas day! "He. came
unto His own, and His own received
Him not This thought cheered her
lonely spirit as she wendell her way
to a hospital where she knew she
would find a welcome until she could
shape her plans. -
Received warmly at the hospital
where she was well-known visitor,
her troubled spirit found peace as
she waited for the word bidding her
to come to the convent. Like the lit
tie dove of Noah's ark, she flew as
soon as that word came. During her
noviceship, not a word came to her
from her uncle, though she wrote re-
peatedly. Not word after her pro-
fession, and harder still, not a word
to her last appeal for visit ere the
last nail was driven in the cross
upon which she elected to be cruci..
fed. 'a'....' y
-Four nuns walk down a gangplank
to a steamer bound for the Philip
pines. Men doff their hats instinc-
lively, regardless of creed; women ST.
lently sob; reverence is in the air.
Why? 'Tis whispered that they are
going to reinforce the heroines al
ready at work among the lepers.
Youth, grace, beauty, going to a liv-
ing tomb! Why! Greater love hath
no man shown than when he gives his
life for his fellow-man." It was the
story of the Goldman repeated.
: Among that little band of heroines
is our Catherine-Sister Joan. Feel
ing that never again on this earth
would she see him who was more than
father to her, and in order to make
sure OF an eternal meeting, when the
call came at the close of a retreat
for volunteers to the leper mission,
she offered herself and was accepted.
And he, alone all these years, closed
his heart to her who once held its
key. What had he to live for? Moth
ing. What cared he for his fellow
men? Less. To him, mankind was
a cheat; life was cheat; life a farce
sure to end in tragedy. Whatever he
seemed to turn to gold.
Wealth poured in upon him, but it
brought him 1laught. Tighter he clos 4
ed his heart, the richer he beea
he lived for one purpose-to forc y
o live forgetting while living Il !,
get. 49,
1t needed some sudden shock to
ouse him from his spiritual lethargy.
t was at hand. Driving one night
n his car from his Office where he had
pent nerve-racking day trying to
tave off big financial loss, he felt
sleepy snap-collision
and he was pinioned under his car.
When he awoke to consciousness. he
ound himself in hospital, an angel
a human form bending over him. He
ecognized the Sister, and tried in
ain to speak. For days lie remained
umb, but his mental faculties alert.
Re. thought, and, in thinking, the real
fe, the life Of the spirit came be-
1re him in all its reality. He saw
ow empty had been his life; how
very time he went to taste the Gun of
appiness It was dashed from him:
9 realized the reason; he had sought
ladows instead of gr;lsping realities
the things of God BY some mira.
g the leper island God forRets not &
speech returned, He made lia
ace with God, and one .day-the last
he feebly said, Sister. ten NV If.
girl that Daddy has gone home
ell understand
George FyQncis In The Workinc Po,..